Thursday, July 17, 2014

How to Make Money Using Affiliate Programs: for Beginners

There are numerous companies that create an affiliate program so that you can promote their products and make money.  Membership in these programs are usually free.  Membership also usually includes the free use of affiliate links and/or banners so that you can promote products online.  You receive a portion of the profits when items are bought through the links and banners that you post.

You can easily take advantage of these affiliate programs to make money.  You are invited to read the following steps to making money with affiliate programs.  Feel free to use as many of the steps as you can to start making money.

Niche Research


Even though it might be tempting to try to be all things to all people, a Jack of all trades, it is not feasible when marketing online.  Imagine trying to fill a cup with water from a hose that is set on spray.  The water will cover a wide surface area but little goes into the cup in comparison to if you have the hose set on a steady stream.  With a steady stream all of the water goes into the cup and the cup is filled more quickly and effectively.  The same concept applies to marketing.  Choose one niche and research that niche.

Use a Keyword Research Tool


Once you choose your niche you should use a keyword search term tool to narrow it down.  For example, if you chose real estate as your niche, that would be too broad a subject.  You would want to use a keyword research tool to narrow it down to maybe Ocean front real estate in Miami.  If you Google keyword research tool you will get many options for paid and free tools to use for researching keywords.  One tool that I like to use is found at http://suggester.promediacorp.com/.

Test to make sure that you have narrowed down your topic well enough by doing a Google search with your topic in quotes.  The quotes will signal Google to give how many sites exist with that topic.  Try to narrow down your topic to where there are only 5,000 or less results.  The number of results is located at the top of the search results page on the left hand side.

Create a Blog and/or a Website


Create a blog and/or a website that centers around your new keyword.  There are websites like Blogger and Word Press that allow you to create a blog for free.  Provide lots of information about your chosen keyword on your blog site or website.  Make sure that you give helpful and relevant information.  Don’t copy and paste information from other sites because that will get you a duplicate content penalty from Google.  Create unique content by rewriting the information that you find into your own words.  The more unique and helpful the information is that you present the more appreciative your site visitors will be and the more likely they will be to buy from you.

How to Market Without a Website


You can market your affiliate products without a website.  Do a search online to find directories that will let you post articles that you have written for free.  Read the policies of a website before joining to make sure that you can include your affiliate links in the articles that you would have published.  Once you find websites that will allow you to include your affiliate link write informative helpful articles about your products and submit them to be published.

Use Long Tailed Keywords


There is a lot of competition online for keywords.  The days of using one or two word keywords and ranking to be listed on the first page of search results are over for most of us.  It is now better to use keyword phrases.  For example you would use unicorn costumes for adults instead of just unicorn costumes.

Use Keywords Strategically



Place your keywords strategically in the headline for a blog, article or website.  Also put keywords in the first few sentences and throughout the body.  This will attract search engines which will ultimately help people to find your article, blog and/or website more easily.

If you learned anything new from this article then please leave a comment.  


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