Research and develop several marketing campaign themes to promote a product or service using online research tools to identify consumer demand.

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Wireframe a website that contains no fewer than three separate conversion paths, complete with custom landing pages.

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Assemble a spreadsheet of competing websites, identifying service coverage gaps. Use this information as the foundation for all of your marketing communications.

If there is one specialty or skill you would do well to acquire as you become a Web marketing master, it is that of identifying marketing opportunities. To do that you must have your virtual finger on the pulse of the field in which you are participating. Subscribing to news and weblog feeds, reading industry trade magazines, researching through your personal network are just some of the ways to identify those with which your website will be competing.

Knowing who they are and what they do will aid in identifying possible gaps in service coverage, service features or benefits, etc. Visitors make rapid-fire decisions on the Web, so meeting the general expectations of those already serving a particular community is imperative. Keep an ongoing list of competitors in whatever your service area, paying close attention to market leaders, emerging vendors and even the deadpool.

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Create a comprehensive keyword target list by volume, intent and per channel, including search, its variations ( mobile, local, etc.) and social media.

Search-based marketing is an integral part of website promotions. Develop a list of keywords that consists of a vast assortment of possibilities as it relates to what users will ultimately use to find the products or services being promoted. Envision your keyword target list as a spectral array, a threedimensional plotted graph that showcases the direction of communication requests and can even be used to indicate volume. Further segmentation is appropriate for specific channels such as search engines and social media destinations.

When the type and level of demand (in both search and social) is understood, affiliate marketers can make better decisions about what offers to promote and how to promote them – particularly when a strong thematic foundation has been established. Consider the use of keyword research tools such as SEMrush, WordTracker and Google’s internal AdWords keyword tool to understand how often Web users search by

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Develop online marketing collateral (creative assets) based on the information collected in the previous days’ challenges.

Once it is known what users in your target audience search for, how often they search for it, why they search for it, and what steps they will take on a website once they arrive, the next step is to develop the creative assets. The variety of possible creative assets is immense, from paid search ads, infographics, question-and-answer sets, long-form tutorials, short-form blog posts, videos, press releases, personnel bios, etc. However your audience most often consumes information is the format in which you need to publish it.

Beginners should focus on setting up keyword advertisements in groups, complete with unique titles and descriptions. Intermediate affiliates should set their attention upon creating a set of display ads of various styles and sizes for placement on relevant websites. More advanced affiliate marketers may want to explore the use of re-marketing, creating both text-based and display ads. Pay particular attention to clarity of message, the use of relevant images and strong calls to action, as well as ensuring that brand elements are prominently displayed

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Oversee the design or development of a website or a Webbased application.

Web design is a fundamental element in affiliate marketing success. It is a potential area to differentiate, because too many affiliate publishers fail to do it well. Armed with the wireframe from Challenge 2, you are capable of (or can get help) designing the website or the Web-based application you will use to promote offers as an affiliate marketer. While many affiliate marketers will use open-source blogging

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Reserve site- and product-specific social media profile pages and names, and connect those profiles to the social media management dashboard of your choice.

Visitors will look for social media profile icons on your website, because they are indicators of trust. While the placement of these icons matters greatly, the first priority for affiliates is to establish the proper profiles. There are hundreds of social media destinations; some are extremely well known like Facebook and Twitter, but there are many others that may be important to the individual niche in which you are competing.

When it comes to actually setting up a social media profile, take great care when selecting a profile name, crafting the page/profile description – which should always include a link to your website – and selecting which image will be used. Affiliate marketers will find that creating social media profiles positively influences their search rankings, so the higher the quality of the profile you set up, the higher your site’s ranking in the search results pages will be.

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Conduct an audit of common search engine optimization ranking triggers for your own Web property and those of your competitors.

The aim of an SEO site audit is to identify what may be impacting search engine visibility. Points of consideration should address accessibility and structure, relevance and targeting, and quality of both content and design. As it relates to keyword relevance and targeting, understand how pages being optimized accommodate the search terms and phrases that visitors will use. Are they primarily navigation queries or those of an informational or transactional variety? Does the content reflect the assumed intent of the visitor?

Accessibility and site structure need to be considered during an SEO audit. Are navigational menus clear and action-oriented? Is content grouped in a logical way through the use of categories or tags? Are images appended with alt text? Design quality and content quality also play a role. As it relates to Web design, do headlines and subheads use

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Select an email marketing system, either a self-hosted or SaaS email service provider (ESP), and deploy the system to start collecting email addresses.

Email is an integral part of success as an affiliate marketer. Fortunately, many email service providers are available to support this vital objective. Selecting a vendor that puts deliverability first, features detailed reporting and metrics, offers a variety of technologies such as remarketing, and fits within your budget should be the criteria for determining the appropriate fit.

If there is one area in email marketing where particular attention should be paid, it is acquisition of email newsletter subscribers. The tools that an ESP provides for the acquisition and management of subscribers can be the most important element of an affiliate’s success. Make sure you have complete control over form presentation and that opt-in and double optin features are available.

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Initiate a conversation on a traditional Web forum, inquiring about the demands of a particular type of user or audience while introducing yourself in a separate posting.

Forums don’t carry the same appeal they did a few years ago, but participants are typically far more active and focused on the theme of the site than non-participants – making message targeting a can’t-miss opportunity. The right message style is vital as well.

Forums are virtual hangouts for the most sophisticated users who are eager to learn about a particular topic. They garner a great deal of time on site, so understanding what motivates forum members to participate is where you should direct much of your initial focus. Even a quick glance through the most popular posts will reveal the topics that are the most interesting to forum users.

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