Getting into affiliate marketing

January 24, 2008 – 11:02 pm

There are many different ways that you can make money on the internet, but one way that has been very successful for me so far is affiliate marketing.

If you don’t know what affiliate marketing is then you should read my introductory posting on affiliate marketing.

Even if you don’t have any previous experience with either building websites or online marketing but fancy having a go at setting up your own website to run some affiliate campaigns off then you should. I had no experience before I started but I taught everything I know by myself, for virtually no outlay.

A domain name can cost as little as £3 per year and many hosting packages come in at under £20 per year some are even free (I haven’t tried this yet so can’t comment). But you don’t even need to bother with that, many successful sites are run on blogging platforms like Blogger.com which are free to use.

If you do want to build your own site there is a wealth of information online, you do need to have a bit of knowledge about HTML, but there are many excellent HTML editors hich mean you can get away with knowing the bare minimum. Dreamweaver offer a free 30 trail which is a great tool to start playing about with thought it is expensive if you want to buy it.

One of the great things I found about building websites is that you can get results very quickly, ok I admit your sites will probably look at bit amateurish to start with but it is a steep learning curve and if you keep at it you will get the hang of it very quickly.

Another tool that I could not live without is Wordpress which is a free blogging platform you can install on your site it means you don’t need to hand code your webpages, but the advantages of wordpress are so huge I would recommend using it. (You do need to have a bit of knowledge about PHP and Mysql so if you are a beginner get the jist of HTML first then learning about Wordpress).

When it comes to learning about affiliate marketing thankfully the subject is a bit of an open book, there are loads of really helpful affiliates out there that are more than happy to help share their knowledge with others.

An excellent forum that I have got loads of useful information on is www.affiliates4u.com.

And some affiliate blogs that I keep an eye on are: 

www.affiliatestuff.co.uk
www.affiliatestudent.co.uk
www.here.org.uk
www.affiliateblog.co.uk

One other thing I would say is that Rome wasn’t built in a day, affiliate marketing takes time, you do need good ideas for your sites and a bit of knowledge about SEO (search engine optimisation) and PPC (payperclick advertising) are an advantage but if you willing to learn and can stick at it the rewards will pay out.