Making an Income Online – is Affiliate Marketing right for you?

Making an Income Online with Affiliate Marketing?

If you have had a chance to be online for any length of time, one of the top mentioned methods for making an income online is with affiliate marketing, that is becoming an affiliate for another person or company’s offer.

The idea behind it is that you are assigned an affiliate tracking link that you promote to others. Then whoever clicks on your link is taken to the offer and buys it, you are credited for a sale and earn a commission based on the agreed terms. So affiliate marketing defined in very brief terms is just a fancy way of saying online commission sales, and you become an online salesperson.

With that said, if affiliate marketing is nothing more than being an online salesperson, using different tools available to draw in customers to that offer, then one can conclude that not everyone is cracked up to becoming a salesperson. Or put another way, not everyone is as good at doing it as others. Plus the competition can be cut-throat and fierce!

Which comes to my next point, is affiliate marketing right for you? Hey lets face it, there is more than one way to make an income online. You can develop and sell your own product or service. You could sell stuff on eBay. You could coach people to become involved with whatever special knowledge that you may possess and find people who are willing to pay you to learn. The sky is the limit.

But why do people constantly recommend affiliate marketing to you and jump into it themselves, including even the well known gurus? Because when you know what you are doing and can do it consistently, there is a lot of easy money that can be made. With affiliate marketing you don’t have to develop a product or service, answer endless customer inquiries or complaints, set up a payment gateway, and so on. All you basically have to do is drive qualified traffic (that is interested people) to the offer using your affiliate link. Simple, huh!

But how do you do it? Again there are many ways, just like there is individuals, for getting others to head over to that offer you are promoting to make some cheddar (money). Some of those ways include having your own site, promoting it on social network platforms, buying ad space, pay-per-click campaigns, and so on. Some cost money, others cost time, and even others cost both.

Also picking out the right product or service to promote in a market that is not so over saturated helps as well. Too many people fail as affiliates because they jump right into the shark tank when they are still tadpoles. Instead of finding less competitive markets that still have buyers and developing a system that works for them, first, they just jump right in.

Another problem is that affiliate marketing is heavily promoted as being the mecca to riches. Are there really those who have made a bundle with affiliate marketing? The answer is yes, but very few – about 2% of all active affiliate marketers have made it rich.

Why is that? Because most people who jump in to affiliate marketing are smitten by the glitter and fame of success rather than looking at the internal workings and grind needed to make it successful. And even though there are those who are naturals, it is something that requires continuous effort. If you don’t believe it, then why don’t you just go out to the nearest woods and look for a money tree since it must exist as well.

Okay, so affiliate marketing is not for everyone. How do I know that it is right for me? I often look at the following factors that help guide me when I consider pursuing anything.

• Is it something that has value and can help other people?
• Is it something that I can comfortably talk to others about?
• Is it something that I would like myself and would buy or recommend?
• Is it something that I want to do for a long period of time?
• Is it something that I am really interested in doing?
• Is is something that I can make money doing?

Besides, if you are doing what you like to do, even love it, then how can you call it work?

And finally, another great resource to success is finding a mentor, someone who has already made it online, who is willing to share his or her knowledge with you. When you work with a successful mentor, they can steer you clear from the pitfalls and help you get to where you need to be faster than by doing it all on your own.