Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: How Does It Work and How Do You Make Money With It From Home?

Affiliate Marketing for Beginners: How Does It Work and How Do You Make Money With It From Home?
There are many ways of making money online, but affiliate marketing is one of the easiest and most lucrative ways there is.
So what exactly is affiliate marketing and why is it such a simple, yet effective, way for absolute beginners to make money online without having to spend too much in either time or money, and, without having to have any previous experience or expertise?

Here’s how Wikipedia defines affiliate marketing:
“Affiliate marketing is a type of performance-based marketing in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts. The industry has four core players: the merchant (also known as ‘retailer’ or ‘brand’), the network (that contains offers for the affiliate to choose from and also takes care of the payments), the publisher (also known as ‘the affiliate’), and the customer.”

Here’s how I like to explain it:
I want you to picture yourself at a gathering in a venue to which lots of folk have been invited, the vast majority of whom you have never met before.
You’re having a great time, meeting and chatting to lots of really interesting people. One women in particular (Jane) tells you that she runs a very successful business selling a brilliant product that helps people with a very specific problem (X). She even explains what makes her product so unique and how it has been proven to turn thousands of people’s lives around.

Now, later on, you are introduced to a guy (John) who, during your conversation, tells you he is very anxious to find a solution to his problem, which happens to be (X) too. He’s tried lots of stuff without success and is now absolutely desperate. But, wait a minute, how lucky is he? Didn’t you talk to somebody earlier who probably has the solution he’s looking for?

So you go on to explain how you had met this women who has this brilliant product that has been proven to help people just like him. You even explain the benefits as she described them to you.
You can see that John is getting excited and, being the helpful person you are, you seek out Jane and introduce John to her. After the introductions are over you excuse yourself and leave them chatting as you continue circulating and enjoying the evening.

Near the end of the evening, Jane comes over to tell you that John is coming into her store tomorrow to have a look at the product and, if he buys, she’s going to send you a 30% commission; so could you give her your address please? And even though you protest that “…there’s really no need, I was glad to help you both…” she’s very insistent, so you give in and give here your details.
Anyway, about a week later, having completely forgotten about the whole episode of course, you are pleasantly surprised to receive a thank you note and check through the post for $90. Jane had followed through on her promise!

Did you see what happened there? How easy was that?
Think about it; all you did was meet a “potential buyer” at a “venue” where you got them excited about a solution to their problem, introduced them to the “vendor” who closed the sale at their “premises” and paid you a commission for the referral.

Nice illustration, I hope you agree, but how does this translate into making money with affiliate marketing from the comfort of your own HOME?
Well, think of it this way…

The “venue” is your website where you’ll promote the benefits of the vendor’s product(s). “Potential buyers” are people with a common interest or problem who you attract to your website. “Vendor’s premises” is the vendor’s website where the actual sale transaction will take place.

That’s really all there is to affiliate marketing:
1. Identify a section of the general population that has a common, but pressing, problem or need (a niche market), e.g. acne, foreclosure.

2. Find a product (physical or digital) that has been proven to solve that problem or meet that need, and already sells well in that particular niche.

3. Sign-up for free as an affiliate for the product through an online affiliate network which brings together product vendors and affiliates.

4. Promote the product on your website which will contain sought-after information about the niche and the product.

5. Attract tons of targeted (i.e. niche) visitors to your website.

6. Get them to click on your unique affiliate link that takes them to the vendor’s website where they can buy the product.

7. Get a commission automatically paid into your bank or PayPal account whenever someone you referred buys the product.

And none of these things is difficult to do: you don’t have to be “techie” or have any specialist knowledge or experience. In fact, once set up properly, nearly everything works on autopilot, so you can make money even as you sleep!

But, you may ask, why would a product vendor pay me a commission for promoting their stuff? Doesn’t that reduce their profits?
Well, yes and no!

Certainly, their profit on the items that are sold off the back of your website would be less than if they sold them themselves. But that’s the point: if you hadn’t put those buyers their way they wouldn’t have made those sales in the first place.

In fact, every sale they make via an affiliate like you is additional income they otherwise wouldn’t have had, plus, they didn’t have to do any marketing for it at all. You took care of that.
And every sale they make from prospects you send to their website means an automatic commission to you. So it’s a win-win situation!
And I say again, it’s not difficult to do; you just have to know the right way to go about it.

So, if you’re just starting out or you’re an affiliate marketer that is struggling, please click here: http://johnsalternow.com where you’ll get FREE step-by-step training on how to start making money online in as little as 48 hours.

This is a Guest Post written by John Salter, if you would like to be considered for a guest post, please contact me.