Affiliate Marketing

Dear Dollar Diary,

Here are some of my thoughts on affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is one of the most common and lucrative ways to make money online. Many business that have products for sale cut on advertising costs and time by listing them on online marketplaces like Clickbank and Commission Junction. People like you and I who would like to work from home but do not have any products to sell, go to these marketplaces, register for free, and choose products to promote. They can range anywhere from airline vacation packages to dog training, and once someone purchases something you promote online, you get commission, usually 50 to 75 percent.

That may sound easy enough, but then there is the tiny little task of doing the actual advertising and how to go about it.

Mentoring

To someone who is just starting out, I highly recommend joining a community of people who can support you and give you step by step lessons, resources, and tools.

By far the most helpful program available is Wealthy Affiliates. Founded by two 26 year old internet millionaires, Wealthy Affiliate offers a complete course on affiliate marketing, search engine optimization, website building, advertising including Google, and writing articles. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. They also include Site Rubix, an insanely easy to use website building template, and webhosting to get your website online.
I myself learned a lot from my membership at Wealthy Affiliate which I am dedicated to share with you here.
Look forward to my future posts where I will cover individual topics on affiliate marketing in a step by step manner including:

• Where to start
• Clickbank: what is it and how to use it
• Squidoo
• Article submissions
• Search Engine Optimization

Gotta go for now... see ya later!

Social Networking Sites

Dear Dollar Diary,

Here are some great Social Networking sites that pay, and they are free to join:

My Lot

One of the first sites I joined as an Internet Marketer is My Lot.

My Lot is a discussion board space that pays you to post and respond to online discussions. You aren't going to get rich doing this, but many people do this for free in chat forums anyway, so you might as well make a little coin! (Richie's How to Earn A Lot In My Lot blog talks more in detail). You can engage in ongoing conversations ranging from relationships to popular music, and of course, making money online! In my opinion, it's a great way to meet other people who have the same interests as you, and can have a chance to drive traffic to your website or blog by adding a link in your profile. Just be careful not to spam the forums and to follow the rules of posting and always be respectful. More people will be interested in checking out your profile and following your links if you are trustworthy and have relevant things to say.

Follow this link to try My Lot.

Yuwie

I'm sure most of you have not only heard of My Space and YouTube, but have an account and update your space, adding video, music and networking all the time. I have a niece who was updating her Facebook on her honeymoon in Hawaii. We are addicted, folks, and why not? We are all getting our 15 minutes of fame, thank you Andy Warhol!

Yuwie is like Facebook, My Space, and YouTube all rolled into one, but with one major difference: They pay you! Yes, really, they pay you for doing what you already do for free.

Basically, they just take a chunk of advertising income and use it to compensate it's users for any activity. Anytime you add a friend, view profiles, or when someone watches your video or views your profile, you can almost hear the chi-ching! Again, it's not going to buy you that Farrari, but it can add up, especially if you have a lot of referrals and friends. Watch this video, this guy explains it a lot better than me.

Pre Launch

Dear dollar diary,

Not that there will be any marching band or streamers, but I'm going to call this first post to my I.M. blog "Pre Launch", just 'cause it sounds cool.

My name is Georgie, and this is my journey.  

I am really making this blog for myself, so I can keep track of all the websites, resources, tutorials, and anything else for making a living online, but since it's here, I'd like to take you along for the ride!