You’ve seen them, and probably dislike them as much as I do. Supposedly they have a high conversion rate. I personally find them incredibly annoying, close them immediately, and if they come up again, I try to remember to never visit that site again!

Banners

Most programs will have several pre-made banners for you to download and place on your site. They will likely be in a variety of sizes, styles and colors. You may even be able to customize them to better match the color scheme and style of your own website. Some of these will be plain and simple, and some will be complex using flash, java or some other type of scripting to provide animation. I would be careful choosing these. Although they may be very eye-catching, they also take a lot of time to download — something you can’t afford if you want to keep the visitors to your website happy! And, a happy visitor is one that will stay around long enough to (hopefully) click on your affiliate link and actually buy the product!

I would go with something eye-catching but not overwhelming, that downloads quickly and is set to open up in a new browser tab or window. That way, your reader won’t have trouble getting back to their site after they’ve looked at or purchased the affiliate offer.

Text Links

This is one of my personal favorites. They are subtle, they don’t slow down your page, and you can place then just about anywhere on your page. Be sure to keep these short. A text link should basically be a teaser that entices your reader to see what the product is about, not provide a full-blown sales pitch.

These are particularly useful in informational and/or review articles. Again, make sure these open up in a new window or tab so your readers can easily find their way back to you.

Email Advertising

I know you’ve heard it: “The money is in the list”. If you are building a double opt-in email list and using an auto-responder on your website, then you can also advertise your affiliate products to your list. Just don’t make every email a sales letter. You’ll lose your subscribers fast! Make sure you always provide lots of useful, free information to your subscribers, then they won’t mind the occasional sales pitch. Just make sure the products that you are pitching are ones that you honestly believe in or, again, you’ll lose subscribers. They’ll only have to get burned once to decide to unsubscribe.

I usually steer clear of the first two, and concentrate on the last two. I think, in the long run, you’ll find you get better results with the more subtle forms of advertising. They’re based more on relationship marketing, which is very important in Affiliate Marketing. After all, don’t you feel more comfortable buying something from something you know a little bit about?

Needless to say, I couldn’t really go in-depth on any of these marketing techniques in a short article. If you want more information about how to market your affiliate products, be sure to check out the other articles and resources on this site.

Questions? I respond to every sincere comment and email I receive.

Probably the easiest and quickest money making websites you can build are:

* informational,
* community building, and
* blogs

Informational Websites

Of course, the grand daddy of them all is wikipedia. But, let’s say you have some information to share or sell on a smaller scale. Do you provide a product or service? You could develop an informational website around that. Let’s say you like to bake and have compiled a mouth-watering collection of recipes that you have cleverly woven together in a themed recipe book. You could crate an informational website giving baking tips, a recipe or two from your book, or perhaps recipes that aren’t in your book at all. You could have a forum so that people could share baking tips and recipes. You can then turn this into a money making website by selling your recipe book (either hard copy or as an e-book) and you could have affiliate links to a store that sells baking supplies. Although there are some free website options out there, if you decide to go this route, I would recommend paying the $10 to buy a web domain of your own. Some come with free hosting, or inexpensive hosting options.

Community Building Websites

Probably the most well-known community building websites are Facebook and MySpace. You can create an account on a favorite subject or hobby of yours… let’s say, dogs. You can link to other dog worthy websites, provide useful information to pet owners, and, again, monetize your website by selling a product you have created or an affiliate product to members of your community. This is a free option, since these communities don’t charge anything for you to join. However, you have to be careful and not come across as a hard-sales site, or you won’t be able to build a community or make any money.

Blogs

There are a lot of blog options out there… many of them are free, but again, if you want your own domain name, you will need to pay a small fee for that and probably a small hosting fee as well. Otherwise, you can use one of the many free blog services on the internet. Some of the more popular ones are Blogger and WordPress (or you can download WordPress to your own domain) — and, of course, now there are also mini-blog options like Twitter and Posterous. Options to turn a blog into a money making website depend largely on the type of blog you choose. If you host your own blog, you have a lot more options from Google Adsense, to affiliate links, to blatant product advertisements, recommendations or reviews. With other services, you may be limited to affiliate links.

Obviously, this article has only touched the surface of this topic. There is a wealth of information available on setting up a money making website. Be sure to check out the resources section of my website.

Questions? I respond to every sincere comment or email.

In simple terms, an affiliate marketer advertises someone else’s product or service in exchange for a commission. Sometimes the commission is earned for a referral, but more often you earn a commission for a sale made through your referral link. Most often, it’s anywhere from a 33 to 110% commission on a single sale. But, sometimes, you earn monthly commissions if the product or service is a continuing purchase.

How Do I Become an Affiliate Marketer?

In most cases, there is no cost involved, you simply supply your name, address, phone number and social security number (for tax purposes). You can sign up as an affiliate for a single product by an individual, or with a company such as ClickBank which primarily sells e-books, or with a major retailer like Amazon.com. Many stores and websites offer affiliate programs. If there is a particular company you are interested in, scroll down to the bottom of their website and you’ll often find a link for either “affiliates” or “partners”.

How Do I Make Money as an Affiliate Marketer?

There are a LOT of ways to earn money as an affiliate. Some of the factors that will determine which route you go are:

the company you choose to affiliate with

the products you choose to market

whether or not you have a domain of your own

what your personal internet preference is

If you own your own domain, you have a lot more flexibility on how to promote products. If you use other free options on the internet (article directories, Squidoo lens, free blogs, etc.) there will be certain limitations on what and how you can advertise.

How Much Money Can I Make as an Affiliate Marketer?

As with just about any business, that depends largely on you and how much you are willing to work. If you are naive enough to believe the pitch of some of the affiliate sales letters out there, you may think you can simply slap a banner on your site and watch the millions start stacking up in your bank account.

In reality, it will depend on how much traffic you get to your piece of real estate on the web, and how appealing your content is to your visitors. If you work hard enough — and smart enough — you will start to see those checks arrive in your mailbox. But, I wouldn’t hold my breath, since it’s highly unlikely you’ll be an overnight millionaire.

Obviously, this article has barely scratched the surface of affiliate marketing. Want to learn more about making money on the internet through affiliate marketing? Be sure to read the other articles in this category and check the resources section for products that you may find useful in your Affiliate Marketing business.

Have you ever looked at the major players in the network marketing industry on the internet and wondered, what do they have that I don’t have? Why are they so successful, while I’m just barely getting by? You’re about to find out as I reveal the qualities you absolutely must develop in order to be a successful network marketer.

One of the most important qualities you need to succeed is a willingness to learn. You have to be teachable. If you look at the network marketing gurus, one thing they all share in common is a huge library of learning materials. They literally never stop learning.

The truly successful network marketers spend thousands of dollars every year honing their skills and learning new ones. With the rapid changes on the internet, you can’t afford to become stagnant.

There are a lot of ways you can continue to educate yourself. You can read books, attend seminars, subscribe to newsletters, take classes, or find a mentor, someone who is a skilled network marketer and can teach you things that you don’t know about this industry.

I listen to CDs and MP3 files literally several hours a day. While I’m working around the house, I’m feeding my mind with new ideas about network marketing. Here’s an important key: don’t just listen to a CD once and think you have it. I have CDs and audio files that I have listened to dozens of times. It never ceases to amaze me when I hear something I never heard before on a CD I’ve listened to 20 times before.

The important thing here is, you don’t have to succeed by trial and error. You don’t have to blaze a new trail. There are some very successful network marketers making six figures on the internet. Learn from them. You can easily shave months — even years — off your journey by learning from the failures and successes of others.

Another quality you must develop in order to succeed at network marketing is focus. If you don’t know where you’re going, I can pretty much guarantee you that you’ll never arrive at your destination. There is a well-known saying, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”

This is true in any endeavor, but seems to be especially true in network marketing, and even more so when conducting your business on the internet. There are so many opportunities out there, that it’s easy to lose focus. And, without focus, you are easily blown in every direction by a change in the direction of the wind.

Often when asked for advice on how to build a network marketing business on the internet, I discover in conversation that a lack of focus is the problem. So, what’s the solution? Choose a direction — a company, a product, a marketing method — and go for it. Don’t be swayed by the next big deal that comes along. Keep steady on the course you have chosen.

I promise you that if you don’t focus on a single direction, you’ll never succeed at network marketing. There are a lot of opportunities out there. Many of them are good. Choose one and go for it with all you’ve got!

Finally, you will fail at internet network marketing unless you develop the all-important quality of perseverance. Think back to when you first got excited about network marketing. The business plan made sense. You could see yourself achieving your goals: financial freedom, more time with your family, whatever it was that made you want to take the leap.

Do you still have that sense of excitement today? It not, why not? You see, you may have been promised a sure-fire, easy, no work required method of making millions, but has that been your experience? Probably not.

The number one reason most people fail at network marketing is that they don’t give it long enough. Just last week, I had someone tell me that she wasn’t going to renew her membership next month because she could “use that money somewhere else”.

How long had she been in the business? This is her second month.

How much time had she spent promoting it? Not much.

Many people enter this industry expecting instant money and overnight success. The truth is, it’s a business, and building a business takes times, effort and perseverance.

The first marketing effort for your network marketing business may flop. Are you going to throw in the towel and say it doesn’t work? Or, are you going to move on to the next “sure thing”?

Look at each “failure” as a lesson learned. Dissect your effort and try to determine why it failed. Learn from your mistakes. Ask your mentor what he or she would have done differently. Then launch your revised marketing plan.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. But, there have to be other steps following that first one in order to reach the destination.

So, the keys to success are:

* focus – you have to know where you are going
* learning – you have to learn how to get there
* perseverance – you have to continue the journey until you reach your destination.

Develop these three qualities, and you can’t help but succeed at network marketing.

Multi-Level Marketing gets a lot of bad press and, to tell you the truth, much of it is well-deserved.

Back in the day when MLM began, a lot of us became very familiar with the “spiel”. A friend or relative would call all excited about a new business they had just started.

They wouldn’t tell you anything about the business on the phone, but invited you to come to their house so that they could present all the details to you there and give you the opportunity to ask any questions you might have.

Unfortunately, not much has changed. Many people are still trying to recruit people into their opportunity using the same methods.

You join an MLM company, and the first thing your sponsor wants you to do is come up with a list of 200 people. This is your “warm” market. These are your relatives, your friends, your co-workers.

These are the people who know and trust you. The people least likely to suspect they are about to be scammed and lied to in order to get them to come to a meeting where your more experienced upline will present the opportunity and sell the “dream”.

Many people joining MLM soon find their friends, family and co-workers avoiding them like the plague because they want nothing to do with their business opportunity.

When you’re finished running through your warm market, which shouldn’t take long depending on how tough-skinned you are and diligent about making those calls, you are encouraged to expand your circle to include your neighbors, the mail man, your hair dresser, and your dentist – anyone you know or come into contact with.

You begin the process again, and find that your circle of alienation has expanded, and you still have found no one who wants to join you.

About this time, you start becoming discouraged. After all, you’re really excited about your MLM, and you can’t understand why everyone else isn’t as excited as you are.

You go back to your sponsor, and this time you’re encouraged to buy some leads. You’re told “it’s a numbers game”. If you contact enough people about your MLM business, someone is going to sign up.

So, you start buying leads and calling total strangers and talking to them about your business opportunity.

They aren’t interested either.

About this time, you decide that MLM is a rip-off and you’ve been scammed.

Does any of this sound familiar? Most of us have been there; some of us more than once.

I’ve been told by experts and watch dogs that MLM can’t work. And, you know what? They’re right. MLM, the way it was sold to you and to me and to just about everyone out there, will never work.

Most people look at MLM as a pyramid scheme. And, the way it has been presented, it is one. But, is it being presented correctly?

In a pyramid scheme, the people who get in first are the ones who profit. The further away from the top you are in the hierarchy, the less chance you have of being successful and making money at MLM.

Is this true?

Well, sort of. But, the same could be said about any business in America. The one who starts the business, the business owner, the president, the CEO – they are the ones who stand to gain the most from their business. They have lots of worker bees beneath them in the hierarchy who won’t make anywhere near they profit they do.

Now, here’s the thing.

I know that the “dream” you and everyone else were sold was that you could fire your boss, work 4 hours a week, and make a six-figure income. Well, frankly, you were lied to.

Now, you CAN fire your boss and make a six-figure income in MLM. But, it will take more than 4 hours a week. But, so does your present 40-hour a week job. After putting in the time, money and effort to build your business, you may be able to cut back to minimal hours, but at the start, it will take more.

The other problem with the way the MLM dream is sold is that EVERYONE can do this. Well, the fact of the matter is, everyone CAN’T recruit a huge downline and make 7 figures a year at your MLM opportunity. At some point, you will simply run out of people. Someone, somewhere down the line will find themselves without someone to recruit because everyone is already in the opportunity.

Now, of course, not everyone wants to join your opportunity in the first place, but stay with me here.

Can EVERYONE be the CEO of a major corporation? I don’t think so. We would run out of corporations long before we ran out of people to become CEO.

Can ANYONE be the CEO of a major corporation? Of course there are exceptions to every rule but, basically, anyone who had the desire and was willing to pay the price could become the CEO of a major corporation.

Does everyone WANT to be the CEO of a major corporation? Nope. And, likewise, not everyone wants to work their MLM business full-time.

There are a lot of reasons people get into MLM. Some people just like the products and want to be a customer. Some like the products and sign up as a distributor because they want the discount on the products. Some just want to earn a little extra cash. Some want to replace their current income. Some want to fire their boss and earn 7 figures a year with their MLM business.

Is it possible?

Yes, if you have the desire and are willing to pay the price!

How you view your failures will make or break your network marketing business. If you have a fear of failure, and have a hard time rebounding from failed attempts, then I can predict with 100% certainty that you will never succeed.

On the other hand, those who try and fail and try again don’t look at their earlier attempts as failures. Instead, they view them as learning experiences. It is said that experience is the best teacher. The mistake most people make is thinking that it has to be their own personal experience. Personal experience is one way to learn. And, there is no doubt that those lessons are rarely forgotten, because the “School of Hard Knocks” isn’t one you want to repeat.

I suggest there is a better way. The book of Proverbs tells us that if we walk with wise men, we will become wise. Who do you walk with? Whose counsel do you seek in building your internet network marketing business? Are you asking your friends and relatives who know nothing about internet network marketing what they think? Are you asking a successful network marketer from the old school for advice on your internet based business? You may as well be asking the homeless man on the street corner how to succeed in life.

One of the best ways to succeed is to build a pathway of stepping stones made from the stories of others who have achieved the success you seek. Do you want to learn how to be successful at marketing? Then study Bruce Barton, John Caples, or PT Barnum (Joe Vitale has a great series on him in his the Power of Outrageous Marketing CD set).

Do you want to be successful in your particular network marketing company? Then get the tapes and books that are available from the upline superstars in your business opportunity.

Do you want to be successful in life in general? Then listen to people like Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins, Dennis Waitley or countless others.

Do you want to have a business based on strong Christian values? Get the book of Proverbs on audio, or listen to Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth E. Hagin, Creflo Dollar, Joel Osteen, or others who speak on living by faith.

I’m not suggesting you cut everyone out of your life who isn’t where you want to be. But, it wouldn’t hurt to cut those out of your life who drag you down. If you want to be a success at internet network marketing, or any other endeavor, for that matter, you have to develop a successful attitude. Even Abram was told to leave his family and go into a strange (unknown) country.

If you don’t like where you’re headed, start a new path, building it out of stepping stones of success. If you don’t have any yet, then use the successes of others until you have some of your own.

“I hope I may never be guilty of writing anything intended to make poor people contented with their lot.

“I would rather be known as one who sought to inspire his readers with a divine discontent.

“To make men and women discontented with bad health, and to show them how, by hard work, they can have better health.

“To make them discontented with their intelligence, and to stimulate them to continued study.

“To urge them on to better jobs, better homes, more money in the bank.

“But it does no harm, in our striving after these worthwhile things, to pause once in a while and count our blessings.”

– Bruce Barton, 1920

Bruce Barton was a household name in the 1920s and 1930s. He was THE advertising man. In reading about his life and his work, I came across the above quote. Most of us entered into internet network marketing because were weren’t content with our lot. We didn’t want to work 40 hours a week for too little money. We wanted to have more money, more time, more life.

If you have reached a plateau in your business, I encourage you to take a look at your level of contentment. Do you still have the same fire and passion you had when you started your network marketing business on the internet? Or did you become content with your success at some point along the way. Maybe you decided you have gone as far as you can go, and that’s OK. That extra income each month is allowing you to have those extra in life. So, your internet network marketing business is pretty much on auto-pilot now. You don’t really have to do much active work anymore, and that’s fine with you.

Today, I encourage you to allow some divine discontent into your life. Count the blessings that your business has brought you, but realize there is still more. Use the thoughts above to fuel your passion.

If your network marketing business is connected with health care products, then show your potential customers how they can have better health, that they don’t need to be content with poor health.

If our network marketing business is connected with education, or reading, or self-improvement, they make your potential customers discontent with their intelligence and stimulate them to study.

If you are trying to build your downline rather than your customer base, urge your prospects on to better jobs, better homes, and more money in the bank.

Are you content with your lot, or do you feel there is something more to life than this?

* You can get a job
* You can freelance
* You can be a consultant
* You can work full time
* You can work part time
* You can work one two or even three jobs.

But, whatever you do, don’t try to make a living at Internet Network Marketing.

You’re probably wondering why I would give that advice. After all, don’t I have an internet based network marketing business? Let me explain what I mean.

Mary was tired of working for the man. She knew she had to do something to bring in money. After all, she had a family to support and bills to pay. She had hear about network marketing, and heard how much people were making on the internet. So, she decided to give it a try.

Three months later, Mary realized there was some work involved. It wasn’t as magical and easy to make a living on the internet with a network marketing business as she thought. Turns out, she was spending far more than the few hours a week she had read about in all those sales letters.

To make matters worse, she was now deeper in debt because she kept signing up for different offers she found that were guaranteed to help her break the code to a million dollar network marketing business practically overnight.

So, what did Mary do? She decided, well, I tried. And then gave up on ever getting anywhere. Took on a second job to try to earn enough money to get her out of the debt she got into with her shot at internet network marketing, and went on with her hard, boring life.

Tom, on the other hand, heard about Network marketing, and decided the internet was definitely the way to go. He studied everything he could get his hands on. He used one method after another. He learned from every failure, and doubled his determination to succeed. To quote Vin Diesel in The Pacifier, for Tom, there was “no highway option”.

It took time, but after a few months, Tom started earning some income for his hard work. He was building a list, networking his potential prospects, and some were signing up for his internet marketing opportunity. After about six months, he was in the black. After a year, he was able to resign from his day job because he had replaced his income with his network marketing business on the internet.

What is the difference between Tom and Mary? Mary tried. Tom refused to accept the possibility of failure and kept plugging away until he succeeded.

You can’t succeed in this business by trying. If you are ready to buckle down, and experience success at Internet Network Marketing

Are you making excuses for why you can’t succeed at network marketing? Or are you taking advantage of every opportunity to be a successful internet entrepreneur?

Do any of these reasons sound familiar?

• It takes money to make money, and I don’t have any.
• I don’t have a big list, and don’t know how to develop one.
• I just don’t have the time to devote to this that they have.
• I don’t even know where to start!

While success is largely dependent upon the individual in almost every endeavor, I don’t know of any arena in which it is more apparent than internet network marketing. There are lots of success stories of people who started out with nothing and built multi-million dollar businesses seemingly overnight.

What is the secret to their success? Without exception, they wanted to succeed more than anything and were persistent, and willing to pay the price in order to build their network marketing business over the internet. They all had the standard laundry list of reasons why they couldn’t succeed. But,they didn’t make excuses, they took risks, and they kept at it until they made it.

How badly do you want to succeed at internet marketing? I have been battling my internet service provider for months, dealing with spotty service at best, and sometimes non-existent service for weeks. I sometimes have to drive to town to get a connection.

Saturday, no one would blame me if I just stayed in bed. You see, I was in a car accident the night before. My car was totaled, but my son and I walked away from it — bruised, sore, but thankful that we have a covenant of protection with the almighty God. Rather than spend the day in bed, I’m taking advantage of not being able to do anything else to work on my business.

Even without an internet connection (yes, it’s down even as I type), I can still do something to build my network marketing business. I can compose articles, write emails to send later, and work on website content. When my connection is restored, or I can get a ride into town, I’ll be able to plug this new information into my network marketing machine to increase traffic, leads and sales in my business.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not telling you this so that you’ll pat me on the back and say, “Wow! You’re dedicated!” Instead, I want you to examine your own circumstances and see where you are allowing them to hold you back.

• If you don’t have money, there are ways of generating an income that won’t cost you a penny.
• If you don’t have a contact list, you can generate free leads in just a few days.
• If you don’t have the time, you’re just wasting mine. You can find the time to do what’s really important.
• If you don’t know where to start, click on the link in my resource box below.

It’s time to stop making excuses, and start succeeding at internet network marketing.

Depending on which route you use to purchase eMillions, you may get $397 worth of free offers (if you buy it directly from Amazon) or several thousand dollars worth of free offers if you buy it through a bundled offer on the internet. Of course, there are thousands of dollars worth of additional offers designed to help you succeed at network marketing on the internet which will cost you, well, several thousand dollars.

Just remember, it’s up to you whether or not you choose to take advantage of up-sells in the internet world. If you’re short on cash, pass them by. You can always purchase them later, granted at a higher price, when you’ve got some cash flow going from your network marketing efforts.

First, I’m going to make a confession. I haven’t finished this book yet. I got it from Amazon a couple of days ago, and hadn’t had the opportunity to sit down and read it. In fact, if I hadn’t been in a car accident last night (car was totalled, but my son and I walked away fine except for some bruises and sore muscles – God is good!), I probably wouldn’t have taken the time to start reading it this morning. But, no transportation has given me limited options for the day.

So, why am I writing a review on a book I haven’t even finished reading yet? Because I think it’s that good! I just finished the interview with Jermaine Griggs, founder of HearandPlay.com. At 17, this kid turned $70 into a $3 million internet company. That’s pretty impressive by any standards.

But, what I really like is his attitude. He highly suggests looking for a niche in internet marketing that fits the four Ps: Passion, Patience, Progression and Positivity. His own personal niche is incredibly “limited” yet, he has made millions in it, and his business continues to thrive.

Jermaine is also impressive because he is not ashamed to state that he’s a Christian, and that he uses biblical principles in his internet marketing that have been a huge factor in his success.

If I had to sum up the interview with Jermaine, I would use one word — and it’s one of my favorites — PASSION. He was passionate about his dream of changing the lives and circumstances of his family. He is passionate about his particular niche. He is passionate about setting, focusing on and achieving goals — not just for his internet marketing business, but for his life in general.

Ask yourself if the actions you are taking are bringing you closer to or further from your goals of being a successful internet network marketer?

Jermaine (or any of the people interviewed in Stanley Tang’s book) didn’t just stumble upon success. They worked for it. They chose to devote their time and energy toward learning and doing whatever they could to succeed.

Now that you’ve finished reading this article, you have a choice: Are you going to take an action that takes you further away from your goal; or are you going to take a definite step in the direction of success in your internet network marketing business?

I hope you’ll chose success.