Affiliate Marketing for Beginners -Starting a Business

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: Who, What, Where,When, and How

If you are like I am and in the category of affiliate marketing for beginners, then there is a process you have to go through to develop your business. I call it the who, what, where, when and how of affiliate marketing.

WHO

This is the part where you look for the trust worthy source of information. Whom can you trust to get you pointed in the right direction without having to fend off a list of sales pitches. This takes time, effort, trial and error but there are places to go to find what is legitimate or not. Forums are one place and good newsletters are another. I use ewealth, warrior, and affiliate associates to name three forums. NetprofitsToday.com and ClicknewZ are two newsletters from Rosalind Gardner and Lynn Terry that I think are very informative, helpful and don't lay heavy sales pitches on you. They also point you to resources that can be very helpful.

WHAT

What products are you going to market and sell? The first place to start is with your own interest and expertise. What is in your background that lends itself to teaching others or finding products that will solve a problem or satisfy a need. It's important to choose wisely because you will be doing a lot of writing about it. If you follow something you are passionate about you will find it easier to develop a business.

Part two of WHAT is crucial. You have to conduct some serious market research to develop a list of valid keywords that you will use in developing your web site or blog. A keyword can consist on one word, "dog", or a combination of words, "dog training", "Florida dog breeders", that you will find using a series of tools. Wordtracker, Google Adword tools are two that come to mind. It takes time and practice, but this is the part of the process that will spell the difference between success and failure. Take the time up front to research demand and your niche market in order to get a good idea of your target market.

WHERE

Where do you find your product or service when you have developed your niche idea. Affiliate networks are one very important source of product and service affiliate programs. Affiliate networks are third party middlemen/women who work with merchants on one side and affiliates who want to rep the merchants offering on the other. Merchants use affiliate networks to list their products and their affiliate programs and affiliates, namely you, can apply to those merchants for the privilege of representing them in the marketplace; all for a commission of course. There is a vetting process so you have to qualify before you can become an affiliate. Affiliate networks that you should check out are Clickbank, Commission Junction, Linkshare and Paydotcom; but there are many more that you can find if you take the time to search.

WHEN

When should you put your business in operation? As soon as you feel you know your market, that your are confident you have the right product and that you have done your research to back up your "hunch" about the marketplace. Then your next move is to get your Web site organized; with a domain name and hosting site and all the necessary steps taken to select a design and lay out that works for you and more importantly for your customer. There are a plethora of providers that can get you up and running. In the blog world Wordpress and Blogger are two that come to mind. There are literally hundreds if not thousands of designs available and template driven to get you going in short order. One tip is to find a site you like; scroll down to the very bottom of the page and click on the link for the designer. That will take you the site of the person who designed the site. You can usually find that the design in question is available for a fee.

HOW

The HOW is also very important. How do you make sure that your site will work? How will you get traffic? How will you convert your visitors into buyers? This is where things get tricky. You need to find a program or tutorial that will take you through the steps to do all of these things. For that, you need to go to the newsletters or forums and see who others are using. There are many different approaches, some programs take a thematic idea that you are passionate about and work you through the process. Other programs will teach a more sales product, squeeze page, pre-sell page, sales page approach that concentrates on a top ranking merchant list you find on an affiliate network. Pick something you are comfortable with and that will meet your standard of customer service and product quality.

You will have to test the market to see if anyone is interested in what you have to offer. Invariably you'll have to make adjustments along the way once you get feedback. Youíll learn to use tracking tools to measure results. Google analytics is one offering you will learn to use.

There it is in short. The WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN AND HOW for the affiliate marketing beginner. Take it in stages, pace yourself and be ready to deal with bumps along the way. But if you follow the basic steps in setting yourself up, you should succeed sooner rather than later.

So keep up the hard work and may your travels be prosperous.

For information and videos on how to get started, check out AffiliateStartingLine.com

Claude Pelanne is a veteran of 25 years in television broadcasting. He writes about internet media and affiliate marketing. For more go to www.AffiliateStartingLine.com.