It has to be the number one question I’m asked on an almost daily basis by folks interested in getting started earning money online. And I’m guessing as a reader of this article its something you’re wondering too, is it truly possible? Well, rest assured that it certainly is very possible! In this article I’m going to outline several strategies for getting started.

First, I know the common saying amongst a lot of information publishing guru’s in the “make money online” niche is that people fail because they fail to take action. Well, this is partly correct. Most fail I believe because they don’t have a plan! We spend months planning our summer vacations yet zero thought goes into thinking about starting an Internet business.

Second, I also believe most information products published in the “how to make money online” niche fall way short of delivering much other than a whole lot of hot wind & fluff. People get sucked into the magic button, push this and you’ll make millions type of garbage sales copy, and when that doesn’t work out, well of course they’re going to give up & be thrown into the you failed because you took no action category.

Third, almost 99% of these guru’s products offer no real plan. Its just a bunch of theories & secondhand non-sense written by an outsourced struggling writer. These reports are just full of wonderful “wow look how great I am” & look at all “the money I’m making” type dribble. Nothing concrete whatsoever.

Your Plan – To Make Money With Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing simply is getting paid a commission by referring somebody to a product or service online. Your commission payout can range anywhere from 5% to 75%. Basically as an affiliate marketer you’re getting paid to “presell” people towards a particular product or service.

Learn everything you can about Affiliate Marketing. There is a ton of free resources and materials online. Fantastic forums and affiliate marketing hangouts will also help get you started correctly. Affiliate marketing is quite simply the easiest way for you to get started earning money online with a zero budget. You can get started promoting a wide variety of products at places like ClickBank.com & Paydotcom.com.

Affiliate marketing requires no customer service or support. You don’t need your own product, website or even a domain name. Eventually you will want to get your own website, domain, hosting & also critically some optin email list building software. But you can start without those tools & pick them up as you go.

Some simple steps in getting started with affiliate marketing…

1. Chose a niche – Some say go where the big bucks are or big niches with lots of traffic. And yes, that’s true if you have some experience & past success. However, for most newcomers I highly recommend you chose a niche that you’re passionate about. Why? Because its going to be easy to write about it & follow through. If you chose a niche you know nothing about its going to make your job a lot tougher with trying to research & learn all about it.

If you’re really stuck choosing a niche then I recommend you chose something like the lose weight niche, most of us could lose a little weight so its something you can relate to. If you’ve recently stopped smoking or are trying to quit then go after that niche. If these don’t appeal then look at say debt reduction, how to write a better resume or how to find a job.

Then head on over to ClickBank.com & Paydotcom.com and start looking at the various products available in that niche. You’ll notice many of the products website’s have a dedicated page for affiliates. On this page you’ll find a lot of resources to help you market the products. Choose products to promote that help customers “solve problems” rather than focus on just finding ones that have high commission pay outs.

By also choosing a product to promote that’s going to help somebody solve a problem in their life or save money, you’ll be choosing a product that will continue to sell well into the future. Thus setting you up to receive affiliate commissions next year for work you’ve done today.

2. Target Your Niche Keywords – Go after long tail keywords, usually 2-3 words. Use Google’s fantastic keyword research tool to discover suitable keyword combination’s. I tell beginners not to worry to much about how many people are searching for that keyword. By over complicating things in the beginning you can get caught up worrying about this step & then throw in the towel.

My advice also would be to contact the product owner or the affiliate manager and ask them for some suitable keywords. Many will more than happily reply & help beginner affiliate marketers. Again, also check the affiliate page of the product you’re interested in promoting & you may discover some have a keyword suggestion area already set up with advice for which keywords to target.

3. Set Up A Free Blog – Use either Blogger.com or WordPress.com, or be smart and set up a blog at each one. All you need is an email address. If possible use a set of the keywords you’ve chosen to be not only used in the title of the blog but in the URL, usually its the username when you’re setting up the blog.

4. Start Writing – Include some of the keywords you’ve chosen to go into your article titles. If you’re stuck for writing ideas then go to your local magazine stand for ideas. Keep your articles brief say 300-500 words. Make sure you mention those keywords again a few times in the article, then bold & link them to your affiliate URL.

A lot of people panic when it comes to writing articles, here’s a few things to keep in mind. You’re writing for your blog, not the Wall Street Journal. Turn off all distractions. Write quick & fast, then go back and review, spell check etc. Just start out with a goal to write one 300-500 word article per day or even one per week. Be informative, concise and straight to the point.

Use headlines and article titles that are going to not just attract the attention of the search engines but also your readers. Be honest and helpful. Its not just about selling. If possible include yourself in the article and the results you might be getting. Make the reader feel and believe a real person is behind the blog.

If you do have a few bucks then you can get articles written for you. Usually a good 300-500 word article can set you back between $3-$5. I highly recommend you check out places like Fiverr.com to source out writers. You can get many other services performed there as well for just $5. Highly affordable and well worth it to help you get started.

Ok, I’ve covered a lot of ground here and will follow this post up with Part 2 shortly on expanding your affiliate marketing efforts using Squidoo, Hubpages, social bookmarking & more!

If you’d like to get an in-depth, detailed information on affiliate marketing training then I strongly suggest you check out my Affiliate Cash Overdrive program to help you get started

“Back links” is a term used in internet marketing to mean links from other websites back to your own. Why are back links important? Because the more incoming links you have pointing to your website, the higher relevancy the search engines give to your site in relation to the keywords that people use for searches.

For example, if your site features information on make money blogging and people search online for “make money blogging,” you want your website to be listed in the first spot or at least one of the top ten spots, if possible. One good way to accomplish that is to build plenty of incoming links using the anchor text “make money blogging”. Anchor text means turning the keyword phrase into a live link so it looks like this: “make money blogging” as opposed to using a standard URL format like this: http://www.blogcurry.com.

The HTML code used to create an anchor text link would look like this:

<a href =”http://www.blogcurry.com”>make money blogging</a>

If your website features high-quality information, it’s possible that people will link to your site naturally, but you’ll still want to do plenty of link building yourself too. There are plenty of ways to do this, and below are three of the most popular:

#1 Article Marketing

There are hundreds of article directories online that are happy to allow a link back to your website in exchange for a quality article on your topic. Using the example above, you could write brief articles sharing tips on make money blogging, and in your author bio box include an anchor text link back to your website. If you write and submit plenty of articles, you’ll be building plenty of quality back links.

#2 Social Bookmarking

Bookmarking sites like Digg.com, Stumbleupon.com, and others allow you to post links to your favorite sites, and your own can be one of them. Even better, if other people like your site they can bookmark it too. If you offer high quality information, you could even enjoy a bit of viral linking as people pass your link around.

#3 Satellite Blogs

Beyond your main website or blog, you can also create smaller, niche-focused blogs that feature your articles and several anchor links back to your main site. Some of the better known blogging platforms like Blogger and WordPress are easy to use for this purpose.

When possible, try to create back links on websites that rank well in the search engines. A link from a site with a Google PageRank 6 will carry more weight than a link from a site with a PR 2. The more popular and older the sites you can find to link from, the better.

The idea behind viral marketing is that if you can get the product up in multiple places on the web and in front of as many eyes as possible for as little money as possible, you are doing some really good marketing on a budget. Most of the companies behind this style of promotion are smaller businesses that just want to get the word out about their product but don’t have the money to hire a public relations firm or spend money on advertising.

One of the more effective methods of viral marketing is to form a Joint Venture with another business. While you have the product, your JV partner may bring his customer content list of thousands and his marketing skills to the project. In most cases a JV will benefit both parties involved with an equal split of the profits and possibly the work.

Another form of getting your product, to race around the internet world, is to set up an affiliate program with 100s of individuals and business promoting your product. The difference between a JV and an affiliate, is the affiliate will only get paid a percentage of each individual sale personally made by them.

If you want to get into the nitty-gritty of what is viral marketing, then you should realize that it is something anyone with a computer and a little bit of technological savvy can do. First of all, using social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter or MySpace is a fairly ingenious way of getting your product or service out to the public. You can set up a site, get all of the relevant information listed on your homepage, and then add friends.

Theoretically, just adding whoever to your profile isn’t going to do you any good as they are likely looking to connect with friends and won’t be interested in your product. The best way to market yourself is to look through the MySpace groups and find those with similar interests. Say that you are a writer marketing a new book. Adding other writers isn’t going to get you a whole lot of customers, but adding people who are fans of your genre, well, that’s a different story.

Some viral marketing ideas include sending out chain letters with information about your product buried within a story that urges people to continue resending the letter to all of their friends. This is a decent idea, but if you use the chain letter to try and collect money for something that doesn’t exist or run a scam for a business, then that is fraud and is a crime. You have to be careful and make sure that you aren’t breaking any laws.

Now that you have an answer to the question of what is viral marketing, you should also know that using viral marketing plans too much can cause some problems. If people feel they are being slammed by the product, then you are going to find many of your potential clients turned off by your aggressiveness.

Just remember that you’re trying to get the word out and tell people about your idea without being too pushy and you should be just fine.

Drawing from some of the most pivotal points in his life, Steve Jobs, chief executive officer and co-founder of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, urged graduates to pursue their dreams and see the opportunities in life’s setbacks — including death itself — at the university’s 114th Commencement on June 12, 2005.

• List everything that you have spent money on, are currently spending money on, or might spend money on.

Don’t just read this and think of a few things. Take the time to actually write it all down. Review your bank statements if you have to, in order to remember and include everything.

Now go through the list, and carefully consider each item. Take the most time on the big items – past, present and future possibilities. If your timeshare on the beach is worth half what you paid, costs $1,000 per year in expenses, and is rarely used, you need to learn from that – not to punish yourself, but to have a richer life.

If you think honestly about the number of times you will use that Recreational Vehicle, and the cost, it may be $250 for each day of use. That’s okay if that is worth it to you, but maybe you really would enjoy $100 hotels more. Or maybe you can rent an RV for less overall cost, thus freeing up money for other important goals.

You see, saving money isn’t about sacrifice. We all are aware of the scrooges in life that pinch their pennies, bank the savings, and then do nothing with it. The point should be to save money in one area of life so you can use it in ways that make your whole life richer.

Suppose you notice you’re spending $8 per month on subscriptions to magazine you don’t read, or on insurance for a motorcycle you almost never ride? Cancel the subscriptions or sell the
motorcycle, and what have you lost? Is it a big deal? What will that $8 get you instead?

- Bank it for ten years, and use the $1200 to take a second honeymoon.

- Use it to pay for a day off work once a year, to spend with the kids.

- Invest it, to have an extra $50 per month during your retirement years.

- Buy six good books a year, to learn something new.

- Make banana splits for the family once a month.

- Give $100 per year to a worthy cause.

$8 per month can do a lot if used wisely. Imagine what you could do if you stopped wasting $200 per month. That’s why it is so important to discover what you really want – and what you don’t want. This is one of the most intelligent ways to save money.

Why You Should Use Personal Branding

Personal branding adds your touch to the business. Personal branding goes well beyond a sleek logo or a perfect tag line. It is a way of sharing your expertise and own set of values with your target market.

Personal branding helps a lot in establishing rapport with your clients. A sense of connection is formed leading to trust and confidence of your market to get what they need from you.

In a business world where competition is very stiff, other marketers can steal your concept, your tools, and your system. There will also come a time when your patent for your product will expire. Personal branding attaches your identity with the goods or services that you sell.

People will know it is you when they see something on the market. If they trust you, they trust what you offer them.

Tips on Building your Personal Brand

Building a personal brand is not an easy task. It does not come in a package nor is it achieved overnight.

Here are some tips to get you started in building your brand:

• Run your own blog If you want to be seen as an authority in the business, you should have a site devoted to it. You can also receive important feedback from your followers and potential clients.
• Distribute information online – You can write free ebooks or newsletter and distribute this to your list or potential customers. This can help you as an affiliate marketer in building trust with your market.
• Publish write-ups on trade publications – Print is still a very powerful medium. People can get their ideas and business sources by reading magazines and journals. You will develop the authority in your field through this effort.
• Give seminars and webinars – These talking engagements put the spotlight on you and serve as a good venue to show your expertise. You can also push for your services or products during these events.

Affiliate marketing is like standing in a crowded room where everyone is wearing a black suit, donning the same shoes, and sporting the same smile. It is a crowded business and people will have a hard time seeing you. Personal branding magnets the attention of the market to you and puts a spotlight on what you can give them.