I have never been a big fan of affiliate marketing. I have always had difficulty with the idea of promoting someone else’s product and making 50 - 75 % commission, when I could be spending hours to create my own product and sell it for 100% commission, or even better, enlist the help of affiliates & sell it for 25 - 50% commission…..
Now that I hap put it down in words, I think I have got it all backwards. Affiliate Marketing is probably the easiest way to get started in Internet Marketing with very little or no overheads.
If you are starting out in Internet Marketing, it is possible to start making money through affiliate marketing, without ever spending a dime yourself. (This concept is called Bum Marketing).
In a nutshell, Affiliate Marketing, is simply promoting & marketing someone else’s products & services, and in turn you receive a commission for your efforts.
When you sign up to a particular affiliate program you are assigned a unique affiliate ID, which you then use to promote and market the vendors product and services.
You can use your affiliate ID in many ways. Simply writing a Blog post about the product and posting it on your Blog, or perhaps you want to do something a little more advanced and write an article about the Niche you are promoting, and then post your article on one of the article directories along with a link to the site you are promoting using your affiliate ID. (Some Article directories will not let you post a direct affiliate link in your article. Please refer to the Terms and Conditions of the article site when posting your affiliate link.)
Alternatively you can get into the old social marketing, such as Twitter & Facebook, and build a following and then post your affiliate links there.
In addition to this you can also look at some of the forums that are on line for your niche. The easiest way to find these is to simply type into your favorite search engine ‘your niche’ + forums eg. ‘Dog Training Forums’. This should return a list of forums that are centered around your particular niche.
There are many different Affiliate programs available on the Internet Today. You will find that just about any site that is selling a product will have an affiliate program associated with it.
A couple of the most popular affiliate sites are ClickBank & Commission Junction. But you will also find that sites like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and even Apple will have an affiliate program associated with it.
Your best bet if you wish to get started with Affiliate Marketing is head over to your favorite vendors website & look for the words Affiliate or Partner, then select the link & go through the application process. You may find the occasional site will requite that you have a minimum sized mailing list before you are accepted into their program, but these are rare. You will find most sites do not have that restriction.
Once you have signed up to an affiliate program, you next step is to select a product to promote & then start marketing that product.
Probably the easiest way to do this, is setup a blog or a website, and write a review about the product, and ensure that you have you affiliate link included in the review, so people can then click on your link if they choose to have a closer look at the product.
The trick now is to start getting traffic to you blog or website….
You can do this in several ways, for example by writing an article about the product, with a link back to your blog or website, or you could make a little video about the product, again with links back to your site. You can also make a comment on Facebook or Twitter with links back to your site.
Then I it is simply a case of sitting back and wait for the commissions to roll in right??? WRONG!!!! You need to continue the process of generating traffic to you site & fine tuning your reviews until people do start buying through your link.
It is also highly recommended that you also purchase the product yourself before writing your review, so you at least know what you are talking about.
There is so much more to affiliate marketing that what I have described in this article, and there are also some great products available on the Internet to help you get started with Affiliate Marketing.
In the resource box below, you will find a link to a free Affiliate Marketing course that I have put together to help you to get started with your Internet Marketing endeavors.
To Your Success,
Rob Willis
Affiliate Marketing can be an easy way to get started in Internet Marketing without having your own product. The best way to do this is with a little help and guidance. Head over http://NotableAffiliateMarketing.com for a step by step free video training course in Affiliate Marketing that I have put together to help you to start making $100 per day. http://NotableAffiliateMarketing.com
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