Affiliate Programs or Affiliate Marketing

AFFILIATE MARKETING - is a booming industry. As the internet expands, the opportunity for affiliate programs increase. Today, hundreds of thousands of people are logging into the internet for the first time each day. Each of these individuals is a potential customer..............

What is an Affiliate? - YOU - well, you can become one.
What are Affiliate Programs? - a product or a program that you can sell and receive a commission

Affiliate Marketing is essentially Internet Marketers (that's us) or product advertisers. We earn commissions by advertising and promoting other peoples products. This can be done with or without a website but to make money online, serious money, does require a website. Keep reading even if you don't have or think you can't have a website.

Affiliate marketing is a booming industry. As the internet expands, the opportunity for affiliate programs increase. Today, hundreds of thousands of people are logging into the internet for the first time each day. Each of these individuals is a potential customer - and we're not even talking about the people who already use the internet on a daily basis. Combine these two groups of people, and it is easy to see that the possibilities for affiliate programs are immense, but only if you approach the matter in a particular way. Making money with affiliate programs is not as easy as it seems.

This is where a LOT OF PEOPLE GET DISCOURAGED.

Many people entering into affiliate programs have certain misconceptions. Because of the outlandish promises that often made by those who offer them, making money with affiliate programs seems so simple that you wonder why not all affiliate marketers are rich. Before going any further, you must understand that getting involved in affiliate programs is not an effortless path to financial security. However, it can be a better way to achieve your financial goals, depending on your current circumstances.

Here are some pointers that will help you make money with affiliate programs, and save you some time and grief. (We'll tell you where to look for affiliate programs shortly)

Firstly, get started in an area that you naturally drawn to, a subject that your familiar with and maybe even love. The reason for this is because the return you receive at the very beginning might not be as much as you expected or hoped for. Getting involved in an affiliate program is essentially starting your own home business. It takes time. You will probably have to work long hours at the beginning, and perhaps pinch some pennies along the way. All these sacrifices might be too hard to make if you get involved in a business or a subject that you do not love. However, if you choose a business area that you are naturally inclined to and your work won't be work at all; it will be a labor of love. Profits will pour in, sooner or later, from a labor of love.

Secondly, remember to check the products landing page - the first page you go to when you look at a product - if you wouldn't consider buying because of the landing page then chances are neither will someone else. Don't get caught by the affiliate 'offer' or 'hype' - check it for yourself. 

Be careful about really competitive markets, like 'weight loss' or 'make money' or 'internet marketing'. Because these markets are so competitive and your a newbie you may even set yourself up for failure.

OK, so you want to do this Affiliate Marketing but you don't have a website yet. Hang on, we don't have anything to sell yet.

Affiliates (that's us) need a product or program to sell. ClickBank is one place where you can get an affiliate product from.  We earn commissions by promoting ClickBank products. You can set up a free ClickBank account and then advertise by using a special link we call a "hoplink".

Now, where can we sell it? The simplest way to do that is using the Google network with Google Adwords. We set up an account with Google Adwords. You advertise in Google Adwords (which is the Google search results we see when we enter a term) and when someone enters a specific keyword in the Google search engine our Ad will then appear. If they click on our Ad and buy the product then we get paid. It's that simple. Now, don't start jumping up and down in excitement yet. The Ads that you run through your Google Adwords campaign/account will of course cost you. Then you need to get your ad placed well. More on this later.

We will show you the steps to start selling someone else's product, an e-product (electronic product) - some are e-books, some are programs, others are subscriptions to programs and the like. Once you sign up as an affiliate with ClickBank and Google Adwords, you can start to have some fun developing your internet marketing skills. Now, don't get too excited at this stage. Remember, the 'get rich quick' stuff is crap. This exercise will help to build your knowledge base and experience. For a lot less than you might think. You can set your daily campaign budget within your Google Adwords account. Even if you don't make a lot of money or it even costs you a little, the experience you will gain in writing Ads is great. You will be able to see the potential because you can promote these and other products as you develop your own websites at a later date.
The company that we recommend and use is ClickBank. They have the most comprehensive range of products and good support. As you develop your skillset and follow our recommendations you may end up publishing your own e-books and use ClickBank to market them and start your own affiliate programs - we'll cover that option later.

To get webhosting cheap, you will have to review a lot of dedicated hosting service providers. The speed of domain registration is another criteria fulfilled. If thinking of an affiliate program, you will also have to review a whole lot of other things. A few of them are relative web development courses as well as current internet marketing methods. The conclusions regarding the web design do not really matter in such cases.

Follow the links below to get familiar with the site - the last link is YOUR SIGN UP page - it's FREE - just do it.

Click Here for your free "Working with ClickBank" e-book by Tom Hua. The interface of ClickBank has been updated yet this is still an invaluable manual.

http://www.clickbank.com/index.html - This is the Home Page

http://www.clickbank.com/faq.html - This is the FAQ - Library page - click on the third link down first, this will cover all of the affiliate questions.

http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace.html - This is the marketplace page. Just click on a topic to have a look at the different categories

http://www.clickbank.com/promote_products.html - This is the promotion page and and has links to the SIGN UP as a ClickBank affiliate - it's FREE - just do it.

Tip! You cannot designate your own password as Tom says in his "Working with ClickBank" - it is a computer generated password

The next step is to set up your Google Adwords account. There are two choices here, the Starter Edition or the Standard Edition. The Starter Edition has a very simple interface. It has less features than the Standard Edition but is ample to get you started. The one time sign up fee for both Editions is very low. Just for the record - we started in the Standard Edition but it did take us a bit to get used to the interface. If you do begin with the Starter Edition and graduate to the improved features of Standard Edition, you can't switch back to the Starter Edition. If you start this way when you upgrade later your Ad campaign won't be interupted either.

http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/index.html - The Google Adwords Learning Center, Awesome - notice that it's available in multimedia or text. Personally, I love being shown.

https://adwords.google.com/select/starter/signup/ForkAuth - This is the option page for your Google acoount - Starter or Standard

Summary

Step 1: Sign up for a ClickBank Account

Step 2: Sign up for a Google Adwords account

Basic Rules

Go back to the ClickBank MarketPlace http://www.clickbank.com/marketplace.html - Just click on a topic to have and look at the various products. Remember to check the products landing page - click on 'view pitch page' - if you wouldn't consider buying because of the landing page then chances are neither will someone else. Be careful about really competitive markets, like 'weight loss' or 'make money' or 'internet marketing'. Because these markets are so competitive you'll pay more for clicks when you set up your Ad campaign in Google Adwords.

Build a content site. A content site is a commonly utilized tool in affiliate marketing. A content site is simply a website that is designed and organized around a specialized theme. The site usually contains education materials and other tools that would be of use to its visitors. These materials and tools are themselves intricately related to the products and services that you hope to sell. You will want to provide concrete information about your goods, and try to persuade your visitors that your goods will be of benefit to them. With a good, well-organized website, making money with affiliate programs is considerably less difficult.

The Next Step - So, YOU Want a WebSite