So You Want To Be An Affiliate Marketer?

We each have our own passions in life. For many that passion is expressed in the form of a hobby. Whether it be a good book, your favorite music, movie or even growing plants, each of these passions carries us away from our daily cares as we lose ourselves in them. But, unless you really love your job, your hobby probably doesn't make you any money.

Creating a hobby that makes money is simply a matter of sharing your interests with others who share similar passions. There is a big difference between doing what you have to do to earn a living and doing what you love to do. Turning your hobby into an income stream can not only supplement your job income but it can replace it. Those who make things can open an online store. But what are those of us who don't make things going to do? Becoming an affiliate marketer provides a way to start making money online by promoting other peoples products or services.

Affiliate marketing is a business relationship shared between a product creator/site owner(also referred to as a vendor) and one or more affiliates. The affiliate gets paid for sending traffic to the vendor in the form of clicks, leads or sales. The advantage to the affiliate is that he doesn't have to spend months creating a product, establishing merchant accounts, or worrying about customer support as these are the vendor's responsibility.

All of the benefits of being an affiliate marketer make it a great place to start, if you have what it takes. Before you dive into your affiliate marketing adventure, you should first decide on your area of interest. What do you know the most about and which product or service will you be best at selling? Once you find your area of expertise, determination, patience, and perseverance come next. These are the characteristics you need to succeed at affiliate marketing.

Far too many people, who began with passion and desire, have been overcome by impatience and quit. There is no try. There is only do or do not. Some will see success quickly but for most it will take some time. You need to be aware of your strengths and your weaknesses. By knowing your strengths you can utilize them to your advantage. By knowing your weaknesses you can seek out training and instruction to strengthen them. Many people are all too aware of their weaknesses and use them as an excuse not to move forward when they should see them as an opportunity for growth.

Being an affiliate marketer is not all that easy. You don't just sign up and start receiving checks. You may need to learn how to set up a web site as well as learning various marketing techniques. Marketing is all about attracting people to one particular opportunity therefore you need to focus on one product, service or opportunity at a time. Pick one and forget about the rest. Once you're experiencing some success you can expand your offerings. As an affiliate marketer you will need to be teachable. There is always something more to learn. There is always room to grow.

Knowing how to market your site effectively will mean the difference between thousands of targeted visitors looking to buy from you and the occasional random visitor who happened to stumble upon your site. Avoid the mistake of building a quick short-lived business. Developing a long-term business that earns consistently is far better than a quick buck that is short-lived. You might investigate the art of up-selling. We all want more for our money. Up-selling is simply attracting a customer with a lower priced item then offering them a higher priced item with more benefits.

Affiliate marketing is more than just adding a link to a website. While you will see some sales, most affiliates develop marketing campaigns that drive traffic to their offer. Successful fishermen know that the bait they use is determined by what they're trying to catch. Know your target audience. Using the right 'lure' is critical to the affiliate's success. Once you have a visitor's attention it's time to create a relationship with them. The relationship that you create with your visitor will be determined by the content you offer them. Provide valuable information and they will return to you again and again. Provide them with junk and you'll lose them fast. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. People don't care that you want to make money. They care about their need, their want or their problem. When they see that you have the answer to their problem they will throw their money at you and come back to you for a solution to their next problem.

So, do you still want to be an affiliate marketer?

If you have a desire to get started as an affiliate marketer or if you, like myself, have tried and failed at affiliate marketing I invite you to take a moment and visit http://www.websiteaffiliates.org where you will discover a program that opened the doors of my understanding how affiliate marketing works.

To your success,
Daniel Wyatt

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