How to Start an Affiliate Business

 

This is one of the most amazing ways that any homeschool family can earn A LOT of money with almost no investment. There’s just one catch: it’s not easy. If you have some computer skills and know a little HTML (which could be a great homeschool project in itself!) you have a headstart.

 

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is when you promote another’s product for a pre-agreed upon commission. For instance, when you click on any of my Amazon banners and  make a purchase, I get a (very) small commission on your sale.(thank you!) Sometimes instead of a commission on a sale, companies will offer an amount for each click, or lead. The school banners you see on our sight pay me a small fee if you just fill out a form for more information. You choose what you want to promote, and how.

 

That sounds easy, what’s so hard about it?

If you know how to build websites and insert html links you are way ahead of most people. You don’t have to have a website, there are ways to promote with email or what they call “direct linking”. (No spamming, though!) What gets difficult is if you want to make a large income doing this, there are many things you need to know and do. Getting traffic to your site, learning conversion tactics,web site optimization, are just a few. This entire field has become quite a science. You don’t have to be an expert at any of this, but if you want to make a lot of money with it there are some important things you need to know.

 

Good Affiliate Guides

There are thousands of people out there that offer you their way to success with e-books, classes, and more. Many of these are very expensive, some in the thousands of dollars. Watch out, many of these ‘guides’ will end up telling you to do what they are doing...selling ways to become an affiliate! While information marketing is one of the easiest ways to make money fast, there is much more to consider.

 

My Favorites

I have been studying this subject for over 2 years, and have bought more than my share of ebooks and courses. More than half of them weren’t worth the money to print out. Out of over 200 different guides that I have examined closely, these are my recommendations:

 

Quit Your Day Job (it’s still free!)

Jeremy Palmer was still in his 20’s when he decided to give affiliate marketing a try and within a year he quit his day job, and in 2 more years was making over a million dollars a year. I discovered him quite by accident, by an article written by Commission Junction honoring him as their top seller. He didn’t do any self promotion at the time, but he finally wrote a how-to in the form of an ebook that sold for about $50. He’s in the process of updating it now and gives his ebook away in the spirit of “giving back”.

 

The only problem with using his method is he is a man of numbers and statistics. His ebook was Greek to me when I first read it, not having any knowledge of how any of this worked, and somewhat of a newbie at web publishing. It’s much better suited for the intermediate learner that has some internet marketing and web publishing under their belt.

                            >>Get Jeremy’s free ebook here

 

Rosiland Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook

This is the ebook that brought it all together for me, and she assumed a lot less knowledge from the newbie. I have one of her ads at the bottom of this page, and consider her one of the most down-to-earth affiliate teachers around. Sign up through that link and you’ll get a bunch of extras with your purchase!

 

Sign up for Rosiland’s (free) newsletter while you’re at it, she gives away a wealth of knowledge and information in them, and you will learn almost as much from these as her handbook!

                           >>more about Rosiland’s Handbook here

 

 

Don’t Know Where To Start Building a Website?

Site Sell (SBI) does it ALL.

 

For one price:

 

• Web hosting and Domain Name
• Helps you choose a niche market
• Step by step web builder
• Exactly how to optimize it for the search engines
• Takes you through all the steps to get FREE traffic
• Continues to coach you at every turn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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FREE information available  from

SBI University:

Regardless what you decide, these ebooks can make excellent tools in learning how to start a business online:

 

 

The Affiliate Masters Course

This is a 152 page Ebook that downloads in one click and you can print it out, or read it on your computer. There is an amazing amount of information on how to succeed as an affiliate marketer, and they assume you are a beginner, taking you all the way to becoming a master!

 

Service Sellers Masters Course

A great resource on starting and growing your service oriented business, online AND off.

 

Local Business Masters Course

For the local  business, primarily profiting from being a webmaster.

 

WAHM-it! The Masters Course

Written for the work at home mom, this book is a goldmine for any mom trying to make a decision about making money from home.

 

Net Writing Masters Course

This is a tremendous resource for learning to write copy for the web.

 

Make Your Net Auction Sell!

There really is an “e-biz in every closet”, and this ebook will help you get started smart.

There’s more, believe it or not, a virtual online university is available!

To view more, go to Site Sell

 

This package is one of the most recommended programs for those just starting out online. I decided to do it all myself, and spent much, much more than needed and took almost 2 years. There are still things to learn. Hindsight is best sight!

 

Universities and even MBA programs have offered SBI in their curriculums! It’s a top shelf program.

                            >>Read more about SBI here

 

Even if you have no intention to buy their course, you will want to download and read their ebooks - they’re free and will give you  excellent indepth material on several different ways to start an online business. Absolutely no obligation, but naturally, they will give you many reasons to buy their system.

 

I have been looking at this as an ideal way for teens to start a business, because it is a learning experience rolling all aspects of starting an online business into one place. Learning the hard way, when I started, I thought I could do it all myself, suffering greatly from super-mom syndrome at the time. In retrospect, I have spent far more than the $300 something SBI costs, and spent much more time than necessary learning it all from scratch. Think about it.

 

That’s it - the 3 best how-to’s on affiliate marketing listed from most difficult to the easiest. Rosiland’s ebook and SBI both come with a 30 day money back guarantee, so if you are good at writing and building websites, or would love to learn, these are some  great ways to start building a great income from home.