Affiliate Marketing! What it is and How to Earn Money on the Net

Affiliate marketing is an online business that is very easy to start up. Affiliate marketing can simply be described as the selling of someone else's product in return for part of the profits. The affiliate marketer will always receive a commission for each product he or she sold.

Affiliate marketing is a powerful, yet simple business model. It is the fastest method of earning money online and requires very little money to start off with. You simply find a product that addresses a need, and promote it those who are in need of it. You will then receive payment for each and every product you sell.

Listed below are the steps needed to begin to earn money online as an affiliate marketer:

1. Pick a Niche: This is an area of ​​expertise that you can fulfill. Find out what people want. What problems are they facing? What sort of needs are they seeking solutions for? Check out forums, Amazon, eBay and websites where you can get a good idea of ​​what people are looking for and buying. Some good niches to start off with are in the areas of wealth, health, relationships and self development.
2. Find a Product To Promote: Register with an affiliate service and look for a product that meets the needs of your market. Promote and sell this product to your market. Use a website or blog to showcase your product. You will be given a unique link from the affiliate service that you will place on your website, linking your website to the sales page of the product. This link when clicked on by your customer will identify you as the person who sent the customer, ensuring that you get paid for every sale you promote. It is best to start with one product in the beginning. When you start making sales with this product you can add additional products that will compliment the product you originally started off with.
3. Build a List: Need to register with an autoresponder service. This will enable you to capture the names and emails of those who purchase products from your website. Your website should have an area where you can collect the contact details of your customers before they buy your product. You can then promote other services to them as well as provide them useful and valuable information that will keep them as loyal customers to you for life.
4. Generate Traffic: Use different traffic generation methods to drive potential customers to your website. Some traffic generation techniques that you can use are; search engine optimization (SEO), article and email marketing, social media, videos on YouTube etc. Experiment with the various ways of generating traffic to your website. Based on the results you get, continue working on the methods that are yielding you the best results.

Once you have a steady reasonable income coming in from the product or products you are promoting, repeat the whole process either in the same general niche or in another niche. Try to promote products that will compliment the products that you have already sold. Or select a completely different niche identical and promote products relevant to that.