I’m a beginner, need some help!

[Linda Buquet]

IMPORTANT NOTE re willywonka's post above.

DO NOT post affiliate links on MySpace EVER!!!

There are lawsuits going on against affiliate networks and most networks now prohibit MySpace marketing. They can cancel your affiliate account and
WITHHOLD your commissions. So it's really not worth even trying.

[visit_faraz]

Thanks Linda,
This was really important information.
I had heard about this rule of myspace before but never paid any attention to it. Everybody was doing it and getting away with it.

It seems that now, they are getting more strict .

I would be careful now.

Thanks.
bye,
faraz

[jcorkern]

The first secret is that there are no secrets. But basics will always take care of you.
to make money online you have to run it like a business.
1. Pick your product or service

2. go shopping, this is to spy on your competition and see how they do it, NOT TO BUY.

3. Learn to write Great Headlines. Articles, ads,and forum post are worthless if nobody clicks in. I would spend a lot of time learning this. Without good headlines. the rest dosen't matter because you will have no traffic. you can do a search for "headline templates" and get some free ones to learn with. Do not Buy Any, there are free places to get them

4. Ad Copy: If you want good ad copy, go look at the pitch pages of the ebook sellers from clickbank. There is a pattern for them and they are proven and can be formated to just about any subject, service or product. you can even watch infomercials and get the pattern there, or good commercials on T.V. Magazines ect... The world if full of top notch ads and ad copy, learn from them.

5. Find other free places to advertise. Craigslist (#10 Site in the world and it is free), yahoo answers is a good place to answer questions and post links, sigs in forums gets some traffic if you do know what you are talking about and are honest and really try to help people ( I get clicks from this forum all the time). You can also run low cost ads on places like adbrite,adengage, ect... Google adwords is not the place to start for a beginner, you will likely break the bank.


6. Make sure you have good customer service. this will take what you do get and amgnify the results. Anyone who tells you word of mouth does not work on the net is not making long term money.

I struggled as you are now for over 2 years. bought all of the ebooks, webinars and even paid thousands for seminars from the Gurus, Most Gurus do make a killing, they are good at what they do!

This is what changed my life. I went to a siminar in Las Vegas in 2001 and paid a couple thousand for a seminar, Felt i got robbed and comfronted the "GURU" and he gave me the keys to the kingdom so to speak. This is what he said, "Do not buy what i sell, Do what I do to make you want to buy what i sell and then you will make a lot of money"

Learn, study and be persistent and it will pay off.

I know that it sounds easy, but it is like any business, it takes capital. The advantage of the web is that you do not need a lot of cash capital, you can exchange the cash for time invested.

"Hope is not a method...
nor is it a strategy"

Prepare and your dreams will become a reality.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Your words of wisdom will be added to the 5 Star Hall of Fame.

"The first secret is that there are no secrets. But basics will always take care of you. to make money online you have to run it like a business."

.
.
.

[Linda Buquet]

Wow jcorkern that was an AWESOME post!
Absolutely true and great advice.

I just decided I'm going to start a 5 Star HALL of FAME thread where
great posts like this can be collected and shared.

jcorkern, yours will be the 1st in there!

[JamieConverseon]

I've had many affiliates ask this question over the years. I would definitely follow the advice of all those posting here.
You'll most likely need to learn html, design, marketing and all that, but first, you need to figure out what you are going to talk about. And how do you do that?

Something I always tell a beginner is to start with what they know best. Start where you are passionate. I personally am passionate about cycling and my kids, so if I were to start an affiliate site, I would probably start in those two areas. Since I am pretty knowledgeable in cycling and triathlons (I race competitively) and I have been a parent for 10 years, it would be much easier for me to develop an intelligent site/web property about these two issues.

It enables you to more easily demonstrate expertise and/or authority in this field without seeming contrived or overtly "sales-y". Not that that is always a bad thing

Once you have determined your niche, then you can brainstorm ideas on how to turn that into a moneymaker which will lead you to questions like: "what do I build?", "how do I build it?", "how do I get traffic?", "how do I make money at it?".

Hope that helps!

[Linda Buquet]

Great points Jamie! Thanks so much for weighing in!

[kpfingaz]

Have a plan. Make a list of the things you need to know and educate yourself about them in a practical way.

If you need to know how to build a simple webpage, just take a few hours and learn html. There are a lot of free resources out there for anything and everything that you need to know.

Organize your time and apply what you learn and you will become better at making money online.

[willywonka]

In response to my previous post concerning Myspace...

Myspace was and still is a great way to send free traffic to somewhere else on the web.

As Linda said, there are lawsuits out there, they are cracking down on blatant marketers, BUT that doesn't mean there is not a place for internet marketers there.

Use common sense, don't put obvious affiliate links on your profiles or comments or anywhere else, but you can still send people to your website and put all the affiliate links you want on that.

This was an idea for someone starting out that has very little to no money to start. Using Myspace and a blog platform such as blogger (which is also FREE) is a great way to get your feet wet on so many levels and to get that first affiliate sale really feels good, especially if you did it without paying a dime!

Don't be afraid to use social networks to get traffic! There are others besides Myspace as well. They are still a fantastic way to get free traffic!

If anyone has any more questions regarding this technique, you can PM me.

Hope that clears up the confusion!

[Batyaboo]

I suggest you start a blog on Blogger. It's free and it's easy. You just have to think of the content. Choose a topic you feel comfortable writing about and start to post every day. Pick a couple of products that fit in with your topic and slip some affiliate links into your posts or in the sidebars.
Insert code from Statcounter in your blog to see if you are getting any traffic.
Post on forums related to your topic and keep posting to your blog.
Watch and see the traffic increase over the next month.
After you build up some traffic I recommend putting an optin box on your blog and signing up with an autoresponder like Aweber so that you can start building up a list. Offer a free report or a free email course on your topic to get people to sign up.
Once you have a list you can REALLY start to sell to them.
Best of luck!
Dena

[Ramon]

Brooklyn-3p3,

Just like you, I'm a newbie too. For me I will start from the very basic and will make my way up slow and steady. Like everyone else, I spent quite a bundle on e-books that promised to make you rich very quickly. It's not an easy task. I'm still reading and trying out some of the steps taught in the e-books and hopefully I can accomplished my dream to become a successful Affiliate Marketeer. Wish me luck and good luck and best wishes to you too.

Ramon