Keys to starting an online affiliate business

There are a number of things to look for when starting your own online affiliate business. But, before I get into the specifics of what to search for, the one aspect that an individual must possess in order to be a successful Internet marketer is PERSISTENCE. With out this quality you might as well stop reading right now. Like many successful entrepreneurs, persistence is one of the main qualities that allow them to be successful. Once you acquire this characteristic there is no stopping you.

Now, let me get into the specifics for all the ADD people out there like my self before I lose you.

Keyword Research

First, one of the main aspects of being a productive affiliate marketer is niche market research. You must find an unexploited niche market that has limited advertising competition. The number of advertisers in a certain market is key to being profitable with your product, the fewer advertisers the better. One of the best tools to use to find these unexploited niche markets is Google Adwords. If you have a google account you can sign up for adwords for free in your account information.

This tool allows you to research for keywords that have a descent average search volume and also lists the average number of advertisers for each keyword. This is crucial to finding the right market to promote with your marketing skills. Without this important market research you will be wasting your time. I do not know about you but my time is definitely precious to me. I cannot say it enough but RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH is critical to being profitable in this business.

Affiliate Programs

Next, once you find that unexploited niche market, yep you guessed it, more research. Now you have to find the affiliate programs that pertain to that particular market. For example, lets say you want to promote garden tools, you will have to find companies on the Internet that manufacture or sell these products and make sure they have affiliate programs for you to sign up with. Once you find these companies make sure to read up on their affiliate programs. Some of the things to look out for are the percentage of commission you will receive with their affiliate program. If the costs of products are expensive then the percentage should range from five to fifteen percent, if the products are cheap you will be looking for a percentage higher than fifteen percent, like twenty to fifty percent.

Other stuff to look for when applying for affiliate programs is how they pay you and how often they pay you. Usually most programs send you checks once your commissions have exceeded a certain amount like over fifty dollars, only so they will not be sending checks out for five dollars or something ridiculous like that. Some of the best affiliate programs out there are Clickbank and LinkShare. These programs carry over thousands of different products that are just waiting for someone to promote them.

Generating Traffic

The last part of the process is generating traffic for your new affiliate product. There are several different methods you can use all at the same time to maximize your full potential.

You can write blogs about you product. Promoting the benefits of your product and using your affiliate link to monetize that blog. Blogger.com is free and simple to use for anybody, and I do mean anybody. Article marketing is another free and easy way to generate traffic to your affiliate site. Myspace is another great way to promote your business and products by talking to your friends online about what you are doing.
Participating in forums is one more option you can use to promote your products and affiliate links.

These are just a few ways to generate traffic for your affiliate links; there are many more options out there.