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Contents:

o Is Affiliate Marketing Right For You?

o Affiliate Resources

o Affiliate Classroom

o Aaron Wall on Google Branding

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Thousands if not millions of online webmasters
and marketers are turning to affiliate marketing in order
to earn extra money from the web. Affiliate marketing
offers a great opportunity to cash in on the billions
of sales made online each year.

But is Affiliate Marketing right for you?

Is it something that you should investigate and pursue
further if you truly want to monetize your site or content?
As a way of an answer and to get you thinking about affiliate
marketing I would like to offer my own experiences as a full-
time affiliate marketer. I would also like to give you
some marketing tips and a few pit-falls that you should
avoid.

Truth be told, I didn’t plan to become an affiliate marketer.
It just happened. Almost by accident as I was struggling to
promote my first site on Internet marketing some 10 years ago
now. My original plan was to re-sell some software programs
I had bought the re-sell rights to in hopes of making my
fortune on this new thing called the Internet.

Well, to make a long story short, most things don’t quite turn out
as we had originally planned. Instead of selling my own products,
I became much more interested in studying “how to market”
on the web and examining whole marketing systems and how they
worked. I was much more interested in the “nuts & bolts” or
the marketing tools behind these online marketing systems
then actually selling stuff.

I was particularly captivated by a new search engine called
Google. Yes, they are many marketers around who have been
studying Google since it first started. And I believe
it was Google and its Adsense Program in particular that
sort of legitimized the “whole idea of making money online”
for me. And the rest as they say is history…

But enough about me, what about you?

Do you have your website? Are you interested in earning
extra revenue from your site? Are you trying to earn a
full-time income online? More importantly:

Is Affiliate Marketing Right for you?

First, you have to realize Affiliate Marketing is when
you promote and sell affiliate products from your site
or sites. Actually – selling is not quite the right word
because you DON’T actually sell anything from your site.
You merely refer or send customers or interested buyers
to the affiliate sites you’re promoting via your affiliate
links.

Believe me, sometimes this concept is very hard to explain
to family and friends. But what do you sell online? You
don’t have anything to sell? How can you make money?

To repeat, with affiliate marketing you don’t sell anything
directly online… you send clients and customers to online
companies or merchants where they buy stuff and since they’re
coming from your site or affiliate links you get credit for
the sale.

I don’t directly sell Dell Computers on my sites, I merely
send prospective customers to Dell where they can buy Dell products
and since they came from my affiliate links I get credit and
a small commission in return if they buy something. Same goes
for Amazon or hundreds of other companies and products I promote
with my sites.

Now Affiliate Marketing Fits Me to a Tee! Here’s why…

- You don’t handle any sales transactions

- You don’t handle any delivery of products

- You don’t have to deal with customer complaints or run customer support

- You don’t have to manage employees or operate a business

- You don’t need an office, stock, or any physical products

With Affiliate Marketing all the selling and business operations
are done by the company you’re promoting. This saves you from a lot
of head-aches and problems that arise from running your own
company or developing your own products. It’s all done for you.

Furthermore, online Affiliate Marketing has some great advantages:

- Your sites and affiliate links are working for you 24/7, 365 days
of the year. You earn sales/commissions while you’re sleeping, eating,
watching TV or doing anything we humans do! One of my most strangest
times happened while I was placing flowers on my relative’s graves in the
local cemetery – while doing this activity, I later found out my sites
had made me $140 – for some reason this event always sticks in my mind.

- You earn money even when you’re on Vacation. This happened to me
last year when I went to Florida to see Bruce Springsteen in
concert. Band member died so I didn’t get to see him but I did
make more online to pay for whole trip while I was in Orlando – it
was also the first time, I didn’t have access to my computer or sites
but they still made money.

- Once you get your affiliate links set-up, they will continue
to earn you revenue automatically. All your online marketing
can be automated and run from your home office or from anywhere
you choose.

- Keep in mind, your content and sites keep building and growing.
Work you did writing that great article two years ago is still
bringing in affiliate sales.

- Plus, with Affiliate Marketing, all your marketing material
(banners, sales copy, videos, ads, links…) are all provided
for you by the Affiliate Network or Company.

- There’s little stress with affiliate marketing mainly because
you’re your own boss and you can work at home. No office polictics
or all that foolishness. No commuting. In addition, there is very
little capital investment, for a few hundred dollars or much less,
you can have a site up and running on the web.

However, Affiliate Marketing also have some real disadvantages:

- You can often earn much more if you develop and sell your own
products. You’re not really getting the highest return on your
site’s content by selling other people’s stuff. The profit margin
can be much, much higher if you sell your own products.

- There is also the issue of lost commissions and theft of sales,
you can never be sure you’re getting credit for all your traffic
and referrals. In most cases you’re not.

- Many times there’s stiff competition from other affiliates
selling the same stuff and using the same marketing materials…
although many top affiliates create their own marketing materials
so theirs stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Since I am a full-time online affiliate marketer the benefits
far outweighs the few downers associated with this great lifestyle.
Mainly because it is a lifestyle rather than a job. I never think
of it as a job or working. Maybe, that’s because I am my own boss,
I can work from home and set my own hours. I can take time off, I
can go on vacations or I can live anywhere in the world where
there’s Internet Access and these days that’s just about anywhere.
The sense of freedom is truly intoxicating to say the least.

If you do find Affiliate Marketing is something that you would
like to pursue, even part-time if not full-time. Here are some
of my best tips for increasing your affiliate income and sales:

- Focus your marketing efforts and attention on programs and products
that give you recurring or residual income. Make one sale and get
paid for years to come.

- Develop your own sites and marketing materials so that you
stand out from the other affiliate marketers. Create your own
unique selling position even if you’re not technically selling
the products. Give extra bonuses if they buy from your links or
site.

- Build your own list of customers who are interested in the
products you’re promoting. Grow your own list, as well as the
list of the affiliate company you’re promoting. You will always have
these subscribers and you can promote other similar products to them.

- Concentrate on targeting “long tail keywords” with your
content and sites; these multi-worded keyword phrases are
easy to rank high for and usually have better conversion rates.

- Cloak your affiliate links to cut down on affiliate theft. For
example, ClickBank has a simple HTML code that will hide your link.
Use it.

- Internet users and especially shoppers want simple helpful information
to make their buying decisions easier. Provide them with valuable information
they can use in their task. Also giving away coupons and online discounts will
increase your sales and commissions.

- Use the major affiliate networks like Commission Junction, LinkShare,
ClickBank, Amazon, Shareasale… I have found these very simple to
use and very effective. Plus, their checks never bounce!

- Keep a close eye on your monthly sales, with many of the companies
if you go over $25,000 or $50,000 in sales for the month you get extra
bonus incentives. I have found these can really increase your monthly
income dramatically.

If you do find that Affiliate Marketing is for you, chances are
almost 100% certain that you will never regret it. Affiliate marketing
offers one of the least stressful ways of earning a living on the planet.
Period.

……………………..

o Affiliate Resources

If you need extra help with affiliate marketing, there
are many good online resources I would recommend.
These are:

ABest Web – www.abestweb.com
Affiliate Tip – www.affiliatetip.com
Affiliate Programs – www.affiliateprograms.com
Affiliate Classroom – www.affiliateclassroom.com

And my own affiliate marketing guide:

Affiliate Marketing Guide

o Affiliate Classroom

Affiliate Classroom is one of best places to learn
about affiliate marketing. It’s run by Anik Singal
and offers excellent resources on how to market online.

Especially if all this online affiliate marketing
is new to you and you want the basics. But affiliate
classroom doesn’t stop there… this is a vibrant
community with on-going marketing strategies that
will help you – no matter which level of marketing
you’re at.

Many of the resources are free but you can sign-up
for the paid subscription to Affiliate Classroom
where you will get the most benefits and perks.

You can check out a video on it here:

Affiliate Classroom

Kind Regards,
Titus

P.S. Before you go, Aaron Wall has just released
an article on the lastest Google Update (Jan. 18th, 2009)
on how big brand names are taking the top spots
in Google’s listings:

Google Branding