Today we continue our series of posts on Affiliate Marketing. Knowing the affiliate marketing fundamentals is essential for success but maybe even more so is being able to create content that attracts the right audience. It's not simply about recommending a product and watching the buyers flood in. That truly does not happen.

So get the fundamentals of operating as an affiliate down andthen you'll want to employ the use of a few tools that can help you do your job quicker, better, and more efficiently.

1. WordPress Themes

Now I'm presuming that you chose to build your website on the WordPress platform because it truly is the easiest and best way to go. WordPress themes are one type of tool that can help you increase sales. Each blog comes with free themes installed that you can choose from - but there are themes that have specifically been engineered to help affiliates make conversions.

For example three of our favorites are the Genesis themes, Elegant themes, and the Socrates theme. They cost a bit of money but they are highly customizable, so once you begin seeing some profits you may want to advance your theme design to the next level.

2. Keyword Tools

Keyword tools are the best way to get an edge on the competition. You can dig down into your niche and compile a huge arsenal of long tail keyword phrases that will attract tons of traffic to your affiliate site. There are both free and paid keyword tools. The free tools such as Google Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest are great resources but don't offer many add-on resources. They return a list of keywords and phrases, tell you the global monthly volume, give you a word like "low, medium or high" for competition levels, and even add-n a few words to your search.

When you are ready to spend a few dollars there are the advanced keyword tools like Market Samurai, WordTracker, and my new favorite Power Suggest Pro. You can read my review of Power Suggest Pro here. These types of paid keyword tools help you get even more information, such as the profit potential of the words and phrases, competition levels, and site ranking stats.

3. Plugins

Plugins are great for affiliates to put on their blog because they help automate certain tasks or provide others with the ability to do tasks. You can add a social bookmarking plugin so that your visitors can share your reviews with others on Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest, Twitter, or via email. There are plugins that allow you to easily embed Amazon product listings into your blog post and some help your site become mobile friendly in an instant. You can research all of the latest plugins for affiliate marketing online.

4. Software

There's also software on the market that helps affiliates optimize their sites for search engines or gain backlinks from other good resources. You'll have to evaluate each one to ensure it's not engaging in spammy behavior before you use it for your own site. Back linking sites are notorious for being black hat and can seriously do more harm than good to your site, so choose wisely. Using affiliate tools is something you should do gradually. Trying to automate too many elements at once can become overwhelming. You want to have a hands-on understanding about what makes your site profitable, grow, and convert before you replace yourself with an automated system or tool.