Basics of Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing has become a popular way to earn money online. Everyone can use some extra cash, and some even make a full-time career out of it. It can seem very daunting to start what is essentially a home business, but it is quite simple. Basically, you will sign up at an affiliate network and "affiliate" yourself with a product vendor. When you have selected which products or services you would like to promote, you will be given an affiliate link. When a visitor clicks through this link, they will be taken to the vendor's sale page. When a sale is made from someone who arrived through your affiliate link, the vendor will pay you a percentage of the sale. Percentages vary between networks and products, but they are typically between 4 and 20 percent.

While it may be tempting to spam your affiliate link on forums and comment sections, this is short-sighted and totally ineffective. First of all, most spam filters recognize the structure of affiliate links and it will automatically be deleted, possibly getting you banned from the forum in the process. Secondly, if the affiliate network receives complaints about one of their links being "spammed" on a forum or comment section, they will most likely terminate your account and withhold any pending payments, as they do not like to be associated with such tactics. There exists a multitude of time-tested strategies for promoting your affiliate products in a way that will generate a high click-through rate and a large number of sales. Here are just a few of the most common methods:

REVIEW SITES: Many vendors of e-books and other digital products will be happy to send you a review copy, or at least a sample of the product to help you be descriptive. In addition, there are many premium review-style themes for Wordpress, Blogger, and other blogging platforms that will enable you to set ratings and insert affiliate links with ease.

VIDEO MARKETING: This method consists of producing a video (or several videos) showcasing the product you are promoting. Again, an impartial review-style format is a good idea. If you have access to the product or service, try to show video of it being used. YouTube videos with good tags will rank very well in search engines.

NICHE BLOGGING: If you already have a blog about one of your interests or have thought about making one, this is a good method for you. All you have to do is write articles on your niche of choice and link to products that your visitors would like. Some basic search engine optimization is required, but that is a subject for another article. Focus on creating top-quality content for your readers, so that they will trust your judgment when you recommend a product.

EMAIL MARKETING: This can be used in combination with a niche blog. You will essentially be collecting email addresses of users who sign up to receive information from you. They must opt in to receive information about your affiliate products; you cannot buy a list of un-targeted email addresses and flood their inbox with unsolicited messages (this is not only ineffective, but illegal as well). There are many email marketing services that will generate web forms which can be placed on your website. Just like with a niche blog, try to provide your subscribers with good, useful content so that they will remain subscribers for a long time. Once in a while, you can send them an affiliate link to a good product or service that you think they will find useful. If you send them nothing but spammy advertisements, they will unsubscribe en masse.

But as is the case with any business venture, it's important to use caution and know who you are dealing with; the affiliate marketing business has attracted more than its fair share of scammers looking to make a quick buck. These hucksters often herald themselves as "gurus" and charge exorbitant prices for a "system" contained in an e-book promising earnings of tens of thousands per day with zero effort. Don't be fooled. While there is no limit to how much money you can make in affiliate marketing, it requires hard work, creativity, and innovation. If there existed a way to earn six figures a year without any of those skills and without expending any effort, everyone would already be doing it. You can earn plenty of money by working hard, working smart, and applying the tried-and-true methods previously mentioned.

Affiliate marketing provides a great opportunity to generate a stream of income from your own home. Once you find a niche and method that works for you, there is no limit to how much money you can earn.