Affiliate and Article Marketing for the NewcomerIn this single article I will layout the basics, the groundwork for establishing yourself as a respected authority on any number of topics. At this point you may not consider yourself as an "authority" about anything-but that will change as your skills mature.
It worked for me-it will work for you.
Many parts of affiliate marketing are done with no cost to you. Yet over 90% of those trying to become affiliate marketers quit when "Instant Riches" don't come flooding into their bank account. Success takes time and effort. If you are willing to give it both, then affiliate marketing can provide you with a great second income.
Let's assume that you just made the decision to be an Internet Marketer, and you have not fallen victim to an over-abundance of the hype that will eventually be thrust upon you. Internet marketing is a multi-billion dollar business and it is packed with competition. As soon as you "opt-in" for a free report offered to you, you become fair game for thousands of hungry marketers-it's like a feeding frenzy by a school of sharks.
Even though most of the "squeeze pages" you give up your first name and e-mail address to say that they respect your privacy and won't sell, trade or giveaway your information-many of them do it anyway. Every day I get new offers from perfect strangers that I did not opt-in with. So how did they get my information? They bought it, traded for it or it was given to them!
Enough about that. Let's get you up and running.
Part One - Setting GoalsWhen I established my home-business my primary goal was to replace my day job. I have not done that yet, but I can see the light at the end of the driveway.
I learned back during my misspent youth that goal-setting is a building block for success. I have set many goals and reached a few and did not reach a few. But I still believe setting goals keeps the creative juices boiling over.
Notice I don't use the word failure...and it should be stricken from your vocabulary too. Not reaching a goal is simply not reaching far enough, often enough and with enough determination.
So your first assignment is to set a goal-right now. Make it realistic but attainable. Here's one suggestion: My goal is to earn $100 a day as an internet marketer within the next four months. Write down your goal on a Post-It note and stick it on your monitor screen so you'll see it often.
Part Two - Setup an affiliate marketing business.With simplicity yet effectiveness in mind, I suggest you setup your affiliate business with ClickBank (CB), an international retailer of electronic products: electronic books (e-books) and downloadable software. CB was founded in 1998 and since then has paid out over 1.5 billion (US) dollars in royalties and commissions.
CB has thousands of How-To e-books on just about any subject you can imagine, and they have thousands of affiliates selling their products. There are other similar businesses but I strongly recommend CB as the best place for the beginner. (Author's note: Most of the sites where I post articles do not permit me to put website addresses in my text so I suggest that when you go to visit a particular site, you use the search window in Google. The first one to try is ClickBank. Type that in and the website will appear in the list on the left side of the page.)
When the website comes up, click on "Learn More" in the Affiliates box. Next step is to sign up. CB requires full identification of its affiliates and this is a highly secure website. They will ask for a tax identification as, in the U.S.A., the will report your income to the IRS. (NOTE: There is no charge to register with ClickBank.)
CB will ask you to create a nickname. This will be used to identify any sales that you make so they can send you the check. This step may take a few tries to get an acceptable nickname since they have tens of thousands of affiliates. Once you have your nickname secured, we'll move on to the next part.
Part Three - Choosing a productSince CB has thousands of choices, give some thought to products you may have some basic knowledge about. I have been a photographer for many years so I chose an e-book on digital photography. I have since added a dozen or more-some of which I am active with-some not.
Choosing a "niche" is something you will need to do some in-depth research on. A niche is defined as, a position, place, function, alcove, recess, etc. For your purposes it can be a topic of interest for people searching the internet. For example: a very popular niche is "dog training." But this in itself is a highly competitive niche so you will need to find a sub-niche like: How to Train a Miniature Poodle.
Health care is another huge niche. I am active in it by responding to sub-niches like "heartburn," "diabetes," and "high blood pressure." Get the idea? Now we look for a product that is doing well in your niche.
From CB's home page, up near the top, click on "Marketplace." Type in your topic in the search box and see what you get. If you entered "Train my German Shepherd Not to Bark" or some such, a list will appear of various e-books available. The top line in the response is usually a link to the vendor's sales (pitch) page. Read through what he has to say. If you find it difficult to make sense out of the page, then select another vendor. If you can't make sense out of the product, neither will a potential buyer.
Note that there is no charge to register with a CB Vendor.
To get a rough idea of how successful the e-book is, look at the score under "grav." This stands for gravity and it is a measure of how many affiliates are making sales of the product but the number you see is the result of a secret formula used by CB. All you need to know at this point is that to avoid super-competitive product with a high number. I avoid any grav. over 200. If you see a 0.00 grav, this may mean it is a new product or one that has died a slow death. Once you settle on a product, click on "Promote."This is where you get your "Hoplink." More on hoplinks in the next part.
On this page you enter your nickname and you will be given two "hoplinks." The best way to preserve these links is to copy and paste both of them onto a blank page in MS Word. Save this page in a folder you create in "My Documents" or "Documents" if you are using MS Vista.
Part Four - Marketing your productThis is where a measure of skill, or the need thereof, will become apparent. Affiliate marketers use any of three basic methods to create interest in a product:
1. Set up a personal website. Chances are if you are new you won't have a website. But as you learn the ropes of affiliate marketing you will eventually want to have one. Websites can be costly. First you buy a "domain name," which can cost $2 or $3 dollars up. I get mine from godaddy.com.Then you need a host for your website. My website has a link directly to my host as they are top-notch in my book. Then you have to design and build your website. Some hosts, like the one I use, provide a built-in method to do this. Web hosts charge a monthly fee-payable one year in advance
2. E-mail marketing is preferred by many of the Internet Gurus. But you must have a mailing list and this takes time to build one. And you most certainly need a website with "opt-in" or squeeze pages to capture e-mail addresses. I still don't have a list...YET.
3. Article marketing is how I generate traffic. I only use a few of the top traffic getters. They are: ezinearticles.com, articlesbase.com, articledashboard.com, and Squidoo.com, all of which DO NOT permit Direct Affiliate Links. I also use Goarticles.com that does permit direct affiliate links. So I recommend you start off with goarticles.com, otherwise you will need to use a website in between your article and the vendor. More on this later, as I use a bunch of free websites for this purpose.There are literally thousands of article directories where you can post your articles for free.
Part Five - Article MarketingI have been a technical writer for over 25 years so I thought I could easily master writing articles for the Internet. This was not the case. I tried to take shortcuts and had a number of articles rejected. As the months pass by I keep learning new and better techniques to make my articles more effective.
Basically, your articles should be brief (not like the one you are reading now). Many article sites have a minimum of 250 words and some allow up to 5000 words. I try to keep most of what I write in the 400-600 word area.
Begin with registering as an author on the sites you choose to use. Some encourage you to use a nickname. Others say this is optional. Once you register, be certain to read their terms of service, author's guides, guide to publishing, etc. The rules vary from site to site. And they do enforce these rules.
All article directories have a few rules in common:
1. Articles must be original in content. The article you submit must be your own creation. Some do permit ghostwritten articles but the guidelines will spell out how you may do this. They do not permit you to merely "rip-off" another author and they have means of checking on this. There is nothing wrong with using direct quotes from a website as long as you credit the author. Some sites limit direct quotes to 4 or 5 lines of text. Again-check the guidelines.
2. Articles must be rich in content-that is they must answer a question or solve a problem that a searcher is looking for. But no one line answers! Content may be from personal experience or based on your own research. The content must fulfill the promise of the article title. If your article title was, "How To Make Blueberry Jelly," make sure that the article DELIVERS this subject completely and does not drift off onto other subjects.
3. Articles should not be a 400 word "sales pitch." This kind of article will be rejected flat out! Yes...you are selling a product, but save that revelation for the "Resource Box," if one is provided. In fact DO NOT mention you are selling something at all. You want this person to read through your entire article, and then click on the link you provide: "For More Information, CLICK HERE."
4. Some article directories provide a separate Resource Box. Some do not. If none is provided, use you "resource material" at the very end of your text.
Part Six - The Resource BoxThis is where all of your efforts come together. This is where you will use either of the two Hop Links you got from ClickBank. As I mentioned earlier, GoArticles.com permits the use of a direct affiliate link. This is what CB gave you and these links are encrypted with your affiliate nickname. The shorter link is used when text links are available. You can copy and paste it into the resource box, but it looks clumsy and awkward. A cautious Internet surfer may be turned off by it.
Some article sites allow you to use a text link. This is where you type in something like, "More Information HERE." These words are linked to a hidden website address. You will need a better understanding of HTML to use text links, but you'll pick up on that as time goes on.
In GoArticles you may copy and paste the long Hop Link. When you finish the article and click on "Preview," you will see that a text link was created for you, just like magic!.
Your last lesson for today is to examine my Resource Box. The last paragraph of this article. As from a self-serving standpoint-it is the most important part of this article.
The fact that you have stayed with me thus far convinces me that you are truly serious about establishing a home-based business. If this is really the case, then you will want to learn all of the details necessary for your success as an Internet Marketer. A great deal more information is readily available for you to make an informed decision as to whether affiliate marketing is the way you want to go.Get More Information HERE!
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