There are tons of guru's floating around and even more eBooks and articles claiming to know latest and greatest trick to make tons of money with no effort at all (oh and of course, unless you use their method then you will never, ever get anywhere in your online business and stay broke rest of your life). We've all seen these before.

Let's get real for a moment. If you don't put any effort into your marketing and don't spread word of whatever you are marketing, then you will get exactly that much out of your effort. Zero effort = Zero results!

I hope that's plain enough and now let's have a look at sensible way to market your affiliate programs, so you can actually earn some of that Internet-Money-Pie (and it's yummy too).

There are two types of affiliate programs generally. Those that pay you (1-tier) and those that pay you, plus they pay you a bonus for actions taken by visitors sent by other webmasters you have referred (2-tier).

Let's think about that for a moment. What's easier way to make money? You sell a bunch of products and get paid on that alone, or if you sell product and also introduce affiliate program to a bunch of webmasters who in turn also sell and they earn a nice commission and you get a bonus every single time they sell something, just for having referred them to affiliate program?

Ok, I know you probably just smacked your forhead and said 'Duh' quite loudly and think I am stating plain and obvious.

If you can get others to do same thing you are doing, by keeping in touch with them and helping them and duplicating your efforts, then of course it stands to reason that bonus you receive for referring webmasters will generate potentially a large team of people making you money.

So, your first task is to find good, well-paying 2-tier affiliate programs. You can always use single tier programs as a back end sale or on other projects, don't get me wrong, they will still make you money, but right now, we want to get you started off on right foot to your own internet income.

So, you've gone out and found a well-paying affiliate program, and you are ready to rumble and make money... Not So Fast!!!

How are you going to promote it? What is your plan of attack? That's another problem many marketers run into, they just run off and don't think before they act and that again results in a lot less return for all of your efforts.

Here's what I have done in past and always do each time. Feel free to try this out and see results for yourself.

After finding affiliate program I want to promote, I check resource material provided by program. Sometimes, depending on how new program is, I use their material to get things rolling but almost every time, I start to write some ads of my own, perhaps an article or even an ebook that I can use to promote product and affiliate program with. Some of those resources are available to readers of eBusinessCornerNews newsletter if you are interested.

There are many different ways to promote your affiliate program, however, it depends upon what type of program it is, “Your Turnkey Program” or Affiliate Linked-Program for selling a product. Hmm-mm, interesting. What works, what doesn’t?

GET OUT THE WORD

Bulk Emailing – Bulk emailing use to be craze. Did you notice word use to be craze. That has changed with stricter spam rules and penalties – all to protect us. But bulk emailing can be done, if you have an opt-in list – such as, through a newsletter. But don’t overextend use, you may lose subscribers.

Classified Ads – With free classified ads you can definitely get hits – and possibly some sales. But don’t choose this as your only way of getting sales.

There are some drawbacks. You ask, “What drawbacks”. From my own experience, I’ve encountered individuals requesting information about my program – as a ploy to getting me to listen to their sales pitch. SPAM? Maybe. Annoying? Definitely. The height of annoyance is when they ask me to call them long distance, so that I can speak with them – only to have them give me a sales pitch on their program.

However, if you have a classified ad site on your website – you’ve got yourself a built-in opt-in list. You can gently sell to them, while verifying or thanking them for their ad.

Traffic Generators – Traffic generators can work on a turnkey site that many others are also partaking in to generate money for themselves. What I found is traffic generators are better suited for turnkey businesses. It is basically a simple way for you to entice other people in business to look at your program. You know – it’s “I’m not really happy with what I’m doing. I wonder what else is out there” syndrome. Or it’s – “I really need another program so that I’m not a one-man Joe in business” syndrome. In either case, it’s a safe place to see what’s happening or new on Internet.