It’s a form of revenue sharing or commission based advertising. The term “affiliate marketing,” however, is often associated with network marketing or multi-level marketing and therefore many companies prefer to use the term “performance marketing”. Affiliate marketing is the most cost effective sort of marketing there is, and is actually incredibly efficient. For this reason, many companies (especially those that started in the early days of e-commerce) owe a tremendous amount to affiliate marketing (amazon.com is a good example) and it has now become normal for companies to include affiliate marketing in many of their plans.

There are three types of compensation methods that are associated with affiliated marketing. The first type is Cost per Click (CPC) or Cost per Mil (CPM.) Basically, the affiliate earns by how many clicks the advertising on hisher site generates, or by just having the advert published on the website. But because of click fraud and many other questionable tactics, CPC is no longer the general form used for affiliate marketing. Generally, companies now either use CPA (Cost per Action) or CPS (Cost per Sale.) The first is based on how much the advert generates interest by the clicker to actually buy or register at the advertised site, the second is based strictly on sales. In other words, an affiliate is paid if the clicker actually purchases something on the advertised site.

Today’s focus will be on Articles and other methods to drive traffic to your site. While social networking could fall into this article, I’m going to dedicate more time to it in a separate one later.

What are some of the methods to drive free traffic to your site?

• You can ask friends to show up
• You can post links in directories
• You can create articles
• Add signature and post in forums

Can asking friends really help?  Yes in someways it can.  If you are running a site that contains forums, the more people you get to sign up and post the more likely new members that come across your site are to join.  Nobody wants to go to a forum to talk to no one.  There are services out there that will accept payment to fill your forums with seeded posts.  I have never used one but they are out there, just search some on google and you’ll find a few.

Posting links in directories will allow you get start getting some inward links to your site.  It is important to understand that google doesn’t always favor some of these directories, but several it does consider authoritative.  It is important to do  your research, see what googles PR is for the directory and choose wisely.  If you have a site on pets it doesn’t make sense to get a link in a computer directory, and the more of these little “mishaps” you have the more likely Google will penalize you for those actions.

Creating articles is a good road, but a pain.  You might want to promote yourself but the best sites are very particular about what you are allowed and how many links you can have etc.  I’ve learned that the hard way.  It is important to make sure you have plenty of keywords in your article that you are interested in having people find you under.  So if you want people to find you for “internet marketing” make sure you have that phrase a few times in your article.  If you are not looking for internet marketing, but online marketing make sure you use that phrase often as well.  It is important to understand that these short tail phrases are more difficult to rank for an phrases like “home based internet marketing” are easier for you to show up on Google.  The reason “home based internet marketing” is called long tails is because it has at least 3 words, usually 4 words in the phrase.  They are less often type, but much more targeted.

Adding links in your signatures on forums.  If you are a pet site and you have a pet site you want to promote get active with pet communities.  Don’t go off pandering your goods from day one, but become a known expert in that field.  This way people get used to you, and you are not spamming the forums.  After you post several posts feel free to make a comment about your site, or simply put it in your signature.  Now depending on how the forum is set up, every time your signature is viewed by Google you have some links from that post going to your site.  So again y our are building authority in the eyes of the community, but also in the eyes of Google.

Let me know if you have any questions on this one!

1. Introduction
2. Affiliate Marketing
3. Traffic Methods – PPC
4. Traffic Methods – Free
5. Search Engine Optimization
6. Social Networking

Introduction to Internet Marketing:

While I would not consider myself an expert in making money by selling products online (yet), I am an expert on the internet and marketing on it. In my professional career I work marketing on it every day. My goals are to obtain leads, increase sales, make sites more visible and purchase 3rd party advertising. I am responsible for a multi-million dollar budget, so it makes it hard to simply turn around and do marketing on my own as my habits need to be changed from work to personal. I have to be much more fickle with my own money while starting out. Now that you have a little on me…

Internet marketing is a large ocean of opportunity. It is estimated that 1.4 BILLION people use the internet and that’s only 21% of the world population, and it continues to grow daily. So that is a potential customer base larger than any single market. If you have a product that is of interest to .1% that is still 1.4 MILLION customers that are interested in what you are selling.

Internet marketing is about using different methods to help people find something they want, and hopefully that is something you have to sell. There are many different methods that I will talk about in the next few posts, but suffice it to say it will not be exhaustive. If you want to get started today check out traffic tactics world, it has a lot of information to offer if your just starting out.

Up Next: Affiliate Marketing

Have you noticed how difficult it is to actually get any REAL information about how to make money online?

It’s a nightmare isn’t it? You start off buying up everything you come across – all promising your overnight riches but only to disappoint you and leave you out of pocket. Well it doesn’t have to be like that as Michael Cheney is about to explain in this interview.

Michael Cheney, one of the most-respected names in Internet marketing, has been online since 1995 and is the man behind the 6-Figure launches of AdSense Videos, 11 Days To List Profits and Michael’s Traffic Videos.

After receiving 1489 responses to a survey he put out to his list one big request came back from almost everyone;

“Give us something easy, step-by-step and proven to make money online that anyone can do!”

So that’s what he’s giving you in the new product Start Your Profits Today.

Q. Michael, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with us today.

A. My pleasure – I know a lot of people out there want to get started making money online so it’s my job to get out and spread the word about how easy it is.

Q. So what do you see as being the main hurdles to newbies being able to make money on the internet? What is it that’s stopping them?

A. To be honest with you I think the main thing is information. There is just so much BAD information out there. Scams. Cons. Just bad information that is leading people astray and wasting their time and money. I mean you get onto the Internet and the first thing you see almost is these get-rich-quick schemes. It’s not your fault for seizing these so-called opportunities as they are presented so well. And believe me – I know there are thousands of you out there who have been taken for a ride by things like this. People on my list have been telling me this.

Q. Yes, you ran survey didn’t you to ask your list what they wanted? What sort of questions did you ask them and what did they say?

A. Well I asked how I could most help them. You know – I’ve been online since 1995 and make a lot of money online but I was keen to tap into their BIGGEST challenges and needs. So I asked them what sort of information they wanted to learn. What style of learning they preferred and how they wanted this information to be delivered. I was totally blown away by the responses – I got 1489 people completing the survey!

Q. So what did they say?

A. There some big common themes that kept coming up as I looked at the responses and all the comments. These were that people want something that is STEP BY STEP, something that is AFFORDABALE and something that takes you right FROM BEGINNING and doesn’t leave anything out. You can get really frustrated when you start investing in products that claim to make you money online only to find that leave out a massive piece of the jigsaw. Or they forget to mention that you need to buy X, Y and Z just to make their system work. And that’s where Start Your Profits Today is different.

Q. How do you mean exactly?

A. Well, for the first time – I take you, as a total newbie beginner, right through the entire process from beginning to end on making money online. You discover how to get your own website address, how to create your website and how to start bringing the money in by selling other people’s products. This is a distilled version of the best making-money techniques I have ever used in my 13 years’ online experience. This is quite simple the fastest, easiest and best way to make money online and I show you what to do every step of the way.

Q. Sounds great. So how do you take people through all these steps?

A. Simple – I have recorded short videos on-screen of me actually doing each of these steps so you just follow the simple success formula – WATCH. COPY. EARN. You cannot go wrong, even a child could do it. I’m serious!

Q.You’re right, it does sound really easy. So tell me, what are some of these steps that you go through in Start Your Profits Today?

A. You learn how to pinpoint the most profitable products to promote. You like that title?! I like to have snappy titles that inspire you to take action as it’s not all sexy make-money stuff right from the beginning. There are obviously crucial steps you need to take in preparation. You know – to get your website online, to get your website address and to add words and pictures to your website etc.

Q. So what exactly do you need if you’re a beginner starting out trying to make online? Are there some items you need to buy?

A. Great question – yes you do need to have a few essentials. You just can’t make money online without them. You’ll need your own website address and of course your own website. I show you where to get this and the best, cheapest place to go for this in Start Your Profits Today. Other than that you can do everything else pretty much for free.

Q. So you don’t need to buy lots of different things to get started online?

A. No not all. I’m a big believer in doing things that are free! I started out with nothing, working from my bedroom in a poxy one-bed bachelor apartment. Now I live in $800,000 house in the country. My point? When I started out if there was a free way to do something – I found it! And I’m still that way now so I uncover some of these insider money-saving secrets in the videos as well.

Q. So wrapping up then – who would you say would benefit from these videos? Do you need to have a basic level of knowledge on the internet to get started?

A. If you can turn on your computer you are good to go! Seriously! You’ll see that I take you by the hand and guide you through every step of the way. I hate jargon so you won’t see any of that and it’s all explained in simple English and you can go along and progress through to the money at your own pace.

Q. You really do seem to have created a product that every newbie is going to want! So I guess the big question is – how much money can they make using Start Your Profits Today?

A. Well this all really depends on your attitude. If you have a great attitude and you put in the time to go through the steps then there is honestly no limit. You could quite easily be bringing in a few hundred to a few thousand extra dollars a week once you are up and running. What you need to remember is that is exactly the same system that I use in my multi-million dollar business. It works for me, it works for thousands of other people and it will work for you too.

Q. That’s great Michael. Thank you again for your time today, I really appreciate you doing this interview for us. Well all that remains now is for anyone listening to this interview to get over to Start Your Profits Today and start your profits today!