Friday, May 1, 2009

Make Extra Money with Affiliate Marketing

Many Internet marketers and everyday people are earning extra income online just by promoting affiliates. In order to profit, you must know the basics. It is a very smart idea actually and if done correctly, everyone wins.

In simple terms, affiliate marketing is getting paid from companies that have products in which you sell for them. For example, company A sells business card software and they need to make some sells. They will create an affiliate program that pays anyone a certain percentage, usually around 10 percent for every sale creating a lot of extra income working at home.

The concept of affiliate marketing is ingenious. The company wins because although they are paying you a certain percentage for every sell, they are profiting from the other ninety or so percent. You win because you do not have to create a product or ship it. All you have to do is promote the affiliate.

So how does it all work? There are several affiliate networks that run thousands of companies affiliate programs. These networks are normally a great place to find an affiliate in the category you are looking for. On the other hand, some companies choose to create their own affiliate program and cannot be found in these networks. It doesn't really matter where you find the affiliate as long as it is the type you are looking to promote.

It is usually very easy to set up an account with an affiliate program to start earning extra income at home. Normally, you click on their affiliate link fill out a e-form for tax purposes and the companies website will generate a link for you to promote, its that easy. Most affiliate programs are absolutely free to join and have no type of fee for you to pay. You either make money doing it or you don't.

So how do you make money from affiliate marketing if you do not have a website to drive traffic to? There are several ways to earn with affiliates without a website.

1. PPC advertising – There are several different companies offering PPC (pay per click) advertising. All you have to do is pick one, like google, and you set a bid on how much you want to pay per click on your link. You can usually make a lot of money with affiliates using the PPC technique only bidding five to ten cents per click. The trick is writing an appealing ad.

2. E-books – You can earn a huge extra income online just by creating an informational e-book with links to your affiliates in it. Just pick a topic, any topic and write an informational guide on how to do something or about anything at all. Once the e-book is created just give it away. Go into discussion forums and offer it for free to anyone. Try to do this is forums that are relevant to the product.

3. Friends and Family – Get the affiliate link and send it to all of your friends and family. Tell them exactly what is going on and next time they are interested in purchasing something from your affiliate category they can make you a little money without costing them anymore than they would have paid before.

There are thousands and thousands of dollars make everyday simply by promoting affiliates. Follow these basic guidelines and you will be well on your way to earning extra income with affiliate marketing online.

Make Money Online with Long Tail Marketing

If you think of the typical marketing technique, you think of advertising well known products to the masses. The technique of advertising small, less known products to fewer yet more targeted customers is referred to as the long tail.

The long tail was not effectively put into action until a few years ago. When the idea of effectively targeting consumers for smaller niches all of the sudden became very feasible and extremely profitable.

So why is the long tail so effective? Years ago, if you typed in the search term, online automobile insurance quote, you would probably not get what you were looking for. The long tail is so effective because there are millions of niche topics out there that are not targeted by marketers. The search term, Nike shoes, will return thousands and thousands of targeted results. The search term, Nike shoe retailer in Indiana, may result in thousands of results as well but very few will be targeted relevant results.

So, why is this important? The main search terms have a lot of competition. The niche topics have fewer visitors but a lot less competition. This means that if you can create one site for a certain niche, you can make a few dollars a day. If you can make 100 sites that make five dollars a day you have five hundred dollars a day. Replicate this process more and more and you will find yourself making loads of money online.

Many people are making money online because they are targeting these niche topics. A lot of the money that is being made comes from several small websites composed of a few good articles will information on that niche. Once the small site is created, google ads are placed on the page along with affiliate links to monetize the site. Once the site is setup and ready to make money an article is written everyday and submitted to well known article directories. The more articles you can write and submit, the more visitors come to the site. The more visitors you get to your site, the more money you make.
There are several tools you can use to speed up the process and many tricks of the trade that will make the process for efficient but now you know the basics. You can start making money online with the long tail promoting niche topics from the knowledge you have obtained from this article. It is not rocket science but it does take discipline to keep going. Anyone can do it but many do not. Those that choose to go through with it are becoming very wealthy making money online through long tail marketing.

No comments: