Want to Make Money While You Sleep? Start Affiliate Marketing

I’ve made several thousand dollars this year through affiliate marketing. What the heck is affiliate marketing you ask? It’s promoting other people’s products or services in return for a commission. It’s easy to do and can quickly bring in extra income for very little effort. Your affiliate will give you your own unique “url” (that’s a webpage address). When someone clicks on your affiliate link and makes a purchase, the affiliate records the sale as credited to you. Most send checks to you monthly.

I’m telling you...it feels so great to open my mailbox and see checks...that took little or no effort from me to get after the initial set up on my webpage.

Here are 4 simple steps to getting started. And in the interest of full disclosure...the affiliate links I’ve given you as examples are my actual affiliate links which bring me commissions.

1. Decide which products/services you’ll promote. I am very choosy...I am proud of the excellent quality of my products and services AND the amazing benefits that my clients/customers experience... flexible lifestyle, more income, and greatly expanded beliefs in what is possible in their lives. A good reputation is your most valued asset...so don’t compromise it.

Here are some examples of what I promote and why.

Site Sell’s Build It System. This system teaches you, with a very doable step-by-step manual (videos too if you prefer watching to reading) and website about how to create websites, around topics that you are passionate about, that are true profit centers...bringing in $3,000+ per month. I’ve bought it, and am building a new profit center for my business. I’m amazed at how easy it is, and how much I’ve learned about search engine optimization... painlessly...something I’ve been resisting forever. My work in progress is www.providencelover.com. Once I’ve got more content and my monetization methods in place, I’ll create a new website...this for me is so much fun...no kidding...am I officially a geek?

Amazon’s Kindle. I LOVE my Kindle book reading device. I gave myself the first generation Kindle as a birthday gift a year ago November...the new versions are way better but I just don’t want to part with my beloved gadget yet.

What do I love about it? Instant downloads (and gratification) of books when I want them and the ability to tote 200 books around without breaking my back (the latest generations hold 1,500 and 3,500!). When I travel or even just hang out at the Dana Point harbor, I love having all kinds of books with me. I dip into a business book, then a dose of spirituality, and then maybe a good mystery.

There really is no limit to the amount of Kindle books you can own...you can keep some on your Amazon website account and transfer them back and forth to your Kindle when you like.

I can’t go into all the amazing features here...but do know that you can bookmark, highlight and take notes. I save all these as “clippings" and then upload them to a Word doc and create my presentations from them.

I take it everywhere...and soon discovered that people are curious about the Kindle and want to hold it and check it out. At the car wash, the harbor, and airports, I ALWAYS have strangers ask me if they can check it out.

It finally dawned on me that I’m a walking sales person for Amazon...enthusiastically promoting their product...AND they offer a commission. So I wised up, joined their affiliate program and had biz cards made with my Amazon affiliate link on it. After I share my Kindle with a new person, I give them the card and ask them to purchase their first one there and then I tell them to set up their own affiliate link! You get 10%...you can receive between $20-$49 each sale, depending on the version folks buy.

American Writers & Artists Institute. These folks provide high quality, home study kits on several realistic ways to make money from home including resume writing, travel writing, copywriting and much more. I’ve purchased several of these for my own use and can highly recommend them. Here’s an example of their home study kits: http://www.awaionline.com/go.php?Clk=3363528

2. Create a blog or website where you will promote your affiliates’ products. You can start with a free blog using blogger.com or wordpress.com. If you’re serious about making money with your website, I highly recommend Site Sell’s Build It...they tell you why you need more than a blog.

3. Send regular notices to your client email list about your affiliates’ products. You ARE building a list right? If not, join our Success Circle now so you can learn how.

4. Write, and post on the internet, articles on topics related to your affiliates’ products and include a link to your affiliate webpage in the “resource box” of the article. Google “article directories” to get ideas about where you can post them (it’s free!).

Consider making affiliate marketing part of your marketing plan for 2010. You’ll thank me! Post a comment on our blog when you get your first affiliate check so we can all “Whoo Hoo” with you.

For free weekly self employment information sent to your Inbox, subscribe to Ann's Authentic Life Institute Ezine at http://www.authenticlifeinstitute.com.