Affiliate Marketing Made Easy

My Little Squidoo Empire

2012-01-25T06:31:00.000-08:00

started here. The rest is history. I am an affiliate marketer and this is where I got my big break, at Squidoo creating lens. My little Empire is little. It is not my sole source of income, but it pays all of my bills. I started with Pot Pie Girls plan, One Week Marketing. The idea is to create one lens per week for a year. That's 52 lens up and running on auto-pilot. Not bad. This is how you make money on Squidoo.

My little Empire though is only 26 lens. Most of them on relationships. The only thing I have done different than Pot Pie Girl really is I didn't just release my lens and let them be. I baby them. I watch them. I check their stats. I look for ways to improve them. My results are not bad, not bad at all. I have 4 of my lens connected to one clickbank account. The results for the last few weeks are below. Pot pie girl says you can make money on squidoo, I believe her now.

Week Ending Gross Sales
2012-01-25 (current week) $825.46
2012-01-18 $734.50
2012-01-11 $508.31
2012-01-04 $643.36
2011-12-28 $412.05

As you can see in 4 weeks they doubled. That is another blog post but it happened because of a coaching course I invested in here.

The fact of the matter is if you tweak your lens a few times a month and ping them, they will rise in the search engines. Check your stats and see what terms are being used to find your lens in the search engine. Incorporate these terms into your text module titles and content and reping. This doesn't take long at all, a few minutes which translates to dollars.

Below is a shot of my dashboard this morning of my top 4 lens which rank for #3, #4. #8 and #13 in relationships.

[Featured! Click for more info.] 4,971 week
236 today $2.44 01/10/2012

[Featured! Click for more info.] 9,991 week
414 today $2.82 12/28/2011

[Featured! Click for more info.] 2,235 week
88 today $0.00 01/13/2012

[Featured! Click for more info.] 1,026 week
46 today $0.00

That's a total of 18,223 visits for the week. Not bad. All of my lens have a rss feed from my blogs in them which also translates to about 7000 visits to my blogs also.

Lens and blogs all have affiliate links in them. The money Squidoo pays I donate to charity. Another important factor that you can play around is the products that you are promoting. All sales pages do not convert at the same rate. I added a high converting product to one lens and my income doubled that week.

Also my lens have attracted the attention of other marketers. I have been paid up to $150 bucks to create a lens for others. Another source of income.

I wanted to post this as some simply tell me that using Squidoo is not wise. Some have told me you can't make money with squidoo. While I do agree putting all your eggs in one basket isn't wise, it sure doesn't hurt me to have a few in Squidoo. The great thing about it is it is so easy to use. Even for the technically challenges if you just follow the step by step guide here.

After 2 Years of Direct Article Marketing One Change....

2011-11-14T07:59:00.000-08:00

that resulted in some pretty substantial increase in traffic and sales. Direct article marketing is when you write articles that don't really link to a website. They are linked to domain names that you have forwarded an affiliate link to. While direct article marketing can be effective, it does take lots and lots of articles to get income. The reason for this I think is because a person has to click on a link something like 7 times usually before they make a purchase.

The good thing about it is that sometimes if they click on your domain which is actually straight to a sales page, often there is some sort of opt in form. If they do opt in, if the vendor has a good email strategy, they will get reminded of this product more than once. The cookie is stored and eventually you do get credit for the sale. That being said, I have to mention it's a good idea to make sure the product you are promoting has a good campaign and a way to keep it fresh in your readers eyes.

Now back to this change I made. I have written hundreds of articles that are considered direct marketing. They are linked to domains that I forwarded affiliate links to. These domains by the way are not very expensive. Anywhere from 4 bucks to maybe 13 bucks. This weekend I took all affiliate links out of my domains that I have accumulated over the last few years and reforwarded them to my Squidoo Lens on the same topics.

The result? It was a landslide. All those articles that were once connecting to sales page link directly to my little mini site. My lens soared in visits, not to mention they are moving up in the search engines as well. My rss feeds from my blogs are also linked to my lens. My blogs as a result also got a lot more visits.

The reader also gets to be exposed to more of my work. This will only result in more followers for me and increased credibility and help build my reputation as an expert.

Direct article marketing worked for me in the beginning to generate immediate income. It is a great bum marketing method. Long term though, I have found that it's more beneficial to have the traffic go to my sites instead.

The income part, which most are curious about, well lets just say I earned enough over one weekend with that one little change to pay my electric bill, rent and groceries for a month. This journey into affiliate marketing for me started here, almost 3 years ago. I love Squidoo and it is an excellent tool in affiliate marketing.

How To Get a Squidoo Lens on the First Page of Google

2011-10-17T14:38:00.000-07:00

I by no means am an expert in this marketing thing, but I do have a few claims to fame. One being I have a handful of Squidoo Lens that rank very high in the search engines. When I say high, I mean number one for some highly searched terms in my niche. High as in above the creators of the products I promote. Let me explain a bit more.

I am in the dating and relationship niche. There are dating gurus out there with some best selling products. Often when you Google the name of their product which is the top keyword, there is my little Squidoo Lens right there on the first page of google, while they sit at number 2. I must add that this spot jumps around and confess that I don't really know why. I rarely jump below 5 though and after updating my lens by very little, I usually can get them back to number one. Very little as in adding a tag or picture and pinging it.

I want to state again that I am no expert. I have been at Squidoo for going on 3 years and I have a little formula that I follow. To get your Squidoo Lens ranked in Google keyword research is step one. I do use Google adwords tool, but I also rely a lot on my head. My first goal is to pick out 4 to 5 Keywords or semi long tailed key words. Lets say I was promoting an ebook hypothetically written by Joe Blow called How to Make a Man Commit. I think of if I was searching this how would I search it. See possibilities below of Broad search:

1. How to make a man commit 5400
2. Getting a man to commit 590
3. He wont commit 2400
4. how to make a man want you 65,000
5. make your man commit

Not I did say this was a broad search. The 65,000 may be a sign that I want to create a seperate lens on this topic alone. I would also drill down and change my keyword results to exact, but this will do for my point.

When selecting the name for my lens, I will use the second one, Betting a man to commit. That becomes my domain at Squidoo. When building a lens after you select this it asks you for 3 more search terms which is where I add #1,#3 and #5. Number one you notice is the title of the product I am promoting. This becomes my introduction title. I am not sure why, but just know this to be, you don't want your title and domain at Squidoo to be the same.

Now I add 3 texts links and write those like I was writing an article. My titles and articles will be built around these keywords I have preselected. The first on after the introduction may be titles "What it takes to make a man commit. I write the article spiced with this keyword, not too much, just a few times throughout.

Then I move onto the second text module. I may title this one, What to do if he won't commit and again repeat above steps. It's sort of like an outline with the information organized accordingly.

I add pictures. When I upload the pictures I am adding, I label them in my computer to the key words. One pic may be labeled "make him commit". This gives Google something else to crawl, not sure why, but it's a little trick I learned. If you just try updating your lens with this tip alone, you may notice and increase in traffic.

I add my link list where I have the actual option to purchase the ebook and hit publish. I write a few articles with Ezine or now I use Street Articles which creates a few backlinks and let it go. When the little green check appears in a day or so, I submit the RSS feed to Feedage, ping in in pingomatic and in Squidutils and tada, I am done.

Once you learn this process and do it a few times, you will be able to do it in just an hour or so. Create create and watch the money start to trickle in. I do have my own website, but Squidoo pays my rent, electric and my internet connection every month and still is growing as I do little of anything to keep it going.

My love of Squidoo started here with Pot Pie Girl.

How I Created My First Ebook Free

2011-09-06T11:25:00.000-07:00

I have come a long ways since I first started online marketing two years ago. I just finished my first ebook and had it up and selling in less than a day! That is pretty good for someone as technically challenged as me. I admit I spent $5.00 bucks on Fiverr for a cover design, but that was it.

You see I was clueless. I had a document written as a book in Open Office, which is free. I knew I could convert it from there to a pdf which is very very simple. It was the next step that I did not know where to start. I did a lot of online research, mainly on youtube and watched many tutorials. It started clicking in my head that creating this ebook and actually getting it up for sale was not as hard as I had thought it would be. It was simple actually.

Seems we fear the unknown until it grows in our heads into a huge unconquerable monster which is what creating an ebook had done in my head. Once I approached and faced this fear, I realized there was absolutely nothing my technically challenged ass could not do in the process of creating an ebook for free.

I went to webstarts to create my landing page and my download page. I found how to videos on youtube. The thing that was scaring me most was I could not for the life of me figure out how the book was going to download to the buyer automatically. I could not get my mind around this. Turns out, it's simple as pie.

So once you ebook is written in Open Office and converted with the touch of a button to a PDF file, you are ready to get started. Note here, if you are an article marketer and have a lot of articles out there, why not put some of them together and in order in Open Office a create you pdf document which can be an ebook.

To use webstarts as your landing and thank you/download page is simple. I started by watching this video.
You will need only two pages. One for your sales page/landing page and one for your thank you download page. Once you have your sales page up you then add a paypal button. This is very simple, you can find directions here. You will need a business or premier account from paypal to do this. Here is another video I found on how to have a pay now button in less than five minutes.

So you have a landing page with a paypal button. You have a download page where you actually have your pdf file attached for download. Paypal does the work of directing your visitors after purchase to the download page. So the process is visitor lands on the landing page, clicks the button, goes through paypal to make purchase, purchase is complete, then visitor is redirected to the download page where they now have access to the digital product.

The catch here is this. That download page needs to be hidden, otherwise anyone could land there and get your book without paying. This is simple in webstarts also. You go to the dashboard and unclick it's visability in the menu bar of the site.

I literally got my ebook up in less than 3 hours. Sure it needs tweaking and the landing page needs some work, but it made me enough money to pay my electric bill and buy groceries the first couple of days, so once I do get it tweaked, I can only imagine what it will do. You can view it here. The Charms of Southern Women.

If you are new to internet marketing, don't let all of this stuff scare you, it's simple. I started two years ago with this program and the rest is history. One Week Marketing.

The Facebook Market - How it Strengthens My Business

2011-07-26T10:42:00.000-07:00

I can't say enough about facebook and what it has done for me personally and for my business. I don't use it like most. I don't do paid advertising, I don't do fan pages or any of those things. First to understand how it benefits me, you need to know I am huge on the laws of attraction. I believe like attracts like.

I don't promote money making products by the way. I am into relationships and the dating niche. Pretty competitive. I started with a small group of friends. If you have read my blog, you know that I am not out to get rich quick and I take the slow boat instead. I still am hovering just under 600 friends, but these friends I find are like minded individuals. Somehow I have attracted them over the last year. My market is targeted so to speak and it is growing daily, slowly but surely.

Just today a facebook friend posted this "I have grown to love this book of faces. Last week, when I was feeling badly, I felt lifted by the support here. With the right intention, FB is a perfect place to bridge to humanity and to work together to elevate and enhearten consciousness. Out in the world, the unconscious media can muffle our message, but here, they can't stop the soulnami of goodness from inspiring humanity. Sacred purpose, everywhere...".

The above says it all for me. The people that have come into my life and my path are amazing. I have had complete strangers mail me offering support, seeking advice, and encouragement. It amazes me.

On my wall you will find all sorts of things. From gratitude, to struggles, to inspiring quotes and yes all my articles and Squidoo lens post there when I update or publish. People actually read them. I think they read them because they have learned to trust me.

Another amazing thing that has helped me so much in business is the groups I have been invited into. Motivational groups, intentions groups, dating groups, all sorts of groups that allow me to get my message out. I never spam. I contribute more to these communities in the form of posts and get to know the group members more than anything else. I build relationships and these relationships build my business for me.

Yes this is a slower way, but it works for me and I can sleep at night because I know what I am doing is right. I know I am giving back to these communities. I love facebook, that much is very very true. I love my facebook peeps and fans and I think they honestly feel this, therefore, they trust me. It's real.

So maybe I am not a technical guru on facebook and maybe I don't do all those marketing tricks, but facebook makes me about $700 dollars a month with just under 600 friends and all I do is have fun and post and interact. In honesty, I think facebook has enriched my life more than I could ever make in money.

I started all of this a little over two years ago with this little thing here. One week marketing. Today still it is still my main cash earner.

Become an Expert in Your Niche

2011-05-27T09:33:00.000-07:00

It happened to me by accident. Rather is wasn't in my plan. My plan was to be an affiliate marketer and make money selling the product of others. Had you told me 2 years ago that I would have been interviewed by David Shade, become friends and work with Nicole Gayle and have Evan Marc Katz as a guest poster on my forum, I would have never thought it. If you had told me that I would make money helping others find love and go through break ups and have my own site, I would never have believed it. Writing my own book? Me? Yet all of the above is happening and now I can imagine and believe that more is to come my way. Being a weekly co-host on a radio talk show, Getting man out of the cave? Me, nope never, but it's real and it's happening.

I started with blogs and Squidoo Lens. It all started when I purchase Pot Pie Girls One Week Marketing which I highly recommend for a newbie. Her plan was simple and I started blogging and low and behold, people started reading my blogs and lens and money started coming in. I little at first, but now I support myself on this plan alone, the becoming and expert and my own site I believe is going to be the icing and cherry on top.

I wrote a lot of articles as well. I have thousands out there and became an expert at that as well, but it's no longer my focus. It is a way to drive traffic, build credibility and a reputation. It's very important to provide useful information for your audience and build trust.

So will you see me on TV one day? I think you just might. It all started with a work at home forum that I joined and the rest just started spiraling. With a lot of hard work, dedication and never giving up.

Entering a Competetive Niche in Affiliate Marketing

2011-03-29T09:48:00.000-07:00

Affiliate marketing is not easy, and you won't get rich overnight, that's pretty much a fact. Some say steer clear of competitive niches, especially if you are new. This is a warning I did not listen too. It seems to be turning out well for me, but perhaps my approach was different. I focused on long term satisfaction and still do. I don't go for instant gratification. It's fleeting.

I choose the dating industry, by pure accident to be honest. I was searching online for a means to make money as I have stated in previous posts here; I hated my job. It just so happens I got dumped the day before I lost my job. So I was online looking for help with dealing with this and looking for a way to survive at the same time.

I found an ebook, get your ex back. I purchased it and read it, to later discover I could actually be an affiliate of this book. Great book by the way. I didn't get him back, but I did get my peace of mind back. Once I discovered this book, I searched for others with value. I purchased and read them all. I never promote something I don't believe in.

Then I landed on a forum for women. I went to the break up section. There were women posting everywhere about their heart break. They were all devastated, hurting and so sad. I created a thread there called No Contact Support and got them all together in one place. I led them through it. I healed in the process.

I discovered I was pretty smart when it came to men and I discovered I had forgotten more than a lot of those women knew. I started posting all over that forum. The owner offered me a non paying job as Moderator. I took it.

In the meantime I was still building my blogs, Squidoo Lens and writing article after article. Money was coming in, slowly but surely.

Funny thing happened on that forum. The ladies started emailing me privately. Some days I struggled to keep up. Fast forward 2 years and it's announced the forum is shutting down. Uh oh! Emails started pouring in again, asking me what were they going to do. It truly was a tight knit community, and it seems I had become the glue.

My door opened, I started my own forum, with help from a member of the Warrior Forum, God bless her. Week one I had over 100 members and it was still in beta testing, still is actually.

I also interacted on facebook a lot. My contacts started connecting together. On my facebook page I have women from the forum, followers from my blog, followers from my articles. I have a growing group there also. It's for Goddesses like myself. ;-)It just keeps growing.

I know I am rambling here, but the bottom line is if you are passionate about it, you can make it if you don't give up. Today you could be struggling, but keep pushing. Two years down the road you don't know what doors will open.

I like to think it's sort of like Karma. The hundreds, maybe thousands of women I have helped is all coming back to me now. If I had done it witout a heart, I think others would see through this and what I offer would hold little value.

Perhaps I should send a thank you to that man that dumped me.

It's all a journey and you won't reach your destination if you give up.

Do Article Spinners and Submitters Work

2011-03-08T13:16:00.000-08:00

I promised to be back with a new post regarding the article spinner and article submitter that I had been using. My first step was to try it out via someone else. In other words I outsourced it to an individual who already had this software in place. I paid him 10 bucks to generate a new article and submit via his software.

My test site was a Squidoo lens I had just built. I did nothing to send backlinks to it I just left it up to the spinner and submitter. This was a month ago, perhaps a little more. My lens now has 58 unique backlinks. Not so bad for just one article and 10 bucks. I made that back with one sale.

So with evidence that it does do something apparently, I made the purchase. I bought magic article spinner and magic article submitter and went to work. I won't lie, it took me two days to figure out how to use it. Then again, consider the fact that I am technically challenged to a huge degree. I cringe thinking of learning a new software or stepping out of my comfort zone of ezine articles.

After the two days though and a lot of hair pulling, I figured it out. It now takes me about 30 minutes to rewrite one of my many already existing articles and submit it to hundreds of article directories. I am now getting traffic from places I have never even heard of and a lot of it is very targeted.

Moral of the story, now I incorporate the article spinner and submitter into my weekly things to do. My goal is to spin at least 5 articles a week and submit. Imagine continuing to do this and the impact it will have over time. It is just one of my many duties as an affiliate marketer going at this mostly solo.

Affiliate Marketing to the Next Level

2011-02-08T10:25:00.000-08:00

This May marks two years I have been affiliate marketing . For those of you who have followed me, you know I am one of the slow boat to riches girl. I use all free methods for the most part and have spent less than $100 until recently. I have been making money and I do support myself with this. Some days are better than others.

I have primarily used article marketing to drive traffic and generate income. It works for me. The fact that I hate trying something new or having to learn to use a new software has greatly hindered my progress. I shiver at the thought.

I posted on a work at home forum asking for advice as to what would help me take this to the next level. I now make enough that I have a little extra to invest back into my business. I got a few suggestions, but nothing really stood out. One gentleman blatantly suggested I just try a few things out and see for myself. I thought well he might be onto something.

I purchase Article Dominance first. Very inexpensive, but to a Newbie at affiliate marketing, well it is priceless. I wish I would have bought this a long time ago. After I purchased it I have since received updates that are packed with new techniques on writing and getting your articles ranked. Well worth the small amount I paid for this.

If I were to review Article Dominance, I would say for the Newbie it is a must. Don't wait almost two years like I did. I have since changed my resource box and my click through rate has increased dramatically. This product paid for itself after editing an article that had been live for ages.

I have also recently purchased an article spinner and submitter. Shiver again. I have been struggling with this piece of software, but slowly am getting the hang of it. I am currently in test mode with it, but have already seen some results. This will be another topic. So far it looks like this will be another product that will aid me in getting to the next level. Stay tuned.

Making Money With Direct Article Marketing

2011-01-11T12:41:00.000-08:00

I recently ran a little test on my direct article marketing efforts. Direct article marketing is when I write an article, and direct it straight through to an affiliate link via a domain forwarding. I don't send it to a website, blog or lens.

I can track these sales via the hoplink clickbank code. I forwarded this clickbank link to a domain and use this domain exclusively in my direct article marketing efforts. I did this a month ago and have written 5 articles with this link in them. I am amazed really. In 30 days, I have made over $400 dollars just from those 5 articles. Not really bad, considering I can now write an article in less than 10 minutes.

If you are a newbie visiting my blog this may not make a lot of sense to you, but it is the easiest, least time consuming way to make money online. You will have to purchase a domain name, but you can purchase a dot us for under $4.00 per year. As you can see, I got that back 100 times over.

Now not all articles perform equally. It has taken me a while to get the hang of how to get a higher click through rate on my articles. It's been trail and error all the way. The great thing is those articles are out there forever making money for me. I never have to touch them again. I don't have to add content to a blog or website, I don't have to do anything else. Write the article and I am done.

Of course there is a little more to article writing than this, but it's the fastest, easiest way to start making money. Once you get the hang of it, you can zip out an article in less than 15 minutes and have it working for you.

As I have posted many times on this blog, I am a true bum marketer and rarely spend much money. Now though that I am making a steady income I am able to start investing, baby steps, into learning more. I promise never to suggest a product that I have not used and tested myself.

I recently invested under 20 bucks for a product that helped me. Article Dominance before I started this test and low and behold, learned a lot of new tricks with article marketing. If you are relatively new to affiliate marketing and use article marketing, this guide is a must. For more on article dominance, click here.

How I Make Money Without a Website

2010-12-02T11:45:00.000-08:00

I am not going to lie to you, I did spend $3.99 for a domain name. I am not really even sure exactly what a domain name is, all I know is to put a link in an article, I have to have one. Direct affiliate links are not allowed on most article directories. I like Ezine Articles, in my opinion it is one of the best if not the best. Ezine does not allow direct affiliate links, so a domain name is the way around that. There are thousands of others out there though not as strict.

Step one in Bum Marketing is to sign up with ClickBank, which is a marketplace where thousands of digital products are available for you to sell for a profit. Sign up is easy and ClickBank is one of the most trusted and reliable affiliate sites out there with thousands and thousands of products to choose from.

Step two in Bum Marketing I searched ClickBank's marketplace for a product that I know something about such as dating or getting over a broken heart. You can find about anything under the sun there though. Even how to build a chicken coup. I push one little key and get a link that is unique to me. I can post this link anywhere on the web for the most part and anyone who clicks on it and buys, the profit goes straight to me.

Step three in Bum Marketing, I purchase a domain name similar to the product and what I am selling. I use GoDaddy, but there are thousands of places out there like this. I could use a.com domain, but that cost more, about 12 bucks so I opt for the.us and pay $3.99. I then forward the link to the domain name.

Step four in Bum Marketing, I write the article giving useful information that will benefit my reader like hopefully this article is doing for some newbie to affiliate marketing. I post my link, aka domain name at the end of the article and in the bio box. It takes about 48 hours but the article goes live on the web. Some articles do better than others, again I am not going to lie about that. The good news though is the article is there forever. It's residual income.

I rinse and repeat, thus creating multiple income streams for numerous products, again, some do better than others. It's trial and error, and you won't get rich overnight. It takes patience and it's easy to get side tracked once you start because you will realize there are so many ways to make money with affiliate marketing once you start understanding it.

I am writing this article in hopes on inspiring a newbie out there not to give up, I almost did. It does work, it is possible and don't let anyone tell you it isn't. I am living proof. My first sale was about $21 bucks, but I kept going. No I am not rich, YET. After a few sales I did invest more money later to help with my learning curve, less than $50 bucks for a guide written by the pot pie girl. Sounds crazy doesn't it, the pot pie girl. Best $50 bucks I ever spent but you don't have to spend a dime really to make money with affiliate marketing, a Bum could go to the library and do it.

Here is my domain name with my link and the $50 bucks I spent. www.oneweekmarketing.us

My Core Belief About Affiliate Marketing

2010-11-14T16:40:00.000-08:00

I use Core belief here because tonight I logged onto a work at home forum, it is my favorite one, I am on a few. I don't log onto them as much as I should. Every time I do I tell myself you should do this a couple times a week. I learn something new each time. Today I was reminded by a very respected member there in his post about Frank Kern's Core Influence series, or program or whatever it is. I watched a few of these videos and I had forgotten about them. I also realized what Frank Kern teaches I pretty much do. For the most part anyway.

The general message is you have to be able to understand their problems, feel them really so you can communicate through to their core personality. You have to get to know them I believe or communicate to them as if you know them and feel their pain or problem. So in essence if you feel their pain, you do understand and you sort of become an authority to you audience.

I don't underestimate the power of really getting to know my audience. I do this through Facebook and some forums related to my niche. I guess you could say I am building an online presence and credibility slowly but surely. If you remember, I am not in a huge hurry hear nor am I the most organized.

Bottom line, I choose a niche that I am absolutely passionate about. I know that I help other people and this and the passion means I enjoy what I do. Since I enjoy what I do, that core thing resonates through my writing. This is my core belief about affiliate marketing, you have to love what you do, be passionate, and the rest will follow.

I also have a few followers in the affiliate marketing niche. There are a few that follow this blog. The main purpose of this blog is Pot Pie Girls program. It's just a side thing from my niche and the reason is it worked for me. It opened the door and painted a picture for me. After my first week long project that I followed step by step, I started learning, a lot.

I really am pretty clueless about a lot of this stuff, but I believe in what I do, I like it and it works. It can be done. I may do things backwards, that is debateable for sure. If you read this blog I think you might see I have learned a lot from day one. At least I hope so. I am still very much a newbie.

Oh and I think in my last post I said I would update about my articles that I had screwed up links in, the domain was auctioned off because I wasn't paying attention. I fixed them. I was curios if those few articles out of the loop would make a difference. Turns out it did, not huge by any means, maybe an average of $80.00 per week, but hey, it's something.

Thanks to my friends on the work at home forums! I would not be here if not for you, really I wouldn't.

If you have made it this far I must add that core belief or feeling the pain or problem that you want to solve should transfer into your key word research. I have come up with many a good key words by putting myself into the shoes of another or remembering a time when I was in the exact same shoes. Use this core belief thing for key words, article titles, domain names etc....

Even Clueless Affiliate Marketers Can Make Money

2010-10-19T14:55:00.000-07:00

I should know, I am clueless. I just realized today that I did not own that domain on Godaddy. Silly me. I would never have learned this had I not let my domain expire. Went to renew a little late and seems it was auctioned off and for sale for about $5000.00. I don't understand all this, but I am sure I should. I start thinking selling domains? Can I do that? Probably, but that is an entire other project that I am not ready for.

Well now I remember that I had used that domain in maybe 15 articles on Ezine. Oh boy! Manual labor to fix that. I fixed it, seems those articles had been going to the site to buy my domain for about 10 days. I spent 15 minutes, resubmitted the articles, and tad da, after they were all corrected, I made $250 over the weekend while I was hanging out with my new boyfriend. I think that is kind of cool.

In the process I also discovered that I had made another error in about 7 more articles. I had put in the wrong domain. I was meaning to tell women how to get their boyfriends to marry them but the link I put in directed them to how to get the ex back. Ughhh. I did that today. I will update later when they are released again.

So what I am really talking about above is one of the 3 forms of article marketing. Direct Article Marketing that is. That is where you don't have your own landing page or squidoo lens or blog. You write the article, link it directly to the sales page which is your affiliate link. You say you can't put an affiliate link in some articles such as ezine, true yes.

That is where the domain thing comes in. I purchase domain names or registration or whatever it is. I put keyword research into this too, another subject. So many subjects. I can get a .us for $5.00 for a year. I forward the affiliate links straight to these domains, simple even for me. You can put domain names in your articles in most directories if not almost all.

I do other article marketing other than direct, but these do make money for me. This is so much fun learning too by the way. It's like going back to college but much more rewarding because what you build is really completely yours. It could be a reputation you build, a financial empire or a few bucks, but it's yours.

Bum Article Marketing Tip

2010-09-16T12:02:00.000-07:00

When I first started affiliate marketing it was all Greek to me, still is for the most part. A mentor of mine was telling me one day about forwarding domains. Huh? What was a domain? I had no clue and I certainly wasn't going to tell him that, he was already really frustrated and accused my blond dye of going past my roots and into my brain. So I did what anybody would do and consulted with my friend Google.

He was telling me how to forward my clickbank hoplinks to a domain. Ok, ok, so I got it, then what? Then you just place your domain name as links in your articles. Duh, that is so simple. Why didn't I think of that.

The fact is that most major article directories won't allow a direct affiliate link, but they will allow a domain name in the body of an article. This was amazing to me. So to be an affiliate marketer, I really didn't even have to have a web site to get started, just purchase a few cheap domain names and forward my hoplinks to those domains and ta da, I am in business.

I use Godaddy.com for my domain names. You can purchase them for as low as $1.99 per year and that is pretty cheap.

Is Building a List really Necessary in Affiliate Marketing

2010-09-14T19:08:00.000-07:00

To be honest, my jury is still out on this one. Please remember though, I really don't know what I am doing. Do I have a list? Well yes, but I did not have any auto responders to get it. Oh no, that would have been way too easy. Instead I found public forums to post on and in the process I built relationships. It's only been a year, but I have made many a friend that has landed in my inbox. They trust me and rightfully so, I have been with them on these forums for over a year. Work, well yes. Rewarding, well that too. They are friends. Virtual friends, but real people on the other side of these copper wires.

Oh yes I could add a responder, come up with a clever campaign and mail it out to everyone on my list, but would I really be targeting my market? It's the old numbers game, send it to enough people, someone will buy. Like dating, which by the way is my niche in internet marketing. Mine and about a million or zillion others. Am I making a killing? No. Am I making money consistently and is it growing? Yes!

Funny thing happens with my small list, the market is targeted, they trust me and when I tell them something is a great product, they believe me. If I don't think it is great, I am not going to ask you to buy it.

I have not invested any money with one exception which got me started. Curious? Click here.

Slow Boat to Riches????

2010-08-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

I have been blogging and use Squidoo as my only source of affiliate marketing now for a while. True I could probably try some new methods, but for now I am doing ok with the bum marketing techniques. I have not been putting a lot of time into it and still see results. It's summer and the fact of the matter is, I would rather be playing.

What I have already created sites out there and still brings me extra money while I am playing. I have no doubts that if I increased my efforts, I would be on a faster road to riches, but for now, I will take the slow road.

Just want people to know that it is possible to make money through affiliate marketing, it does happen. It feels good too. I love coming home after playing and seeing a few extra dollars. Even if I only invested 1 hour and that one hour makes me $100.00 bucks week after week, well just imagine. You do the math.

I use clickbank among many other affiliate programs. Here is a snapshot of clickbank transactions for this week so far. It's not millions, but considering the hour I put into it, it's not bad. This does not count my other affiliate networks that I use and I still have 2 more days in this pay period.

Weekly Sales Snapshot
Week Ending Gross Sales
2010-08-04 (current week) $80.33

So Newbies out there, know it does work and the more you put into it the more you will make. You can take the slow boat or you can speed it up. It's all up to you. If I did nothing else with this, I could still count on about $100.00 extra buck a week for a lifetime. Residual income.

Here is how I do it. One Week Marketing.

Small Changes in Article Marketing that Tripled my Income in 3 Weeks

2010-07-19T17:31:00.000-07:00

I am one of these unorganized fly by the seat of your pants people. When I started article marketing to drive traffic I would just do a little key word research and write. I would toss the keywords around in the article and I was done. I got traffic, some articles did really well, some not so hot. I was still making money so I really didn't pay it any attention. About a month ago, I realized I had to get more cash in the door. Daughter graduating High School, need I say more.

I went back to those articles and studied the ones that performed well. Now some got lots of clicks but the click through rate was low, others few clicks but high percentage of click through rates. Hmmm, what did I do right and what did I do wrong. Do let me note here though, Travis that teaches Bum Marketing techniques inspired me to research this through the emails I get from him.

Titles are big, the ones that got a lot of views always had a catchy title, something emotional, something that created a need. Example: "How to text a girl" had 459 views last month. "How to text a girl and push her buttons", 1471 views. Same keywords for both articles. Some of the corniest titles are the best. Usually when someone is online, they are alone, no one can see how corny they are so they will get clicked on. The corny titles often do stir emotion. Take your keyword and build emotion into it. Push buttons!

Keywords, I used to always add those to the article last, I knew what they were going to be, but I waited until the end to add them. Now I do that before I write the article, some are long tailed keywords by the way. I have them in that little box typed above or below the article. This reminds me to toss all of them into the article in some form. After I finish the article, I go back through looking for an opportunity to add them a few more times. You would think this time consuming, but once you have done it about 10 times, it's a breeze really. I can spit out an article now in about 10 minutes. I do not know why these things work, I just know that these articles with the rich keyword content seem to often end up on the first page of Google.

The call to action. The bio box at the end of an article is huge. In the article, hopefully if you played on the emotions. Fear is a good one, such and such could happen if you don't fix this. You created a problem, you have set the bait. Now you have to offer the solution and create some urgency. Reminder of what might happen if you don't fix the problem. If you don't get your ex back he will land in the arms of another tomorrow. Maybe not that drastic, but you get the drift. Remember this person is probably alone, behind their computer maybe worried about something, feeling vulnerable.

So about 3 weeks ago, after this I started paying more attention. I put out roughly 25 articles in that time. I also picked 10 of my existing articles with high views and edited the bio box and improved the call to action. Results, in 3 weeks my income tripled. Now I am not rich, not even close. I do all of this the bum marketing way. No money, no outsourcing, yet. The long road, but I am still learning, I am still a Newbie by the way, so this information may be old news to some, but to me, it was Grand!

Also note, I only use blogs and Squidoo Lens. No huge sites, just following the one week marketing guide.

Affiliate Marketing with a Blog

2010-07-07T08:45:00.000-07:00

I have people ask me all the time how do I make money off of a blog. Well it's something called affiliate marketing. Now there are thousands and thousands of programs out there to do this, some rather costly, some just a few bucks and then you can do like me and go the free route or what us affiliate marketers call bum marketing.

While the free route may take a bit longer, it can be done. You just have to have a plan and implement it consistently. It is as simple as setting up a blog, perhaps a squidoo lens and writing a few articles and setting it free on the Web. In a short time if you followed your steps, your blog gets indexed.

I have 5 blogs and about 14 Squidoo lens. It has taken time to build these, but I did purchase a guide that detailed it step by step. This guide is by called One Week Marketing. It is simple, easy to follow and it works. I have made my investment back a thousand times over.

The beauty of it is I just rinse and repeat the same steps, if I don't want to take it any further or learn anymore than this one simple guide, I can still have unlimited income over time.

I have come back when I notice sales dwindling down and add content to the blog just like I am doing today, ping it, and I am done. The blog goes back out there on auto pilot. Pretty simple actually. For your guide click here.

The Value of Work at Home Forums

2010-02-15T06:38:00.000-08:00

I joined a work at home forum Spring of 2009. I stumbled upon it doing a search in Google for work at home ideas. I lingered there for weeks, reading. There was so much information there, just reading. That forum was the determining factor in the path I would take, affiliate marketing. I found that any question I had was usually previously addressed and all I had to do was a search and I would see tons of posts on the topic.

Then I started participating. I found I could ask any question, no matter how stupid I thought it was and all of these wonderful, helpful people in the virtual world would come to my rescue. Eventually I was participating in 3 different forums. I have met many people there that help and inspire me, people who have made it in affiliate marketing and newcomers full of hope.

Another great thing about these forums is the networking that goes on there. I formed friendships there that moved off of the forum and into my in box, facebook page, and even my telephone. We exchange ideas, link sites together, help one another and encourage one another.

The value of a work at home forum is priceless. It is where I discovered one week marketing, which for a technically challenged person such as myself was perfect. A work at home forum is networking at it's finest.

Last but certainly not least is the back links it provides. You can link your sites in your signature and this drives more traffic. It's a win win place to be.

Facebook and Affiliate Marketing

2010-01-27T08:40:00.000-08:00

I have been doing affiliate marketing for a while now full time. I love it, I get to have fun, make money doing it and meet lots of new and wonderful people in the cyber world.

I currently just use potpie girls program, one week marketing, but have added a few things out of my own imagination, one being facebook. Now there are lots of internet marketers out there that use this tool too, but often they will just pollute your wall over and over and you end up just hitting that hide button. I have found a different approach.

My niche happens to be the very broad niche of relationships. There is a lot of little niches inside of this one, but that is another story. I joined facebook several months back with just a few friends. Now I am only a few over 200 but every day I get more and more friend requests. I do this by posting on my wall and commenting usually funny or relevant comments on walls of others. I have my setting unrestricted so anyone can view what I post. I try to pique interest and usually I get a lot of comments and conversations start and people get to know one another. Facebook is truly viral, it just keeps expanding. Freinds become friends of friends.

So for the most part I am just socializing. A few times a week I will post an article or an updated Squidoo lens and the traffic comes. I even have a few followers who will take my links and post them on their own walls.

Another thing I have done is create groups on facebook relating to my niche and I start discussions there. My links are posted within the group and I get traffic daily from that. Like my network of friends, my network in the group grows too.

Moral of this story, if I have aquired over 200 friends and the same amount of group members in just a couple of months, where will it be a year from now? Facebook alone with my lens and blogs can make me unlimited income. The best part of it, I have a blast doing it and I have made some great friends I would never have met otherwise. Hec I have even got a few dates off facebook, help with my websites among many other benefits, so yes I love facebook.

How to Build More Quality Backlinking

2009-11-17T09:12:00.000-08:00

There are many ways to create quality backlinks. Backlinks are a very important process in internet marketing. I am going to list a few free ways to do this and drive traffic to your site.

Create account with all the free blogs such as Blogger.com, Wordpress.com, Squidoo.com, etc. Post a unique article to each of them. Link each blog or property to your main site.

There are tons of social bookmarking sites. Digg, onlywire, stumbleupon, technorati and so many more, just google it.

Post links on your facebook, myspace and twitter pages

Post in forums and have a link in your signature.

Submit articles to sites like ezine, goarticle, ehow, searchwarp and many others.

Use add services like 3 step adds us free adds.

Google is you friend, anytime I am looking for bookmarking sites or article directories I just google it. I also go to a work at home forum, join one, it is well worth the knowledge you will learn from these expereinced marketers.

What is Affiliate Marketing and How does it Work?

2009-09-22T06:34:00.000-07:00

There are thousands of affiliate products out there to promote. Affiliate Marketing is when you take that product and promote it on line. Now for beginners this could be as simple as creating a blog, or Squidoo lens which are both very simple. You then direct your visitors to your link to the affiliate product in your site where they purchase and you get paid.

Now for a newbie, this can be overwhelming as you have to learn how to drive traffic to you site, how to get indexed by Google, and about keywords. There are thousands of ways to promote your site. As a newbie to affiliate marketing, you will be overwhelmed in the beginning. Its a huge learning curve that takes months. The good news is there are programs out there, some of them free, some very low cost that can take weeks or months off of your learning curve.

You also have to decide what you are going to promote, many choose a business in a box, but that's not for everyone. I think if you can find something you are passionate about your success will be much greater. Think about what you love, then Google it with the word affiliate behind it and Ta Da, there are your choices. You can market ebooks, vitamins, electronics, almost anything you can think of there is an affiliate program out there for that product.

The best thing to do is get your site up with you affiliate link, then start the learning. This way you can tweek and apply what you learn as you go, but get started first. Once you get one site up and running, then you can go onto another and then another. I average creating a new site every week now. When I first started it would take me a month to get just one up. So lets say 1 week per site, 4 sites in one month all bringing in income even as you sleep. Rinse and repeat. I use a one week marketing plan and it has got me off the ground.

I started this 5 months ago part time and at first had little success. I got laid off 2 weeks ago so I knew I had to start getting serious. I spent 10 and 12 hours a day on this to get it up and running . I was a newbie and totally lost. Well it paid off, now I make money and in the last 2 weeks I made very close to what I made at my "real job", which by the way wasn't exactly peanuts. The best part is I love it. I have put together a guide that will help with your learning curve if you want to move ahead faster and start bringing in some cash. Its called Affiliate Marketing Made Easy. Start making money faster and take some of that learning curve away.

I hated my day job, my hours were awful and I did not have a life. One day I just Googled "make money from home" and wow the opportunities, a lot of them scams. I lost a lot of money in the beginning. Now 8 months later I am headed for financial freedom. Did it take work, yes it did, is it worth it to be able to have my freedom back oh yes. I want to share this, because in today's economy, times are hard. I also want to let those new to this know that it can work and its fun and don't give up, I almost did, but so glad I didn't.

More of how I used one week marketing to get here is below.

How to Make Money With Squidoo

2009-07-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

When I started into this internet affiliate marketing, I was lost. I was also far from computer savy. I was also determined. I researched, went to work at home forums for advice and wasted a lot of money. I finally bit the bullet and invested under $50.00 for the one week marketing plan by pot pie girl. I have since made my money back over and over and over.

The plan lays out step by step instructions on how to create a lens. My first one took me about 5 hours. Now I can create on in less than 2. The guide then tells you how to get your lens indexed, and exactly what to do to drive the traffic to it. I had my first sale in a week. Then I created more lens and a few blogs like this one. Very simple. It is a 7 day action plan that if you do it a few times, like me you can cut that down to less than 2 days. I have 8 lens now and 2 blogs.
The sales increase every week.

From a monetary standpoint let me break it down for you. Lets say 8 lens only average about $60.00 in sales per lens. That is $480.00 per week. Now lets do 8 more, thats $960.00 per week. So when pot pie girl said she was making a 6 figure income, I do believe it is possible. Does it take work? Yes it does. But if you build one lens per week and follow all the steps, they are out there working for you 24/7. In one year you will have 52 lens, you do the math.

Before I found the one week marketing plan I was floundering out there clueless. Because of it, I took action and today I work in my pajama's. Is this my niche? No its not, but I have enough faith in this program that I created this blog to share it with others. If you are stuck and have no plan or are like I was, one week marketing is a great place to start. It is a one time cost and everything else is free.

Testimonial From a Successful Wealthy Affiliate Member

2009-06-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

I have been an active member of a work at home forum for some time now. They have been great. I asked keith, a silver member there who has had a lot of success to offer his view on Wealthy Affiliate, so here it is. Thank you Keith.

"If there has been one single factor that has made the biggest difference in my internet marketing career, it has been Wealthy Affiliate. I can honestly say that there is a good chance that I would not be earning money online today had I not signed up. A big thanks to Carson, Kyle, and everyone else at Wealthy Affiliate who pitched in to contribute to my success."

Free Sites and Training to Help You Get Started

2009-06-10T09:34:00.000-07:00

There is tons of free training out there. You can get overwhelmed if you try to do too many at one time. You will end up going in circles reading and never taking action. You can lose weeks and months if you don't focus.

I suggest picking one training program and sticking with it. You learn new things from all of them, but if you do more than one at a time, you will get side tracked.

There is the 30 Day Challenge by Ed Dale. It takes you through a 30 day process and teaches one technique per day. Excellent and free.

There is also Travis@bummarketingmethod is a good one too. He is entertaining and also a member of Wealthy Affiliate mentioned in a post below.

Both of these are a starting point. Although I have only scratched the surface in this blog, I will continue to add helful information on a regular basis. Best of luck and don't give up. It can work.

Low Cost Starting Programs

2009-06-10T09:10:00.000-07:00

Ok, you have decided to give affiliate marketing a try. In my below posts I have shared a lot of free information as to how you can get started. Also I have posted some free training that will help you learn the ins and outs. The free way does work, it just may taking you longer to get up and running because the learning curve here is so steep.

There are a few programs out there that are very inexpensive and packed full of useful information and take you by the hand and help you start making money. I have not tried and tested them all but there are 3 that I know come highly recommended by thousands. I know these not to be scams and I know they are well worth their price.

1. My Online Income System was created by Kimberely Hoffman. She has taught thousands how to get up and running and start making money quickly. This program is not a scam and is legit and comes highly recommended. You can check out My Online Income System here.

2. Maverick Money Makers has very high reviews as well. I have read many success stories with this on the forums. I personally have not reviewed this one, but trust my sources. Check out Maverick Money Makers here.

3. Wealthy Affiliate. I have heard so much good about this program. I have never heard or read on any of the forums anything bad about this. I think it is a proven step by step 8 week guide to make money. I have not joined this yes, but it is next on my list. It has a monthly fee that more than pays for itself. http://www.wealthyaffiliate.com/

How I Finally Put it all Together and Earned $387.00 in 7 days

2009-06-10T08:39:00.000-07:00

I started affiliate marketing 4 months ago. I went into information overload, although I learned a lot. I tried a lot of things and learned a lot of things for free and I have mentioned a lot of these in the following posts. It was hard to stick to because I worked full time and I had so many resources I was following. I managed to get a blog up and the first 3 months I did not make a dime. Layoffs were happening at my place of employment and I knew I had to get serious and find a plan and stick to it.

I researched a lot and decided on Pot Pie Girl' One Week Marketing Plan. I did not have 30 days or 8 weeks to start making money. It is a step by step easy to follow guide that will have your site up and running and generating traffic very quickly. This program got me off the ground and taught me the basics and I did make money the first week. My sites are now up and being crawled by google and week 3 I checked my clickbank and other affiliate accounts and had $387.00 and this happened in three days. I highly recommend it if you want to get off the ground and start earning cash quickly.

The great thing about her program is you can use it over and over and generate multiple streams of income. She is very successful at affiliate marketing and she shares her knowledge and helps others. She also replies to any emails that you may send her personally. The support she offers speaks volumes. When you join her program you continually get free tips in your email almost daily to help you improve your skills and knowledge. Hands down, this is my favorite. And by the way, I did get laid off, but thanks to this guide, I don't think I will be going back to work.

Here is the total on my clickbank account for the last 7 days:

2009-06-09 09:15 8E9***** PYPL GBP Sale 1 $26.48 PUG17 ROBIN29072 GB

2009-06-09 03:31 EN2***** VISA EUR Sale 1 $26.28 PUG17 ROBIN29072 IE

2009-06-09 03:06 44K***** MSTR GBP Sale 1 $26.48 PUG17 ROBIN29072 GB

2009-06-08 20:14 GTK***** PYPL USD Sale 1 $26.96 PUG17 ROBIN29072 US CA
2009-06-06 07:14 CRT***** VISA USD Sale 1 $26.78 PUG17 ROBIN29072 US NY

2009-06-05 22:11 ENK***** VISA USD Sale 1 $20.04 FLIRT ROBIN29072 US CA

2009-06-04 10:21 TYE***** VISA GBP Sale 1 $26.48 PUG17 ROBIN29072 GB

2009-06-01 18:20 JD9***** VISA USD Sale 1 $31.85 POTPIEGIRL ROBIN29072 US

2009-06-01 07:11 P9E***** MSTR USD Sale 1 $16.02 MMEEBOOK ROBIN29072 US SC

Displaying all 9 results. Total: $227.37

Prior to this it was a big fat ZERO. If I continue to follow her plan, I know it will just grow every day. If you would like to know more click here on the Click here on the One Week Marketing Plan.

The rest of the money came from resources other than Clickbank.

How do you generate traffic to your site

2009-06-10T08:25:00.001-07:00

There are many ways to generate traffic to your site. I am going to list a few below. All are free.

1. Article marketing is one of the number one ways. Ezine, Goarticles are just a couple, but there are many more. You write articles that have content related to what you are promoting and put your link to your site in the article and it will drive the traffic.
2. Join Twitter, learn the ins and outs and this will drive traffic as well.
3.Craigslist, depending on what you are promoting can be effective, but be sure to read the terms and conditions carefully as they are tricky and you can get flagged.
4. Forum Marketing is a good one. Don't go onto a forum with the intention of promoting your business. Just put your business in your signature link and get active. In the beginning you will be asking more questions than contributing information, but in time, you will build a reputation on these forums and people will begin to trust you. It takes time, but credibility is important on these forums. These people are serious and they can really help you.
5. Comment on other blogs in a niche similar to yours. Most blogs allow you to have your name and title linked back to your blog when you leave a comment. This is how people will find your blog.
6. Social Networking sites such as Myspace, and Facebook can boost traffic as you increase your friends.
7. Put your link in your email signature.
8. Post in forums that discuss your topic. This is an amazing way to start building a list if you offer good information. I have people emailing me constantly from forums wanting to know more, not about my product but my advice. This gives me the opportunity to reply my my link in my signature.

These are just a few basics and there are so many more. You don't want to get overwhelmed so pick one or two at a time, master it and then take on another.

You have your product,now what?

2009-06-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

Now you have to have a site of some sort and drive traffic to it. I will discuss the traffic generating later. You can build a site many ways and it does not cost a dime. You can start a blog, build a squidoo lens (highly the easiest and my favorite) Lets say you have a broad topic like pet care. You can break down your pet care into, healthy pet foods, grooming your cat, bathing your farrot etc.... and create a lens on each niche. There is also hub pages. Put your affiliate link on all of these and link them together.

Now you have your site, with your affiliate link, you are ready to go on line and advertise adn start making money with affiliate marketing.

How Do You know What to Promote as an Affiliate Marketer

2009-06-10T07:33:00.000-07:00

I have basically found there are 2 different types of affiliate marketing programs out there. 3 If you count multi level marketing, but I do not have the experience with that one, so I will focus on the other 2.

1. This is when you google affiliate marketing and all those opportunities pop up. These are mostly just a business in a box. You purchase the program and promote it. You are just convincing others to purchase the same program and promote it and you get paid. There is usually a start up cost that is often a monthly fee. Although these have been known to work, and many offer you lots of information on how to market on the Internet, the competition is sometimes great and in my opinion is not something you can really get passionate about.

2. Find an affiliate product that you are passionate about and have some knowledge about and promote that. Lets say you want to promote a weight loss product. Go to clickbank.com sign up for a free account and there you go, hundreds of products to choose from. Pick one, and get to work. Clickbank usually pays 50% or more for every sale you make. Remember this too, the Internet is up 24/7 and covers the entire world.

There are many other places to go to search for affiliate products to promote, there is paydot.com, commision junction, payloadz and many more. Lets say you can't find a product that floats your boat on any of these sites, there is an alternative. You can type in almost anything in google and put affiliate behind it and you would be amazed how many programs are out there that use us affliates like little soldiers to drive their business. You can promote electronics, traveling, just about anything, so be creative when making your choice and the more passionate about the industry you choose, the more success you wil have.

What is Affiliate Marketing

2009-06-10T07:16:00.000-07:00

Affiliate marketing is where you promote products or programs and make money on the internet. If you are new to it and you google it, you will get millions of hits on your search. You start to investigate into a few and wow, your mind starts turning and next thing you know you are in information overload. There are literally thousands of programs out there that claim you can get rich quick.

Before investing in any of these programs, research them. If you search it on google, you will get tons of reviews, but they are not always accurate, because chances are the person doing the review is also trying to promote the product that your are researching.

I have found the best place to review these affiliate programs is through work at home forums. There are real people there, newbies and veteran marketers who can tell you if these programs are legit. My two favorite forums are the Work-at-home-forum and the Warrior forum. They are communities with wonderful people who want to help.

With affiliate marketing don't expect to get rich overnight,it is not an overnight thing. Can you make money, oh yes, but the learning curve is steep. When I started, I thought I was in college all over again. I purchased so many different things that hyped me up and let me tell you they do use hype to sell their products. I am still cancelling things on my credit card that I had forgotten I had purchased.