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Affiliate Marketing for Writers and Bloggers: A Beginner's Guide

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What a Tangled Affiliate Web We Weave

My first impression of affiliate marketing was that it was a tangled web that I would never be able to comprehend. Once I started digging into it however, I found that affiliate marketing is not as complicated as it seems. Basically you make money by selling someone else's stuff.  Or. when someone else sells your stuff if you're the merchant. 

You earn money when someone in your web-site, or blog clicks through to another site to make a purchase.  There are different types of affiliate marketing programs, some pay when the user just clicks on the web-site, or for a lead, others require the user to make a purchase before you are compensated.

You can set up a blog, or website specifically for affiliate products, or you can add affiliates to an existing website, or blog. Another good example is a Squidoo lens. When you set up your lens here at Squidoo, you have the option of adding modules containing links to affiliates (and hopefully make a little cash).   The most important part of your Squidoo lens is the content.  Let me say that again content, content, content.  You want to write, or buy good content to place in your blog, Squidoo lens, or website.  If you give people (and the search engine bots) good information they will visit. 

What do I use my Squidoo lenses for?  I make lenses for topics I enjoy.  I have a lens to promote one of my blogs, and I have lenses to promote some of my affiliate products.  Create and write a lens about your passion!  

I am still not an expert on affiliate marketing, but I am learning as I go, and I've come a long way since I first created this lens for a Squidoo contest six months ago.   Check out some of the links, books, and other products listed here to help you learn more on the subject of affiliate marketing for writers and bloggers.

 

I hope to share what I have learned with other writers, to help them on their journey from writing for others, to writing for themselves.  

This lens was a general affiliate marketing lens, and I decided I would like to compile information to help other writers.

The Key Earning an Income from Affiliate Marketing is Persistence

In order to be successful with affiliate sales, you must be able to successfully market your affiliate website (or Squidoo lens, or blog), and the products you are selling. It takes persistence and hard work to make money with an affiliate marketing program. Don't believe the get rich quick sites. You may make money, but it will take some work on your part, to build traffic, by finding the tags, and products that work for your niche.

In order to have affiliate sales you will need traffic. Social networking is a great way to get more traffic to your website, blog or lens.

Keywords are also very important. Some of my top lenses here at Squidoo have been picked up by Google with a high search rank. How did that happen? I try to pick niche keywords, or keyword strings. Take a popular search you're interested in and think of something more specific. Or better yet a couple great related search strings. Then write awesome, engaging content including those key words.

Don't go for the big key words everyone else is using, find your own special niche.

Keep your ears open for what is new and trendy, or what is in season. I have my best luck following new trends, and promoting what's in season on my blogs.

If you build an affiliate website, with great content on a tight niche like Christmas cupcakes, or Halloween scrapbooking for example, you will have less competition than if you set up an affiliate site for Christmas or scrapbooking.

Squidoo is a great place to find out what people are searching for. Would you like to see if your chosen topic is hot, set up a Squidoo lens. It doesn't cost anything, and it's a great way to test the Google search waters. If your lens gets tons of traffic, you can point it to your future website or blog. The bonus is Squidoo tells you what the search terms are that bring people to your lens (in your dashboard, under the stats/traffic tab). This is valuable information. This will help you know what to incorporate in your lens, affiliate website, or blog.

My Favorite Social Sites

One of the most important things you can do once you've set up your website, blog, or Squidoo lens is to promote it. Get involved with social networking sites, submit great links (including a few of your own).

Don't spam these sites, only submit your best work for some quality backlinks.

Here are some social networking sites I am a member of:
Linette's My Space Page (I'm Linettewrites here)
My Blog Log Profile Page(I'm Barkely here)

Twitter

Facebook

My Technorati Favorites Just Linette here.

Social networking is a great way to meet new people and promote your sites. Become an expert in your chosen topic, the go to person for more information.

Building networks and friends = building readers and fans.

Stop by and say hi, or send me a friend request, I love to meet new people.
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Here Are Some Other Places To Bookmark Your Work

Here are some of my favorite bookmarking and social networking sites.
Stumbleupon
This is my absolute favorite! I love to add my best sites to Stumbleupon and watch the traffic increase.

I am also a big Stumbleupon user! I can get lost checking out others information at Stumbleupon for hours. I have to set a timer before
del.icio.us
I love bookmarking my favorites here.
Pingoat
Ping your blog, or Squidoo page to let others know you just added some great new content.
Blink
Very easy to use.
Furl
Bookmark your own content, and see what is popular with others.
Yahoo Search
Just register to Yahoo!
Submit your URL to Google
Have some great content? Getting tired of waiting for the crawlers to find you? Submit your URL to Google. I do this whenever I have a content and key word rich blog post, or a Sqidoo lens I am particularly proud of the content on.

In my experience it helps your site get indexed faster.
Submit Express
I haven't used this much personally, but it is supposed to help you get indexed with Google, Yahoo, and MSN quicker.
Tutorialism
A bookmarking website for tutorials.

Where Do You Get Started? Create Your Own Great Lens Here at Squidoo

If you've never made a lens before start here and
Sign Up With Squidoo

It's free to sign up, and you could make a some cash for yourself or charity, or promote your business along the way.

Here are a couple great articles to help you get started:
How To Create A Squidoo Lens
Affiliate Marketing on Squidoo

Warning!! If you've never made a lens before, it is addictive. Once you make one you will need to make more!

Want to learn more about Squidoo? Get the Squidoo book.

Social Networking on Squidoo

A web 2.0 guide on social networking here at Squidoo.
This is my favorite book for learning about the ins and outs of Squidoo. Find out how to use Squidoo in your marketing plan, and learn how to create your own great lenses.

How do you build affiliate sales without forking over the cash for your own website, and domain name? Set up a lens here at Squidoo of course. This book will tell you the secrets the Squidoo masters use to set up, and promote their lenses.

Find Your Key Word Niche

Are you looking for your own key word niche?
Think of the things you know
The things you love to do
What does everyone come to you for advice on?
What is the hot conversation at work, at your mothers club?
Your favorite holiday?
What are your hobbies?
Any of these could lead you to your niche. Once you've narrowed it down check out these links to see what would be a great niche in your chosen topic.
Key Word Selector Tool
Tells you how popular the search is for a keyword or phrase.
Google Word Test Labs
As you type in your key words you can see the number of search results available for that term or phrase.
NY Times Most Searched
What's hot right now? Check out the New York Times most searched list.
Yahoo Buzz!
Check out the buzz at Yahoo Buzz.

Looking For Ideas for Your Lens or Blog?

Check out what's popular right now.
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My Favorite Writing, Affiliate Marketing, Traffic Building, and Blogging Information

Here is a list of my favorite websites, and resources. I am posting them here to share with others, but I am also posting them here so I have all my favorite affiliate marketing resources in one place!
Affiliate Marketing Information
Here is a growing list of articles to help you make more money from affiliate marketing & Google Adsense.
Affiliate Marketing Information Network
Affiliate marketing can be an excellent resource for income. Whether it be part-time with a supplemental income or full-time with a large income flow is entirely your choice.
26 Internet Marketing How To's for Every Level of Experience
An excellent very informative blog post on using social media, and social networking sites to promote your work. Talks about Stumbleupon, Squidoo, Favicon, and Technorati among others. An excellent resource.
101 Steps To Becoming A Better Blogger
What do the successful bloggers do?
Stirring the Pot With Viral Marketing and Social Websites
Do you know how to get a viral marketing campaign started?
The Size of Trust
Build trust with your customer list.
A Unique Look at Adwords Advertising
Ian Rollinson, has developed a rather 'unique' method to Adwords. He has done what every good enterpreneur does: he looked at the marketplace from an angle that others were simply ignoring and discounting.
The Write Stuff
Still a work in progress, but it looks like it's going to be a great resource for writers.

Affiliate Marketing Companies I Deal With

It is free to become an affiliate for with any of these companies, once you become an affiliate you can sign up to be approved for any of the hundreds of products, or companies they represent.

Just make sure you read the terms carefully for any company you choose to affiliate market for. The terms vary from company to company.

LinkShare Referral Prg

My absolute favorite is Shareasale. I like to use product links in my lenses and websites, Shareasale merchants have tons of great product links I can choose from.


I also really like Art, if you change the settings from thumbnail to full size the prints make great graphics for your lens or website.

Visit Art.com

Affiliate Marketing: Creating the Sales Pitch

Another important part of affiliate marketing is the pitch. Why should the customer purchase this product? Think of your product, or niche from a customer's prospective. How can you help the customer?

Why does the customer need your product, and if they don't why are you trying to sell them that product.

You are getting paid to sell the product, so sell it. Your success as an affiliate marketer depends on the customer wanting and needing the products you have to offer. Many would be affiliate marketers forget this.

Try different approaches to adding your affiliate link to your website, for some things banners work really well. For other affiliate products a direct link with a photo works the best. Especially if the customer is looking for the product, and they happen to find your website in their journey.

For other products a text link in related content is an excellent way to promote your niche. Make sure the text link makes sense in the body of your content, or your readers, and the search engines will be saying Huhhh?

Don't forget the "long tail." Use phrases and terms in your writing specific to your product. Use key word phrases (such as affiliate marketing for dummies). Don't be afraid to narrow your topic down. The big guys go for the big terms. If you're a little guy you can compete by using the "long tail," and exploiting very specific market niches.

Affiliate Marketing for Dummies

Yes, there are several books related to the subject of affiliate marketing, and setting up your website. Here are the books that have helped me the most.
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This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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Barkely

I enjoy sharing the things I love here at Squidoo.
For more information please visit my blog more »

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