What is affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is a way for businesses to spread the word about their business through people who are willing to advertise for the company if the company pays a percentage or set price to the person who is advertising. Affiliate marketing does not require an investment in stock or other products. It can be started for the cost of a website and your time. If you pick the right affiliate program money making opportunity then success will follow.

How do I find and decide what to promote? The first step in deciding what product to promote is to list your interests and/or hobbies. You should pick a product to promote that is related to an area of interest or you will soon find yourself losing motivation.

How do I know what products are selling well? Check keywords related to your interest to determine exactly how many times a particular keyword was searched for over the last month. Another way to find products to promote is to visit the different affiliate networks, such as ShareASale.com or Clickbank.com. Look at the statistics that show the top products being sold and the affiliate average weekly earnings. The primary keyword, such as dog, should have a good number of searches as well as a wide variety of other keywords in things related to the main keyword, such as dog houses or dog food.

Should I look for a commission threshold? Many experienced and successful affiliate marketers recommend working with a company whose affiliates earn 60 commission or more on digital products, 50 or more on high priced items and 40 or more on products that have recurring monthly billing. Companies that give their affiliates less than this are really not worth your time.

Do I have to know how to build a website? No, you do not need to know how to build a website. You can simply download Wordpress from Wordpress.com or use a free Wordpress blog at Wordpress.org. Wordpress has many, many templates to choose from and plug ins are found easily all over the Internet.

How do I get a domain name? It is very inexpensive to get a domain name. Make sure the domain name has some of the keywords of the product you are selling in the name itself. For instance, if you are selling dog toys you may want the domain name cheapdogtoys.com or cutedogtoys.us. You would not want to get a domain name that was something totally unrelated to the product. When picking out a domain name try to get the name connected, as in the examples above, unless it is already taken. If it is already taken you can get a domain name with hyphens, such as cute dog toys.us or cheap dog toys.com. You can easily set up your Wordpress blog at whichever hosting company you choose. You do not have to purchase your domain name at your hosting company, but it makes things much more straightforward.

Once I have the domain name and website, what next? The next step is getting content for your site. The content is what will draw people to your website to begin with. People use the Internet to find information. You will provide that information at your site. If you consistently update the site with new information, your site will be picked up by the search engines and people will come back more often.

Where do I advertise? You can advertise online or offline. Use the signature line on email to promote your business and post on forums and include your signature line. Pay per click ads are another option for advertising, although you should be very careful not to bankrupt yourself before you even get your business off the ground. Promote the product at article websites such as EzineArticles.com and use social networks to promote your business. Create business cards or fliers to use offline. Any way you want to get the word out about your product is an option, so long as it is legal. Try to get a good mix of advertising; do not rely on just one method to market your business. Persistence pays off; when you select and market the right affiliate program money making opportunity, success will be at your fingertips before you know it.

To your success,