An Affiliate Marketer from the Ground Up

If you've been investigating Affiliate Marketing for long, you've probably read (many times) that the money is in 'The List'.

Well, that's partly true. You can have the biggest, most focused list on the Internet, but if you don't have a quality product or service to promote to your list, then it's all for nothing.

Let's assume however that you do have your great product and just need individuals to market it to. The basis for your business is going to be your Website. I won't go into what you need there, other than to say you'll want a well-focused, content (original) rich site. Make sure you do your homework on keywords and generating organic traffic. Obviously PPC (Pay Per Click) is a great way to get visitors too, but if you can get many visitors without spending money, it's a whole lot better.

So, you've got your product/service/site etc. Your visitors are obviously interested in what you're offering because they searched for it or clicked a relevant link somewhere in the mix.

Here's the sweet spot...the list and your autoresponder. When the surfer first comes to your site, you must entice them to give you their email address. Obviously we're not out to use just any method of getting the email address. We want to offer the visitor something valuable in return. Something that will help you build respect and creditability with everyone on your list.

What you offer is beyond what this article is about, but it's usually along the lines of a free ebook or newsletter. You can also have them 'opt-in' via your RSS feed. Some people like receiving the feed via email too, so make sure that's an option.

Now, the product that makes all of this possible....AWeber. This product is the best at what it does, period. They've been around for over 10-years, and really know the business. What AWeber does is allows you to add a tiny bit of code (the form) to your site that collects the email address (and name), thus constructing your list.

After the intial form is filled in, an automated process can begin, where the user is emailed a link for their download/confirmation, and then subsequently. You can have the automation set up to send emails at predetermined intervals, or just when you initiate it.  If you don't have a newsletter that's published regularly, that's no problem.

I won't try to cover all the possibilities here, but it's a very simple principle, and I'm sure you can see the value in the list, and at least as importantly, the automation that AWeber offers. You can sign up for a free trial and check the system out to see the value it will add to your online business.

Just imagine what the process would be manually. People use to even use this bulk mailing (and still do to some extent) with the 'snail mail' postal system. You'll have a massive amount of potential for earnings available to you with the combination of your list and the automation, ease of use and power of AWeber.

I've mentioned XSitePro here before, but in case there's anyone that isn't exactly sure what it is, I'll just touch on it before I say anything about XHeaderPro.

XSitePro is simply (in my opinion) the best possible option available if you're wanting to create Websites. It's a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) program. I haven't used Dreamweaver so I won't say that it's better. However, from what I've heard and read, I seriously doubt there's any where near the learning curve for XSitePro as there is for Dreamweaver. Of the people that have used both, XSitePro seems to be the overwhelming choice, so that should speak for itself.

XSP is not a minimum features program either. It has virtually everything you could ask for in this type of software. I used to use a free program called Kompozer, which in it's own right was a pretty good choice for a (free) WYSIWYG program, but it had very limited features.

I do realize that Dreamweaver has a few more features than XSP, but you also pay for those added features. When I bought XSitePro it was $197.00 and I believe it's still one of the best buys that I've ever made on a software package...bar none.

If you're wanting to put up a quality, nice looking site quickly, it's a good choice. If you're ready to do a major site that has to be as good as you can possibly make it, it's also a good choice. Just need a quick sales page ? XSitePro is an excellent choice.

It comes with a fantastic selection of templates with many different themes, that you can use exactly as they are. Of course you can also modify them to your liking, so there's no chance that anyone else will have the exact look that your site does. There's also blank templates that you can customize to your exact design.

With all the page analysis, widgets, and more options than I could hope to cover here, XSitePro is a program that you really need to have a look at before you buy Dreamweaver or any other WYSIWYG Web creation software package. Here's a 6 page brochure that highlights the features very well, xsitepro2productguide.

This was about XHeaderPro though. In case you haven't figured it out by the name, XHeaderPro is by the same Company, Intellimon, Ltd. (Paul Smithson), and is as feature rich as XSitePro. It's extremely easy to use and allows you to make awesome headers. I won't go into details about it though, because it's so easy to use, you can download it and have a beautiful header created in just a few minutes. There's a video to show you how to use it, but you wouldn't even need it to figure the software out.

I just about bought another highly regarded header creation piece of software (for $97.00) before finding out about XHeaderPro. It also does a wonderful job, but it doesn't look to have a thing on XHeaderPro. As I mentioned in the title...the software is completely free also!!

With just XSitePro and XHeaderPro, you would have pretty much everything you could ask for to create top quality, fantastic Websites. Realistically a good graphics program would come in handy also, but a quick download of Gimp, which is everything (and more) most users would ever need, would give you a complete arsenal to designing sites that you can be extremely proud of.

If you're into, or just getting into Affiliate Marketing, XSitePro is geared for for you, having built in options for adding Google AdSense ads, as well as other advertising, and other convenient options for marketing.

Consider XSitePro and XHeaderPro to build your Website(s). I think you'll find that there's no better options available, regardless of how much money you spend.

The XHeaderPro software is a full release version (version 1), it's not a beta release.

This post, at first glance may seem a little out of place on a site devoted to Affiliate Marketing. However, the reason for the post is because I believe in the near future (very near) any kind of renewable energy, solar, wind, anything and everything considered 'gree energy' will one of the hottest niches going.

Obviously for years now you've seen (too) many ads and sites related to ringtones, weight loss and a host of other popular niches. Lots of people have made a lot of money in these areas, and still do. That's why I would recommend staying away from anything that competitive. They are very saturated at this point. Especially if you're just getting started.

Solar and wind energy are obviously nothing new, but there's still relatively smaller numbers of merchants that have affiliate programs set up, and subsequently a fairly small number of individuals in these niches.

With the recent mind-numbing hike on gasoline prices, and the still steady rise of many other fuel costs, more and more people are going to start taking a closer look at other (green) forms of energy.

Click Here for Information on How You Can Build Your Own Wind Power Generator for Less than $200!! - Designed for Novices - Build in a Weekend

Also, many states are offering very good incentives for adding solar panels, and other energy efficient devices to your home. I have no doubt this trend will continue and even get better financially for the homeowner, as the prices of solar panels and other related equipment declines due to better, more efficient manufacturing techniques, and also an increase in demand, allowing for a smaller profit margin over an exponential growth of sales.

As an affiliate I would be keeping an eye out for this niche. The ones that have a content populated site up and already generating significant traffic will stand to gain much when the interest really explodes.

Personally, I believe a fantastic segment of the market will be in the extremely affordable DIY (Do It Yourself) type of equipment installations. Take a look at this site to get an idea of what I'm talking about. This informational product is geared toward the complete novice with no experience whatsoever in building or installing solar or wind power generating equipment.

For an unbelievable less than $200, the average homeowner can build a wind turbine that will generate the bulk of the power needs of a single family home. There are also plans for building a solar system. For just a few hundred dollars, you can build and install a compact, backyard power generating station that will generate not only enough electricity to power everything in your home, but you will actually have a surplus that you can sell back to your utility company.

There's also information on obtaining free deep-cycle batteries to store the electricity, information on how to be less dependant oil, as well as much other valuable information.

It's worth checking out to be sure. I'll be starting my first wind turbine very, very soon. I plan to be totally, 100% 'free' of the utility company within a few months. I'm also going to start heating my home totally with wind generated electricity.

I'm estimating I'll be saving close to $4,000 per year when my system is totally finished. I'll probably have a surplus that I'll be selling back to the local power company also. I can't wait to see my electric meter running backward!!

In case you haven't heard of it by now, there's an excellent program called the Bum Marketing Method. If you're like many of us just starting out in affiliate marketing, you probably don't have a lot of money to spend on it. Even if you do have some extra money, it may be better to get your feet wet with article marketing before you start shelling out money on PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising.

I've posted here before regarding article marketing, and it's a very well known technique to generate free traffic. Obviously, free is good. Although article marketing can generally take longer than PPC's nearly instant traffic results, it's a small price to pay for a proven, fairly easy to use method of making money on the Internet.

As suggested in the BMM, there is one exception that I would make to going the totally free route. Actually, as you start getting more advanced there's a few resources that will be worth many times more than the relatively small amount of money that you have to invest in them.

The one exception that I would make immediately though is USFreeAds. You've probably heard of this one too. It's a site that let's you post classified ads. There's many good things here that are easily worth the small monthly fee of $9.95

Here's some of the benefits of USFreeAds.

• Set Ads to Never Expire
• Full HTML Editor
• Use of Affiliate Links
• Unlimited Amount of Ads
• Broad Exposure
• Very Popular w/ the Search Engines (especially Google)

These are some of the major benefits. For such a small monthly fee there's really no downside to getting a premium account. Depending on what product(s) and/or service(s) you promote, you could easily cover the cost of several months of membership with just one sale via your merchant. If you have many well written ads that are producing for you, the $9.95/month would be a fantastic investment.

Click Here for Your Own USFreeAds Premium Account

As the benefits of becoming an Affiliate Marketer are becoming better well known in the mainstream, countless individuals are jumping on the bandwagon to reap their rewards that Affiliate Marketing promises. Working at home, making your own hours, no boss to answer to, and lots of easy money being made.

However, the vast majority of those individuals will spend some time, often 'waste' time as it turns out, and spend anywhere from a little money to a large sum of money, before they become frustrated and give up on their dream of making a very good living by working from home.

That's disheartening, because it doesn't have to be that way. I'm a firm believer in the human mind being able to be given a problem, and then finding a solution to that problem. All that's needed is time, perseverance, and the right tools.

The reason, at least one of the reasons that most would-be Affiliate Marketers don't fullfill their self-imposed destiny is because they never find the information (tools) that's needed to guide them in their endeavor.

If these people do manage to hang in there long enough, they will eventually, usually, obtain enough of an online education to finally make some money, but it often times comes at great expense...both financial, and by spending many months, or even years searching out, and usually purchasing everything that they possibly can.

Had I known about just two sources of virtually everything that I needed to know about getting a good solid education in Affiliate Marketing, I could have saved myself literally thousands of dollars, not to mention the late nights, and often times feelings of hopelessness.

These two sources are Rosalind Gardner's 'Super Affiliate Handbook', and Anik Singal's 'Affiliate Classroom'. I truly believe, armed with just these two tools, anyone seeking to become a successful Affiliate Marketer, can, and will succeed. Although there is a small cost incurred with these fabulous resources, it's relatively insignificant in relation to the time, money and frustrations they will save.

If you're just starting out in Affiliate Marketing, and you're determined to have it work for you, please use your time and money wisely. You can buy all the (self-appointed) Guru's methods, handbooks, courses, case studies, newsletters and anything else out there, but if the answers aren't there, it will all be for nothing.

Lastly, I can testify to what the Affiliate Classroom and Super Affiliate Handbook can offer, but please don't think that they're the often sought after 'get rich overnight' answer...they are not! Nothing is, it doesn't exist. The only way to get rich instantly is to inherit the money, or hit the lottery.

What the Affiliate Classroom and Super Affiliate Handbook can, and do offer, is a good solid fundamental education that's needed to succeed in Affiliate Marketing. There's no false promises or get rich quick schemes. Had this writer found these quality products early on, there would have been countless thousands of dollars saved, and many headaches and frustrations avoided.

Read the amazing true story of how one woman, with no previous business experience, earned $436,797+ in 2002 and now earns MUCH MORE than that ... just by selling other people's stuff online!

In her down-to-earth, sincere and often humorous style, Rosalind Gardner guides you through the entire process of building an affiliate marketing business on the 'Net.

Frequently revised and updated to reflect industry changes, the Super Affiliate Handbook now consists of 236 pages and 124 screenshots that will show you step-by-step how to become a Super Affiliate. You'll learn how to pick the best affiliate programs, negotiate a commission raise and save time, money and effort on everything from affiliate software to web hosting.

To learn exactly how she does it, Click Here.