Friday, June 18, 2010

Good Support Will Help You Become Successful at Affiliate Marketing

When you embark on a new adventure such as affiliate marketing, it can be tough. There are a lot of naysayers. You may always feel as if you are swimming upstream. Support for your efforts is crucial.


To make it in affiliate marketing, you need two things: hope and commitment. 

  • Hope is what lets you see how wonderful your future can be. 
  • Commitment is what it takes to fulfill your hope. 

But they are fragile. Affiliate marketing can turn into tough, discouraging work. You do, and things do not work out. Sometimes your efforts are rewarded, other times you are teased and let down. You can do a lot of work that does not seem to pan out.


It is lonely, just you and your computer. Hope and commitment can go into hiding at these times. Hope is precious. It needs to be protected. When hope diminishes, so does your capacity to fix bad decisions or work to carry out good ones.


To maintain hope, you need support. You need support from the people around you, and you need to be able to communicate with people who understand what you are going through. You can find many different support communities by searching for forums in the search engine. You can find a forum for pretty much anything where you require support. What ever your emotional turmoil, there seems to be at least one forum.


When you are trying to make a go with affiliate marketing, you need to find affiliate marketing forums. On the Wealthy Affiliate forum someone cried out: "For the 1st time I actually feel like quitting." This thread generated 37 responses. Most of these responses were in the nature of: Been there.... Felt like that.... This is what I did to get through it.... Hang in there....


Major internet marketers also responded with advice on where to focus his attention to increase his chances of success in affiliate marketing.


The person posting replied "I am totally blown away.... I had no idea that my post would get this kind of response. I can't even tell you guys what it means to me. Support from other people, regardless of what you are going through as a person, is always the best way to feel better... and I do feel a lot better."


In the final post he said, "I got a lot out of what you've all said.. thanks so much guys." This is what support is all about. Hope and commitment were leaving this person. Out of desperation he asked for help and he got the support he needed to keep going. We all need a support group. It is not just a good idea, it is a necessity to fulfill your hopes and dreams.


Getting support is the fourth pillar of a successful decision. The other three pillars are time, money and advice. 


Support is crucial. Get it by joining these organizations.






To find good sources of support, click this link: Learn Affiliate Marketing.

Good Advice Will Help You Become Successful at Affiliate Marketing

Good advice is like good directions. Both will help you find your way.


Learning affiliate marketing is a decision that will take you to an unfamiliar place. It is a new adventure for you. There will be new challenges. There will be questions. There will be questions you never imagined that you would ask. It is important to get good advice. 


Your success is dependent upon the advice you receive and who your advisers are. Not having advisers will doom your decision to become and affiliate marketer. Great advisers can help make you a success. One piece of advise is to get good training. Teachers are a type adviser. If you can find a live teacher, the better. This way you can ask questions.


An alternative to finding a live teacher, is to find good training courses. The way to find good training courses is to search another source for advice: Internet forums. There are many affiliate marketing forums. Use a search engine to locate them. Spend some time visiting the forums. Read the threads and get feel if they are a community where you can get help. Read the advice given and see if it makes sense to you. Try to determine if there are successful Internet marketers who frequent the board.


From these forums, you can get a feedback and recommendations for training courses. You may also be able to strike up a conversation with an expert and get advise that way. It is also possible to find "coaches" to help you out. The challenge is to find a coach who is also a successful affiliate marketer. Again, forums can help here. Coaches do not necessarily only need to be Internet marketers.


Coaches who understand business can also be beneficial. You can find these through the Small Business Administration. S.C.O.R.E. is the program offered by the SBA to help small business owners. It is easy to believe that you can go forward without having advisers in place. It is easy to believe that you do not need any. Or, you believe that you cannot find them so you do not even try. Successful people surround themselves with advisers.


Finding an adviser for affiliate marketing may be difficult to find locally. You might try asking through Craig's List. Advisers can also be found online. Unfortunately, many of them can only be reached through private forums for a fee. Fortunately, some of good ones are modestly priced.


Getting advice is the third pillar of a successful decision. The other three pillars are time, money and support.


You can get good advice by joining these organizations





Money and Your Success in Affiliate Marketing

Understanding your view of money is critical to your success in affiliate marketing. This article explores understanding money and getting a handle on how much you need to make in order to be successful at Internet marketing.


You need to understand:

  • How much money you need to survive,
  • How much money you need to live.
  • How much money you really need.

The first thing you need to understand is how much money do you need for living expenses and training expenses while you are undertaking the task to become an affiliate marketer.


You need to live. Do you have a steady stream of income, or other financial support such as a working spouse, or pension to help you out?


It will take time to learn and become successful at Internet marketing. Make sure that you have an independent source of income to keep you going until you learn the ropes.


You will also need money for training courses.


It is true that you can find everything you need to get you started on affiliate marketing on the web for free. But it is easier to buy some training and get involved in training/support communities to help you along.


You also have a choice. You can spend a modest amount of money for good training. Or, you can spend a lot of money for similar training.


The next thing to understand is how much money you need from affiliate marketing.


Do you need supplemental income, part-time income, or full time income. How much is that? What expenses do you need to cover? You need to make three lists.


The first list is the bare essentials required for living like rent, food, utilities, etc. Tally up the costs.


On the second list, tally up all of the expenses that is required to live your current life style.


On the third list, tally up the costs for your desired lifestyle. These lists will give you a feeling as to how much you need to make from affiliate marketing.


There is one final maxim: You will always need more money than you think you need.


It will take longer to get to full-time income than you think, so you need to make sure that you have enough survival cash or income to get you there.


In the three list you made, you have probably under estimated what you really need. More that likely you forgot something including taking into consideration emergencies. There is always some expense that you cannot foresee.


Understanding money is the second pillar of a successful decision. The other three pillars are time, advice and support.


Join one of these two groups to help you earn money and become successful at Internet marketing.




Understanding Time as a Part of Your Affiliate Marketing Success

Time - there is never enough of it. Understanding time is the key to success. Your success in affiliate marketing is directly related to the time you are willing to commit. 


But how much time do you need? The simple answer is simple: more than you think.


There are three places where your time will go:



  1. Searching
  2. Training
  3. Obtaining Success

Searching


Searching may be the phase you are in at the moment.


You are searching to find a way to make money on-line. Affiliate marketing is only one of the methods for making money on-line. There are others. Each one needs to be researched and explored.


Investigation takes time. It also takes time to understand affiliate marketing thoroughly enough to see if it fits you.


The problem is that "search mode" can take and indefinite amount of time. It is someplace where you can get stuck. However it is necessary time.


If you do not take the time to decide, you cannot move on.


Training


Once you have decided to learn affiliate marketing, you have to find the training.


This is another searching process. Once again, searching consumes time.


Once you have found the training, you need to learn. How much time you spend learning depends upon what you already know.


If you know nothing, expect to spend a great deal of time just getting up to the basics.


Obtaining Success


Generally speaking, there is no such thing as an overnight success in anything. Behind most every overnight success, is a large time commitment.


One of the models of obtaining success in affiliate marketing is by exploring multiple niches. This means finding a market, creating the plan to test it, and then executing the plan.


If you have found a successful market then you exploit the niche. This requires trial and error work. Trial and error takes time.


Another model for Internet marketing is to work at something you are passionate about. The assumption here is that there is a market for your passion.


Then it is a matter of determining how crowded the field is. The more competition, the more work and the longer it is before your voice is heard.


Only after your voice is heard, you will start getting success.


It Takes Time


Making it in affiliate marketing takes time. It takes time understand it enough to know if it is right for you.


It also takes time to learn, because there is a learning curve.


Then finally, once you get it, it takes time to find a market or get your voice heard.


Understanding the amount of time, along with money, advice and support are the four pillars of becoming a successful intern marketer.


Join one or both of these organizations to help you through the time curve 



Thursday, June 17, 2010

What It takes To Be a Successful at Internet Marketing

There are four basic criteria which will determine if you will be successful at Internet marketing. But before continuing this article, think about why you want to be an Internet marketer.


Are you exploring a source of additional revenue to add to a regular job? Are you looking to replace your current job with a new career? Or, have you found yourself out of work and seeking to make income?


Understanding your answers to these questions will help you focus on your chances for success with affiliate marketing.


If you decide upon affiliate marketing as a revenue source, make sure that you understand the four pillars of making the decision a success:



  1. Time
  2. Money
  3. Advice
  4. Support

Time


Understand that it is going to take time.


Do you have the time to commit to it?


Are you willing to spend some of your available time to make it happen? If you do not have the time, are you going to figure out how to make it?


What are you willing to give up so that you can be successful at internet marketing? How patient are you?


The truth is that it will take more time than you think.


Money


A corollary to time is money.


How much do you need? Do you have the money to support you during the time it takes you to learn affiliate marketing and become successful?


How much money are you going to need from affiliate marketing to support yourself? Are you sure it is enough?


It always takes more money than you think you need.


Advice


Having directions when you are going someplace is a good way to not getting lost. On the other hand, if you are lost, getting good directions will help you find your way.


Getting good advice is like getting good directions. It helps you find your way.


Good training can be viewed as a form of advice. Another source of advice is finding people who have been there, done that.


Where are you getting your advice for your affiliate marketing adventure?


Support


Hope and commitment are what you bring to the table when you learn about affiliate marketing.


The problem with starting a new venture is that at some point it can become tough, discouraging work. It is difficult to hang onto hope and commitment during these times.


The way to get through tough times is with a support group.


The Net Result


Your success as an affiliate marketer depends upon the time you are willing to commit, understanding the money you need, getting good advice and having good support.


Join one of these two groups to help save you time to learn affiliate marketing, and to give you advice and support so that learn to make money on-line.



Your New Career in Internet Marketing

Internet marketing is a career choice. It is one of the ways to make money online. But is it for you? Do you really want to make money online?


Starting an on-line career is a big decision. It is no different than changing your job. Because, you are changing your job.


The nice thing about internet marketing, is that you not have to jump in with both feet. If you currently are employed, or have other means of support, you can take your time about deciding.


Take an assessment of yourself


Does working at home appeal to you?



  • How well do you work in isolation? Because when you work from home you are working by yourself.
  • How well do you handle interruptions? Because if there are others at home, they will be interrupting you.
  • How well do you handle distractions? Because when you are at home, there is multitude of other things to do besides work.
  • If you have the discipline to deal with the above, you have the start of what it takes to become successful at internet marketing. But are you ready to try it full-time?



What do you know about internet marketing?


Have you ever created a web page? You will need to.

  • Do you know what HTML is? You will need to at least know some.
  • Do you like to write? This is important if you want to do article marketing.
  • Do you know what article marketing is? It is one of many ways to promote your website.
  • Do you know what else there is to know? Of course not, but there is a lot.
  • There is a learning curve. You will have to get training. However, the best part about training for affiliate marketing is that you can experiment easily and inexpensively.



So, while you are training, you are not yet ready to do internet marketing full time. This means: do not quit your day job. And, if you are not working, find a part-time job that will keep the wolves away from your door.


Training takes place in two parts:


Reading and learning.
Experimenting and learning.


It is not until you get to the second part: experimenting, before you start seeing income.

  • Experimenting means doing.
  • Experimenting means finding out what works.
  • Experimenting means failing, and
  • Learning from your failures.
  • In time your experiments start paying off. The more you experiment, the more you learn to do things correctly, the faster your income will build.



Then one day, you are an full time internet marketer. Then you can quit your day job.


What do you need to learn?


Learning what you need to know about making money online does not have to be expensive or done in isolation. Join one of these groups:








Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Correct Training is Essential for Learning Affiliate Marketing

Without correct training, it is easily to get overwhelmed when you learn about affiliate marketing. The best way to get out of the overwhelm is to find good resources. But there are a lot of resources competing for your attention.


You may wonder: "Where do I start?" "How am I going to learn all this stuff?"


You may have found yourself on an e-mail list. At this very moment, there may be a product launch going on as you read this. You are receiving incessant e-mails linking you to great presentations. It is easy to start thinking that this particular method is the only way to learn internet marketing.


Thinking leads to believing. And the next thing you know is that you believe that it is the only, and the best way, to learn affiliate marketing, or some aspect of it.


The reality is that there is always more than one option. Take a breath and review your options.


Lay Out Your Options


There is more than one place you can get training for affiliate marketing. Make a list of your various training resources. Then review them.


There is also more that one way to make money with affiliate marketing. When you are looking at training options, look for a training program that will help educate you on the various affiliate marketing business models.


One question question to ask yourself is: Which of your options can be broken down into smaller steps?


Break Down Your Options


Which of the training options allows you to sample, to do as little or as much as you want?


Which of the training options gives you the most choices for learning?


The problem with choosing an affiliate training program is that it is difficult to determine the best option. You just do not know.


So, instead of taking a wild guess, choose an option that allows you try things out at your own pace and you can bail out. Avoid choosing an option that requires a big step, like laying out a lot of cash out front.


If you choose an option that requires a large cash outlay, make sure you can afford it. Also, make sure there is a money back guarantee. Plus, be prepared to ask for your money back.


You do not want you training choice to be one large irrevocable step.


Take a Small Step


At this point, you should have listed your affiliate marketing training options and examined them. It is time to select one of the training options. Choose only from the options that allow you to take the next step inexpensively and without penalty.


Now it is up for you to take the next step and sign up.


Another aspect of choosing training is to find choices with a good support community. A good community is important so that you can get support and feed back.




Take Small Steps to Learn Internet Marketing

There is a massive amount of information to take in as you learn Internet marketing. You read and read and everything becomes an overwhelming jumble.

So where do you go from here?

List all of the topics which you have learned about. Then look at which ones you can explore further. Which one allows you to take a little step forward to see how affiliate marketing works.
One way to sell affiliate products is by building your own web site and then promote it on the web. Building a website is a big step.

The alternative is to write an article for a web 2.0 site. Squidoo.com and HubPages.com are examples of Web 2.0 sites.

You can also use public blog sites like Blogger.com as a platform to learn the basics of Internet marketing. Blogging platforms are a little more flexible than other Web 2.0 properties.

These properties are fairly easy to use, but there will be learning curve. By making a page on these sites, you are starting to gain skills for developing websites.

Start out by just writing a text article. It probably looks pretty boring. You can use HTML to mark up the text so it can beitalicized, or make the text bold. HTML is what you use to format your text.

The point here is that you had a choice of two ways to start executing what you have been reading about. The first choice, building your own website, is a large overwhelming task. it requires many different skills. Building a web site is on your affiliate marketing horizon. However, get to it when you are ready.

Missing from this discussion is finding a topic to build your page around. I am suggest that you just build the first page about anything that is of interest to you. The mission here is just to get your feet wet by taking a small baby step.

Build a couple of pages on these sites and get feel for what it takes. If you are comfortable with it, the next thing to do is find a profitable topic. You will need to learn how to research, and find something to sell.

The overall process is to take a small step and learn. Take another step and learn. Keep doing this until you have worked through all of the pieces of building your first affiliate marketing site.

There are many small steps to becoming a successful internet marketer. You can figure it out on your own, but if you want to fast track yourself to success, the proper training is essential. At Wealthy Affiliate University, you can get the proper training.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Internet Niche Marketing for the Beginner

Successful internet marketing involves finding a niche that you can service. This means  providing it with the things required by individuals making up the niche.


To understand what a niche is, it is easiest to start at the top.


Industries and Markets


An industry can be defined as a companies producing a particular type of goods. There are many types of industries. If you think in terms of trade publications, each trade publication represents a certain industry.


Each industry sells goods to a particular market. A market is a group of people who desire goods from a particular industry.


An example of an industry are companies that produce products for pets. Their market is defined as pet owners.


Niches


Using the pets industry example, there are markets defined by types of pets, for example, cats, dogs and fish. There are industries that make food for pets and industries that make products for pets such as collars and leashes, or aquariums.


An industry can can continually be segmented by the products groups and markets. Each product group can further be segmented by product groups and markets. And each of these can be further divided. At some point the industry can no longer be subdivided. This is know as a niche.


A niche is a small portion of an industry. An example niche in the pet industry would be dog training.


The market subdivides along with the industry. The market for the particular niche is a unique group of people looking for product specific to the niche.


In practice, a niche is really defined as the audience, or market for the goods, and not the other way around. If there were no market there would be no goods for the market.


Niches and Internet Marketing


To be successful in Internet Marketing, you need to focus on who your audience is and what they want. You need to target a particular niche.


One of the ways to select a niche for you to market is to find something that you are interested in. The more passionate you are about it, the better. The advantage here is that you are probably already an expert in the niche, and you know the audience.


If you are short of passion, another method is to find something which is popular at the moment. You will have a ready market. All that is left is for you to become a temporary expert in that niche.


Understanding niches is just one step of Internet Marketing. If you would like more help with understanding niches and other aspects of Internet marketing join the Wealthy Affiliate University


You will find all the help you need to be a successful Internet marketer. Click the link.

The Mindset of a Successful Internet Marketer

It is your mindset that determines if you will succeed at Internet marketing, your mindset matters. This is true whether you choose to make money online, or offline.

There really is no magic formula for success. Each individual needs to find out for themselves, what works for them. So, you will need to figured out your own formula for success.

One of the things that you need to understand is becoming successful requires work. If you look into the backgrounds of many "overnight" successes, you will see that overnight took about ten years of steady progress toward a goal.

Making a living with Internet marketing is work. You have to produce and make things happen.

You also need to be knowledgeable. You need to learn how to do the right things. This means that you need to become an expert.

The first step in becoming an expert in Internet marketing is to read, learn and get training. Then you need to begin to do.

Doing requires perseverance. Perseverance means constantly doing things that move you closer to your destination. It means doing these things, even when you do not feel like it.

Being successful at Internet marketing requires a lot of trial and error.

On your way toward your success. You will have set backs. You will fail at times.

Motivation and drive are the traits that will push you through the set backs and help you learn from your failures.

Experiment and learn. Repeat your successes and experiment some more.

You also need to discover your niche. A niche is a fancy way of defining a group of people whom to sell things, for example, dog owners.

For you, a niche is a market segment where you are comfortable selling products and can become an expert.

Remember...

  • No one but you can make you do.
  • No one but you can set up a schedule and stick with it.
  • No one but you can make goals for yourself.
  • No one but you can take a step toward your goal everyday.

If you have the mindset for success and want to improve your internet marketing skills, get training with the support and motivation of a group. Click on this Internet marketing training link

You will be lead to resources where you can get both action based training and support.

Monday, June 14, 2010

The Three Steps to Making Money On-line

Learning to make money on-line on the Internet requires you to understand some basic facts.

  • When people use a search engine such as Google, Yahoo or Bing to find things on the Internet.
  • This means, you need to have something to offer for which people will search.
  • In order for people to find you on the internet, you will have to create some kind of web page so that you are on the internet.
  • Finally, you have to get people to that page and convert them to a sale.
Making money online requires three simple steps. The steps are simple, but the execution may not be.

1. Find a product

For affiliate marketing, there are many affiliate marketing networks from which to choose. These networks are composed of companies who are willing to sell products over the Internet and pay a commission for each sale. 

The job of collecting money for the product and distributing the commission is done by the affiliate network. 
Examples of popular affiliate companies are ClickBank, LinkShare and Google Affiliate Network among many others.

2. Create a web page

In order to promote something on the Internet you need to put up a web page somewhere. You can either host it yourself, or use a hosting company. 

Another option is to not host it at all, but to use a Web 2.0 site. Web 2.0 sites vary and many are free to use. 

Some Web 2.0 sites are easy to use because you simply make a page out of modules. Two examples of this type of site are Squidoo.com and Hubpages.com.

Another possibility is to start a blog on Blogger.com or WordPress.com, or on one of numerous other blogging portals. 

Finally, some Web 2.0 places let you create a complete website for free.

3. Promote Your Site

Once you have a product and a web page, you need to direct people to your page. At the beginning of the article we talked about how people find things on the web with search engines. 

Getting your site found in the search pages is called search engine optimization. Having your site appear on the first page for certain keywords is one way to get your site found.

Another way is to pay for advertising. On those same search pages are ads. When people click on the ads they are taken to a landing page of the advertiser's choice. So, if you pay for an ad, you can direct people to your page. Article marketing is a third way to get searchers to your site.

Learn More ...

You just learned about the three steps it internet marketing. Now it is a matter of learning all of the pieces and putting it together. Join the WPG community for great resources, training and support. Click the link in the previous sentence.

Marketing for the Internet Marketing Beginner

To biggest thing to understand about Internet marketing is that is marketing.

Marketing, according to Wikipedia, is the process by which companies determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development.

Say what?

You have companies that make products and they want to sell them to make money. There are people who are interested (hopefully) in the product that the company has to offer. Marketing is the process of connecting the two.

Basically, for a company to sell anything, they have to get the message out. This is done through advertising and a sales force.

In Internet marketing, you are the advertising and sales force. It is your job to find companies with products and connect them to people who want those products -- for a commission.
How do you do this? You advertise using the Internet. This is why they call it Internet marketing.

There are two common forms of on-line marketing:
  1. Commission Per Sale (CPS)
  2. Commission Per Action (CPA)
Commission per sales is the most common form making money on-line. Another name for this is affiliate marketing.

You are offering for sale a product by a company, as an affiliate. When some one buys the item, you are paid a commission on the sale.

CPA is a fancy name for lead generation. In these cases, the sales process may not be viable on the Internet. But the Internet can be used to collect the names of qualified customers. So, every time you get a qualified lead to sign up for a sale or service, you get paid. Exactly how all this works is dependent upon the organization offering the product or service.

So how do you advertise on the Internet?

First of all, you need to have something to offer. Then you have to create some kind of web page for it. Then you have to market that page. Those are three simple steps, that are not necessarily easy to execute.
First of all you need to find an audience and something to sell to them. This means you have to do market research.

Second, you need to be able to create web pages. There are technical skills required here.

Third, how in the heck do you market your page? There are many techniques. Some will cost you money. Some will cost you time. Either way it is work.
Learn More

This is just the tip of the iceberg in learning about Internet marketing. This information is some of what you learn at Wealthy Affiliate University. Click the link.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Internet Marketing - Get Your Site Noticed

Setting up a site is the first challenge of Internet Marketing. The next, and bigger challenge is to get your site noticed. There are the four basic methods to increase your site visibility.

Get Your Site Found on th First Page of SERPS

You can use search engine optimization techniques (SEO) to make you site more highly visible. In order to get traffic from search engines, you need to be on the first search engine result page (SERP). SEO is all about getting better rankings in the search engine. SEO can be divided into two part: on-page factors, and off-page factors. On-page factors deal with making your site relevant around certain search terms (keywords). Off-page factors is all about getting others to link back to your page (back-linking).

Shout it Out!

Another way to get traffic to your site is by getting the word out. Get yourself known around forums in the area of your expertise and then send them back to your site. Create a presence on Facebook, Twitter, etc. and create a following. Let then know what you are up to and send them to your site. Use social bookmarking to let people who use those services about your site. You can also write articles and submit them to article directories. Then send the readers to your site.

Advertise! Advertise! Advertise!

Yes, use good old fashion advertising. You can advertise on the web with Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. You pay each time someone clicks on your ad. Your ad links directly to your site. PPC ads are found in search engine results, and many web articles also have PPC ads. You can also buy banner ads that people will display on their site for a fee. When someone clicks on the banner ad, they are taken two your site. You can also advertise off-line. Buy a magazine ad. Make up a brochure an distribute it. Leave business cards on public bulletin boards.

Direct Mail Marketing

Direct marketing is a proven method for getting attention for your site. Direct marketing used to be, and still is, done through mail. If you have received a catalog through the mail, you are on a direct marketing mailing list. In the Internet age, direct marketing is done commonly with e-mail. With e-mail, the technique is to gather e-mail address for your target niche. Then you set up a campaign to offer your list products for sale. You broadcast to them using an auto-responder. An auto-responder automates the process for you.

Learn More - This is some of the basic information you can get from a good Internet marketing training course. Click the previous link for more information.