subject: Affiliate Marketing. What Is It And Where To Start? [print this page] With the Economic Recession many people have lost their jobs and they are now looking for different options to generate income. Since the Internet is a vast and diverse market, it represents a great opportunity for many people to consider. Affiliate marketing is one of many of those solid opportunities because as the Internet grows, more people will be buying more products, and that's where you come in.
So what does an affiliate marketer do?
Putting in simple terms, an affiliate marketer will pick some products and promote them on the Internet. When a person buys the product, the affiliate marketer makes a commission. The commission could go as high as 75% of the price...Not bad. The trick is to increase traffic to where you are listing the products. The more people see them, the more will buy, and the more money you will make.
Advantages of affiliate marketing.
There are many advantages to this business model. You don't have to own any products, you don't need a big budget to start, and you don't have to make any calls or any presentations. You can work from anywhere in the world. All you need is a computer and an Internet connection. You can also pick any product(s) you want to promote out of hundreds of millions. You can select a product you believe in or you can find a hot item that has a proven track record.
How to begin?
Another added advantage to doing affiliate marketing is that you don't need to invest any of your money. All you need is the basic knowledge about marketing products online. You build a blog or a mini-site using free tools like Squidoo, Blogger, Wordpress, Hubpages, or Typepad. And you make it search engine friendly so you can rank high on the search pages. Don't forget to add quality content frequently to keep the site fresh. Remember, you need to make those search engines happy and that's the secret sauce.
The biggest challenge is getting more people to your site. You want to provide them with some quality content that will keep them coming to the site and even referring it to others.
There are plenty of ebooks, videos, and tutorials on how to start an affiliate marketing business. My only advice is not to believe the hype and instant success stories. Affiliate marketing is not hard but it is a business and you need to respect it as such.
Make the decision and take the first step. Get the right information and even the right mentor to guide you thru it. Like everything else, in the beginning things might seem slow, but you will learn more and you will pick up the pace. As a result your business will grow and you will start making money.
