Website Magick
Established Member
Affiliate Marketing
Affiliates are a great way to monetize a website. That being said, there are different ways to approach the subject. One would be to add affiliate ads to a website that is already a business and making money such as www.websitemagick.com which is already a business. There are a few affiliate ads there that are first, industry specific and second, not selling the same product that our business sells.The other approach is to set up a website with the express goal of making money with affiliates ads (such as IWebNews.net). This can be done (and has been done) with great success “if” you can get traffic to your site. No one is going to come to your site on a regular basis just to click on your ads. There must be something to attract them there the first time and then keep them coming back. So you must find a niche to draw them in.
Your niche must be something that you know about, whether it’s cooking, gardening, or pets it needs to be something you are able to write about and add fresh content to on a continuous basis. Make sure you spell check and your grammar is proper both in your website and your posts. Then the ads that you choose to place also need to be specific to subject of the website. Remember this was the topic that the visitor was searching for in the first place. Someone is very unlikely to visit a pet grooming site and buy web hosting.
Next you need to consider domain names and hosting. Free hosting and domain names may seem attractive but they look cheap and if you don’t take your business seriously either will anyone else. Dot com domains are the best but you can also use any country extension that you are in. Sub domains such as yoursite/blogspot.com are not going to impress anyone.
Next you need traffic. To make money with affiliate ads you need a high volume of traffic. Listing with search engines is a start but hardly the answer. Listing in industry specific directories and forums will draw a lot of traffic. If you have a budget for marketing you can also use Google Adwords, Bidvertiser, or other forms of paid online advertising. Starting out is often slow but there are not any get rich quick schemes out there (unless you are very lucky). Spamming though email or forums will only get you banned from forums and get your IP address blacklisted and you’re done.
Good luck,