My Online Business Adventure

Anyone setting up an online home business will need to learn internet marketing. For the person who is new to marketing online, it can at first appear to be an overwhelming and difficult area to understand.

Many people sign up for affiliate marketing sites because they see a way of earning some money quickly and easily. Unfortunately, unless they know how to market an online business, or have very good training, the system will not work for them. This is usually because of a misconception about how quickly it is possible to make a profit, and because they do not understand the basics of internet marketing. 

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Ros Bott

Achieve Financial Freedom Online

Professional Coaching for Your Change of Career

If you thought affiliate marketing was all about greed and scams, think again. At the heart of this growing industry is the necessity of helping others to succeed. While most affiliate marketing tips will be about how to get sales, leads and sign-ups, I also want to say that if you are concentrating on how it benefits you alone, then you are missing the point.

Affiliate marketing, or multi-level marketing, relies on an active downline. The success you feel when you get your first sign-up is great - but it is not, and should never be, the end of that particular achievement. You now need to build a relationship: one of trust and helpfulness. The way this industry works is by helping others to succeed - that’s why I like it so much.

Personally, I love it when I get an email from one of my affiliates - or from someone who has not yet signed up and is looking for some advice. I enjoy being helpful, and I get a real buzz from the gratitude I receive when I have tried to help someone honestly.

Here are a few tips for dealing with questions from potential sign-ups or affiliates:

1. Most importantly, be honest. If someone asks you how long it takes to make money (as many of them will), don’t pretend that it can happen overnight just to try and get a sale. This will only lead to disillion and distrust when they are still struggling after a few months, and they are more likely to give up at that point. I would rather have five affiliates who are prepared to work hard and give it time, than 100 affiliates who don’t think they need to do anything!

2. Be considerate. It’s insensitive to try and get someone to buy into your really expensive program if you know they have very little money. Instead, guide them into a free program or a free trial, and give them as much help as you can in free marketing. You may not gain financially from them at first, but once they get going they could turn into a high earning affiliate.

3. Be friendly. Offer yourself as a friend and mentor. People who are completely new to the business may feel lost at first, and knowing that there is someone they can turn to for honest advice will make them feel secure and that they are not alone.

4. Be patient. People can ask odd questions sometimes - and sometimes they don’t always understand your words or the system. Remember that people who don’t have English as a first language often find it very difficult. Try to answer questions with clarity and be happy for them to ask as much as they need.

5. Be Yourself. A personal email is so much better than a pre-printed standard letter. Of course you will use these at times, but when dealing with an individual, always take the time to write and apply yourself to their particular issues. Allow your personality to come through the email so that people feel they are dealing with a real human being.

6. Offer more than they ask. Think hard about how you can help someone. You may know of something that they hadn’t even thought of. For example, I sometimes suggest to people who want to upgrade but can’t afford to that they do some paid surveys, which can help them earn the money they need. Always try to give back more than they have asked for - they will thank you for it.

Most of the people I know in this industry are helpful and honest. Not only that, but some of the programs are built around helping others: for example, Success University.

One of the most rewarding things in life is being able to make a contribution to other people. If you are someone who wants to benefit others, then an online home business could be just the thing.

That’s my affiliate marketing tip for today!

Ros Bott

Find home business opportunities here: Financial Freedom Online

People new to affiliate marketing may be forgiven for being overwhelmed by all the things that they are being told to do by their chosen program. Many affiliate programs do have very good step-by-step training - but even these are not always perfect, and many suggest ways of marketing that are too expensive for the newbie who is struggling to pay their bills very month. So, here are a few tips on how to do affiliate marketing without blowing your budget.

1. First of all, in order not to blow your budget, you need to set a budget in the first place. What can you afford to spend every month without putting yourself into debt? It doesn’t have to be much - but I would suggest an absolute minimum of $50. This should just about cover website hosting and at least one monthly upgrade fee.

2. If your program does not provide you with your own website, I strongly recommend that you get one.

If you want to get your own, I also recommend using Host4Profit for your website hosting. It costs just under $30 per month, but it has its own affiliate program so once you’ve recruited 3 people, it pays for itself. The PIPS program (see right) uses H4P and automatically promotes it on your website.

3. Next, you need to find out how to optimize your website using keywords. There are some good e-books about this subject - some free and some that you need to pay for. You need to learn this in order to get traffic to your website. You can learn about websites and optimization in this e-book, Dotcomology.

4. The other most important way of getting backlinks and traffic to your website is by blogging and article writing. The good news is, these are both FREE! Writing a daily blog, with your website address at the bottom and your own personalised style of writing is a great way of building trust and also creating backlinks. The more links you have directed back to your site, the higher you will rank in the search engines.

5. Article writing is not as difficult as it sounds. If this is totally new to you, I suggest you read my article here: How to Write Articles if You Are Not a Writer.

6. Submit your website to free directories. This is hard work, but it is well worth it. Again you will be creating backlinks - the more the merrier! Do a google search for free directories and try to submit to between 5 and 10 a day.

7. Use traffic exchanges and set up your own ads. If you join a traffic exchange for free, you will need to do a lot of clicking in order to get traffic credits. If you pay, you will get a certain amount of credits, which will give you time to work on other things. The best one I know is TrafficSwarm.

8. You will come across many offers and promotional tools as an affiliate marketer. Many of these cost money. Before splashing out on anything, do some research to make sure it’s something that really works and won’t be a waste of your cash. The best way of doing this is by joining an internet marketing forum. Many people on these forums are experts and have experience of different programs and will give you straight answers on what works and what doesn’t.

That’s pretty much it for starters. The good thing is that you can learn how to do affiliate marketing while you are doing it! You don’t have to do the training before you begin. You can just plunge right in and get going and learning on the job is the best way of learning anything.

For opportunities and ideas to get you started, see my website below.

Ros Bott

Financial Freedom Online