How to Start an Online Business Using Affiliate Marketing Programs

By Thaddeus J Winters  

Affiliate marketing is mostly done part-time, and there are many who are so fortunate that they have made a full-time job out of it. How would you like to get in the game in just a few hours? How successful you are is primarily based on how much time and effort you put into it.

Here are 6 tips that can help you can make money online through affiliate marketing:

1. Start a site or blog

To start in the field of affiliate marketing, you need a website where you can add links to your content. There are many inexpensive web-hosting services you can use such as HostGator, Namecheap, and GoDaddy. It's also easy to set up a free blog on service providers such as Google's Blogger blog network or WordPress.

2. Choose a product or niche that interests you

Affiliate marketers help businesses and entrepreneurs sell their products. Select an area you know or one you enjoy learning about.

3. Find a product or service to promote

Many affiliate networks connect vendors with affiliate site publishers who can aid them in selling their goods. Here are a few:

• ClickBank, E-junkie, and PayDotCom
• Commission Junction
• Google AdSense

4. Affiliate website content

Two principal approaches or business models to choose from are as follows:

• Resource Sites

These sites are mainly centered around offering how-to articles and other posts, and then provide you with affiliate links or banner ads.

• Start a review site

Write reviews of products and services you've tried yourself and rate them. These help visitors to decide on what to purchase.

5. Get targeted traffic to your affiliate site

There are four ways to get more website exposure and attract more customers:

• Paid Advertising

Paid advertising is most powerful when your headline, call-to-action message, and graphics come together just enough to encourage people to click through your article and buy.

• Free Advertising

Craigslist and other US Free Ads sites are only two of many popular places that accept links and banner ads for free.

• Content Marketing

This marketing method offers various advantages. You're building reliability as a credible source in your niche, increasing your search engine ranking by raising the number of backlinks leading to your site. This pulls traffic to your site.

• E-mail Marketing

Every person that visits your site is important, so capturing their contact information to stay in touch is very important.

6. Learn the ropes in forums

Register with at least one of the following free affiliate forums to profit from advice shared by other novices, intermediates and pros alike:

• Digital Point

DP is huge, with about 25,000 active members.

• aBestWeb

This is one of the largest affiliate marketing forums. It has nearly 100 sub-forums.

• Warrior Forum

WF is a killer networking forum for amateur and advanced marketers. Set up an account and start participating by asking questions. You may also promote your services.

Read all you can about the tool, opinions, and strategies of both experts and your peers. Before you even get started, select a niche that you're passionate about. If you truly enjoy what you're doing, you'll transform your marketing and money-making venture into a major success.

Article Source:  Ezine Articles expert Thaddeus J Winters