Friday, January 22, 2010

Affiliate Marketing And Keyword Research

If you’re interested in the idea of Making Money Online, as many people are now that their finances have become tighter due to the recession, you may have come across something called “Affiliate Marketing“. This is a fairly simple concept, but with so much information out there, it can become very confusing and even overwhelming.

The best approach is step by step, and keyword research is the first.

You need to find out what your potential buyers are looking for online, in order to define which market you will enter. To begin this, very important, process you need to do “keyword research”. This involves finding the specific words and phrases that people enter into the search engines in order to find solutions to their problems. You will be sure to regret it if you skip this important research step.

You will increase your website and landing pages page rank by finding and using keywords that buyers are regularly entering into the search engines. This will lead to a nonstop flow of organic (free), targeted traffic.

Keyword research doesn’t have to be a difficult task, however. Start with the free Google Keyword Tool, which can be found by searching for “Google keyword tool external,” and enter in a keyword or phrase that identifies the product or niche that you are interested in promoting as an affiliate.

Click on “get keyword ideas” to generate a list of keywords and gauge the competitiveness of the the market by taking a look at the number of times people are searching for your main keywords per month.

The trick with this research is to find a market that already has demand, competition, and products established to promote, while at the same time doesn’t have so much competition that getting a good ranking would be impossible.

In the end the most important thing to remember is that there needs to be an audience for whatever you choose to market. As an affiliate, your costs can be kept fairly low when entering a market, but even so, no one wants to waste time and effort, so make sure you take the time to do your keyword research.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Make Fast Money With Affiliate Marketing

I have been known to unleash a few great ways to make money online and heres another.

This method works well with affiliate accounts that offer free services or competitions such as Logical Media or MaxBounty that you can very easily open an account for if you have an existing website.

For example i will choose maxbounty that has a program that offers a competition that offers the chance to win 4 alton towers tickets and pays $2.50 for each application submitted.
Once you have your affiliate link, use one of your existing domains and create a new directory on it eg: YourDomain.com/newdirectory and place an index.php file within the directory and use a php redirect code to redirect your directory to your affiliate link.

Open a new google mail account to use for your new classified adverts for this campaign. Then i would write an advert in a few popular classified adverts websites that advertisers 4 free alton towers tickets and i would include my google mail address within the post. Gumtree and craigslist are great for this apart from craigslist that will only allow you to display an email address with [at] instead of @ so beware.

You would then go back to your google mail and go to setting and turn your autoresponder on, leave the subject blank and the write a few words within your responder that lets the user knows that you have 4 alton towers tickets up for grabs and include a link to your affiliate link that you have set up.

Thats about it, you will see some commissions come rolling in. I have made around $100 in a few days using this method and its all yours for free.

5 Reasons to Start an Affiliate Marketing Business

1- You can sell virtuall anything you want, as much as you want and you dont need to store any stock.

2- You never have to deal with Customer Complaints, Customer Service, Refunds or Payment Processing.

3- You can start affiliate marketing with just a domain name, you dont even need a website to make good money, although to make big money you will need a website.

4- You can work from the comfort of your own home, when you want, no boss and sometimes you only need to work a couple of hours per day for huge success.

5- Your Yearly income is Limitless, you can earn a few grand or a few million, its entirely up to you. The more effort you put in the more you will earn.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

10 Key Checkpoints to See If An Affiliate Program Is Right For You

When you're searching for an affiliate program that is going to be right for your online business it can get tiresome at times. This is due to all of the thousands of affiliate programs that are offered on the Internet. So, just how are you supposed to find the ones that are best suited to help your business increase its revenue potential? Well, following a few simple steps can help ease the process and allow you to make the right decision.

1. Make sure that the affiliate program is reputable and has gotten good results for other businesses. You can find this information by simply researching it on the Internet-but don't be afraid to make a phone call or two and ask around.

2. Make sure the program offers, and will continue to offer, competitive rates. If you discover a product that you are willing to promote from another merchant search the Internet for similar affiliate-sourced products. This can give you a better idea of the kind of sales that you will get for a particular product.

3. Ask if the program offers residual income. This type of income is recurring income and is preferred because the payments are issued every month from a single sale. For example, selling memberships to a dating site is considered residual income because every month that a member renews a membership, you are paid for them remaining a member.

4. Make sure the program offers a good pay schedule. Usually, businesses pay their affiliates weekly, bi-weekly or monthly. Beware though, as some merchants won't even pay until you reach a certain threshold. You need to consider all of the payment options that they are offering before you choose an affiliate program.

5. Try to choose a program that offers promotional resources. It is easier to promote an item if there are banners, websites and ads that are given at no additional cost. This will also make your advertising efforts more fruitful and a lot simpler.

6. Make sure to get detailed information on how the affiliate program works. If you are even the slightest bit confused, then you should move on to the next program option. Affiliate programs should always be able to make it clear just how their particular program operates.

7. Don't go with a program that requires you to invest anything or requires you to stock merchandise. As an affiliate, you become a part of the company's sale force but you work only on commission and should not hold inventory.

8. Try and generate leads for your affiliate by using email newsletters. However, a Web site is an essential element if you intend to generate serious revenue.

9. Read up on how to build a home-based business and what it takes to succeed. This can be especially important if this is your first time trying it out.

10. You need to consider all of the factors involved in affiliate programs. When you follow simple steps, these questions can become a lot easier to find answers to, and finding the affiliate right for your online business will be as easy as pie.