So you’re up and running with your website and now it’s time for the long term planning. Perhaps you’ve seen a slow but steady increase with your affiliate income but you want to add to it.

The adage of “if you build it they will come” may have been true in the movie “Fields of Dreams” but it won’t work online. As with any other venture you might take on, it takes time to get it going and it takes time and effort to keep it going.

If your website is up, assess the content that you have. Content is key in gaining web traffic. More traffic equals more sales, so load as much content as you can that would be pertinent to your visitors to continue earning more money. You can look for private label rights (PLR) articles, free for reprint articles, write articles yourself or hire a ghost writer. Make sure your articles are either promoting a product that you are an affiliate of or promoting your website.

In addition to content, keeping in contact with your visitors is also profitable in the long run. How can you keep track of your visitors? You could start a mailing list to alert them of new content or send out a newsletter on a regular basis. Starting a newsletter will allow you to draw them back when you have something new to say. It will also aid in telling your visitors of new deals or products that you’ve found that they might be interested in. Don’t wait for them to come back, tell them the minute that you know.

Starting a blog will help with updated, fresh content as well as an outlet for you to show the personal side of you that your visitors can relate to. You can use your blog platform for opinions, articles, product reviews, and paid advertising.

For residual income, a membership site may be the next step for your venture. You can set up a forum or special, member’s only section for paid subscribers. This will bring in more residual income. Make sure that you continue to add to your member’s only section so that your subscribers will keep coming back.

If you’re looking for even more ways to branch out, consider writing an eBook or special report that you can give to your visitors that they can, in turn, pass along to their friends and family members. In your report you can include affiliate links and market your website and the various components that your site has to offer.

A note about affiliate links that was learned the hard way. So many times we distribute reports, eBooks, articles, etc with an affiliate link in it directly from the vendor. Redirect your links from your site so that if for some reason the link is no longer valid a few years from now, you can still bring those clicking back to your site or redirect them elsewhere. Think of how much money you’ll be missing out on if the links that you have out there are no longer valid!

Earning money online though residual income works best when you plan and get everything in order. The time you spend upfront will be labor intensive though research, building websites, marketing, but with the right plan, you’ll be kicking back and watching the money pour in with very little maintenance on your part.