Affiliate Marketing - The Basics

Imagine that you could earn commissions on a popular brand-name product just by placing a link on your website or in your email. That, my friends, is “Affiliate Marketing”!

OK… So it’s not quite that simple, but it doesn’t have to be much more complicated either.

Let’s start with a few definitions. An advertiser, or merchant, is the company who is selling a product. An affiliate, sometimes referred to as a publisher or partner, is another person or company who assists in the promotion of the product and earns a commission for doing so. (That could be you!) In between is the account management service that partners the advertisers with the affiliates and keeps track of the sales and commissions.

If you want to become an affiliate, you first need to choose either a product you want to sell, or an account management service. You will end up with both, but the choice of one will determine the choice for the other. If you choose the product first, the advertiser will direct you to the account management service that they already work with. If you choose the account management service first, they will provide you with a list of merchants that they do business with.

To see if your favorite product or company offers an affiliate program, go to their website and check the menu bar or the bottom of the screen. Look around for the word “affiliate”. Click on that link, read about their program and requirements, and fill out their application. Some companies require specific types of websites to place their links on. They will email you all you need to know to get started.

If you don’t know what specific product you would like to promote, or if you want to promote several, I recommend browsing the participating merchants on the account management service’s website.

Try to stick to products or ideas that you are familiar with and passionate about. It will be much easier to market to your visitors if you can add value to the link you want them to click on. Personal recommendations or stories will get way better results than just a banner or solo text link. Give them a reason to “click here”.

Welcome to the world of Affiliate Marketing! Good luck with your new venture!

4 1/2 Strategic Tips For Making Money Online More Quickly

If it seems that everybody is making boatloads of money online and you’re missing out, fear not.

There’s plenty of time left for you, and the greatest part about it that it’s not very difficult.

Strategic Tip #1: Plan to work hard.

I know, this goes against everything you hear but deep down you know that nothing worthwhile is easy right?

You also know that getting anything done quickly just takes more work.

Even cleaning out the garage, yeah you could take your time and get it done over a weeks time, or else you could work your butt off and have it finished and be sitting right back down on the couch watching your favorite reruns.

To get things done quicker you just have to put in the extra hard work, but when the checks start rolling in, all your work will be worthwhile.

By the way, if you do things right, one of the beautiful things about the internet is that the work you do today will pay off for months and hopefully years after.

Just like that clean garage you’ll have.

Strategic tip #2: Find one good teacher.

Let me just emphasize “one”. Bouncing around from teacher to teacher, product to product is THE biggest mistake that new hopeful internet marketers make.

However, find a mentor/teacher that’s reputable. You can go to the different marketing forums and ask around, and you’ll get some honest answers. Just beware of anyone trying to sell themselves. The great teachers don’t have to do this in forums.

Once you find them, stick to their strategies and you’ll be way better off than most people who are still playing the bouncy game.

Some marketers I recommend you follow are:

Jimmy D. Brown

Jim Edwards

John Vallaries

Yanik Silver

John Reese

But just pick one, and stick with them.

Strategic Tip #3: Research and target a hungry niche that’s got as little competition as possible.

I’m not going to say a whole lot about this. It’s very basic but not quite easy. Everything will have some competition, which is good. This means there’s money to be made.

But best thing I can tell you is to find a hungry crowd, and feed it. A great place to start your research is Ebay. Also, magazine stands, Amazon.com, Froogle. You get the picture.

Also Google the phrase: “Finding a Niche Market”. You’ll be reading for days.

Some examples would be:

• Pets (dogs, cats, birds, fish, etc.)

• Finance (credit card debt, mortgage guide)

• Computers (buyers guides, games, software)

• And a lot of success is found in the Health Niche (weight loss, cellulite, diabetes, quit smoking, etc.)

Strategic Tip #4: Pick the low hanging fruit.

What does that mean. That means go for the easiest stuff first.

Here’s what happens. You find a teacher who claims to be a guru. Not knowing since you’re just starting out that they don’t have much more of a clue than you do, they tell you to pick your favorite hobby, write an ebook on it, create a website with a “killer sales page”, and you’ll make a million bucks before you can say B.S.

Now tell me this, how long is it going to take you to write an ebook. Most people don’t know how to write to save themselves, or some do, but are so intimidated by the thought that they never even start, and that ends their online career before it’s ever gotten started.

Or lets say that you did manage to choke out an ebook. Now you have to design the website, and then and here’s the hard part…. you have to write that “killer sales page”. Neither of which is anything close to easy if you’ve never done it.

Yes, you can slap together a website fairly quickly these days, that’s true, but the sales page is where the trouble begins. It takes years to develop that skill just to get to be mediocre.

So where is the low hanging fruit then?

Well, there are a couple choices. The first and probably best choice is affiliate programs.

Listen; nearly every good niche you can think of has an ebook written on the subject somewhere, the best place in which to look is Clickbank. There are thousands of products there, which usually offer a nice commission, sometimes up to 75%, that are just looking for someone to sell for them.

Now here’s the kicker. These products all already have a nice sales page written and all that you have to do is drive traffic to the sales page, they close the sale, and BAM! You get paid. Very simple. Not as easy as it seems, but very simple.

That’s your low hanging fruit.

Strategic Tip # 4 1/2. Resale Rights =Low Hanging Fruit with 100% Commission.

I would be doing you a disservice if I didn’t mention Resale Rights.

What are Resale Rights Products. This is where you simply buy the rights to sale a product that’s already created, and usually includes a sales page (I wouldn’t recommend buying one that doesn’t if you’re just beginning) You then keep all the profits.

These days Resale Rights membership sites are popping up all over the place. This is where you pay a small monthly fee, and get new products created for you every single month.

The great thing about this is that most of the time they do the research and create the products about topics that are in high demand.

Sometimes you can even do as you please with the finished product, chopping it up or adding to it to make it more your own style, and to ensure there is nothing duplicated out there.

These are called Private Label Resale Rights.

You can use this material for blogging, creating a newsletter, content website, or any number of things.

The downfall is finding quality products but they are definitely out there, it just takes time and effort to search them out.

So, there you have it in a nutshell. Following these tips should put you closer to making money online a little more quickly.

The Home Based Business Phobia: An Analysis

Home based businesses have been around for a long time, even long before the internet gained the popularity it has today. Before MLM as we know it, there was Amway and Avon and Mary Kay. All reputable ways to earn a side income. But with the birth of similar opportunities and new business models operating primarily online, our society has been blanketed by a fear of such opportunities, which we are now calling the “home based business phobia.”

While there are many reputable business opportunities online, there are just as many “scams” that have been grouped into the same category. These are usually services in exchange for post-payment (which never comes) or pyramid-type schemes that contain no real products, only the opportunity to earn from recruiting others. Unfortunately, as with most any situation, the negative starts to outweigh the positive. Before you know it, all home based businesses are overshadowed by the reputation of the few actual scams.

I believe that the fear of home based business stems from this fact, as well as others. While there are many potential customers who fear the scams without knowing what is and what isn’t, there are also those who fear anything that is different from the norm in terms of earning a living. Lets face it, society raises us to work hard at a physical job. Even from youth, we are trained to do well in school all the way up through in the hopes of securing a decent job. It is what our parents did, and their parents, and all of our ancestors all the way back through time. So when the proposition of earning a decent living without working at a physical job makes its way into the minds of society’s leaders, it is viewed in a negative light. This, I feel, is because we as humans naturally fear anything that is different, or that we don’t understand. This is not how we’ve been raised, this isn’t how anyone has every earned an income before (not a full-time income, anyway). Therefore, it is not easily accepted.

The truth is that entrepreneurship is what drives our economy. Even the largest of corporations started out as mom&pop stores or small-town restaurants. Small business and entrepreneurship help to balance out the hold that “big business” has on our economy. Without them, large corporations would have no competition and therefore no standards to uphold.

So exactly what is the biggest fear surrounding any home based business opportunity? I have a theory, and it involves initial start-up. Most individuals are afraid of losing the money they would have to invest. They are afraid of the risk involved. But what is so bad about risk? Don’t most things in life involve some type of risk? The old adage “Nothing ventured, nothing gained…” comes to mind. If we never step out of the box that society has created, we will never know what could be. We will never experience different or better. We will, in short, become the one thing that our species fears the most…stagnant! Our world’s best inventions (products and services like electricity, stop lights and air travel) came from forward-thinking individuals who dared to look outside of the “norm” for better and more efficient ways of living. Without those who embraced this mindset, we would still be living as Neanderthals, barely using fire to heat caves and cook food (and even this was forward thinking for the time).

The risks we take should always be calculated, to an extent. We should consider heavily the pro’s and cons of our decisions. And the decisions we make should not be anything that would hurt us, injure our loved ones, or cause us to go completely and utterly broke. Well, home business doesn’t do any of these things, does it? It does not threaten or harm us or our families, and if we are researching and investing wisely, it should not expend all of our income either. Home business in its original state was not meant to ruin financial situations, but to improve them, either by supplementing the existing income or surpassing and replacing it. So the fear is simply losing a few hundred, or possibly $1000 or more. A valid and understandable fear from those who work hard for every cent they have. However, part of the point of earning money is to put it to work for us. This is done by investing in programs (whether through stocks, money market accounts, CD’s, savings accounts that accrue interest, online businesses or otherwise) that allow us to earn more than we’ve invested. When you put your money to work for you, you have a better chance of achieving financial security, which is what we are all working toward.

So then, should a person go out and join every money-making opportunity they can find? Of course not! Investing or starting a home business is a wise decision, but should be done with care. It is always a good idea to do ample research on the program(s) you are interested in joining. You must consider everything from the legal aspects to the products being promoted. And as an important side note, you should always investigate the person or entity that has introduced the opportunity to you. Often, this person will become your “sponsor” in the program, and the one responsible for guiding you and helping you to get going in the right directing. As disturbing at it is, there are some “sponsors” who are not fit to be so. The do little, if anything, to help their customers or affiliates. People like this unfortunately give their parent companies a less than desirable reputation. Most distributors work independently of their parent company. While there are certain regulations to follow, they are not limited in the ways they can advertise or market. For this reason, I recommend that when researching home business opportunities, you maintain an open mind and do just as much research (if not more) on the individual who will become your sponsor.

Lets talk about some of the other fears surrounding home based business. One of the most common ones is that the opportunity is illegal; not approved by state and government regulations. The easiest way to circumvent this issue is to check with local and state officials (usually the State Attorney General). If you are interested in a program, contact your state official to learn the requirements and restrictions for involvement in a home based business. And of course, one you join, take the necessary steps to report your income to the IRS, and to register your business with the federal government.

There are other less verbalized fears that pertain to our own abilities. Many individuals feel that they do not have what it takes to run a home business. They may feel they lack experienced in the industry, or lack skills necessary for marketing and customer service. The majority of home business programs in existence today offer some type of training and support. While some programs are better than others (according to current and past members or affiliates), it is not hard to gain the skills and experience necessary to succeed. If you are interested in joining a home business, be sure that your research includes an investigation of the company’s (and sponsor’s) training regimen and support. Join only if you are satisfied that you’ll receive the individual help you need for your skill level and situation. Along with this, many fear that they will need large budgets for advertising their business. This issue too can be solved by the training offered with the opportunity. There are several methods of advertising for free that are very effective (though they can be a bit time-consuming). Your chosen home business program should know a good number of these methods and be willing to train you on these methods also. Be sure to ask if they include this in their training and support. If they do not, move on to researching another opportunity.

One of the last fears I have encountered is the investment of time. Individuals fear that operating a home business will take too much of their time; time away from their jobs, school, family or hobbies. The point of working from home (however you choose to do it) is to allow you more time at home to spend of your family or hobbies. A regular job in the workforce takes more time from these interests than a home business would. While jobs and school may seem secure, they do not allow you the freedom that you so rightly deserve. Home business programs seek to solve this problem by giving you the freedom to set your own hours. Also, home businesses, while they may take a bit more time in the beginning for initial set-up and marketing, can eventually run from just 2 or 3 hours of effort per day. Imagine earning more from a sale in one day than you would earn in 2 weeks or even a month from your job, and from 5 less hours of work? Is that not what we ultimately strive for? Time is important, especially because it is not guaranteed to any of us. The best way to maximize your time here on earth is to do what you can to enjoy more of it. A home based business can bring about an opportunity for freedom that most of us never though possible, thanks to society. Why not go for it, when there is so little to lose?

While all of the fears discussed are valid, none are so disheartening as the possibility of no future stability, no security or no retirement. More than anything, I fear having to come out of retirement to make ends meet. I fear having to compete with a younger, sharper and more technologically-inclined generation for a job at an older age. I fear not being able to retire when I want because I have not built up a deep-enough income or secure-enough future. I fear my children not being able to go to college if they want, or not having enough to provide everything they want and need. I fear working to the point where I have missed out on life’s most precious moments…my children growing up, my relationship with my spouse, my grandchildren and so on. Most of all, I fear passing on nothing but debts to my loved ones. For me, these fears far outweigh the possibility of losing money or learning something new. It is for this reason that I became involved with the home business industry. I am young, and as so many say have my whole life ahead of me. I would like the personal and financial freedom to enjoy some of it. I would like to start off my marriage on a solid and secure plane. I would like to stay home with my children when they are born. I would like to see them off to school each day (or even home-school them), teach them new things, attend their performances and games, and be there to encourage their individuality. I would like to have something to pass on to each of them (a home, a substantial inheritance, a car…a future). I don’t want my family to “want” for anything. My home based business is allowing me to do all of those things and more!

A few thoughts to those who are considering a home business of their own.

What is stopping you? What is it that you fear most about investing in a home based business? Do you not want all of the things described above? If all of your fears were addressed and dispelled, would you still be hesitant? If so, why?

The ugly truth is that today’s economy and our workforce do not provide financial security. Your position can be terminated or passed on to another at any time, and without any notice. Most businesses, especially large corporations, focus only on the needs of the business. If you, your pay grade or your skills stand in the way of these needs, you pose a threat and will be removed without much consideration. And unfortunately, this type of treatment is legal in most states. Does this sound like security to you? Wouldn’t you rather have control over how your family is allowed to live than a corporation that cares little about them? Wouldn’t you want a back-up plan in case this happens to you? It is another sad truth that most individuals live and think inside their own little bubbles. They see unfortunate things happening all around them, but never stop to think that it could happen to them at any time. None of us are immune to such occurrences. None of us in invulnerable to the trials and tribulations of life. It may be someone else, but it can always just as easily be us! One more thought…if a major situation came about the required a large amount of money to solve (a fire, your only vehicle breaking down, a flood, a break-in or theft, even a baby being born), would you be able to handle it without depleting your life’s savings? Would you be able to take care of it immediately? Or would it take months to save up enough?

A home business can be a great addition to any lifestyle. Most do not take exceeding amounts of time to work, most do not rob our wallets of of unbelievable amounts, and they allow us to earn enough to greatly supplement our current incomes, even replace them! With so many more pro’s than cons, why shouldn’t you consider a home based business of your own?

Marketing Expert Rod Stinson Introduces The One Step System

Internet marketing is nothing new, however every now & then a new method is introduced. Co -founders Rod Stinson and Chris Koehl have brought the 1 Step System opportunity to people all over the world. Many are joining now because the company is still in its infancy, which from a marketing standpoint is surely the best time to get on board.

What makes this business opportunity so attractive is that it is so easy. It is appropriately called the 1 Step System. It stands to reason, the more an individual puts in to their business, the more he or she will get out of it, however, your early efforts in the beginning stages can easily provide at least some income while you lay back and observe.

Everyone knows, there is no such thing as a free lunch, however, I haven’t seen another business opportunity where start-up costs can so easily be recouped in such a short time and profit starts rolling in. From those who have no experience, to the most seasoned marketer, its a great opportunity to see a steady cash flow in a relatively short time. It’s also a great way to earn extra income at home. Those with years of Internet marketing experience are calling it a brilliant concept designed for building wealth for anyone who is savvy enough to see its earning potential.

Our experience has revealed that to many entrepreneurs out to earn extra money from home, have fallen victim to deceptive and greedy get rich quick scams that guarantee your success. This business sets itself far apart from those, and what is so refreshing about the 1 Step System is there is no selling, no phone calls, no explaining, no answering questions and no closing. Most of the work is done for you. It’s a fact, co-founders Rod Stinson and Chris Koehl have taken the ‘Net by storm. It’s nice knowing that with this business, anyone, regardless of their experience or background, has the same chance for financial independence.

For more information visit:

.1stepsystem-premier.com

or

.ride-to-the-top.com

A Strategic Plan: 5 Essential No-Cost Or Low-Cost Resources To Short-Cut Your Profits In The Health Niche Market

Are you ready for the health market explosion that the baby boomers are about to bring onto the internet?

If not there’s, a good chance that you’ll want to get ready for it.

The reason why; In just five years, more than 100 million consumers and your potential customers in North America will be 50 and over. These people have and will continue to drive the market place so your best bet is to be ready for them, and what they’ll be looking for is health information.

So here are 5 Essential No-Cost or Low-Cost Resources for you to start making money in the health and fitness market….

Essential Resource #1:

.HealthInfoProfits.com

Chances are that you don’t yet have a product to market to the millions of people who are looking for health information every month. So, as you research for your passionate health niche, there’s an amazing way to shortcut this process which is called Private Label Resale Rights Products.

What they are simply, are products already created for you, to use as you wish. Either for people to download with ebooks, for free reports to collect names and email addresses for creating a mailing list, or simply as content on a website or blog to grab a piece of the Google Adsense Phenomenon or affiliate commissions.

The best is that you can pay a small amount for a membership and get products with sales pages written for you each and every month. This cuts down on a ton of research time for you.

One point however is that you’ll most likely want to enhance and change these products so that they become yours and the next resource is so extremely valuable that I almost made it number one.

But first here’s the direct url for private resale rights packages again:

.HealthInfoProfits.com

Essential Resource #2:

.WebMD.com

As you enhance your Private Label Products with new and valuable health information the grand daddy of all sources for health information is definitely WebMD.com. They are hugely known as one of the most reliable sources on the web for health information. The reason being that the great majority of their articles are actually written by doctors and/or those within the health care profession.

Now with that being said there’s an even better source within WebMD for doing your product/content research, and this is the discussion forums that focus on just about any health problem that you can think of.

These are immensely valuable for the fact that you can figure out exactly what is on the mind of your potential customers at any given time.

Sufferers are on these discussion boards for one reason and one reason only. To look for answers to their health problems, and you can be sure that if one person is asking, somebody else is wanting an answer to the same question.

These are the answers that you’ll want to provide within your content simply because these are your future customers.

Here’s the direct url to the message boards at WebMD:

boards.webmd.com/.bebc200/

Essential Resource #3:

Google Answers.

I’m actually shocked at how many people don’t know about, and don’t utilize Google Answers.

Here’s why it’s such an essential resource and how it works.

Using the search engines to research a topic can be very time consuming considering all of the muttle and irrelevant content that you have to suffer through just to get the answer to one or two of your most pressing questions that you want to tackle. When you go to Google Answers you can either a) pay a small fee to ask a question, in which a professional researcher hired by Google will actually research your question for you and answer it on the board. The beauty of this is that they give all the actual resources that they used to get your answer giving you url’s in case you want to further your research.

Or… b) you can just type in your keyword and there’s an amazing chance that someone has already asked the same question and better yet, payed for the answer so that you don’t have to. You have to really visit the site to appreciate the beauty of it.

The direct url is:

answers.google.com/answers/

Essential Resource #4:

The Warrior Forum:

This is just a quick and easy no-brainer.

If you want to make money online marketing health information then you want to tap into the greatest minds on the internet don’t you? This is the greatest place to do this. There is an entire marketing education to be had for free on this forum.

The people there are extremely knowledgeable, and very fair to the newbie.

Here is the direct link to the forum:

.WarriorForum.com/forum/

Essential Resources #5:

.List and Traffic.com

If you want to make money on the internet then you absolutely must have a list.

In order to grow your list you must have traffic to your site, or opt-in page. This is where Jimmy D. Brown (one of the greatest and most trustworthy internet marketing teachers online) comes in, and gives you so much value for your money that you would be a fool not to at least try it out for the measly ten dollars.

So there you have it. Five incredible resources that should get you running and seeing profits quickly from the baby boomers that are about to drive the internet health market.

You can get every answer to every question you should ever have from these five sites where all the information is literally right at your fingertips. It’s just up to you to take the action and use the information.

10 Quick Tips For Creating A profitable List

Building and maintaining a high quality list of subscribers is vital to any marketers success. Let’s go over some of the most important steps you need to take to ensure you build a profitable list:

1)First, make sure you put up a good landing page. It should be well-designed and professional looking. If you don’t have any design skills then hire someone to do this for you.

2)Next, put a web form on your landing page and offer your customers the opportunity to opt-in to your mailing list. Give something away free to encourage them to opt in.

3)Make sure any freebies you give away are of the highest quality, because the subscribers on your list will judge the worthiness of your products and services based on the freebies they get.

4)Include a lot of professionally written content and interesting information for your visitors. Your customers will want to read interesting things and want to look for more than just a sales pitch. Content sites are a great way to build trust and loyalty. You can build a content site jam-packed with articles and helpful information, then link to your sales page from your content site.

5)Make sure you keep your customer’s information private. If you tell your customer’s you will not share his or her personal information, then don’t share it with anyone. You will ruin your reputation, and word spreads fast on the Internet.

6)Take some time to try the product you offer yourself. Make sure it is something you consider worthy of buying. If you are selling a book you wrote, make sure it has mass appeal and will benefit the target audience you plan to market it to.

7)Provide top-notch customer service. This is THE number one way to stay ahead of the game. If your customers are happy and you resolve their questions and complaints immediately, then you will win their loyalty and trust.

8)Reward customers that refer others to you. This is a simple way to build trust and loyalty.

9)Respond to your customer’s complaints or inquiries immediately, with the goal in mind always being to satisfy your customer.

10)Remain truthful and honest in all you do. A customer will sniff out a scam faster than a dog will a bone. Don’t lie, don’t trick and don’t steal. Be honest and be who you are, and you will do well working on the Web and building your opt-in list.