Prosperity In 2010

Many of todays top IMers started out as affiliates selling the products of someone else . The
reasons for this are pretty simple and straight forward.

#1 No need for your own website
#2 Little to no selling on your part
#3 You don’t have to have your own product
#4 There is money to be made doing this

Your objective is to promote the products of another marketer. An affiliate is a commissioned
representative. You tell your friends and contacts about Joe Marketer’s products and why they
should buy them. When your clients purchase Joe’s product, he in turn, pays you a predetermined commission for your promotion of his products

These commissions can be quite lucritive. They can range from 25% to as high as 75%, with
some going up to 95%. As an example, if a product is sold for $40 with a 50% commission,
you make $20.

If you do this ten times a week, that adds up to $800 a month. Do that for five
people and before you know it you have the capital to start your own venture.

Since you don’t need your own website you can start with very little money coming out
of your pocket. You have no need to worry about getting a domain name or paying for hosting,
because that is up to the owner. When you send prospects to his site they will be taken care of
by him the rest of the way

This includes selling and delivery of the product. The only thing close to selling is your need
to advertise the product to as many people as possible, convincing them to go check it out. The
number of places to advertise for free is huge. Again, no money out of pocket, unless you want
to spend a few dollars to pay for more ads.

Craig’sList, ad exchanges, Free Classified ads, forums and article sites are all great FREE places
to advertise.

Craig’s List is one of the better known free classified ad sites. There are way too many to list
here. One of the sites found had a list of over 300 free classified ad sites you can post to. Just
follow the rules and post to them as you would a newspaper.

Ad exchanges are pretty good too. They can be a little time consuming though, because to
keep your advertising free you must view other marketers ads, earning credits to run your ads.
You are also allowed to post Banner Ads on most of these sites. For X amount of credits
you’re allotted so many views of of your banners.

Forums take some finesse to get the best results but are well worth the time. You can’t go into
these with guns blazing, shouting out “This is an advertisement”. Most forums don’t allow
direct ads.

You need to join in the conversations to build recognition and rapport with all the
other members. Then, when you have earned their trust, you can add a line in your signature to the effect of ; If you like my ideas go to this link to find more info.

Article Marketing is similar to forums. It’s not a good idea to try posting blatant advertisements here. Just post a short, to the point article related to your subject. Give them just enough info to pique their interest. Then post the link you want them to go to in your author’s bio.

Posting in these sites should get you  well on your way to making enough to bankroll your own
project.

The third reason mentioned above is pretty self-explanitory. Since you are promoting a product for someone else, you don’t need to worry about product creation or finding a product of yourown to sell. This helps you to concentrate on what we are all here for, Making Money.

In fact, some of those who got their start in IM as affiliates, are still making their fortunes as
strictly Affiliate Marketers. That is all they do, market the products of other people. The only
products of their own are guides on how to be better or more successful Affiliate Marketers.

Even the most successful “Gurus” in Internet Marketing are also affiliate marketers. Just check out how many big name marketers are promoting the product of the next big launch. You’re sure to find at least a handful of familiar names as affiliates or JV partners.

So, it’s not hard to see how becoming an affiliate can build the working capital you need to
support your niche. The main thing is to just do it.

Go to Clickbank and find a couple products you know a little or lot about to promote. Then
write some articles about them. Four to six, each 300-500 words should be sufficient.

Now go to the search engines to find a list of article submission sites to send these articles to
and submit them. Then start submitting a new article for each subject every day. You can also add to the number of sites you submit to every day to increase your exposure.

Following these steps may not make you rich, but with enough practice and repetition you
will be able to finance the projects within your niche. This in turn can make you Rich !!!

When choosing your niche one needs to avoid the extremes. Each end of the spectrum can look
very appealing. On one end you have the broad, easy to find sites, that come from one keyword.Search on the other end to find specific long tail keywords.

The drawback to a broad single keyword is just that, It’s Too Broad. If you use Boats for your
keyword, when someone searches for a Skeeter Bass Boat, they may find you on the 23rd
page of Google. I doubt it, because hardly anyone will search past the 2nd page.

At the other end, Two Person Outrigger Canoe in Omaha,Nebraska, wont draw much attention either.   Unless someone in Omaha wants an outrigger canoe. Still not very profitable.

You probably get the picture. The idea here is to pick a niche that fills the needs of the most
people. Yes, there is a demand for boats and products related to boats and boating. But boats and boating are entirely too general.

In this day and age people don’t want to go through 200 pages of listings to find something.
They want instant gratification, yesterday.

Ok, so you want a niche that has something to do with boating. Lets consider some narrower
possibilities. Do you like to fish from a boat or are you more into speed and performance?

See how this narrows down the search possibilities? But it is still too broad. Lets break it down
even further.

You’re into speed and performance so think about what you have to offer there. If you know
quite a bit about it then do something along the lines of advice. What type of hull on the boat
works best. Maybe tell them which prop helps the boater plane out sooner.

Using this process of elimination along with your research should move you closer to finding
a niche that could be very profitable. Not so broad as to not be found and not too specific that
you limit yourself to just a few sales. Which is on the opposite end of the spectrum.

Just like being too broad can kill your sales, so can being too centered. If you limit the scope of
your niche too much you will only have so much to sell.

You may be thinking if you concentrate on something small there will be more exposure and less competition. This is a good thing, just don’t be too concentrated on one thing or one geographical area or both.

In the earlier example there might have been a market for outrigger canoes in Omaha, but whatabout San Diego or Dallas? Be specific about the product but expand your area.

How about 3 or 4 man outrigger canoes? Offer canoes with special option packages. Maybedifferent canoe styles without outriggers. Again you are allowing for more choices in the niche you pick.

The main point trying to be made here is to find a middle ground . Choose a niche that has a lot to offer without limiting the possibilities. Pick something that receives a lot of attention and has moderate competition.

Remember, competition is good, it is a positive indicator of an active market.