According to industry research, in 2008 alone, corporate spending in affiliate marketing programs totaled $2.1 billion. With such a huge amount being spent on affiliate marketing fees, we might as well make this conclusion: affiliate marketing has risen to become one of the best, genuine ways to make money on the Internet. And that is also the best reason why you should begin to consider cashing in on affiliate marketing.
What exactly is affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is a typically used to refer to a number of genuine ways to make money online. In a nutshell, it consists of putting up your own website, building traffic to your website and leveraging this traffic to promote products and services for a fee, usually in the form of percentage or sales commission. The good thing about affiliate marketing is that it lets you do your work whenever you want, and for how long you want.
So how do you start exploring some genuine ways to make money through affiliate marketing?
First, as we have mentioned, you have to be a publisher by creating a website or a blog. If you need help creating a blog, you can always go to Blogger or WordPress and you will have a blog up in a few minutes. There are also cheap website hosting services that you can get online. The site or blog should have the feature that allows you to post links to products and services that you are helping to market.
Next, you want your website or blog to be identified with a niche. This is probably the most crucial decision that you will ever make. Most of the successful affiliate marketers are those that were able to position themselves or claim a niche or industry like cars, gaming, mobile, fashion, music, etc. Pick an area or interest that is closest to your heart so building your site will be fun for you as well.
Then you can begin to look for potential products, services or companies that you can help promote or sell. There are a lot of existing affiliate networks online that serve to bridge companies with publishers of relevant websites or blogs. As you build your client base, there is always the danger of you cramping as many display ads or product reviews as your site can hold. This may give you the revenue that you want but you will be likely to lose readers and clients, ultimately if you turn your site into an interactive brochure. Make sure to keep your site professional, authoritative and fresh with new articles so you can keep building your traffic.
You can also choose between two popular business models for affiliate marketing: first, the resource site model; and, the review site model. Decide which one of these do you want your website to be. And work towards it so you can start earning revenues from paid advertising such as display and banner ads; free advertising in websites that accept link backs; article marketing and email marketing. Happy cashing in!
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