Affiliate Marketing Tutorial - Step One:  What is Affiliate Marketing?

What is affiliate marketing and how do I know if it’s right for me?  Take a quick quiz to find out. 

An affiliate marketer is someone who promotes and sells a company’s products or services in exchange for a commission.  What companies?  What products or services?  That’s the great part.  You can become an affiliate marketer of almost anything.   

From Amazon.com to iTunes from The Gap to eBay and many more, there are tens of thousands of affiliate programs available.  Finding a product or service that you believe in and want to promote is easy. 

To find a list of affiliate programs you can visit one of many affiliate directories online or simply visit any commercial website.  If you see the words “Earn Cash Fast” or “Join our Affiliate Program,” then you know that the company’s products are available to support.   

The Quiz:  Is affiliate marketing for you? 

Question #1  Do you want to make money but don’t want to assume much, if any, risk?

Affiliate Marketing Provides Security.  When you go into business for yourself, there is always a certain amount of risk.  You invest time and money into developing your product and service.  Additionally, you spend time and money developing a marketing plan.  Sometimes in small business ownership, the risk doesn’t pay off and all of the time and money invested is lost.   

Fortunately, the risks associated with affiliate marketing are next to none.  As an affiliate marketer, you are already promoting products that have an established need and customer benefit.  As an affiliate marketer, you are often supplied with all of the marketing tools that you’ll need to sell a product including banner ads, ad sales copy and even sales letters in some cases. 

All of the variables are taken care of.  All of the product and market research has been taken care of.  All that’s left for you to do is spread the good word about your products and reap the rewards. 

Question #2  Do you have little to invest in starting a business?

Affiliate Marketing Makes Money Fast.  Because your start up costs are minimal (the cost of a website is all you really need) you can begin making money right away.  Additionally, with the Easy Website Builder, you’ll have several of the marketing tools you need to build a spectacular list.  We’ll talk about those tools in a bit.   

Question #3  Do you want to start a business that makes money today and ten years from now?

Affiliate Marketing Gives You Multiple Streams of Income.  As an affiliate marketer, you can promote as many products as you like.  In fact, diversifying your product profile is recommended.   

Why?  Because you never know when a company is going to take a down turn.  They can go out of business.  There can be advancement in technology that makes their product obsolete.  Or a scandal involving the company can hit the news and product sales can take a significant downturn.   

Promoting a variety of products is the best way to keep regular money coming in.  However, it is recommended that you begin small.  Don’t jump in with 5 websites and 25 different products.  One website and a handful of relevant products is the best way to learn the business, and make money at the same time.  Once you have a system established, then you can begin adding websites. 

Question #4  Do you want a business that is simple and straightforward to establish?

Affiliate Marketing is Easy.  Affiliate marketing doesn’t require an inventory.  It doesn’t require specialized shopping cart or point of sale software.  It doesn’t even require any employees.  To get started, all you need is a simple website and a few informative articles with embedded links and you’re good to go.   

A little later in the tutorial we'll talk about building an affiliate marketing website (Don’t worry it's a lot easier than it sounds).

Next in our tutorial: --> Affiliate Marketing: How to Choose an affiliate marketing topic that makes money

RECOMMENDED for Affiliate Marketing Success!: Free Affiliate Marketing eBook by Dr. Ken Evoy of SBI!  Preselling is the number one thing you can do to increase your affiliate commissions, this book shows you how - Click here to immediately download.

Further Reading:  f you’re strongly considering becoming an affiliate marketer read this article and learn if affiliate marketing is right for you.