| Affiliate programs are a simple way that anyone - | | | | you find the right niche or theme for your website |
| even if they don't have a website - can make | | | | 2. Check that your chosen "niche" or theme will be |
| money by advertising a link to another website | | | | profitable |
| This link is called an affiliate link because it contains | | | | You can do this by doing a search on the search |
| some extra characters which record the details of | | | | engines and seeing how many pay per click |
| the affiliate so that when a sale occurs the affiliate | | | | advertisers have ads running for your niche. As it |
| can be paid their commission | | | | costs quite alot of money to get onto the first page |
| An affiliate program is simply a commission only | | | | of a search engine as an advertiser, often as much |
| arrangement where a set percentage commission is | | | | as $5 or more per click, then this advertiser must be |
| paid depending on the sale price. This could typically | | | | succeeding with their advertising otherwise they will |
| be anywhere from 25% to 75%, although there are | | | | just bankrupt themselves. You might also check for |
| many products which carry a 75% commission | | | | how long these ads have been running - or just |
| payout | | | | watch how long these ads are running, simply check |
| How Affiliate Programs Track Your Sales | | | | every week and see if the ads are still running |
| How affiliate programs work is that when someone | | | | 3. Make a list of all possible page headings or titles |
| clicks on an affiliate link they are sent to the | | | | These will be individual content pages on your |
| merchants website where the product is sold. This | | | | website. These should be based on keyword phrases |
| product will often be a digital downloadable product | | | | you might already have come across from your |
| of some kind such as an eBook, software, videos, | | | | research. You can then create articles that will match |
| templates, graphic files etc. The extra codes in an | | | | these headings, and the search engines will start |
| affiliate URL - typically the affiliates nickname - are | | | | indexing your content especially if you write all the |
| used by a tracking system which saves the data in a | | | | articles yourself and therefore everything on your |
| cookie, which is often recorded temporarily on the | | | | website is unique to you |
| computer of the web visitor. When this person then | | | | 4. Join as many forums for your niche or theme |
| goes to pay for the item, this affiliate information is | | | | Find out about and join as many forums related to |
| then used to record which affiliate was responsible | | | | the niche or theme of your website and start making |
| for the sale | | | | comments or providing answers to other peoples |
| Is It Easy To Make Money With Affiliate Programs? | | | | questions, making sure you leave behind a link back |
| It can be both very difficult and very easy to make | | | | to your website within your signature file. This can be |
| sales as an affiliate. This is partly due to the fact that | | | | easily set up with the UserCP part of your account |
| selling anything online is a lot more difficult than it | | | | on the forum. One way to find all these forums is to |
| might at first appear | | | | simply search on the search engines adding the word |
| You will have no doubt have noticed that there are | | | | "forum" to your search e.g. "affiliate program forum" |
| thousands and thousands of websites, many with | | | | 5. Start an email list |
| products for sale, or at least links to products for | | | | This means adding a bit of code to your webpages |
| sale. Although it might look as if all these products are | | | | so that people can signup to your email list and start |
| selling like hotcakes, nothing could be further from | | | | receiving a preset series of emails all related to the |
| the truth, with many websites struggling to make | | | | theme of your website. You can add as many emails |
| any sales even after the website has been online for | | | | as you like to the system - referred to as an |
| months - maybe even years. Often what happens is | | | | autoresponder - and the idea is to send interesting |
| that most websites will sell just a small amount of | | | | article like content which will be interesting to your |
| product - this means that taken altogether, the | | | | readers, but will also have a link to some online |
| amount of products sold online is large and growing, | | | | resource - e.g. a product or service for which you are |
| but each individual website sells very little | | | | an affiliate. The emails must be written in an |
| Fortunately there are exceptions to this - some big | | | | informational style without any attempt to "pitch" |
| websites like and etc - these websites outsell many | | | | people or try and sell anything directly. If you send |
| thousands of other websites combined. This fact | | | | overt sales pitch type emails you will simply lose all |
| should prove to you that if you can position your | | | | your email list subscribers and you will have wasted |
| website correctly in the right niche, you could easily | | | | your marketing efforts |
| be selling several hundred dollars at least every | | | | 6. Post Articles to free article directory sites |
| month | | | | Once you have answered a few questions on |
| So What Is The Best Way To Get Started Selling | | | | forums and written some interesting articles on your |
| With An Affiliate Program? | | | | website for individual content pages, plus written |
| The key to being successful and closing your own | | | | some useful emails, you are bound to have lots of |
| sales and earning yourself a nice monthly commission | | | | content that you could split up and use for |
| is to follow a few simple successful strategies | | | | syndicated articles. Posting these articles will help you |
| Here is my six-point plan that will work for you: | | | | further by providing more traffic to your website, |
| 1. Find a suitable "niche" or theme for your website | | | | and establishing you as an "expert" in your field |
| This means doing some keyword research so that | | | | These are just six easy ways you can get started |
| you don't choose a theme for your website that has | | | | making sales for any affiliate program or product you |
| already been chosen by millions - yes millions! - of | | | | have in mind. If you follow these steps I am sure |
| other websites. In general this means finding a two | | | | you will be well on the road to turning your dream of |
| or three word key-phrase. You can start by | | | | earning hundreds of dollars at least into a reliable |
| searching under your main keyword theme and then | | | | monthly income online. I do understand that following |
| seeing if you can find another word that can sensibly | | | | these steps might take you a bit of time, but when |
| go with it from the search results e.g. if "holidays" | | | | you have done it once, you can then go on and |
| were your main theme, you might find that "holidays | | | | produce more niche themed websites, and gradually |
| abroad" or "spanish holidays" might work for you. | | | | increase your online affiliate empire, not to mention |
| This could mean doing quite a bit of checking until | | | | your monthly earnings. |