My advice is: Don’t get started in affiliate marketing until you read this!
This is the take on affiliate marketing from someone who did not know what affiliate marketing was until two weeks ago.
My story is the same as everyone else’s. I went online desperate for a way to make more money without having to leave home.
I spend probably about 2 to 3 hours a day on the computer, most of that Internet surfing. So, I thought, why not make it profitable?
I did some more surfing and Googled “home based business no startup” ( my resources right now are very limited). What I found changed the way I look at the Internet and marketing in general forever.
First, there is no such thing as no startup fees in affiliate marketing. Here is what you will be paying for:
*The program that you will be affiliating with-most likely in order to get this far you bought it in the first place, otherwise you wouldn’t be at this point.
*Those who have their own products to promote, if they make enough money, may offer their own website free. Yes, the website (or domain name) may be free, but you will still have to pay for the hosting, which is fairly cheap at usually under $15 a month. However, they usually don’t tell you that you have to pay for 12 months up front. That can be $150 out of your pocket, and you haven’t even read the information yet on how to make money!
*And then there is advertising. Yes, there are many free advertising sites out there (again, do a Google), but in order to generate the traffic you need, you have to pay for the large engines, such as Google or Yahoo. And to generate enough traffic to make sales, you may be paying big.
Here are my conclusions after I put out way more money than I thought I would…
*Do some research on Clickbank or another affiliate program site to make sure that the product you ordered is not being returned by customers.
*Find an affiliate program that you believe in–how can you promote it if you don’t believe it?
*You may have to pay for more than one program on marketing in order to get the most benefit and start making money faster.
*Anyone who tells you that you will start making money in one hour is lying to you–it may take days or even weeks before your advertising starts pulling in traffic to your site if you get one.
*It takes time to build a decent affiliate marketing business on the Internet, so be prepared to spend 3 hours or more on your computer a day when you get started. If you don‘t do this, it will take you longer to start making money.
*And be smart–don’t put out the money for a website and hosting if you don’t have it to put out. You can get a website and hosting at any point, but you should read the information provided for you by your e-book before you do so. This way you get the most benefit out of your advertising.
After spending way more time and money than I intended, I want others to benefit from my knowledge and my mistakes. The website “money4my kids“ is the one I obtained through “The Rich Jerk”. I combined the information I received from all of these programs to try to form a solid plan for affiliate marketing. In my opinion, all of them offer something that the others do not, so using all three would be the best way to increase your profit margin.
My original affiliate program was with Ultimate Wealth Package–don’t waste your money, or if you do, only buy the program, not the website. Even though it has good information, my understanding even after reading the program was still limited. Not until I purchased “The Rich Jerk” did I start putting the puzzle pieces together. The other two programs then rounded out my knowledge. I had nothing but problems with UWP, virtually no support, and cancelled them after a week. Also, I like all three programs I use equally, but “Honest Riches” was definitely more honest, and I like that.
On my current website, you may find a discrepancy–if you research, Honest Riches is not the #2 Clickbank Network Affiliate, UWP is–but I refuse to promote UWP. This website represents my personal ranking of these products.
I will write again to let you know how my affiliate programs are working, and I am in the process of rebuilding my original UWP website, “acomfylife“. It should be up and running by May 1.
My conclusions were all based either on my own research or was information gained through the programs on my website.
Happy marketing!