Do articles really work in generating leads and bringing in business?

Can somebody make a million dollars by using only articles to promote their business?

Interestingly I get asked these questions by people who have heard about my services through one of my articles they came across. I am sure because there is no other form of marketing that I use. You would think that fact that they got to hear about me and my services through articles, in first place, would give them a little more faith in this powerful form of online marketing and make them a little more confident.

Actually it is not that surprising when you consider that most people can hardly remember how they first came across a web site or business online.

While it is true that I stay in one of less costly cities of world (albeit away from my home country), I still have to support a wife, two children and a grandson. And I do it all from my online business.

The easiest way to make money is to promote other people's products online. Whether you do this online or offline, principle is pretty much same, although there are some key differences.

In offline world, this means becoming a salesperson for a company to sell their product for a commission. In online world, this means joining a website's affiliate program and posting ads for their product in exchange for a commission.

The main differences are amount of work involved and percentage of commissions.

As an offline salesperson, you generally have to make appointments with prospects, make presentations, fill out paperwork, and answer a lot of questions about company and their product. When you make a sale, you generally get a commission of about 10% to 20% of price.

As an online affiliate, there are no appointments to make or keep, no presentations to make, and no paperwork to fill out. And commissions are usually much higher, 50% and more being common!

Since most of us would much rather do as little work as possible and make as much money as possible, it's really hard to turn down opportunity to become an online affiliate.

To work as an affiliate, you don't need a website, just ability to post announcements on forums, through email, or on newsgroups.

There are many people earning a ton of money doing nothing more than promoting affiliate products. In fact, a full one-third of my income comes from promotion of other people's products.

One particular example of someone who's getting rich as an affiliate is Rosalind Gardner. Rosalind started part-time as an affiliate in 1997 promoting dating services online. In 2000, she left her job as an air-traffic controller to live comfortably from her affiliate commissions.

By 2003, Rosalind was making $30,000 to $50,000 A MONTH from her affiliate promotions. At that time she hadn't even produced her own product and I dare say, was in enviable position of being able to retire for life.

There are a few guidelines that will insure your success as an affiliate.

1. PROMOTE QUALITY PRODUCTS This almost goes without saying, but we have to address it anyways. Every reputable website offers a money-back guarantee, and if product isn't worth asking price, you'll lose any commissions you may earn before your commission check is cut.

2. AFFILIATE YOURSELF WITH A WEBSITE THAT SELLS Even if a product is good, website may not be written clearly enough for people to understand benefits of owning product. I've promoted many products that failed to sell, simply because website was poorly written or poorly structured.

3. PROMOTE IN AS MANY PLACES AS POSSIBLE In essence, you only earn a commission after someone clicks on your affiliate link and reads website you're promoting. It follows logically that you want as many people as possible to click on your affiliate link.

In practice, this means posting your affiliate link on forums, in newsgroups, in your email signature, in ezines (you can buy ads or submit articles), and posting on webpages (your own or on other people's sites). The only caveat here is NEVER, NEVER SPAM!!

Do not send out emails to people you don't know and haven't requested to be on your mailing list. Do not submit an ad to anyone who sends out spam. Do not post announcements to forums that do not allow announcements.

In short, follow rules, but get your affiliate link in front of as many people as legitimately possible.

4. ESTABLISH YOURSELF AS AN EXPERT While it is possible to earn commissions doing nothing more than posting your affiliate links around Internet, you'll be able to make much more money when you have an audience that values your opinion and follows your recommendations.

Statistics show that an expert who recommends a product will earn approximately 12 times more commissions than an affiliate who simply posts a link. When you are expert, you can post a recommendation to a product and expect to attract a lot more attention.

Becoming an expert really isn't that difficult. You don't have to know everything there is to know about a subject to be an expert in it. With most subjects, average person knows next to nothing, so if you read a few books on subject and follow trends, most people will consider you an expert since you know a lot more than they do.

Demonstrating your expertise is usually done in 2 ways. Either by answering questions in forums, or by posting articles that you've written.

There are many resources available to teach you how to write a good quality article, and most articles take only an hour or so to write. This article, for example, only took me about 1 & 1/2 hours to write. Writing Keys To Power Prosperity book only took 2 weeks. Writing isn't difficult once you know system that makes it easy.