Beginners Guide to Affiliate Marketing

red_devil

im not getting on with my blog at all well.

Can you even mention barbeque stuff now the season is over!

i dont understand either how wordpress lays it all out!

SunnySusie

I would suggest to begin with just think about Pages and Posts. Pages are more static and are generally listed across the top of your theme, so to use MSE as an example (you'll have to pretend it is WP as I dare not link to a real WP site for fear of spam accusations!) the main 10 links across the top (Insurance, Banking, travel, etc) would be pages.

You then have posts. These appear on the front page (by default) and each time you do a new one it moves to the top.

Example site layout

Pages:

• About: Tell your users a bit about you, make it personal but don't give out too much information about yourself. But don't be afraid to say "Im Sue from Tunbridge Wells and I started this site because I love Roast Potatoes" etc.
• Shop: I like to have a "shop" page, if using Amazon then this can be an astore.
• Privacy: If you use Google's adsense for example you are required to have a privacy notice. This tells users about how Goolge tracks their usage of your site. If you track data with Google Analytics you should mention this too.

Posts:
You should aim to post up regularly. Start off once a week and keep it consistent. Regular readers will begin to expect their weekly post so don't disappoint them. Posting randomly will make it harder for people to follow. Each post should be targeted to a specific topic. I would suggest being as specific as possible whilst still being able to write a good 500 words on your topic.

Once you get your head round this you can start thinking about putting your posts into categories. There are some great guides to Wordpress out there, you'll have to Google them as I don't want to risk being accused of advertising my own work again.

@RD: BBQ sites are very competitive, it is probably not a good thing to try on its own. Seasonal stuff is worth doing though, once you get the site up you have a year to build links to it so that when the time is right your site is ready to go. In fact you really need to think ahead in this game. For example, I am already thinking about getting Christmas keywords up now!

Alberto_Sousa

SunnySusie - that for ur gr8 tips. I also tried to make money through the Affiliate Marketing but fail every time, So, i left it... But to read ur post . I will try again.. and I hope i willl also make money with it.

SunnySusie

Well good luck Alberto!

As I have tried to say, this is no "get rich quick" scheme and like any other business you need to plan carefully and work work work. If you have the time, hunger and desire for website building then I believe any one can begin to make some extra pocket money.

I think it becomes hard though if you are not a fan of the web, don't enjoy websites, have no desire to understand search engines, etc. And I suspect this is why many people give up, they enter the game on the promise of making a lot of money but when that promise fails to come true quickly they give up.

My first sites performed very poorly but I just loved the creative side of things so it just didn't matter. I see many experts posting on forums, such as this one, with great tax information, economic commentary, handy tips etc and I just think well if you enjoy posting that stuff up for fun why not put it onto your own blog. You can then earn the money from the value that post brings instead of the forum owner (not that I want everyone to stop posting in forums - they have a place !)

Anyway, I would be building my own site(s) whether people came to visit them or not, it's just a fun thing to do. I guess it's like being a footballer, it would be nice to play in front of 80,000 people at Wembley but David Beckham for example famously practised endlessly on his own, repeatedly kicking that ball until he could place it anywhere he wanted. When you start out you do it because you love it and perhaps the dream that one day...

martinsgiftstogo

Thanks SunnySusie, for posting this thread.

I used to work mainly in on-line retail and still have stores dotted about on the internet, but I would rather spend my time messing about building websites.

I have recently bought a copy of one of Rosalind Gardner's books on Affiliate marketing and am working my way through that.

I have several blogs with blogger.com but haven't worked out how to add affiliate links...I don't see anywhere on the pages to put them.

Am I missing something?

I would advise anyone wanting to get some hosting to ask around for information about which host's site builders are compatible with which browsers as mine is incompatible with every version of Firefox and Internet Explorer (also all versions).

I have had to add another browser (Google Chrome) so I can add affiliate links to my sites:rolleyes:

I think I might stick to blogger.com once I work out how to add the links

SunnySusie

A well known blogger in the affiliate marketing world has gone out of his way to demonstrate that it is perfectly possible to build successful blogs on blogger.com despite what some people say. The real downside is that you never get to "own" the domain but is that really a problem..? I would argue that you can still sell the blog down the line (although perhaps you'd not get such a good price?).

Anayway, you should be able to post affiliate links? I haven't used blogger for a while but iirc you can enter links just by clicking the add link button? Else you can switch to HTML edit mode and use

<a href='affiliate url goes here'>anchor</a>

An affiliate link is just like a normal URL, check around MSE for examples, look for their links*. Read more here. It is easy to forget that MSE is a company just like any other and exists to pay wages and provide a living - and why not?

I really don't know why you are having a prob with IE? Do you have javascript switched off or something. Most of this software should be tested for IE as it is the most popular of the browsers so it must be something that is wrong with your setup?!

martinsgiftstogo

SunnySusie wrote: »

I really don't know why you are having a prob with IE? Do you have javascript switched off or something. Most of this software should be tested for IE as it is the most popular of the browsers so it must be something that is wrong with your setup?!

Nothing wrong at my end. I heard back from my web host and was told that their site builder was incompatable with Firefox 3 and Google Chrome and has some compatability issues with Internet Explorer 8.

I am using Firefox 3, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer 8 so am limping along with Internet Explorer 8 until my host sorts things out at their end.

I also sorted the problem I was having with Blogger and have managed to add the first of the affiliate linky banners without a hitch:j

I have several blogs there and have also linked up with other bloggers and promote using Twitter,squidoo and facebook + several other places. My main site gets some promotion here...due to the kindness of strangers...for which I am very grateful :j

I am currently working on re-vamping the blogs I have and adding some more focuussed blogs that people will search for...adding appropriate tags etc.

I'm making affiliate marketing my main business so I have a lot of work (fun...I love messing about with sites) ahead

Dirty_Dave

Can you do AM with static blogs? By static I mean cotent that doesn't get updated every week, do you even need to use a domain name as I need to try and save every penny at the mo.

goonerAFC

Yep you can, depending on the product you can have just a landing page.

SunnySusie

martinsgiftstogo wrote: »

I'm making affiliate marketing my main business so I have a lot of work (fun...I love messing about with sites) ahead

I think this is massively important because it takes time and determination to break through. But if you enjoy it then it's time well spent whether you make money or not. I found I gave up my "TV watching" time to work on sites, so unfortunately I am not clued up on Eastenders any more but is that such a big loss in my life lol! I could quite happily work at it full time but I don't have the confidence to bare all the risk myself. I'm happy with doing it as a part time extra income kind of thing.

The ideas I discuss are aimed at this idea of small micro sites (as mentioned below) that can be built in ones spare time. I know earnings can be much higher if you have the time to really invest in marketing techniques, ppc etc. But then you are starting to run things like a real business. This isn't for me - but it might be for you!

Dirty_Dave wrote: »

Can you do AM with static blogs? By static I mean cotent that doesn't get updated every week, do you even need to use a domain name as I need to try and save every penny at the mo.

Yes, as above, you can definitely build great static sites. If your site answers a specific question and answers it well then why shouldn't it remain on the net and continue to help for years to come. Many think that constantly changing pages is important but actually many top bloggers will tell you that most of their traffic comes from a few key posts. I guess by adding more and more content it is more likely that you will get that "hit" or build up a loyal following but I prefer building a site around one topic

I tend to aim for about 5 to 10 500-1000 word articles highly targeted at a search term that people will type in whilst looking to spend money. I really can't help you here, if I think of a good example I'll be using it myself - tbh this is the hardest part of all this. If you are looking for inspiration then you'll find that you will naturally come across some unanswered questions during normal web usage. Next time you are desperately looking for something and can't find a good page a little light bulb should *ding* above your head!

"How do i make..."
"How do i fix..."
"what's the best..."

Competition it tough though, so always check what other sites are ranking for a term. I do enough to get the site making about 50p or a pound every other day or so. Not a lot I agree, but get 100 sites like this running over a year... and then once you get the 100 up, pick the best 10% and make them better. You should have a few hits than you can improve to give you a couple of pounds a day, maybe more. A free host (eg blogger.com/wordpress.com) comes in handy when doing this else the domain name registration fees also really add up.

A little Tip
If you are searching for something and your query is answered by something like Yahoo Answers or an article marketing site such as hubpages then it is a good sign that competition is weak for that search phrase. A site dedicated to that term should out rank those sorts of general sites.