As I have stated before SFI was the first Internet Business I became involved in eight years ago.  I promoted the opportunity and the products for the first five years.  I maintained an EA membership for most of those five years; which cost me approximately $30.00 or more a month.  Out of that $30.00 (which was my only sale) the most I received for one month was $20.00.

I don’t mean to imply that it is not a good program.  It is however a very difficult one if you want to make money fast.  It just won’t happen.

With the new changes at SFI it is somewhat more user friendly when it comes to training and accessibility of the products.  The Triple Click Program is basically a store where anyone can purchase products for their home or office.  You don’t have to be a member to access this site.  It is also the primary store for the affiliates to purchase the needed merchandise they need to continue with their Executive Affiliate upgrades.  Once you sign into the page you can also list things for purchase, so I can see where it would be attractive to many.

Their Eye Earn program is another way of signing up affiliates under you so that you can make money.  With this you have to purchase the Eye Earn package, display it on either you car, wear the shirt and then take a picture and send it to them so they can verify that you are advertising their product before you can earn any money from them.

There are several other programs within SFI where you could possibly make money.  The only program that I really benefited from was the IAHBE, which is now sold in the Triple Click Program.  This is a great learning tool that has tons of free books, articles, and advice on how to run a successful home business.  Anyone starting a home business could benefit from this site you don’t have to be a member of SFI to purchase the program; it is connected to SFI and they will encourage you to sign up for SFI but you don’t have to and it is $30 a month to stay with them, it is not a one time purchase.

SFI will tell you that you don’t need to upgrade to make money.  But in fact you really do.  You can make money as a free associate but it is questionable if it is worth your time.  I have 170 associates under me (that is after eight years of advertising), my upline support was non-existent, SFI support is there 24/7 but does not always answer your question.  If you are not an EA they will insist that you have to be one before you can make money.

As far as their compensation package I am still a little confused.  One person tells me I don’t have to be an EA to make money from my downline, while another tells me I do.  I haven’t been an EA for some time and refuse to spend $30.00 a month on the off chance I might earn $6.00 of it back from someone under me that will upgrade.  By the way I do have two EA’s under me at this time and am always there to answer their questions honestly.

You are suppose to earn 30% commission on any non-affiliate sale; if one of your personally sponsored affiliates purchases something from Triple Clicks you are suppose to earn 15% of that sale.  And on it goes until you are crossed eyed trying to figure out if they owe you money.

I would say that when SFI started in the 1980’s it was new and innovative.  It filled a void on the Internet for those of us who wanted to work from home.  The people who started then have made a fortune; I am just not sure it can be said of those who join today.  SFI provides “residual” income in that once you have made a sale or had one of your downline upgrade the income keeps coming in from those sources. As with any business you continually have to go out and find new sources to keep that income growing. There are many programs on the Internet that provide that also, SFI isn’t the only one.

So with all of this said you are probably wondering why I still promote SFI?  Strong Future International is basically a good program for the beginner to learn about affiliate marketing.  It will take you through advertising on the Internet both free and paid, it has some really great products.  Upgrade?  Not unless you can afford it.  Look through the Triple Clicks store at the products offered, if you can see yourself selling $30 or more each month then that would pay for your upgrade.  If you have the extra money each month to take $30 out of your budget to pay your own way then do so; but if you do not have the money don’t upgrade.

This program does have flaws still, but overall if you go into it with an open mind you can learn something about Internet Marketing.

To Your Success
Nancy Kraska
Webmaster

…You will find more
resources on starting your own home business at our bookstore….click here

Do you want to work for 40 years or more to make $40,000 a year or less
just so you can retire on 40% of what wasn’t enough in the first place?

Imagine owning a profitable home business that you could start today
WITHOUT:

- Technical know-how,

- Large capital investment or overhead,

- Jeopardizing your current career,

- Any of the headaches of owning a traditional business.

What if all the tools and techniques were provided for you instantly
with simple-to-follow, step-by-step instructions? What if I told you it
was FREE to join with NO obligation whatsoever! Interested?
Why not take that important first step and visit:

#1
Home Business

Several years ago I joined SFI (Strong Future International) with the thought of making a living from that one company. After several years of struggling with the company and spending money each month to upgrade, I found that it did not live up to its hype. Not only did I not make enough from that one company to support myself, I did not make enough to pay for the programs upgrade each month. By this time I had several companies with which I worked that were earning money each month, so I dropped SFI as one of my main opportunities. Although I kept my membership I never upgraded again.

I am sure there are many people out there who have made money with SFI in the past and would disagree and say it was my doing and not SFI’s fault for my not making money. The trouble is I agree with them.

SFI is a great company. Unfortunately I had a sponsor who never communicated with me about how to get my business started. SFI’s training was foreign to me as I had never worked online before. Their training was disjointed for me and that combined with a lack of sponsor support contributed to my downfall. Not only did I not learn anything, but I became the same type of sponsor that I had. I did not communicate with my downline as much as I should have. Frankly, I didn’t know what to tell them or how to help them as I wasn’t sure what I was doing within the company.

So this gives you a little background on my past experience with SFI. Since joining 5 years ago, I have learned a great deal about Internet Marketing from various ebooks and other resources on the Internet. Including friends I have met through forums. With this arsenal of knowledge I decided to take a second look at SFI.

I am happy to say that not only have they completely revamped their website from top to bottom. Their product lines through Triple Clicks and MaxMall have greatly increased the potential for making money. The upgrade process can be done for free now, you don’t have to pay for something that you might or might not need. The support for the novice marketer is greatly improved, so even if you join under someone who is non-communicative you have an excellent chance of success. Simply ask to be assigned another sponsor. Although the way the system is now set up, the sponsor becomes just that a sponsor. The training is completely done by SFI through a simple step by step program. The sponsor is there to steer you in the right direction should you have a question or concern.

I have always liked SFI, even though I didn’t promote it much in the last few years, but now I consider it my top program. This has become a program for the novice and experience marketer alike.

Caution: SFI will not make you rich overnight, but it will give you a solid foundation on which to build a successful Internet business. It was worth a second look.
To Your Success
Nancy Kraska
Webmaster

This very mindset is the reason why more people are joining one of the most popular online businesses-affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing affords the individual an opportunity to decide their own future while helping others decide theirs. There are no time schedules, no commutes, and no one to tell you about the work that has to be done. The be an independent affiliate marketer you only need a desire to succeed in this type of business and you will achieve all you have dreamed about. Desire and time is all that is needed to follow your dreams.

So other than desire and dreams is there anything else you need to succeed in affiliate marketing? What do you need to do in order to be successful in this industry? First of all you need to be aware that there is a lot of competition, so you need to find your niche and strive to be above the herd.

Through my own experience I have broken it down to 5 essentials tools to achieve the satisfaction that only comes when you achieve your goals. These 5 tools are a must for anyone to have if they are going to stand out from the rest of the crowd.

1. Learn and be trained: For those who have never done anything like this before you will be in unfamiliar territory and it can be scary if you are not properly trained; you could get lost in the herd of affiliate marketers online. You will need to learn the tricks of the trade for every aspect of the marketing game. You will also need a to understand that knowledge will give you an advantage over others in this business.

2. Willingness to invest time and effort even if you don’t see results. Many times people give up too soon and the results are just around the corner. It might be several months before you will even see that first results in the form of profit. Patience and perseverance are important. It is those qualities that will stop someone from giving up after investing a lot of there selves into the business.

3. Self-determination. You have set the goal of success in affiliate marketing therefore you must have the ability to keep pushing yourself. Never having to say quit is a quality each and every affiliate marketer should possess, and the ability to motivate oneself into reaching new goals is an ability that would actually take an affiliate marketer to their set goals.

4. Discipline. Teach yourself to work each and every day with all the enthusiasm you can gather, then you are close to achieving what you have set your heart to having in the first place.

5. Optimism. Negative attitudes and hearsays have no place in an affiliate marketer life and in making that life better for himself and for everyone concerned. Never allow outside influences your attitude toward the business; because once you start a business, you must be the head of the company and the leader of all it entails.

The components to success in any online business such as affiliate marketing are varied, but the most important thing one needs to be able to make it big lies in the individual. It is the individual who has the ability to do everything that will ultimately lead to prospects, and the desire, which feeds his drive, is the fuel that will keep the affiliate marketer going.

Affiliate marketing is all about putting one’s destiny into one’s own hands. The right attitude is the key to being able succeed in an unfamiliar territory where peace of mind will be found.

• Affiliate Marketing
• Network Marketing

The first, affiliate marketing, provides an income for thousands of people all over the world. Affiliate marketing can best be described as a retailer. Like all retailers you will get paid a commission for selling other people’s products.

One of the easiest and most popular ways to make money online is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing can be done without owning your own website. You don’t physically hold the goods or exchange payments or inquiries about any of the products. All any affiliate marketer does is promote the products, the rest is handled automatically at the wholesaler and you get paid commission at a set rate (70% is not uncommon) according to the product.

One of the top Internet marketing affiliates is Rosalind Gardner.  Her book, The Super Affiliate Handbook has everything you will need to know about making money online as an affiliate marketer.  A former air traffic controller, Rosalind Gardner now earns well over $400,000 a year as a “super-affiliate” by doing nothing more than selling other peoples products online.

Network marketing on the other hand is a business in which a group of distributors is used to build and expand the business. An excellent example of this would be Amway.  You not only make money on your sales but also on the sales of your team of distributors, or downline. Another name for Network Marketing is multi level marketing or MLM a system in which you can get paid on sales made by your team several levels deep in your downline. Multi level marketing is a completely legitimate business representation and should not be confused with pyramid marketing (which is illegal) where only the person at the top (usually the program owner) makes money.

Network marketing is a great way to build a significant income in a very short period of time. Choosing the right program and with a little effort anyone can make money easily and quickly with network marketing. In addition to making money fast, network marketing is a system that enables you to use time as a leverage to build a business that will pay you residual income for years to come.

The fastest and easiest way to make money today is through network marketing. With the advent of the Internet it is now possible to build a worldwide business very quickly, no matter where in the world you reside. The top network marketing company is SFI where network marketing is combined with affiliate marketing.

The easiest way of setting up a home based business that will earn multiple streams of income is to start your home based business by following an established model.

What is Affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing on the Internet simply means you are selling other peoples products for a profit online.   There are two ways in which this can be achieved.  One is by sending prospective buyers to your clients sales page or send buyers to your website where you list the benefits of the product.  When a customer goes to your website you can “sell” them the item either by a product review or an ad; both of these methods can be accomplished through a website or a blog.

Another way affiliate marketers make money is to produce their own “info” products; but the majority of Internet marketers earn enough money without the aggravation testing and research on their own products that they therefore leave that part to others.

When you become an affiliate marketer one of the first things you need to learn is how to promote products online.  There are several ways in which this can be achieved.  One is through placing ads on the Internet through either paid advertising sites, pay per click (PPC) advertising, article marketing, placing banners and ads on their own websites or blogs.  Whichever way you choose to advertise make sure you understand the advantages of all forms.

The Written Word

Article marketing is just one way in which to promote a product.  You don’t have to be a writer to write a short article.  You could pay someone write it for you.  You then take the article and submit to free article directories on the Internet, called Ezines (ezine is short for “electronic magazine”).  On each article you submit you will have a ‘resource’ box; in that box you put your name and a link to web page of your choice.

It is very important that you submit your articles to these article directories the sole reason being the largest article directories are given priority status in the search engine rankings.  If you put your articles only on a blog or website chances are no one will read them.

Individuals who seek information about products will be more likely to read your article in an article directory, click the link in the ‘resource’ box for more information.   Those who are interested enough will make a purchase through your website link and you will get paid the commission.

Because articles stay on the article directory site forever it is even possible that years from now a well-written article will bring the affiliate marketer sales.

What is “Viral” marketing and how does it help?

When you publish an article on any online directory the chances are pretty good that another Webmaster will post the content on their websites, providing the articles are reasonably well written.  The webmasters are then required to post your “resource” box along with the article, which in turn provides a link back to your website (called banklinking).  The more backlinks you have to your website from other sources your standings in the search engines will increase.

The most important part of any article you submit is your resource box.  Anyone reading the article will then have access to your product or website and be able to make a purchase using your link.

For a complete listing of the top affiliate programs available please visit: Affiliate Programs

If I signed up for everyone of these program or just a few, then I would be making someone rich, but not necessarily me. I am not saying that all of the emails I get are trying to sell me a bill of goods, but a great majority of them are.

So how did I pick the businesses I am involved with? I tried out a few of the emails that sounded promising in the beginning. I learned a lot through them on how I did not want to market my products, but earned no money.

First of all I had read years ago about a gentlemen who did nothing but affiliate marketing. Some people say that affiliate marketing is just selling a bill of goods to the next unsuspecting customer. Let me say that not all affiliate marketers are honest, not all affiliate marketers know their products. Most have never tried out the products they promote. I personally have not tried out all the products I promote. So how do I know they are not honest work at home businesses?

It is a matter of trust. Over the years I have come to know and value friendships with many online marketers. Many are hard working people just like you who want to help others achieve the American Dream of owning their own business. Most of the people I work with have tried the programs I offer and vouch for their authenticity. Some of the products I have tried myself so I know they are honest companies.

Let us say for the sake of conversation, that you purchase a product from my site. Over the next couple of weeks you feel that the product is not living up to your expectations and you are feeling cheated. What can you do…simple every program I offer comes with a complete money back guarantee with no questions asked. Be sure and read the refund guidelines before you join any program so that you understand the process needed to get your money back.

I offer a couple of “free” programs such as SFI. I have been with SFI for over 5 years and if you have read any of my reviews on the program you will see that I haven’t always been happy with them. But as a company as a whole, they are worthwhile. They have so much to offer and the training is excellent. Follow their guidelines and in a couple of months you will see some income. And what is great is that income will just continue to grow over time.

Another program that I have recently joined is Maverick Money Makers. It is still to early for me to say whether it lives up to its hype, but I will say some of the training and support I have received from other members is great.

Obviously I am not a newbie to Internet Marketing or owning my own home business, so I am more in tune with how to earn money online, but it wasn’t always the case. At one time at the beginning of this adventure I did not know a search engine from a website. I read, listened, joined a few programs both good and bad, visited a lot of forums for information, tried not to ask stupid questions, and found a group of people who were just like me in wanting to earn money from home.

So take a look around my various websites and start your new career online. I have programs that sell health products such as Herbal Life, survey sites, drop shipping companies for an Ebay business, even sites that offer instruction on how to get the most out of your selling on Ebay. From working entirely online to combining working online and offline. Take some time to look around to find what you are looking for in a work at home business.

The one piece of advice I give everyone who signs up under me at any program is: DON’T SPEND MONEY YOU DON’T HAVE! SPEND YOUR MONEY WISELY!

Home Work For You

Two other websites that I have just for the fun of it:

Creative Crafting
Simply Cookbooks

1. Be Your Own Boss – This is my the main reason for being an affiliate marketer. Actually, it is what motivated me to become an affiliate marketer. I really am independent when it comes to someone telling how to do something.

2. The world is your store – There are no geographic limits on your sales area, because you never leave home. Promote your web site worldwide; every Internet user in the whole world is potentially your customer (and they call this a small business! The joke is on them!)

3. Set up costs are minimal – Most affiliate programs are free to join, so all you need to start your business is the Internet, a computer and a willingness to learn. You can work from anywhere in the world and it makes no difference whether you have an office or work from your kitchen table.

4. Selection of products and services – All you have to do is decide what you think people will want to buy, just about everything is available online. With affiliate directories it’s easy to find products to sell.

5. No inventory to stock – You don’t need to worry about purchasing products that you then have to store in your home. Sell any item, large or small without having to worry about storage space.

6. Astronomical income potential -With your own affiliate business your income level is limited only by you and your desire and effort – not by a salary structure or office politics.

7. No wholesale account or billing required – Forget the problems connected with invoicing, collecting payments and processing credit cards. The wholesaler handles all payment processing; as an affiliate, you never have to worry about returns, fraud or losing your account.

8. Extremely low overhead – Apart from a reasonable budget for advertising and the cost of your Internet connection, you have nothing much in the way of overhead. You work from home, so the big expense of renting office space is eliminated and it is possible to get income tax deductions to cover office expenditures.

9. Open for business – As an affiliate, your business is running for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, when you are sleeping, vacationing with your family and all Holidays. You don’t have to worry about business hours or delivery deadlines it is all on autopilot. You don’t have to worry about scheduling employees: as a matter of fact you don’t even need any employees!

10. YOU ARE THE BOSS! – This is the best reason of all! You are completely responsible for your own success (or failure); no one can tell you when you have to be at work, when you can have a day off, how much you will get paid, no stress, no pressure, and the list goes on….

While there is ways to jumpstart your traffic, not everyone has the resources that others have to generate more traffic for your site. You don’t have to spend a dime; all you need is the proper mindset and a lot of eagerness. You also must have the determination and perseverance to do hard work and research to generate more traffic for your site.

Having more traffic for your site without spending a single cent is extremely rewarding..  Many sites have articles that offer tips and guidelines in how to generate traffic using only free methods. Because it is possible, you don’t need to speed a single cent, it may take time, there is no way around that fact. You get better chances by paying for your advertisements, but at least you get a chance with some of these free methods outlined in this article.

Online forums and other online communities such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, any social networking site will target a select group of people that will fit your needs. So take full advantage of this type of market.   Offer opinions and ask questions about your niche and offers.  There is a wealth of Internet marketing knowledge on these types of sites.

An advantage of online communities and forums is that you can build a reputation for your company. Show them what you are made of and wow them with your range of expertise about the subject, with that you can build a reputation and build trust with potential customers.

Newsletters provide people with a catalog of your products and interesting and entertaining articles. If you make it really interesting and entertaining, more people will sign up for your newsletter and recommend it to other people. The more people who sign up for your newsletter, the more people there will be going to your site thereby increasing your traffic.

Another great idea is trading links with other sites should cost you nothing. Contact webmasters of sites similar to yours and ask them if they would like to exchange links with you.  A link exchange is a win-win situation for both parties. Someone who puts your link on their site opens up the possibility of a customers clicking on your link and visiting your site.

Writing articles is an excellent way to draw the attention of people that have interest in your product.  When submitting article to Ezines on the Internet be sure to include in the resource box a link to your home page along with a brief overview of who you are and what it is you do. Many sites offer free submission and posting of your articles, these sites are known as Ezines.

Good content is key to getting search engines to notice you.  Many search engines track down the keywords and keyword phrases your site uses and how they are used. It is not a requirement that content should be done by a professional content writer. You could do your own; it should provide certain requirements as well as great quality. A good way to have a keyword relevant site is to write the keywords you want to use down first, before writing the article.  Do not saturate the article with the keyword, but do make sure it is at the beginning and end of the article. When search engines scan your site for content these are the two areas they look at the most.

Generally, Internet users use search engines to find what they are looking for. Search engines in return use keyword searching in aiding their search results. With the right keywords, you could get high rankings in search engine results without the costs.

Blogs are a great way to get free traffic to your site.  Basically a blog is a tool to promote your articles, which in turn promote your website.  If you are hosting your own website all ready, you can self-host a blog through WordPress.com.   It is easy and fun; and a terrific traffic generator.

All of these methods and more will drive more traffic to your site for free. All it takes is a bit of effort and extended man hours. Learn all you can about the methods depicted here and you will soon have a site with a great traffic flow without the usual costs that come with it.

Affiliate Marketing Mistake #1: Choosing the Wrong Product

This is a biggie, and probably one of the biggest mistakes that new affiliate marketers make.  How do you choose the best affiliate products?

There are several ways.  You could choose products based on their popularity (check out clickbank to see what I mean.)  Or you could choose products based around your current business.  (For example, if you run a business such as a beauty parlor, you could find a number of affiliate products…what about a book on hairstyles for weddings, or proms or braids?  Or you could sell a beauty book, or a book on skin care.  There are also physical products that you could sell.  The point is to look for affiliate products that complement what you’re already selling.

You could also choose affiliate products based on how much commission you’ll make – but think carefully before choosing this as your top method of deciding what products you want to sell.  Finding quality products should always be your top concern – because if the products you’re selling are garbage, the end result is that while you might make sales, you’re also going to get lots of refund requests – which means you’ll end up in the hole.

Affiliate Marketing Mistake #2: Marketing the Product the Wrong Way

We’ve all seen the ads that say “Make a Million Dollars with No Product and No Website” – those ads are usually about affiliate marketing.

But think about it for a minute.  If you could REALLY do that – wouldn’t everybody be doing it?  That old saying that “if something sounds too good to be true then it probably is” holds true when it comes to affiliate marketing.

The best way to market any affiliate product is to sell it where the customers are.  Which means that you need to know who your prospective customers are.  You need to find out as much information about them as possible – what they want, what their greatest fears are, what solution they’re looking for.  Then you need to know where they shop – if your affiliate marketing product is for consumers, then you’ll want to know where your prospect shops, what magazines they read or what Internet pages they visit.  Where do they hang out?  If you’re selling to business owners, then you’ll have to find out where they do business at.  And again, market your affiliate products there.

Affiliate Marketing Mistake #3: Not Writing the Right Kind of Sales Copy

Although it’s not absolutely necessary to hire a professional copywriter (especially if you’re just starting out and money is tight), it is necessary that you learn the basics about copywriting and write sales copy that will appeal to your market.

One of the first things you need to do is to “Continue the conversation that your prospect is already having inside their head.  That means that you need to know what kind of questions your prospect has about your affiliate product – and make sure that you’re answering them.  Think about what kinds of objections your prospect might have, and find a way of answering them, too.

Add social proof. (This means you want to show that other people have bought the product and love it.)  When you’re selling affiliate products, the really good marketers will provide you with testimonies that you can use, along with sales copy, email copy, etc.  (This is great because it’s often been written by a professional copywriter who understands the market.)

However, even if you’re given a sales page or email blasts to send out to your list, you don’t want to use it word for word.  Make a few changes it – give it your own original touch.  Make it fresh and original so that your prospect doesn’t see the exact same ad somewhere else – you’ll lose credibility if that happens.

If you’re offering a bonus for someone to buy your affiliate product, make sure that the bonus goes along with the product. Don’t give away recipes if you’re selling a book about hair care.  Make sure your bonus relates to the product and is useful to your prospect.  (For example, you could write your own Ebook that tells how to get the most out of the affiliate product.  That’s something that no one else will be able to sell, because it’s yours.

Whatever you do, when it comes to affiliate marketing, it’s easy to avoid making the three biggest marketing mistakes just by doing a little thinking and strategic planning before you get started.  And the truth is, you can make a very good living just from selling affiliate products, as long as you do it the right way.  Good luck!

Why?

Because if you want to be successful then the truth is “the money is in the list”; not the list of the people whose product you are selling, but YOUR list!

Here’s why. As an affiliate, your job is to find people who want to buy the products you’re promoting, right? So to do that, you need to write an ad (or hire a copywriter to write it for you), and send people to a Website where they can buy the product.

BUT – there’s a serious problem with using this method. Do you see what it is?

Anywhere from 60 to 95% of the people you send to the sales page probably aren’t going to buy the first time.

1. Most people want to be certain that they’re making the right decision, so they usually need to see or hear from you between 5 to 12 times before making a buying decision.

2. If you’re paying for the ad and sending people to the seller’s Website, the ones who don’t buy disappear forever. (And neither you nor the seller will benefit.)

3. Of those who do buy, if you’re only sending them to the sales page, YOU still lose them forever because you have no way of knowing who they are.

Here’s the solution:

1. Write your ad and send prospects to a well-written squeeze page – YOUR squeeze page. (A squeeze page is a single page Website that has one purpose – to convince prospects to give you their contact information. Squeeze pages should be simple – no flash, no links, and if you use a graphic or photo, keep it simple and make sure it relates to the purpose of the page. How do you convince prospects to give you their contact information? By giving them information that is what they’re expecting to find and that’s useful to them.)

2. Offer them an incentive to give you their contact information. (This could be a free report, a free newsletter, an audio or video product – just make sure it’s related to the niche or affiliate product.)

3. After they’ve opted in to your autoresponder, send them to your affiliate sales page.

4. Follow up with them on a regular basis – mixing good information, free bonuses from time to time and additional affiliate products.

Lather, rinse, repeat. (Once you’re making money from your first affiliate product, move on to the next and then the next and the next.)

The best thing about this is that you can set most of it up on your autoresponder, so you turn it into a “system” and it runs “almost” on autopilot. (There is NO SUCH THING as a business that runs 100% on autopilot – and don’t believe anyone who tells you differently.) Any business – real business – takes work and effort. But by setting this system up this way, your autoresponder does the majority of the work, and you will only need to do simple updates and make sure you keep fresh information flowing.

In my opinion these are the definitive reasons why more people than ever before are looking at affiliate marketing. Affiliate Marketing is just one of the many money making strategies that was first introduced as the Internet gained in popularity. The Internet provides us with the opportunity to view the world and interact with people without leaving the comfort of our chairs.

With the rise in Internet shopping it is fast becoming the largest source of merchant products at competitive pricing.

Affiliate Marketing is thriving as a result of the Internet’s growing popularity. Products on the Internet are able to get the necessary spotlight to sell extremely well. This is why affiliate marketing is a very lucrative business. If a product is intended to sell then the Internet is the best place to sell it. The merchant puts very little into the selling of the product. It is not like a brick and mortar business where you have to constantly watch your advertising budget, focus groups and so forth, the Internet has all a merchant needs to sell their products.

You are probably wondering by now how affiliate marketing is able to generate money. It is really a very simple concept. Affiliate marketing consists of the merchant who has the product, the affiliate who has the website and a relationship between the two. The affiliate agrees to place an advertisement on his website for “x” amount of dollars per sale. The merchant agrees, the advertisement is placed, the affiliate does the promotions, the product is sold, and the affiliate gets paid.

The result is a relationship between the merchant and the affiliate which permits them to work together in accord in the Internet community in which they both exist. Affiliate marketing allows affiliates to get paid in acknowledgment of what they were able to contribute. Merchants, in comparison, have their products advertised and ultimately sold through the efforts provided by the affiliate.

Merchants are happy to advertise their products through affiliates. The reason being the affiliate websites generate more sales simply because there are a lot of affiliate sites and it is growing daily. The merchants’ products get all the attention they can handle. This is the main reason why there is money to be made in affiliate marketing. The more merchants a website promotes the higher the chance that sales will be made. It is a win-win situation for both the merchant and the affiliate.

Individuals who continued with affiliate marketing have reached their goals and dreams that they would have otherwise been unable to achieve. With knowledge and perseverance there is no reason why your business cannot go to the top of your goals and beyond. There is still money to be made in affiliate marketing; one has to remember that to generate the wealth you desire will not happen overnight. It takes knowledge, dedication, and a plan.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? But in truth all you have to do is learn everything that is possible about the affiliate marketing industry, become an expert in all the tricks of the trade and the rest will come.

Nancy Kraska Owner of Home Work For You, Better Business Resources. Avid reader. A food-a-holic. Sometimes Crafter.

One of the most popular ways are Traffic Exchanges. You register with various traffic exchange programs, upload your text ad or banner, and your banner will appear on various registered web pages throughout the world. The number of times you banner or text ad will show will depend on how many points or clicks you accumulate through “surfing” the traffic exchange. The more points or clicks you have the more your ad will be shown to others. This is a very effective method of advertising. It can be time consuming but doesn’t have to be…you just need to organize yourself to do 5-10 different exchanges each day.

Once you sign up for a traffic exchange bookmark the signup page in a folder with all exchanges. Then using Firefox as your browser, right click the folder, where it says “open all in tabs” click on that and all your exchanges will open. Sign in and start to surf.

Traffic exchanges are relatively easy to use and FREE!

The other two types of advertisement placements are online classifieds and paid placements.

Online classifieds is one of the easiest ways to get your product in front of customers on high traffic websites; and it can be done for FREE. Type in your search “online classified” or a similar phrase and look to see what the rules are for placing your advertisement or banner. Several major website will allow you to place classified ads for free. While others, like Yahoo, will charge a fee for placement. These can be very effective depending on the volume of ads being submitted at any given time. If it is a high traffic site, your ad will only appear for a matter of hours before it is pushed down by new advertising submissions. Daily attention and resubmission is necessary to an effective ad campaign on free sites.

Paid placement of advertisements is a very broad category and covers many different scenarios. You can do a PPC campaign (pay per click); where you only pay the site for clicks to your sales page. This can range anywhere from 0.05 to 5.00 a click, depending on what you are willing and can afford to pay. It is best before you start to read as much as you can about PPC campaigns because if you aren’t careful you can spend a lot of money very fast with little or no results. You must keep very close track of expenditure and income for this to work.

There are also the paid advertisement placement sites that will charge you a set fee to place your ad on their site for a designated period of time.

You can also use affiliate-networking sites to sell your products, but each site has different criteria so you would have to contact them directly to see what they offer in terms of tracking and costs. These too can become expensive unless you are an experienced marketer with a unique product to sell.

Ezine or E-magazines are another great source of free and paid advertising. Ezines can range from sites that will accept articles with your bio and link to your site for free. The advertising part comes in the form of that bio. Some sites will not allow you to put an affiliate link in the bio, that is another reason why in a previous article I suggested a “doorway page”.

There are also Ezines that have an opt-in option for you to receive emails from other clients. In exchange for you putting your article or advertisement on their site you will agree to receive emails from various members. This is not considered “spam” as you have to agree to receive this email before you can place your ad (word of advice, use a separate email account). This is all free advertising.

This is just a brief overview of the methods with which you can place your advertisements online. In all of these examples it is best to build your own content rich website. This will be the most effective for advertising.

The most common Internet marketing methods are these:

1. Doorway Pages and Search Engine Registration
2. Banner or Textual Ad Placement-Traffic Exchanges
3. Banner or Textual Ad Placement-Online Classifieds
4. Banner or Textual Ad Placement-Paid Placements
5. Building your own content rich website
6. Utilizing an Opt-In program
7. Hosting FFA Pages
8. Using Safelists, Announcement Lists, and Viral Marketing
9. Press Releases, Relationship Building, and Offline Promotion
10. The Latest New Technique

As I stated in my opening separately these would work but are best when used in conjunction with one another. Over the next several articles I will be explaining each one and the best way to use them to build your business.

Doorway Pages and Search Engine Registration

A “doorway page” is a Web page that is used to lead people to the targeted site. A good example of a “doorway page” is http://website.ws/nkraska. This page contains a link to the target page where you hope the customer takes action, such as signing up for the program, purchasing a product. A target page does the selling; a “doorway page” gets peoples attention and then leads them to the target page.

So why use a target page at all? A “doorway page” serves two main functions: the first is that they are used to optimize your site for search engine placement; the second is they allow you to target your approach to different groups of people.

When you join an affiliate program you are given a web page to promote. This web page will not be individually registered in the search engines. Because in most cases there is a “?” in the URL, search engines will not accept them or will shorten off the most important portion of the URL which will be your ID number.

The way around this problem is for affiliates to use “doorway pages”. Experienced marketers will design and host a web page on another server with a different name so that the URL does not contain “?”. This web page or “doorway page” will link directly to your affiliate page.

Some more enterprising affiliates will have several “doorway pages” for different demographics each under the same hosting account they set up. It can all be done with one domain name; you don’t need several of them.

The best “doorway pages” to use for your online marketing are those that attract the targeted group of individuals by providing useful information, while remaining easy to navigate.

In summation: Think of “doorway pages” as the door of Wal-Mart’s, once through the door the products are there for you to see and purchase. In online marketing it is up to you to make the “doorway pages” interesting.

Nancy Kraska Owner of Home Work For You, Better Business Resources. Avid reader. A food-a-holic. Sometimes Crafter.