Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing or Internet Marketing is very cost effective for the beginning marketer because you can get started with virtually no money. Though it is possible to get started for free using great resources like Squidoo, if the individual has some money for Web Hosting, software tools of the trade, and a few other things that make an Affiliate's life a little easier, it helps tremendously.

Some companies that offer affiliate programs handle everything in-house, having the marketer sign up on their company site, and also making the tools (links, banner ads, etc.) available for the affiliate. The company may also handle all the tracking, commission payouts, etc. also.

Most companies that have affiliate programs opt to run their program through an Affiliate Network. In that case the Affiliate Network handles all the business of the day-to-day company/affiliate interaction. It's usually free to sign up as an affiliate, and there is usually many different offers to choose from with most Affiliate Networks.

There are many different ways to earn money with affiliate programs. The traffic you supply may need to actually purchase a physical product, buy a digital product that can be downloaded, or even just supply their email address, zip code, or provide other lead information.

There are many ways to drive traffic to your Website or sales page. Many people use article marketing as a means to generate traffic (visitors) to their offers.

EzineArticles is the number one site that marketers submit their articles to. Obviously there are many directories on the Internet, so you should be submitting your articles to many. There's software that allows you to submit to many different directories in a very short time.

In the resource box of the article you'll include a link to your Website or sales page. EzineArticles and some others don't allow direct affiliate links, but you can using a redirect to an affiliate site. Of course you can also have a link to your Squidoo Lens where you can promote any product or service.

Although there are many great resources available for free, Micro Niche Finder is one great tool that I would buy again. If money is very tight you can get along without it, but it makes things much easier (and faster).

If you noticed the title has the word niche in it. That's because that's how you'll be making your money online. It's nearly impossible to compete directly with the massive companies like Amazon, Buy.com and many of the others, but you can find small niche markets that you can compete in, and sometimes very successfully.

That's where Micro Niche Finder shines. It will find those small niche markets, and the keywords that you'll want to use in order to get traffic to your site/offer.

Once you invest a little time to learn the ropes of Affiliate Marketing, you'll soon become proficient in finding and promoting your niche sites/offers. Many people earn a fantastic income from a small niche market that they can virtually dominate.

I've been using BANS for 8-9 months now and I can't say enough good things about the software.

If you're not familiar with BANS, it's a great script for eBay affiliates. BANS is a totally self-contained script, needing only cosmetic template modifications to the template to have a fully functional attractive store. There's many free templates available for download, and it's very easy to set up. The user interface makes it easy to set up your store, and to also add content pages.

There is some concerns about how Google 'sees' BANS stores. Some people complain of being de-indexed, but those that put in the time to do their stores right, by adding quality content and not just a site full of affiliate links, reap the rewards. There's more than a few people making thousands of dollars per month with BANS.

Also, if you decide to go with BANS, there is a great forum on the company site. If you don't want to do the task of setting up the store and modifying the template etc., there's several people now doing BANS mods. For a nominal fee you can have a turn-key store ready to go. Just add your content and start getting your site ranked well.

If you choose to go with BANS just make sure that you sign up with the eBay Partner Network(EPN) first. Either with eBay directly, or via the PepperJam Network offering.

eBay has been getting very picky about just letting any and all newcomers aboard. You might want to check the BANS forum first and get some tips on how to get accepted your first time around.

Although you'll see different programs or courses that advertise that "you don't need a Website," you'll find life as an affiliate marketer much easier (and productive) if you have your own site(s).

As mentioned elsewhere in this lens, you can earn a very good income using free services like Squidoo, Hub Pages, article marketing, good SEO techniques and many others.

Many (most ?) people starting out in Affiliate Marketing aren't programmers and don't have the skills to manually code Websites. That's where XSitePro2 comes in. It's a fantastic program that will help you create good-looking, full-featured, SEO optimized Websites without having to pay for anything except the hosting.

If you haven't seen XSitePro2, it deserves a close look. For a fraction of what you would have to pay a developer you can do your own Websites. Also, most marketers wind up getting involved in many different niches, and therefore need several Websites or sales pages. With the hundreds of included templates, XSitePro2 makes the work a piece of cake.