7 Steps to Make Money Online With Affiliate Programs
If you have a computer and a brain there is no reason why you
shouldn't be making money online from the comfort of your home!
I've been doing it for over 3 years now and I am still amazed at
how easy it is!
Follow my step by step guide and get in on the action!
Step 1 - Plan of Action
What's your Expertise? You are going to need a website so
choose a subject that you are passionate about. Something that
you know a lot about. We all are experts in our own right. We
all have something that we know that not many other people know
about or something that others want to learn more about. It
could be anything, from cooking to gardening, electronics or
computers. The possibilities are endless. Maybe you are familiar
with repairing things or operating "XYZ widgets". You may even
know which widget is better than other widgets. My point is to
choose a subject that you like and if you are not already an
expert at it, then become one. Research it, visit the library or
other websites and put the information into your own words. It
may sound like a lot of work and it very well may be, however,
it does not have to be too extensive in order to get started.
You bacically need to create a decent website first, you can
always make changes and additions later. Once you have completed
this step, you are on your way and most of the hard work will be
done. Go Here to learn more on turning your knowledge
into revenue.
If you are not good at writing there are plenty of authors that
make a living writing articles and will provide you with free
content to post on your website. Just do a search for "free
website content". You can actually build a website and most of
your content can be articles written by other people.There are
also companies that will write customized articles for you for a
fee.
This is very IMPORTANT! There is a certain process to
building a website that will attract visitors and make money.
Which are your two main objectives. In short it's done through
creating content, attracting targeted traffic, pre-selling to
your targeted visitors and then monetizing. If you want to
become successful in affiliate marketing, learn this formula and
master it. It is the KEY to making money online. If you
feel you are ready to learn what it takes to make money online
Click here for a detailed analysis of this
valuable formula.
Step 2 - Choose Your Domain Name
Once you have figured out your websites content, you need to
choose a domain name accordingly. You should choose a domain
name that is directly related to the content of your site. If at
all possible your domain name should be your website name and
the name that you use to market your product (your brand name).
You should avoid long names if at all possible. The shorter the
name the better in my opinon. Potential customers will remember
a shorter domain name faster than a longer one and will be able
to type it into their browser more readily because they will
have it memorized. Which means more traffic for your website and
in most cases, more traffic means more business for you.
Avoid hyphenated DN's if you can, however if a particular name
that you want has been taken and you can get the same
name(words) in a hyphenated version, I would suggest getting the
hyphenated DN. Especially if there are key words in the name
that would be helpful in the search engines.
Domain name extentions - You should choose a .com above all
others if available and .net if the .com is not available. I say
this only because these two are more popular and most surfers
will indentify with them. There are many new domain name
extentions to choose from these days (.biz, .com, .net, .org,
.cc, .info, .tv, .ws, and as far as your websites search engine
rankings are concerned, the DN ext. will have no bearing it. Go
here for more info on choosing your domain
name.
Step 3 - Get Reliable Web Hosting
Choosing a host is an important decision. You will hopefully
have a long relationship with whatever host you choose. To make
this decision you need to first decide what it is you need then
visit the sites of several hosting providers and evaluate what
they have to offer in the light of your requirements. If you
choose wisely you should get good value for your money,
reliability, and prompt knowledgeable support.
Your web hosting company is your sites link to the outside
world, one glitch on their end and your site is out of
commission with nothing you can do as your visitors head to a
competitors website never to return. Get referrals before
signing with anyone, talk to people you trust. A bad hosting
experience is one you'll never forget and can be a very
expensive mistake. Make a decision on what features you will
need then compare the quality, affordability. Before you make a
purchase be sure you are getting all the features you need to
market your site an affordable package, and a company that has a
track record of good tech support. These are exactly what any
business needs to get started online. That's why I highly
recommend Yahoo Business Hosting. It's a name you know and a
name you can trust. Yahoo has 3 business hosting plans
available, starting at $8.96 per month.
There are literally thousands of hosting companies. Finding a
good hosting company can be a difficult and confusing task. If
you don't want to go with my recommendation above you can also
go here for a detailed comparison of some of
the popular web hosting providers.
Once you have secured your web hosting the next thing that you
have to do is point your domain name server (DNS) to your web
space (hosting server address) . Basically this is simply
connecting you domain name to your webspace. The company that
you bought your domain from will help you wth this. Just contact
their tech support and give them the address that was provided
to you by your hosting service and they will tell you exactly
what you need to do. Some domain registrars will even do it for
you.
Step 4 - Build Your Web Pages
Once you have completed steps 1 thru 3 you are now ready to
build your web pages.
You don't have to be an expert to build a website, you only need
to learn some simple basic html code, and get yourself a good
HTML editor. Go
here to download this free html editor. This is the
editor I used when I started and I didn't know a thing about
building a website. It's very easy to use. If you are not
familiar with html, don't worry because this editor has a help
file to explain all the basics of html and building a website.
I have several websites and I built them all by myself from
scratch. If I can do it, so can you! Just practice and
experiment using the html editor until you become familiar with
it. You'll be making web pages in no time, but you must practice
until you learn it. It's really quite easy to do.
After you have your content pages completed, simply upload them
to your website.In order to make this an easy task you should
use a file transfer application. I use WS_FTP, it makes things
very simple and easy to do once you get the hang of it. You can
download the free version here.
Step 5 - Join Affiliate Programs
There are literally thousands of affiliate programs for you to
join. A good place to start is LinkShare Corporation. This is a
network of internet affiliate programs and you will find a wide
selection of affiliate programs to join. You must have a website
to join and there is an approval process. Click here to become a
LinkShare Affiliate!
Another affiliate programs network is Clickbank. Clickbank will provide you with
thousands of products to promote. At Clickbank affiliates earn
anywhere from 1% to 75% of generated sales. Clickbank only deals
with digital products that can be delivered (downloaded)
instantly after purchase . These are just 2 popular affiliate
program networks. There are thousands of other companies online
that have individual affiliate programs. Simple search for
relevant products and join the affiliate programs of your
choice, from the companies website. Usually there's an
"Affiliate Program" or "Webmaster" link either at the very top
or bottom of the websites home page.
You'll have to decide which affiliate program and product(s)
you want to promote. Simply use the promotional material that is
provided to you. There are many types of promo to use to get
your prospect to the venders website (pop-up consoles, email
advertising, banners and text links etc.) I have found that text
links work best for me. Banners are not as effective as they
once were so I recommend using more text links than banners.
Text links are even more effective when incorporated directly
into a paragraph of your existing content.
Step 6 - Get Some Traffic To Your Site
Now that you have your content pages and your affiliate links in
place you need to get targeted visitors to your site to click on
them. The best and most effective way to do this is search
engines. Another good source of traffic is link exchanges. So
find some websites that are similar to yours and exchange links
with them. This will increase your link popularity and hopefully
give you a better ranking with the search engines. It can take
search engines weeks and even sometimes months to index your
website, so in the mean time you should exchange links with as
many websites as possible. So go and submit your site to all the
major search engines and website directories and start trading
links with other (relevant) websites. Go here for more ways to
get website
traffic and a huge list of major search engines and
website directories.
Remember, this is simply a basic guide, you will have to do some
experimentation with different ways to promote and advertise
your affiliate programs. Continue to tweak your site until you
get the look and feel that you want. Keep in mind that the
majority of your time should be utilized trying to get more
traffic to your site. The more link exchanges you have, the more
traffic you will receive. Which in turn will increase your link
popularity with the search engines. A good place to start your
link campaign is here: The Best Free Link Exchange
Directory On The Web - Link Market It's easy to use
and free.It will save you hours of work.
Step 7 - Become a Top Earning Affiliate
Would you like to know all the secrets to becoming a high
earning affiliate champion?
Most affiliates have no idea what it takes to make a living
online. Are you running in circles trying to figure out which
programs to join or how to collect a paycheck from the programs
that you are promoting?
If this sounds familiar I highly recommend that you take our
free affiliate
program email course. The Affiliate Masters Course by
Ken Envoy... is an intensive 5-day e-mail course on becoming a
high-earning affiliate champion. How? By building income through
content.
Ken Envoy is the founder of SiteSell Inc. and the creator of the
revolutionary Web site-building system, Site Build It! Dr. Evoy
is also the author of a series of widely-acclaimed "best on the
Net" e-commerce books and courses, which have empowered
hundreds-of-thousands of people and small businesses around the
world to succeed on the Web. Due to Dr. Evoy's efforts, the
SiteSell brand is highly-respected by top influential Internet
business personalities around the world.
This 5 day free course is by far the best free info I have ever
read. It has helped me a whole lot and I highly recommend it. Table of
Contents.