What is Affiliate Marketing

So you're new to Internet Marketing and you're looking for a home based business and you hear the words Affiliate Marketing.

Affiliate Marketing is when you promote a product for a merchant (the person selling their own product) and an affiliate ( a person willing to promote other people's products). This means when someone purchases the products the affiliate receives a commission. These commissions can be from 10% - 90%. The average seems to be around 50%.

It is similar to networking marketing in that you are paid for one level or maybe 2 levels. It is not multi-level marketing. You are not building an affiliate team.

However, the sale can produce a lead for your network marketing business. This is accomplished by linking to affiliate products that are related to your network marketing opportunity if you have one (services, information products, books, training etc.)

Affiliate marketing has become very popular over the years because of its simplicity and low start up or investment costs. The opportunity to make cash flow quickly without hours spent initially creating your own products. Adding affiliate marketing to your own network marketing creates an empowering model by generating income up front and at the same time developing prospects for your MLM.

It has now become so popular especially in this time of financial world crisis that people are setting up in an affiliate marketing businesses as a full time opportunity.

How Affiliate Marketing Schemes help Network Marketers.

By locating products and promoting products that are applicable to your niche market it can help network marketers gain extra income whilst they build their business.

How to attract prospects to your pages?

You do it by creating content, reviews, videos and audios. Often times the merchant or merchant company will supply you with the text and the web site ready to go.

With affiliate marketing you minimize the risks involved in setting up a new business whilst increasing your profits. By putting all your eggs in one basket you are not in control of the situation if the MLM Company gets shaky, as one did with me. The CEO was actually given a custodial sentence for tax fraud. This did not close the company but had a huge adverse effect on the confidence of the distributors.

By adding affiliate marketing to your network marketing business can generate cash flow to reinvest into your primary business. The merchant company is paying commissions into your bank account on a monthly basis and keep your business fluid until your residuals begin to kick in.

Affiliate Marketing is also known as FUNDED PROPOSAL. This is a way to monetise your Network Marketing or MLM Opportunity whilst growing your business. Companies that are offering products or services that are relevant to your niche market like Marketing Merge
Get Started with Affiliate Marketing as part of your Business Plan.

Where and How?.

There are a number of companies who have thousands of products for sale and you gain up to 75% commisions. Commission Junction and ClickBank are just a couple.

Affiliate Marketing is:

1. Pay for Performance by producing sales for the merchant. Regular monthly payments made direct to your bank account or Pay Pal account.

2. A legitimate business and in some cases big business.

3. A long established business model. Amazon was one of the first in 1996.

4. Internet based. All tracking and processing is done through the Internet.

5. Open to anyone. No special qualifications and you don't need to be an internet genius.

What it is not.

1. Creating or selling your own product.

2. Becoming a spammer.

3. About earning $20,000 over night. Pardon my rants a little here, but in case you hadn't noticed walking into the work from home/ make money on line can be like walking into shark infested waters.

Here's the real scoop: There are no magic overnight success formulas. Sure there are people doing very well out of affiliate marketing but they have been working hard for some time and planning their campaigns like any other normal business. Fail to plan and you plan to fail.

The profit potential of the net is growing at an amazing rate and the list of people becoming involved in cyber commerce is getting bigger every day. If you are looking for an low start up opportunity to begin working from home this is an opportunity worth investigating.

So I invite your to join a great Home Based Business Opportunity to secure your financial future. Why wait until 2009?

How to Find Blog Readers

For every new blogger there comes that day when he is going to launch his blog to the world. You may have one or two readers, possibly your family or friends so you are going need some tricks and techniques to help you build your audience.

Need some training on how to write your blog? For s ome great step by step trainings go to: RenegadeUniversity for click by click tutorials.

• Once you’ve set up all the techie side of your blog start to develop your articles. Have 5 – 10 articles written ready to post on your blog. Aim for at least 500 words in each.

Begin by writing basic How To blogs with lots of practical advice. These kinds of blogs stay current unlike news blogs. The more you can fill your blog with these the more attractive it will look. Yaro Starak, a professional blogger calls these pillar blogs.

Visitors will not stay or return to your blog unless there is interesting content to read.

• Post at least one new blog per day if possible. You can always prepare some in advance. It’s good to begin posting new worthy items related to your target market. Learn to leverage the breaking news in your industry.

When you’re new readers see fresh daily content they will return and begin to bookmark your site which is free advertising. The regularity of posting is so important. If you find it impossible to post everyday then set yourself the best schedule you can and keep to it. The first few months are crucial for driving readers to your blog and establishing a relationship with them.

• Purchase a proper domain name, somewhere like www.Go Daddy.com Choose a
Name that is relevant to your topic and that is short and easy to remember.

• Begin to comment on other people’s blogs that you visit. You should visit and comment on blogs that have a similar niche market. The people who visit these blogs will become sympathetic readers to your blog.

When you leave a comment you can normally leave your name and link. If you make regular, interesting and valuable comments the readers are likely to begin visiting your blog to see what your blog is about.

• Linking to other blogs.

When your place links to other articles or sites you have visited it’s a bit like leaving a comment which links back to the original site. This technique leaves a link from another site to yours for readers to follow.

• Promote comments to your site. Encourage this by asking a question or posting a poll. It is good practise to always respond to comments that your readers have made. This is especially important in the early days and it encourages a good relationship with your audience.

• Submit your blogs to different places like Ezine Articles.com and Article Marketer.com. It helps spread the word and get your blog known. You are leveraging what you have by posting some of your blogs to these sites. Place your personal details and links in the resource box which will give you incoming links back to your site.

These are just some of the basic things that will help you build your blog.

Most important is that you continue to post consistently. This will ensure your readers will also become consistent your loyal audience

I hope you have enjoyed my short list of traffic tips. Keep testing to see what works best for you.

I would love to hear your comments.