Is the road to affiliate marketing paved with gold like so many would like you to believe…
Well, firstly what you need to consider is this, as an affiliate marketer it is not a road paved with gold and you will probably need to commit a few hours a day to start out.
Just so you get my point here, the Vice President of Business Development for Clickbank which has 1.2 million affiliates registered which sounds really impressive right, well the very sad fact of the matter is that only 110,000 of these affiliates actually make any sales.
And an even more shocking statistic is that only 1% of those affiliates actually make enough money to quit their day jobs.
Now that I have got that out-of-the-way and I know only the die-hard marketers are still reading let’s get into the nitty-gritty and make you some money…
So How Do You Start Out In This Online Business…
This is really allot easier than you might think as you don’t need any HTML skills to start and you can find the products that you need with some simple mouse clicks. However before you start you need to decide on a market and where you are going to find the products you want to promote.
Why You Need To Research The Marketplace First
Today I am only going to be talking about Clickbank Affiliate Network as this is probably the easiest way for as an affiliate marketer to find products to promote, What you need to do is go into Clickbank and then look for the link to the marketplace at the top of the page and click it. (See Image Below See Update Below)
Once there you are going to be looking for products that are similar in a niche try to find about five to start with that have good gravity (meaning sales per month).
Ideally there would be very little in the way of referring sites which means other sites promoting this product. If you do this right you want need to worry about the %refd percentage as you will be dominating any niche you enter.
You need to ensure that all the products you select are themed around the same niche. look at the screen shots below to see how effective this is when promoting products.
As an affiliate marketer and by keeping the product selection very close together and in the case above it is related to computer security I am able to totally dominate that niche.
To understand how to join Clickbank watch our video tutorials her. The videos are a little old now but the process has not changed very much so they are still worth the small amount of time it will take to watch them.
Domain Name And Hosting Account…
One of the biggest mistakes that new affiliates make is going for the free hosting services that are available online.
Don’t Do It.
This is going to be your business you know the one that is going to get you out of your nine to five boring dead-end job.
Now that you have your five affiliate products that you want to promote it is time to get your self a domain name and a good hosting company. We use Hostgator but you can make the decision as to where you want to host your sites just make sure they have everything you need to get started. Read more about this in promoting your money sites.
Finding The Right Content For Your Site
As an affiliate marketer you have a couple of choices when it comes to finding the right content for your site, and that is you can write the content yourself or you can use a service that will supply you with content. if you take the second choice you are going to have to re-write the content to make it your own. Services we use for this are a site called Need-An-Article or you can find writers on Elance.
Other categories you might also take the time to read are article marketing this topic alone is the back bone to your success as an affiliate marketer. And always remember the Golden Rules Of Affiliate Marketing.
These are just some very quick affiliate tips to get you started with affiliate marketing. The subject is very broad and there are many different tactics that you can use as an affiliate marketer that I can possibly cover them all here.
I am currently conducting the research for my dissertation with the title ‘Affiliate Marketing: Maximizing Conversion Rates – A Framework’.
I want to show how the conversion rate depends on ‘frequency of communication’, ‘frequency of training’, and ‘level of customization’. I will develop a mathematical model to predict conversion rates based on the data I collect with my survey. Please participate, I will give every participants full access to the data and my analysis, you can use this for your own purposes.
This is the link to the survey:
The survey is purely academic in it’s nature, so non-profit, and of course it is completely anonymous.
Please help to collect data by filling out the survey and pass on the link to others.
Thank you very much!
Hi Marc
Thanks for the post I have already completed the survey and I will be very interested in the results for sure… If you have any other questions please don’t hesitate to post them here
Hi GrowMap
Great post on your site!
You are exactly right many people see the money they can make as an affiliate an then just jump in head first only to find that if they would have taken the time to learn a little about the business they would not have wasted there money and time.
Another unfortunate aspect is that there are a lot of would be affiliate marketing guru’s peddling their ideas for a quick $100,000 a month get rich quick program and that is how affiliate marketing is introduced virtually to every newcomer online. Even I scooped up every new e-book and program at the start and yes I did get some good ideas which lead me into the research side of things and decided to follow a few big names in the industry of SEO and Affiliate Marketing, joined a few membership sites and after awhile it all fell into place and I started seeing good results for my efforts.
The key to everything is you need to have at least one authority site that you can leverage off while you are creating more sites and entering into other markets take it one step at a time. And over time you will have three, four or even five authority sites all working to make you a good income online.
Most people don’t make money as affiliates because they have no idea what it takes to actually generate sales. If they would only invest more time learning from those who actually make money! There is more quality information on how to do it available today than there ever has been so there is no excuse not to succeed if you work at it. You only need to know who to believe.
I’ve been researching affiliate training packages and seeking out links to super affiliates. I’ve published what I’ve found so far in the blog post linked to this comment. If you have or know of resources I should include please do let me know. Thank you.
Thank you AffiliateX. I could really use your input on that post. Would you be willing to look through the resources I’ve linked and make sure I have not inadvertently added any of those “get rich quick” types? I do my best to seek out only those who are the “real deal” to make it easier for new folks to find them. Ideally that post will not miss any important resources and WILL avoid any that aren’t quite as good as they could be. (You can email me if you would rather not publicly out something that is a little weak but not terrible.)
Even though I have made a little money from affiliate marketing on sites dating back to 1994, I am just getting really serious about affiliate marketing both on my own blogs and in managing an affiliate program for Executive Gift Shoppe as I mentioned in that post. I am usually very good at researching; however, someone who has been serious about affiliate marketing longer always has more inside scoop.
Do be sure to let me know if there are any specific links to your blog or products you have created that I could include there. I did research thoroughly but am certain I have not yet discovered ALL of the top affiliate resources.
Just before that post I pulled together the teaching links from bloggers who make real money without selling their souls and teach it well. I linked that post to this comment so you can check it out. I’m sure many affiliate marketers could use those resources to improve their blogs and make more money.
Did you check out what I wrote about pay per click advertising (my previous full-time consulting work was managing ppc accounts for dozens of small businesses) or local search directories (easy way to get high PR incoming links and more traffic)? I’ll be posting a list of the Top Ten Local Search directories probably early this week. Focusing on those can increase sales and traffic. I’m working on some great research on the very best Blog Directories too.
Hi Growmap
I have had a good look through your site and the resources are very useful and I also like how you state that it takes had work. Any system that you buy online requires hard work to be successful that is what seems to be missing from the minds of many who start out online. You might want to check out this resource as well MaxBlogPress
Growmap when we speak about the so-called “Get Rich Quick” sites just to clarify many of these programs are useful and do work for the newbie affiliate marketer the problem is what you have stated about hard work. Nobody wants to put in the hard yards to see success as they buy the program read the first chapter and expect to be rich, it is never going to happen. And then many of these people start to bag the program in forums and blog posts.
Even I have done it only read part of the course and never really got into the meat of it and put it to one side only to find out later that if I would have read the complete course and not once but a few times to get my head around it, I actually would have made money online.
To show you what I mean…..
I am right in the middle of releasing a report on this blog that I have been testing for many months and the results are amazing this is something I will not be selling but it will be a step by step explanation of how I have actually increased traffic to a blog by 500% in one month and placed many of its posts into the top ten on Google.
This isn’t something that will only last the month it is a long term strategy that I have been testing. It can not be tracked effectively so your competitors will have trouble trying to match you and it really puts you ahead of the pack when it comes to great listing in the Serp’s.
It has even caused the site to be listed in the top “100 small business” category in Technorati which I hadn’t expected which commands a lot of page rank back to your site.
To implement the system does cost some money but it is well worth it at the end of the day. More Soon…..
Hi Growmap
This is the third release from Rob for blogging to the bank again it has some useful insights in it and if you follow the course you will see results so that is why it is listed here at my blog.
I totally agree about the real business concept and we need to get this across to as many new affiliates as possible if they promote any business that is here today and gone tomorrow their credibility can be damaged considerably which takes a long time to fix.
As for Adsense sites I have a site that I use for Adsense it is on baby showers website believe it or not and it use to sell an e-book but that was to time consuming. It had nothing but original content on it so I decided to test this Adsense theory out and the results were really good at the start upwards of $70 USD a day for many months, but that was with 3000+ visitors a day.
Overtime however those earnings dropped away and so did my visitors as I wasn’t updating it and now it is only around $20 USD a day. If any one is going to use Adsense to make money it has to be unique content and be very targeted. As you can see the key to Adsense as is with CPA marketing you need a massive amount of turn over or the results just are not worth it.
Yes you are dead right if you decide to purchase a program online you really need to finish it, follow all the steps to the end.
I like you latest post with all the resources for people to use and refer to it should be a big help to your visitors.
I have to wait for the end of the month to release the report so I can include all the statistics to show everyone how powerful this is and that anyone can do it. One project I just purchased was from Ewen Chia called Optin Profits this is another area where many bloggers and website owners fall down with their marketing even I am guilty of not spending enough time in this area.
Hello AffiliateX,
Thank you for checking out my site and for the tip about MaxBlogPlus. I noticed the banner for Rob Benwell’s Blogging to the Bank. Have you seen it and if yes what do you think of it? Is it another resource I should be including on my How to Make Money Blogging resources page?
What I love to encourage is for people to promote real businesses that provide value rather than everyone focusing on how to get rich quick ebooks. When I think of “Get Rich Quick” I think of long sales letter sites promising people they can work two hours a day, live in a mansion and drive a Beemer. When you read interviews of those people they may WRITE two hours a day but they spend hours and hours promoting, planning, analyzing – in other words what THEY are calling “WORK” is not all the time they are spending working!
The other type of site I would like to discourage people from focusing on are MFA (Made for AdSense) pages that “borrow” the original content of others to use it as a vehicle for ads. Even some legitimate bloggers place so many ads on their sites – or worse yet – and I know they have been advised that it works best – put ads above their content or between the title and the text of their blog posts.
I would really love to have power affiliates tell me whether they think that type of ad placement still works. I know for myself that I send more traffic to deserving content than most and I very rarely share sites that place their ads that way because it makes it look like they care more about ads than their content.
If you saw my post on How to Make Money Blogging that was published just before the one about the affiliate gift program you’ll see that I emphasize the importance of selecting ONE system and then doing EVERYTHING they advise – even the stuff you THINK is not important. It makes no sense to select an advisor and then ignore what they teach you.
I just published a roundup of my best content all in one post. Even you may find some great information in the posts. No matter how much research I do or how much experience I get there is always more to learn each and every day. That is what I write about so that others can benefit. I linked to that pillar post from this comment so you can check it out.
I am VERY interested in your new report. It sounds similar to some processes I have been testing. I am working on an entire process for creating, promoting and tracking results for any business or blog. It is such a huge project that I am uncertain when exactly it will be ready for release but it is the culmination of all I have been working on for years. We should stay in touch and I’ll share it will you when it is ready or let you see what I have so far.
Hi Guys
What a refreshing change, I have been looking at the IM business for some time now and how to get in to it and at last I have come across something without BS.
I know this is going to take some hard work for me but can any one point me in the right direction so I don’t have to waste all my time looking for the genuine start and provide me with the right tools.
Hard work is what I long for because that is what it takes to do job right, passion and focus I have plenty, tools I have not.
Get back to me with some pointers and get me started……………
Michael J Hutchinson
Hi Growmap
Yes I did notice and when this site was first started it was the same but I found that so many posts were just from spammers (adult and pharm sites) trying to get a link back that I had to stop it was taking up to much of my time. I have 52 sites and I really don’t have the time to be sorting out the Good the Bad and the Ugly.
I do run a Top Commenter plugin on one of my blogs more as an experiment and it is fascinating to watch the posts coming in as people try to get a link from my home page, I also have it setup to clear the cache every month so every 30 days all their hard work is gone and they have to start again :).
If they spent as much time creating quality content as they did spamming my blogs they would be very successful again its a case of a poor understanding of how everything works online and the sooner that they realize that they are only wasting their own time the better the internet will be.
Hi Mike
Thanks for the post and yes you are heading in the right direction understanding the hard work part is the the first step. If we can be of any assistance to you and I think that also goes for GrowMap (I am sure he want mind) as well please post your questions and we will give you a prompt reply.
Thank you for the answers. I made some money with AdSense back in the day but haven’t used it lately. I still wonder if putting ads above your content is really benefiting the bloggers who do it. I share a lot of links every day across multiple Social Networks and content has to be REALLY exceptional for me to share a page with ads in that position. Usually I just don’t.
Speaking of sharing content I noticed that one of your posts is being featured at Technorati today. I reviewed it at StumbleUpon which then sends it on to Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed and Delicious and it already got retweeted. That reminds me that I must finish writing up how I’m doing that. If only TwitterFeed would add su.pr life that would really make a difference.
I can’t wait to see your report. I could really use a boost at Technorati so if my Best of GrowMap post is something your readers could use I would be eternally grateful if you’ll share the link with them in one of your posts. Did you notice that GrowMap is dofollow and uses CommentLuv and KeywordLuv? Commenting there reminds me to check out and share your latest content so if you have a list of blogs you visit regularly you might want to consider adding mine.
Getting STARTED is so easy. Thats the problem – this low entry barrier leads people to think that being succesful is just as easy and fast. But of course, that is not the case at all – quite the opposite.
The biggest stumbling block is always content – writing it takes time, outsourcing it costs money. Thats where people become unstuck.
Yes Dillon you are right…
The mindset is already there and many affiliates keep to that mindset thinking that there is not much work required and overtime this is what causes a large percentage to give up.
Dillon I use to think the same about content but now that I have secured some really good sources that is the least of my problems now. The biggest time consumer for me is having to re-write article content to submit to other blogs and websites. It is well worth the effort though.
I did the same thing when startign a few years a go – get a ClickBank account, and start promoting, writing a bunch of articles, etc. Later on I found that the simpler you make things, the easier it gets – I started to build a list, and make my own products. I sold them a few times cheaper then the CB ones, but made much more money.
So my experience is that the “usual” start is not always the best start 🙂
I’m with you on this Alex
The easier you can keep it the better off you will be without putting to much pressure on yourself. You know the principle K.I.S.S (KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID) – This is one of the main reasons that people fail in affiliate marketing by taking on to much at the start which is very distracting and you never get anything finished to the standard it needs to be.
This also applies to those looking at product creation you need to start one project, finish it to a high standard then start the next. Always remembering that you need to continue to work on the first project you started as well.
Really enjoyed the article and the comments. I am just starting to research affiliate marketing and I’m finding this stuff fascinating. I’m a real estate broker and I launched a short sale training webinar a few months ago. I found that I really got a rush when money would show up in my PayPal account because I sold something. I just knew when that happened that I needed to dig alittle deeper into making money online..
I’m as green as they come when it comes to this stuff. Signed up for Ed Dale’s 30 day Challenge. Then through my Google searches found this site. I plan on reading through you articles so just wanted to thank you in advance for providing such great content.
Hi Bryant… Glad you liked it.
You will firstly notice that I had to remove your link as it was broken so sorry about that. I to have completed courses from Ed Dale back in the early days when Ed Dale, Brett McFall and Frank Kearns were doing their Under Achiever seminars in Queensland Australia.
And yes Bryant it is a very good feeling to log in each day to see that you have been making money while asleep it is the ultimate in leveraging your time as you can go to the beach and make money, go on holidays and make money but it all takes time to build and maintain but once you have put in the hard yards it starts to become easier.
Do your market research on your preferred niche, create a site that is an authority in that niche and you will then have a very strong foot hold in the affiliate marketplace and even a launching point for your very own product in the future.
And again thank you for your kind words and good luck in the future. If I can be of assistance please let me know.
Thanks for responding to my comment. I had a typo in my link. Sorry about that.
Your words are very encouraging. Real Estate has been beating me up lately so I am certainly ready for something. Have a great Thanksgiving!
Not A Problem Bryant
And if I can be of any assistance at all please just post your comments and I will help you out the best I can…
Bang on target,I use CJ as my affiliate provider.I search product under my niche and blog them with affiliate link in my blog.But i will share 1 point here,I think we should cloak affiliate link before blogging,So if customer wants to buy promote some time ahead he/she will not remember our affiliate link so we should cloak link.
Hi Bisaani
Yes it is a very good Idea to cloak your links as an affiliate firstly for the reason you mentioned and that is to give the potential customer a easy to remember URl and secondly to protect your links form what are Hijackers. We exclusively use a program called GoTryThis to do all of our link cloaking.
Good blog post for newbies starting out looking for success in affiliate marketing. The information here is just enough and not too overwhelming.
Good stuff!
Devon
Hi Devon
Thanks for the post… yes when I first started out as an affiliate the one thing that constantly had me jumping from one thing to the next was all the information that was being sent to me buy all the Guru’s online and rather than helping me it started to confuse even more. Each post on this site is designed to do just that give you some clear information about the topic of the post so that you can then act on it with getting information overload.
The figures you mention here are fairly typical industry wide, it takes dedication and you have to continually work on developing new skills, stay in touch with the latest marketing trends and diligently continue working on your retail and recruit strategies.
Hi Brad
You are very much on the mark with how it takes dedication and hard work to be successful. It is even more beneficial if you can have a marketing strategy that is unique to help you stand out from the crowd. There is so much information flying around all over the internet that it makes it really hard to make a start.
Many affiliates fail simply because of information overload and never really having a goal or plan in place because everyday there is someone else telling them something different. If you want to be a success online today you need to pick a market and stick with it and make it your own (Authority) so that you start to make a steady income and then move on.
Nice post. I myself have not been in the affiliate marketing game for that long. For the longest time I just keep learning with a focused direction in mind and hope to keep from being overwhelmed with all the hyped up…whatever. Your post sounds like a game plan I’ve been running on myself. Thanks.
.-= Courtney´s last blog ..Is It AS Easy As That With Adsense =-.
Hi Courtney
It is very easy to become overwhelmed when you look at any products or services in the internet/affiliate marketing arena there is alays lots going on and new products being released. You need to fight the temptation to buy everything pick a niche topic and stick to it, once that is making a good income move on to the next.
If you try to do everything at once, such as three or four niches at the same time you risk getting very confused and even failing in your efforts to make it online.
As a virtual assistant and affiliate marketer myself, I have learned that some newbie marketers are losing huge amounts of money. They have the notion that it is easy to make money online when in fact, it takes a lot of hard work and patience.
If you buy a digital product on make money online niche, you will notice that there are numerous strategies to follow. With the booming of online market, it is becoming saturated each day. However, only a few can make at least one sale.
You really need to study the courses that you have purchased and IMPLEMENT what you learn.
.-= Ronald Redito´s last blog ..Send Money to the Philippines Using Xoom Money Transfer =-.
Yes Ronald… You are right
It really does not matter what course you buy, the only way you are going to get any use out of it is to follow the steps. If you don’t then it is never going to work, which unfortunately many people online actually do. They “Buy it”, Download it” and then “File it” I call it the BDF syndrome.
Great tips AffiliateX. The stats you gave at the start really tell the story. If youre a newbie you can definitely make it in affiliate marketing but like you say – it does take time and persistent effort.
Yes Pablo it does take a good amount of effort on your behalf…
Many believe that there is a quick fix to making huge amounts of cash online and especially with affiliate marketing but there is not. If you want to be successful then you need to put your head down and do the hard yards.
First thing first is you need to go to a site like Commission Junction and sign up. Once you sign up, you can browse what kind of products they offer that you can promote. Once you find something there to promote, you can add the code to your site. Make sure you pick something that will be compatible with your website. Like, if your website is about fixing cars, you find an affiliate program that has do with where to get parts for the car.
Hi Aiping
Yes what you are saying is correct, however for many affiliates starting out CJ is not the best place to begin simply because their websites are not what those vendors are looking for to promote their products. Meaning incomplete or just not in the right marketplace.
You need to start in areas that are easier to get accepted such as clickbank which will give you time to bring your affiliate site up to a good standard where you can then be easily accepted into affiliate networks such as Commission Junction.
You are right Affiliate x I am a member of CJ and Clickbank and I had some issues connecting with affiliates because of my website.I had just recently created a new website for My SFI business.I am always looking for new ideas and success stories thanks for the information.
I love Affiliate marketing but I think if you want to do it right, you should have at least a basic background about HTML and Script languages needed for creating a website because if you try to use affiliate marketing without a website you wont see that big a result.
Hostgator is awesome, I’m currently using it for my blog, I think that if you build credibility through a website or a blog you designed yourself and then try to monetize it by using affiliate links, you will be able to see decent results because people who read your previous posts/articles/static-site and know that you provide quality content will trust in buying the products that you recommend.
I think that’s the best way to use affiliate marketing.
Thanks for the post. 🙂
Hi Sayed and welcome back…
With the many improvements in WordPress and as you said the great support from companies like Hostgator the need to know HTML is not that important any more. It does help if you wish to customize anything in your blog, but a WordPress blog works pretty much out of the box which is why most affiliates are using it.
As for creating an affiliate site you are right, it is better to build a quality site that is going to continue to generate an income rather than just one or two pages and hoping to make some money. If you do it right at the start you can save yourself countless hours of frustration and disappointment.
It is, if you know what you’re doing and you’re willing to work at it. I think that affiliate marketing is something many people paint as being like sitting earning money for doing nothing but nothing works like that. It helps if you know what you’re doing but you’re more likely to succeed if you’re willing to learn the best way to go and not expect to become a millionaire overnight.
Hi Jenni…and welcome
Yes you are right there are many so called experts online selling false dreams and expectations to a lot of would be marketers. If you are prepared to work at it and not just dabble actually be passionate about what you want to achieve then you are on the right path. If you believe that you can just slap up a website or blog then wait for the money to come in, then sadly you will be waiting for a very long time.
Those days are long gone and will never return, hard work and dedication will get you the success you want.
Just found your post. Really nice overview on how to get into Affiliate marketing and I’m interested in getting into it. Do you have a course that goes into affiliate marketing in detail or can you recommend one.
Thank you for the post.
Hi Rodney and Welcome…
I don’t currently have a course that you can do, however if you spend some time on our blog you will get what you need. If I was to recommend any course that you should do then it is this one the Income Blogging Guide. Have a read of our review I think it will help you greatly online.
If they would only invest more time learning from those who actually make money! There is more quality information on how to do it available today than there ever has been so there is no excuse not to succeed if you work at it. If you are prepared to work at it and not just dabble actually be passionate about what you want to achieve then you are on the right path.
Yes you are right about that…
You can find a lot of information online that you don’t have to pay for, however there are many who believe the hype and go after the big paydays. These people more often than not end up not making any money simply because they do not give enough time or effort to make things work.
Hi Ron,
Really? Just 1%? Wow, didn’t realize that statistic… although makes complete sense.
Great basics on affiliate marketing. I’ve dabbled with looking for products on sites such as Clickbank, but I’ve found personally the best way to go about it is to recommend affiliate products I’ve personally used. I do this by casually mentioning them in my posts, tool box and email marketing. Although I have to admit, I need to step it up a notch. 😉
I think with affiliate marketing you really have to be consistent and build your email list so you can continue to market to prospects and be willing to put any income made back into promoting your landing pages and continuing to build your list.
It’s a process and it’s not going to something you can succeed at overnight for sure. You seem to have had success with it; great to see! I may have to visit you more often. 😉
All the best.
Hi Michele
Yes you are right about that, many years ago I went down the road of only promoting products that I have personally used or have had access to as there was just to much rubbish online to promote without really knowing the ins and outs of a product or service.
You make another good point about building an email list, to many throw up review sites promoting anything and everything thinking that they will make millions but it never actually happens. You need quality information so that your readers will want to opt-in to any mailing lists you might have. The quality of the website will also determine your trust factor online which will also determine how effective your mailing list will be.
And because of some of the points I have listed above is why the success rate of many affiliates is so low in the big picture of the internet. Not to many people are prepared to work at it to see any form of success online.
I got into affiliate marketing and found out that I suck at it. There is so much over-hyped get rich quick advice on the internet that I’m not sure who to listen to. How do you find someone who is truly successful to enlist his/her support?
Hi Dan
That is the the million dollar question… many of these trust worthy marketers start out with the right intention but when things get a little tight they change tack and start sending you emails promoting all these hyped up products or services. Really only you can decide what is right for you, however if you like what someone is writing make sure you visit their site to see what they are doing and to make sure it is not a single page site but something that you would call an authority in its niche.
And never subscribe to lots of newsletters at once or you will end up spending your days distracted by emails and not getting any work completed.
It really does not matter what course you buy, the only way you are going to get any use out of it is to follow the steps. There is more quality information on how to do it available today than there ever has been so there is no excuse not to succeed if you work at it. You only need to know who to believe. Thank you.
Yes you are right, to often people buy these courses with the intention of learning something new and useful only to place it on a shelf and forget about it. The problem is that the internet in its self is a huge distraction and unless you can block out a lot of the distractions you will never get anything finished.
I found you on google and subscribed to your newletter.
So much great information! This is really eye opening!!! Many thanks!!!!
I’m a newby in blogging and have zero clue about technology. Well, I can do a little more than writing an email. When I heard about blogging, I researched it and thought I found an avenue to help people and to make money at the same time. It took me a while to get the basics started, (domain name, hosting and theme).
I chose Bluehost and a theme from WordPress.org. I already mentioned, technology is not my strong side. I have to admit that I have had my wordpress theme set up by someone to whom technology is not a foreign word. Also he taught me the basics to use admin. My idea of writing a blog was to post content that helps people and at the same time to make money by doing it. If you do something what you believe in and enjoy, then every minute of your life is spent well.
I’m a hard worker and have much patients, but I was not prepared that there is so much technology involved, but I’m determine to learn of whatever it takes to post information and being rewarded with money at the same time.
I already entered 5 posts and now I would like to place some advertisement what would benefit my readers.
Is it possible to sign up with more than one affiliate and place adds from different affiliates on my site at the same time? How do I find affiliates that match my writings? If I decide for a particular affiliate, do I have a choice to select specific products or are all their products a package deal? Certainly, I would prefer to pick items that I believe will benefit my readers. Besides the proper affiliates, I understand that I need traffic. I read that it is possible to connect wordpress.org with facebook and that this would be a good way to get traffic. Any advise on this?….
After reading everything on your blog, I do understand, that in order to make a living with blogs, I would need multiple blogs at the same time. Makes sense. However, I’m in the infant state and I have a lot to learn and need all the help I can get to get my first blog moving in the right direction. Could you have look at my site thoughtspeaker.com and guide me in the right direction?
Hi Sonny
The first thing I would suggest you do with your site before applying for any affiliate program is placing privacy and disclaimer statements on your site that that you have all your legal issues covered first.
When you first start a blog it is a really good idea that you post at a minimum of three posts a week until you get indexed, your site is currently Grey Barred in Google so you need to do a little more work yet before you are ready to go.
Yes there are tools you can use which are free to get you connected with Facebook and Twitter as well as other social site which i will speak with you about later on. Have you got yourself a Google webmaster account? Have you submitted your site to Google in Webmaster Tools?
These are just some of the things you need to do before you ever think about monetizing your site with affiliate links.
This is great article. You are exactly right many people see the money they can make as an affiliate an then just jump in head first only to find that if they would have taken the time to learn a little about the business they would not have wasted there money and time. Thank you.
Yes due to this the internet is littered with sites that are no longer maintained or even relevant to anything… I would hate to think of how much money and time was wasted by people doing this over the last few years. The internet is getting more competitive and harder for many to make any money online, especially with many of the big companies like Amazon dominating many market places online.
It takes hard work and determination to find success online.
There is more quality information on how to do it available today than there ever has been so there is no excuse not to succeed if you work at it. If you are prepared to work at it and not just dabble actually be passionate about what you want to achieve then you are on the right path. Thank you.
Yes you are right, the key to everything is you need to be passionate about your topic. This makes the work you need to do much easier and you can relate to your site visitors much easier which at the end of the day will build a lot more trust for your blog.
Nice article, Costa. Like you said, product quality and knowing the product line are keys. That, plus having respect for you audience and wanting to sell them something good.
Scammers have given affiliate marketing a bad name, but obviously that doesn’t mean affiliate marketing is bad. If you can add value, it’s a lucrative way to earn money.
Hi Spencer
Yes you are right with the term you used, you have to add value for your readers, this not only continuously brings traffic to your site but also builds a strong level of trust between you and your readers. With internet users becoming much more aware of what is real online this is essential to making money as an affiliate marketer.
Ron you made interesting discussions about how to become an affiliate. Feels great to know some ideas!
Hi Sam
Yes the whole site has really been created from my experiences with affiliate marketing including the good and the bad. I have tried to simplify the process for other affiliates so hopefully they will stop chasing the dream of instant money, all that happens to those new affiliates is that they burn a huge hole in their pocket forking out cash constantly for pie in the sky schemes that have very limited life spans on the internet.
Hello!
I am an affiliate marketer through a big platform from my country. I bought two domains, added some original content about those products i wanted to sell, and made a little SEO for both sites. The things are working fine with little time and money invested.
Good luck to all that want this kind of “job” :D!
This is a very nice article about affiliate marketing. As an affiliate, you will have the opportunity to create your own passive residual income, and you are your own boss! The best thing about affiliate marketing is that you are working anytime you want, not some daily 9-5 job working for someone else.
Dan Lew
Affiliate marketing is great. But if it is not done properly it will not yield anything !
There are multiple keys to success in Affiliate Marketing. My wife and I have been doing this for many years now, and have achieved great success in this industry. I started Affiliate Marketing when I was 24 years old, and I am now retired at the age of 31. The best advice that I can give those that are looking to start in this industry is to:
1.) Learn the Industry before you attempt to rule it.
2.) Research Everything! (know the companies that you are advertisng for)
3.) Make SEO your NEW Best Friend!
Good Luck to Everyone!
ron, i’m very interested in a full commitment. i just turned 55 had a good run at being self-employed from 2000 – 2009, had a contract with dow chem & install architectural stainless steel handrail in new commercial bldgs. it was a sweet deal worked my tail off but $100. a linear ft is good money. anything under a 100 ft was 10k min. i had to close my commercial account in aug 09, i was set up as an s-corp. tryed to go to work for somebody else, i have not been successfull. the us gov have put a lot of guys like myself out of business. i was lucky to graduate from high school but i have skills & ambition and they don’t get rewarded when you’re not the risk taker. got a small contract i’ll do this week after that i don’t know when my next deposit will be!!!!
sincerely,
mike mckee
Hi Mike
Sorry for the very delayed response… I am currently putting a new site together called Affiliate Destination that will give anyone new to the online world a very easy to follow step by step guide into how to start an affiliate marketing business.
There will be an Ebook for sale on the site but currently there are informative posts that can start you on your way. You also might consider learning WordPress as we have just released a series of 30 how to videos on WordPress completely updated for WP3.4, you get everything you need to know from installing to marketing.
We also have another two complete series with 50 videos in total on everything anyone would ever need to know about using WordPress in their business.
And Mike please do not feel alone I am 47 and still hit rick walls every now and then. We just need to learn how to overcome the many obstacles of life.
Our company became an affiliate of other booking companies for hotels and its incredible how much money can be earned through affiliate marketing. I think the key is just not to give up too early since hard work will definitely provide you with the results your looking for over time.
Hi Connie
If you are in the accommodation niche then you might want to have a look at this –
And yes you are right if you start a business from solid foundations, meaning good content and the right platform you then just need some time to see some returns for your efforts.