Summary
There is nothing inherently virtuous about taking the long path to wealth and stability. As much as society derides the notion of “getting rich quick”, doing just that is very possible as long as you are creative about your concept of where your income and earnings come from.
If you are focused on shimmying up a corporate ladder, it will indeed take some time. But what if you can find a way to earn income by helping others to connect to a wider range of customers and markets on the Internet?
If you are contemplating how you can retire and still enjoy your financial independence to the fullest, you might consider entering the affiliate marketing field. This practice essentially involves hosting websites that feature links to vendors selling goods and services. In return for steering customers toward the product, you receive a fixed percentage of every sale.
Given the millions of Internet users and those doing their shopping online, this is an area that will only continue to grow by leaps and bounds – especially as access to mobile technology continues to expand around the globe.
Read on to learn more on how you can get launched in the exciting world of affiliate marketing ventures.
Transcript
Have you ever thought that you wanted to be able to work from anywhere and whenever you want? Like from home? Or how about from your home overlooking the Caribbean?
I am fortunate that I have been doing this for five years now. Staggering numbers of marketing fees – ranging in the billions of dollars – have been paid to owners of blogs and websites in recent years. The essential key to this area’s attractiveness is that it boasts the unique combination of very low entrance fees and the potential to generate a very high income.
Simply put, affiliate marketing involves running your own website or blog which directs traffic to other sites to purchase goods and services, most commonly through clicking on advertisements. In return for directing customers toward these sites, you receive a percentage of each sale earned. Given the sheer volume of customers online and the explosion of shopping on the Internet, you can understand why this is a practice that can potentially take your earnings to a whole new level.
The key is doing your homework upfront to earn the knowledge you need – and the ability to stay connected and communicate while in your paradise, whether it’s in the mountains, at the beach or wherever your whims propel you.
For many multitudes of entrepreneurs around the world, the sure-fire formula for big financial gains involves affiliate marketing online. I personally know several people that leverage this technology and make millions of dollars a year in the process. If you are seeking a way to work for yourself and grow your revenue streams exponentially, I cannot recommend this strategy highly enough.
There are different types and approaches that you can study up on to determine which is the best course for you and your field.
There is the type of affiliate that solely markets through networks like Clickbank. Then there is the type that generates a distribution list of customers over time that offers can be emailed to, creating a guaranteed stream of business. Then there is the far newer form of affiliate marketing focused on the mobile field. This is by far the fastest growing area, at least partially due to the explosive growth of mobile phones in the developing world. By far one of the best developments to happen to business over the past few decades has been the steady growth of people around the world climbing out of poverty and using their cell phones. There are literally billions of new potential customers around the world that you can now be reaching.
No matter which one you choose, all of these models can reap huge rewards for you. But it is not a method free of some work upfront. You must be willing to learn what it takes. It can be done for free, but unless you are a natural “techy”, it will likely take some education on your part. Be very careful when buying education. Most of the self-styled gurus out there make their money “teaching”, often outdated ideas that no longer work. You may find that you are better off relying on resources like MOOCs (Massive Open Online Sources) and free entities online to design your own self-learning that unfolds at your own pace. Do your research. Find the best in the field that can teach you what you want learn– the internet has made it easier today to contact experts than it has ever been in the past.
Getting Started…
Here are some additional steps you can take to get up to speed on this exciting field:
Build A Website
Establish your web presence. To really get into this game, you need to maintain your own website or place on which you can place strategically located links to products and services you recommend. It may sound tricky starting up a website if you are not especially tech savvy, but a lot of the work can luckily be done upfront for you through several sites like GoDaddy.com, that standardize a lot of the start-up work in advance. There are a number of other cheap sites you can peruse for hosting capabilities.
Focus On A Niche
Focus your efforts. A key component of the business involved targeting a niche demographic with a blog that is popularized with relevant and continually updated content.
For example, you could start up a site geared toward fishermen that embeds links to sites selling fishing products. A good rule of thumb is to focus on a type of product or service that you are genuinely passionate about. Working in an area you care about will ensure that you are more likely to stick with the process as you are starting out – and you will also be better prepared to generate the substantive content that you will need to attract readers to begin with.
Choose A Product
Identify what to sell. You can work with the existing consortium of affiliate networks that are out there ready to connect vendors with sites that can help steer customers to their goods and services. Clickbank.com is a good example of a site that specializes in e-books and software products.
There are also some services out there that will generate income for you on a pay-to-click basis in which your visitors would not even need to buy anything. These are a potentially powerful source of revenue for you.
There is an art to properly embedding advertisements and links, however. Web users have grown increasingly wary of anything that smacks of too much “spam” or “hucksterism” so you need to do some work to ensure that advertisements fit into your page as a compliment, rather than seeming like blatant “click bait” ploys. You will need to establish an aura of trust and authenticity for users to return to your site and follow your recommended links.
Build Content
Determine the type of content you will feature. There is no “one size fits all” approach here. You might want to create a site that is populated with resources, offering articles and posts that include banner ads that customers can access. By updating and refreshing site content on an ongoing basis, you are better positioned to attract return business. You can also explore the option of blogs or sites that review products and then provide links for customers to buy them directly. These types of pages require less frequent content updates, perhaps just minor revisions on a regular basis, so that search engines can detect that your site is still active.
Use An Array Of Tactics
The metrics clearly show that most individuals visiting a site or blog will ultimately not click on the links to access products. This means that you should strive to attract a larger target base so that you can balance out users who won’t buy products with more who will. Look into advertising your site and cross-linking your URL on other sites and index boards frequented by your target base to ensure that you can get the word out. You may also want to explore options for email marketing and building up distribution lists of customers that you can send messages out to when you have updated content ready.
Learn From Others
There is no need to reinvent the wheel here. Reach out to others who have used this technique on message boards and online discussions. There are a number of discussion groups and list serves that you can join to learn best practices and what others have learned about affiliate marketing through trial and error experimentation
Think about your own current business strategy. What can you do to begin implementing affiliate marketing tactics to grow your business to even greater heights
Stay in touch with me by following me on Facebook, subscribing to my YouTube Channel and registering at my web site, old.tonyneumeyer.com, to receive ongoing free training, inspiration and more.
