Find Your Affiliate Marketing Niche

If you want to try your hand at affiliate marketing but the idea of promoting a bunch of different products you have no interest in doesn’t have much appeal, then niche marketing may be for you.

Many people simply look online at the programs and websites that offer the biggest commission for affiliate marketers, they build websites promoting those programs, or they write articles and they sign up for several different types of programs.  Many of them are programs about how to make money on the Internet, which is one of the hottest types of affiliate marketing programs at the moment.

But what if you don’t like the approach of promoting multiple different types of programs at the same time?

And what if the idea of getting started in affiliate marketing by promoting programs that teach affiliate marketing or promise to help customers make money online feels strange to you or makes you uncomfortable (particularly if you haven’t used the program yourself, and really don’t know if it really delivers on its promises).

There is a way to make money with affiliate marketing without making yourself uncomfortable with what you’re selling, or having to sell several different types of products and it is known as niche marketing. 

What knowledge do you have that other people might be interested in?

If you’re shaking your head, thinking you couldn’t possibly have any valuable knowledge, you’re not thinking hard enough. Think of everything you’ve done successfully or know how to do.  Just because these things came easily to you, or you think of them as everyday things in your own life, doesn’t mean that other people won’t find them fascinating or helpful.

If you have children, that alone is a gold mine of opportunity for niche marketing.   Just based on your experience of raising a child, you have advice and tips to offer potential parents who are hungry for information about the best way to do things.

If you’ve had pets, the same holds true.  If you know how to golf, or spelunk, or catch record-breaking catfish . . . anything that you know how to do holds the potential to make money in niche marketing.

You might be wondering how you can turn your idea into a niche marketing opportunity.

It’s fairly easy.  Let’s say your interest is parenting.  Find a parenting and child-related merchant that offers an affiliate program.  Once you get that set up, write an article about parenting.  Don’t panic, it’s not that hard!

Simply write a short article, about 300-500 words about something relating to parenting.  Some possibilities are the steps you took to wean your child from bottles or pacifiers, how you began teaching your child to read, home remedies you used for diaper rash.  You don’t have to be a writer; you only have to be able to convey that information.  Then at the end of your article you put your affiliate link.

The more articles that you write, the more people will read and click your link, so the more money you’ll earn with niche marketing.

- Red

I had the awesome opportunity of participating in the 30 Day Apprentice Challenge hosted by Justin and Chaunna Brooke from SiteFling.com.

It’s difficult to sum up the 30 Day Apprentice Challenge in just a few words because it is such a content rich program.

The apprentice candidates started with the basics by registering a domain name, installing WordPress Blogs, installing and configuring pluggins and installing the Thesis Theme by DIY Themes. (Very cool, professional, SEO optimized theme – btw)

This was to lay down a good solid foundation on which to build our education.  We went from the basics of monetization, blog posting and promotion all the way to some very advanced techniques of promotion and networking and much more. 

Here is a very cool short video done about halfway through the 30dac by one of the winners, Bill Romer, describing (singing actually) some of what he had already gained form the challenge.

This was a mini-contest winner where Bill Romer won an interview with Justin Brooke:  Secrets to Online Success

When it was time to pick a winner, well you know the old saying “bet you can’t have just one” they couldn’t, so they picked two:  SiteFling 30 Day Apprentice Winners!  Congratulations to Jason Benfield and Bill Romer and good luck in your new adventures!

Congratulations to all who stuck it out and completed or are working on completing the 30 day apprentice challenge assignments.  Everyone who made it this far is a Winner!

My friend and fellow 30 day apprentice challenge member Chris Jensen wrote a nice post about the 30dac you may enjoy:  SiteFling.com 30 Day Apprentice Challenge

The cost to participate in the 30 day apprentice challenge was a bargain.  The knowledge that I have gained is worth so much more than the price that I paid to join.  However, the friendships that we have formed during these past 30 days are truly priceless.

Justin and Chaunna – Thank you for hosting the SiteFling 30 Day Apprentice Challenge.  I know that I have learned a lot about building a successful Internet Marketing business, and I am grateful for all the knowledge that I have gained. 

- Eddie (Red) Dayton

Please leave a comment below and share this with others.

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Good web hosts don’t necessarily come cheap; and cheap web hosts are not always good.  A good web host should provide reliable quality service, not merely cheap services.

Many new website owners just starting out have made the mistake of picking the least expensive web hosting package available having the potential for a variety of technical problems and website downtime eventually requiring moving the website over to a different web host.

Choosing a good web hosting provider to begin with is important in order to avoid these problems which will take place sooner or later.

Here are a few tips to help you Choose a good web host

Check that the number of users that are being hosted on the server are actually supported by the server.  This is to be sure that the web host’s network is not overpopulated, which can case latency issues and network problems for your website.  Look into the server technology being used and the quality of the equipment that your website will be hosted on.  Good web hosting companies keep their systems updated and well maintained.

A good web host provides 24/7 technical support staffed by qualified personal.  System administrators should be knowledgeable and prompt to react to any technical problems.

The hosting package that you select should have more than one connection to the internet.  This way if one connection goes down, your website does not disappear off the internet, because it can still be connected by rerouting through another connection.

Check the speed of connectivity to the internet.  A T2 or T3 Internet connection being utilized below 50% of the maximum bandwidth is preferred.

When deciding on a hosting package, pick one that best fits your needs.  Signing up for unneeded extra features will only increase clutter (junk) when modifying your website, and also increase your hosting cost.  Try to pick a scalable (upgradeable) hosting plan so that your website’s space, bandwidth, and other options can grow along with your hosting requirements.

Try to find out the opinion of the web hosting community concerning the web host you are intersected in using.  Learn from the past experiences of others that have used this web host.  A good place to search for feedback is the web hosting forums.  Good web hosts build a loyal following, and this can been seen within the hosting community.

Keep track of billing and payment receipts and remember to check your credit card statements if you pay by credit card to be sure that you are not over-billed.

Good web hosts back up your website data on their servers. This will allow your website to be up and running even if a crash happens on the main server network. 

Also, be sure that you own your domain name.  It is not a good idea to let your web host have administrative control over your domain.  It is better to keep hosting and domain name registration separate and at different companies.

In conclusion, a good web host should have all of these features and safe guards taken care of, leaving you to focus on running your website.  A good web host works behind the scenes, supporting your business while letting your website shine.

Let me know what you thought about this post by leaving a comment below and please tweet and share this information with others.

Thanks,
-Red

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Most people have heard the term SEO, but just what does SEO stand for?  The simple answer is that it stands for Search Engine Optimization.  But that’s not very helpful, so let’s take a closer look.  As the name implies SEO is a process to optimize content for search engines.

Ok, we know what search engines are, but just what does it mean to optimize for them?

SEO is one internet marketing technique to help improve a websites visibility to search engines.  When we search for something on Google, Yahoo or any other major search engine it is common to receive several pages of results.

Sometimes a search can return 10 or 20 pages of results and most people only bother clicking the results found on the first page of a search so the average user typically ignores all those extra pages of results.

Search Engine Optimization sounds impressive… but what does SEO stand for and what does SEO really mean to you or me, the website or blog owner?  Good SEO means more visitors, more traffic, and if you have a product, more sales.   SEO should be integral to any good internet marketing campaign.

Whether you are trying to sell something on your web page or just trying to attract a larger audience for your blog or podcast, SEO is very important.

The goal is to get your web site to appear on the first page of a search engine’s results when searching for particular words or phrases. These words or phrases are known as keywords or key phrases – they are a very important part of search engine optimization.

There are a number of Free tools and resources available on the web to help you with key word research but one of the best is your own brain because you have the ability to think like your target audience and what a real person might actually type in to the search box.

Keywords are not the only search engine optimization tool you can use.  Another important part of SEO is linking.  Search engines use links to a website as references, like when an employer calls up past employers.  The more relevant references or links to a website, the higher that the site can be ranked in the search engines.  Creating links between your pages is also a way to help enhance SEO.

Keywords and linking are just the beginning of the search engine optimization. There are many more advanced techniques that you can apply to help bring a site up in search engine ranking and keep it there.  This is just the beginning, but now you know the answer to; what does SEO stand for.

If you found the information in this post useful please share it with others that might benefit from reading it and I would also appreciate your comments below.

==>  As a bonus for reading all the way to the bottom of this page, I would like to share this really great post  with you:

If you would like to learn more about SEO, my friend Justin Brooke has a really good post “Your SEO Sucks But Mine Don’t” that you might enjoy.

Thanks,
-Red

There are some things that you can do that will improve your chances of making good money online and selecting winning programs.

Pick only good programs that offer products, services or information that people will actually want to purchase.

Look for programs that pay high commission rates on time and only choose ones that keep their customers happy by providing good value.

Ask yourself if would you buy the product or service that the program is offering? If you would not, then why would you expect other people to?

If you are just starting out and want to become successful working online then you need to understand the basics.   You need to understand how affiliate marketing works and how to create a relationship with merchants.

The job of an affiliate is to sell the products or services that are offered by merchants.

When a purchase is made by traffic that you generate, you will get a commission (in some cases up to 75% of the sale)!  Most companies pay commissions every 2 weeks, some pay instantly using PayPal while others may send out checks once per month.

Internet Marketing is like any other business.  It takes time, planning, hard work and determination to be successful.

It also takes knowledge to succeed but armed with this knowledge you can make a very good income working online with the right Programs.

There are many good groups and forums that you can belong to that will help you learn the process and support you along the way.

I am personally a Member of the Wealthy Affiliate University and I would not have achieved the success that I enjoy today without the skills and knowledge or help and guidance that I have received as a member of the Wealthy Affiliate Community.

For me, there is no better place for learning how to make money online with the full help and support of not only other members but also the owners Kyle and Carson who are more than happy to help all members of the Community with outstanding 1-on-1 support.

If you would like to find out more about The Wealthy Affiliate University and their #1 Ranked Internet Marketing Training Program – Follow this ==> Link.  My forum ID is Red.Dayton if you do decide to sign-up and want to say hello.

Please leave a comment below and share this with others.

Thanks,
-Red

You can read part one ==> Here

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What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is basically Selling Other Peoples Products or Services for a Commission

The concept has been around for years but has recently gained more popularity because of the opportunity it provides for anyone to make money online.

Who Can Benefit from Affiliate Marketing

People just like you and me!  If you could make money online from the comfort of your home, even just to bring in a little extra cash that would help pay the bills or some other expenses, wouldn’t that be great?

Working online allows you to do this and is a growing industry.  More and more people are turning to Internet Marketing as a full time career and earn a very good living advertising other people’s products and services on the Internet.

There are thousands of companies on the Internet that will pay you a commission for sending customers to websites promoting their products and services.

To do this you join “affiliate programs” run by these companies.  Your job as an “affiliate” is to line up consumers with the products that they are looking for.

Working online provides an incredible opportunity because billions of dollars are spent online each year and a large percentage of that goes to affiliate commissions.

Internet marketing is a broad term because there are many different ways of making money online but the fact of the matter is that anyone can make money working online and there are literally hundreds of different ways that you can achieve this.

Most affiliate programs feature very low start up costs (if any) and no inventory or supplies. There is no shipping and no returns to worry about and like any online business; you can make money 24/7 while you sleep or play.

In most cases there is no licensing or specialized training required, but you should learn the basics about Internet Marketing, creating websites and maximizing traffic so your efforts will be the most successful.

While it is true that not everyone succeeds in getting rich with Internet Marketing, those who are willing to put the time and effort into learning and then applying what they have learned can and do earn a very good income in a marketplace that is never closed.

Please leave a comment below and share this with others.

Thanks,
-Red

You can read part two ==> Here

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You can build your email list by writing and submitting good quality articles.

You write and submit your articles on your topic of expertise or business theme to popular article directories where eZine publishers and readers are looking for good content that you can provide.

Leveraging your viral marketing efforts with article writing can be rewarding, if done correctly.  You are actually proving your value and demonstrating your expertise about your particular niche through the articles you write.

So, how can this method help you build your mailing list?  The resource box you attach to your articles. In your resource box (also known as bio box), you include a brief detail about yourself and your business site together with your websites URL.

It is strongly suggested that your resource box URL links to your mailing list’s landing page where you can get your visitor’s name and email address, which will in turn help you build your mailing list at no cost.

If your articles have relative content and are worth sharing, eZine publishers will republish your articles together with your resource box for their readers and subscribers.  The amazing result:  Viral Marketing without any additional effort on your part!

You can start by writing and submitting your articles to trusted article submitter sites such as Article Marketer and begin your article marketing journey today.

Please leave a comment below and share this with others.

Thanks,
-Red

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Creativity is a quality a website must possess to lead the race of ruthless competition in the Internet Marketing business. With so much competition, every method of marketing must be employed and utilized to its fullest potential.

It doesn’t matter if you have an exceptional product or a superbly designed website, if people don’t know that you exist, you are not going to get traffic to your site.

While there are many methods and schemes used by e-commerce sites today, there are some of those that can help you with an extra boost in the popularity ratings. One of these is Viral Marketing.

While the term Viral makes one think of a virus, a word very much dreaded by all computer owners, it is not what it seems.

Viral Marketing Overview

Viral Marketing, also known as Viral Advertising is a marketing technique used to build awareness of a product or company. They use many forms of media to reach out to the public without actually promoting the product by riding on in other forms of addictive means that could get a person hooked and be obliged or amused to actually pass it on, with the product or company advertisement along with it.

In a nutshell, companies bank on the idea that if people like the content of some media they will pass it on to their friends and family. They sponsor the particular media, such as a cool flash game, funny video, amusing story and such, which one person may pass on to another with the company brand or logo or the products description or any other content to help promote the company or its product.

Viral marketing has become a popular means of advertising and marketing because it is relatively low cost. To avoid being tagged as spam mail, viral marketing counts on the eagerness of a person to pass on the product. If a person sees the name of the someone they know as the sender, they are more likely to read it.

Many companies offer incentives such as discounts and rebates when you help to spread their viral marketing message.

Using Viral Marketing to your advantage

The main advantage of viral marketing is that you get a lot of publicity and public awareness about your site and your company.

You get to generate a flow of traffic that is potential customers. With a little ingenuity and imagination, plus some incentives or prizes, you can reach out to a great number of people and announce your existence.

Many websites and companies are starting to use Viral Marketing and Advertising. Along with other methods of promotion like Search Engine Optimization, viral marketing could easily push you ahead in the rating games.

Viral Marketing could be another way to get people to know about you and your company. You get them to pass your advertisement along. It can be a very low cost method of website traffic.

All it takes is a great idea, a good addicting game, a funny story many ideas are still out there. Create some gossip or a buzz, many movies are promoted by using scandals and gossips to make them moiré popular. Remember the movie “The Blair Witch Project”?

Many big companies have tried viral marketing and have had many success stories with it. A classic example is Microsoft’s Hotmail. They were the first known big company to utilize the scheme and it has worked wonders for them.

Now it’s your turn to use viral marketing to work wonders for you. Act now and reap the benefits Viral Marketing will provide for you and your website.

Please leave a comment below and share this with others.

Thanks,

-Red

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You need a steady flow of quality traffic if you want to generate income from your website. If no one comes to your site, it hardly stands a chance of generating any income.

It takes money to maintain an income producing website and it also takes money to make money.  BUT, it doesn’t take a whole lot of money to generate some quality website traffic.

Ever wonder how the big websites drive traffic to their sites? Most of them are spending lots of money to get that traffic, investing in advertising campaigns and different forms of marketing schemes and gimmicks. This is worthwhile for them because they are high earning and big converting websites.

There are many ways to generate low cost website traffic without having to spend a lot of money. Many people have tried the high cost methods and have ended up losing a lot of money in a very sort time.

For example, if you jump right into Google AdWords Pay-Per-Click advertising it could be just like hooking a giant vacuum cleaner up to your bank account.  You would be amazed at just how fast it can suck your hard earned dollars right down the drain before you even realize what happened!

Here are some ways to generate low cost traffic that could help generate traffic to your site. Even if you only get a small percentage of converting visitors it still works out especially if you can get a high volume of website traffic.

Exchange Links

This is a proven method. Rarely do you see a site where there is no link to another site. Many webmasters are willing to exchange links with one another so that they can produce more awareness about their sites. You could get an increase of traffic coming in to your site from other sites that you exchange links with.

One thing to consider when exchanging links with other sites is having a similar niche or content as the other site. They should share a common subject so that there is continuity in the providing of service and information to what interests your target traffic.

Exchanging links also boosts your chances of getting a higher ranking in search engine results. It is common knowledge that search engines rank sites higher that have many inbound quality content related links. With a good ranking position in the search engines, you will generate more traffic to your website without the high costs of PPC campaigns.

Write and Submit Articles

There are many ezines online and article sites that provide free space for articles to be submitted. If you want to save costs, you can do the articles yourself or there are many freelance writers who are willing to write content for you for a small fee.

Write articles that are themed along with the content of your site. Write about something that you have expertise on so that when visitors read it, they can feel you have knowledge about the subject and will be more likely to visit your site. Write articles that provide tips and guidelines on the subject or niche of your site.

Include a resource box at the end of your article that can link to your site. Write a little about yourself and your site. If you provide a light, information-laden and interesting article, visitors or more likely to go to your site for more.

Create a Newsletter

This may sound like hard work because of all the articles you may need to use to build a newsletter but this is not so. There are many writers and sites that are willing to provide free articles as long as they can get their name in on your newsletter because that will also provide free advertising for them.

Join Online Communities and Forums

This only requires your time and nothing else. You can share your knowledge and expertise with many online communities as well as on your website. You can get free advertising when you go to forums that have the same subject or niche as your site.

Share your knowledge and be genuinely helpful (not salesy) to other members.  As you build your reputation, you also build the reputation of your site, making it a reputable and honest business that could be frequented and trusted by many people.

Please leave a comment below and share this with others.

Thanks,
-Red

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