5 ways to be a better affiliate
We have all been there. You sign up for an affiliate program and get your affiliate link…and then you stare at it. Staring at your affiliate link will not make you money. Neither will spam your link through myspace or forums. If you’re doing that, stop…it’s illegal or should be illegal. In this short article I will give you 5 steps in the right direction.
#1
Buy a domain and a hosting package. The best way to index something on the web for people to see is to put it there in a “Virtual Real Estate” part of your property. Remember, you don’t get something for nothing, so spend some money and start building your own site.
#2
Arm yourself with all the free tools you can get your hands on. Don’t have Adobe Dreamweaver? No problem, NVU or Trellian’s website are two free website building tools that will get you up to a decent level of web design. Hey… it’s free. Bookmark http://www.download.com, you can search for tons of free programs there, and even better, you can filter out trial period software and search for only free licensed software (meaning it’s really, really free). ).
#3
Create your own email list. This is another step that is crucial if you want to earn a substantial amount of income online. Some clients I work with are able to make sales just because they can promote to over 50,000 targeted leads with the click of a button. I suggest 1shoppincart.com for beginners. First of all, it’s cheap, and also, if you ever want to create your own product, you can upgrade your service level to include a shopping cart. For now, all you want is to capture leads through a capture page or newsletter signup.
#4
Get a blog and use it. Blogs are free. Get one and update it daily.
#5
Get into pay-per-click advertising. It may not be for you, so sign up for a Google AdWords account and give it a try. You can set a budget, so keep that in mind as you test it. I personally made my first PPC sales check as an affiliate of dentalplans.com. PPC is now incredibly complex, so you may want to study the subject before launching your change in strategy.
Well, those are my 5 steps. All of them can and are easily expanded into a science of their own. Now you have an idea of what it takes to earn income online through affiliate programs… a lot of work. Don’t worry though, once you get it right it will seem easy. Like everything in life, getting started isn’t easy, but affiliate marketing can be incredibly rewarding.
Greetings, and see you there.
-Jared Dough