Earn Money With Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are (usually free) opportunities to make
money from your web site.
The way that they work, is you join the program, you add
specially coded links to your site, and then you are paid based
on your results. Results can be measured several ways,
including:
- Per Click: You are paid for each person who
clicks on the affiliate advert.
- Per Lead: You are paid for each person who
signs-up for a (usually free) offer from the affiliate
program provider.
- Per Sale: You are paid based on the number and/or
value of sales that you generate. Most commonly, such
payments are based on a percentage of your sales.
While, I'm certainly not going to try and repeat all the
information that you might find in guides such as Super
Affiliate Secrets Exposed! (reviewed here), but I can tell
you how I would suggest you get started... There are basically
two ways that you can get involved with affiliate programs:
- You can create your web site first, then try to find
suitable affiliate programs.
- You can find suitable affiliate programs, and then try
to create a web site around them.
In my opinion, both approaches can work, but the best way to do
it is to combine a bit from both schools of thought:
- Before you start building your web site, at least have a
general idea of what sort of topic you want to deal with
(web sites about single specific topics ("niches") usually
do better than web sites than are about everything and
anything (for example, most online malls don't do well).
I recommend that you try to choose a topic for which you
both, already have some knowledge about (so you won't spend
forever researching it), and also which you have a real
passion in (so you won't get quickly bored).
- Next, again before even starting to create your site,
research what kinds of affiliate programs are available
which tie-in with your theme. This is important because
affiliate links related to your web site content will almost
certainly generate more revenue than affiliate links which
are unrelated.
I think probably the best place to start looking for
suitable affiliate programs is Commission Junction (reviewed here), and chances are you will find some matches, at least for most topics.
If you can't find any suitable affiliate programs (in Commission Junction or elsewhere), you then have these options:
- You could just use Google AdSense (reviewed here), forget about other affiliate links, and instead concentrate on building your content and traffic.
- You could give-up on the idea of making money from affiliate programs, and instead build your content into a for-sale eBook see Paid Membership Site.
- You could give-up on this topic, and try to find another topic for which you can find suitable affiliate programs.
- Finally, only after you have a good idea of both the general content of your site, and the affiliate programs that you plan to use, are you ready to start creating your web site.
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