The key to becoming a successful affiliate marketer

We know what affiliate marketing is: promoting other people's products and taking a commission for each sale you drive. Some vendors offer a higher percentage of the cut they offer you than others do, but that is not the key point to look out for.

The key to successful affiliate marketing is to have products that many people really want.

If one vendor offers you 90% of his $49 product and another only offers you 25% commission on a $49 product should you just sign up for the 90%? No! For the simple reason you need to research anything you intend to promote.  At the end of the day if you are trying to drive people to buy utter rubbish just so you can make a profit then more fool you. It is your name the buyer will remember and they certainly won't ever listen to any of your recommendations again, they'll tell all their friends to avoid you like the plague as well!

So I'll say again "The key to successful affiliate marketing is to have products that many people really want".

When people talk about a niche product, you could be forgiven for thinking it must be some small area with maybe only 200 people looking for it - it is much larger than that! There can still be thousands of people looking for a niche product, but as a % of the number of people on the web, they are just a small 'niche' group.

Some items people will buy again and again, bread, milk, toilet roll ...you get the gist. Unfortunately none of these items can make you a commission as an affiliate, so you need to consider other areas where people will constantly look for more. A classic summary would be 'information products'. People always want information. If you checked out Clickbank you'll have noticed the products are generally PDF's for people to download. But people will pay for these products because they want the information.

So if you can't make a profit out of toilet roll, consider informational products as the next best recurring thing!

One of the best products that I would recommend as your introduction to affiliate marketing would be Clickbank for Newbies.

• Written by someone that knows what they are talking about
• A product many people can benefit from
• The latest version is always available online as part of your affiliate link

That last point is a really good one. Many people will write a document (then make it a PDF). Some will never update it and still be trying to sell exactly the same information when it is 5, 6, 7 years old. Others will update the information but only really make it available to newer affiliates. By getting a link that points to the online version, you are always sending people to the latest version - no outdated information there then.

The best news though is that it's FREE. :)

Make money as an Affiliate Marketer

You are at the stage where you realise you can make money on the internet, you've read the course explaining the main, best ways to do this (sign up for it here if you don't have it yet), and you've decided to give Affiliate Marketing your best shot!

Where can you find products to make commission from?  There are quite a few sites that can cater to your need.  Shop around as some promote different types of product (e.g. 'only digital download', or 'any type of sale').  One of the largest you can consider is CLICKBANK, but there is no limit to how many sites you an become an affiliate through.

The best advice as you are looking through the products is to consider the following points:

• Do you like the product? 
• Would you be interested in it?
• Would you be happy to promote it?
• Are you happy with the statistics for the product? (see note at the end)
• Do you know anything about the product/understand it?
• Is the vendor offering any useful 'information' to help you promote it?

I'll leave it to you to give a scale of some sort to how you answer these questions.  It could be that you are really knowledgeable about one area a product covers, even though you personally don't like it - as long as you know there is a large market for it then you could be happy with that.  Or perhaps it's a new product and so there aren't any stats, it's up to you decide if it's likely to be a winner or not?  You'll pick up on all these things as you go along.  For now start looking for sites offering affiliation and browse through products on offer. Everyone needs to start somewhere.

Note: The Clickbank site has a very easy to follow definition of the information provided in the statistics - don't believe anyone telling you to download  their definition - for a fee!

How can I become an Affiliate Marketer?

How long is a piece of string?

It doesn't answer your question as there are too many specifics.  How much experience do you have of using computers/the internet?  Are you used to creating webpages?  How much work are you willing to do?  How much time are you willing to put into it?  Are you familiar with Article writing?  Posting blogs?   Lists?

Believe it or not Affiliate Marketing can be really easy (as well as lucrative).  Don't let the small sample of helpful hints above put you off.  For those of you that would like to know more but really have no idea about HTML coding, web hosting, etc. or if you don't want to waste time creating webpages then check out this Affiliate Review for some good recommendations.
Most people would say the first place to start would be a site offering affiliation products available for you to market.  But if you have no idea where to start as an affiliate then consider signing up to one that:-

• Provides niche product(s)
• Provides ready made (but customisable) webpages
• Has a Blog site available for you
• Provides your own domain/hosting
• Provides training
• Updates you with further useful information as it becomes available

These last two points are the ones to really look for if you are completely new to it all.

Don't feel that if you sign up for one affiliation site that you are tied. You can market as many products as you like, don't let anyone tell you any different.  Concentrate on just one or two (at most) initially though so that you learn how to do it well.  Once you have used the training then the world is your oyster.

In the next post I'll cover the step for people that have signed up to an affiliate review site like the ones on the link above - or for those that already 'know it all' and just want to get on making money as an affiliate.

Is Internet Marketing a get rich quick scheme?

We live in a world of buzz-words.  Sometimes people use them in completely the wrong context, but they seem to feel better that they used them anyway?

One phrase often bandied about is 'Internet Marketing', so what is it? Some of you will have no doubt already used the link to the other blog that specifically answers that question, but in a nutshell it's simply advertising some product(s), online, that can make you money.  So why is it getting a mention here?  Because Internet Marketing really is a great source of Passive Income if done right!

Most methods of making money have some risk associated with them.  If you put your money in a bank account, as we now all know, the banks can go bust...  If you invest in stocks and shares the market can seriously tank, and so on.
Usually the bigger the risk the bigger the reward (if it all works out well). You can put all your money into savings accounts, but that won't make you rich in a hurry - however most get-rich-quick schemes are a scam and have more chance of losing your money (often to very unscrupulous people).
You need to find some way to invest your money that can provide good returns.

You can sign up to a free e-book (emailed in chapters) that is aimed to provide the most informative answer to the question "Why Would Anyone Want To Sell Online?".  This will provide 6 great methods to get you started on the path to Internet Marketing (the first is not a method of passive income, but it is a good way to make money whilst helping the environment).

Spread the word - everyone should be looking to make passive income

The course is ready!

Yes, the course is now completed and has been for a while. So why haven't I made it available?
Because I use Aweber, and although there are generally no problems I can't currently set up a list for this course on Aweber :(
I can log in ok, then it doesn't matter which link I select - I am told my login expired. 2 weeks of trying to resolve this has only led to two weeks of me being told I need to enable cookies (trust me, that was checked early on...).

Usually the Aweber service is really good, but if anyone wants to recommend another similar service then please feel free (or if you had a similar problem and know how to fix it that would also be very useful!) :)

Sometimes it doesn't matter how technical you are - you are still at the mercy of someone else's Tech support :S