Affiliate Marketing

How to Make Money Online with Affiliate Marketing

AFFILIATE MARKETING

Affiliate Marketing is possibly the most popular method to make money on the Internet. The reason Affiliate Marketing is so popular, is because you do NOT need your own product to sell and you can do it without having your own website and/or blog, although having a website or blog is the preferred method. For the most part, the content on this website is geared towards making money online using a Website and/or Blog.

What exactly, is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is, in its simplest form, Word-of-Mouth Marketing.

As an Affiliate Marketer, you are essentially selling someone else’s Products or Services in return for a referral commission. On this page I discuss where to find products/services to sell and how to go about using the Internet and your Website or Blog to sell these affiliate products. Getting affiliate products to sell is a whole lot easier than you think and with very little effort you could be selling big brand name products or services from your website too.

TOOLS REQUIRED TO BECOME AN INTERNET AFFILIATE MARKETER
In order to make money on the Internet, there are a few basic tools and a certain attitude required. The basic requirements are:
A Computer with an Internet Connection and Web Browser Software. (Firefox is my prefered Browser due to all the available Plugins) Basic to Intermediate Computer & Internet Browsing Skills. Someone’s Products to Sells (Suggestions given below). (e-Books & other Digital products are the easiest to begin with) A Website or Blog on which to Market Products (not essential). (The preferred platform for a Website is WordPress – See The Beginners Checklist) A little start-up capital is necessary for various tasks. (You can get started with very little capital, but you will need some) The passion to Learn New Things Most important = Dedication & Patience *

* Making decent money Online doesn’t happen overnight it takes time!

The Beginners Guide to Affiliate Marketing

The easiest way to get started as an affiliate marketer, is to find a product to sell. Digital Products are by far the easiest to start with and as a ‘newbie’ (newbie is the term used by more experienced affiliates) the best place to get products to market is from an Affiliate Network. An Affiliate Network is a business and/or website that provides Affiliate Marketers with access to Products. Sellers of products list their products with the Affiliate Networks and these Affiliate Networks then make these products available to you. Each Affiliate Network has its own Terms & Conditions of membership and some are easy to join, whilst others are not so easy. Generally, as you gain experience you will find it easier to join the more stringent Affiliate Networks.

As mentioned, there are several Affiliate Networks, but Clickbank, is by far the best/easiest to begin with. The Reason Clickbank is prefered, is because once you are registered with them, you can immediately choose a product and begin marketing it. Most of the other Affiliate Houses require that you register with them and then, still apply internally with each product vendor directly, prior to being able to market the vendors products. This may sound complicated to some of you, but don’t worry – Just use Clickbank for now!

How to use Clickbank

Sign-up for a FREE Clickbank Account
As an Affiliate Marketer, you can signup with Clickbank for a FREE Account and then get access to all the products they have on offer. There are hundreds of thousands of Products to choose from covering almost every Subject, Topic or Niche you could imagine. Signing up for a Clickbank Account is simple, but be prepared to read their Terms & Conditions, which you must accept. You will be required to think of a UserName, which will become your Affiliate Tracking Code or Clickbank NickName. Every affiliates nickname must be unique and due to the large volume of affiliates registered with Clickbank this can be a little tiresome (i.e. finding a nickname that isn’t taken). Nickname requirements are 5-10 letters and/or numbers and I would suggest using a longer nickname for ease of it being accepted – Join Clickbank Here!
Find a suitable Clickbank Product to market
Once you have your Clickbank NickName browse over to the Marketplace (You’ll find the link at the top of the clickbank website (or click here). Within the Clickbank Marketplace you can browse for products to market on your website. Clickbank make it pretty easy to select a product, but I would advise that you spend some time researching which products to sell and which to avoid. For starters you must select a product that is related to your website/blogs topic. (i.e. If you website is about Golf, there is no point marketing a Dog Training Course etc). Also, read the Clickbank Help files to assist you with how they grade products…
Get your unique affiliate website link
Clickbank make it pretty easy to select a product, which you can then start marketing. In order to make money on the internet, with your chosen product, you will use a special link called a HOP LINK. The HOP LINK will be generated by the Clickbank website when you click the premote product button. The HOP LINK will contain your new Affiliate ID or NickName and it will also be encrypted (for your protection).
Insert your unique link into your website
To market the product you simply create a webpage or blog and insert your HOP LINK for the product on the webpage/blog. You could also insert the HOP LINK in your e-mail, if you don’t have a website/blog or if you are looking for another method to market the product. If anyone clicks on your special link (HOP LINK) & purchases the Product, you get credited for the sale and Clickbank will pay you your share of the commission.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There are very clever ways to promote Affiliate Products, using e-mail, you own website or blog and/or using websites belonging to 3rd parties. Firstly, it is essential to read the terms & conditions of the Affiliate Product Provider (Affiliate Network) and to make sure that you abide by their rules when marketing the product(s). I highly recommend using your own website or blog to market products and although the process is as simple as adding your special link, one needs to encourage people to click on this link without being deceptive. Beautify your webpages with relevant content & graphics is a must!

It will take time and effort to get traffic to the website and to convert enough sales to earn decent money online. Once you find something that works for you, don’t redesign the wheel, simply repeat what works. Keep an eye for future posts on getting website traffic!

Other Affiliate Networks to consider:

Good Luck being an Affiliate Marketer – It isn’t a path to quick riches, but can be very rewarding!
REMEMBER: Always sell something of Value – Something you have faith in…