Earn Money Online: All the Ways and Resources in One Place

Affiliate marketing strategies are the methods or ways that tie in all aspects of affiliate marketing. Why use strategies? Simple – you have blueprints that you can use over and over again. No more staring at the computer screen thinking of your next move.

Affiliate Marketing Strategies – The One Most Widely Used

Out of the most widely used affiliate marketing strategies, the most common one is to use your site as a landing place for visitors. Here are the things you will need:

Web Hosting and a Domain

I must repeat myself here again – do not use free website / blog platforms (such as Blogger or WordPress.com) if you intend to take up affiliate or internet marketing seriously. You will need professional web hosting that is reliable and affordable. Why? You are dependent on the provider and your site could be removed at any time.

Torn between choosing Bluehost or Hostgator? Check out this comparison.

If you have already decided that you want to get web hosting, I can only recommend Bluehost. For only $4.95 a month you get reliable web hosting and a FREE domain. Click Here to Take Advantage of This Limited Special Offer

Your affiliate site

Your site can be a blog or website. Some people freeze at the thought of creating a website or blog. They think it’s difficult and technical. They are right but only because they have not come across the right tools.

However there is nothing stopping you from creating your own blog or website. If you want to create a website then I would recommend using XsitePro as I have used it to build websites myself. However if you want to build a blog then WordPress from wordpress.org is the winner.

However you don’t need to build a website or blog to start using many affiliate marketing strategies. You can just have a domain that has your niche in it. Then a simple redirection to the merchant’s site is all you need. Domain redirects is explained in greater detail in redirecting affiliate links.

Affiliate Marketing and the Products to Promote

If you are a bit unsure how affiliate marketing works and what to watch out for, then check out the blueprint about affiliate marketing. Then you can start thinking about products to promote.

It’s no use loving a niche if there are no products to promote. Usually a niche that has demand will usually have related products. Before choosing a product to promote and checking out affiliate merchants, please read affiliate marketing products for some valuable tips.

Traffic

Traffic means visitors and without them you cannot sell anything. No traffic means no money.

Other Affiliate Marketing Strategies You Can Use

Here are a few affiliate marketing strategies that you can use:

• This is one affiliate marketing strategy I like and used before. Create a simple report, include good content and some affiliate links and give it a way for free from your site. Advise readers that they can give the ebook to anyone they know. In this way, your ebook starts to be passed around with the increased possibility of more sales and readership. This method is called viral marketing.

• Article marketing is another favourite strategy used by internet marketers. I use it myself. Seen as time-consuming by some, writing articles builds backlinks and allows promotion of your site.

• Video is the big thing at the moment and getting easier to create by the day. All you need is a webcam and a microphone. For more information, please read the computer resources to set up an online business. Then record a video promoting your site and put it on YouTube. You can also use your articles to build video. These affiliate marketing strategies are commonly used in video marketing.

• Just created a video? Then take out the audio from it and create a podcast. Or just get an article you wrote and record yourself reading it. In all recordings, clearly repeat your website Url so that it could be easily identified and typed into a browser. Then upload your recording to podcasts sites like PodcastingNews.

• Your site has a great advantage of receiving visitors to get more information about what they seek. Capture their email address and build a list. Then send out informative emails and weave in your affiliate links. This method is called email marketing and you can try it below:

• This is one of the best affiliate marketing strategies but is long term in nature. Build an authority site about a topic you are passionate about. Create good content and you will be rewarded by search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Good content allows your site to start rising in search engines rankings. Good visibility means more traffic and it’s all free. Put in a few affiliate marketing products and sales might start to roll in.

So with these affiliate marketing strategies in mind you can start to use affiliate marketing to earn money online. If you prefer not to create a blog or website, then please read affiliate marketing without a website.

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This affiliate marketing for beginners guide will ensure that you have or need to obtain the qualities need to be a successful affiliate marketer.

Being an affiliate marketing beginner is not a disadvantage. No one was born knowing anything. Affiliate beginners merely have to learn the ropes. The only problem you might face is that you might feel overwhelmed. You don’t need to be. I will help you get things sorted out.

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners’ Challenges

However, affiliate marketing for beginners can be quite tough. First you have to see if you get what it takes to a successful affiliate marketer. You must possess certain characteristics if you want to succeed. Go through the questions below and see how well you size up to the following challenges:

• Are you eager to learn? Learning takes two forms. The first is learning from mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, this is part of the learning curve. The second way to learn is by educating yourself. At this point I suggest a quick read of the affiliate marketing definition to familiarise yourself better. Then come back here when ready. It should help you get a get started in the right direction.

• Are you patient? In reality you must be, because as I pointed out before, results might not come quickly and you might be tempted to give up.

• Do you have motivation? This is closely related to being patient. You need to be motivated all the way. Setbacks, lost commissions, wrong marketing and so on are some of the things you will go through. At least I did Otherwise demotivation creeps in and you will find succeeding becomes harder.

• Do you have an attitude? By attitude I don’t mean you put people off. What I mean is the attitude to succeed. Usually the ride becomes a bit rough sometimes. Not making sales, wondering what you did wrong and so on.

• Are you able to persevere? This is one of the key traits of successful affiliate marketers. They don’t give up and keeping on pushing.

• Are you a perfectionist? Do you keep putting off starting out affiliate marketing because you want to keep on researching the subject? Move forward and take the plunge. Stop over-educating yourself and instead start trying things out.

If you feel you have the above qualities then you are already past the beginners’ stage. The next step on your journey is to check out how does affiliate marketing work. But always keep this affiliate marketing for beginners guide in mind to ensure success and prosperity for the future.

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How does affiliate marketing work is a question whose answer is very simple to understand.

Understanding this concept will put you miles ahead of the competition. Indirectly, you will also understand the basics of affiliate marketing. This will be an important step in your journey to becoming a successful affiliate marketer.

So How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

Basically you are the link between the merchant and the customer.

Let us say that the merchant is offering 60% affiliate marketing commissions on all his products. And the product we intend to promote sells at $50.

Therefore, for every sale I should approximately pocket $30 ($50 x 60%). I say approximately because there might be some charges for money to be transferred in my account. But $30 should be a good guideline.

This is the brief answer to the question: How does affiliate marketing work?

However there is more. Read on…

The advantages? You don’t process payments, don’t handle complaints and don’t need to keep any stocks!

From the typical example above, it becomes clear that to succeed in affiliate marketing:

• Treat It Like A Business
  If you want your efforts to make money online to be really successful, then treat it as a serious business. This is one of the most important of all the affiliate marketing basics. If treated as a hobby, it will only render results of a hobby. It all depends on your commitment and perseverance.

• Check for Possible Scams
  You must check the merchant’s website for possible affiliate marketing scams. A good merchant will also have a spotless reputation. Simply Google the merchant’s name together with the word scam. If there are many results, then it’s best to stay away from its site.

• Understand How the Merchant Runs Its Affiliate Program
  In the example above of how does affiliate marketing work, the merchant was using the Pay-Per-Sale method. This means you get paid a pre-agreed percentage of the product selling price when you make a sale. It is the most common method used by merchants. However you might meet merchants offering other methods:CPC or Cost-Per-Click is when merchants allow you to display their banners, text link or other promotional method on your site. In return, you will get paid a small fee everytime a visitor clicks on them, regardless if a sale is eventually made. Today this practice is mainly restricted to contextual advertising. CPA or Cost-Per-Action is a general way of saying you will get paid for a pre-agreed action made by your customer. The most common action is a Cost-Per-Lead (CPL) or Pay-Per-Lead (PPL). This usually happens when a customer fills out a form. The merchant pays you for introducing visitors. Then it will decide to convert them into customers or not.

• Picking The Right Products
  Choosing the right affiliate marketing products is essential to be successful. It’s no use trying to make money online if we choose lousy products. Products with huge competition, bad reviews and so on will not help our efforts.

• Promoting More Than One Product
  Everyone knows the expression “Do not put all your eggs in one basket”. This is especially true in affiliate marketing. Ideally you are promoting a product in a niche that you are familiar with. This will ensure that you know what you are talking about in your website.You should promote at least two related products on your website. It also shows that you are giving your would-be customer a choice.Also promote different products in different niches. Do not stick with one niche. Why? Diversify – your original product choice might not be doing well.

• Driving Traffic
  Without traffic, our efforts are doomed. We need visitors to be turned into customers. There are 2 ways of driving traffic: free or paid traffic. Free traffic is mainly obtained by being in top positions in the search engine rankings. To do so you would need a website. However it takes hard work to get there. Paid traffic is less work but more costly. However you could then perform affiliate marketing without a website, saving the costs and time of building a website and hosting.

Now that you have understood the answers to the question how does affiliate marketing work, you are now ready to start choosing suitable affiliate marketing products.

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Affiliate Marketing Commissions are the ultimate reward for all your hard work. More often than not, an affiliate marketing commission is worked out as a percentage of the product selling price.

Let’s say some time ago, I found some affiliate marketing products that I really would like to promote. They’re in a niche I know very well. And one I really like is selling for $55 and the merchant is offering 50% commission.

So I sign up and the merchant gives me a unique link to use to promote the product. This unique affiliate link allows the merchant to track my sales and allocate all affiliate marketing commissions to my affiliate account. Therefore I start promoting the product aggressively.

So How much will I earn?
On every sale I get an approximate gross commission of $27 (60% x $50). And I used the word gross commission because there might some third party commission fees such as Paypal and handling fees.

Types of affiliate marketing commissions

I like to split affiliate marketing commissions broadly into two: lifetime (or recurring) and one-off. So what’s the difference?

• One-off commissions are those commissions that are paid once for every sale. In the example above, you will be paid $30 and that’s it. To make more money you have to sell the product to another customer. The underlying theory is simple: you constantly need new customers to make commissions.

• Recurring affiliate marketing commissions are usually earned when the product requires a recurring payment by the customer as opposed to a one-time payment. A monthly subscription is a good example and so the commissions attached to this product are paid monthly. Every time customers pay their monthly subscription, you earn the commission.

The difference between a recurring and a one-off is usually in the amount payable. Recurring are usually paid at lower percentage rates than one-offs. But recurring commissions keep on coming in. They can build up into a nice monthly cheque – they are a regular source of income! On the other hand, one-offs are an irregular source of income. The lesson: Try to sell products that pay out recurring commissions!

There is also another type of commission which is called a referral. It is used extensively in Cost Per Action (or CPA) programs. You get paid for a commission if someone does an action, such as signing up for an offer and so on.

A referral is also common in multi-tier affiliate programs. It works like this: you refer a potential customer who signs up for free with the merchant. The new person you introduced is placed one level below you. If, and only if, the new customer buys something you earn money. If the merchant allows it, you can also earn money from his referrals.

You might be wondering if this is a pyramid scheme. It’s not for a very simple reason. The new customer is NOT being asked to pay money to join the affiliate program.

Protecting your affiliate marketing commissions

Before trying to sell our first product, we have to make certain that no money is snatched away from us.

First step is to check for affiliate marketing scams.

Next is to cloak our affiliate link. Why? Because they look suspicious and weird – putting off potential customers. Unscrupulous visitors might also try to hijack your affiliate link by inserting their affiliate link. Or they might cut you off completely by going directly to the merchant’s site. Either way you lose your commissions and nothing to show for our hard work.

Affiliate links usually look something like this:

http://www.bestproduct.com/?affiliate_id=27401

Wouldn’t it look better if it looks like this www.bestproduct.com?

The link looks clean and fresh. No hint of an affiliate link! And that’s what programs like Ninja Link Cloaker do! This amazing program effectively hides or cloaks your affiliate link, protecting and increasing your earnings. The price for this software will easily be recouped by the sales you would have lost if you did not have this tool. Find out more here

How to earn more affiliate marketing commissions

Now that our commissions are protected, we aim for more! Remember your first affiliate marketing commission? Felt like you won the lottery, right? Let’s see how to repeat that feeling many times over

What I usually do is buy the product with the money I just earned. My reasoning goes like this:

If I sold one product just by looking at the sales page, how many more would I sell if I knew the product inside out? There are no guarantees but this plan has helped me achieve more sales since I started using this method. And more commissions. Why? Because now I speak both as a promoter and as a user of this product. The extra knowledge and passion I have for this product presells my customer even more. End result? – more sales!

These commissions are the fruit for our hard work. We must aim to make more. And affiliate marketing commissions must be protected at all costs if we want to be successful as affiliate marketers.

Our next step is to check out affiliate marketing strategies to put everything together.

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Do You Need a Website for Affiliate Marketing? Nope! You can do affiliate marketing without a website and this simply means you do not need to have a website as part of your affiliate marketing strategies. You can also take this to mean as not having a blog.

Diagrammatically, this unique method can be shown as:

So in effect you generate traffic and direct it straight to the merchants’ site. And pocket the affiliate marketing commissions. Obviously after choosing an affiliate product and ensuring that you cannot get scammed.

Advantages of Affiliate Marketing Without a Website

The biggest advantage is no site required. This leaves you more time to concentrate on building traffic through many promotion methods. In this manner you save on hosting and to a certain extent a domain name.

Disadvantages

Since you do not have a site of your own, you do not have a place where to show your knowledge and products (whether your own or affiliate products). You also forsake the use of other powerful ways to make money online such as email marketing, blogging, selling advertising and so on.

You also don’t have the benefit of free traffic through search engines because you do not own a site. It is not an easy way – you must constantly drive traffic to the merchants’ site or your income dries up the minute you stop. And you have virtually no chance of recurring visitors or repeat customers because you have no way of knowing your visitors, so upselling and cross-selling are non-existent.

Ways to use Affiliate Marketing Without a Website

One of the simplest ways to make money online is to use offline advertising. Offline advertising methods such as newspaper ads and flyers can be very successful methods to drive traffic. In the first case, just pop down to your local newspaper and take out an ad with a link to your merchants’ site. On the other hand, flyers are simple to create and print. Or get a printing company to print out your flyers in a professional manner. Then just hire a distribution firm to distribute them to households.

Another way of using affiliate marketing without a website of your own is to use Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising. You create an ad, sign up for Google Adwords, deposit money in your newly set up account and start to bid for the keywords you wish to rank highly for. Your ad should appear in the right hand column of Google’s search engine rankings. Ranking highly depends on a number of factors: the competition, your choice of keywords, and the amount of visitors clicking on your ad (the more, the cheaper your ad becomes). If your ad ranks highly, you are likely to get a good number of visitors and hopefully a good number of sales.

Similar to PPC above, you can approach high ranking websites for a niche you like. A simple Google search will reveal such sites. You could email the webmaster and ask for the advertising rates. If acceptable, you pay for your ad (whether graphic or text) which includes your affiliate link. Like this you are using classified ads. You could also seek out e-zine publishers and pay for an ad that will be seen by their subscribers. Or you could use sites such as Craigslist.

You can start using affiliate marketing without a website by owning your hub or lens. I am referring to HubPages and Squidoo. These allow you to create a hub and lens respectively which are mini-sites but without having to pay for hosting and a domain. You can build a site, advertise affiliate products and pocket the profits. You can also display advertising like Google Adsense or Kontera and share in revenue generated by such ads with HubPages and Squidoo.

I don’t recall mentioning this method before but if it works you could really make big affiliate money without a website. Create ebooks with affiliate links and upload them to sites like eBookBay – you make money by selling ebooks and also if people buy through your affiliate links.

Use your facebook and twitter account to sell to friends and followers. Want to go one step further? Advertise on Facebook and send people to your merchant site.

I left article marketing, forums, blog commenting and guest blogging for the end. These methods of affiliate marketing without a website have all one thing in common. You are allowed to write content/ reply and leave your link. Depending on the article directory, forum or blog you may or you may not be allowed to leave an affiliate link. Always check the Terms of Use before attempting to leave an affiliate link. You might get banned!

If you are allowed to leave an affiliate link then all is well. If you cannot leave an affiliate link, then you need to set up a domain redirect to the merchant’s site.

These are some of the most popular strategies using affiliate marketing without a website. Obviously this list is not and will never be complete given the number of creative ways internet marketers constantly develop. Please check this page from time to time as I will be adding more new ways to earn money online through affiliate marketing without a website.

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