How To Start Your Affiliate Marketing Business

In my previous topics, I have already discussed the definition of  Affiliate Marketing. Now it’s high time to begin our next steps that will help us succeed in this field and earn huge commissions. Affiliate Marketing is by far the most popular way of making money online. Anybody can do this regardless of their experience. Follow the steps below and you’re off.

1.   Define your NICHE– the first step is to find your niche or topic, to establish what type of products you are going to promote and sell. It’s very important to focus on a few niches, write it down and brainstorm which one will you concentrate on. Ask yourself what things are you interested in, have a little or a lot of knowledge about, or things that you are passionate about. Let’s say, you are interested in pets. You should then find products to sell which caters to pet owners. Like good grooming products, accessories, etc. Target this market and promote products that appeals to this kind of market. For newbies, just focus on one niche first. It’s not advisable to sign up with a lot of programs with a variety of niches. Find a niche with a lot of demand and short on supply.

2.    Make a Research – When you have finally found your niche, research and choose affiliate programs appropriate for your topic. There are a lot of Affiliate Directories and Affiliate Networks, but as  a newbie, I’d go for ClickBank.  It’s FREE  to sign up and they have thousands of products to sell and promote and it’s easy to navigate. Later, we’ll discuss more about Clickbank.

In choosing a product/s, you must consider some factors:

* Check products that you are familiar with and have relevance to your niche.
* Consider high quality products because you are recommending them to others. If they are satisfied they will come back to your site and buy some more.
* You must investigate the merchant’s site – Be sure that the sales or landing page is convincing. See if the buyer won’t have any trouble in ordering and all is handled professionally.
* Understand the payment method – How do you get paid? Is it per sale or per lead? How much is the commission?
* High Referral Rate – If more affiliates are promoting it, then they are profitable. Choose products that has a rating of 70% or more.
* Recruiting Affiliates – Some companies have a bonus or pays you commissions for recruiting or sending  affiliates.
* Affiliate Tools – The merchants must have sales and marketing materials supplied. You need it to promote your product/s on your site.
* Cookies – When someone clicks on your link and it’s the first time they landed on the companies page, they are recorded. Some companies offer cookies that lasts for 30-90 days. So, if they didn’t buy that time, went back by clicking another affiliate’s link and bought within your time frame, you automatically get the credit or commission. There are some companies that offer lifetime cookies.

3. Create a website focused on your niche – If you don’t have a budget yet for a domain name and hosting, you could use free services like Blogger. Design your website. It must be appealing and easy to navigate. Try not to place too many banner ads. If you want, put a banner ad on each and every content or post to help the visitors identify the product you are promoting. Provide contents that have valuable information on that certain product and is unique and rich with your keywords and phrases. Remember to use you content to pre-sell you product. Make it easy to read by using standard fonts and in black. Place a comment form so customers or visitors can easily contact you.

4.     Website Traffic – Drive traffic to your site. Without traffic, nobody will see what you are selling therefor no commissions. Here are a few tips to help you get targeted visitors:

* Buy some traffic. But if you have no budget, don’t worry, there are Traffic Exchange sites that you can join for FREE.
* Write unique articles, again, rich with your keywords and phrases.
* Submit your website to search engines and directories
* Exchange links with sites related to your niche that has a high page rank or popularity rank
* Offer free gifts or freebies to download which includes your website’s URL
* Advertise your site in related forums,online groups and chat rooms
* Post ads with your URL in Free Advertising websites
* Use Traffic Exchange
* Post comments to sites related to your niche and don’t forget your URL

5.     Make a Review – Give a testimonial or review  products on a blog and post your affiliate links in sites that receives high quality traffic. This way you get to promote your own site, free publicity and traffic.

6.     Build a List – Create and build an email list. This way you have constant contact with your prospects to promote or recommend your products.

7.     Be Credible – Make sure that you provide your real name and valid email address.Always be available to answer your customers queries so that they will know that there is a real person behind the website.

8.     Promote – don’t stop promoting your website and your products. You have to be constant and work hard to achieve success.

Follow these tips so you can achieve success in Affiliate Marketing and earn huge commissions.