Throw up site after site and hope something sticks? Put your heart and soul into one really great site? Something else?

Despite what some people think, search engines don’t particularly hate affiliate sites. They hate sites that don’t have something unique to offer, which is something many affiliate sites fail to do. That’s a big difference.

But putting everything into one site is risky too. If something goes wrong, all your efforts can go down the drain. Having at least a couple sites, even if they are on related topics, does have its advantages. You are less likely to lose all your business if your rankings drop suddenly. Flexibility is a wonderful thing.

I had a great time reading this post on this very topic over at SugarRae. Affiliate marketing is evolving and will continue to evolve. As she notes, the people who thrive won’t be relying solely on the latest technologies. Rather, it will depend on who has great strategies for running their sites.

Many of the points she makes are things I’ve been realizing myself over the past year. Most of my sites are run either with blog software or with Instant Site Comments, so that people can interact with me. Which I use depends on how I want to run the site. I love having the flexibility to decide which is for me. I’ve also been focusing on how to take advantage of social bookmarking, which is something I should have gotten into much sooner.

I especially appreciate this thought:

Affiliates have to learn to become publishers of valuable web properties and then leverage those web properties to the max to create earnings. Now, if you have a great site and have a strategy to monetize that site, you’ll need to get it traffic in order to go through the effort to put those monetization strategies in place (and have the leverage to get the bigger deals).

It’s something that is really important to remember. If you’re doing well in your niche, you can ask for more. This makes it quite worthwhile to focus your efforts strongly in your niche, even as you develop multiple ways to earn from that niche. Your site is nothing without traffic, but with traffic (especially traffic that does what you want it to do) you have the leverage with your merchants. A higher rate for each sale or action adds up fast.

Think about your strategy as you work. Your overall strategy will help you focus on how you need to business far better than just about anything else. And if you’re serious, that’s the most important thing.

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