What Does The New Affiliate Need?Written by Stephen Brennan
I'm often contacted by my website visitors, readers of my articles and others who've 'tracked me down' in some way or another, who are generally looking for advice or guidance in some form or other. One of more common requests seems to concern their need for information about how to go about getting their 'planned' Internet home business started. More specifically, in fact, are those wondering about Affiliate Marketing.It's not surprising at all, given level of exposure that this particular home business model enjoys online. Certainly, every website with a home based business theme promotes or at least suggests Affiliate marketing as a possibility for thousands of budding 'Netpreneurs' (not being a fan of 'buzzwords', I really do hate that expression!). There would also seem to have been a recent increase in ebooks and tutorials etc promising recipe for success in Affiliate Marketing. Having written one myself and read many, I can say firsthand that some are valuable, helpful and useful products which will go a long way towards getting a budding Affiliate up and running and, provided they have necessary drive, perseverance and 'certain other qualities', on way to success in their dream of working from home. Of course, some (IMO probably about 50%) are total rubbish, a promotional vehicle for some other product or program, or both. One article is certainly not going to go anywhere near giving necessary advice to information hungry 'Newbie' who is chasing promised dream of a successful home business. Nor will it suggest much in terms of necessary requirements and facilities etc. However, after recommending a couple of better (and more reasonably priced) tutorial ebooks, I will generally suggest that their initial Affiliate endeavor should include, at least, following: Domain and Hosting Package - Although it is possible for some to achieve a level of success in Affiliate Marketing without a website, chances of a 'Newbie' having knowledge, experience and abilities in required areas is unlikely (i.e. copy writing ability for email ads and Google Adwords® and knowledge and skills in areas of promotion outside of website promotion etc). Domains are priced from as little as $5 to about an average of $12 per year. Certainly don't ever pay more than $20 for your standard .com, .net or .biz domains. A hosting package with necessary facilities for a new Affiliate should cost no more than $3 to $5 per month. If it does, you're being charged too much, or paying for things that you simply don't need, nor ever will. A hosting package, which includes free 'sub-domains’, is a must for any Affiliate. Safelist Memberships - I know that many say that Safelists are not very useful for promoting anything, as they are populated primarily by other home business people who are all there to promote rather than buy. This is true however, fact that most are others in same position as yourself, Safelists are a good opportunity for a new Affiliate to promote products, which may well be of interest to others who are also building or promoting their Affiliate activities thus, they are also useful for building your downlines.
| | WAHM - What It TakesWritten by Cori Sachais Swidorsky
As I’m sitting here installing a wireless mouse, I started thinking. I started to think about how much work , just in past 4 months, I have been putting into starting a home based business. Yep, I jumped on wham (work at home mom) ban wagon. I’m a stay at home mom of two daughters; prior to children I enjoyed my work very much. All this hype about home based businesses was going around and I immediately said “that’s for me, that’s exactly what I’m looking for”. I mean home based business; I can be a stay at home mom and get satisfaction out of a job that I use to get when working. I currently do work very part time from home making customer service calls for a few car dealerships and I love doing it. Hearing about all “so called” money you can make from an online business sounds extremely wonderful to me. Is it for real? Are people really making money they are saying? Well if they are, I want in on it too. So how will I know if I don’t take chance myself? So like I mentioned, it’s only been 4 months and wow work you have to put into it. But guess what? That’s what I love about working, having to “work”, use your brain, face challenges, and overcome obstacles that to me is satisfaction. In this article I want to share what I have learned about what it takes so far, to even take on this challenge. •Time - Something we all need more of. It probably takes a minimum of 10 hours a week to put into starting your home based business. I put probably 15 to almost 20 hours a week in. You need to remember it’s a job, you are building a business you MUST put in time in order to be successful. •Patience – Which I don’t have much of. I am learning and realizing that not only do you need to put in time, but it “takes” time to build up your business. Not only do you need to be patient with building it, but you need to be patient with your kids. It’s an adjustment for them to now have to share you with your work. You now have to juggle more then what you are use to. With added stress, it’s understandable to lose your patience. Being patient will help us to focus more and lessen stress.
|