Working from Home using affiliate marketing, can you really make any money?
Copyright © Neil Mansley
http://www.NeilMansley.com


If you are looking for a way to bring in some extra cash by working from home then affiliate marketing is often seen as the quick and easy way. As you go into more depth you may learn to your cost that it is not necessarily as easy as those people selling you their products make out!

There are a few key factors that you need to bear in mind before you jump headfirst into this fast and competitive business:

Firstly, you need to decide if it is really for you, what I mean by that is, by its’ very nature, affiliate marketing is about advertising, people pushing products trying to get other people to buy those products via their links. If you are not prepared to spend time learning about different ways of advertising and then implementing what you learn, then stick with the day job. Too often people forget that this is a Work at home business. If you are not prepared to work at it, it will fail.

Secondly, do your research. Both of the product you are considering advertising and of the person/company selling the product. When you first start looking you will find there are so many wonderful items out there for all sorts of niches. Make sure your credit card is locked in a draw in another room! It is very easy to get carried away and buy everything. DON’T! Unfortunately there are still scams out there that will leave you with a bad taste in your mouth, a hole in your wallet and a feeling of giving up. If you research each potential purchase thoroughly you should be able to avoid the scammers.

Thirdly learn what tools you will need to enable your business to work. It is possible to make money without a website just by advertising your affiliate links but everywhere you look you will be told or you will read that, “The money is in the list!” to the “newbie” this means nothing because they do not have a list. If you want to make money over an extended period of time, and you want to earn money without having to work too hard then having the right tools at the outset will make your life so much easier in the long run. In my opinion you should budget for buying a domain name, a web hosting package (for your website) and an autoresponder. In my mind these are the key elements to building a successful online business.

If you can find a product or package that provides all of these then I would suggest you buy it as well as market it because it is the perfect start point for any “newbie”. Having set up your website and your autoresponder, you drive your potential customers here, getting them to opt-in to your list before you redirect them via your affiliate marketing link to the product they were interested in. This way even if they do not buy the product you have got them on your list, where everyone keeps telling you the money is!


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