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Affiliate Marketing --Getting Started

By Vickie J. Scanlon


Affiliate Marketing-why are people doing it? To make money of course. when people come online, they first assume that they can make money by typing or completing surveys. I don't know how it happens, but it's the first one-two sucker punches that a newbie gets. They find themselves placing ads on FFA sites and making peanuts from the "so-called" typing job, or completing so many surveys with long hours and little or no money in return.

Why does it happen? It's a play on the person's desire to make money. So how can you make money? If you're not looking for a get rich fast track, but a long-term venture, then affiliate marketing can be a way to make money. 

Granted, affiliate marketing is not an easy row to get into, but it can be rewarding-once you start making money. That's the catch-if you are new to the world of affiliate marketing, there is a learning curve. But what new job doesn't have a learning curve? As to the learning curve, you can either do the trial and error-learn as you go approach, or enlist the aid of a consultant to help you. In either case, you still have to learn the affiliate business. So let us begin.

First, I'm going to go into the no expense, except your time. Even though time is an expense-it doesn't empty your pockets right away. 

Affiliate Marketing- Getting Started With Minimal Cost

SEO: To get the search engines to notice you, you must learn something about SEO. This will be a work in progress-always, because the search engines algorithms change and adapt. It takes time and it's doable. However, if you have the money, you can enlist in the services of someone that is experienced in the ways of SEO. But be warned - make sure you check out their credentials and look at some of their past successes.

Web Design: If you are tackling this alone, you will learn, as I. You may have to experiment with your site, until you get the style you want. And if you are misfortunate as I -- with my beginning ugly baby website -- you will want to experiment to reach an approachable website with consistent web pages.

Article Marketing -- If you have a writing talent, article marketing is more labor intensive, but can produce targeted traffic. You can write the articles and submit the articles yourself to article directories, or you can use a submission service. 

Adsense -- Adsense is a way to make a passive income, but again it's a learning curve to putting the ads out on your site - choosing the position, the color, the size of the ads to fit your site. End result, experimentation is necessary.

Linking -- As time goes by, you will be asked to exchange links with complimentary websites. Or you may ask for an exchange yourself. However, let me emphasize, if you are a new website, don't anticipate many partners wanting to link to you yet. Why?

1) If you are less than 6 months old, they may be skittish because of the many bogus sites that spring up and then vanish within the 6 month time span.

 2) If you are not indexed by any of the search engines, such as: Google, Yahoo, MSN. 

3) In most cases linking partners look to equal or greater page rank, when choosing mutual links.

4) And if you are wanting a blog exchange -- make sure you are updating your blog on a regular basis. Bloggers don't want to send their visitors to blogs that are not updated (lost creditability)

Newsletter -- Get a newsletter out as soon as you feel comfortable about the info you are supplying to your visitors. Why a newsletter? You need to build a list.


Affiliate Marketing-Pay-per-click (PPC)

You can consider PPC (pay per click marketing)-this may be a little expensive at first if your pockets are lean. And again, you need to learn how to put the ads together to see a profit. If you know nothing about Google Adwords look at Perry Marshall's Definitive Guide to Adwords to get you started on the right foot.


Getting A Website

Things continue to change, some fads become standards, while other fade away. But one thing is now becoming more obvious -- you do need a presence on the web. In the past, companies would give you a link to advertise without a website. But with the changes that Google has put into place, ( trying to eliminate duplicate content) it could be more difficult to make money without a blog or website. Did you notice that I said blog. If you're unsure of what you want to do, try getting your feet wet with a blog.

As you can see, there is a lot too putting up an affiliate site. I hope I didn't put too many realities into the mix and scared you off. Affiliate marketing can be an rewarding venture, if you are willing to work hard and have realistic expectations. 

About Author:
Vickie J Scanlon -- Visit her site at: My Affiliate Place    articles, how to info on affiliate marketing, affiliate opportunities,  tech accessories, security utility software and computers for the online business. 

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