The Affiliate Part is Easy - The MARKETING is Where We Get Hung up On

Finding stuff to market online is easy... if only the marketing were as simple as finding the products!

Like for instance, I'll go browsing thru the Clickbank marketplace and find a variety of things that I would love to talk about and then I spend several hours trying to find the keywords needed to penetrate enough so that someone can find me on the vast land of the web...

Keyword research is the most important ingredient of Internet Marketing in my opinion.

Me favorite tool is still the keyword sandbox at www.seobook.com - it's free and fun to play in. And it is almost like digging for a treasure. As you dig deeper and deeper to get to a good long tailed keyword phrase, it is like gold when you find it. :)

Instance:

You are searching for keywords related to dancing and you find that there are 35,000 searches for salsa dancing versus tango dancing which has only 18,000... so you enter salsa dancing into the search box and now you have a whole string of related 'long tailed keyword phrases' specific to salsa dancing that you can use for weeks to write articles, blog posts, and build Squidoo lenses on.

(and Clickbank has a few really cool products to promote regarding dancing :)

But, yes, the marketing is where most people give up in any kind of work at home stuff - because no matter what you do - whether it is a home based business, network marketing, mlm, affiliate marketing.... whatever it is that we decide to get involved in to make some moolah from home - it is ALL about Marketing... and then more marketing...

That is why most successful internet marketers are involved with or use some sort of Internet Marketing program to help them with the marketing part.

I know I probably sound like a broken record but I am very much partial to the One Week Marketing Plan as that is what I finally ended up getting to help me get over the hump of the frustrating zeros in my Clickbank account.

That is where I learned how to put together a successful campaign where people actually FIND my stuff thru surfing the net without me having to PAY for advertising.

It is also where I learned how to search for the right keyword phrases.

I still have much to learn but at least I have DIRECTION now instead of

floundering all over the net!

Until next time - off to get more coffee!

Mtnmom5

Wait... Look at the Mouse...

Now look at YOUR finger on the mouse.... ready to hit the back button... exit.... go back to where you were before you landed here...:)

Remember .... that is EXACTLY what YOUR readers are doing with YOUR articles, websites, blogs, whatever you are using to catch their attention.

If you can't get their attention with the first several phrases - and they hit the back button before they get past the first sentence - all the rest of the article was a waste of time.

And I don't know about you, but I HATE the thought of writing for nothing!

I am not one of those people that can sit down at any given time and rattle off an article in five minutes.

Nope, mine comes in spurts - and when I am in the 'mood' it all comes easy, but most other times it is work with a capital W.

And here is something else that is interesting....

95% of folks that are trying to make a go at making money ffrom home are trying to promote work at home stuff.... while at least 75% of the folks cruising the net are not even looking for work at home stuff....

I rarely set up campaigns on work at home things. There are waaay too many really cool products on Clickbank to promote that are loads easier and actually have pretty cool commissions to waste my time campaigning about working at home!

(most of my traffic to my work at home blogs and sites come from forums...because I am sadly addicted to work at home forums)

And I admit that I am hopelessly in love with and partial to the One Week Marketing Plan as when I found it I had been floundering around trying to write articles, set up Squidoo lenses , blogging , and although I was doing all the right things, nothing was happening....

All I was missing was a CLEAR plan of action to tie it all together and I found it with the OWMP.... Jennifer's program may not be your lifesaver, but if you are struggling and nothing is coming together for you here are a few tips....

1) you may be in the wrong niche

2) you may need a clear plan of action :)

Happy Marketing... I'll see you on the net. :)

So... What IS Affiliate Marketing and How Does it Work?

(Yes, that is how I act when I log onto my computer and see $$ in my account....believe me, you will, too! :)

I have been getting quite a few questions lately on what affiliate marketing is all about , especially from young moms that are wanting to make some money from home and do not have a lot, is any, money to invest into a home business...

So, I will try to give a brief outline on the term " affiliate marketing"...

I am sure we have all been to Amazon websites.... Amazon is known as the King of Affiliates as that is what it is. A place where we can buy almost anything under the sun from a variety of vendors too long to list.

Here is how it works - Amazon is only a gateway to the product itself that many people use and when we purchase products from their sites , guess where it is shipped from... not Amazon!

Guess who makes the products - NOT Amazon!

Guess who handles the products - NOT Amazon!

So, who is actually marketing the products - Amazon!

Amazon makes a commission every time we make a purchase thru their sites... affiliate marketing at it's finest!

We can do the EXACT SAME thing. Use the exact same methods. And make money.

You can do it with blogs, with websites, hubpages, Squidoo lens, any place where you can send people to...

Find affiliate products to market through places like Commission Junction, Linkshare, Amazon itself!, Clickbank and place links on your sites that are provided for you by these places and you can do the exact same thing Amazon is doing...

"But I have no idea how to get started", you may be saying.... which is why I have posted several tools that I personally feel are great to help anyone get started with affiliate marketing... you will see them scattered throughout this site here if you browse around.

Some are more advances than others but they will all help you get started... you will never be as big as Amazon, but remember they started out at some point too. Everything has to start somewhere, before it will get anywhere!

And Then I Made a Clickbank Sale.....!

... is your blog generating any money for you?

Do you have adsense on it?

Are you getting traffic to it?

The two biggest and most important things in getting your blog to make you some moolah is to have lots of traffic coming to it.

No traffic - no clicks - no money!

Simple and plain truth of blogging for money... you need traffic and more traffic and still more traffic coming to your sites every day... in order to make an income.

I know what it is like to write a blog post, ping it at pingoat.com and then run and check my adsense account or clickbank to see if there is any money there!

I had tried so hard to make money with blogs, Squidoo and writing articles and just was not seeing any money when I first came across the One Week Marketing plan... I was initially attracted to it as I was trying to master the whole Squidoo thing, but it had so much more than that for me.

I finally learned how to use the right keywords to optimize all my posts and sites for the search engines... I also learned how to link everything together to create a web effect on the internet and please the Big Google spiders!

But probably my very favorite part was the actual dialogue between Nick and Jennifer as she walked him thru setting up his very own campaign in a week. That was where I learned the most and the beauty of it that after you have that downloaded on your computer you can go back to it over and over. (I actually printed mine out as I use it every time I do a new campaign..)

That conversation alone was worth every penny I spent on the One Week Marketing plan!

And then when I made my first clickbank sale - I was ecstatic! (and hooked on internet marketing forever!)

Money Making Blogs - Blogging Tips

Whew - our whole communication system was down for TWO whole days. We live in a remote area in NW Montana and because of some avalanche hitting a main tower - we lost everything, cell service, long distance, internet - talk about feeling cut off from the rest of civilization!


This is truly one of the most beautiful places to live for the most part, but when things like that happen, we are reminded of just how remote we really and how dependent we are on technology!


But I was also reminded how beautiful it is at a time like that to be in online marketing of some sort, whether that is with money making blogs, or with some other sort of work at home stuff as even though MY computer was not working - others were happily surfing the 'net.

And I got to do some things that I normally push aside, like baking apple pies and cleaning house!


The sad fact is that I would much rather be online than clean or cook - so I need to prioritize my life every so often and get things straight about how much time I get to spend online and actually it really helps to set a schedule of some sort - especially if you are doing more than one thing online.


For instance - here is what works for me at times if I can stick to it! I am a glutton for punishment with sticking too many 'irons in the fire' so to speak!


But here is a simple guideline that helps me stay on target on what I want to get accomplished per week and then you can break it down however you need to - with your schedule.


Money Making Blogs: Blog at least twice a week - (add a keyword rich post or article to each blog)

Free Advertising: Post a new ad every other day to each, like I use craigslist and freeads the most right now and with craigslist especially, it is best to add a few ads every other day.

Forum posting - my favorite so I do some of that almost every day....

But here is how it works if you break it down - have an hour set aside every day to work on your 'money making blogs' either by posting a new blog post or writing an article that links to your blog, or even building a new Squidoo lens that links to your blog...

Remember that the more content that is keyword focused and linking to each other - the better your campaign...


The same for the free advertising - post ads linking to your blogs.


Regardless what you do to promote your money making blogs - as long as you do something each day or at least a couple times a week, eventually you will generate more and more traffic. It takes time for it to build up but if you have a good niche, it will work.


I personally follow the One Week Marketing Plan a lot and use her techniques as Jennifer has so many tricks she has mastered with blogs and Squidoo.


Regardless which 'tool' you use, follow the tips and tricks they give you and do it consistently - and you will see results!



Here is another tool I came across recently and because it is under twenty bucks, it may be a great tool to add to the 'money making blogs arsenal' ! Click Here to get to more details on it.

How to Start a Blog and Get That Blog Making Money For You!

"So how do I GET STARTED blogging for money?"

"Can you please tell me where to go... what to do... how to get started...."

I hear these questions all the time and because I am a niche blogger myself, I simply do not have the time to help everyone! (I make my money with affiliate marketing so I have to add posts to my blogs,too...:)

But maybe what I CAN do is set up a few short and simple steps here to help you get started blogging... believe me, once you get started, you will never stop learning.

The hardest part for many people is to simply to get started blogging. It was not that long ago that the mere thought of blogging gave me a headache, not to mention seo and keywords and all that stuff... I am not kidding!

So here is what I would advise you to do....

Step #1) Go to clickbank.com and register - it's free - once you have done that you are able to browse the marketplace and see what they offer as affiliate products to market. Most of the clickbank products are e-products so you want to be careful. If it looks cheesy to you, then stay away from it!

Step#2) Also go to a few other affiliate programs like linkshare.com, amazon.com, commission junction and regsiter with each one, it is free as well , do so and browse their categories.
(some of these require you to have some sort of website or blog set up already... just wait on those till later...)

Step#3) Now go to blogger.com or wordpress.com and set up a simple blog - let's say you are wanting to promote the program 'six pack abs' that you can find on clickbank - you will want to have your blog name something related to 'six pack abs' and you may have to play around with it till you find one that is available...

(use the keyword search tool at http://www.seobook.com/ - it's a free tool)

Then you start posting about six pack abs on your blog - linking back to the ad page with the link provided to you from clickbank - it is called a hoplink and should look something like http://xxxxx.truthaboutabs.hop.clickbank.net/ except the xxx's will be your own tracking link.

Remember - the more posts you have on your blog, the more exposure you get on google search - BUT be patient, it can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks for google searchers to find you....

Okay - in a nutshell - that is how to get started and I will post more soon.... :)

Free Keyword Search Tool - Helps Rank High in Google!

A few tips and excerpts from PotPieGirl's Training with the One Week Marketing Plan... on how to use the free keyword search tool with seobook.com and Google search tools.

"Keyword research is one of the toughest things when learning all this internet marketing mumbo-jumbo, isn't it?

Seems everyone has a different keyword research technique - or free keyword search tool they use, and you're left wondering which way is up and maybe even MORE confused than ever.

Been there. Done that. =)

Do you need help?

First off, I am FAR from a keyword research genius, but I DO have a few tricks up my sleeve."

Jennifer goes on to explain how you can search out a specific keyword to see if you have a chance at ranking high on the search engines or if you are better off digging deeper in the 'keyword sandbox'.

Tip #1

You HAVE to have your keyword phrase IN your title.. Have to...have to...have to... did I say you MUST have your keyword phrase in your title!

Article title, blog title, Squidoo title, - it has to be in the title.

Tip #2

Have that EXACT keyword phrase within the first few sentences of your blog, or your Squidoo intro module.

Often Google will return those first few sentences as the description people see when they google your keyword phrase.

Tip #3

In the anchor text of links ON your blog or Squidoo lens - or in articles they need to be in the resource box.

An anchor link is simply a clickable link on your blog or Squidoo lens. Google puts weight on anchor text ON your page as well as the title and intro.

For instance if your keyword phrase is ' run a car on water', then that EXACT phrase needs to be in your title, intro and as anchor text somewhere on your page.

.... these are just a sampling of the tips and tricks you will learn from Potpiegirl and the One Week Marketing Plan as you continue your online marketing career whether it is affiliate marketing or with a home based business - she will help you learn how to EFFECTIVELY do your online marketing.

She uses the free keyword research tool available with seobook.com and I camp out in that place whenever I get a chance.

Keyword research is VITAL to your success with anything you do online. Without keywords you will have no traffic and without traffic there is no money!