How To Make Money Online As An Affiliate

If you are new to the world of internet marketing then I want to share some amazing tips and strategies with you about how you can make serious cash online. I know a lot of persons reading this post may have no idea that regular folks are making a full time income from the comfort of their homes using nothing but a computer and an internet connection.

There are many ways to make money online but today I want to talk about affiliate marketing. This is when you (the affiliate) market products or services for a percentage of the sale price (commission). Now a typical example would be companies like Best Buy, Walmart, Target or even hosting services. The idea is that if they allow more people to promote their product and give them a fraction of the profits, they will make a much better R.O.I (Returns on investment) than if they were to do it alone.

Now the question is where do you start?

The first thing you would want to do as an affiliate is to do proper market research. What this means is that you need to choose an area that will be lucrative for you. For example let's say you are very knowledgeable about training a dog. That would be a good area to get into as you would have the passion for it and wouldn't easily get bored.

But how do you do proper market research?

The first step is to write down some of the things that you are already passionate about or the things that gets you excited. For example, if you are a person who visits the gym regularly and know a thing or two about getting fit them you could go into the weight loss or muscle building niche. But if you have no passion (which I doubt) then follow some of the tips below to help you get some ideas:

1.  Look at some of the ads in your local newspaper and write down the types that grabs your attention. (do the same for some of the popular offline magazines.)
2.  Go to your favorite bookstore and ask which topic books are selling the most
3. Look at some of the ads that keep playing over and over on your local tv station. (if they are playing regularly then more than likely that niche can be very lucrative).

Notice that we haven't even gone online as yet. You were just assessing the offline world to get some ideas. I can bet right now you head is flowing with a ton of ideas :). Now we are going to see if there are markets for those ideas online.

So the first step if to think about who exactly those products are targeting. For example, if you see lots of ads selling 'Monistat' then the target is women who have recurring yeast infection. Do that for all the ideas that you came up with.

The next step is to figure out if some of the terms that that people in these markets seeking solution would search when they go to the search engines. Now using the example of yeast infection, you would know that some of the terms they would search are: cure for yeast infection, yeast infection treatment etc.

We are going to use those words as the basis of our keyword research.

Keyword Research

In internet marketing, this is one of the most crucial steps to success. If you choose too competitive keywords then it may take you a ton of time to see any positive returns. On the other hand, if you choose keywords that has no competition at all then you risk going into a market that doesn't spend and so you make money money.
I have a detailed post here: how to get the right keywords. (it also involves checking competition as well)

Once you have read that post, you should now be ready for the next step which is to find a product that caters to your market. You could however go with the products you see advertising if they have an affiliate program.

Again using the Monistat example, all you need to do is go to the search engine and type the following: 'Monistst + Affiliate program'. Once you do that, a list of site will come up offering an affiliate program where you can join for free. (note all affiliate programs should be free!). If there is no affiliate program for the products you saw on your local ads, you can use you newly found keywords to find affiliate programs in the same way. using the same niche example, you could go and search for "yeast infection treatment + affiliate program". Hope you get the idea.

Promoting Your Offer

Now that you find a product to promote, you need to set up what is called a presell or landing page. This is the page that your visitor will land on and you will tell them about the incredible product and try and convince them to buy. Now the best way to do this is to buy a domain name, and hosting service and set up your own website. However, if you are just starting out and have no money to spend, you can use a free blogger blog just as this one.

Whichever route you decide to take it's up to you. You are then going to write a convincing pre-sell to get your customers to buy. Some of the best converting presells are in the form of a review. This means that you get the product, analyze it and then recommend if to your readers (if it is a good product ofcourse!). Sometimes you may not be able to get the product so you can use bits and pieces of information from the vendors site.

Driving Traffic Traffic To Your Presell

Having a great pre-sell is good but if you can't get that pre-sell infromt of people who are looking for whatever you are recommending then you make no money at all. SO this is one of the most crucial step to your online success. Here are some proven ways to drive traffic to you website:

1. Write informative articles and submit them to article directories with a link back to your presell page.
2. Right press releases and submit them to press release sites with a link back to your pre-sell page
3. Make short powerpoint videos and recommend you viewers to go to your site.
4. Convert your articles to documents and submit them to document sharing sites. (docstoc)
5. Convert your articles to powerpoint and submit them to file sharing sites. (slideshare)
6. Read your articles and submit the audio to podcast directories
7. Comment of blogs that are related to your niche
8. Participate in forums related to your niche (DON'T Spam)

As you can see there are a ton of ways to drive targeted traffic to your site. You just need to formulate a plan and follow it step by step. Do little chunks day by day and everything will add up. Once you start being consistent, you will soon see your first sale, the second and so on and so fort!

I Have An Important Announcement!

On December the 28th 2010, two renown internet marketers (Matt Basak and Alen Sultanic)  bwill be releasing a brand new course called Mass Money Makers. This will be a course that teaches you how to automate your traffic... that means lot less work on your part. Right now, I am in the process of creating a VALUE Pack bonus to compliment the course for anyone who buys it through my link. I will also have great prices for the first few people as well. So to start updated, visit my Mass Money Makers Bonus blog and sign up for the free updates using the form on the top right.

I hope you like all the free training here and I have a ton more free information coming your way so stay tuned and be sure to bookmark this page.