Affiliate marketing is a method of generating income by placing ads in your blogs, newsletters, and other marketing material for products and services. Advertisers pay you based on customer sales, leads or clicks.

AFFILIATE COMPANIES LIST

You register to be an affiliate either with an individual company or an affiliate site. Then you put banners, widgets, text links and other product information on your website, blog, newsletter etc. There are a number of different compensation structures. Payouts will differ according to the advertiser and the type of affiliate program you are workng with. Below are some typical methods of compensation.

Pay Per Click (PPC) – You are paid based on the number of clicks that result from your ad placement.

Pay Per Sale (PPC) - You are paid based on the number of sales that result from your ad placement.

Pay Per Lead (PPL) – You are paid based on the number of leads that result from your ad placement.

There are many affiliate sites. After you have completed an application, you will have to be approved. Some sites approve automatically. Others will look at your website and make a decision. Once you have been approved you may find that the affiliate site carries hundreds of products and you may have to submit an individual application to carry certain product lines.

I want to make it very clear that if you are at all serious about developling a website online you should get a website that you control. This means you should pay for hosting and a domain name.

I recommend GoDaddy for domain names and BlueHost for hosting. But there are other good ones out there also.  A domain name runs about $12 a year and a hosting plan $10 or so per month for unlimited websites.  (Tip: Do not get your hosting at the same place as you buy your domain names.)

Using free platforms puts you at risk. Your site can be removed at any time. You are driving traffic to a site you don’t own. That said, some of you may want to play with a free website and free website design before you go the paid route.

So here is a step by step plan for you to get a free website and free website design.

Step 1

Go to www.webs.com. On the main page fill in the domain site name you want and a password. Webs.com offers an easy way to get a free website and free web design.

Step 2 

Click create a website.  A new screen will open up asking for more information; your email address, date of birth, country and gender. Your user name will be the same as your site address and will be prepopulated with the domain site name you chose in Step 1.

Step 3

Scroll down the screen and select a template. If you prefer to use advanced HTML you can upload your own. If you use webs.com, you have 300 templates to choose from. Templates range from a patriotic theme to floral backgrounds to modern designs. You can change your template at anytime. Most templates come in several color choices.

Step 4

Check “I agree to the terms of service” and click create my sites. A screen will pop up offering you different levels of service. Choose Basic (Free).

Step 5

Next a screen will pop up that asks if you want help building your site. Click Yes. Webs.com will then recommend pages for your site. It will walk you through the steps to develop each page. Pages make include a blog, photo gallery, shop etc.

Step 6

Spend time experimenting with the different easy to use site builder options that webs.com offers. You can delete pages, add pages, include links, add photos and video etc. There are lots of options for your free website and free website design.

Step 7

The webs.com is supported by ads so your website will have ads on it. You can however, upgrade (at a cost) to a no ad website. However, if you plan to do that you should switch to a hosting company where you can host unlimited blogs for the same price.

You can also register your domain name if it is available through webs.com but I would recommend registering it through a less expensive registrar such as GoDaddy.

Enjoy playing with a free account but if you find you are enjoying the site and plan to develop it fully, you will want to migrate to a paid platform that you control. You can then use your free website as a backlink to help drive traffic to your paid site.

The Keyword Academy has lowered their price to $33 for monthly membership. I have written about the Keyword Academy in several of my posts including this one here; 
Keyword Academy and made a Hub about it which you can read here The Keyword Academy.

If you want to learn affiliate marketing or if you are an experienced marketeer and want to take your business to the next level I highly recommend it. Here are some highlights;

~ The Keyword Academy makes keyword selection simple. You will learn how to find the “green” keywords you can compete for. And the Niche Refinery does the work by telling you which words are green.

~ Easy link building. There are several simple methods on the site so you can do link building.

~ Step by Step instruction to build HubPages, Niche Sites and Super Sites, using print outs and videos.

~ Special $1,000 a month TKA club. Learn how to take your business to $1,000 or more with Keyword Academy.

~ Ready made spreadsheets so you know exactly what to do first, second, third etc. These are amazing and will keep you totally organized.  And they explain exactly how to use them.

and more…..

If you are ready to learn internet marketing or take your IM business to a whole new level

Join the Keyword Academy FREE Trial

There are many ways to make money with affiliate marketing and there are many different affiliate companies. Because this is such a great way to make part or full time income, My Lil Gold Dress has a special section devoted to affiliate marketing.

Click here to go to the main page on Affiliate Marketing.

Be sure to check out my review of the $10K a month Amazon earners ebook. They teach you step by step how to make money on Amazon. Click here to read my review of the Amazonian Profit Plan.

~ MyLilGoldDress.com

The following are resources (audio, ebooks etc.) that are OUTSTANDING!
Please note they do have a charge but in many cases you will make back your money quickly and save yourself hours of time.

Please click on the topics you are interested in, to learn more about the detailed guides.

Virtual Assistant Starter Guide

Transcription Starter Kit

Ghostwriting Starter Kit

Start a Review Blog for Fun and Profit

Start a Craft Blog for Fun and Profit

Start a Recipe Blog for Fun and Profit

Purse Party Profits

Santa Letter Business Kit

Full Time WAHM (Work at Home Mom)

The Super Affiliate Handbook

If you are interested in blogging and earning income like I do,  I highly recommend the Keyword Academy. It is FREE  to join for the first full month. Use my link and let me know you did. I will be happy to share tips and look at your blogs.  Click here to join the Keyword Academy

My income from Amazon since implementing the techniques in their ebook has skyrocketed. Amazon is not my primary source of online income but thanks to the ebook it is a pretty hefty chunk of change for me each month.

There are a lot of great reasons to sell on Amazon.
Here is why you may want to consider becoming an Amazon affiliate;

1. People trust Amazon so they are more likely to buy.

2. Amazon offers consumers a great value. The prices are usually among the lowest you will find and shipping is often free.

3. Amazon offers excellent customer service. You don’t have the headache of dealing with returns and complaints.

4. Amazon is reputable. You don’t need to worry about your readers being hit with auto rebilling they were unaware of, or shoddy goods.

5. Amazon offers a 24 hour cookie. You get credit for whatever is ordered when someone clicks through your link for a full 24 hours. I have sold all kinds of items that I was never trying to sell this way from guitar picks to expensive electronics.

6. Amazon affiliate links are allowed on a number of content sites including Hubpages and Squidoo.

7. Amazon offers a huge range of products, so they probably have what you want to sell.

8. Amazon’s physical goods are often easier to sell than digital merchandise such as Clickbank products.

9. Amazon has an excellent sales portal. Once the consumer clicks through your link, Amazon does what they can to sell them, offer up related good etc.

10. Amazon pays affiliates on time!

Are you read to give it a try? Here are some tips to successful selling on Amazon;

1. Amazon Widgets – forget about them. They just do not covert well. Instead download the photo of the item and upload it to your site. Make it clickable. Include contextual links through out your website.

2. Products – find products with great reviews and at a good price point. To find these simply do a search on Google using this format:
5..50 customer reviews product type site:amazon.com $50..300. This will pull up items that have at least 5 customer reviews with a starting price of $50.00

3. Commissions – the commission level starts at 4% but increases by the number of products you sell, not by the price. This means you will want to mix in some fast selling items that have a low price point in order to get to the higher commission level.

4. Reviews – honest reviews that really detail a product work well. Many consumers can spot a fake review miles away. Don’t just rehash the Amazon reviews, add your own thoughts. If you have not used the product (and it helps if you have) research it.

5. What to Sell – think of how you write/wrote for content sites. People are interested in both evergreen and hot sellers. Use the tools i.e. ebay Pulse, Google Buzz, Yahoo Trends to get feelers for what is hot right now.

6. The trust factor – people are more likely to buy when they trust you. Develop trust with your readers by offering value.

7. Related good – keep goods related to your site. If you have a beauty site, don’t try and TV’s.

8. Offer up bestsellers – share the bestsellers in the niche you are in with your readers. Build an email list and periodically send out information on what you are up to and include product suggestions. I recommend Aweber for listbuilding.

9. Drive Traffic – drive traffic to your content. If no one see you, you won’t make sales. Visit my SEOmenu2go.com for Free Backlinks.

10. The sweet spot – Amazon has a 24 hour cookie. Anything that someone buys after clicking through your link brings you a commission. So your goal is to get them to Amazon. Share all the benefits of products and let them know why the product will benefit them.

Want more information including step by step direction on writing reviews and picking products? I recommend Paula and Wanda’s Amazonian Profit Plan. Since reading their book and implementing their techniques my Amazon income has skyrocketed. You can read my review here; Amazonian Profit Plan

And you can pick up the ebook here……Paula and Wanda’s Amazonian Profit Plan

If you are new to affiliate marketing and interested in selling hot health and beauty items, MoreNiche is excellent. They offer a lot of support, banners, and other marketing tools. Great payouts on quality products.

Click here to sign up; MoreNiche

ShareASale ~ carries a wide range of advertisers, close to 3,000, and a wide range of products. This is a great company to use for product sales.

LinkShare ~ LinkShare carries a wide range of advertisers and products and specializes in lead generation and product sales.

Amazon ~ Amazon carries a huge range of products. Though the payout is low because Amazon is so well known and trusted it is an excellent company to work with.

Clickbank ~ Clickbank offers digital products and is a very popular company to work with.