Work from Home Affiliate Marketing
When Working From Home is Just NOT Working
By: Lucy Cope
What the heck is affiliate marketing and how do I do it?
What, you ask, is affiliate marketing? I will tell you my friend and you will see why affiliate marketing is for you. Basically, what affiliate marketing is, is promoting someone else’s product or website for a commission. Some programs will give you a percent of the total sale, others may give you a dollar amount, and others may even give you a percent based on referrals or building a down line. A good affiliate program will probably offer you a 50% or better commission on sales. There is more to look for in a good affiliate program other than just a good commission.
Most affiliate merchants who manage a program will want you to join their program because frankly the more affiliates they have, the more their website will be marketed and the more sales they will make. So, your merchant will try to entice with you higher commission rates. Commission isn’t all there is to it though. You need to consider what the affiliate program can offer you. Will they just give you a link and say good luck? When all you have is a link, it can be difficult to get any visitors to your link because you don’t know how to market it effectively. Many forums and social groups will not allow you to market your affiliate link and will ban you spamming. You need to have a merchant that will be there for you to help you out.
What you should look for is valuable tools to market your program. You should know which keywords used in the search engines are turning up your particular website. You need to have your link optimized in the search engine. You will need to know how to write quality articles, eBooks, etc. and market them. There are many components to affiliate marketing and you will not be able to do so unless someone who knows more about it can help you. That is probably why you are reading this article in the first place.
So, when you are rifling through programs, you should choose one with a 50% or better commission rate, see what kind of tools the merchant has to offer, and keep contact with the merchant. Don’t be afraid to email your merchant and ask which the top referring sites are, what the top keywords are, and what the best way to market your product is. When you gather this information, it will better help you to promote your link and make some money doing it.
The best way to promote an affiliate link without being accused of being a spammer is to create your own newsletter or ezine. This is fairly simple and completely free to do. Pick a niche (which is anything you are interested in) and create a newsletter that will correspond to that. For example, I enjoy children’s books and free printables, so I started the My Free Bee Book newsletter in order to share my children’s books, give parents free printables, and share any new eBooks I have written. I use the eBooks to provide quality information while also promoting some affiliate links. I promote things that have to do with kids and babies since that is my target audience. If you are trying to promote a How-to guide for a better golf swing, then start a golfing newsletter and provide your affiliate link. I would consider either starting my own yahoo group, or using free newsletter hosting such as Topica or Zinester.
In order to give readers valuable content, it is important that you are writing articles at least once a week. I would, however, recommend two to three times a week. You can use a word document to write them and hide your affiliate looking links by inserting a hyperlink in the text. You can do so by highlighting the text and inserting the URL. You can then convert your text to PDF so it can be readable by everyone on the internet. I use PDF995 which is a free PDF converter. You can submit your PDF to eBook directories and even give a copy of it to your newsletter subscribers. I would also submit it to free article submission websites, so that anyone can have access to it. Many article submission websites will not allow you to have hyperlinks within the text so it is important that you list your links a resource inside the resources text box.
Another thing you can do is offer the free eBook in other social groups of your niche such as yahoo groups. Remember, they don’t like spam! You can say something like: “I have written a free eBook about (your niche), and I was wondering if anyone would be interested in reading it. Just drop me an email and I will be happy to send it to you.” You will be directly marketing to your target audience this way and nobody feels like your trying to spam their forum. I have made many sales this way and it’s not rude.
You are not required to signup for just one program either! You can signup for as many as you want and recommend the websites in your articles. People who are interested in what you have to offer are clicking on your programs, buying your products, and you are earning a commission. It’s that simple! Look for a good affiliate program for you and you will succeed!
Hope you too can reap the benefits of affiliate marketing!
Regards!
Lucy Cope
What My Affiliate Program Offers 100% Free!:
*65% commission on eBook sales
*SEO tools
*Newsletter help and support ( I answer all emails)
*Top Keywords
*Article submission to over 650+ sites
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