How To Make Money Online By Affiliate Marketing

Part One of Three:

Breaking Into Affiliate Marketing
Decide on a business model. There are two primary
business models that prospective affiliate marketers
choose between. The first is a resource site, and the
second is a review site. Which model you choose will
depend on your familiarity with the products or services
you advertise
[1]
Resource sites typically embed a merchant
partner's website in an affiliate link or banner
advertisement within how-to articles and posts.
This business model requires frequent updates and
fresh content to ensure that customers return to
the marketer's website on a regular basis.
[2]
Review sites feature reviews of products/services
that the marketer has tried and can attest for. Each
product/service review includes a link or banner ad
that will take customers to the merchant partner's
website. The advantage of review sites is that they
require less frequent updates. Marketers simply
have to make minor tweaks to their websites to
ensure that search engines continue to list the
website in their search results.
[3]
Create a website. In order to work as an affiliate
marketer, you'll need your own platform (a
personal website or blog) on which to post links and
advertise for your chosen products or services. If you
already have a website or blog, you can use that
platform to begin earning additional income as an
affiliate marketer. If you do not yet have a website or
blog, you will need to create one.
The advantage of a blog, such as Blogger, is that
it's free to operate, whereas some websites require
a fee to operate. However, sites like GoDaddy.com
and Hostgator offer website services that are
relatively inexpensive to operate, and may look
more professional than a personal blog.
[4]
Consider joining up with an affiliated marketing
company. One easy way to enter the field of
affiliate marketing is to join a company that
specializes in online marketing. Though you'll
ultimately work independently, companies like
MoreNiche allow aspiring affiliate marketers to join
for free to have a platform for advertising products/
services.
[5]
Some websites allow you to engage in pay-per-
click affiliate marketing without running your own
website or blog. Direct links through outside
merchant websites allow you to create and make
money off of ads without having to post them to
your own website. For instance, you might make an
ad for a dating website and advertise on Facebook;
when someone clicks on your ad, they go straight
to the dating site, instead of a website or landing
page you have created.
[6]
Some affiliate networks
that specialize in direct linking include Associate
Programs, Affiliates Directory, E-commerce Guide,
and Link Share.
[7]
Select a niche. Most affiliate marketers choose a
niche, or area of specialization. Before you begin
marketing products or services, you'll need to find an
area you can easily work within to advertise.
[8]
Your niche doesn't necessarily need to be an area
you're already an expert in. You can also choose a
specialized area which you're enthusiastic or
interested in learning more about.
[9]
The initial startup work can be very intensive, so
it's important to choose a niche in which you
won't mind working for prolonged periods. This can
help set you up for success as you get your new
career off the ground.
[10]
Choose products and services. Once you've chosen
a niche in which to work, you're ready to start
finding products and services to promote on your
platform. The products/services you choose to promote,
as well as how much work you'll have to put in, will
vary depending on your chosen niche.
[11]
A company like Commission Junction is ideal for
marketers who want to promote more traditional
products/services. Commission Junction is involved
in a diverse range of potential advertising
opportunities, which may be ideal for newcomers
to the field who haven't narrowed down their niche
yet.
[12]
Marketers interested in digital content, like e-books
and software, may enjoy working with companies
like Amazon, Clickbank, E-junkie, and PayDotCom.
[13]
Pay-per-click (PPC) marketing models like Google
AdSense may appeal to some marketers. PPC
models pay considerably less than other marketing
models, but the advantage is that they require less
active work of the marketer. The marketer's pay is
determined by how much web traffic is directed to
the target site.
[14]
Find and work with affiliates. Affiliates will help
grow your business and help you tap into web
traffic. There are many ways to meet and engage with
affiliates, but the best way to access desirable affiliates
is by building a reputation for yourself. You can do this
by developing a popular blog or otherwise earning a
large online following, or by becoming a published
author of a book or article.
[15]
There are other ways of
meeting affiliates, of course, and each method will vary
in its success and required effort. Generally speaking,
the basic course of action for acquiring affiliates
typically involves one of the following methods:
Emailing or otherwise contacting other bloggers
and online marketers who share a common niche
and asking them to either promote your product, or
engaging in a mutually-beneficial cross-promotion
wherein both you and the other blogger promote
one another's products
[16]
Finding successful affiliates online, either through
forums, mutual contacts, or affiliate networks
(such as Clickbank or Commission Junction) that
you can join online
[17]
Drive traffic to your affiliate program. Once you've
built a popular platform and secured affiliates to
work with, you'll need to drive traffic to your affiliate
program. There are a number of ways to accomplish
this, but one of the easiest and most successful
methods involves writing a blog post or web article and
using your email newsletter to invite your subscribers to
join the affiliate program of your choosing.
[18]
Other
methods include:
Giving away free content to other websites (which
may drive traffic to your links)
[19]
Using viral marketing, like a link at the end of
newsletters that allows readers to pass the
newsletter on to other readers quickly and easily
[20]
Securing free links on websites that already drive a
lot of traffic
[21]
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Part Two of Three:
Developing Your Business
Study and learn from other affiliates. A quick and
easy way to gain experience and familiarity as an
affiliate marketer is by joining an online community or
forum. These online resources are free to join and can
offer invaluable advice to marketers at all experience
levels.
[22]
Digital Point, aBestWeb, and Warrior Forum are
excellent and free resources for affiliate marketers.
In addition to advice from more experienced
marketers, these forums also offer networking
opportunities to connect with other marketers.
[23]
Build relationships. Affiliate marketing takes a lot
of work and patience before any real money is
made. Affiliate marketing programs drive traffic to the
affiliate marketer's website, but the marketer is
responsible for building lasting professional relationships
with the affiliate partners out of that web traffic. The
marketer must also continually seek out better
partnerships with other affiliates.
[24]
Learn how your affiliate partners prefer to
communicate. Every partner will have a different
work schedule and communication preferences, and
it falls on you to respect those preferences.
[25]
Know what your affiliates need and expect from
you.
[26]
Brainstorm new ideas to pitch to your affiliates.
You should do a substantial amount of research on
your affiliates' websites, and know how they can
improve their websites and services.
[27]
Seek feedback from your affiliates on how you can
improve your own platform.
[28]
Attract targeted traffic. It's not enough to get
people to visit your website or blog. In order to
generate money from your marketing platform, you'll
need to get people to click your affiliates' links.
[29]
There are four primary methods of attracting potential
customers:
Paid advertising — this method requires an
effective combination of ad copy, graphics, and a
highly-clickable link.
[30]
Unlike more traditional
affiliate marketing strategies, paid advertising
(through pay-per-click ads) earn you money
regardless of whether a reader buys the product or
not. Services like Google's AdSense make this
quick and easy for you, and can even supply you
with an advertising code.
[31]
Free advertising — this method involves placing
links and advertisements on free websites, like
Craigslist or US Free Ads. Whenever someone
clicks on your ad, both you and the website (for
example, Craigslist) earn money from the clicks.
[32]
Article marketing — this method seeks to gain a
higher ranking in search engine results by
establishing the marketer as a credible source that
won't use spam software.
[33]
Many marketers use
websites like Ezine Articles to publish articles that
contain a unique "resource box," and as other
bloggers and website managers republish the
article (with the resource box intact), the marketer
who published the original article gradually earns
higher search engine rankings.
[34]
Email marketing — in this method, marketers
embed an email subscription option for website
visitors. This allows the marketer to acquire a site
visitor's name and email address, which can help
build a lasting relationship and expose the visitor
to the marketer's newsletter.
[35]
9
Write a pay-per-click ad. Pay-per-click (PPC)
advertisements are the bread and butter of affiliate
marketing, but how well you craft your ad could be the
difference between success and failure. A strong PPC ad
should:
Address a specific problem that consumers might
be facing, and call attention to a solution or benefit
that the product offers
[36]
Use a strong and specific keyword that will help
drive traffic (for help choosing appropriate
keywords, use Google's free AdWords Keyword
Tool)
[37]
Reflect the keywords used on the primary
"landing" (linked-to) page
[38]
Work in an imperative or call to action to gently
urge consumers to click through your link
[39]
Aim for quality over quantity. Having a vast
network of affiliates will not necessarily help you
earn more money. According to some experts, the key to
successful affiliate marketing is to find the right
affiliates that will drive the most results for your
platform. Those affiliates may be big sites, small sites,
or a combination of the two, but the most important
thing is to build and maintain strong relationships with
your chosen affiliates.
[40]
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Part Three of Three:
Knowing What to Expect
Expect a lot of hard work. Many people breaking
into affiliate marketing expect to get rich quick.
However, it takes a lot of work to get your affiliate
marketing business off the ground, especially in the early
stages. Some marketers work 12 hours each day, seven
days a week as they try to launch and develop their
platforms.
[41]
Keep in mind the field is very competitive and
many marketing companies are run by professional
marketers or large companies cable of spending
large sums to attract traffic.
Learn how it works. An affiliate marketer embeds
her own unique affiliate link in her web page or
blog. This link does not have any impact on customers,
and it does not alter the price of any products/services
being offered by affiliates. However, any time the
customer makes a purchase after clicking an affiliate link
within a specified time frame, the marketer gets a
commission from that sale. How much you earn will
depend on each affiliate's prices, commission
percentages, and the number of sales you're able to
initiate on a weekly or monthly basis.
[42]
Understand your demographics. Every affiliate will
have their own target demographic. As the affiliate
marketer, it's your job to understand your affiliates'
demographics, and tailor your advertisements or reviews
in such a way that that target demographic will be
reached through your platform. Knowing, for example,
the target demographic's age, interests, and average
income range, will help you tailor your reviews and
advertisements to that demographic.
[43]
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