I wonder how you rank well your affiliate sites with the use of SEO methods to get ranked in the first page. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
there is no single best method. avoid black hat and do legitimate link building. always use a well diversified link building campaign that has various different methods combined.
Just be natural with original content. Don't participate in blackhat promotion and you will organically build.
Whatever may be the nature of the website, to get it ranked in search engines for your target keywords, just do complete SEO. Make sure your website Title and Description tags are good with your target keywords in it. Also, have the main keyword on H1 tag. Then Start building links from directories, blogs, forums, article directories, Press Releases, classifieds, etc and dont forget to get the links from reputed and high pagerank websites. This will get you ranked in Google in some time.
I use this site for backlinks and they have an interesting post you might like to read on what are the best types of backlinks to build to a new site to get it ranking in the search engines that you might find useful. However, following the Penguin update emphasis is on quality backlinks and not quantity.
I think unique valuable content, good planned site. Site speed, and of course participating in related forums/blogs
Thanks for all your advice!! Much appreciated. I'm starting to work on 3 affiliate sites right now and I'm new to it though I have some background on SEO but having to run my own business for the first time (plus Penguin update) is something I have to take not lightly.