How to Make Money with Internet Marketing – “The Resources”

This is a complete Resource Guide for Newbie Internet Marketers that are looking to start their Affiliate Marketing efforts in the right

direction.

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Affiliate Marketing What is Affiliate Marketing? Affiliate marketing is a way of making money online whereby an affiliate (otherwise referred to as a "publisher") is paid a certain amount (usually a percentage of the cost of the product being promoted) whenever someone purchases a product through his/her affiliate link. In simpler terms, affiliate marketing lets people earn money by promoting or selling other people's products. Affiliate marketing is actually very similar to traditional marketing where sales people are paid commissions whenever they make a sale. The only difference is that affiliate marketing is done online. Participating in affiliate marketing typically requires you to sign up for an account with an affiliate network or a site that offers an affiliate program. Upon signing up, the affiliate network will issue a unique affiliate link for you for every product you are going to promote. Your affiliate link is what will identify you as an affiliate and keep track of the activities of the people who would click on your link(s) (e.g., how many people have clicked on your link and whether they have actually made a purchase or not). It is also through your affiliate link that affiliate networks will keep track of your earnings. There are generally three types of affiliate marketing--pay-per-click, pay-per-sale, and pay-per-lead. Pay-Per-Click In pay-per-click (PPC) an affiliate/publisher gets paid whenever a visitor clicks on a link on his/her site leading to the merchant's (product owner/service provider) site. A very good example for this are the ads you see on websites. A lot of the ads you see on websites are generated/supplied by online ad networks (e.g., Google AdSense, AOL Advertising, etc.). Those ads, when clicked on, earns publishers (i.e., site owners) anywhere from a few cents to a few dollars for each click they get.Pay-Per-Sale As the name suggests, this type of affiliate marketing earns affiliate/publisher money whenever a visitor/customer purchases a product through his/her affiliate link. Products sold/promoted in this type of affiliate marketing typically come from affiliate networks, such as ClickBank, Amazon, and eBay. In this type of affiliate marketing, affiliates are paid either a percentage of the price of the product or a fixed amount which are both dictated by the merchant (i.e., the product owner). Pay-Per-Lead In this type of affiliate marketing, affiliates are paid every time a potential client fills out a form. Some forms only ask people to fill out their email address, while some ask for a lot more details and can be several pages long. The forms are provided by the merchant usually in code form which you insert into your website's code. The form codes are typically attached with a unique identifier and function very similarly to affiliate links.

What is CPA? You may have come across mentions of CPA in connection to affiliate marketing and wondered what it is. Well, one thing's for sure, it's not about accountants. CPA, or cost-per-action, is actually one of affiliate marketing's predominant compensation methods where a merchant/advertiser pays an affiliate/publisher only when people (i.e., internet users/potential customers) complete a specified action. An action could be a purchase, a submission, a download, and so on. CPA offers merchants/advertisers an opportunity to control their return on investment (ROI) and be sure that they're not indiscriminately spending money on terms that aren't driving business. This is what makes CPA the preferred compensation method of most direct response advertisers. For affiliates, CPA offer generally pays more to promote than the usual affiliate offers such as those found on ClickBank and Amazon. Unfortunately, however, getting accepted into a CPA network is a lot harder. Compared to affiliate networks, CPA networks are far more selective. The joining process is lengthier and they verify everyone who signs up with them. Some networks will even cross-check the information you have on your application with those found elsewhere. To complicate things even more, many of the top CPA networks don't just want anyone applying. Most CPA networks prefer applicants who have at least some knowledge in Internet marketing and online business knowledge. Many CPA networks also require that applicants have an established customer base or online presence (in other words, an established web site or blog)—they see these as proofs of the applicant's capacity to promote their offers effectively.

Choosing an Affiliate Program/Network and Product to Promote With so many affiliate programs/networks out there, choosing which affiliate program/network to join can be a daunting task. Below are a few tips to help you out. Take time to think about what market/niche you actually want to be in. Doing this can significantly cut down your list to a few affiliate networks/programs. For example, if you like technology-related products like software and gadgets, you’ll only have to find affiliate networks/programs that have a wide variety of products you can promote. And if you are interested in the self-improvement market, you will only have to consider networks/programs that allows you to sell information products, such as ebooks, instructional videos, etc. Ask around and do your research. Join forums, read affiliate blogs, visit review sites, get in touch with affiliates, etc. A network receiving several positive testimonials on various sites can be a good sign. There’s a caveat though, you must be critical of what you read and hear because you are sure to come across a few things which had been put out with the sole purpose of making the bad ones look good. Payment terms, conditions, schemes, and methods are also very important things to consider when choosing an affiliate network/program. You should choose an affiliate program that offers good rates of pay, and one that clearly tells you what you need to do in order to receive your commission. You also need to find out how often the program pays its affiliates, the minimum amount you are required to earn before you can receive payment (this is usually referred to as “minimum payout”), and how they are going to pay you (e.g., check, PayPal, etc.). If you already have a blog or site that caters to a specific niche/market, you may want to pick a network/program that is aligned with the market/niche you are currently in. This will enable you to promote products to your existing subscribers/readers. In relation to the above tip, find out what your audience wants or are interested in. Pay attention to their problems and questions, look for a solution to their need, and offer the solution to them. Pick a new product to promote or a network that has new products that you can promote. You can't expect a lot of people to buy from you if they are also seeing the product you are promoting on numerous other sites/blogs. As much as possible, promote a product/brand that you personally use and trust. If you are going to promote a product that you’re not familiar with, try to examine it first and test it out for yourself. See how that product deals with its customers, if it delivers real value, and if it actually does what it says it will do. You don’t want to appear to your site’s visitors as someone who is just there for the money. Pick a “clean” network. You should stay clear of affiliate networks that are known to tolerate adware, spyware, and rogue affiliate techniques. This is for your own and your potential customers’ good. Pick a network that provides good merchant and affiliate support. Simply put, pick a network that cares. Go to forums, read blogs, you’ll surely find people talking about these things and more. To help you get started, here are some of them:

Forums5 Star Affiliate Marketing ForumsURL: http://affiliate-marketing-forums.5staraffiliateprograms.com/5 Star Affiliate Programs is considered as one of the top sources for high integrity programs and supportive, success oriented information about affiliate marketing.

A Best WebURL: http://www.abestweb.com/forums/A forum for the affiliate community.

AffiliatePrograms.comURL: http://www.affiliateprograms.com/forum/Claims itself to be the fastest-growing affiliate forum in the world.

Affiliates4U (UK)URL: http://www.affiliates4u.com/forums/Affiliates4U has over 50,000 member affiliate marketing professionals who stay updated and discuss the latest news and trends within the affiliate marketing world.

Amazon.comURL: http://forums.prosperotechnologies.com/n/mb/listsf.asp?webtag=am-associhelp&ctx=256A forum run by Amazon for its associates (i.e., affiliates).

AssociatePrograms.comhttp://www.associateprograms.com/discus/index.phpThis forum also has articles that can help affiliates of all levels of expertise.

Digital PointURL: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/forumdisplay.php?f=22A forum focused on affiliate programs.

Webmaster Talkhttp://www.webmaster-talk.com/internet-marketing-and-business-talk/A Webmaster forum that has a section dedicated to affiliate marketing.

Webmaster WorldURL: http://www.webmasterworld.com/advertising/A Webmaster forum that has a section dedicated to online advertising and

marketing.

Wicked FireURL: http://www.wickedfire.com/An affiliate marketing/Internet marketing/Webmaster/SEO forum.

Affiliate NetworksFollowing are some of the currently popular affiliate networks. However, please note that being popular doesn’t automatically mean that they’re the right ones for you. As mentioned earlier, it is advisable that you do your own research before joining a network.

ClickBankURL: http://www.clickbank.com/index.htmlFounded in 1998, ClickBank is a secure online retail outlet for more than 70,000 digital product vendors and 110,000 active affiliate marketers. It serves more than 200 countries, and is consistently ranked as one of the most highly-trafficked sites on the web.

Commission JunctionURL: http://www.cj.com/Founded in 1998, Commission Junction is based in Santa Barbara, California. It is currently the largest affiliate network in North America, powering 62% of the top 500 web retailers affiliate marketing programs and operates worldwide.

ShareASaleURL: http://www.shareasale.com/ShareASale is an affiliate marketing network based in Illinois, USA. It was founded in April 2000. It currently has over 2,000 merchants, each of which is selling a different type of product and each is ready to pay you commission on that sale if you bring a customer to them.

Affiliate WindowURL: http://www.affiliatewindow.com/Currently the biggest affiliate network in Britain, Affiliate Window was founded in 2000 and was one of the UK's first CPA affiliate networks.The company won four A4U awards in 2008 for the Best Network, Publisher’s Network Choice, Publisher’s Account Manager and Most Innovative categories.Its clients include Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, Dorothy Perkins, Toys R Us (UK), and many others.

oneNetworkDirectURL: http://www.onenetworkdirect.com/oneNetworkDirect was developed with the goal of being a top affiliate network, specializing in the software and digital marketplace. It features the largest selection of digital products offered online today, including some of the world's most recognized titles. Its merchants include EA, TrendMicro, Kaspersky Lab, Roxio, Best Buy, and many others.

LinkShareURL: http://www.linkshare.com/Founded in 1996, LinkShare provides ecommerce businesses with a wide range of online marketing services including Search Marketing (SEM), Lead Generation and Affiliate Marketing.Its clients include Fortune 500 and other prominent and emerging companies doing business online, including J.C. Penney, 1-800-Flowers.com, American Express, and Avon Products.The company is headquartered in New York City, with offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Tampa, London and Tokyo.

AmazonURL: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/associates/join/landing/main.htmlLaunched in 1996, Amazon Associates is one of the first online affiliate marketing programs in the world.The Amazon.com Associates program differentiates itself from other affiliate programs by offering millions of products to choose from, industry leading conversion rates and competitive advertising fee rates that produce more money for their Associates.Amazon recently became front page news when it was reported that its customers have spent more than $1 billion via mobile device over a period of 12 months ending in July 2010.

Google Affiliate NetworkURL: http://www.google.com/ads/affiliatenetwork/Launched on June 30, 2008, the Google Affiliate Network offers:•Industry-leading advertiser and publisher service•Rigorous network quality standards•Reliable conversion tracking•Detailed reporting•Automated payments to publishers•Simple link and creative delivery tools•Flexible commissions•Access to top brands on the webAccording to Google:Google acquired the DoubleClick Performics Affiliate operations in March 2008. Together, we're creating new opportunities for monetization, expansion, and innovation in affiliate marketing.Performics was founded as the first full-service affiliate network in 1998 and was acquired by DoubleClick in 2004. Today Performics Affiliate operates as Google Affiliate Network and remains committed to delivering affiliate channel growth for advertisers and publishers.

AvantLinkURL: http://www.avantlink.com/In August 2010, AvantLink debuted at position #171 on the 2010 Inc. 500/5000 list and #23 in "Advertising & Marketing" industry. For a three year period AvantLink recorded a 1651% growth rate with revenue of $189,059 in 2006, up to $3.3 million in 2009. AvantLink was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Park City, Utah.

TradeDoublerURL: http://www.tradedoubler.com/TradeDoubler is an international performance-based digital marketing company founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Sweden. The company’s reach covers 18 markets across Europe with 650 staff located across their offices located in various countries including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, and the U.K. It offers access to over 76% of the European online* audience through its publisher networks.

eBay Partner NetworkURL: https://www.ebaypartnernetwork.com/files/hub/en-US/index.htmlFounded in 1995, eBay connects hundreds of millions of people around the world every day. eBay is the largest marketplace in the world, with over 276 million registered users worldwide. The total value of the goods sold through eBay in 2007 was more than $59 billion in 39 markets, including the US. With over 113 million items in 50,000 categories.

LinkConnectorURL: http://www.linkconnector.com/index.htmLaunched in 2004, LinkConnector is an affiliate marketing network that helps merchants and affiliates increase online sales and revenue. The company was built from the ground up to address and overcome the limitations that exist in today's market and to better empower online merchants and affiliates.

Promotion MethodsOk, so you’ve already picked out an affiliate network/program and you’ve already chosen a product to promote. The next thing you should do is to create a site on which to promote your chosen product. If you already have a site/blog, you just have to incorporate your affiliate link into your site/blog posts and get people to click on it.For those who don’t have a site/blog yet, you need to avail yourself of a domain name and a hosting service. A couple of great places to register for a domain name are GoDaddy and NameCheap (you only need one).

For your hosting account, you can get one from HostGator.

After that, you need to set up your blog/site. An easy way to do this is to use WordPress. HostGator has a facility called “Fantastico De Luxe” that makes it very easy to install WordPress.

Once you’ve got your site all set up, you need to promote it.Following are some of the most popular/widely used promotion methods in affiliate marketing.Pay-per-click AdvertisingPay-Per-Click or PPC is an advertising program wherein advertisers pay for their ad based on the number of clicks that their ad receives/generates. That means an advertiser will not be billed if their ad doesn't get clicked on. Additionally, advertisers bid on the click price/cost of their ads.If you've used a search engine (which you most likely have), there's no doubt that you've seen PPC ads in one form of another. The screenshot below shows a couple of Google PPC ads. As you can see, Google labels its ads as “Sponsored Links”. And, yes, those are PPC ads.

Anyway, to run a PPC ad campaign, one must join a PPC ad network or any ad network that offers PPC.Before promoting anything via an ad network (whether through PPC or other advertising program), it is important that you first read up on and familiarize yourself with the rules, terms, and condition of the advertising network, the affiliate network, and the merchant/product owner. Doing so will prevent you from violating anything and spare you from getting penalized.

Article Submission Article submission refers to writing of articles that are relevant to one's online business and submitting them to article submission sites/directories such as EzineArticles and Amazines. Article submission presents you with many benefits. That is, if you do it properly. These benefits include the following: It lets you to attract a good number of visitors, as well as links, to your site without shelling out large amounts of money; Since most article submission sites allow you to put links in your articles, you can use it to build your site’s inbound links and improve its ranking in the search engine results pages; Your articles can establish you as an expert in the field/industry for which you are writing, thereby building the trust of your potential customers and getting them to visit your site and possibly make a purchase; and It's free!

Social Media/Network Sites Also known as Web 2.0 sites, social media/network sites are generally sites that are centered primarily on user-generated content (i.e., contents that are created or provided/uploaded by users). Examples of these sites include (but are not limited to) social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter; social bookmarking sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon; video-sharing sites such as YouTube and Vimeo; forums; and blogs. One way of using these sites for promoting your site (and product) is by putting your site's link on your account profile (most social sites allow you to do this). Another way is by commenting on other people's content. An important thing to keep in mind when promoting your site by commenting is NEVER to spam people. Always make sure that your comments and messages are relevant to the discussions to which they are going to be attached (i.e., comments made by other users before you, the main blog entry, the subject matter of the forum thread, etc.) Blatant dropping of your link will not only annoy people and drive them away, but it can also get you in BIG trouble. Web Directory Submission Web directories such as Yahoo! Directory and DMOZ are among the sites that are most highly regarded by the search engines. Having your site included in some of them could boost your site’s search engine popularity and rankings. There are hundreds if not thousands of them out there. My advice to you is to look for the ones that are of high quality and those that are related to your market/niche.

Affiliate Marketing in NumbersHere are some facts and figures relating to affiliate marketing released by AffStat.com in its 2010 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report.

Most Popular Social Networksin the Affiliate Marketing WorldFacebook (http://www.facebook.com)Facebook is currently the most popular social networking service/site. As of November 2010, Facebook has over 547.56 million users, most of whom are in the U.S. And the number is growing everyday.

MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/)Before Facebook, MySpace was the king of social networking. It is currently the second most popular social network with 66 million members as of June 2010.

Bebo (http://www.bebo.com/)Bebo is a social networking website launched in July 2005. It is currently owned by AOL Inc. after being bought from Criterion Capital Partners in 2008. It currently has over 40 million members internationally and is the number one social networking site in New Zealand.

Hi5 (http://hi5.com/)Hi5 is currently the 3rd largest social media site with over 50 million monthly visitors.

Friendster (http://www.friendster.com/)Friendster is one of the earliest social networks to come out. It was acquired in December 2009 by MOL Global, the parent company of Asia’s leading online payment solutions provider MOL AccessPortal Berhad. It currently has around 8 million members.

Google Buzz (http://www.google.com/buzz)Google Buzz is a social networking and messaging tool from Google, designed to integrate into the company's web-based email program, Gmail.

TwitterURL: http://twitter.com/

FriendFeedURL: http://friendfeed.com/

Microblogging Sites

TumblrURL: http://www.tumblr.com/

Identi.caURL: http://identi.ca/

JaikuURL: http://www.jaiku.com/

HictuURL: http://www.hictu.com/

Google bookmarksURL: www.google.com/bookmarks

DiggURL: http://digg.com/news

Bookmarking Sites

SlashdotURL: http://slashdot.org/

MixxURL: http://www.mixx.com/

Mister WongURL: http://www.mister-wong.com/

JumptagsURL: http://www.jumptags.com/

BibsonomyURL: http://www.bibsonomy.org/

DiigoURL: http://www.diigo.com/

A1 WebmarksURL: http://www.a1-webmarks.com/

BuddyMarksURL: http://buddymarks.com/

Suite101URL: http://www.suite101.com/

EzineArticlesURL: http://www.ezinearticles.com/

Article Submission Sites

HeliumURL: http://www.helium.com/

ArticleBaseURL: http://www.articlesbase.com/

WebProNewsURL: http://www.webpronews.com/

BuzzleURL: http://www.buzzle.com/

IsnareURL: http://www.isnare.com/

American ChronicleURL: http://americanchronicle.com/

TheWhirURL: http://www.thewhir.com/article-central

SelfGrowthURL: http://www.selfgrowth.com/

ArticleDashboardURL: http://www.articledashboard.com/

SearchWarpURL: http://searchwarp.com/

ArticleCityURL: http://www.articlecity.com/

IdeaMarketersURL: http://www.ideamarketers.com/

Site ReferenceURL: http://www.site-reference.com/

Article AlleyURL: http://www.articlealley.com/

Article SnatchURL: http://www.articlesnatch.com/

GoArticlesURL: http://www.goarticles.com/

Articles FactoryURL: http://www.articlesfactory.com/

AmazinesURL: http://www.amazines.com/

YouTubeURL: http://www.youtube.com

MetacafeURL: http://www.metacafe.com/

Video Sharing Sites

BreakURL: http://www.break.com/

DailymotionURL: http://www.dailymotion.com/en

RevverURL: http://revver.com/

VimeoURL: http://vimeo.com/

DMOZ (PR 8)URL: http://www.dmoz.org/

So Much (PR 5)URL: http://www.somuch.com/

Free Web Directories

Pegasus Directory (PR 5)URL: http://www.pegasusdirectory.com/

RoAsk (PR 4)URL: http://www.roask.com/

viesearch (PR 4)URL: http://viesearch.com/

Wikidweb (PR 4)URL: http://www.wikidweb.com/

Autowebdir (PR 4)URL: http://www.autowebdir.com/

Pedster's Planet (PR 4)URL: http://www.pedsters-planet.co.uk/

Net Insert (PR 4)URL: http://www.netinsert.com/

Link Centre (PR 3)URL: http://linkcentre.com/

Affiliate RankerURL: http://affiliateranker.com/

Affiliate ProgramsURL: http://www.associateprograms.com/directory/

Affiliate Programs Search/Directories

Affiliate ScoutURL: http://www.affiliatescout.com/

AffiliateGuideURL: http://www.affiliateguide.com/

Affiliate ScoutURL: http://www.affiliatescout.com/

Affiliate GuideURL: http://www.affiliateguide.com/

Affiliates DirectoryURL: http://www.affiliatesdirectory.com/

Click QuickURL: http://www.clickquick.com/

Affiliate TipsURL: http://www.affiliatetips.com/

Affiliate Cash DirectoryURL: http://www.affiliatecashdirectory.com/

Offer VaultURL: http://www.offervault.com/

Jam AffiliatesURL: http://www.jamaffiliates.com/

Affiliate ToolsKeywordSpy (Paid)URL: http://www.keywordspy.com/KeywordSpy lets you perform advanced keyword research and keyword tracking to study what your competitors have been advertising in their Adwords campaigns and other PPC campaigns. It provides you with complete in-depth analysis, stats, budget, affiliates & ad copies of your competitors.

Market Samurai (Paid)URL: http://www.marketsamurai.com/Market Samurai is currently one of the world’s leading PPC and SEO keyword tool. It allows you to do very detailed keyword research and reduce your competition dramatically.

Google Keyword Tool (Free)URL: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternalThe Google Keyword Tool allows you to build extensive, relevant keyword lists from one simple interface. It lets you generate keyword ideas, review traffic estimations for existing and new keywords, and (if you’re running ad campaigns on Google AdWords) add keywords directly to your ad groups.

Google Trends (Free)URL: http://www.google.com/trendsGoogle Trends is a public web facility of Google that shows how often a particular search-term is entered relative to the total search-volume across various regions of the world, and in various languages.

Google Analytics (Free)URL: http://www.google.com/analytics/Google Analytics is the enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness.

How to Make Money with Affiliate Marketing – “The Resources”

Thanks for reading. I hope you got some useful information out of the complete Resource Guide for Newbie Internet Marketers.

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