Ways to Get Started With Affiliate Marketing

The intention of this article is to help those who are brand new to the internet marketing / internet business world. So before I talk about how to get started with affiliate marketing I first want to clear up what affiliate marketing is and why you want to start an affiliate marketing business, or use affiliate offers along with your primary business opportunity or product offer. Affiliate marketing is simply promoting someone else's product and directing traffic to that particular product or website; and you are normally only paid whenever someone makes a purchase through your link. It's basically like a sales job that only pays on commission.

Why would you want to start an affiliate marketing business? Simple here are just the top 3 reasons off the top of my head:

1. There is no inventory
2. There is no cost (normally)
3. It's a very basic and easy way to start making money online.

You can offer affiliate products to people in your downline (if you're a network marketer) or to your customer base for additional products that they would be interested in. Thus giving you another way to earn money in your business.

Here are a few ways for you to get started with affiliate marketing:

1. Join a network such as clickbank.com or cj.com (Commission Junction)

By joining an affiliate network you gain access to thousands of products that you can promote across various different niches. So there's no excuse to not offer other products that will complement those that you sell.

2. Post reviews about the affiliate product

You can write and post reviews on your own blog, website or any other website that accepts affiliate links to be placed in your article or in your author box/signature. Reviews help buyers make an informed decision and you can even pitch various products against each other and see how they compare. You provide value by giving your readers the facts about the products and they will thank you by purchasing through your links.

3. Post banner ads on your website or blog

Posting an attention grabbing and visual ad on your website or blog can attract a lot of potential buyers. If you're not using these then you don't know what you're missing. Most affiliate programs provide a banner ad for their products for you to post on your own web pages also.

4. Forums

Joining and being active in a forum for your niche can literally bring you some over night success with affiliate marketing. If the forums allow you to post a web page address in your signature file try placing your affiliate link so that it appears every time that you make a post. I would suggest typing something descriptive about the product that invites a user to click on the link such as "Discover a Breakthrough Formula for Stopping Pimples in Their Tracks" and then linking the text.

5. Video Reviews

Much like making a review site or review article try it out with video and posting it up on you tube. You would be amazed at the power of video. Not only do people find these on the video sharing site they could also potentially find the video in a search engine like google.

So there you have it, 5 easy and simple ways to get started in affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is very simple but it is not easy. A lot of people usually become overwhelmed by the amount of work that is actually involved in driving traffic to any sort of website. But it is that way regardless of you promoting an affiliate program, your own product or even a network marketing business. Be prepared for continuous learning about how to take your marketing to that next level and make your work load less.