Expert marketers with highly successful websites and products of their own, are also affiliate marketers. And for good reason. They understand that it is imperative they have multiple streams of income. And Affiliate Marketing is a no hassle way to achieve this.

Despite the economic gloom, the Kinsey Report predicts 2009 on-line spending will be booming and up on 2008. So you can be very optimistic there is room for opportunity for you to profit too. But you won’t if you don’t make a start!

The World Wide Web is still young and there is plenty of opportunities out there. But given the current economic climate, there is no doubt, many people out there are not spending on just anything that is knocked up and sold to them as the next system to make them rich. And many are wary of getting their credit card out without good reason, having been “had” by unscrupulous marketers just out to scam. This has made social networking sites like Facebook and My Space very attractive to even the big corporations, as well as building an email list. Fostering relationships from these can create long term, loyal customers and should be part of every affiliate marketer’s strategy.

The advantage of beginning your home business on the web as an Affiliate Marketer is immediate. And no headache of creating your own product, writing your own salespages, despatching products, or providing customer service. And with commissions around 25% - 75%  with no or negligible set-up costs you could be in business virtually straight away (though as with any business it does mean a learning curve, some work and the right kind of actions). It isn’t difficult if you follow a step by step proven system from a proven marketer that is successful. You don’t need to re-invent the wheel.  And you can market, or write sales pages (copywriting tips to come),  while remaining uniquely you.

And if you want to sell physical products, dropshipping or using a fulfillment house to create and despatch DVD or CD packages will offer a higher perceived value, making it easy to run your business from anywhere.

There is no doubt the simplest business on the web is information marketing. But eBay is set to explode because those struggling in the gloom will look to find cash in the attic or save money by repairing instead of replacing etc.  And anyone visiting ebay has their credit card in their hands virtually ready to spend.

Getting your First Ideas and understanding Trends

So how do you decide what specific niche to market to, or get a handle on current trends? Online tools such as Google Trends or eBay Pulse; and another interesting and unique, fast growing useful site, giving US trends and demographics of visitors to various popular sites, is Quantcast.

You could also visit the magazines section at Amazon for ideas. If there is more than one magazine on a subject and it is still there the next month then it is probable there is a market. You would be amazed at the array of hobbies and interests.

Really small niche areas can be very profitable, beyond your imagination! Really obscure niches can be making the savvy marketer a lot of money too. Car horns for instance!

Keyword research is vital and will help you come up with ideas. You can use free tools such as Google’s external Keyword checker, Wordtracker, or the #1 program Keyword Elite. Use a combination of these for best research results (there are learning resources to help you with each of these tools).

Online tools such as Google Trends or eBay Pulse; and another interesting and unique, fast growing useful site, giving US trends and demographics of visitors to various popular sites, is Quantcast.

Trends for 2009 are set to definately include health, health insurance, saving money in various ways, car parts (rather than buying a new car, they are fixing the ones they have), DIY, or any that addresses current concerns about fuel bills or the environment will do well.

Finding a Product

Start with an information product. Physical products take much more research and carries more risk. Find any number of them by starting with  Clickbank, Paydotcom, or Commission Junction . Clickbank is easy - sign up takes 5 mins and then you can instantly access what they have. You can check a category or list; measure each product in relation to the rest in it’s category, with a score called “Gravity”, worked out from an algorythm gleaned from the number of sales,refunds, & days in Clickbank etc. You should pick one with a gravity score of at least 25 or more). Once you have picked a product you will be able to get an Affiliate ID for that product which will track all sales that come through your link.

Most importantly, begin with something you are passionate about and you can relate to.

I’m not going to touch the subject of Keyword Research, Directory listing, article submitting, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) or the many other diverse ways to get traffic, as it would be best covered elsewhere.

Social Networking. No company can ignore the power of web 2.0. Nor can a sole marketer. So grow your networking on My Space, Facebook (through traffic is close to that of Google) And when you have decided what you will promote, join a group that would be related to your product and build relationships. You must stick within the etiquette (don’t send them to a squeeze page for instance) or it will bite you - but it will pay off.

We have had the Information Age. Now it is the Recommendation Age - and building relationships with potential customers is key.

Writing your first Sales Page

I want to keep this simple and have you start something NOW that you can enjoy creating, finish quickly (you can always re-edit anytime),  or the many other diverse ways to get traffic. This is getting you affiliate marketing in it’s simplest form. And in a medium that gets attention from Search Engines, rather than a normal website (when you do you will want to do it with Wordpress and we’ll tell you why later!)

1. You can start your first sales page with an easy WYSIWYG editor; create a squeeze page to collect and build an email list you can build a relationship with, and continue to market to for years.  And register or use a desktop program for an autoresponder of sorts to build a list of people who visit your site (and develop a relationship with - generally it takes 5 or 6 times of communication or more before they buy). A list as small as a few hundred can soon build up and be profitable for years to come!

OR

2. if you want just dip your toes in the water and have some fun, NOW, you can first publish on a platform such as  Hubpages and publish a Hub (page), or Squidoo and publish a Lens (page), and have links to your product (see post about how to use these). You can easily have your first one up in less than an hour! (see post related to Authors getting published)

Relevancy between all the aspects of your offerings, from content, to links, to tags (keywords) is paramount

There are many marketers out there who will vie for your attention and your money. But you needn’t spend to get valuable advice, or get overwhelmed by every “Guru” telling you their system will make you your fortune. Like any business you have to work at it, there is a learning curve. You will make mistakes, but you can learn as you go along. There are many free training resources, too many, and you can become unfocused and get nowhere.

Having said that a mentor, if you can afford one, will get you making money much quicker if you action the steps - basically it is wash, rinse and repeat, for much of it, and you will avoid the pitfalls - but it must be the right mentor and not jump from one to another  - DO YOUR HOMEWORK and choose well!

If I had known in the beginning what I know now - I could have had my first sales page up same day; over a year earlier than I got round to it, because there always seemed to be so much I didn’t know.  And saved a relative fortune.

Don’t be a collector of information without actually getting something up and running or you will get bogged down with information overload.  Get started - now!