Another good work at home option is making money from Affiliate Programs where you sign up to promote a product or service and collect commissions from sales that arise out of your promotional efforts. The unique advantage for this business model is that you never personally have to ship, sell or provide customer support for any of the items. This is itself should suffice as evidence of the incredibly passive, yet lucrative opportunity that offers. It is definitely worth your attention. Let's look at some ways to cash in on this unique business model and what you will need to do in order to be successful at it.
First concept: You must be prepared to write. From my experience, you get the best results when you write your own product reviews, even if it is short and concise. You don't have to write a thesis. Legible English will do. Also, write candidly on what you really think about the product Write a product review letting people know what it can do for them. Always write from the perspective of your reader. Work from the angle of benefits, leaving the features as a secondary mention. Always remember:
People buy products and services because it promises to provide benefits!
For example, if you are running an ad for a razor product it will be far more appealing to state, "Your girlfriend is going to fall head over heels with the way your face feels next to hers". This visually subliminal message sells your razor far easier than a benefit statement such as "the only 3 blade razor for under $2.99" Another key point is that you will get much better conversion if you put your visitors into a 'pre sold' mood before sending them to your affiliate link site. This is god for establishing your credibility and name branding also as they have to pass through your 'authority site' to get to some colder, generic sales page. You can write articles about your products or service, or about marketing online in general and post them to the free article directories, like GoArticles.com & EzineArticles.com. When you create an article to promote an affiliate product or service, you will most likely have to link to your blog to presell the item as most article directories do not allow )(or remove) any links within the body of the article. They also have policies against using the signature box at the bottom of your article to promote a blatant affiliate sale. That is why the second concept is so important.
Second concept: Create a free blog (web log) You can pick up a free blog at sites such as Blogger.com or Wordpress.com and post your reviews of the products and services that you are promoting as an affiliate. You are also free to use your affiliate link the these sites (as opposed to article marketing).
Third concept: Join a few popular marketing forums. Sites such as WarriorForum.com are great to make frequent, and useful comments on. This will breed familiarity and a sense of trust, it credentials you as an authoritative figure on a particular niche topic. Follow the popular threads and make sure you go into your personal profile and edit your 'signature'. You want to make sure that every comment you make includes your signature line with a link back to your blog or other 'review' site used to presell your affiliate product or service.
Fourth concept: Post a Press Release You can go to http://www.PRweb.com and include a favorable review of a product or service along with your affiliate link or a link
back to your blog or website. This site offers a guarantee that your press release will be picked up by all of the major search engines for a small fee. In fact, for the $80 bucks, this could potentially bring you a generous amount of traffic.
Fifth concept: Create a newsletter if you are developing an email list, then you will need to create something of value that you can send them. This is the way to keep in touch with your list and to create familiarity and trust. A newsletter can also be used to remind your readers of your products and services. In essence, a newsletter can be used as a way to generate interest and warm up your suspects, thus producing warm prospects that will be encouraged (taught) to need and want your services. You can include your affiliate link at the bottom of your newsletter. Remember, that just as in article marketing, you are trying to get your readers into a 'pre-sold' mood before sending them to the affiliate link site. Build their interest so that they can decide to potentially buy it after reading your product review. Remember what I've already stressed to you, always try to think like your reader. So whether it is an article or a page review, always write as if you are speaking to just one person at a time and draw that person's attention, create curiosity and the feeling that he or she, might just need this kind of solution. I cover this is depth in my marketing newsletter so be sure to sign up if you need help with this.
Sixth concept: Open a Pay per Click Campaign with Google. This is a bit more technical and I encourage you to read up on Google AdWord strategies and become familiar with the methods or it can absolutely strangle your budget. But, with a good and targeted AdWord campaign, and a well written capture page that is keyword relevant to your ad you can get some excellent traffic and conversions. You can either send people directly to your affiliate sale page, or back to your blog or 'review' site to presell your prospects and then send them to the sales page with an affiliate link. Test with different techniques.
Seventh concept: You need an education! Never be afraid to pursue your education. online marketing is a learned skill with many layers to peel back, much like an onion. If you get a good, solid education, you will become quite the marketing force to be reckoned with. We encourage you to check our blog for more information on marketing and to sign up for our free marketing course, "NETfabulous! Marketing" ECourse. You'll be glad you did!