Guide To Affiliate Marketing

When you first start out in affiliate marketing, you have to make the decision between pay per click (PPC) vs. free methods of marketing. Each one has its own distinct advantages and disadvantages. The method you choose will depend a lot on your starting budget, as well as your personal interests. Both have the potential to make you a lot of money, if you use them correctly.

PPC means that you pay for ads associated with the keywords you choose. However, you only actually pay for the ads whenever someone clicks on them. So, for example, if you are promoting an online payday loan service and choose the keyword “fast cash online,” you’ll write a short ad based around that keyword. Then, you’ll go to your Google AdSense account and tell Google how much you’re willing to pay per click for that ad. Google will tell you the minimum it’s willing to accept per click, and if you both agree, your ad will go live. Whenever someone searches for your chosen keyword, they’ll see your ad. If they click on it and make a purchase, you get a commission for the product you’re promoting.

Of course, this type of marketing takes money, and not everyone has a lot of that when starting out. Therefore, a lot of new affiliate marketers choose to use free marketing methods. These can be just as powerful at bringing in sales as PPC, but take more time and effort to get rolling. Basically, you’ll be writing informational articles about the products or niches you’re promoting. You’ll then post these articles to online repositories like GoArticles or EzineArticles, and include a link to your website at the end of each one. When people click the link, your site will give them more information (and perhaps a free report), and then provide links to the merchant’s page. Whenever someone makes a purchase through your link, you get a commission.

Even if you choose to start out with free marketing methods, you can always try PPC later, when you’ve made some money with writing articles. Like anything, making money with affiliate marketing takes some work, but once you get it going, the financial rewards can be tremendous.