An Affiliate Marketer from the Ground Up

I got a kinda funny email yesterday from some girl (Linda, I’m not making fun of you, I just liked your approach!).

She said she had decided she was going to work from home because she didn’t like the job she had now. The only requirements were, that she didn’t want to spend any money to get started, and she had to be making at least as much (within one month!), as she was now on here present job! It was about $25,000/year.

I searched high and low, but I must have misplaced my magic-money-making link.

We ended up talking via IMs, and I told her that I had been doing marketing online, in a very lazy sort of way, for almost a year, and I wasn’t making that much yet. The problem with all of this is, I have no doubt, zero, that if I had actually worked, really worked, even half of the time that I was online, I could be making a very good income from my efforts. So it is there for anyone willing to put forth the effort.

Anyway, this wasn’t about me. She said that the last person she had talked to recommended (5) five different products or services that she needed to buy in order to make a decent income from her Internet Marketing. Actually, all of the products that she mentioned were products and services, like Web Hosting, that I would have recommended too. They were some of the ones that I know to be worth their cost. They would have definitely made her job faster and easier.

However, when I mentioned that some people will recommend anything and everything sometimes because they’re earning a commission on all the sales, she seemed to be shocked. You would have thought someone had held a gun to her head and was trying to rob her. That’s just the way it (usually) works. There are some good people around that I’ve emailed for help, that went out of their way to help me, but it’s not always the same with everyone.

To make a long post shorter, I guess it’s too late for that, I ended up telling her that if you willing to work, I honestly believe anyone, anyone can earn a decent income…even a very good income, from Internet Marketing, without spending more than just a few dollars per month. I guess the bottom line is-regardless of how much money you spend, if you’re not willing to put in some work, you’re better off not getting started. If you’re willing to work, and spend a little money, you can make things much easier on yourself.

Obviously if you’re willing to spend a little more you can make it a lot easier on yourself. I would say that getting a decent Web Hosting account is probably the best money that you can spend, initially at least. I’ve still just got two shared hosting accounts after almost a year ( 1 is obvuisly enough), and I really don’t need to upgrade yet. I’m using Bluehost and Hostgator and could honestly recommend either.

You can get an account for less than $10/month!! If you can’t, or don’t won’t to spend even ten bucks per month, I would seriously consider not even trying to get into Affiliate Marketing. You can start a blog totally free of cost at Blogger.com or a few other places, but a hosting account gives you the freedom to do so much more too. You’ll also, out of necessity, become proficient at FTP (file transfer protocol), and many other of the things that will eventually enable you to do anything that’s ever needed in order to maintain your online business.

If you’re totally new to everything Interent, I’d think about getting someone to help you get started. Probably most people aren’t though, and seeing how cutting and pasting is one of the most complicated activities that’s required, I think Internet Marketing is the best opportunity for many people to earn a living from home, without having significant startup capital, or even a technical background.

So, if you’re ready to do a lot of reading-a LOT. Get a shared hosting account with Bluehost or Hostgator, then prepare to do your homework. The only other necessary expense will be your domain(s), but if you just start building a single site (recommended), it’s another nearly insignificant expense.

Everything (as far as information) that you could possibly need (or probably want) is available for free somewhere online. Get real used to Google, you’ll be using it a lot.

The bottom line is this…you’re wanting to find just a small ‘niche’ that you can become very competitive in, hopefully even dominate. If it’s something that you really like or have a lot of knowledge on, so much the better. Just research any niche that you’re considering to become active in. I’ve seen people making serious money in tiny niches that I would never have considered. Those are the ones that can make you a lot of money, sometimes very quickly and for a very long time. Just make sure the traffic (and products or services) is there before you start promoting anything.

One other thing-if you want to make it a little easier on yourself, I’d consider trying to find a good, stable, long-term niche. By that I mean something that isn’t just a quick fad that’s hot for a week and then it’s totally dead. Some people make a lot of money jumping on the profitable ‘fad’ niches, but you have to be quick and able to get your site/ads in front of a lot of eyes quickly. I definitely wouldn’t advise it if you’re just starting out.

Also, if you’re wanting to get started on the cheap, I wouldn’t even remotely think about trying PPC (pay per click) advertising. Again, there’s a lot of people that have, and continue to make huge profits, but it’s not for the beginner. I’ve made a few dollars here and there, but the bottom line is…I’ve lost overall, and that’s all that matters.

Oh, in trying to do things will  the least expenditure possible, I would recommend a WordPress site. WordPress is free with Hostgator or Bluehost, and is an idiot-proof installation using Fantastico, it’s part of your cPanel within your hosting account. With all the many free themes and plugins available, you can have your WordPress site looking nearly any way you want.

My most productive site to date is a WordPress site that I setup using the phpBayPro plugin. The ‘pro’ version of the plugin isn’t free though, but it definitely works if you’ve done your homework on finding a profitable niche.

Some products and services that I can recommend just to get started are:

Google Keyword Tool (free)

SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool (free)

WordPress (free w/ Bluehost or Hostgator accounts)

Clickbank Account (for products to promote) (free)

Affiliate Networks for Products to Promote (free signup) (Many links on this page, Commission Junction, NeverblueAds, Linkshare and Pepperjam to name a few)

WordPress Goldmine (this isn’t a free one, but if you want to get the most from WordPress in the shortest time possible, it’s a good one)

Other than those to help you get started, remember that Google, Yahoo, MSN and some of the other search engines will be your best friend to get you to the information that you’ll need. It’s all out there, most of it free. It’s just a matter of doing it.

As I was just updating one of my several Squidoo Lenses, I was thinking what all I should be adding some content to, and I got lost trying to remember all I have going.

If you’re just getting started, I think the best advice that I could give someone is this. Don’t try to get too much going at one time. That was my biggest mistake.

Every thing I saw that looked potentially promising, I would try to get into. Well, at least if it didn’t cost anything, or at least too much.

If I was starting new today, I would find a niche that I was interested in, and ideally knowledgeable on, and start from there, staying focused on that one niche/campaign.

You can always get into as many areas as you want, there’s just no need to rush things. If you have shared hosting, there’s nearly no limit to how many sites that you can have going.

Quality is much, much more important than quantity, and my bottom line proves it. I’ve finally realized that I have much more going than I need, but I have stopped adding to my list, and I’m now trying to update sites that have been setting nearly unattended.

Get an idea and focus on it until you get a good, hopefully profitable campaign going before moving to the next.

In a nutshell, I would start a blog, even using Blogger.com for a free option, add (and link) a few Squidoo Lenses to that niche (blog) topic/niche, maybe even a Hubpage or 3, and write several quality EzineArticles with appropriate links to the money site.

ClickBank has many good products to promote, but don’t limit yourself either. There’s usually many, many, many marketers promoting the top CB performers, so sign up with several affiliate networks also. There’s several affiliate networks listed in the sidebar on this site, and they’re free to join. Spend some time looking through the merchants that are offered via the networks that would fit in with your niche.

Even if you are promoting a single, ‘main’ product, there’s also usually many others that will fit in nicely with your campaign.

Making money online isn’t easy, and it requires a lot of work.

It’s easy to set up a quick blog, Lens or other sites. That was probably why I tried to do too many things at one time instead of focusing my efforts. It is, however, more difficult adding quality content often and having a site that will keep the viewers interested.

I’m sure I could go without making this post for most people, but unfortunately there’s always some people that fall for these scams even if they are too good to be true. It’s not hard to make money online, but it’s not easy to get rich quickly.

I just received an email about a ClickBank product that has made a lot of people a lot of money. It’s not because it’s an instant way to get rich though. Don’t misunderstand however, ClickBank offers some fantastic products, I’ve bought several myself. The problem is the way some people market the offerings. They buy an email list from some of the less than decent marketers out there, send out bulk mailings on anything and everything, and get whatever sells they can. I would guess most don’t know anymore about the products that they’re pushing than the unsuspecting spam victims do.

The email that initiated this post was for Forex, which I honestly don’t know much about, but the subject was something to the effect…’Make $1,000,000 in 12 months.’ It was from someone that I had never heard of too. Obviously I hadn’t given him my email, so….there was someone that offered something (free) that I thought looked interesting enough to give up my email for. We all know what that guy does with his list, he sells it.

If you’re new to Internet Marketing there are lots of great products and services around. Personally, what I’ve learned about it, I could pretty much have learned without spending a dime, for the most part. I have promoted quite a few products on this blog, but they’re products that I’ve actually bought or know of!!

If you’re wanting to make some money online, I would take a look at Pot Pie Girl’s course. It is a ClickBank product and it has lots of great  information. The good thing about her methods is everything is free. She uses Squidoo and EzineArticles a lot, as well as some other sites and methods thrown in.

I just posted about it a few days ago(yes I bought it too). It’s called One Week Marketing Plan, and it takes you through what you need to do, step by step, day by day. She’s got a great ‘no quibble’ guarantee, I think she calls it. So if it doesn’t work for you, you get your money back. I don’t think you could ask for anything better than that.

So just remember, if it sounds too good to be true…it IS!! Not ‘probably is’, it ‘is’ too good to be true. Do you really think if someone had a method that was making them $5,000 per day on ‘auto-pilot,’ they’d be wanting to share it with the world ?

If you’re wanting some free methods to generate traffic, go to BumMarketingCourse.com also. This is something that really offers some very good information that is very similar to what Jennifer (Pot Pie Girl) offers.

Jennifer is a member at Wealthy Affiliate, which is an excellent site if you’re just getting started in Affiliate Marketing. Actually, it’s a good site even if you’re a seasoned veteran, just because there’s a lot of people there doing the same thing and sharing a lot of information. I just became a member a couple of weeks ago and I highly recommend it.

So just use your common sense and read….a lot!! You can sign up for many of the top Affiliate Networks on this site, for free. You can go check out the WickedFire forum, also for free. There’’s a bunch of great information there also. Just learn as much as you can before you pull your credit card out.