subject: Becoming An Affiliate Marketer - It's Easier Than You Think [print this page] If you're not familiar with affiliate marketing then it is time you should because it is a quick and easy way to make money online. There are a lot of different ways that you can make money online but if you are brand new to internet marketing then becoming an affiliate is your best bet. The process is as easy as one, two, and three and will be discussed here in this article.
The first step is to find a product you would like to promote. That includes narrowing down what niche you would like to go into. Preferably you want to pick something that interests you so that you can relate to it and promote it with passion. You also want to ensure that the niche you pick is not overly competitive as it could be really difficult to promote it due to the popularity of the topic. For instance in the internet marketing niche, if you go with just internet marketing that is too general. You want to break it down even further and find a topic within internet marketing such as affiliate marketing or email marketing that you can concentrate on.
The second step is to drive traffic to the offer or product that you are promoting. There are many ways to do this. You can choose to implore free methods or paid methods, it depends on what fits your budget. Again, for the newbie internet marketer it is recommended to start with free methods and work your way up. You do not want to lose any money before you even start.
Some free methods include signing up to forums in your niche and posting something to be helpful to people on the forum. When you do this, you will want to create a signature so that every time you post your signature is visible in which you will be able to direct people to your affiliate page. You want to make it something that captures your reader's attention and will want to make them click your link. Be creative when coming up with a signature and you will see good results from doing this.
Another method is through social media specifically through Facebook. You can create a free fan page and promote it through your friends and find other people that may be interested in your topic. There are a lot of people using Facebook and it's becoming more and more popular every day. It is a great way to communicate with others especially if you are promoting an offer.
The third and final step is to collect leads or subscribers. You want to capture peoples' information when selling to them so that you can continue to sell them affiliate products in the future. This step is an important and one that should not be overlooked.
You can choose to setup your own squeeze page which is simply a page on the internet that you will be driving your traffic too and once they view the offer you are presenting and want additional information they will enter their details in order to get it. Or you can create a blog in which you will be publishing valuable content to your readers and have an opt in form that will capture peoples' information. If you provide good and valuable content there will be quite a few people that will want to continue following what you are doing and the suggestions you are making so a blog can really help your online business.
As explained above affiliate marketing is a lot easier than one makes it and if you can get past your fears of starting an online business and just take action then you will surely reap the benefits from it.