I have been able to make some extra money with affiliate programs without spending on more than a domain name and Web hosting. I learned most of what I know from setting up my free music download blog, danogo social network and the maverick affiliate training course. This is how I do it:
- Sign up for Godaddy.com and get a deluxe Web hosting account for $6.99 a month.
- Go to the Web 2.0 domain name generator and make up a completely unique name that has no existing Google results.
- Use the Godaddy hosting connection and install the Wordpress blogging software and install the redirect plugin. Also add your feed to Google Feedburner and put the email signup form to your blog. You will also add Google Analytics to your blog’s footer.
- Find an online forum in a topic that you know very well that allows signatures. For instance the forum may have discussions about golf, music, Harry Potter, movies or anything else you enjoy. It must be a topic you really like and that you can write naturally about out of genuine interest. If you can’t find one then try searching Yahoo Answers for topics you know something about.
- Choose 5 of the questions that people ask most in the forums and answer them in posts on your own blog that last a few paragraphs.
- Now put your blog URL in the forum signature or resource box at Yahoo Answers and make about 50 posts there.
- Now you will have some traffic and you can apply for affiliate programs and get accepted. Do a search on Google for your topic and affiliate for instance “harry potter affiliate”. If you don’t find any good programs you can sign up for Google Adsense or Amazon since these programs can be applied to any niche.
- Finally use the Wordpress redirect plugin to create URLs that go directly your affiliate links. For instance http://www.beingpad.com/twilight would link to the book Twilight at Amazon with my affiliate ID.
- Include these links in your blog, forum post signature or Yahoo Answers resource box. The email sign up form and the affiliate links must be the first thing people see when they come to your Website.
- The key to success: Now you are all set up for making money but this is the most important step. Sit back, relax and participate in the topic you enjoy through joining more and more forums and adding a new blog post once a week. If you miss the natural enjoyment step you will eventually give up. Pick a topic that you are absolutely sure you could see yourself writing and talking about for the next 20 years.
That’s it. Once your business is set up you are free to explore your topic of interest and money will follow. Of course you will learn allot along the way and tweak the system in order to maximize visits, click through rates of your affiliate URLs and which affiliate programs get the most sign ups.