6 Ways To Make Money Online With An Affiliate Internet Business

If you want to be involved in internet marketing, affiliate marketing, making money online, building as affiliate internet business online, etc., then I would suggest that you read this article by Marlon Sanders.

After you have read it several times, read it again and note that he says it is not easy, it will require that you work, and it will require that you learn marketing, it will require that you not give up. But he also says you can do it.

This is an introduction to building an online business and like building any business it will take action on your part. This is a long article and so your very first action will be to read it. Will you read this and then start taking action to build your affiliate internet business online?

Again, I encourage you to take action and read (not skim) this article by Marlon Sanders.

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How To Escape Your Day Job, Pay Your Bills And Make Progress
Towards The Ideal Internet Lifestyle

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 By Marlon Sanders

 There are 6 basic ways to get dough online:

 1. Promote affiliate products
 2. Google adsense
 3. Sell a service
 4. Sell advertising
 5. Sell physical products (think ebay)
 6. Sell information

You’ll notice that the last 4 all involve selling something. That’s the approach I wanna talk to you about today.

I did a survey with my Milcers and Alist members. I found out that most of them are still stuck to a degree in getting things going.

I want to give you an abbreviated action plan that I spend 100 pages elaborating on in “ Gimme My Money Now ” and that the icons walk you through in “ The Marketing Dashboard “.

There are MANY Formulas out there. Here’s the Marlon Sanders Formula in a nutshell. So many of you have written and said, “I need a Formula. I need step-by-step.” This is the big picture:

1. Find demand
2. Write sales letter
3. Create info product to meet demand
4. Roll out with affiliate program

That whole formula is elaborated on in much greater depth in both Amazing Formula and Gimme My Money Now .

Here’s what I found out from my survey. Most of you guys and gals have jobs that you want to escape from. You have bills and debts to pay.

And most of you are coming into this without a lot of prior knowledge of marketing and some of you have limited computer skills.
Based on that, do you think it’s safe for me to say it’s unrealistic to think you’re going to quickly and easily become a zillionaire?

Well, it’s true. If you have no  background in sales and marketing, and you don’t have very good computer skills, you have a learning curve ahead of you and that takes time.

HERE’S HOW I PERSONALLY DID IT

I remember when I was broke and bought deodorant with all pennies. But what I did was kept learning and didn’t expect easy nor overnight results.

I kept buying books when I could afford them. There were no cheap and easy ebooks back then. I could have done it 10 times faster if I had access to all the information available today.

Anyway, my way out was self education. And action. I kept doing little projects to put what I learned into ACTION.

I ran this one little business where you sold booklets using answering machines. You didn’t have voice mail then. So I had 3 answering machines hooked up in my home (my friends hated it).

I ran these little ads in what we call in the U.S. “penny shoppers.” These are little papers given away for free that are all classified ads.

I ended up running ads in 72 cities! And people would leave their name and address on the answering machines. I shipped the books C.O.D. Half the books came back. It was sorta like paying out 50% affiliate commissions.

You didn’t have Paypal or easy merchant accounts in those days. So you had to do C.O.D. I sold $12,000 of books via “mail order.” And I was exhilerated to do so. I think at the end of the day I probably LOST money.

But I sure learned a lot.

 
Then AOL and CompuServe came along and I started writing sales letters and running ads on there. You’d run a little classified ad (they were free on AOL). People would email you.

Since autoresponders didn’t exist, you’d personally email them back your “free report.” Since there weren’t any PDF’s then (at least, that I knew of), the free report was a long email.

The “big trick” my friend Jonathan Mizel taught back then was to put their name in the return email! That was a big secret back then.
Mizel, me, others all learned copywriting from Tested Advertising Methods by John Caples. That was like one of 4 or 5 books on copywriting. But you know what? We wrote some pretty good sales letters back then. I first met Jonathan Mizel ’cause he sent me one of his sales letters, and I thought it was good. So I wrote and asked him where he learned to write copy.

Of course, he said “Tested Advertising Methods” by John Caples. So we were immediate friends.

AOL was great. You could test out your little ads, emails and sales letters. I don’t even think in those days we sent out follow up emails.

As far as I know, my friend the late Corey Rudl created the demand for autoresponders when he wrote about how he brought in all this money by automatically emailing buyers 4 days later.

It was only after that someone was smart enough to create an autoresponder. Corey’s stuff was hand coded. Gosh, I miss Corey. And I reckon you’ve been in this business a long time when you see your friends move on to the next great adventure.

 
Somewhere in this timeline (it all escapes me), I had a little retail store selling self help books and tapes. The first thing newbies think to sell online is either diet stuff or self help.

Man, self help is a tough sell. Both Dan Kennedy and I had self development stores. And we both lost bux on ‘em. But I did have the chance to write and send out a few sales letters. And since I often didn’t have the money to print and mail letters, I’d call ‘em on the phone.

I found out that just by calling people, I could say ANYTHING and I’d STILL get a lot of people coming in for the next 3 weeks.

That’s the power of staying in contact with your customers.

Anyway, I could go on with this story. I’ve told the rest of it in bits and pieces in different places.

 
What are you supposed to get out of this?

Dan Kennedy I think had a path kinda like mine. And what he said once is profound. He said, “I became an overnight success after 20 years of effort.”

Now, I’m NOT saying you need 20 years of effort. You don’t. But neither is 20 minutes a week gonna do much for ya.

Most of the people I’ve seen make it in this business do so after trying things that didn’t work. And they kept on trying. And sooner or later, somethin’ clicked.

I think I shoulda called this article, “Sooner or Later, Something Clicked.”

So you got a job that sucks. You got bills that are stacked up. Hopefully you can buy deodorant with something other than pennies like me in the old days.

 
So what do YOU do?

My friend, I’d personally tell ya to do what I did. Fall in love with the process more than the immediate fixation of “I gotta make this work now or the whole thing is a scam.”

What you’re learning is marketing.

And that’ll benefit you your whole life. It can help you get your son or daughter or friend a job. It can help you raise money for your Church or charity. It can help you promote an idea whose time has come.

See, a LOT of people say, “I feel like I’ve just wasted my #*$&* money on stuff.”

I my response is, “Then you don’t understand what you’re learning. No wonder things haven’t clicked for you yet.”

See, this isn’t about gimmicks. It isn’t about you figuring out how to trick people into buying with magic words. It isn’t about fooling the search engines into stickin’ your stuff at the top. If you do this business the way I teach it, it’s about learning marketing. And yeah, I said the dirty 5-letter word — LEARN. You can paint it up. You can put perfume on it. You can sell the sizzle not the steak.

But my friend, what you’re doin’ is learning. And like my friend Jim Edwards says, “That isn’t something you microwave.”
“So Marlon, tell me how long this is gonna take and how much I’m gonna make when I’m done?”

Rule 1: People learn at different rates, so no one knows.
Rule 2: You’ll never be done.
Rule 3: It depends on what you sell, who you sell to, how much you charge, what your margin is and how often they buy.

Some people like Russ Brunson get in this business, do it part time between classes in college and go great guns with it. Russ was one of my top affiliates. But he figured out this business so quickly, before I knew it he had his own line of highly successful products. More power to him!

Others are like me and take like 10 or 20 years to learn it. What’s average? Average is not doing anything, therefore not learning anything, therefore the bills pile higher and the job gets tougher.

“Well, if you can’t tell me how much I’m gonna make, how long it’s gonna take and how much it’s gonna cost me, then I think this whole thing is a scam.”

To say that is to say you believe marketing is a scam. Because at least the way I teach it, that’s what you’re learning.

 
What’s my advice?

Think of the best info product idea you know how to come up with. Interview some experts and record it. Or have a friend interview you. Do a little 3-hour product, write a sales letter for it. And see if anyone buys.

If they don’t buy, guess what? You asked the market a question and the market answered.

You asked the market, “Do you want to buy this?” And the market responded, “No, not in the way you’re presenting it to me.”

Your choice is to present it differently or do another product. Along the way hopefully you learn some things about how to find out what people want, how to get ‘em to buy, how to fulfill products, write letters, create sales pages and so forth.

Honestly, in the DOING, you’ll learn a lot more than you’ll ever learn in the reading. You ask. The market answers. You learn along the way.

 
But if you’re a spectator and you never get in the game, I can guarantee you one rock solid thing: You’ll never win the game if you aren’t in it.

This is a great business. It isn’t for everyone. It sure isn’t a way to become a zillionaire overnight. Maybe after 5, 10 or 20 years you hit that zillion and you’re the next John Reese or Jeff Walker.

 
I don’t think everyone should be in this business. If you don’t wanna figure anything out yourself, if you don’t wanna learn how to solve problems, if you don’t wanna learn more things about html and the computer than you really wanna know, if you can’t tolerate risk, if you need your first attempt to be a success, or even your first 3 or 4, then I don’t know, if you can’t afford to spend money on learning and education, if you can’t afford to try things that don’t work, if you think it should all be simple and easy, I don’t know if this industry is for you.

A lot of people get seduced by the lure of ez dough. The promises of zillions without learning. Just connect the dots and you too can be John Reese, Marlon Sanders or whoever you wanna choose.
Here’s the deal: People WILL sell you a turnkey system to escape your job, make zillions or whatever. They’ll give you the fish. I want to teach you TO FISH.

I have a strong belief that unless you buy a franchise, in most cases your going to better off learning marketing than “buying a fish.” There are exceptions. But more often than not, buying a fish doesn’t serve you well.

Some of my friends would disagree with that premise. I happen to have a strong conviction that you are better off learning marketing. My friends are RIGHT in that people DO want to buy the fish versus learn how to catch it. So oftentimes, you’re best off selling a “fish” product.

But everybody has their perspectives. And for me, my criteria for buying a product: If whatever “IT” is doesn’t “pan out” for you, are you STILL better off from having pent money on it? Will it continue to benefit you, your family or your friends in the future?

If the answer is NO, then think twice before spending your money.

You have a job you wanna escape, bills to pay off, retirement to prepare for. Or special needs like a sick loved one. Or a sickness yourself.

I can’t promise you ez zillions. There’s no integrity in that.

I can’t promise you 6 figures a year ez as pie.

What I CAN promise you is that selling products works. It’s no scam. People been doin’ it for thousands of years.

I can promise you that marketing works. Always has. Always will.

I can promise you that money and time spent learning marketing can pay off in many ways.

I can promise you that if you find demand, meet it with products and well-executed promotions, and you do that over time, those bills will likely fade away.

I can promise you that everybody on the Net selling you this or that “dough making system” ALL have 1 thing in common — THEY are selling you a product, service or seminar.

They have a target market.
They have an intro offer.
They have a back end.

I believe in paying more attention to what people DO than what they SAY.

People get all confused what to DO. And there’s a new system invented every day that’s the next big thing. Thank God. I love commerce.

But to remove the confusion, understand this:

They all may disagree on HOW you make money. But one thing is certain: They’re making bux selling a product to a target market — YOU!

Go and do thou likewise.

I remember back then. When I bought deodorant with all pennies.

I remember the date I had with a model in a car that smoked like a bomb.

And to me, there’s no confusion. It’s all crystal. It’s all simple. Take away the smoke. Take away the mirrors.
 

You need a product. You need people who want it with the money to buy it. You need some great promo out there.

There’s only ONE method people having using to pay their bills and quit their jobs for the past 1,000 years –

Selling products and services to a target market with a great sales pitch that presents benefits and solves problems.

I know you want more details on how. How do you find target markets? How do you identify demand? How, how, how.

I have provided a lot of those answers in the Milcer’s newsletters, Amazing Formula, Gimme My Money Now , and Action Grid.

You wanna quit that job? You wanna liquidate that debt? I don’t have an ez zillion for you. But I do have a crystal clear answer.

Find a group of people. Find out what they need and want. Meet those wants with a product. Provide great service.

And who knows. Maybe. Someday. If the stars shine down on you, you’ll hit that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

 
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Marlon Sanders is the author of “The Amazing Formula That Sells Products Like Crazy.” If you’d like to get on his mailing list and receive tips, articles and information about online marketing, visit: http://www.marlonsnews.com

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REPRINT RIGHTS: You have permission to use the above article without omission and including the resource box. You have the right to insert your reseller URL for “Amazing Formula” in place of the existing URL.

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Did you notice the section above that starts with “I don’t think everyone should be in this business…” Read it and this article again.

Now if you are ready, get ready to start building you affiliate internet business onlie. There’s a lot to do and a lot to learn. The purpose of this blog is to bring together many sources of info and guidance for your success.

Some of the posts will be mine; some of the products will be mine. But like this post, I will bring you informative and useful information from other internet marketing experts also. Stay tuned and make it a practice to visit and comment here on a regular basis.

To Your Online Success,
Lonnie Minton

Technorati Tags: affiliate internet business online, affiliate marketing, building an online business, internet marketing, making money online, Marlon Sanders, promote affiliate products

Keep Building Your Affiliate Marketing Business By Building Your List

If you have or want an affiliate business, you need, no you must have, a mailing list. If you are already involved with an online business you know what a mailing list is and you know that it is important. If you are a newbie you might ask, what is a mailing list?

Simply put it is a list of people’s names and their email addresses. In actually fact it is your key to success. It’s a list of prospects; but it’s more than that it’s a list of your potential customers. In short it’s your business future.

You need to treat the people that each of those names represents with respect and attempt to build a strong relationship with them. You do that by sending emails that will be useful to them and that will help them in their attempts to make money online. Chances are that they are on your list because that is what they want to do.

There are a few things that you should be aware of as you work on building your email list. I call it an email list because email will be your primary method of contacting the people on your list.

Many people don’t seem to like to get email. At least a lot of people complain about email. However, online business entrepreneurs do not. They know that legitimate emails are the lifeline of their business. That means that they don’t span and that they don’t like spam.

But it also means that they will correspond with their list on a regular basis. And that the people that have joined their list expect this correspondence.

If you want to build your list, you need to develop means that will make it easy for people to become a part of your email list. People these days like to accomplish something and move on. If the process required to join your list is not easy, they will move on.

That is why opt-in boxes have become so popular and are used by almost every internet marketer in the business.

There is some disagreement among people involved in internet/affiliate marketing about the use of single verses double opt-in.

Single opt-in means that as soon as the person fills out the opt-in box and takes action to submit it, they are subscribed to your list. They are now a potential customer and will get emails from you in the future.

Double opt-in means that the person filling out the opt-in box and submitting it is not yet on your list of subscribers. They will get an email from you that will ask them to confirm their desire to be on your mailing list. Until they take that step, you do not have a potential customer and you cannot email the person.

The person still has an option before committing to be on your list. Once they have committed, then you have a subscriber and your new subscribers will know that they can expect to receive emails from you.

Well, you’ve made it easy for someone to subscribe to your list. All they have to do is fill out an opt-in box somewhere on one of your web pages. And if you use double opt-in, click the confirmation link that is in an email that you send them. (It’s another subject but you use and autoresponder to accomplish this.)

Now you need to make it equally easy for your subscriber to get off you list. At some point in the future, some of your subscribers will decide that they no longer want to be on your list. You attempt to do things so that that will never happen, but it does.

You don’t want your subscriber to have to use his time to email you requesting removal. Also, you don’t want to have to use your time removing the subscriber and then letting him know that the removal has been accomplished. (Again if you use a good autoresponder system, this will all be handled automatically.)

Don’t worry about it when someone unsubscribes from your list. First off, if you are providing good content, it’s their loss. Second, maybe they want to move in a different direction, in which case they are no longer a potential customer and you no longer need them on your list. They want buy anyway.

So, make it easy for them to unsubscribe and let them know how they can get off your list.

Two more things to wrap up:

1.  You are in this online business to make money. Your subscribers need to know that. In your emails/newsletter tell them that they will be receiving offers from you. Then send them promotions.

2. It should also be your business to help your subscribers in their efforts. So, you should send them good content/information that will be useful to them. Tell them what is working for you.

This will require that you stay in contact with them. Let them know that you will be emailing them on a regular basis. Did you know that most storefront business open every day? Since you are in business, why should your subscribes be surprised if you email them every day?

It’s call networking. That’s what list building is all about; building relationships with people; letting them know who you are; and getting to know them. In the end some will like what you are doing and some will not. But you keep your affiliate marketing business doors open and keep on building your business by building your list. Another name for this is advertizing. You need to get your business before your potential customers.

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing business, list building, make money online, opt in

Affiliate Marketing PLR Bundle with Private Label Rights

A new Private Label Rights (PLR) bundle has been released. Doug Champigny has reduced the price to $9.95 until Wednesday. Then he will start charging $27. And this PLR bundle is worth more than that.

This Private Label Rights bundle includes 3 Powerful Interviews – 3 Great Products! Your will be able to download:

• 3 Audio Interviews,
• Each With A Full PDF Transcript and
• Graphics

And addition your will get private label rights to all 3 products! The titles are

• Affiliate Secrets Uncovered – Why be an affiliate when you can be a Super Affiliate.
• The Affiliate Manager’s Handbook – How To Manage Your Affiliates For Huge Profit
• High End Affiliate Marketing Secrets – How To Successfully Sell High End Affiliate Products

Check out this Affiliate Marketing PLR Package now.

Maybe you like audios; maybe you are somewhat like me and prefer the transcripts. Regardless this package is worth a lot more than Doug is charging. Just get this PLR package and use it for your own affiliate marketing efforts.

Then when you learn the value of it; repackage it in some way (you will have the rights to do so) and use the new product to add to your own affiliate list of products. Get this Affiliate Marketing PLR Package now and use it to increase your online profits.

Technorati Tags: afiliate mrketing, doug champigny, pivate label rights, plr

7 Key Things That Your Squeeze Page Should Have

In my last post in this series I told you about the tools that you will need for affiliate marketing success. One of the reasons that you obtained the tools was so that you could build your list – a key to your online success. There is an additional thing that you need to do before you start using the tools.

You need to create or obtain something that you can giveaway – an ebook, some software, an ecourse, etc. An excellent source of free ebooks is Viral Ebook Explosion Once you have a giveaway product, you need to build a squeeze page.

This is simply a tool to help you get the name and email address of prospective buyers. It is also called an opt-in page because its primary purpose is to get people to opt into your list as a subscriber.

One of the tools I mentioned was a program to build web pages. If you know HTML, you are set to go. If not I recommended CoffeeCup HTML Editor. This is a WYSIWYG editor that allows you to build web pages without knowing much HTML.

That’s what your squeeze page will be – just a website that you put on the internet for people to visit, but it is a powerful tool for your list building efforts.

There are many things that you could build into your squeeze page, and just having a squeeze page on the web is not all that you need in order to get your list started. In later post I will look at some of the other things that you will need to put into place, including some additional web pages.

For now, let’s look at 7 things your squeeze must have.

1. Only one action.

As I have already stated you want to get the name of email address of your visitors. So don’t make any other options available. Of course they can always leave your web page. However, your task is to convince them to fill out the opt-in form that you have placed on the page.

2. The opt-in form.

This is a form that provides a place for your visitor to enter their name and email address. Then behind the scene, action takes place, via your autoresponder, to add then to your list. Preferably, this form will be visible without the visitor having to scroll down the page: i.e., above the fold as it is known.

3. Brevity.

You don’t want an excessive amount of information on this web page. Just put enough information here to get your message across and convince the reader that he needs to add your free offer to his arsenal of internet marketing information/tools.

4. Make the fact that your offer is free standout.

Tell the visitor how the information available in the free item will help him in his efforts. Emphasize the benefits and that these benefits are free by filling out the opt-in form.  Show him what he can expect to gain if he takes this action.

5. No spam.

In a perfect world this step would not be necessary. But…

Somewhere close to your opt-in form, you need to inform your visitors that you will never spam. In addition, you will not sell or giveaway their contact information. This must be a fact that you never violate.

6. High quality content.

Since you are asking your visitors to become subscribers, you need to let them know that you will provide good quality content and that you will only recommend quality products.

7. Identify yourself.

You can do this by including your name on the page. Other options are your signature, your picture, etc. Something that they can connect with to know that you are a real person.

Now, there are other aspects of a good squeeze page. You could add video, audio, etc.

The important thing to note is that building this squeeze page is essential to your affiliate marketing success. If you don’t have it already get a copy of my free ebook: The Squeeze Page – A List Building Tool and get start today.

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, HTML Editor, list building, Opt-In Form, squeeze page

Skyrocket Your Affiliate Marketing Efforts With Private Label Rights

Have you noticed how Private Label Rights (PLR) products of all types have become a major emphasis in the affiliate marketing arena? This post will highlight some of the reasons that this has happened.

Obtain a private label rights product and it’s yours. You can turn it into your own product or you can use it as content whenever you are in need of good content – like posts on your blog or as a part of you newsletter. The applications are endless. Maybe you want to create a new ebook to giveaway on your squeeze page.

The beauty of this is that you get the content and you save a lot of your time by not having to create the content yourself.

Part of this post will be dedicated to showing you how to use your private label rights content in your affiliate marketing endeavors. Used right it can be a big explosion to your efforts.

Your first affiliate marketing step should be to concentrate on building a list of subscribers. So, how will PLR help you in this very essential project?

It’s simple, use some of you private label rights content to develop an ebook or ecourse. Construct a squeeze page and give away your ebook or ecourse as an enticement in exchange for people’s name and email address. By using an autoresponder you will build a list of subscribers – a list of potential customers.

A second method is to use private label rights videos. This is a powerful marketing tool and the conversion rate is relatively high. Currently videos are very popular in the internet marketing world.

Marketing Note: Liz Tomey has just released a huge package of private label rights products that include video workshops, video product, video reviews and so much more. This package will greatly enhance your affiliate marketing and the package include personal coaching from Liz. It is available here.

Some have said that list building provides you with a license to print money or you may have heard it expressed as. “The Money Is In The List”. However you have heard it, just do it.

After you have you list in place, regardless of how small or large it may be, you start building relationships with your subscribers but you also find a product in your niche and you start sending your subscriber emails about your product. Some will buy and you will start making money online.

Here are a few other things that you can start doing: Add bonuses for those that buy products by using your links: write product reviews and send the review to your list. Also post the reviews on your blog.

Step-by-step recap:

First, create a squeeze page where you give something away so that you can build you list. Use you new PLR information for your free gift.

Second, review a product or create some sort of message about a product that you can send to your list. Include links to the product that you are trying to sale. Put several of these types of messages in your autoresponder so that they so out automatically to each person on your list.

I mentioned Liz Tomey’s package above. In this package, called “Tax Man PLR Blowout package”, she gives you 25 video reviews of 25 different products that you can send to your list. You can get these by clicking here.

Third, using the product you found in the second step or one that you develop, create a bonus that you can give to people when they buy through using your link. Let your list know about the bonus that you are offering. Again, use your autoresponder to insure that every person on your list or that joins your list in the future will automatically be made aware of you bonus offer.

Private Label Rights (PLR) products are a great source for the content that you need to create your bonus product. A great PLR content package exists here.

Fourth, use PLR content to build your product(s). As before let your list know where they can get your product. Of course, you will use your autoresponder to automate the process.

Fifth, do it all over again, then again…

Soon you will have a system that works on autopilot. Each time you do the above, it just keeps working while you go about repeating the process and workong on ways to drive traffic to your squeeze pages.

There are still details to work out, but you now have an outline of the complete process of using private label rights content to enhance your affiliate marketing endeavors online.

I recommend Liz Tomey’s Tax Man PLR Blowout as a great source for taking the above steps.

This package includes PLR to video reviews, entire workshop and coaching programs, products, and more that are ALL created by Liz Tomey personally. The coaching part of the package will show you exactly how you can use the content in your efforts.

Liz says that only 500 of these packages that will be sold, go here right now and start using Private Label Rights (PLR) products in your affiliate marketing success program.

To your online success,

Lonnie Minton

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, affiliate marketing videos, business model newsletter, creating a product, list building, private label rights, squeeze page

List Building – What You Need to Get Started
 
In my last post I talked about list building and some of the benefits it brings to your affiliate marketing business. There are many reasons to be proactive with your list building.

But like anything else it requires tools. There are some things that you will have to have in place in order to get started with your list building. Until you have these essentials in place you will not be able to build a list of subscriber and customers.

Also like anything else you will need to make sure the details are taken care of and you will have to implement things – that means take action.

So, let’s look at the essentials – what you will have to have in order to get started.

Getting these things set up may be new and even boring for some. You may even think that working on these is an unproductive endeavor, but you need to get the work done. Production comes later.

For others, these tasks may be new. In that case you will have to learn WHAT they are as well as HOW to use them.

In either of these cases the matter still remains that you have to get them done. Why? Because, your internet marketing business depends on your list building efforts and list building depends on these tools.

Once you get these essentials in place you can continue on down the road of getting a large list of subscribes that you can communicate with and over time convert some of them to customers.

There are 4 tools that I consider as essential. Get them set up and you can start building your internet/affiliate marketing business:

1. You must purchase a domain name.

You will have to decide on a name for your online efforts. Once you have decided on a name and determined that the name is available on the internet, you will have to register the name. This is called purchasing a domain name.

It is considered by some to be a good idea to incorporate the theme of your website into your domain name. Some would say that you need to make sure that your domain name has keywords in it. Others would say that the most important thing is to keep it simple and make it easy to remember. You might start with www.yourname.com.

After you have selected your name, the URL you want to use, you need to register it with someone like GoDaddy or NameCheap.

2. Purchase hosting.

Now, that you have a domain name you need to get it visible on the web. This is the task of webhosting. There are many companies that offer this service. And there are many things to consider when looking for a hosting company.

Generally speaking it is not a good idea to register your domain and obtain hosting from the same company.
 
You should spend some time looking at the different packages that different companies offer. Determine your short term and long term needs and purchase the package that meets your current and projected needs. I would suggest that you insure that your package includes cPanel and Web Host Manager. This will provide you with the most control to create and modify your websites.

You should also pay attention to the guaranteed uptime. You want a high expectation that when someone attempts to visit your site that it will be available.

There are other things to consider. Do your research and get your hosting account in place. There are many good hosting companies; some that I recommend are HostGator, Ultimate Marketing Center, and Kiosk.

After you have selected your hosting company you need to transfer your domain name to the hosting company. You do this with the company that you purchased your domain name from.

3. Obtain a way to build your site(s).

This is easy it you know HTML. If you do not, then a good place to start is by obtaining a WYSIWYG editor. With this you can make changes to your pages without having to learn much HTML.

Even if you plan to make your main site a WordPress blog, you will still need to build web pages for things like squeeze pages, thank you pages, download pages, etc.

I recommend the following WYSIWYG editors:

Kompozer or CoffieCup HTML Editor

BTW, I would not recommend using Fantastico to install your blog. A blog build with Fantastico is much more susceptible to hackers. I would really recommend Expert WordPress as the best WordPress installer available.

4. Get an Autoresponder and setup a list.

One of the primary reasons that affiliate marketers have a website is to build a list(s). An autoresponder will be your primary tool for doing that. You will have to have one. It will provide the following functions and many others:

• Allows you to create mailing lists
• Manage your subscribers
• Aids in avoiding spam complaints
• Helps in testing and tracking results

You will find many companies that provide excellent autoresponder service. Select yours and learn how to use it. Become intimate with it. It will be your list building friend.

I personally recommend that you select Aweber or Ultimate Marketing Center. Many internet marketers like GetResponse as well.

With these 4 tools you are ready to start your list building journey and get your internet affiliate marketing business online into production. Your next tasks will be to learn how to use these tools to actual start the process. I see more work in your future.

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, autoresponder, domain name, list building, web hosting, WYSIWYG editors

Your List Is Your Affiliate Marketing

Have you ever wonder why you should build a list? Why should you put forth all of that effort? You got into this business because affiliate marketing was said to be one of the best ways to make money online.

Now you find out that you will have to build a squeeze page. And by the way you will have to work to get visitors to that squeeze page. Don’t forget that you will also have to set up an autoresponder and send emails to your list and this will have to be done on a fairly regular basis.

You might be thinking by now that this is too much work. Then you find out that more work is required to get things set up so you can get customers. Just subscribers will not put money into your pocket. Also, you have to work on building a relationship with your subscribers so that they will someday become customers.

In addition, you will find that affiliate marketing is not an instantaneous, overnight happening. It’s going to take some time. So, will you be like many that start down this road and never do it or will you determine to stay the course?

Quitting before you even get start would be a mistake. Working hard to build your list is the most important thing that you can do in the internet/affiliate marketing business. I can say and I think that most if not all internet marketers will back me up; list building is one of the most profitable things you can do to build your business.

Here are four reasons why you should be building a good email list. (Aside from the fact that you probably won’t have an internet business if you don’t build a strong subscriber list.)

1. Lowers the cost of acquiring new customers.

Having a list of people that have become members of your list allows you to pre sell or make sales presentation to that group of subscribers over and over until some of them will buy. This subscriber/customer base will pay off over time. You can continue to mail them content and offers as you work on getting more subscribers to attempt to convert into customers.

2. Maximizes the profit.

 Building a list helps you to increase the profit that you obtain per customer. Not all of your subscribers will buy every time that you sent an offer. But a few buying each time you make a mailing means that over time you will maximize the profit you get per customer. So, you if you want more customers, build you list bigger.

 3. Participate in major launch events.

 Having a large list means that your opportunities to participate in major launches will increase. Have you ever noticed that when a large new product launch comes along many of the big guys are involved? All of a sudden for a few days you get emails from everyone that has a large list. By building your list your can be a part of the next big launch. The person launching the product might just seek you out as a JV partner to be an affiliate for his product.

 4. Test you copy.

 With a list of subscribers you can test your copy. Since you have a build in set of subscribers, you can send part of them one sales letter and another part a different sales letter. This will allow you to determine which one is more effective. This will give you a feel for your conversion rate. Knowing that you can approach JV partners and give them an idea of what they can expect if the help you promote your product. Also, it will help you to know what to expect if you decide to pursue paid promotions for your project.

 These are just four of many, many reasons why you should be building your list. As I implied above list building is one of the most profitable undertakings that you can pursue in your internet/affiliate marketing business. As was noted above having a list will help you to monetize your efforts and it will allow you to move into new partnership ventures.

Technorati Tags: affiliate marketing, internet business, JV ventures, list building, product launch

Mike Paetzold back again for the last day of my visit as part of The Old Bald Guy’s Blog Tour. Hope you have enjoyed my visit and found this information helpful. This week the discussion is affiliate marketing and so far we have discussed…

• Affiliate Marketing – What is it?
• Affiliate Marketing -Tools you need
• Using Content For Your Affiliate Marketing
• Affiliate Marketing with Web 2.0, Podcasts and Video

I will be concluding this series with what is probably the easiest, the most overlooked and maybe even most profitable thing you can do with your affiliate marketing – Integration.

Usually this is talked about primarily in relationship to product owners but affiliates can do it too. You just need to do it during your list building.

If you have your own product or membership site this can be even more powerful but integration usually covers the bulk of my subscriber acquisition costs. Meaning I can spend money to generate subscribers and make it back almost immediately. As growing your list should be your top priority for any affiliate marketer this makes it easy to leverage.

Go check out the affiliate tools that your product owner provides you with. Often they have a rebrandable free report or graphics that you can use to point people to their squeeze system to get a report. That is fine as long as they hard code the subscribers with your affiliate link.

Integration of this type is what makes a program like Clickbank Pirate work so well for affiliates. Use there thank you ads on your thank for subscribing page. You got them on your list and if they sign up there the owners will also promote to them but with your links in the emails.

Here is a sample you can add to your page.

There are membership sites that will give upgraded members a complete squeeze page system to give away a free report and the free report has all of your links in it. You use that report to get people on your list while being provided the pages you need and the follow up email series already completed for you.

I run one that talks about tracking – Tracking Your Way To Profits. It has links for the tracking service I recommend, an autoresponder and a few other progams. You give away a rebranded copy and all those links become yours.

Take advantage of any potentail ad space on your own web pages AFTER you get the subscriber first and your income will increase nicely.

If you have a product this becomes even more valuable but that will be part of a series for another day. Hope you have enjoyed this series and next week I will be moving to Doug and Teri Champigny’s The Marketing Blogzine.

About the author

Mike Paetzold has been online since 2000 and runs numerous blogs and you can find out what he is up to at Mike Paetzold Recommends. You can also find out and keep current with WordPress at his blog WordPress Made Easy. Follow Mike on Twitter

Mike Paetzold back again for day 4 of my visit as part of The Old Bald Guy’s Blog Tour. This week the discussion is affiliate marketing and so far we have discussed…

• Affiliate Marketing – What is it?
• Affiliate Marketing -Tools you need
• Using Content For Your Affiliate Marketing

Today we conclude a 2 part series on using content and reusing content which is what really rocks. For part 1 we covered blogging and article marketing. In part 2 the topic will turn to the various Web 2.0 properties, podcasting and videos.

There are numerous Web 2.0 properties that you can use to add your content and draw visitors to either your lead capture system (best), your blog (next best) or direct to an affiliate page (worst).

Here are a few of the ones I use

• Squidoo
• Hub Pages
• Google Knol
• Wet Paint

There are many more but when ever there is an option I add the RSS feed from my blog into the appropriate page.

For all of these sites the key is always quality content and you should treat them exactly like you do article marketing. Do your keyword research, use compelling headlines and add in your call to action.

You can do some minor editing of your blog posts and your articles to create the content. Revising or reusing your content saves you time and quite often these Web 2.0 sites will rank above your original posts for the keywords (at least until you get some age and links to your blog.)

If you create podcasts and videos which are the next items for discussion you can use those as additional content for your Web 2.0 sites.

Podcasts work extremely well because you can get them into other venues. If you are doing podcasts you can add it to Itunes, Podcast Alley and numerous other places. It really is easy to make a podcast with free software like Audacity and adding a WordPress plugin like Podpress to your blog.

Just read your content into the mic on your computer and Audacity will let you edit it and then convert it into an mp3. Upload the mp3 to your blog and add it in through Podpress and you are done.

For podcasting and for videos I prefer to buy a domain and set it up to redirect to my affiliate link. Get a domain that is easy to remember because the person listening is not necessarily at a computer and even if they are they will need to type in the url manually.

For example if I want to promote Clickbank Pirate instead of giving someone a Clickbank hop link to try to type in I bought the domain http://thecbpirate.com. It is easy for them to type that in and I still get paid .

Finally for videos it is easy to convert your article into a power point presentation and then use something like Camtasia or even Cam Studio to record the presentation while you read the article out loud.

A couple of tips.

For podcasts make sure to create the id3 tags in Audacity and have the link you want them to go to as part of your description.

For your videos start your description when you submit it with the url you want people to go to and make sure that it is the full url starting with http:// or it will not be clickable when people are viewing the description.

Finally Tube Mogul is a free service that you can use to submit your videos to multiple sites at one time.

For the step by step on taking your blog post or article and turning them into a podcast and video check out Sunday Night Cash Plan.

Tomorrow will be my last day but the topic will be one of my favorites – integrating your affiliate marketing into every thing that you do.

About the author

Mike Paetzold has been online since 2000 and runs numerous blogs and you can find out what he is up to at Mike Paetzold Recommends. You can also find out and keep current with WordPress at his blog WordPress Made Easy. Follow Mike on Twitter

Mike Paetzold back again for day 3 of my visit as part of The Old Bald Guy’s Blog Tour. This week the discussion is affiliate marketing and so far we have discussed…

• Affiliate Marketing – What is it?
• Affiliate Marketing -Tools you need

Today we start a 2 part series on using content and reusing content which is what really rocks. For part 1 we’ll cover blogging and article marketing. In part 2 the topic will turn to the various Web 2.0 properties, podcasting and videos.

To use content to draw traffic for your affiliate offer you need…

• good keyword research
• quality content
• call to action

This will be the same whether it is a blog post or an article. If you don’t rank high in the search engines nobody will see it, if it is not good quality nobody will read it through and if you don’t tell people what to do they probably won’t.

Keyword Research

Finding the keyword that has good commercial appeal, decent traffic and low competition is the key to making this work. Once you have that you can use that as your topic for either your blog or your article or both. For more information on doing your keyword research check out the Keyword Research Call I did with Steve Roye.

Quality Content

It should go with out saying that the better your content the more likely people are to read it. For affiliate marketing one of the best formats I like to use is the what to do format.

The incomplete comes in and leads people to your affiliate product because you have explained the what to do and been thorough but the how to is supplied by the product you are promoting.

Call To Action

On your blog this can be the embedded link that you add to get the how to part of your article. In am article it will be your formal signature file. Either way the point is to get the reader to continue on to the affiliate page.

I did mention reusing content. One of the great things about using the content method for your traffic is you can take the blog post you wrote and make that an article for submission. You can read the blog post and create an mp3 of it and now have a podcast. Finally you can use the content to make a video of your article.

This allows you to take one piece of content and have 4 different formats and distribute it to a ton of places giving you more opportunities to get traffic to your affiliate offers.

Want a step by step plan on exactly how to do that? Check out the Sunday Night Cash Plan.

Did you notice what I just did and yes for disclosure purposes those are affiliate links and Lonnie will make a commission if you purchase the product.

About the author

Mike Paetzold has been online since 2000 and runs numerous blogs and you can find out what he is up to at Mike Paetzold Recommends. You can also find out and keep current with WordPress at his blog WordPress Made Easy. Follow Mike on Twitter