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Make Money Online with Affiliate Programs: Step Four – Promote the Snot out of Your New Blog!

Welcome back to Day Four in the “How to Make Money Online with Affiliate Programs”. If you’re just joining us, you can catch up on the first three days at the link above. 

By now you should have a blog set up, you’ve found affiliate programs to promote, and you’ve got lots of ideas for getting content.

This is where the rubber meets the road. A lot of people start blogs, and get excited about making money with them, but then when it comes to marketing the blogs – the wind goes out of their sails and they lose momentum.

If ANYONE ever said that starting a blog for profit was easy, I’m here to tell you that it isn’t. Earning an online income takes work. It may involve getting out of your comfort zone, but it certainly can and does work. I’m proof of that, and you’ll find several others who are, by either listening to my Success Online Podcast or by reading the stories at Full Time WAHM.

So, adding content and including promotions is a great start, but now it’s time to get as many eyeballs reading your blog as possible. You’ll do that by marketing or promoting your blog in a number of ways.

However, this post is probaby not going to say what you think it will say. I’m going to actually give you a LOGICAL way to start promoting your business, not one magic bean to grow a pot of gold.

First, before I recommend HOW you promote your blog, I’m going to ask you a question – “What do you enjoy doing the most? Writing, Networking, Talking on the Phone, or Making Videos?”

Your answer to that question will determine which direction I point you first. The problem is that there are a limitless number of ways to drive traffic to (or get advertising for) your new blog. However, instead of telling you what you should be doing, I’m going to tell you that most of the methods you’ve heard about work quite well when done consistently. (Some are just scams so stay away, but most are valid methods of marketing.)

So, instead, I will recommend that you find the few methods of marketing your new blog that you’d actually enjoy doing (or do without tears) and do THOSE daily. Not weekly. Daily.

If you are unsure what I’m talking about, I’ll point you to my free course about getting Web Traffic: www.WebTrafficBasics.com ← a course for beginners.

• You can do article marketing and guest blogging, which is similar to what I’m doing and what the women at LadyPens.com are doing.
• You can do interviews or start a Blog Talk Radio show like Melissa is doing to drive traffic. If you’re a natural and love to talk on the phone, this could be a great fit for you.
• You can network and use social media for traffic. Comment on other blogs, participate in related forums, and schmooze your way into traffic.
• You can create videos for traffic. If you enjoy videos, then do that. Submit to all of the video sites and get them spread all over the net.

Yes, they ALL work. However, if you’re the type of person who really dislikes writing articles, then do not use article marketing to promote your blog – at least not at first, because I know you won’t do it. Am I right? Instead, choose something that you think you’d enjoy. Do that. Every day.

From there, you’ll take steps into the other areas, but at first, just stick to one thing, learn it and do it well. Branch out from there.

I’ll actually blurt a little secret to you. Once you have your blog up and running and you’ve promoted it a few months, check out your web stats in your hosting account or Google Analytics.

See where you’re succeeding at getting traffic. Do that more.

What’s not working? Stop doing those things.

Why don’t I tell you what exactly will work and what won’t? Simple. It varies by niche. What works for my recipe site is a different than what works for my WAHM sites. So, throw seeds out there and see what grows. Let your website tell you what areas are getting traffic and which aren’t. Let it tell you what keywords the search engines love you for and which you’re not even close on. You’ve just got to listen and it will tell you where the money is.

It’s as easy as that. If you sit and think about it for weeks at a time, you’ll never get started, so just pick three ways to market your business and do those daily for a few months. Then, look at your stats and see what’s working. Revise and get back to work.

There’s no need to overcomplicate things, guys. Just take action and adjust later. That’s all there is to it. It’ll never be perfect. The time is NOW. Go get that traffic!

 

Make Money Online with Affiliate Programs: Step Three – Content Makes the World Go Round: Reviews, Interviews, Quality Content.

Welcome back to Day Three in the “How to Make Money Online with Affiliate Programs”. If you’re just joining us, you can catch up on the first two days at the link above.

On Day One I showed you how to get a blog set up and running for $10 – plus the cost of the domain and only $5/month hosting. So, basically less than ordering pizza for your family, even with good coupons!

On Day Two, I showed you how to figure out which categories to set up and where to look for targeted products with great affiliate programs to promote.

Well, I’m back with Day Three. And, this is the part that people tend to get stuck with.

What Do I do Now? What should I write about?

Well, my friends, let me start by saying this is not nearly as difficult as you’d think.

You can write your blog posts yourself of course. Or you can borrow or even buy blog posts from other places.

Let’s Start with Ways to Borrow or Brainstorm Content

Guest Columnists

Right here, right now. Who’s writing this blog post? Not Melissa, even though she’s a fine writer. It’s me, Nicole Dean. Know what she’s paying me to do this? Nada.

So, why am I doing it?

She’s posting about these blog posts on Twitter, telling her newsletter about it and announcing the Blog Tour on her podcast – all of which is super cool. I’m doing the same.

It’s a win-win situation.

I get to reach an entirely new audience as does she, while she gets the benefit of having a Guest Expert on her blog.

All without any sweat or tears on her part.

Melissa also has other contributors on this site. Look around and you’ll see her panel of experts. And, you want to know what a small world it is? Melissa has been a guest expert on my site www.ShowMOMtheMoney.com for quite some time, too.

See? http://showmomthemoney.com/author/multitasking-mama/  Told you she was a good writer!

So, one way of getting content on your website is to get guest experts. Now, before you start thinking that there’s no way someone would want to contribute to your brand new blog, there are a few ways around that issue. They don’t call me a ‘content expert’ for nothing.

Free Reprint Articles & Audios.

Go to places like LadyPens.com and you’ll find articles written by experts on a variety of topics. The authors are screened prior to being accepted so there is no junk allowed. You may grab any of the articles on the site and post them on your blog, just as long as you include the author bio/resource at the end. It would say something like…

Nicole Dean is the mostly-sane online business coach and mom of two. Are you a Work at Home Mom looking for ways to get more traffic? Take Nicole’s Web Traffic School tutorial – Free! www.webtrafficbasics.com

I always recommend that, when you use articles from places like LadyPens.com or EzineArticles.com that you add an intro to the beginning of the article so that your page is a little different than the one posted at the article directory.

So, basically, if you can copy & paste, you can have guest experts from LadyPens on your blog.

If you notice, at LadyPens, you can also grab free reprint audios that you can post on your blog. Where else do you see that going on?

Free Affiliate Articles

Similar to LadyPens.com, there are experts who will allow you to use their articles on your blog, but there’s a cool twist.

In the author bio, instead of linking to the website like you normally would, you can sometimes link to the author’s website using your affiliate link for their product or service.

Cool, isn’t it? Now, to do that, you can search through article directories and ask the authors if it’s ok for you to use their articles as an affiliate. Some will say “yes” and others will not understand and will say “no”.

Or, you can go to FreeAffiliateArticles.com and find a bunch of authors who have already agreed to allow you to reprint their articles with your affiliate link inside.

Interviews

I do interviews all the time. In fact, I normally do 1-5 per week – a combination of written and audio interviews. Why? Because, again, I get to reach a new crowd of people who may like me and want to learn more from me.

If I do interviews, you know that other people do, too. In fact, just go to www.BlogTalkRadio.com and you’ll find a whole slew of people who are being interviewed day in and day out.

Audio interviews are great, but, text interviews are even easier. Just write up a few questions and email it to someone who your readers would enjoy learning more about. (If that person has a product or service that you can recommend with your affiliate link – even better!)

Authors, experts, speakers – everywhere you look, you’ll find people who want exposure. Since you’re now a blogger, you can help them to get it, while building up your blog as a valuable resource for others.

Excerpts

I’m an Affiliate Manager. What that means is that I Recruit, Train, Motivate and Manage affiliate programs for others. Well, I’m not taking clients anymore, because I’ve found my perfect job. I’ve been the affiliate manager for Jimmy D. Brown who is an amazing mentor and friend for several years.

Well.. where this is going is that we offer excerpts of his most popular courses in our affiliate center at www.InfoProfitShare.com for affiliates to use to promote his programs. So, I’m sure you can find other affiliate sites in your niche that might do the same.

Videos

Oh, how I love YouTube.com. It’s full of fresh content for the taking. You can embed most of the videos on YourTube.com and other video sites into YOUR blog.

See? You can even grab mine here: Nicole Dean Videos! (So sorry about the scarceness of them… I’m working on that.)

Heck, if you want to talk about your favorite products and services and post the video on your blog with a link, you can certainly do well with affiliate marketing.

And, those ideas are just off the top of my head! You think you can work with that for awhile?

Let’s Move On to Ways to Buy Content

Now, I’m kind of flying through this since I don’t want the blog post to be so long that no one reads through it. So, here are two ways to buy blog posts…

Ghostwriters

A ghostwriter is someone who writes for you, as you. They take no credit for the work and you keep it forever.

The benefits of this are obvious. Less work for you!

The drawbacks are – money out of your pocket and finding a great ghostwriter.

Where can you look? Your first stop should be Shelancers.com. Of course you can also ask around and post on eLance.com, too.

PLR Content

This is one of my most favorite inventions. This is similar to hiring a ghostwriter, except that the articles are sold to multiple people.

Here’s what I mean. I could find PLR articles about just about any niche, and buy them affordably. The owner of the PLR site sells the same articles to anywhere from 25-2000 other people, so you can get them pretty affordably. (Less expensive than hiring a ghostwriter to write them for you.)

Once you have the articles, you then use them as drafts for your blog. I always encourage you to edit them to make them your own. Change the title, add your thoughts, add examples that are specific to your niche.

The only real drawback to PLR is finding articles on the correct topic that are quality. Luckily I have a good source for you: www.EasyPLR.com (or learn more at www.EasyPrivateLabelArticles.com )

Well, I’d better run so that you actually have time to choose a few of these ideas and implement them.

I’ll be back tomorrow with the next step.

Warmly,
Nicole Dean on her Rock Star Blog Summer Tour

Make Money Online with Affiliate Programs: Step Two – Find Targeted Quality Affiliate Programs to Promote.

Hi again. Thanks for the great questions and comments yesterday! I’ll head over to answer them in just a bit.

Day Two in the “How to Make Money Online with Affiliate Program Series” involves figuring out your categories and keywords (doing some basic research) and choosing affiliate programs to promote. Makes sense, right? You need to have an idea what you’ll be promoting before you start.

Now, this could get into a huge long post, but I’m giving you my “get it going now and revise later” method, so that you can have a business at the end of the week. You’ll have the opportunity to revise it and make changes forever. Let’s just get you up and running for now.

ok. Keywords. Don’t go run off on me. You now know what your topic is and who your audience is. Now we just want to get a good idea of what they are looking for regarding that topic.

Here’s an easy way to get a snapshot: Free Keyword Tool.

If your website will be about weight loss, then, you’d enter diet, weight loss, lose weight, or any other terms common to that topic. And, you’ll get a list that looks like this…

4797 diet
2431 free diet plans
2261 south beach diet
1965 atkins diet
1883 beach body diet
1750 american heart association 3 day diet
1418 free online diets
1412 diets
1251 diabetic diet
1153 diet pills
1142 cabbage soup diet best recipe
1128 american heart association diet
1086 free online diet plans
1052 cabbage soup diet
1014 raw food diet
982 american heart association diet plan online
977 free diet programs
944 how does the jenny craig diet work
933 grapefruit diet
928 free copy of 3 day diet
926 3 day tuna diet
885 high blood pressure diet
877 dash diet
836 free diet meal plans
822 mediterranean diet
804 diabetes diet
792 what is the cost of the jenny craig diet
744 low-fat diet
648 healthy diet for athletes

That will give you a peek into the market much faster than trying to figure it out by yourself.

First thing, first. Look through the lists of keywords and keyphrases (a keyword = a single word | a key phrase = two or more words together) that you receive from WordTracker and start looking for patterns and/or logical categories from the searches.

What are people looking for and what can you provide them? Now, while “free diet plans” might look good, you’ll want to consider what they’re planning to do once they land on your site. Hmm… grab free information and run? And, how will you make money with that? You can. Just keep in mind whether someone is looking for a term with their wallet sitting next to them on their desk or whether they’re just hunting for free info. We PREFER those who have their wallets out, who are actively hunting for something to buy, right?

In the list above and in clicking around, I see the term “diet plans” quite a bit and “diet review” so you could easily create a section on your blog with diet plan reviews.

Now, how to monetize it.

Before I get into that I’d like to explain some terminology when referring to Affiliate Programs. These are terms that you will run into, so you should understand them.

Pay Per Impression – You get paid for the number of times an advertisement is viewed on your website. These programs are hard to find until you’re established.

Pay Per Click – You get paid every time someone clicks on a certain advertisement. The most popular one of these is Google Adsense. (Free course: www.ShowMomtheAdsense.com )

Pay Per Lead – You are paid every time someone signs up to receive information about a certain product or service. There are pay per lead programs that pay anywhere from 25cents all the way up to $20 or more.

Pay Per Sale – This is the most common type of affiliate program. You get paid a % of each sale that you send to the company. Amazon.com, Clickbank.com, etc. run on this model.

Recurring Affiliate Commission – The holy grail of affiliate programs. These are affiliate programs that pay you month after month after month. Ex: MomWebs.com hosting pays commission for every month that your referral keeps their hosting account. I don’t know about you, but I really dislike moving my hosting so I do that as seldom as I have to. That means that you can continue to be paid for a referral that you made for 5 years or more. (We like these!)

Let’s go back to our example. If you’re creating a diet plan blog, you might add some Google Adsense to see how it does on your blog.

One obvious affiliate program that you’d want to sign up for, would be Amazon.com. You could offer reviews of each diet plan and then offer the “Official Book” for sale at the end. I have every single book ever printed for the South Beach Diet, so I know that people do spend money on them.

Some diet and exercise plans are not available on Amazon, but are on Clickbank.com and you’ll find products to promote in their marketplace.

You may also want to sign up for CJ.com as they oftentimes have programs that are a natural fit for your market. I do well with them. You just need to look around a bit and find the perfect affiliate program.

And, I also offer an Affiliate Network for Moms ← that you might check out.

Some tips when choosing affiliate programs to promote.

Select quality products always. Never ever promote something on your blog that you wouldn’t personally recommend that a friend buy.

Make sure the product is highly targeted to the minds of the people who come to your blog. (You never know which page someone will land on when they come to your site from another site, so always make sure that they get an immediate feel for what you’re offering in less than 5 seconds of being there.) – For instance, don’t offer pet food ads on a blog about scrapbooking. Yes, people who scrapbook may have pets, but that’s not what they are looking for on your blog. Capiche?

Here are some more tips for Choosing a Quality Affiliate Program.

Your assignment for today is to get your blog up and running if you haven’t already, set up a few categories based upon your research at WordTracker, and go find some quality affiliate programs to promote.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about what to write about and some shortcuts.

Post your questions. I’ll be back to give away prizes and share more tips tomorrow!

Warmly,
Nicole Dean

Make Money Online with Affiliate Programs: Step One Get a Blog

Hi everyone! If you don’t mind, I’d like to take a few moments to introduce myself.

I’m Nicole Dean, and I’ve been a work at home mom since 2001, and have, over time, earned a full time living online and now earn quite a comfortable living online.  I help “mothers and others” to make money online, by following tested and true strategies that help you to build a solid business that will make you money for years and years to come.

Those that know me know that I don’t believe in chasing after the “latest and greatest” thing online or cheating to get the quick money. I help people to build online businesses that they can be proud of. I will help you to make the internet — and, hopefully the world, a better place by tapping into your skills and talents and passions and helping you to feel confident in the fact that you do have a message and you can help others.

Now, just to clarify… your passions may not be the best way for you to make money, but you may be able to develop your passions and get the word out about causes that you believe in once you do find your voice online and have an audience of people who are listening.

For instance, a cause that is dear to my heart is Suicide Prevention. My online business is not built around Suicide Prevention at all, but right here, right now, you are listening to me talk about it. Suicide has touched my life and the lives of people that I love dearly.

I am begging you to take seriously all concerns you may have about a teen or adult who expresses hopelessness. Any offhanded remarks about being better off dead may be a cry for help. Please help. The guilt of finding out too late is not something that I wish upon anyone. <– See? I got to talk about one of my passions in this blog post. Perhaps someone who needed the information will click through the link above and get the help that they need.

Back on topic…  So, why am I here today? Well, I’m doing a Rock Star Blog Summer Tour - which basically means that I’ll be hopping from blog to blog each week and meeting a new group of people on each blog. You are welcome to follow my journey and I hope that you will. Each blog owner told me what they’d like me to share on my tour stop and Melissa asked me to discuss the “5 Steps to Best Make Money with Affiliate Programs”.

So, that’s what I shall do. I earn about 1/3 or more of my income from affiliate marketing. If you’re new to the concept, affiliate marketing is simply “referral marketing”. You earn money by recommending products and services to others. When they buy those items, you earn a percentage of that sale. But, it’s not about about talking to people one at a time and selling to them, like direct sales. It’s much easier (in my opinion) than that, although I have absolutely nothing against network marketing and I know many people who do quite well with it. I’m just saying that affiliate marketing to me, doesn’t involve the face-to-face selling, which I don’t personally enjoy as much.

And, if it sounds “scammy” – let me tell you a few places where I earn money from affiliate marketing - Amazon.com, Fredricks of Hollywood, Organize.com, and Net Nanny.  So, this isn’t some back-alley method of making money. Those are known brands who gladly pay ME to advertise for them.

For instance, let’s say you have a Flip Mino since they are very hot right now and want to talk about how much you love it. Well, you’d use a special link that Amazon.com provides you and, when your friend buys the Flip, you’d earn a percentage of the amount they spent. Why would amazon do this? Simple. You’re advertising for them. You brought them a sale. You get a percentage of that money that they may not have otherwise gotten.

It’s very similar to a Real Estate Agent. They receive a percentage of the sale of a house by helping to facilitate that sale. They bring a buyer and seller together so that they both end up happy.

You can do that, too, from your Computer in your jammies. It’s not “easy” money, but it is real money, especially when you do it the way I’ll teach you in the next few days.

Step One in this Process is … to reach a large audience by setting up a Word Press Blog. It’s all well and good to tell your friends about how much you love the Flip, but you’ll make a heck of a lot more money if you expand your reach.

So…  Choose a group of people that you’d like to talk with on a daily basis and a topic that they’re looking for help with.

For example, maybe moms who scrapbook who need supplies and tips
OR parents of high school kids who need help finding money for college
OR pregnant women who want to stay in shape.

It can be anything where people need information and they are willing to spend money. You think scrapbookers spend money? If you don’t, you’ve never been at a Scrapbook Party. YOWSERS! They do.

Now I know this site is all about being a Frugal WAHM, so I’ll give you the cheapest way to get started that actually works.

1. Go to Mom Webs Blog Installation – On that page, you’ll see there are several prefilled blogs to choose from or you can create your own.

2. Click on the Mini Hosting Plan (which is only $5/month).

3. On the next page, enter your preferred URL (the website you’d like to set up) and click “search”. Make sure the URL is short and specific and memorable. Try to avoid numbers and dashes and abbreviations. We recommend only a .com, not any other option. You may need to type in a few as some are not available.  (If you get help, email support@momwebs.com.) This is assuming you do not already have a domain purchased elsewhere. If you already own it through GoDaddy or another registrar, then you can enter it at this time and click “search”.

4. Once you find an available domain (or URL) you’ll click on “Register Domain” and “continue” which will take you to the next page. Again, if you already own the domain, then you’d choose “Self Management” and “continue”.

5. Follow the directions on the next page, choosing your usernames and passwords. And, then pay. (You’ll be charged $15 every 3 months plus, the cost of the domain if you bought one.)

6. Last step, go back to Mom Webs Blog Installation if you would like help installing your new blog, choose which blog you’d like, and click on the paypal link. There’s a $10 fee for that install.

Now you’re set and are on the road to having a LASTING online business that will grow with you. I’ll be back tomorrow to tell you the next step in the “making money with affiliate programs online” series – we’ll discuss choosing which affiliate programs to promote, how to get content for your new blog, and how to promote it in the coming days.

WIN PRIZES!

Be sure to post comments all week long (and include a working email address when you enter your comment).

I’ll be giving away prizes randomly to those who comment. You may win a guide from www.JustAddSweat.com or www.SRZone.com or possibly other prizes that I come up with, including coaching from moi. Stick around and be sure to ask questions as you think of them!

Warmly,
Nicole Dean