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People come to affiliate marketing from many different circumstances and all walks of life.  While the more fortunate have significant money to invest in advertising their new business, some have no money to invest at all.  Some time ago I read about an affiliate with a large company being homeless.  He would go daily to the local library and access the Internet in order to work his business. He was determined to improve his life and the last I heard he did through patience and perseverance!

As with all things, the more you have to invest, the easier and quicker it will be for you to build your business.  But affiliate marketing can be done successfully without any financial investment, if you must approach it that way. I have used a variety of free advertising methods for years and have been able to grow my business steadily.

For those who do have money to invest in paid advertising, you should learn the ropes of free advertising.  The learning experience is valuable and will help you be more efficient with paid advertising.  Also, learning the ropes of free advertising will enable you to teach your downline members who do not have money to invest in advertising.

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

Stay tuned for Part #2—Elements of Free Advertising

Free Advertising and Web Site Submission

On any business forum you will find someone asking “what is the best way to get traffic to my site?”  With the number of websites now on the Internet, it is a challenge to get quality traffic to your website.  And as we all know without traffic, you get no sales.

It is not impossible to get traffic, but it can be time consuming as there are more ways to get traffic than not. Here are some of the most common methods that I have used and had success using.

1.  Search Engine Optimization – The hardest part of building your own website but the most important.  Search engine traffic is usually targeting people of a certain demographic that would be interested in what you are selling. For instance, I am selling work at home opportunities, so I would not have a website filled with sites that have nothing to do with working from home.  Do your research and find out what terms people are using to search for whatever it is you are selling, then put those terms in your meta tags and throughout your website. People who are searching with these terms will look at your site and either buy something or “bookmark” it to come back to at a later date.

2. Trading Links – Backlinks help with getting a higher listing in the search engines.  There are two ways you can trade links.  You can used a free service such as Linkalizer to trade links, or find similar sites and email the webmaster asking for a linkback. Trade with as many sites as you can find, even those who are in competition with you, after all you might have something they do not.

3. Post on message boards/forums – When you post on a message boards or forum, MAKE SURE to put your site link in your signature! This is a highly effective form of marketing, especially if the message board you are posting at is relative to your site content. If the message board has a high ranking itself, your post will appear in the search engines.

4. Email signatures – Make it easy for your customers to contact you! When they write to you and ask for more information, be sure that you are using a signature with your site URL and name inside of it. That way if they want to retrieve it later, it’s easier for them than having to memorize your URL and open a web browser.

5. Join Yahoo Groups – This is pretty much the same as message boards. Join groups that pertain to your site’s content and advertise (but don’t spam!!) your site there.

6. Post on free classifieds sites – Sites like Craig’s List or other free advertising classifieds sites will accept your site for free! Just do a Google search for “free classifieds” and you’ll see a ton of sites come up where you can promote your site! I have also found sites from other posting sites.  Just look in their ads either at the top of the page, or in their listings.

7. Purchasing Ad Space – Look at your monthly budget and if it allows, buy some ad space for your site. Find another site that pertains to your site’s content and ask them what their advertising prices are. Most sites are relatively cheap.

8. Submit your site to directories – If your site is a site about “fishing” for instance, do a Google search for “fishing directories” and see how many directories are out there that pertain to your subject matter. Most of these directories will allow free submissions.

9. Write articles – Writing articles that pertain to your site is another excellent way to get your site out there. I have also found, that writing about what I do everyday helps get traffic to my business.  Others like to hear how you are doing and what you do to make a success of your business.  I have found not getting too technical really helps people who are just starting.  Just write a short, informative article of 5-6 paragraphs and submit it to any site that accepts article submissions and make sure that your article includes a link back to your site in your “author biography”.

10. Submit press releases -Although this is one I have not used extensively, it does work.  No matter how small your site is, your site is newsworthy!  It is very similar to writing a review on one of your products.  If you don’t know enough about the product, as it is new to you also, then do a search on what others are saying about it.  You will learn more about your products and in the end have enough knowledge to write your own press release. Do a Google search for “submit press release” and a zillion other sites will come up.

11. Have great interactive content – When I first developed my website I had a lot of graphics, things flashing in the night.  Try not to do that.  It not only slows down your loading time with the browsers, but also takes away from what you are selling.  People will bookmark your site if you have good content.  Make the site relevant to what you are selling and have good material in your site content.

In a couple of weeks the children will be back in school and a few weeks after that mothers will start thinking more about what they want to do with their “free” time.  So some start to look on the Internet in hopes of finding that perfect part-time job, that can be done while the children are at school or sleeping.

The only problem with this concept that I have come across is that a lot of mothers with businesses find that they have no idea whether or not their business is making any money.

Most “newbies”  jump in with both feet and have no idea what it is they are suppose to do to make money.  Or they simply do not have any cash flowing through to make money.  At the end of the 6 months or even a year, they sometimes realize they have spent more than they have made.  Then usually I hear the cries of “It is a scam!”  I am here to tell you not everything on the Internet is a scam; they are quite a few legitimate work at home jobs or businesses.

If you don’t know alot about finances, and the vast majority of people don’t, then how can you determine that your business is making money?  If you don’t’ keep track of advertising and sales-then how do you know how to improve?  And how do you plan on staying business?  Here are some tips to help you answer these questions:

1.The Basics:  You need to have more money coming in than going out.  If you have ever done a budget for your household living expenses the same concept applies to a business.  It is a simple, straight forward concept; however there are numerous “newbies” who think they can spend money they don’t have and still make a profit each month.

2. Business Plan:  Do you need one and why?  Yes!  Having some sort of   plan written down will help with determine how much money you can safely invest in your business.  It can help you decide where the best possible place is to put that money.  Plus, if you have it right in front of you every time you turn on the computer, you will have a better idea what it is you are doing.

3, Keeping Track:  If you don’t balance your checking account regularly you will be overdrawn in no time.  The same with your business accounts check them regularly to make sure more money is coming in than going out.  That you are staying within your budget.  Keep track of your sales and after a time if they are not improving ask yourself why.  What can I do different to increase sales and still stay within my budget.  Is your business plan still working and how can you improve it.

During this time you should have a pretty good idea how much you are spending on advertising, is there some way you can improve your results with the same advertising.  Do you need to rework your ads to make them more noticeable?

If you have your own website are you getting the necessary traffic to your website to make a profit.  In most cases, I have found that if I get somewhere between 300-400 clicks a day on my website, I am guaranteed a profit.  This is not written in stone, it can vary.  But this is my goal per day.

A really good program to use to track your income and expenses is Excel.  You probably already have it on your computer.  You can set this program up to keep track of your activity, and as you bring in more income you can then purchase an accounting program such as Quicken to track all income/expenses.

4. Know Your Profit Margin: What is a profit margin?  If your costs are set at a certain amount, your advertising at a set amount, then how much do you need to make a profit.  Let say you have a product that cost you $49.99 to purchase, you need to advertise that product.  How much and how many sales are needed for you to start to make a profit on that one purchase?  If you were to sale that same product for $59.99, you would make $10.00 profit on each product and it would take 5 sales for you to make your money back, without spending any money on advertising.  If you spend money on advertising, then that too has to be factored in before you can determine your gross profit.

Once you know all this then you are at your “break-even point”.  This is when you have covered all your cost.  If you cannot cover your cost then you are going to lose money and your business will fail.

Keeping track of these few things could make the difference between making money and losing money.

Let me give you an example:  Doggie Heaven (fictitious) makes $6000 in sales per month (sounds good doesn’t it?) Doggie Heaven’s owner makes a guess that their costs are around $5,000 per month, this is before he checks his actual figures. So they assume that they will make $1000 per month. However, once all there costs are tallied, they soon realize that the cost of running their Doggie Heaven business is actually $6000 and they have made no money at all.  So they have worked for nothing.

In having a business plan in front of them with approximate costs they could have adjusted expenditures and/or increased their sales.  The point is that if you don’t know how you are doing, how can you improve it and how will you stay in business?

Don’t be afraid to start a business, just be informed.  All of the information is at your fingertips you only need to ask questions, search for answers, and have a business plan, that can be adjusted, in front of you.

Now that you have decided you want to work at home, you are not sure how to get started.  Am I right? First of all you are not alone.  So take a deep breath and live your dream.

If you plan on your home business being a success, and I am sure you do, then you need to learn to market it effectively.  Meaning figure out if you want to market it only online, offline, use only free methods, use paid advertising or both.  How do you market your business?

In this article I will concentrate on only free methods, because frankly that is how I started.

If you don’t already have a website, it is best to have one of your own to market.  Don’t panic, if I did it, you can do it.  A domain name can be purchased online anywhere from $1.99 (Go Daddy) to $7.95 and up.  Pick a name that is relevant to your business.  For instance if you are selling affiliate work at home programs like I do, then you do not want a name like HorseRUs.  That is fine if you are selling saddles and bridles, but not home business opportunities.  After you settle on a domain name, you need to find a hosting service for your new website.  This too can be done as cheaply as $4.95 a month (Ipower) and I have seen it as high as a yearly cost of over $500.  Stick with the cheaper plans, believe me, all you need is someone to host your site on the web, you will be doing all the promotions, changes to your website, and anything else that needs attention.

With that done, the next step will be designing your website.  There are many free website building editors on the Internet, that all you have to do is download them to your computers hard drive.  The one I use and like is NVU.  It is simple, you don’t have to know html, and their support is great for someone who has never built a website.

All the while you are building your website, use some of the methods outlined in this article to advertise some of your affiliate programs.

Now that I have scared you to death at the thought of building a website, I will let you off the hook, and tell you that if you don’t have the money for a hosting account.  You can create a blog through Blogspot.com, and do just about anything with it.  It is not as effective as your own domain name or website, but it can get you started.  If you are reading this article on my work at home blog…I use WordPress.org, which requires you to have your own hosting and domain name.  I find it easier to make changes and have an original design.  I use Blogspot for another blog, if you would like to see the difference:  Senior But Not Senile

FREE ADVERTISING

This is one that I am very familiar with and have used extensively.  As a matter of fact I wrote an e-book on how to use free advertising.  The link will be at the bottom of the article if you wish to download it.

Do a search on the Internet for free advertising and you will find more sites than you could use in a year.  These sites generally have both free and paid advertising.  The costs of the paid are generally extremely low.  Try and stay on the sites on the first page of your search, as these sites will be the first to pop up when someone puts a query into the search engines.

When writing your copy for your ad, most affiliate programs have written it for you.  You can generally change the wording to suit your needs.  However, I have found that by using their headlines, my ads receive more attention.

Post as many ads as are allowed on the site without posting duplicates.  Most free ad sites frown on duplicate ads and can get you banned from the site real quick.

FORUMS

I spend a lot of time on forums and not just for advertising.  You can learn so much from the other people on these home business forums and most people are happy to help someone get started.  They are a friendly group of people, generally speaking.  Again do not spam, do not answer questions that you are unsure of the answers.  If you don’t understand something…ask!

The way the advertising works for the forums is in your signature.  When you sign up you will be asked for your websites url or address.  On most forums you can put your affiliate links, but once you have your website up and running, go back in and put your websites address in the signature also.  Two or three addresses are more than enough.  If you put more you could get banned from the forum, and that is not a good way to start your business.

ARTICLE WRITING
This is one sure fire method of getting customers.  When I started it scared me to death.  I knew nothing about writing an article, some say I still don’t, but I learned to do it and as I went along I became more confident.

Your first articles could be reviews of different affiliate programs that your sponsor.  If you think you do not know enough about the programs, then look up reviews on the Internet for that particular program.  Read several of them, and you will have a pretty good idea what the program is all about.

Once you have written a few article start publishing them in different online magazines (Ezines).  Again look up “Ezines” on the web and you will find a listing of the most popular sites.  Ezines.com is the largest and most popular.  It is a free signup.  Be sure to put a brief biography of yourself in the signature portion of the sign-up.  If you are not sure what to put..read a few of the others and come up with something that will fit you.  I have changed mine about 10 times now.  Eventually I will get it right.  Only submit 1-2 articles a day with any Ezine.  It will take up to a week to get your article published, but it is a great feeling when you get that first one recognized.  I remember when I went to “Platinum” at Ezine.com, I was thrilled, they even sent me a ceramic mug in the mail as a thank you.  I drink my tea from it every morning.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

This one of the newer free advertising methods, and one that I am still becoming familiar using.  Facebook, MySpace, and a few others are useful in making contacts.  And once I fully understand how to use them effectively I will write another article.

Turning a profit using only free methods will take time and a lot of work, so prepare yourself if this is the only method you plan to use.  In my next article I will explore some of the paid methods of advertising and how to use them along with free advertising to really give your business a boost.

So I hope this gives you some insight into free advertising on the internet…if you want to download my book…it is free (just kidding about the price).  Remember it was written when I was still a novice, so don’t be too critical.