Most of you will remember that last month I gave my thoughts on the Make Money Online (MMO) niche.   Basically (in my opinion) if one of those guys is talking about something, they are either being compensated for talking about it (paid reviews), or they are getting paid when you purchase it (affiliate payments).   In other words, pretty much every post they make is self-servicing in some way.  Trust me when I say that people that make money online aren’t eager to share their secrets without some compensation, and overall these people are no different.  Most of the people that are actually making money online, are to busy doing that to blog and help others.

One thing I like about affiliate marketers is the community that has formed around the industry.   Though an affiliate marketer typically won’t give you the exact URL of their top performing websites (with good reason as readers would copy it or compete with it), they are often very open and honest about their techniques and more than willing to help others.

One strong method I recommend to people entering this field is to find a very select group of people (3-4) that you can trust.   Within this group, everyone should be 100% open and honest with each other about their business models and an understanding should be in place that you will not directly compete with others in the group.   This way when you have a new idea, you can run it by the group and get their input before spending the time and money involved with launching a new campaign.   With this method you can use others input to save a lot of time and money launching bad campaigns, and you can help your friends to succeed at the same time!

Unfortunately, the life of an affiliate marketer can sometimes be very secluded as most sites are run anonymously.   I’ve found that some good ways to meet people are by running an affiliate marketing blog and probably more important is to be active on message boards.  If your budget allows it, you’ll also want to consider attending affiliate conventions, etc.

I have a few people that I have business partnerships with online and it has been a great experience for me.  I’m pretty open with them on what projects/websites I’m building, what strategies I’m using to monetize them, etc.  They do the same with me, and all ideas are kept confidential.  These are business relationships and even friendships that I truly value as they have helped me grow as a blogger, affiliate marketer, and more.

Affiliate Marketing and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are two things that will always go well together, so I’ve always made it a point to stay current on the latest SEO techniques and strategies.  I recently noticed a new post over at Search Engine Journal that really caught my attention.   They’ve called the post the Ultimate Collection of Internet SEO Tools, and I have to say that after reviewing the post, I’m going to have to agree.

Though it isn’t a complete SEO collection (as it only includes web-based tools), it is a great resource that I think people will love.   It is almost overwhelming just how many SEO tools there are out there!

What are your favorite web-based SEO tools?

You may have heard before about the four “P’s” of Marketing.   This is a common saying within the marketing niche to describe Product, Price, Promotion, and Placement.

This is something people will often think of when talking about marketing in our day-to-day lives, but I’ve found that it also extends itself well to internet marketing as a whole, and affiliate marketing specifically.

The Four P’s of Affiliate Marketing

1. Product – Researching and finding the right product to sell.  Would people want to buy this?  Is there are a lot of competition?
2. Price – This one goes two ways.  Is the product affordable to the consumer and is the affiliate payout worth your time?  Find a product that is in demand and that will pay you a decent share of the earnings (usually 20%+).
3. Promotion – Possibly the most commonly forgotten.  Most affiliate marketers use a variety of PPC tactics to get traffic, but there are also link building and Article Marketing methods to promote your new site(s).
4. Placement – Have you strategically placed your product on the correct domain name?  Especially when dealing with small niche sites, strong generic domains or strong keyword domains will go a long way to help you find success.

Many people think affiliate marketing is easy money.   In my June income report, I mentioned that I made around $2200.00, most of which was profit.   This was an accurate figure, but when you factor in roughly 40-50 hours a week working on it (on top of 40 hours at my day job), that only works out to about $10.00 an hour, which is nothing to get excited about.

The thing I like about this is that work I’ve done in the past continues to generate income each month, so the work I’m doing now will hopefully add to that income.   That is the brilliance of affiliate marketing, especially when a niche you find stays relevant for many years.

Overall, it is all about perspective and motivation, which is why I’ve worked so hard to set you guys up for success.  I have a bunch of things I’ve been trying, but have a lot more risk involved and I don’t want any of you to fail early on and get discouraged.   That is why my early focus has been on things like BANS and keyword sniping.   Things that at worst should make you your money back and help you get use to the world of affiliate marketing.

Have you ever heard of John Reese before?  Unless you’re new to the world of internet marketing, chances are this guy is a household name to you.   For those unfamiliar with the name, John is the author of the incredibly popular Traffic Secrets home study course that has propelled the careers of most full time internet marketers today. 

As we all know, getting traffic (especially search engine traffic) is the key to drive any affiliate campaign, but doing so is much easier said than done. This is especially true without purchasing your traffic via PPC or other methods.  Did you know that there are SEO techniques and other methods you could be using to get natural (and free) search engine traffic?   John has covered all of this in his home study course.  

If you would like to check it out, or purchased the original course, I wanted to give you the heads up that as of 1:00 p.m. EST today, the Traffic Secrets 2.0 home study course has been released. 

Check out Traffic Secrets 2.0!

As you probably already know, pretty much every business has a slowdown period, and the world of affiliate marketing is no different.   Typically in the summer both traffic and conversions take a hit, and for certain niche markets, it is sometimes often known to be extreme. If you aren’t one of the lucky people that has a profitable summer site (such as a Fireworks site), this can sometimes be discouraging.

Fortunately, things always pick up in the fall and of course Black Friday/Cyber Monday and the holiday season follow shortly after.  I guess my point is just if things aren’t stellar right now, keep working hard and your hard work you are doing now should pay off later in the year.  I know many of you are just starting out, or just ramping up your affiliate campaigns now, so I just want to make sure no one gets discouraged and quits during the summer slowdown period.

Oh, and if you use a lot of Google AdWords PPC marketing, one thing you may want to consider is lowering your bids percantage with Google’s scheduling feature. You can lower your bids, then schedule your percentage to return to normal around September.

If you decide to pick up a copy of Build a Niche Store to increase your affiliate income, one of the first things you’ll probably find yourself doing is researching for good niches that convert well on eBay.

Because most popular niches won’t necessarily convert well on eBay, you instead need to focus on products that are in demand.   One place I’ve found success when conducting much of my research is in eBay’s popular section.  They actually go out and track trends, then let us know what is hot.

If you check it regularly, you can often find emerging niches that have a number of keyword-rich domains still available.   For you BANS users, how do you locate good niches?