Making money with affiliates

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliates are a great way to monetize a website. That being said, there are different ways to approach the subject. One would be to add affiliate ads to a website that is already a business and making money such as www.websitemagick.com which is already a business. There are a few affiliate ads there that are first, industry specific and second, not selling the same product that our business sells.

The other approach is to set up a website with the express goal of making money with affiliates ads (such as IWebNews.net). This can be done (and has been done) with great success “if” you can get traffic to your site. No one is going to come to your site on a regular basis just to click on your ads. There must be something to attract them there the first time and then keep them coming back. So you must find a niche to draw them in.

Your niche must be something that you know about, whether it’s cooking, gardening, or pets it needs to be something you are able to write about and add fresh content to on a continuous basis. Make sure you spell check and your grammar is proper both in your website and your posts. Then the ads that you choose to place also need to be specific to subject of the website. Remember this was the topic that the visitor was searching for in the first place. Someone is very unlikely to visit a pet grooming site and buy web hosting.
Next you need to consider domain names and hosting. Free hosting and domain names may seem attractive but they look cheap and if you don’t take your business seriously either will anyone else. Dot com domains are the best but you can also use any country extension that you are in. Sub domains such as yoursite/blogspot.com are not going to impress anyone.

Next you need traffic. To make money with affiliate ads you need a high volume of traffic. Listing with search engines is a start but hardly the answer. Listing in industry specific directories and forums will draw a lot of traffic. If you have a budget for marketing you can also use Google Adwords, Bidvertiser, or other forms of paid online advertising. Starting out is often slow but there are not any get rich quick schemes out there (unless you are very lucky). Spamming though email or forums will only get you banned from forums and get your IP address blacklisted and you’re done.

Good luck,

Adwords is a good way to draw traffic but it can also be expensive. Their minimum daily budget is $10 so your talking about the possibility of spending $300+ a month advertising. Most start up businesses don't have $3,600 a year to throw down on one advertising campaign. Bidvertiser is cheaper at a minimum $5 and Microsoft Adcenter usually runs us about $20 a month.
Listing anyplace you can for free is time consuming but most people have to do it. Superpages, Manta, Craigslist, any other free classifieds and directories are helpful.

Good info, Thanks

I love your site, a lot of nice scripts there.

Thanks Ron,

There's also an article I wrote for the IwebNews site titled Starting a Web Based where I warn about sites that claim easy money "Just buy our ready business". I think the only one making money is the people selling the get rich quick (Scam) scheme.

Oh yes,
I want to add that "If" you decide to go with adwords to be sure and read their terms first so you are compliant. It sux when you have made $99 and they cancel your account before you can be paid.

Hi Terry and Welcome to eForum,

The Company that Ron posted the link to the payment was one time $999.00 and if you never sell anything you're just screwed. Again I think the only people who make money on those type of deals are the ones who collect the $999. But hey If you have the money go for it. I'd love to be proved wrong.

There are many businesses you can start online with a minimum investment. Proper planning is important. You want to start a business that you know something about. A little creativity, a small investment, and a little luck . But do not get suckered into these online scammers that claim they can show you how to make money. The only people making money are them.
Think about what you know, how to market it, and get a (real) domain name and website. Not a free domain name and website. Read this article Starting a Web Based

Thanks James,

Many people fall for the "Hype" and end up wasting money while making some creative scammer wealthy. Making money with an online business is a great idea but we need to be careful to not get greedy and fall into one of these "Make Big income while you sleep" as it usually requires you to do two things. #1 send them some money and #2 go around the net and post spam for them. So you not only end up making no money but you also do the scammer's work for him. Guess who's making money while they sleep?