Affiliate Marketing Tips from Super Affiliate Zac Johnson

The world of online marketing and business is like no other, especially when it comes to making connections with others and being able to grow a worldwide voice of your own. Think about this for a minute… even if you were to build a successful offline business in your local area, how much reach and success could you ultimately have? You are not only limited by how many people can actually visit your location, but you will also have to deal with the very high overhead costs of retail space, paying your employees and much more.

One of the most important reasons why I love doing business on the internet is that it allows you to connect and meet with people all over the world, even when you may think they are in a league of their own! Just think about the affiliate marketing industry for example… names like myself, John Chow and ShoeMoney are just an email away, and most of us will always reply back to you.

If this were the “real world” of business and we all worked at a high level company, it would likely be very hard to get in touch with us, and may even cost your some money!

The internet is completely different and this is one of the driving reasons why it’s much easier to find success and fame on the internet than in any other industry.

So what does it take to connect with some of the top online marketers, bloggers and sites in the world? Here are a few ideas for you to try out.

Attending Conferences

One of the absolute best ways to get your name out there and start connecting with major players in your niche is to get out there yourself and attend an internet marketing conference. A decade ago there were only a few conferences across the country; now they are all over the place and happening all the time. Whether you are focused on ecommerce, affiliate marketing, blogging or another online business, attending a conference is the best way to physically meet with the people you need to know and get that first introduction.

Commenting on Blogs

If you can’t make it out to a conference, another great way to build a relationship with a well-known person or website is to interact with them and leave comments on their blog. Bloggers always appreciate when people take the time to leave real comments that provide value on their sites. In addition to leaving comments you will also be building out your brand with your avatar, name and link back to your site with each comment.

Sending a Nice Email

Lastly, it’s important not to forget about the value in sending a real email to someone. Sure, the top bloggers and online marketers get thousands of emails and pitches every day, but if you take the time to write something of value and not come off as a leech, there is a good chance you can form a relationship and possibly work with other big names online.

As you can see, you have plenty of options when it comes to expanding your reach online and connecting with some of the biggest names in the industry. I highly recommend that you step out of your comfort zone and attend a networking conference in your area, or at the least send out some emails to your online mentors and just let them know how much of an influence they have been to you. You never know where it might lead to!

I am blogging on behalf of Visa Business and received compensation for my time from Visa for sharing my views in this post, but the views expressed here are solely mine, not Visa’s. Visit http://facebook.com/visasmallbiz to take a look at the reinvented Facebook Page: Well Sourced by Visa Business. The Page serves as a space where small business owners can access educational resources, read success stories from other business owners, engage with peers, and find tips to help businesses run more efficiently. Every month, the Page will introduce a new theme that will focus on a topic important to a small business owner’s success. For additional tips and advice, and information about Visa’s small business solutions, follow @VisaSmallBiz and visit http://visa.com/business.

Now that we have covered the basics of building your own business online for just a few dollars and mapping out your business model and how to find a winning niche, now it’s time to put everything into action.

Since this is the last part in the series, let’s do a quick recap.

The purpose of this three part series was to allow anyone to get started with their own site that has potential to generate income and possibly turn into a nice side business without the need to spend a lot of money in the process. Here is how we broke down the initial spending to set everything up.

• Domain Name = $10 year
• Web Hosting = $7 month
• WordPress = Free
• Site Content = Free (Time)

Now let’s recap on the business model as well.

Creating a Winning Business Formula: Create an authority site that ranks well in the search results for a specific niche or product. The goal is to rank within the top results in the search engines and convert your traffic into paid users through the use of affiliate marketing. The “real” cost of setting up your new business site, is the actual amount of time you put into your content and site promotion.

And so we move on…

The process isn’t as complicated as some people might want to make it. You register a domain name, setup hosting and start creating content for your site. AGAIN, make sure you put in the time and effort to find a winning niche or you will end up wasting time and money.

Once you’ve decided on your niche, write as much content as you can for your main page (800-1200) words and create a chart or break down the content so it’s easy to read. The end goal here is to create content that provides real value. This will be very important for the engagement, ranking and overall monetization of your site.

Want some examples?

Of course you do! Examples are a great way to see what is working and also gives you proof that others are doing well with these methods as well.

Two other niche case studies that you should be following are the ones from Spencer Hawes and Pat Flynn. For both of these guys they’ve created sites that they were playing around with for a case study and both of them have turned into something amazing. The two niches that were targeted are “survival knives” and “security guard training”. The knife site is being monetized with Amazon, while the security training site is generating most of it’s money through Google Adsense.

Excellent examples that can get your mind stirring.

The goal is to not try and replicate where someone else is already having success, but find a niche market that can make you money with less competition but enough search volume to make it worth while.

It’s also important for you to realize that you shouldn’t just rely on Amazon and Google Adsense for revenue generation. Networks like CommissionJunction and  Shareasale have thousands of offers and merchants for you to choose from and many of them have very nice commissions and payout that you can build a site around.

It’s all about making the most out of your resources and creating something that people will find value in. For both of the case studies mentioned above, they are successful because people are searching for topics related to the site and when people find their site, they are buying and researching content on the site. The more time people spend on your site, the better the engagement and rankings in the search engines.

Now it’s time to get started!

Hopefully this three part series has been a good motivator for you and will allow you to get started with your own niche web site or blog. Don’t forget to refer back to part two which is full of useful free tools for search results and finding a quality niche product.

As always, shoot me an email with any ideas or questions you might have. Be sure to let me know when you go live with your site and I’ll check it out and let you know what I think. If you need any help with the site setup process, you can also click here to have the process setup for you.

In the first part of this series we talked about the different ways that you can make money online, such as Facebook Ads, media buying and search marketing. The problem with all of these methods is that they all cost a lot of money and are based off having advertising budgets.

Since we are trying to focus our efforts on starting an online business with little investment, we are not going to use these methods. Instead we are going to focus on creating a web site that we can focus our content on, grow over time and eventually rank in the search engines to bring in monthly recurring income without the recurring costs.

In the previous post I also broke down your initial investment costs, which is really nothing in terms of starting a business that has the potential to turn into something quite amazing.

• Domain Name = $10 year
• Web Hosting = $7 month
• WordPress = Free
• Site Content = Free (Time)

Now that we covered the basics, we can start to look at what’s working and the best ways to create and monetize your site content.

The Core of Your Business

During the initial business planning process it’s important to remember that we are going to try and spend as little money as possible to get started. There are plenty of areas to improve and spend money later on once your content and core is established.

The core for your business in this example should be to find a niche product that people are searching for on a daily basis and that you can become a resource of information for. People are searching for different things every day, but targeting in on your audience they are in “buying mode” is key to converting your site visitors into buyers. Since writing is something that nearly anyone can do, and will cost you time instead of money… this is your investment into the business.

The best sites for making money online through affiliate marketing are review sites, comparison shopping, coupons and tutorial guides. All of these sites are great methods for engaging with your audience and getting them to take action. These are the types of sites you will want to create, then back out your traffic into an affiliate marketing offer (ie: Amazon.com or individual program).

Before you get started with your writing, you are going to need to know what to write about!

Free Tools for Finding a Winning Niche

I’ve mentioned in the past that I’m a big fan of using long tail keyword software, but since this software comes with a cost we aren’t going to focus on it for this concept. Instead you can utilize many of the free resources out there that provide a ton of great information.

• Google Keyword Tool – Not only is Google the greatest search engine in the world, but they also provide some amazing tools for free as well. Google Keyword Tool will allow you to search keywords, see how competitive the market is and how many people are searching for these and related keywords every month.

• Amazon Top Sellers List – What are people buying right now? Not just across everything listed on Amazon, but broken down into categories as well. Knowing what people are buying and seeing their feedback and “what else they purchased” is a killer resource when creating your own site.

• Search Status – Choosing the right keywords and niche is only half the battle. You also need to know who your competitors are and how easy or hard it will be for you to rank among the top search results. A free browser plugin called Search Status will show you the PageRank, Whois, Alexa, Compete, MozRank and much more while you are browsing through the search results. All very important factors when trying to rank organically in the search results.

Where Do You Go From Here

Now it’s time for you to take everything that we mentioned in this article and start to build a foundation for your business. You don’t need to rush out and get a domain name and hosting right now. Instead you need to spend time to see what niche market you want to get into and how you can become a valuable resource for those who are searching on your topic.

In the world of internet marketing it’s way too easy to get excited about a project and jump the gun to get started. Map out as many winning niches as you can, compare the top sites in the search results, see which affiliate programs you can join to monetize your content and keep breaking down your list of possible niches til you find a winner. This will be a long and boring process in the beginning, but will make all of the difference once you actually get started.

In the next part of the series we will be talking about going live with your site, what type of content to write and how you can rank in the search results in a short period of time while still keeping your hard earned money in your pocket. As always, shoot me an email with any ideas or questions you might have.

When it comes to making money online you have a lot of options, but each of them is special in their own way. Some will take more money to get started, others will take time and some will require you to learn processes and know what methods work and which don’t.

Before we just into a method (and three part series) that you can start using to earn your first few dollars online with a very small investment, let’s take a look at some of the most popular online business models right now.

• Pay per click marketing – You will need to have money to spend on search advertising and click costs can range anywhere from .05 to $100 depending on what keywords you will select. This method may also require the use of landing pages and advanced tracking features.
• Media buying – This is a great method to get a lot of exposure across thousands of web sites very fast, but again it will require you to spend a lot of money in the process since you will be buying ad space on other sites. You will also need to know how to setup ad campaigns and do pixel tracking to monitor your results.
• Email marketing – I used to be very big in email marketing and it’s one of the most profitable and high response ways to make money online, but it’s definitely going to cost money to acquire emails and send out all of those mailings.
• eCommerce – Another great way to make money online is to sell products… of course you are going to need to have a product to sell and a way to track all of your sales and customers. This can be done through the use of a shopping cart system, which won’t cost much… but you will also need to factor in advertising costs.
• Facebook ads – With over a billion users on Facebook, how could you not take advantage of their advertising platform. Well, if you don’t have any advertising dollars to spend, then you are probably going to miss out.

I’m sure may of you are saying “ENOUGH! I already know about these methods for making money online, but I don’t have any money to spend to start my own business or web site… what else can I do?”

The important thing to know that online businesses are serious and they should be treated the same way as any other business. Fortunately in the world of online business you don’t need to have a staff, pay for rental space or many of the other “real world” costs.

Here is a winning model for anyone who has a few dollars to start their own business online and wants to learn the ropes of internet marketing, but don’t have enough money or time to jump right into the more advanced and costly methods of the techniques about.

I’m not trying to sell you… but here is the process and what you will need. If you have any questions on how to set this up or who I use for hosting and domain names, just shoot me an email.

• Domain Name = $10 year
• Web Hosting = $7 month
• WordPress = Free
• Site Content = Free (Time)

That’s it!… really, for less than $200 a year you can be up and running with your own internet business!

Of course that isn’t all you are going to need. You will need a business plan, site content and getting ranked in the search results, which is what we are going to be talking about next in part 2 of this three part series. (released tomorrow)