If you have questions, then we may have the answers you need…
What if you could post your affiliate marketing questions here “Right Now” today and have them answered by a nine-year veteran of affiliate marketing…
Why am I doing this? Simply to help you get a start in affiliate marketing.
We are constantly receiving emails from people all over the world asking us questions about affiliate marketing so we thought it would be a very good idea to share the information with all our site visitors.
And all at zero cost to you… That’s right there is no membership fees to pay or donations to make just the cold hard facts that you need to know so you can start to make some money online.
If you have any affiliate marketing questions that you just can not find the answer to, or maybe you have a website that just isn’t performing the way you thought it would then post your comments below and we will get on the job finding a solution for you.
We will help you master topics such as marketing strategies to writing awesome copy for your blog post or sales pages, how to start finding keywords and even how to pick domain names or products for your niche website.
I Will Do My Best To Help You Find A Solution.
I have been marketing affiliate products for many years and have tried many different tactics to increase online revenue for my own businesses with some great success and also some very bad failures. Here a some quick tips to get you start How To Start An Affiliate Marketing Business.
Now you get the chance to tap into my knowledge and resources absolutely Free Of Charge.
All you have to do is post your affiliate marketing questions below to find answers to anything you want to know about affiliate marketing.
Gail says
There are so many questions people new to affiliate marketing need to ask but often you have to already know quite a bit to know what questions to ask – and that applies whether you are an affiliate interested in publishing or a merchant seeking affiliates.
I could recommend a ton of topics that I would love to see you write about, for example:
1) Which affiliate networks are the cleanest. I believe ShareASale would be right up there and the book I’m reading mentions another one. Which do you recommend?
2) Explain parasiteware and why it is bad for both merchants and affiliates.
3) Talk about couponers from the merchant perspective including what to do about coupon prompts in shopping carts.
4) Tell merchants what you, as an affiliate, really want from them.
5) Talk about the various affiliate forums you frequent and how they benefit someone new to affiliate marketing.
I shared a ton of affiliate marketing resources in a post I wrote about the Gift Affiliate Program I promote that Adam Riemer now manages. Have I left anything important out? Any other links I could add? Are there any particularly important posts you have written that belong on that page?
.-= Gail @ Do Follow´s last blog ..Recommended Wedding Affiliate Program: Bridaluxe =-.
AffiliateX says
Hi Growmap
As usual you have covered some very important topics which are relevant to anyone wanting to start out with affiliate marketing and especially the many affiliate network programs which of course I have tried and I would definitely agree with you that Sharesale would stand with the best of them and I have been using on other sites for more than six years to add value to my sites.
Clickbank is also another affiliate network that is heavily recommended online simply because of its easy policy to get approved, however you can been entering into a very competitive marketplace if you are inexperienced due to the many aggressive product launches for popular products there and if you are not in at the start you will not really see any results.
As for Parasiteware and how many people (new affiliates) assume that this is the same as adware or spyware which in a way it is, except what many affiliates do not realize is that it is actually stealing their affiliate commissions by over writing the legitimate cookie set by the affiliate network. Make sure you have a good a good detection program and even breach this to your online visitors.
As for coupons in shopping carts this has predominantly been used by many affiliates promoting for the large web host companies around the world such as Hostgator to use an example. Where you enter a coupon code and you can get 1 cent hosting for a month or free domain names and so on… This is a very effective way to secure a sale with these hosting companies. If you do a search online for “Coupon Codes” you will find many different companies using them in association with their affiliates to sell there products or services.
You will also find many websites advertising Coupon codes just to try and get your business so if the coupon has not been issued from the actual company be cautious as to what it is you are getting.
As for asking merchants for what you want and need to promote their products I have found over the years that some are only to willing to assist in the form of providing unique articles and even custom banners for my sites… And then again I have found others that have not even responded to my request so at the end of the day you need to ask to get what you need and if the merchant does not respond back to you then you should even rethink whether or not you want to really be an affiliate to their product.
As for affiliate forums I really can’t say that I have a favorite online but I do use them when I need to just by searching affiliate forums, I do however find myself spending time at many of the seo forums online looking at new techniques to market products whether as an affiliate or merchant as I have both forms of business that I manage online…
Some other topics that really need to be discussed are techniques for link building and whether or not reciprocal linking or article marketing is the way to go online. Should you use the article directories or write unique blog posts. As well as Linkedin, Blogged, Friendfeed, Myspace and Facebook and all the social networking sites to effectively promote your site with out being branded a spammer.
What do you think? I would really like to hear your thoughts on this…
The most important aspect of any business whether it is an affiliate business or stating out as a merchant is you need to do your homework and study your market, that is the key and one of the biggest reasons that many people not just affiliates fail online today. Get educated and stay informed.
Affiliatex….
Gail says
As a blogger I have always been interested in affiliate marketing but only became really aware of the many issues involved because I am also active on the merchant side of the equation. Fortunately for me Murray Newlands introduced me to Adam Riemer and that has made all the difference.
The best thing any affiliate or merchant can do is identify highly ethical Affiliate Networks and Affiliate Program Managers like Adam and work with them almost exclusively. Many power affiliates already know this and that is why they will often change merchant programs based on who is managing them.
You may know Adam as Rollerblader in the ABestWeb forum. If I were much more serious about affiliate marketing at this point (and I will be in the future) I would be sure to read blogs like yours and his. I would make it a point to work with affiliate managers like him who are willing and able to do far more for their affiliates and merchants and protect us from parasiteware and other challenges.
I also recommend that new book Shawn and Missy came out with called Internet Marketing from the Real Experts because it contains some great tips and identifies highly ethical players in the Affiliate Marketing world.
.-= Gail @ KeywordLuv´s last blog ..KeywordLuv: How Using It Benefits Us All =-.
AffiliateX says
Hi Gail…
Again thanks for another very informative comment…
I to never started out as an affiliate marketer. I had my own products to sell online which then lead me into studying SEO extensively as I could not in the early days afford to pay an expert to do it for me so I started to follow a guy by the name of Brad Callen. Brad is a master at SEO and also has released top rated programs such as Keyword Elite and SEO Elite of which I still use today.
I really didn’t get serious about affiliate marketing until about six years ago when I built a few additional sites really just to see how it all worked. Overtime I started to get some really good results with what I was doing so I persisted and here I am today a full time affiliate marketer.
One thing I should really make clear to everyone is why this affiliate blog was created… Firstly what I was finding online was a lot of conflicting stories about success online and secondly many people that were promoting what I call get rich quick strategies. Don’t get me wrong most of these programs are very good and I should know because I have also purchased them. But you really have to work at it or simply be very lucky and fall into a niche that no one else is promoting.
What I really found lacking was a very common sense approach to affiliate marketing where you had to work at it to be success if you look at every post on this site they all have one thing in common… And that is work hard and get rewarded.
I would have to agree with you about Internet Marketing From Real Experts as being a fantastic resource. And the key to many open doors is having the right affiliate manager to help you along your way. Remember everyone that Rome was not built in a day and neither will your affiliate business but with some useful tips and the assistance of others you will succeed with what ever it is you decide to do in life.
Clayne says
What’s good about affiliate marketing is that everybody in the business can have a share of the profit pie without any kind of saturation. Affiliate marketing adheres to the same ideas as any business, and needs to be handled as such. There are a few pitfalls that you need to be aware of so that you don’t make any mistake that cost you in terms of money or time:
Not Pre-selling
Are you putting in all your efforts to draft out a sales pitch for your affiliate product? If you answered yes to that, then you need to stop doing it. As strange as it may sound, as an affiliate, you’re not supposed to sell. Why is this? because of the following: When a visitor visits your website and goes through your sales info and clicks on your affiliate link, only to find another sales letter waiting to be read. Do you think he/she will make a purchase? Not really. People do not want to be bombarded with advertisements.
Instead, you need to pre-sell the affiliate product with informative content, not with sales pitches. You job as an affiliate marketer is to interest your prospects and send them directly to the actual sales page, not sell the product. By doing so you complete a vital stage in the buying cycle. Your role is to attract the casual visitor, keep their attention, and then send them on to where they can be transformed from potential customer to client.
Not Knowing and Understanding Your Niche
If you were an animal rights activist, would you buy a product tested on animals? It is true that sweaters are useful, but not for a Nomad living in the desert. This simply explains the fact that you should be aware of what you’re selling, who your target market is, and what the different types of products they buy are. If your market is teenagers, you would be wasting your time trying to sell them homeowners insurance. However, if you try to sell them fashion accessories or a related product, you would find making sales is much easier.
Quitting Due to Lack of Motivation
This one mistake leads to the downfall of many affiliates. When motivation is lost, people loose focus and start to fail. This is mostly cause because they are only looking at the short term, instead of considering what their goal is and striving to concentrate on the long term. A lot of such marketers feel that once their website is up, they should begin to make some real money.
This is far from the case. You have to put in a lot of effort and time before you can see any success. Stay motivated by concentrating on your long term goals. Have a reason to push you forward, and soon you’ll see things working out and profits coming in.
.-= Clayne @ Affiliate Millionaire´s last blog ..Can the Affiliate Millionaire Help You Become a Successful Affiliate Marketer? =-.
AffiliateX says
Hi Clayne
Yes you are right if you conduct your affiliate marketing as your own business you can very easily have a share of the market… As for mistakes I have made many along the way but have always recovered to be smarter and wiser with the way I do business online… It’s simply part of the learning curve for us all.
About the pre-selling so many affiliates today try and sell the product from their own site and then link to the sales page of the product vendor which does at the end of the day usually lose the sale for them simply for the reason you have stated the customer is reading two sales pages which can be very annoying and even lead to mistrust for your website business.
It is also very essential that you know your product or service that you are marketing whether you are an affiliate or business owner. The easiest and most efficient way to do this at the start is to use a free tool such as Google™ Analytics as well as Google™ Webmaster Tools as well as Google™ Keyword Tool. You should also conduct your own market research by viewing your competitors online, analyzing keywords as well as phrases and so on…
There is so much to learn when it comes to having any online business from providing quality content to getting links, customer support, social bookmarking and much more. However many really don’t understand this initially and when they do not start seeing sales in the first few weeks and in some cases they quit and move on to something else.
You have to stay focused and keep going regardless of whether you make a sale in the first few weeks or even months. Try to build an authority site and the traffic and sales will start to come eventually. You really can not put a time frame on this only unless you have found yourself in a real high demand “HOT Selling Niche”.
Another factor many people don’t consider is that by building an authority site in your niche that it could be worth a substantial amount of money to somebody with in that niche so remember that your efforts will not be in-vein if you decide to create a real working business for yourself.
And if you don’t think this could ever happen to you just look back at the the two young guys that started from their garage YouTube… Stay Focused And Work Hard Success Will Follow
Karen says
Hi,
I am doing a lot of seo techniques to try to get free traffic before I start paying for some. Is this wrong? I know PPC marketing is the way to get fast traffic to your site, but I lost money doing that before and don’t want to take the risk again until I have some income from my site. Should I start with PPC and other paid advertising anyway? Or keep trying for free traffic first?
Thank you!
.-= Karen@Affiliate Training´s last blog ..Affiliate Training Money Guide – 2 Tips to Avoid Failure =-.
AffiliateX says
Hi Karen and Welcome..
I am not a big supporter of PPC as it only works while you are putting your hand in your pocket and shelling out money. I am a big believer in ranking well in the organic listing which is more of a long term goal for your online business.
It is much more viable for you as an online marketer to have solid listings as this will firstly give you credibility with your customers and secondly substantially increase the value of your website. Try and write some articles to get some quality one way back links coming into your site it will be time consuming but well worth it in the end.
However as I don’t know you situation another tactic would be to use PPC now if you need instant traffic, but also continue building up your site in the organic listing with the intention of stopping the PPC campaigns once you are established. Just remember that PPC is only viable for instant traffic while you are paying for it…
william shikle says
I am just starting. I am totally excited about the business. I am having a problem with my hop url. My hop url doesn’t take me to the domain site that I trying to promote. Help me please. William
AffiliateX says
Hi William
Here is a short video that may help you with setting up the hoplink – Creating A Clickbank Hoplink.
Hope that helps:)
Todd says
I’ll have to give this a shot. I’ve had only a little bit of success with my affiliate programs. I’m hoping to find some solutions that will help me succeed without having to invest a ton of time!
AffiliateX says
Hi…
This is the one element you need to have a lot of at the start “time”. If you can’t afford the time then the rest will take even longer which will potentially cause you to give up unless you find a good paying niche straight away.
Esteban Riocitos says
I’m a traditional direct mail copywriter hoping to expand into Internet marketing. I have a client base. Where can I get information on how to set up affiliate marketing that will integrate into their current websites? What I want to do is create landing page style websites to direct customers to my current client’s sites. I want to get paid for performance but it has always been a problem to identify what business I have created vs. the business they would have gotten anyway. I’m not looking for the big mass affiliate marketing companies, I want to give my mid-sized clients a way to make more money and get paid for my efforts in a way we can both track.
AffiliateX says
Hi Esteban… And Welcome to our site…
I am not the best authority on this so as you can see I had my good friend Growmap write a response for you, I hope you have found it helpful and it gets you the information you were looking for.
Gail says
Hi Esteban,
I can share some insights into some options you can consider. You could have your clients set up formal affiliate programs through a third part Affiliate Network. The most reasonable and cleanest of these is ShareASale.
I would not recommend a client do that themselves as it is very complicated to really do it well. I finally found and Affiliate Manager who is highly ethical and hard-working so I recommend him to anyone who wants to have that type of program.
If third party tracking is not necessary or your clients prefer an in-house program there is software to manage the program themselves. Mary O’Brien who knows more about pay-per-click than anyone and puts on the exceptional PPCSummit pay per click training conferences researched affiliate management solutions and decided that iDevAffiliate was the best solution. I trust Mary’s judgement so if I wanted to manage a program in-house that is what I would use. There are likely to be less advanced solutions for less. That one has training videos and other advanced features.
If you trust your clients you could use the referrer information in their analytics program provided they currently track whatever performance you intend to use for deciding what you have earned. They could set up goals for lead generation or newsletter subscriptions or some other criterion or track from visit through sale.
The drawback to doing that is only immediate leads, subsriptions or sales are likely to be tracked. Once you send them a potential client, that person is likely to return to their site in some manner besides through clicking a link on your site so that other source is likely to get credit for any conversions generated instead of you.
If the client is an ecommerce store you could use their average visits before conversion to estimate how many conversions are not being tracked and ask the client to pay you that percentage more. For example, if 20% of their buyers do not buy on the first visit, negotiate an uplift of 20% over tracked conversions.
It may be possible to have a programmer write code to set cookies on the computers of your visitors for better tracking of conversions that occur after first visit. Some Internet users regularly delete cookies, some refuse them (probably not too many because the Internet is very difficult to use with cookies turned off), and some anti-virus programs automatically delete them. That said, there is no 100% accurate way to track visitors or conversions.
If you have any other specific questions between Ron, Adam, myself and many other specialists we collaborate with we can probably get you the answers you seek.
Ana says
Hi,
I would like to know about how affiliate marketers pay tax?
AffiliateX says
Hi Ana,
Today most transactions you do are either paid two ways through a direct deposit or check issued from the affiliate network. you simply need to add that to your income tax at the end of your financial year. It is no different than having a normal job.
Ollie Te Pona Martin says
I have joined this programme and all that is happening to me is money is coming out of my account going to you with no results or contact from you people. It has now been 3 payments taken from my account and still nothing. What do I get in return for my money? I am not happy with this situation and it did say that if I was not satisfied with the programme I am able to finish no obligations. As an unsatisfied client I wish to resign effective immediately.
Kind Rgards
Ollie Martin
AffiliateX says
Hi Ollie
You have the wrong website… We are not associated with any membership sites or charge a fee for any services that we personally offer. Can you please let us know what program it is you are referring to so we might be able to assist you further in finding a solution to your problem.
All the information that is offered on this site is free for anyone that wants to take the time to learn about affiliate marketing.
Do you still have a receipt of your payment? Did you use Paypal, if you have used paypal then simply go into your paypal account and cancel the subscription.
John says
I feel an important factor newbies need to consider is to choose an affiliate program they believe in. That is one reason I like clickbank due to the catagories of products available to promote. Promote something you have an interest in and it will be more of a hobby than a job. I would not recomment newbies use PPC advertising.
Instead I would suggest they use article marketing, forum and blog commenting, free classifieds, traffic exchanges, banner exchanges.
Do not send customers directly to your sales page. Instead send them to a review page. It is also benificial to have the name of the product you are promoting in your URL for the review page.
Besure to bookmark this site for future study.
AffiliateX says
Hi John…
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and strategies with us… And yes it is always better if you promote products that you have actually used, by doing this you are giving your readers quality and will overtime buld up a trust relationship.
If you promote everything and anything you will not have a very big following on your blog due to the fact that you will not be trusted.
AmericanGarageDoor says
So i was wondering what a good sale to reward ratio would be? Like, how much should i give out based on how much I make. I understand that a flat rate doesn’t really make sense, so let’s just say that the average referral for me nets me about 2-5,00 dollars in business over the life of the contract. Should i do a rate at all? What about a flat fee?
Thanks-Joel
americangaragedoorsllc.com
AffiliateX says
Hi Joel…
This is a bit hard to answer without really knowing the product you are talking about… If it was an electronically delivered product such as an e-book then you can have a high percentage margin because it is really the same product that is being sold over and over again…
If it is a physical product and as an example your garage doors then you would have to consider the initial cost what your percentage is (profit) and then marketing, storage and any other factors that may impact on your business. Then you will have a better idea of what you are looking at as a rate to pay affiliates or CPA marketing or what ever it is you are looking at. However if you conversion rate is low (visitors to sales) as well as the percentage you are offering to anyone promoting your products you will get little response from marketers that want to promote for you.
Another factor that is looked at by affiliate marketers is the setting of cookies, meaning how long will the affiliate be credited with a sale after the initial visit to the product site.
Another consideration you may need to look at, which is over looked by affiliates and online business in general is PPC marketing the conversion rate, how many visitors does it actually take to make a sale… These are all things you need to take into consideration when deciding on a suitable percentage for anyone promoting your products.
Manie says
Is affiliate marketing really a viable option? I think most affiliates does achieve much success…
AffiliateX says
Hi Manie..
Yes you are right when you say that, however there is a very good reason that this happens. It is simply a matter of how much work you are willing to put into what it is you are trying to achieve and affiliate marketing is a business just like any other form of business.
However many people think that there is easy money available and for some there is but for most it just ends in failure and frustration because there was little or no effort applied.
Jimmy Joe says
Hi there, I’m a newbie to internet and affiliiate. I started with (a now stalled) photography blog as I’ve been bombarded and distracted with links to various auto websites and auto traffic software.
It seems there are marketers claiming you can make money online without experience, that you don’t need to learn WordPress, that you don’t need SEO, don’t need adwords etc etc as their softwrae will do it all for you. … then theire are auto pay websites being hosted … cost you only $12.95 per month…
The list goes on and on. I’ve googled the various offers looking for genuine reviews but get links to affiliates offering to sell you the same product!
Help! My original plan was for my photography blog to have links to products that I have used and some photography realted affiliate advertsing. What do you suggest for a newbie?
AffiliateX says
Hi Jimmy…
You are definitely not alone here… there is so much stuff online right now that is just wrong!
The hardest thing to do is find someone you can follow like a mentor and then also have trust in that person. I have had a look at your site and yes it needs a little work so I think the best place for your to start is with this free blogging guide.
I am very confident in the information these guys give and if you really want to learn how to start blogging then you need to check it out.
I think everyone starting out online faces the same problems with many false promises being made about big money paydays, which in actual fact are only big pay days to the people selling the life changing product or service.
My advice to you is make sure you use quality content on your site, do not try and take on to much at once and stay focused on what your objectives are. Also forget about many of the auto generated websites, there is only one I have seen that is any good but still you need to create your own site first (online presence) which will give you a solid grounding in the business and more of an understanding about all these other products and services being promoted all over the internet.
Bernard says
Hello,
How do you set up a system to email market affiliate marketing images with messages, links, etc.? I am with commission junction and want to email market some of their products and services. How is this done with email marketing? Is their any low cost capture pages program to suggest to get a customer base?
Thanks,
Bernard
AffiliateX says
Hi Bernard…
Firstly you will need to place an optin form on your site to collect email subscribers. You can do all this by joining a site called Aweber or Getresponse which are services specifically for email marketers to do exactly what you have explained above. They will also give you all the code you need to set up your optin form as well as tutorials on how to do it all.
As for reasonably priced I believe they are for the feature you get, however everyone places different values on things so I will leave that up to you to decide on costs.
Bernard says
Awesome ! Thank you very much !
Matty says
hi
Initially I invested in some domain names. One day I decided to do something with one of them, affiliate marketing. I have got a one-word generic domain name and decided to use a hosting company that provides multimedia content that relates to the domain name (I don’t have technical web skills).
With their pay per click advertising feeds built in, I also signed up with Clickbank, to promote related products. My long term goal is to make around $1000 per month. I work in a full time job so can’t spend as much time as I would like to promoting the site. I also have not got any unique content / knowledge that I can produce and add to the site.
The only thing I am doing at the moment is working on a long term strategy of creating quality one-way back links to the site, which takes most of my time whilst also doing research. Could you provide any advice on how I can start trickling in visitors to my site.
Thanks
AffiliateX says
Hi Matty
Have you considered using social media as well, such as Facebook, Twitter, Stumbleupon to start giving your website more exposure. Are you writing the content for your site or is it what is called “PLR”?
Also Matty when you talk about this “provides multimedia content that relates to the domain name” does that mean the content is being auto generated? How are you getting those one way links to your site?
Huck says
Can you explain when it would be advantageous to go for directory submissions rather than go for creating normal backlinks for marketing our site? Please explain the advantages and disadvantages of concentrating on directory submissions.
AffiliateX says
Hi Huck
Right now I would not recommend doing any directory submissions after the last Google update where such sites as big as EzineArticles took a huge hit and are now considering adding nofollow to all out going links from articles in there directory. If you do this you will have no real benefit to your links except maybe getting some exposure for your writing skills.
It would be better to concentrate your efforts on writing articles that you can have as guest posts on other blogs so you can get the full benefit of that article. You can also employ the services of a site like this, Unique Article Wizard (Recommended) to get your content circulated on to the internet.
We use these networks to submit articles and have found them to be a very fast way to get your content circulated across the internet as well as getting many one way back links to our sites.
Huck I have one last question for you what do you consider to be normal back links if you are talking about reciprocal linking you are also wasting your time.
Selina says
AffiliateX,
You mention SEOlinkvine which I have been wanting to use but have been using SubmitYourArticle for quite some time now. Can you give me advice as to whether I should jump to the LinkVine? It looks like their service is more robust.
I want to get more content out there faster, to rank, get traffic and get conversions.
Thanks
Selina
AffiliateX says
Hi Selina
If I had to choose which network is the most effective I would have to say Unique Article Wizard, I have been using this for more than two years and I seem to get the best results from this when it comes to article marketing.
SEOLinkVine is OK but the submission process seems to have slowed down where with UAW you can select how fast or slow you want your articles to be released and their directory is more niche related.
It really comes down to what you are comfortable with when submitting your articles.
Susan says
I stopped using UAW awhile ago, didn’t seem to be getting the job done anymore. So many of the articles were posted on tiny litle, no-pr websites that never got indexed. Build My Rank is waaay better article network. Check it out. Had great results with them.
AffiliateX says
Hi Susan
Yes since the latest updates in Google i would have to say the same, however I am still finding some really good results using UAW in some niches but any related to internet marketing or affiliate marketing don’t seem to be that good. It might be because of how competitive this niche is or simply that everyone is starting blogs to try and make money and using the UAW content on very low quality blogs.
Martin says
I don’t have a ton of questions to ask at the moment. I am new to this whole field, and I must say, I am a tad in information overload, but not necessarily in a bad way.
I appreciated your personal experience, where you tried lots of different products, and learned quite a bit by doing so, which later evolved into you being a full time affiliate marketer. Great extensive write up, it is posts like this that keep me moving forwards and feeling inspired. Thanks!
AffiliateX says
Hi Martin
Take it steady and don’t try to do to much to fast. Build your first site and see how it all goes then over time either add more information to that site making it an authority or try to start another site in a different niche. What I will say if you decide to go the with more sites is that you will need a lot more time to maintain them which can lead you right back into information overload.
Rizwan Sultan says
I must say it’s very help full for all the new market persons
Hats off to your efforts,
Keep the good work
AffiliateX says
Hi Rizwan
I try my best to bring you down to earth real information that will help your business grow.
John Cooper says
Hi Ron,
I nice to see someone is bringing such article which is really helpful for their readers.
I do like to ask a question that I have a website with good traffic. How can I use affiliate marketing to monetize my site?
AffiliateX says
Hi John
Can I ask if they are your products which you are selling on the site? If they are I am sure you would not want to place any other offers on your site. What you might consider is some additional marketing to get your site listed better and grow your traffic.
susan says
Glad I found your site – it’s getting bookmarked. I’ve seen/read so much hype out their in the “internet marketing” space that it’s not funny. And most talk about internet marketing like it’s really easy and you can make a ton of money fast…you know what i’m saying.
You blog is refreshing and filled with more common sense information… Real life.
I’ll be back often to read, learn & comment.
AffiliateX says
Hi Susan
Yes as with anything in life it takes time to build up something that may or may not make you money. And as for all the hype and secret ways to make money it is a joke that is for sure. The sooner everyone realizes that there are only so many products and services that can help them succeed the more quality you will start to see on the internet.
It all comes down to hard work and patience at the end of the day not some push button imaginary get rich quick scheme they do not exist so you a better off concentrating on building a quality content site rather than a thin no value site where you have a very limited time to make any money.
George says
Is it legal to copy another person’s video and paste it to my site for their benefit and mine. So all I am saying is can I use their video to attract people to “their” product on “my” site so that I can earn a commission from “their” product.
Affiliatex says
Hi George
You can with permission from the video owner use the original video file on your site. Most of the time however you can simply embed the video from YouTube or any other video sharing site that allows you to do this. Most people that place videos on YouTube want you to add those videos to your site as that is how that can become viral.
The safest way when wanting to use anything created by someone else (including content,pictures) is to ask the creator and you will never have any issues, it is also a very good way to build relationships with others in your niche.
bardog says
Hey I was jus wondering is there a better tool to use instead of the keyword planner, I find it hard to find a range of keywords in relation to products I wish to promote from clickbank . I am currently in the middle of the course google sniper 2.0 but this keyword issue has caused me to hit a wall , could you help me in anyway ? is there keywords out there? is it possible for a beginner to earn money from such a course?
Ron says
Hi Bardog
I am really going to throw myself out on a limb here and tell you to not worry about keywords. Whether you know it or not Google released the Hummingbird update in early October, this is Google’s way of letting everyone know they are moving away from just keywords alone and are now looking more at user intent and social engagement.
What I would suggest you do starting right now is build a site that has lots of quality content that site users can engage with and that helps them with any problems they may have then link that cont to a product or service your are promoting on you site such as a review or recommendation.
The course Google Sniper 2.0 is still very effective but with anything you do on the internet you need to make adjustments to the way you do things and relying strictly on keyword research now is a waste of time and effort. Use the keyword planner to see what is being suggested for your specific Keywords but then write useful content around those keywords.
Another tool that you might find useful is a Firefox plugin called CBSurge which gives you a good indication which products and services on Clickbank are marketable and it has a free version you can use.
Mark says
Feeling overwhelmed where to begin. There are so many sites that will give you an affiliate website for $100-$200. But these are generic and there could be 100’s of the exact same site out there. I thought an affiliate business is where you sell products for another larger company through your website. Whereas when a customer clicks on a product on your website, it directs them to the parent website, etc. Your info seems to say that I need to write articles about a particular subject and get advertisers to list on my website… I am not looking to blog. I am looking to offer niche products for a commission since I cannot afford to house inventory. Would also like to have sites where I can do ad-sense. Cant say I am an expert on any particular subject. Again, very new to all this, and feeling lost. Sure I am missing something. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.
Ron says
Hi Mark
I know where you’re at, I have been doing this for more than 12 years and I still get overwhelmed. First I am going to tell you not to buy into all the hype and B.S online that only leads to an empty wallet and lost time.
OK for starters in my opinion it should be WordPress you use for your website. Next you need to pick a product and stick with it. To promote the product you will need to write a series of “UNIQUE” articles for your site that are helpful and engaging. Join these three social network sites, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ as you will want to publish information there as well.
Now if this was me and what I have experienced especially with so many updates from Google lately I would make a plan to only add content for about three months forget about adding affiliate offers for the start. The content I write would be very focused on the niche and hopefully the niche I selected had around 3 to five related products that I could offer at a later date.
Are you working at the moment? If so go to work like normal and each night add a couple of posts to the site offering value to your readers, schedule them to go out at different times each day to keep people coming back to your site. It’s not going to be easy at the start but if you have patience and dedication to reaching your goals you will make it.
I am also not sure where you are in the World but it is strongly advised that you also have all your contact, disclaimer and privacy notices on the site. You need to look like a real business and offer value. These sites you spoke of being ready made are a complete waste of time and effort, Google is trying it’s best to eliminate many of these which is why you need to provide quality not copied content.
This is only a very quick overview of what you should be thinking about before you jump in, there is no quick fix for any of it, yes some do get lucky but that is a very low percentage people.
Mark I am here to help, if you have questions or get stuck let me know and I will do my best to keep you heading in the right direction.
anniemiller says
You mean my blog or website should refer to a certain field? Thanks for your reply!
anniemiller says
What do you mean by saying affiliate program? what affiliate programs exist and how to choose the right one? I just a newbie and do not how to begin. Should i pay for this program if i choose one. thanks
Ron says
Hi Annie
Right now you really don’t need to much at all first thing to consider is the market you wish to be an affiliate in. Next is deciding on the way you want to present the content. My initial advice is to find a decent domain name, get a hosting account and then install WordPress. You then need to plan out the content for the site and make sure you have products to promote as an affiliate related to that content.