What Is Cookie Duration?

Cookie Duration is how long a cookie remains on someone's computer.

When a site visitor clicks an affiliate ad, the affiliate company leaves a cookie on that visitors computer. Later, if they go back to the same site and buy something, you get credit for the sale even though the return visit was not through your site ad.

The longer the cookie duration the better. Some affiliates leave cookies that have a duration of 90 days. Some, though, are only a week.

If choosing between two affiliates to promote, all other things being equal, choose the affiliate with the longer cookie duration.

Make Money With People Searches

I just signed up for an opportunity for some BIG earnings and I haven't spent a penny, as is my usual way of doing business.

It all has to do with people searches. Did you know that more than 30% of searches are people searches? And the number is growing.

So I signed up with Acme People Search . There are three steps I needed to go through to take advantage of the 100% 'display rate' offer. I completed step one which was registering (for free) at several search results sites and putting my referral ID into the appropriate place.

But step two required me to sign up for web hosting. The amount was reasonable but it was against my policy of not spending money to make money.

So I didn't do anything other than browse around the Acme People Search site, seeing how things worked...whatever.

A few days later I get an email that I've been upgraded to the next level...this is without spending that money on step two. Super!

I now completed step three and I'm ready to make some money. I've already got $125 in my account. Cashout is $200 and I hope to make it before the end of the year.

Are you ready to make some money too?

(Extra little note here.....my search engine referral links will be advertised, for free, for 30 days. I can get up to 100 hits. After that, there is a monthly subscription fee that can be cancelled any time. Will I subscribe? You bet if the money is coming in!!)

What Is So Great About Affiliate Marketing?

I’ll tell you what. One simple click on an affiliate ad can earn you money. Yes, it could just be a few pennies but it could also be several hundred dollars.

Affiliate marketing is one of the least understood and yet, one of the best ways to make money online. What the marketer does is join affiliate programs that have products or services they want to promote. The marketer promotes the product, finds customers for the company they are promoting and, when the customer buys, the marketer gets a commission.

The most common business model is the marketer creating a site (or sites) on topic(s) that are of interest to them. Once the site is established, and getting a large amount of targeted traffic, the potential for making a nice income can be as simple as putting up Google Adsense ads and/or a few affiliate links.

There is available traffic 24/7/365. The more unique the content, the greater the potential for targeted traffic. And the greater the targeted traffic, the higher the potential for earning income. And this traffic can come any time of the day or night, while you are sleeping or while you are on vacation. What a nice way to earn extra income!

So what are you waiting for?

Still thinking About Affiliate Marketing?

Still thinking about getting into affiliate marketing but not sure where to start?

I'll tell you where to start:



What makes MoreNiche such a great place to get started are the great guides and tools that the site provides. On the site are pages and pages of help including topics like What Is Affiliate Marketing all the way to How To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing.

And tools? How about lots of landing pages available on a wide variety of products.

Best part? All available for free once you complete the free signup.

So what are you waiting for?

Safe List

Are you familiar with the term 'safelist'? I wasn't until pretty recently.

Basically, it's a list of people who have submitted their email addresses to a list, and double opted in, which means they are willing to get email from other members on the list. It's a way to blast your email without spamming.

If you are looking for a place to promote your site and/or product, without worrying about spamming people, then a safelist is the way to go.

And with over 16000 ACTIVE members, Got Safelist is the one I use.

Can You Make, Reasonably, $500/month Online?

According to Partner With Paul, you can. Not only $500 per month but as much as $5000 per month.

Seems like a big promise to me. So I needed to check this out further.

And what Partner With Paul shows you, for free, is a video on how he does this.

And his new site is pretty interesting - especially since he
isn't trying to sell anything, and won't ask you for money.

What he does do at his site is:

* Explain why he's willing to help a stranger like you

* Tell you in very clear terms exactly what he's offering

* Reveal a system you can use to make money right now

* ...and help you get started immediately

If you're sick of all the hype and scams out there, I strongly
recommend you check out Paul's site right now.

Need Business Opp Leads?

I found an interesting site. It's called OrangeLeads and it provides free business opportunity leads.

I have to admit the site is a bit confusing when first looked at. But once I figured it out (didn't take all that long) I decided this site has a lot to offer.

The idea is to check the site out daily. Every day you can click on the Get A Free Biz Opp Lead. This provides you with the name and contact information for a member who is willing to be contacted by you.

Also daily, members can post a free ad to the top of the page. This ad is displayed to all 9000+ members.

Of course it's possible to pay and upgrade a membership but there is a lot available for free.

If you have a business you need leads for and want to promote, then sign up at OrangeLeads .

It's Not Too Early

To get your site ready for the holidays, that is.

Many web sites see traffic double through the holiday season. Millions of worldwide shoppers skip the mall and shop online for the convenience. I know that, at least for myself, given a choice between driving snowy and icy roads, look for a parking spot, battling crowds and standing on line or staying at home with my hot coffee and doing my shopping online, I’d certainly choose the later.

So what can you do to get your affiliate marketing site ready for those holiday shoppers?

While you should try to have your site ready to go by ‘Cyber Monday’ (the Monday after Thanksgiving), don’t panic if it’s not. Most online shopping is spread out between that day and December 15th.

Cut off shipping dates should be clearly displayed on your site and on the sites of the products you are linking to. And this should include both domestic and international cut off dates. Nobody wants an unhappy customer on Christmas morning.

Remember that major online stores like Amazon sell a lot more than books and CDs. A very popular item is a gift card and turnaround time on gift cards can be very fast. This makes them a practical gift as Christmas day approaches.

Concentrate on the narrower, specialty niches. There will be less competition and, very often, these specialty niches have higher end products. That means more business and more money.

Remember that the holiday season only comes once a year. Get your affiliate marketing site ready to take advantage of it.

Need Business Cards?

Did you know you can get 250 FREE business cards from Vistaprint.com ?

The only thing you pay for is the shipping. I've taken advantage of this offer and the cards are nice quality. Use them to promote your web site.

Five Ideas For Traffic Generation

If you are going to make money with affiliate marketing, you need traffic. If you have no traffic, then any way you look at it, your site doesn’t exist. The more traffic you have, the better your click ratio (number of clicks per visitor) and the better your chances are for a sale to be made. Here are five ways to send visitors to your site:

Blog – Blog stands for web log. It is a diary where you write articles of interest for your readers. Within your articles, you can link to a web site or directly to the landing page of the product (s) you are selling. Google loves blogs. The content is constantly changing. You can register for a free blog at www.blogger.com. You’ll find your blog coming up with a Google search within days.

Forums – Forums are a great way to promote your business in a place where you can ask questions and continue to learn. You can also help others who are less experienced than you. Develop your reputation at several forums. While you often can’t put your landing page link within the post, you can advertise it within your forum signature. Plus, you CAN put a link to a post within your blog. Drive traffic to your blog which will then drive traffic to your web site.

Viral Marketing – So called because, if it works well, it spreads like a virus. You can do something like give away an e-book and, at the end, have some links and/or an ad back to your product or service. You give permission for your readers to also give away the e-book. Watch this one spread!

Social Marketing – Whether you are on Facebook or MySpace, both can be used as a marketing tool. First develop a good reputation on the site. Be the person that others come to for opinions and answers to questions. Over time, you’ll be able to direct people to your site.

Article Distribution – This is a great way to drive traffic to your site. Write for free article sites like ezinearticles or goarticles. While you can’t link to a sales page within the article, you can have your links in the Author’s Resource Box that all article sites have. Can’t write or looking for new content? That’s why I love MoreNiche. It includes prewritten content that I can easily rewrite for my articles.

You CAN Make Money With Affiliate Marketing!

The arrival of the Internet has made things so easy. Need information? It’s only a few clicks away. Need to buy something? That too is just a few clicks away. Want to make money? That, too, can be just a few clicks away.

Being able to make money on the Internet is very attractive. There is no need for office space. Expenses can be very low. And if you sign up with an affiliate marketing program, there is no need for inventory.

At lot of money can be make with affiliate marketing but it is going to take time and hard work. Yes, you can set your own hours. You can work in your pajamas from home. You can work anywhere, even on vacation, if you have Internet access.

But there is still a lot of learning and work involved. Affiliate marketing certainly makes it easier to earn money on line. You don’t have to design your own web site because there are others that can do it for you. Affiliate marketing experts are available with advice, tips and hints. The people who run affiliate marketing networks want you to succeed. If you make money, they make money too. It’s a win-win situation for both of you.

That’s why I like MoreNiche. It has pages and pages of guides and tools that I have read and they are excellent. If you are new to affiliate marketing, sign up at MoreNiche. Even if you decide not to promote any of their products, the signup is MORE than worth it because of all the information available to new affiliate marketers.

Use ‘Content’ As An Affiliate Marketing Tool

A lot of affiliate marketers want to be able to work just a few hours a week and still make money online. The simplest way to do this? Content! Build a site that is so packed with good content that when a web surfer visits, they’ll want to come back again and again.

So how do you do this and for little, or no, money. There are several resources available. There are a lot of article directories on the Internet, such as ezinearticles, and you can use the content as long as you direct it back to the original article. Free resources are a great way to get your site started.

At some point, you’ll need to start writing original content. And the more original content the better your site will be.

You can check out PLC (Private Label Content) articles. These are not free and require a subscription fee. PLC are articles, e-books and manuals that are free to the subscriber. In general, they can be used any way the subscriber wants with a few restrictions such as not being able to claim copyrights.

PLC articles have the advantage of not having to add a resource box or a link back to the ‘original’ article. Depending upon the niche, a subscriber can expect to see 10 to 40 articles a month.

Another source of excellent content is the affiliate market site you are signed up with. The MoreNiche affiliate program is loaded with guides, tools and pre-written content. It is the easiest way I know of to get an affiliate web site up and running with lots of interesting content.

Write Articles to Improve Your Search Engine Rank

One of THE best ways to improve your search engine rank is to write articles for an online article directory. The nice thing about writing articles is that you can use it to promote either your whole site or a specific page within your site.

The Author’s Resource box is what you use to direct your reader. But for people to read your Author’s Resource box they need to read your article.

Your first challenge is coming up with an interesting title. Your title is what will or will not persuade people to read your article…all the way down to the Resource.

So how do you pick a good title? Lots of good titles start with ‘How do I…?’, ‘How can I….?’, ‘What is the best way…?’, etc. Once you’ve chosen a title, it’s time to check out the competition. Put the title into Google’s Search Box and check out what comes up. How many thousands of sites are you competing with? Maybe you will need to tweak your title, such as changing ‘How do I’, to ‘How you can’.

But a title with few competing sites could also be a title with limited searches. Next, put your title into Wordtracker and check out the search numbers. Maybe ‘How can I’ has a lot of competition but it might also have loads of searches.

Using these two tools, continue to tweak your title until you find the right combination of less competition and more searches. Then write an interesting article and put grab your reader all the way down to the Resource Box. And then make the most of the Resource Box. Direct your reader to your site by offering more, such as more information or a freebie.

Niche Market Is Where The Money Is

You’ve probably read about how a lot of young people are choosing affiliate marketing as the way to make a lot of money. Well, it’s not just young people. It’s anyone who hates going to work everyday. That long commute? What a bore! So why not work from home, in a relaxing environment?

Sounds tempting, doesn’t it? Which is why so many people have become affiliate marketers.

As an affiliate marketer will you be able to immediately quit your day job? Of course not. It takes time and effort to be successful with affiliate marketing. But as with anything in life, the more effort you put into affiliate marketing, the more opportunity you have to be successful and to start bringing in that cash.

Around the world, people are willing to buy all kinds of products and the Internet has made that very easy. With eCommerce it is possible for people to buy products and services that they never had access to before. Orders come in from around the world. People are willing to pay for product they want no matter where it comes from.

How do you get your share of this river of money flowing around the world? The answer is simple: niche products. You need to be marketing products that are under-represented, for which there is high demand and for which the commissions are high.

And now it is easier than ever to find these niche products. Sure, you could spend hours and hours doing keyword searches. Or you could start earning money sooner and faster by following the advice in Making You Richer.

Making You Richer is a guide to niche marketing. It teaches where to find the highest paying products. These are products searched for by millions of people. And by promoting these products, you could be on your way to making thousands every month. Visit Making You Richer and check out these opportunities for yourself. Take advantage of them and start getting some of that river of money flowing into your pocket.

How do you select the affiliate program best for you?

Affiliate marketing is attractive because it is full of opportunity. With little effort you can reap big rewards. But like anything in life, what you get out of your affiliate marketing efforts is reflected by what you put into it.

So how do you start? How do you maximize your dollars with the minimum time? Here are some tips to help point you in the right direction.

• Pick a product line you are familiar with. Even better, pick a product you are familiar with and love. You have to believe in your product. If you don’t, how are you going to get others to believe? It won’t happen. You have a choice when you set up your site. You can throw something together with a bunch of links. Or you can create a really neat page with interesting and unique content. If you try to write good content about a lousy product, it will show. The more passion you have for the product, the better your chances for making money.

• Learn about the product you are selling. The whole point of affiliate marketing is to get people to read your content, click on your link and buy. If you know a lot about a product you can write good, interesting and original content. Your content will be much more effective if you know a lot about the product you are trying to sell.

The majority of affiliate marketers don’t become overnight millionaires. But a lot of affiliate marketers do make a lot of money and you can too. If you have passion for what you are selling and are knowledgeable about the product, it will be easier to convince your readers to click and buy.

Common Affiliate Mistakes

Do an Internet search and chances are you will find yourself at an affiliate marketing site. Affiliate marketing has really taken off over the past few years. Some affiliate marketing sites work and some don’t. Some disappear before they really have a chance to take off (1-3 years). Here are a few common mistakes that are made by new affiliate marketers.

• Study the affiliate marketing program that you are considering signing up for. Hugh commissions mean nothing if you can’t make a sale. Pick an affiliate marketing program that meshes with your area of expertise. It will be easier to write content for a site you have a passion for. In the long run, you’ll make a lot more money than with a product you know nothing about.

• If you have an email sign up on your site, use it wisely. Make sure the emails that you send out have helpful information. DON’T SPAM. Yes, you want your affiliate links in the email but take the time necessary to set it up so it doesn’t look like spam. If it does, you’ll annoy your subscribers and you’ll start losing them.

• Write original content. There is lots of public domain affiliate marketing copy out there but don’t copy and paste it into your site. Rewrite it and add something worthwhile to it. Make sure your content is unique.

It is common to make mistakes when starting up. It is going to happen. Take the opportunity and learn from your mistakes.

There's More to Life Than Google

If you market online, you may think that SEO (search engine optimization) is the only ways to get traffic. Most people, when you mention the words ‘search engine’ think only of the big three: Google, Yahoo and MSN. The names of these search engines have become so interchangeable, that they’ve become verbs in our vocabulary: Why don’t you just Google it?

There are many more search engines than just these three. In fact, there are hundreds of search engines. If you focus your marketing strategy to just Yahoo, Google and MSN, you could potentially be missing 30% of daily online searches.

Among alternative search engines are niche engines, meta-search engines and there are some that are even human driven. Niche engines, as you might guess from the name, focus on one item, like blogs or articles. DogPile and Widow are two examples of meta-search engines. Mahalo and DMOZ are examples of human driven search engines where the site is a directory edited by humans for the best content. Since these search engines have high page ranks, they should also be marketed to.

For any number of reasons, sometimes personal, sometimes political, there are Internet searchers that do not want to use Google. Yes, Google is very popular. But it most definitely is not the only search engine out there. The perception that Google is ‘the’ search engine turns off a lot of people and thus you lose the opportunity to reach those potential customers if you focus your site towards Google.

Which brings up SEO. A lot of time and money is spent researching the right keywords to bring traffic to a site. And what is interesting is that this can all be a waste of time. Customers are becoming very savvy and are getting tired of reading keyword loaded sites. Customers are reacting negatively to sites where SEO and keyword density determined the search rank.

Then consider the spiders which are crawling all over the Internet. All over? Not really. For even the largest search engine it is impossible to cover the entire Internet. (See Wikipedia article).

When considering the amount of material that a spider needs to crawl, by the time it is finished, a good portion of the information could be outdated. Pages may have been deleted. Or new information added. If using just one search engine, spiders are not the best means for finding good results. It’s also not very cost effective. This is where the meta-search engines fit in, searching and gathering results from more than one search engine.

The two best know meta-search engines are probably dogpile.com and (spider)widow.com. When doing market research for product and keywords, keep in mind search engines such as these. Try to rank in one of these meta-search or smaller niche search engines. If you can, then you’ll have a better opportunity of making contact with one of the almost 30% of Internet users who do not use Yahoo, Google or MSN.

While the number of people you will reach through the smaller search engines is certainly a lot less than the number who might find you through Google, they are more likely to be the customers you are looking for who will buy your product. Your goal is to reach the quality site visitors. And you can do that by not centering your marketing strategy around one search engine.

Google Adsense by Referral

Just a quickie update here.

For those that don't already know, Google Adsense by Referrals is going away at the end of August. If you use those ads on your site, you need to start looking for replacements.

So far I've found two that I think have potential to work, at least for me.

They are NeverblueAds and RevResponse. You might want to sign up and check them out for your own use.

I've Joined International Oddities' Affiliate Program

I've been looking for another affiliate program to add to my growing list. I'm focusing on affiliate programs that have multiple tiers that I can benefit from, like MoreNiche because it has a high percentage payout on sales from my referrals.

And that's why I've decided to be an affiliate of International Oddities. It pays on referral sales 7 (that's SEVEN!) levels down!

Commissions are, minimum, 40% per sale. That's the highest paying commission rate for any legal bud affiliate program. Sales average over $100. With those kind of sales and that commission rate there is certainly the potential for making lots of money with International Oddities.

With the publicity from Pineapple Express, interest in herbal smoking products is definitely on the rise. With a 25 year history, they are the leader in the herbal smoking market with products that are sold worldwide and are legal in all 5o states.

Sign up now with International Oddities and get your share of this growing market.

Get Inbound Links With Articles

But more importantly, if you do it right, you could become a recognized expert on your topic.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when writing articles for submission:

1.) The article needs to be factual and helpful. It needs to provide quality information and value to the reader. An article that is strictly a sales pitch is obvious to the majority of readers and won’t give the desired results.

2.) Read the rules of the article site before submitting. Don’t waste your and the editor’s time with incorrectly submitted articles.

3.) Write with a casual tone. It is much easier to read an article written with a conversational style. Be sure to check spelling and grammar. After all, it will have your name on it and it will represent you.

4.) Watch your length. Count the words. Most article sites have word count minimums and some have a maximum. Usually, once you get up to about 1200 words, it’s time to split the information into two separate articles.

5.) You tell what needs to be told in your article. Your bio should be short with a brief introduction of yourself and the use of one or two of your keywords. And those keywords should be used as anchor text for linking back to your site.

6.) Last but not least, unique content!! Do not post duplicate content to multiple article sites. Rewrite at least 1/3 of the article before submitting again.

For me, the last part is the hardest. I prefer to just write multiple articles, each on its own unique topic. But even that can be difficult as I search for topics. One way I made it easier for myself was by signing up with MoreNiche.

MoreNiche is a great site for affiliate marketers as it provides many needed tools including pre-written article content. Pick your product, do a quick rewrite on the articles, and you are ready to go!

Is Affiliate Marketing The Same As MLM?

Briefly the answer is no.

To answer this more fully it is important to know what MLM is. MLM stands for multi-level marketing. It is basically a pyramid scheme, which, in most cases, is illegal. Someone starts at the top (level 1) of a pyramid and sells something to level 2. Those in level 2 now need to sell to level 3 members. When that happens, level 1 makes a commission on the sale. This continues through multiple levels, with levels above earning a commission on the sale. At some point (the bottom of the pyramid) there are so many people trying to sell the product that the market is just about worn out. So they are stuck, having paid for a product they can’t sell, while those above have made money.

Affiliate marketing does not even remotely resemble MLM marketing. With affiliate marketing, the marketer is being paid to sell another site’s product. The marketer does not have to buy the product first. All they need to do is advertise the product and promote the product. The interested site visitor is directed to the site selling the product. If a purchase is made, the site directing the traffic is paid a commission.

What causes some confusion is that there is multi-level affiliate marketing. What clearly differentiates multi-level affiliate marketing from an MLM is that each level in an MLM has to buy the product in order to resell it. That is not the case with multi-level affiliate marketing. One site directs traffic to another site, which directs traffic to a third site. If a purchase is made, the directing sites are paid a commission. Multi-level affiliate marketing is just another way to drive traffic and create revenue. At the very end, the customer (hopefully) makes their purchase and the directing and selling site make money.

Pepperjam Network

Yes, this is going to be a lot shorter post than I normally write. But I wanted to let all of you know about Pepperjam Network.

Pepperjam Network is a relatively new and upcoming affiliate site. It is LOADED with advertisers, some unique to Pepperjam.

The site was developed by affiliates for affiliates. The communication is top notch and the technology is great.

If you already have a site and are looking for new companies to promote, then check out Pepperjam Network.

Sell to Your Niche Customers

When someone uses an Internet search engine, they are looking for something specific. That ‘specific item’ is a niche. And niche marketing is where the money is.

A niche marketer is marketing to a specific group of people. This might seem strange as wouldn’t it be nice if everyone on the Internet visited your site and bought something from it? But it’s not really possible to create a site that is appealing to everyone. And the result is, therefore, niche marketing.

Don’t even start niche marketing until you’ve done your homework. Think about your market. Think about your product. And do your research. What keywords fit your market? Are enough people searching for information, on your keywords, to bring you the traffic that you need? Is your market already saturated with sites. Using tools like Google Keyword and Wordtracker will help you in your research.

Once you’ve decided on the product and are ready to start site development, think about a few more things:

* Who is your market? Teens? Seniors? Professional men or woman? Your site’s content must be meaningful to your customer. If you can’t relate (write) in a way that appeals to your market, you might find yourself having to pay for content.

* Know your product. You need to be able to tell your customer the benefits of your product.

* Know your product well. You will need to, continually, write interesting and informative content on your product. Do you know it well enough to do that? If not, you might want to think about promoting something else.

Niche marketing is strange. It means focusing on a small group of potential customers rather than the Internet as a whole. But a focused site will draw in those searchers looking for your specific product. And those are the people you want…..in time, they will become your customers.

This is Very Embarrassing

I was just rereading my last post, 'Does Your Web Site Encourage Trust?'.

And I took another look at my site.

I’M GUILTY of just what I wrote NOT to do! What happened to my About Me??

So I immediately went to Blogger.com to update the Layout on this site. And wouldn’t you know it! Blogger, as usual, is having trouble with the Layout code and I can’t add the About Me element.

So here it is:

My name is Diane. I am retired after working in the computer industry for 30 years. Until about a year ago I was just doing typical e-mail and searches on the Internet. Then my daughter got me started on making money on the Internet. One thing led to another. I now blog, get paid to post and do affiliate sales. I participate in forums. And I keep learning.

If you would like to contact me, you can click on the e-mail link in this post or write directly to fourmyblog@gmail.com .

Thanks loads for reading!

Does Your Website Encourage Trust?

For your site visitor to buy from you, they must feel a level of trust. So how do you create a feeling of trust with something as impersonal as a web site?

How often do you go to a web site and all you see are forms to fill in? Even if you click on Contact, the only thing that comes up is another form. No email address. No phone number. How do you feel about such a site?

To develop a level of trust and to build a relationship with your site visitor, your web site must have something ‘human’ about it. It can be an audio or video message. It can be helpful content. Or it can just be that email and/or phone number.

Business, whether e-business or brick and mortar business, is about connecting with people and building relationships. Without that human element, you cannot expect to build the trust that you need for your visitor to become a customer.

Mistakes: Affiliate Marketing the Wrong Way

Yes, you can make good money with affiliate marketing. But it is not going to happen overnight and it is not going to be easy. I don’t care what anyone else says. Maybe someone got really lucky but for the 99.9999% of the rest of us, making money at affiliate marketing will take time and effort. Having an affiliate marketing business is no different than any other type of business. It takes time and hard work. Don't make the mistakes a lot of new marketers end up making.

Just like any other business, before you head into affiliate marketing, you should do your research ahead of time. Have a good feel for how much time, effort and money you will need to put into your affiliate business before it will become profitable. Don’t enter the affiliating marketing business on a whim, build your web site, and then expect to sit back and have the money roll in. It is NOT going to happen.

Here are some mistakes people make when they move into affiliate marketing:

* They forget they need traffic. Have a fantastic product? Have a great web site? Have quality content? All great but they are not going to do you any good unless you can get traffic to your site. Not continuing to market and advertise their site are two of the most common mistakes people make.

* They end up in deep debt trying to drive traffic to their site. It will take time to figure out what works right for your site and some of that traffic might cost money for advertising, which is OK. Mistakes made are not watching the balance of what is being spent and making sure there is a great return on the investment.

* They use the same techniques to drive traffic as all of their competitors. Big mistake as you want to make yourself different from your competitor.

* They think a nice brand new attractive web site, with some original content, is all that is necessary. Then they sit back for a few months and expect the money to come rolling in. It's not going to happen.

To be successful at affiliate marketing takes patience and hard work. Keep reminding yourself that the majority of your competitors will give up after 3-6 months. Yes, it could take a year or longer to see that money starting to come in on a regular basis. But the bigggest mistake you can make is also giving up. You won’t see ANY results if you don’t keep working at it.

Low Investment=Affiliate Marketing=Your Business

Probably the ONE thing that attracts SO many people to affiliate marketing is how you can start earning money with such a low initial investment. The only thing you really need is a domain name and a web site. You can get both free at blogger.com or freewebs.com. Or you can buy your domain name (a very small investment) and then design your site with one of the many FREE programs available that literally walk you through the set up.

Here are a couple of tips for you:

• Don’t buy your domain name, or name your web site, until you know which affiliate marketing program(s) you will be working with. Your web site name should reflect your product line. The name of this site is exactly what I am referring to. Everything here is about affiliate marketing.

• There are thousands and thousands of affiliate marketing programs you can sign up with. And the vast majority of them are FREE! You may want to rethink an affiliate marketing program that requires you to spend money up front. If the investment is very small, it might still be a good option. But the fact is there are SO many affiliate marketing programs that are free, why spend any money at all? Plus, top affiliate marketing programs will offer training, guides, a forum for advice and other tools that you need to be successful.

• You probably already pay for internet service into your house. Check the features that come with your connection. You might find that with your basic account, you are also eligible for free, or very inexpensive, web space. Consider using this space to host your new site. You want your site hosted with a company that is going to be up and running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Remember that your web site is now a money-making machine so you want to entrust it to a company that is going to do everything it can to make sure it is available 24/7.

These are just a few of the things everyone should know before making an investment of time or money with affiliate marketing. Read everything you can about affiliate marketing. Then, when you are ready, pick your product, get your web site, put up some content and your links and, with no or minimal investment, you are ready to start MAKING MONEY!

Affiliate Marketing For Dummies

OK…so I’m not the first one to use this corny phrase. I’m sure you’ve seen it on other web sites as site names, post titles and e-books. I know I have.

I also know that most of the ‘affiliate marketing for dummies’ sites that I’ve seen have been less than helpful. And that Affiliate Marketing for Dummies e-book? Did it help?

If ANY of the above had given you the information you needed to be a successful affiliate marketer you wouldn’t be reading this blog, right? I know. It is not easy finding valuable affiliate marketing material.

Which is why I turned to Making You Richer, because I consider MYSELF a ‘dummy’ when it comes to affiliate marketing.

Making You Richer Membership provides everything needed to start a web site with the potential to earn thousands every week:

*Highly profitable products to promote - Earn up to $160 per sale

*A selection of complete websites - Easy to edit, valued at $300 each

*A free, unique domain name - for example, www.yourowndomainname.com

*Free hosting for 12 months - Secure hosting from Midphase for free (Credit Card is required to verify membership, but hosting and domain are 100% free for 1st 12 months, with no obligation to continue)

*Up to $170 in Pay per click credits - Generate visitors for free ( terms and conditions apply)

*Access to free Website editing software - No need for further investment.

PLUS loads of other FREE tools!

Making You Richer is the ONLY site that I know of that gives you a SIX month guarantee. If you don’t make any money in 6 months, they will refund your purchase price.

Order Making You Richer now. What do you have to lose? Maybe the possibility of earning ... WOW, how much did you say you made?

The Benefits of Affiliate Marketing

Or, in other words, why you got started with this in the first place.

If you are like most (all?) affiliate marketers, you started with affiliate marketing for one reason only: to make money. All of us want this opportunity to build our wealth, to have income coming in month by month. What a difference a few (a lot?) of extra dollars would make each month!

So what are the benefits:

Affiliate marketing is low risk. There is little to no up front money necessary, with most affiliate programs being free to join. Costs are your web site, plus whatever money you decide to spend to promote the product and your site.

Affiliate marketing has high potential. In the right niche, with the right type of marketing, you could have money coming in every month.

You have no inventory to handle. You don't have to buy product up front. You don’t need space to store it. You don’t have to worry about returns. The affiliate marketing sponsor takes care of all that. All you need to do is promote to your market. Oh, yes…and cash the commission checks.

You have no set hours. Work when you want and as hard as you want. No boss looking over your shoulder. Want to take a day off? No problem.

You can promote your affiliate business as much or as little as you want. If you are looking to replace your current income, you’ll have to work hard and promote hard. However, if you are just looking for some extra income, you can work at a slower pace and cash a smaller check. What is nice about affiliate marketing is that the decision is yours. It's your business. It’s all up to you!

SEO – Oh, gee, not again!

If you are anything like me, you’ve read about SEO (search engine optimization) so many times that you are beginning to repeat it in your sleep.

Yet SEO is very important. Why? Because SEO is what drives traffic to a web site. If you want your web site to rank high on a search, here is what you need to know:

SEO = Link Popularity plus Content = High Ranking

For this post, I’m going to focus on link popularity.

Link popularity is the number of links (think of them as ‘votes’) that a search engine has for your site. The higher your link popularity, the higher you will rank in the search engines.

Here is a site that measures link popularity from Google and Yahoo.

http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/default.htm

Google and Yahoo look at link popularity as a measure of how important other sites think your site is. The number of links is important. Also important is where the link is coming from. If you get a link from USAToday, it will have much more significance to the search engines than a link from Jane’s Weekly Newspaper.

And another factor that influences the value of the link is the text used within it. If it contains one of your competing keywords, the search engine will give your site even more credibility. And last but certainly not least, is whether or not the link comes from a relevant site. For instance, if you sell televisions, a great link would be from a site that reviews televisions.

So how can you improve your link popularity?

1) If you haven't already, submit your site to the three main search engines: Google, Yahoo and MSN

http://www.google.com/addurl/

https://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/submit

http://search.msn.com/docs/submit.aspx


2) When you submit articles to article directories, make sure that you always close your article (or use the Resource Box or Author’s Bio box) with a link to your site that is relevant to what you have written in your article. If you written about televisions, your closing line could be: “John Doe is an expert in evaluating televisions. Visit his site for more tips on evaluating the right television for you.” Put you hyperlink with your URL into the keyword…in this case television.

3) Use your keywords in your titles. Put them at the beginning of your title since some search engines (unfortunately) crop titles.

4) Use keywords in your site description and don't make the description too long.

5) Submit your site to niche specific web directories.

6) Participate in forums and put your link into your signature. If the forum posts are archived, your link will be archived, too, for the search engines to find.

And there’s something else people tend to forget when writing for SEO. You still have to make your content AND title interesting. Getting to the top of a search engine search is one thing. Having a title interesting enough for someone to click on is something else. Don’t lose your opportunity!

FINALLY! A Top Affiliate Marketing program

If you are reading this blog, then I feel I can assume you are interested in affiliate marketing. And my next assumption is that you are looking for a way to earn some money without working very hard. If both of those assumptions are correct, then you’ve come to the right place. Here is where you’ll learn about a top rated affiliate marketing program and why YOU should be a member.

A top rated affiliate marketing program gets to the top because it provides its affiliates with everything they need to be successful and then adds more on top of that. A top rated program is responsive to its members’ needs because successful members make for a successful program.

What does a top rated affiliate program need to do? For one, it needs to offer its members a high commission rate. YOU are the one trying to improve your web to get to the top of page one on a Google search. YOU are the one spending hours each day working on driving traffic to your site. YOU are the one generating those sales. Therefore, YOU should be rewarded with a high commission rate and the opportunity to make more money.

With a top rated affiliate marketing program, you will find:

- tutorials and guides to help you, even if you are just a beginner
- free web site templates, with easy to modify designs for your own personal web site
- free content written by professionals
- free real time traffic tracking tools
- free information on the niche market that you choose

You will not start to earn money overnight. The affiliate marketing programs that promise you will earn $1000s per month gives you the impression that you will make that kind of money your first month and each and every month. The fact is that it is not going to happen. There is nothing magic that will turn you into a super affiliate.

The only way to become a super affiliate and to earn that kind of money is to work hard. You will have to learn how to market. You will have to learn how to draw traffic. But if you are going to work that hard, wouldn’t you rather do it for a top affiliate marketing program that pays high commissions and provides you with tools to make it easier for you? Of course you would! What’s the alternative? Putting in the same time and effort to earn less money. No, thank you!

Don’t waste your time. Start off right with a top rated affiliate marketing program. If some people are willing to work for smaller commissions, or for a program that requires them to buy product first, fine, let them. YOU have found something better.

Some history on Affiliate Marketing

So, you’ve been reading and reading and reading. And you are still not sure what affiliate marketing is all about. Well, you are definitely not alone based upon the number of visitors that I have to this blog.

Affiliate marketing is definitely one of the most popular and effective ways to:
1) advertise on the internet and
2) make money on the internet

Believe it or not, the idea of affiliate marketing goes back to about 1994. The music web site www.CDNow.com was, as far as most people know, the very first site to use affiliate marketing. They were the first site to pay other sites to direct traffic to them. One of the biggest sites now associated with affiliate marketing is Amazon.com. (And they do very well with it considering they only pay a commission of 4%.) Nowadays, affiliate marketing is a part of just about every major web site.

Affiliate marketing works very well for the advertiser because it is based solely upon performance. The advertiser monitors the IP addresses of the incoming traffic. The site with the ad (hosting site) will earn money based upon the traffic that it sends to the advertiser. For a hosting site, this is the most popular form of affiliate marketing and the simplest way to earn some money.

The method described above is just one type of affiliate marketing. Some advertisers will pay the hosting site based upon the number of times the ad is displayed. This is not very popular with adverisers since it is really hard to make sure the number is not forged or to even confirm that the site visitor actually saw the ad.

And another type of affiliate marketing requires not only a click on the link but also some kind of action to take place. Usually the advertiser wants, at minimum, an email address signup and, at best, an actual sale. Only when this action occurs does the site hosting the ad earn any money. This is not a popular advertising method with hosting sites because it requires their site visitor to not only click through on an ad, but also to sign up for something. On the other hand, it is also the best method for the hosting site to earn the most money.

It took only a few years for affiliate marketing to really take off. For the advertiser it is very cost effective since it is based upon actual performance. With both the advertiser and the hosting site profiting from affiliate marketing, it can be expected that affiliate marketing will still be a major advertising technique moving into the future.

Review: Mini Site Profits Exposed

What’s a mini site? Frankly, I didn’t have any idea until I listened to Michael Rasmussen’s “Mini Site Profits Exposed” FREE video series.

What I learned are that mini sites are web sites made up of only 3 or 4 pages. They usually promote only one product. Which is why they could work for the affiliate marketing product that you are selling. They are easy to set up and don’t require a lot of time, energy or money to get started. And once they are up and running, they require very little maintenance.

Unfortunately, most people never turn a profit from their mini sites. Why? Because they never had the opportunity to learn how to set it up properly so that it makes money for them.

Want the opportunity to learn all about setting up mini sites from the guru of mini sites Michael Rasmussen? And want it FREE? You've got it! He has just released a new FREE video course that can walk you through the entire process. And did I say that these videos are FREE?

In a hurry to check out the FREE videos right now? You can click on the banner in the upper right sidebar or use this URL:

http://makemoney-affiliatemarketing.com/freevideos

I just finished watching the videos and was so excited by the potential that I immediately wrote this post. There is an absolute wealth of information in these FREE videos.

Want to learn more before looking at the FREE videos?

Well, you watch them on line with your browser. They are of great production quality and are easy to see and hear. The graphics are great, the sound superb.

Here’s a very brief summary of each of the videos:

Video 1: Introduction

Video 2: The Basics

Video 3: Squeeze Pages
(I had heard the term before but didn’t really understand it until I saw this video.)

Video 4: Mini Site Copywriting – Part One

Video 5: Mini Site Copywriting – Part Two

Video 6: How to Automate the Delivery of Your Infoproduct

Video 7: How to “Grow” Your Sale

Video 8: Creating an Affiliate Sales Force

Video 9: Mini Site Mistakes to Avoid

Video 10: Secrets of Creating a Product Funnel

Video 11: Outsource Secrets for Working Less, and Making More – Part 1

Video 12: Outsource Secrets for Working Less, and Making More – Part 2

All of these 12 videos are FREE. Totally they run about 60 minutes. I have watched them all and they are great training tools. And they are yours to use and watch over and over again.

Anxious to get started. Click this URL right here:

http://makemoney-affiliatemarketing.com/freevideos

Want more?

There is a deluxe program that you can upgrade to for a small fee. Here’s the breakdown:

Video 13: Designing a Killer Back End That Runs Completely on Autopilot

Video 14: List Building Secrets

Video 15: Marketing Activities That Make You Money

Video 16: Make Maximum Profits From Your Mini Site

WOW!! That’s a lot of information. Just remember that the 12 video course is FREE. And it's yours! Watch them over and over. Take full advantage of them because Michael Rasmussen believes it is important for him to prove himself to you before he asks you to buy anything else from him.

So go ahead and check out Mini Site Profits Exposed right now. Click on the banner in the upper right sidebar or on this URL:

http://makemoney-affiliatemarketing.com/freevideos

Remember, the one hour video course is FREE! The information is FREE!

Thanks for reading!

How to Avoid Affiliate Marketing Scams

Done with the right affiliate marketing company, you can earn and get paid for the money you’ve been working for.

Done with the wrong program and you get nothing.

So how do you avoid the scam sites? The answer is one word: Research. That's what I did with MoreNiche before I decided to join.

Start by typing in the company name, along with the word ‘scam’, into a search engine. I did that in Yahoo with MoreNiche. The first page brought up sites that had blog posts with MoreNiche and ‘scam’ in the title.

To me, the most important word displayed was ‘NOT’.

This post by Affiliate Scam Guide is interesting and helped me make my decision to join, particularly since the program manager from MoreNiche took the time to respond.

So how do you pick the right program?

1. Does the company have good support? Do they answer emails and have valid contact information?

2. Do they have a valid offline address? You’ll find the one for MoreNiche right at the bottom of their page.

3. What % of commission do they pay? Look for sites paying over 30%.

4. Is their tracking system real time and accurate?

5. Do they have a forum with REAL people participating, available to help you and answer your questions?

6. Are the products well targeted for your market and of good quality? Like the product but won’t work on your current site? Then do what I’ve done…I've taken advantage of the tools MoreNiche has to offer and started a new site.

Where should you do your research?

1. Forums are a great place to start. There are many people who use the forums for reference and are also happy to share their experiences. Don’t hesitate to ask for advice and be specific about the affiliate marketing program you are considering joining. Put the name of the program into the search engine of the forum to see what has already been written about it.

2. Look into the program carefully and see what it has to offer you.

3. Put the company name into the search engines and see what comes up. Read all reviews carefully. If most of the reviews are positive, I ignore the couple that migh say 'scam'. On the other hand, if most scream SCAM, stay away!

Don’t skimp on the research. You want to join an affiliate marketing program that will provide you with the help and tools you need to earn money and will pay you your earned money on a regular basis. Ready to move forward? Then it's the right time to sign up with MoreNiche.

Don’t make these Affiliate Marketing mistakes

For people just starting out with affiliate marketing, or even for those just thinking about it, affiliate marketing seems way too good to be true. You are looking at the potential of a real business, to earn real money, potentially enough money to live on, and you don’t have to worry about products or shipping. Unfortunately, many people new to affiliate marketing make many of the same mistakes, such as:

Lack of patience: This is probably the biggest mistake made by those new to affiliate marketing. They tend to jump right into it. They put in a lot of work and wind up frustrated and angry that they didn’t earn any money within the first few days. The fact is that it takes time. People that really do make $1000s in a month earn that now after spending years promoting their product. It didn’t happen in a day and probably not even in months. I’ve read many forums where the opinion is that it will take 6-12 months for a site to really earn decent money.

Not keeping your site updated: If you create an affiliate marketing site and then do nothing, you might as well bury it. Your content should be changed on a regular basis. Try to update it weekly. Add some images that go along with whatever holiday is approaching. That’s the main reason I like the blog format. It is very easy to continually add new content. Be sure to stay on top of the product information that is provided to you by the parent company. And, most importantly, don’t give up after a month. Plan on giving your affiliate marketing site six months of your time.

Getting into too many programs: In other words, don’t spread yourself too thin. You will need to devote time and effort to earn money at affiliate marketing. At most, sign up for two or three programs. You want to be able to focus on these programs, giving them the time and attention they need. Whether you focus one site on 2 or 3 products, or create a different site for each product, you will need to spend time marketing. If your site is loaded with widgets or promotions for a dozen affiliate marketing site, there is very little chance that you’ll earn any money. You need to focus.

Inexperience is the biggest problem with most people who are coming new to affiliate marketing. They read about the huge amounts of money people make, with these ads giving the impression it all happened overnight. It didn’t and it won’t for you either. Take it slow and easy. Being focused, dedicated and investing in quality affiliate marketing materials will help you earn that money you are working so hard for.

‘SEO’, ‘Keywords’, ‘Search Engines’, ‘Niche’, and more

Do you have a thorough understanding of these terms? Or might they just as well be in Greek (for those of us who don’t speak Greek) for how well you understand them.

You are trying to make money with affiliate marketing. You read everything you can about SEO, keywords, page rank, etc. so that you can create a successful affiliate marketing site. And no matter how much you read, it still makes no sense.

Well, how about if there was available a detailed guide? This guide would walk you through the process step by step. In it you’d find:

*easy to follow instructions for setting up your first web site without knowing any code or HTML
*how to write good content that will be found by the search engines

*how to find products paying high commissions

*how to find affiliate sites that will provide you with guides, tools and lots of resources

and how about a 6 MONTH MONEY BACK GUARANTEE!

You'll find all that and MORE with Making You Richer!

You’ve seen it before: Content is King

Yes, you need a selling page for your affiliate marketing product but a selling page alone won’t earn you any money. To be successful in affiliate marketing you need good web content. Good content keeps your visitor at your site. Good content will encourage your visitor to click through your site. And the longer your visitor stays on your site, the better the chances that your visitor will click one of your ads. And clicks on your ads is must if you are going to earn any money with affiliate marketing.

There are several different types of web site content.

• Informative Content – That’s the technique I use on this site. As you read through my site on making money with affiliate marketing, I need to demonstrate to you that I know what I’m writing about and that I have also used these techniques to be successful.

• Product Review – This is another popular type of web content for affiliate marketing sites. Give a reaction towards products or services that you have used. Just make sure that your review is honest because this will affect your credibility. For instance, I highly recommend the affiliate marketing program MoreNiche. Why? Because whether you decide to earn money through their product line or not, MoreNiche has an absolute wealth of free tools and guides to help you market your site.

• News stories – Link to news stories about your industry. Write a summation and then add a ‘read more’ link. Just be sure that you open your link in a new window so you don’t lose your reader.

• Humorous Anecdote – Write something funny. A chuckle helps everyone.

• Resource Article and How-To-Piece – This is another technique I am using here. By trying to make my content educational, I try to encourage my readers to stay on my site and read more of my posts.

What to look for in an Affiliate Marketing program

With so many affiliate marketing programs on the internet, how do you choose which one to join? What criteria should you use to differentiate the good from the bad? Here are some pointers to help you out.

• Firstly check the product out. Research the market for these products, determining who will need the product and how to create a need for them.

• Check out the company carefully. Forums are a great place to check out affiliate marketing programs. Are there good posts about the product? Are customers happy with the service they receive? And of course, do the members receive their money on time?

• Not everyone has the money to afford high end products. The average market sale is $10-$500. Unless you are familiar with the special markets than can afford high-end goods, stay with an affiliate marketing program whose products sell within the average. It will be much easier for you to promote products within this range and, therefore, earn more money.

• Commissions: If you’ll be paid a percentage of the sale, versus a flat rate, look for affiliate marketing programs that pay 20% or more. Anything less isn’t worth your time.

• Since the success of the affiliate marketing program depends upon your success, good training and tools should be available to you.

• Be sure the company offers good, quick customer support.

• You should be under no obligation to buy the product.

• There should be a good tracking system, showing your earnings in real time

• The company should have a system in place to prevent theft of your and your customers’ ID

• You should be paid at least once a month and the minimum payout should not be more than $100.

• Last, but still very important, check out the people involved. Does the site have a forum where other members can help you and answer your questions? Do the owners participate in the forum? What about the person who is referring you to the program (that’s me)? Do you feel I am providing you with helpful, interesting and useful information?

With this list of criteria, check out the affiliate marketing program that you are considering joining. Joining the right program, and the right group of people, will give you the opportunity to earn more money, and isn’t that what affiliate marketing is all about? Check out: MoreNiche. Take a look at their guides and tools. Read through the forum. Isn't this the place YOU want to be?

Types of Affiliate Programs

There are several different types of affiliate marketing programs. Of course you want the one that will earn you the most money. There are programs that will give you a commission and, if it’s a high end product, the money will be good. There are other affiliate marketing programs that earn you a residual income.

Here are some other examples of affiliate marketing programs.

Pay-Per-Click: You’ve probably seen Google Adsense ads on just about every site you have visited. There are Google Ads on this site. The money you earn is based upon your site visitor clicking through on an ad and how much is bid for a keyword.

Two tier affiliate marketing programs are good because you will not only earn money for your own sales but also from the sales of your referrals, affiliates who signed up under you. These referrals will earn you a passive income and the best way to do this is to get a large number of them per program.

Residual income: Affiliate marketing programs that can give you a residual income are good. Look for programs that are not just a one time sale but are a monthly subscription or products that customers will buy again and again.

As you can see, there are several different ways to make money through affiliate marketing. Pick one niche market and work that for at least a month. Then move on to another niche. Just remember that a little bit of time and commitment will bring you a little bit of money. To earn a sizeable income will take time, determination and a commitment to learning all you can about affiliate marketing.

Why do you want to be an Affiliate?

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to earn money on the internet. It is also one of the easiest ways to start a business. It can be the beginning of earning money so you can start your own business. It can be supplemental money. It can even be expanded in such a way that it will provide you a full time income. Now wouldn’t that be nice?

Another advantage of affiliate marketing is the learning tools available. It’s to the advantage of a good affiliate marketing program to help their affiliates by providing good tools and advice. One of the best sites I found for this is MoreNiche. It has a wealth of guides and tools that make signing up for this free program worth the signup time. With these guides and tools you’ll be able to learn the basics of affiliate marketing.

A very important rule of affiliate marketing is to pick one program and stick with it. Test and market that program for at least a month. By then, you might even be making money from it. Then, add another program and test and market that for a month. The goal is to gain experience which will help you increase the amount of money that you’ll be earning.

Remember to keep in mind that affiliate programs are only as good as the amount of work that you put into them. You can earn a little bit of money with a little time and investment. Or you can take it a step further, invest in affiliate marketing tools, and earn a comfortable living by doing what it takes.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Before you get started, you need to understand affiliate marketing. Basically, there are many companies that have products for sale and they are willing to pay their affiliate (you) a commission on any sales that you make.

Setting up a site as an affiliate is easy. You’ll need a web site, like this one, which is free and easy though blogger.com.

Next you find the product(s) that you want to promote. You sign up and put the affiliate product links on your site. When your reader clicks through on the link and buys the product, you make money.

Why do many people get started with affiliate marketing? There are many reasons. The primary reason for most people is the money potential. Next is the temptation to quit your day job and work from home, setting up your own hours and schedule.

Setting up a web based business can be very involved. You need to have a web design, a product, a way to get payment, ship the product, etc. A much easier way to work from home is affiliate marketing.

But a list of links of products won’t make you a lot of money. Web surfers find lists of ads a big turn off. So how do you keep the surfer on your site? Content! You need to provide interesting content that relates to the basic topic of your site….as I’m doing with posts on affiliate marketing.

If you can’t write interesting content, there are many services that will do it for you at a very reasonable price. Once you’ve got the content, put your hyperlinks throughout it. While there is no guarantee that affiliate marketing will make you money, you can put the odds in your favor with an interesting site and quality content.