So Much Information, Where to Begin?

[DeniseG]

I have been blogging for about a year, but I really just got interested in making money a few months ago. Well, actually, making money became mandatory because my husband and I separated. *which has nothing to do with the price of eggs in China.

Aaaannyway, I have been bitten by the monetization bug. I owned a small advertising business that I ran out of my home for ten years and I have 10+ more years of marketing background, so this really does feel like coming home to me.

But my problem is that there is so much information I am overwhelmed at the volume and really don't know where to begin. I naively thought that because I had 100 people a day reading my freelancing blog that if I stuck some affiliate links on there I'd start making money. Of course, that's not how it worked.

I guess my first question is, is affiliate marketing more about selling products on your own niche website instead of adding links like I was? And how much traffic is a lot? And what in the heck does conversion mean? And where do I go to start learning about all of this stuff? The learning curve seems awfully steep to me right now. I am just now really beginning to understand blogging. Could it be that I am not ready for affiliate marketing?

Thanks for your feedback in advance.

Nooby Denise

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Denise,

Carpal's killing me today so heres a short partial answer and hope others will jump in.

Selling to other Internet marketers and bloggers is a tough way to start. We are all a pretty jaded bunch, more banner blind than the average surfer and we've already been hit by so many of the same offers. So if you are showing affiliate links about how to make money online you are heading in the wrong direction. (As a starting point at least.)

Easiest place to start is a smaller niche or a subset of a larger niche. Start off reading all the stickies here in the newbie forum, especially the ones about finding and capitalizing on a niche.

Can someone else give her some other tips too?
I need to rest my hands for a few.

[DeniseG]

Thanks, Linda. You are the second person today that has said they had carpel, a hazard of the job, it seems.

It just dawned on me today, what you said about marketing to other marketers. That makes perfect sense.

I will definitely do as you suggested and start by reading the stickies.