Making money online can be a long and complicated process. Itís one thing to promote your own products, but when youíre just starting out and want to make some money, where do you start? The answer: affiliate programs.
This article focuses on the big picture, the ìwhysî of affiliate programs. Next article weíll talk about the ìhowsî of promote affiliate programs.
Affiliate programs are easy to implement and simple to understand.
ï No products necessary
You never have to have your own product to make money with affiliate programs. Itís all about promoting other peopleís products. The steps to making money promoting other peopleís products can be summarized in simple steps:
1) Choose an affiliate program.
2) Obtain an affiliate link from the program youíre trying to promote.
3) Create a site that has your affiliate link.
4) Prospects who click on your link will be redirected to the website that has the product youíre promoting.
5) If they make a purchase at this site through your affiliate link, youíll get a commission (the percentage varies according to the program. Whatís cool about it is that your prospects do not necessarily have to make a purchase right away for you to make money. Most affiliates (not all affiliate programs are created equal) will have software that ìtracksî your prospects so that if they come back, say, three months later, and make a purchase, youíll still make money.
ï No geniuses allowed
You donít have to be a John Reese (a big time internet marketer) to make big money with affiliate programs. In fact, if youíre a John Reese, you shouldnít be reading this article! Most affiliate programs are designed with the beginners in mind. In fact, you can promote a product without being an expert on the product. Leave that to the one who owns the product youíre trying to promote. All you have to do is pick a winning affiliate program that has a proven track record. Some affiliate programs will even provide you with prewritten emails, banners, text links and free eBooks that you can brand and promote.
Planting seeds
Think of affiliate programs as the planting seeds. Besides from the fact that you can make some money while promoting affiliate programs, youíre building a list (customer base) that can make you money again and again in the future. What youíre doing is really building relationships with your list. You can do this by sending follow-up emails, newsletters, etc. Once your ìseedsî are ìplantedî, you can promote other affiliate products, or even your own to your list! ñ naturally, the bigger the list, the better. Keep nurturing your list and itíll pay big dividends for you.
Understand the importance of building a list.
If thereís one thing that you get out of this article, it is this: you must build a list. How can you promote anything if you have a zero customer base?
If youíre going make mistakes, might as well make them here.
Just because affiliate programs are easy to implement and the fastest way to make money, doesnít mean youíre not going make mistakes along the way. You WILL make mistakes. John Reese made mistakes. Babe Ruth made plenty of them. Every successful person makes mistakes. But since this will be your training ground, you might as well youíre your mistakes here. But more importantly, learn from them. The mistakes you make promoting affiliate programs will prepare you to bigger things ñ like creating and promoting your own products becoming a master marketer.
Building assets
Looking at the big picture, youíre learning valuable skills to build ASSETS. Use the skills you learn to continuously create multiple sources of income. Next article weíll talk more about this.
You can start making money today if you followed these steps. Let the idea of building a list sink in your mind. It can produce both instant gratification and a perpetual cash machine if you set it up right.
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