Information About Internet Affiliate Marketing, Guide to Affliate Web Marketing, Affiliate Marketing Tools Reviews

Affiliate marketing is promoting other people's products over the Internet and getting paid for it. It's not a whole lot different than starting a brick-and-mortar franchise where the parent company sells for us. We reap the rewards of the parent company's prior efforts and serve the public what the parent company offers.

However, affiliate marketing on the Internet involves getting the business TO the parent company. Therefore, affiliates do a lot of advertising and ad writing through ezines, e-mail, websites, blogs, videos, pay-per-click, forums, etc. The creative mind is always at work.

The FTC has imperative information about disclosures regarding affiliate marketing. On December 1, 2009, new laws went into effect. Click here to listen to interview with Jim Edwards (internet marketer) and Mr. Cleland, of the FTC.

"It takes money to make money" so goes the cliché. How true. In a way, an affiliate marketeer is a company representative. The good part is that we can represent hundreds of companies or specialize in only a few. We can put in as much time and/or money as we desire. Effort brings its own reward.

**TIP: Desire is the key. Knowledge is power.

Know your product!! We can't emphasize this enough. Knowing our product allows us to convey knowledge and passion into our website, blog, forum post or email. Visitors or "readers" will detect deception otherwise.

The tools and tidbits offered in this website are here for your consideration.

1. TRUE: Every serious 'marketeer' needs a website from which to work. On other pages of this website, we've recommended Site Sell, additionally known as Site Build It. It has all the tools you'll need to produce a profitable website of your own, from customized templates to keyword selection to meta-tag placement to strategy lessons and guides. Their tools incorporate search engine ranking and placement tips. SiteSell.com costs less than a dollar/day! Take the SBI! Video Tour!

Build your site with HostGator, a world leading provider of shared, reseller and dedicated web hosting. It's a privately held company based in Houston, Texas with a full in-house support team of over 150 industry veterans. Customers are not required to sign up for any contract longer than month to month service. They have no setup fees on any of their plans which start as low as $4.95/mo. Order Hostgator service here.

iPower.com is one of the World's Fastest Growing Web Hosting and Domain Name Registration Companies, currently hosting over 500,000 websites. With an iPower Pro plan, you can get a domain name, SSL (secure server capabilities), databases, e-commerce, website builder, and you can host unlimited domains for client packages. Their Pro plan starts at an affordable $7.95 (sometimes on sale).

2. TRUE: Affiliates can represent huge Fortune 500 companies or single entrepreneurs.

We went through the Personal Computer Training Course of PCTI. This 32-lesson online course takes you step-by-step through starting an affiliate business with the use of blogs. No website is needed. PCTI shows you how to get set up with Fortune 500 companies that pay you to direct traffic to their sites provided that traffic turns into a buyer (or possibly a lead, depending on the company). Their course costs $249 and is well worth it. For the novice, it gives a better insight into one segment of Internet marketing and how affiliate marketing can profit you.

If you prefer to work as an affiliate for single entrepreneurs, to help them promote their individual products, select someone who offers a product for which you have an interest. Your passion for their product needs to show through your marketing endeavors.

3. TRUE: If an affiliate business is a REAL business, one needs to have knowledge of their marketing and site performance.

Affiliate Reporting is "the first software platform of its kind to be designed exclusively for the affiliate marketing industry by former industry leading affiliate marketers." The Affliate Reporting software has full integration with all major search engines and affiliate networks (including several tier 2 affiliate networks). It also includes automated profitability analysis, alarms and notifications, bid management, customization and support, integrated keyword suggestion from WordTracker, and a simple-to-use set-up wizard.

4. TRUE: An affiliate marketing person has total control over his/her hours and income.

As an affiliate marketeer, you can work from your home or during your travels any time that's convenient to you. Many people make affiliate marketing a full-time job, devoting 8 hours or more per day. Successful marketers often create one blog or one page per day, constantly adding to their 'portfolio' of affiliate sites.

5. TRUE: Companies pay anywhere from 3% - 75% of sale. Some companies offer incentive bonuses.

Fortune 500 companies have a brand that sells. But because overhead may be high, or because they have physical products with low profit margins, they often pay a lower commission. However, volume comes from recognized brand names and if an affiliate creates an effective PreSell page, the volume of sales adds up, thus increasing the affiliate's profit. Many Fortune 500 companies offer increased commissions for high performance from their affiliates.

Digital products that can be resold over and over via downloads will pay higher percentages to affiliates. Their overhead is low, often resulting in 75% of the sale being paid as commissions.

6. Read, Study and Use the information that meets your need. Find your niche of interest and expertise.

One e-book we found useful is the Super Affiliate Handbook by Rosalind Gardner. It covers everything from A-Z. This handbook will start you at the beginning and take you through to the end, explaining all affiliate tools and paths.

TIP: If you build it, they don't always come. Content alone doesn't do it. Traffic alone doesn't do it. A website needs content, traffic, credibility and trust.