If there is an easy way to earn money online, affiliate marketing is it. I won’t mislead you. It does take a great deal of time to develop an affiliate website and create content to support affiliate products. Keep in mind, you don’t have to have a website, and could go with an advertising based system alone, but in my personal experience, a website is the way to go. Life is easier when you build your business around selling products or services of other people.

Once an affiliate site is in place, affiliated merchants handle everything related to products, orders and customer service.

Many people choose to promote affiliate programs just because they are simple and independence from the usual ties that bind in traditional business.

There are dozens of benefits to affiliate marketing, my personal top 10 reasons for considering the affiliate marketer method of earning are:

No Development Costs

It can be costly to develop and produce a new product. As an affiliate, that won’t be a concern.

Low Cost Set-up

If you have a desk, an Internet connection, a computer and word-processing software, you have the essential tools to get started.

No Fees or Location Limitations on Distribution

Most affiliate programs are free to join. The only limit to market reach is the willingness, or lack thereof, by the affiliate to promote their website.

Thousands of Products and Services to Choose From

Almost anything you can imagine is sold or traded online! Years ago, while explaining the vast amount of information and product availability, I used an example of “vintage bottle caps.” Remarkably, there is a market for them and obviously customers who buy them because Bottle Cap Co. has built an entire business around selling vintage and retro bottle caps.

Affiliate networks like Commission Junction, Shareasale and Linkshare, take the stress out of finding products related to your business website.

No Merchant Account Required

Forget the difficulties of collecting customer information and purchasing details. The merchant handles payment processing, so you never have to be burdened with chargebacks, fraud or your merchant account being penalized or banned.

No Inventory to Carry

Not having storage concerns for inventory-on-hand, it doesn’t matter if you live in a tiny apartment or your parents basement. Affiliate marketing is a method of earning money from anywhere, at any time.

No Shipping Costs

Packing supplies or postal rates will be of no concern. The expense and time it takes to ship products to the customer’s falls on the merchant.

No Customer Concerns

You will never have to deal with unhappy customers. The merchant handles all customer related matters.

Yes, You Can Make Money While You Sleep

No other business will generate income while you sleep; attend school functions or sit in the waiting room at your doctor’s office.

High Income Potential

With an affiliate business, income is restricted entirely by the desire, effort and imagination of the affiliate marketer.

The Internet provides an endless supply of possibility to generate an income. As you begin to explore your own desire and potential, keep in mind, there are more frauds than possibilities.

Takeaway Messages:

If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is

It does NOT always take money to make money

Do NOT EVER give out personal information such as bank account and social security number without a thorough investigation (you are welcome to email me if you are unsure)

Do NOT EVER click the links within an email – If it says it’s from Facebook, go to Facebook. If it says it’s from Linkedin, go to Linkedin. If the email says it’s from your bank, go to your bank. Always check the email address in the FROM line against the email address within the body of the email.  I provide an example of a scam email and the technique I use to confirm validity in my post Scam Alert: Your Paypal.com transaction confirmation

The only investments you should make are:

Domain name and hosting (I do offer free installation for those who purchase through my links)

A premium blog theme (only if you want to)

Quality graphics (only if you want to)

Recommendations for hosting, graphics and themes here

Educational materials by reputable sources (you can email me when in doubt)

If you’re on a tight budget or just tight with cash like I am, you might make an effort to check Amazon daily for free ebook offerings. I explain how to locate the free offers in my post How to Find Free Kindle eBooks on Amazon

The offers change every day – sometimes multiple times a day. You can snag some great business related books for free! Keep in mind, just because the books are “Kindle” ebooks, you don’t have to have a Kindle to get them. Amazon allows you to read them right from your computer with Kindle for PC.

Cheers,

Gayla

Popular Search Terms:

• 10 reasons why affiliate marketing does not work

During the eight weeks leading up to Christmas, Angie at The Work at Home Wife set a personal challenge to generate passive income on Squidoo. Her challenge was to create one Squidoo lense per week. The results are in and she is sharing the details. See how she did Squidoo Money: November Earnings

Passive income is an income received on a regular basis, with little effort required to maintain it. When working online, passive income is usually the result of affiliate marketing. I encourage you to follow some, if not all, of The Top 30 Affiliate Marketing Blogs to Keep an Eye On in 2013 – I subscribe to more than half of the blogs listed.

It’s tough for small businesses to compete with large corporations when it comes getting your name and brand in front of the consumer. If you want to be competitive, your marketing methods need to be creative. Kim at Work in My Pajamas shares 5 creative methods to consider to land your first client or simply to generate more clientele

In August 2012, Amazon revealed that for every 100 hardbacks and paperbacks sold through their site, customers were downloading 114 ebooks. That was just two years after the introduction of the Kindle. Do you think you have a book in you waiting to be written? This is a great opportunity to jump in and give it a try. Finch Sells provides start to finish detail on writing that book for Kindle and then selling it on Amazon. Check out the post Make Money on Kindle: $345,000 in 5 Months?

Many people are under the impression that making money online is as simple as slapping up a blog and waiting on traffic. This ain’t no field of dreams people. Just because you build it, does not mean they will come. It’s up to you to dive into cyberspace and find your followers. Once they arrive at your site, they may become a loyal follower and read what you have written. They will likely buy your products, so you can see how important it is that YOU find THEM. Zac Johnson shares tips on how you can find followers without using the search engines. Read Your Blog Won’t Survive Without Targeted Traffic, So Here’s How to Get It! to learn more.

I’m always looking for great things to read. Share your favorite blog post finds by leaving a comment. I’m a Do-Follow kind of gal.

Cheers,

Gayla

Popular Search Terms:

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The Super Affiliate Handbook is available in both a downloadable ebook of 200+ pages – so keep that in mind before you press the print button and paperback on Amazon.

When I purchased my copy, I bought the digital form – it’s regularly updated and provides access to frequent updates.

It is great! I truly believe ANYONE could take your info and put up a great site in a relatively short time. It is practical, straight-forward and easy to understand.

Many people will launch a successful and profitable business using this as a guide.

What is The Super Affiliate Handbook?

“The Super Affiliate Handbook” was written by Rosalind Gardner and as the title also suggests, is a handbook for affiliate marketers. The word, “super” in the title, does not mean the book was intended for super affiliates, but is a means by which Rosalind Gardner maps out how you can become a super affiliate.

Rosalind Gardner has been around as long as I can remember and absolutely knows what she’s talking about.

Rosalind delivers proof that she indeed earned $436,797 the year before the publication of “The Super Affiliate Handbook”. Rosalind Gardner has primarily earned this income by marketing affiliate products and services within the dating niche.

It was easy for me to believe Rosalind could make that kind of money because I had seen first hand the profits a micro-niche dating site could generate.

The big question is, can you recreate the same levels of success if you wish to target other markets?

I have to say, absolutely!

Of course the information Rosalind provides IS readily available on the internet for free – but would take months and months of research, reading, testing and tweaking to piece together your own blueprint that’s easily available in this one handy book.

Rosalind Gardner really goes into great detail on how you can build you own profitable Internet business. Not only does she teach you with her written examples – she provides links to actual working examples for you to see with your own eyes.

Rosalind takes you step by step and introduce new concepts on a clear and fun way. I read it from back to back and now use it as a reference book. If you want to learn what is Affiliate Marketing all about, this is the book.
Another thing I really like is that the author invites you to action on every step with very specific instructions.

Taking special care to cover subjects most authors skip or barely mention. As an example, Rosalind shares precise detail on how you can track your results. Most Internet marketers state the importance of tracking, but never tell you exactly how to accomplish this vital task. Rosalind Gardner tells you how she does it and shows you the exact spreadsheets she uses to track her visitors and buyers.

Rosalind Gardner also leads you through the formulation she uses for calculating conversion rate. This formula is widely known, but this is just an example of how she’s thought of everything, every minute step, when compiling this book.

This book is very well written in a way anyone and everyone can comprehend. Rosalind keeps the process very simple and doesn’t try to speak over you with her vast knowledge. You instantly get the feeling that a friend is sharing tried and true information with you that you can trust. As I read this book, reading her personal stories, I felt as though I was sharing trade secrets with an age old friend.

Examples of Topics Covered:

6 common affiliate structures
a 7-Step Affiliate Business-Building Process
How To Find A Profitable Niche
How To Evaluate Market Demand & Competition
Tips On Choosing The Right Domain Name
Her Personal Top Affiliate Networks
5 Marketing Strategies That Kill Time
Advice on how to earn higher commissions
25 Mistakes To Avoid As An Affiliate

And much, much more!

Will You Make Money With This Model?

That can only be determined by the level of commitment you are willing to place in achieving your goal. It will take time. It will take effort. It will take lots of work – but yes, it can be done and yes, you can make money by following the guides in The Super Affiliate Handbook.

I relied on Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook before and reaped the benefits greatly! Once again, I am studying and practicing the model laid out by Rosalind and highly recommend you make that $47 investment if you are desiring to make major changes in your life.