Get good quality links to your site - STEP 9

To the affiliate marketer, links is like the vehicle that transports your goods to the market. Without links to your site, your site will not be seen or found in the search engines. You need links. In fact links is a MUST to your site, if possible from "authority" sites - ones that have lots of links to them.
First, link to other sites. look for sites that have similar or related themes to your site, and invite those sites to link to you. This is hugely important because search engines love sites that have many links to them - especially if those links come from sites which are themselves popular.

This is where the importance of building a useful, informative and interesting site come to play. If you have such a site, people are more likely to link to your site. No one wants to link to a stale site.

You can read this article I wrote describing how to get reciprocal links. Reciprocal links should not be your main marketing strategy but only a small part of your marketing strategy - To avoid being penalize be warned. Better than reciprocal links are one-way links. Here's an article describing how to get one-way links.
Some of the one-way links techniques are fairly advanced and require lots of work. If you put in the time to do it well, you will gain a considerable advantage over your competitors because most of them will be too lazy to do them. They can make the difference between a hobby site and a serious and very profitable business.



Anchor text - STEP 10 

You will also need to understand the importance of anchor text, the words you use to link to pages on your site, the words people use when they link to your site. Knowing anchor text is very important for search engine rankings.


Get your site listed in major directories and niche directories in your industry - STEP 11: 
 
This is very important step. You probably already know about Yahoo! (nice but expensive) and DMOZ (often times it takes months to get into).

Here are some more free directories (some charge fees):
Gimpsy
Skaffe
Joeant
Business.com
GoGuides
SevenSeek
ThisIsOurYear
Looksmart (probably too expensive)
BlueFind
WowDirectory
Best of the Web
GeniusFind



There are many web directories and David Mahler has a Guide to Web Directories. It's a good list of recommended web directories. Here's another list: http://www.strongestlinks.com/directories.php

You can find niche directories as follows:

• Go to Search It! (It's a very handy free research tool.)
• Scroll to the Search Category, "Specialty Hubs and Directories"
• Choose one of the 4 options in STEP 2
• Read the "Click Here for Information..." help before proceeding
• Complete STEPS 3 and 4, and then click on Search It!
• Read the tutorial. It tells you what to do with the search results
• Get your search results. You should be able to find relevant, themed hub sites and directories which will list your site. Some charge a fee, some are free.