This is a Guest Post by Sunil. Sunil owns over a dozen profitable niche websites and is the author of “How to Go from $0 to $1,000 a month in Passive and Residual Income in Under 180 Days All in Your Spare Time“, a FREE report you can download instantly from his Extra Money Blog, where he discusses expedited wealth building through entrepreneurship, personal finance and internet marketing. In 2007, he sold his ecommerce website for $250,000 to a top Ebay Power Seller and since then has sold several niche sites for five figures each. You can read more about him and his work on his blog.

Affiliate marketing is one of the simplest ways bloggers can monetize their web properties. By simple, I mean it is relatively easy to implement. However, do not confuse simple for easy. Making money from affiliate marketing, or in general online is anything but easy.

Affiliate marketing refers to the marketing and sales of products and services that you do not personally own, thus the title of an affiliate. When you are an affiliate of a particular company, you are given permission by that company to sell its products and services in exchange for a commission payment.


As you can imagine, most website owners and bloggers can join the affiliate marketing space relatively easily. All it takes is a quick application, and providing that the topic of your website or blog is somewhat relevant to the company’s products or services, your application is likely to get approved.

Many internet entrepreneurs choose this route of monetization because it does not require them to come up with a product or service of their own. They can simply choose one that already exists in their niche and pitch it to their readership. The good news is that no matter what niche you play in, there is likely an affiliate program that caters to your audience.  It’s a turnkey solution indeed.


The Best Approach to Affiliate Marketing

There are five tips I’d like to leave you with that will help you succeed as an affiliate marketer online.

First, show your readership how you have used the product or service, and how it has helped deliver value to you. In other words, why should they buy it?  Money doesn’t grow on trees, so you really have to do a good job conveying the value proposition of your offer.

Second, leverage video channels such as YouTube. You can write all you want, but if the product or service calls for it, go video. Seeing is believing, and pictures are definitely worth more weight than words. Utilize video as a tool to show your readers what the product has done for you and what it can do for them.

Third, provide honest and transparent reviews of what you are promoting. Don’t be afraid to mention the cons along with the pros. You will be surprised how much honesty converts.

Fourth and finally, do not hard sell. Do not ever tell or compel your readers to purchase your offer. Rather, provide as much honest information about the product and tell them how it has benefited you and why you like it. This strategy is a soft selling strategy that works a lot more effectively than hard and pushy sales copy.

Finally, although you may be able to sign up with individual companies / vendors as their affiliate individually through their websites, search affiliate platforms such as Commission Junction and ShareASale, where several merchants are registered. This will ensure you can easily manage your affiliate relationships in one spot rather than having to login to several different sites and keep track of each.

So there you have it, 5 solid tips for affiliate marketing online. I hope you found these helpful.

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