subject: Tips To Start Affiliate Marketing With Just A Shoestring Budget [print this page] No doubt you have heard the term "affiliate marketing, " but have you ever seriously considered it as a way that you can make money on the Internet? There are plenty of people quietly making money online as affiliate marketers and it is not difficult to get started.
The Beauty Of Being An Affiliate
To begin other businesses, you need to stock inventory, have a storefront, deal with shipping and customer support. You also need a great deal of cash. Affiliate marketing has none of these requirements. You can begin in less than five minutes. But, remember that it is a business and to make it work, you have to work at it.
A Short Explanation
The job description of an affiliate is to cause people to want to go to the business' website and purchase a product. You can do this in several different ways. The most common ways are article marketing, classified ads, advertising in ezines, using pay-per-click or even advertising offline. At the business' website, the selling begins. If a purchase is made, you earn the commission you agreed to. There are some programs that pay per action or per lead.
Finding Products To Sell
There are many different clearinghouses where you can go to look for products. Clickbank handles only digital products that can be downloaded immediately after the purchase. Share-a-Sale and Commission Junction are two others that have actual products that the customer can buy.
Affiliate programs do not charge any kind of fee to be an affiliate. It is free to join the clearinghouse sites, as well. Before you go on your search for a product, it is important to do a bit of research. You need to find a niche that has plenty of searches being done, but not so many websites focusing on the niche. You can do this by using a keyword tool.
Use A Keyword Tool
You can find a keyword tool to use for free anywhere online. Google's keyword tool is often used by affiliates because more people use Google than any other search engine. Start by picking a category from the left side of the keyword page. This will cause Google to bring up a list of suggested keywords.
Once your keyword ideas have popped up, take a look at the global search column and find a term that has somewhere between 4,000-10,000 searches. You have a much better chance of turning up on Google's first page if you focus on a niche that does not have a lot of competition, but does have a fair amount of searches done on the term.
It Is Real Work
Some people want you to believe that affiliate marketing is like a walk in the park, very easy. Most likely they are trying to sell you something and saying what they think you want to hear. Affiliate marketing is not easy money. It is not difficult, but it does take consistent effort to earn money. At times you will feel like quitting. Do not quit. Keep plugging away and it will not be very long before you start making money.
