Getting Started in Affiliate Internet Marketing...

So here we go...

First of all, you must decide what type of affiliate Internet marketer you want to be. Do you want to be a "Pay per clicker" (PPC)? Or maybe you want to be a content King. There are also the "Couponers", Comparison Searcher as even scummy Cookie stuffers... We will go into all of these in other sections.

Start with a Pay Per Click campaign
My recommendation is to start your career in affiliate Internet marketing as a PPC (Pay per clicker) and when you get the feel of things, start making more content sites and augment your income from PPC campaigns with some steady content clicks.

Affiliate Internet marketing tips - Web hosting
Now you have to start spending some money... Take some time and invest in a good, reliable web hosting company that has good service and rare service disruptions. My recommendation would be WebHost4Life.com. They are great. I have been with them for years. I host half a dozen sites with them. They have a sweet $4.95 dollars a month deal that includes oodles of disk space and unlimited bandwidth. I do not recommend that you use a free host like Tripod.com or FreeWeb.com. They add all sorts of unwanted noise to your page like pop-ups and their Google ads. Free host also rate very low in the search engines so beware - is it really free? I have used enough hosts to know when I have a "keeper".

Get a domain name

Do not go crazy signing up for every "cool" program you can find!

Next you will need a domain name (like www.yourname.com). These run between $10 and $20 per year. I buy mine from two companies - ZID.com and SilentRegister.com. They both have great service. SilentRegister.com has an added benefit as they cloak your personal info. Yes, anyone can view your personal details when you purchase a domain name - just check out www.internic.org/whois.html. Make sure that your keywords are included in your domain name! Search engine robots love keyword loaded domain names. Example: if you sell widgets you could try to buy the name www.Widgets.com. A catchy domain name is a must for content sites as it can add credibility. Many Merchants and Merchant Networks will not have anything to do with sites hosted on free hosts. Unfortunately, many great names are parked by domain name resellers so you may have to get clever in choosing your domain name. One more thing - it is important that you pick a domain name that includes or refers to your target keywords.

Web design Software
So now you have the host and a cool domain name. Next you will need some software to create your website (if you are making a content site - PPC'ers move on). I use Dreamweaver from Macromedia. It is a great WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. I would avoid Frontpage as it crams in a bunch of code that can complicate things. I use Photoshop, Fireworks and ColorSchemer for my graphics work. I highly recommend taking some Web design and Graphic design courses - they will save you time in the long run.

Join an Affiliate Network or Merchant Program
Next, open an account with ONE reputable Affiliate Network (see the list on this site). Do not go crazy signing up for every "cool" program you can find - your job is to make money, not waste your time applying to programs that you will never promote! Carefully research a few key merchants. Look at their affiliate sections of their Web sites, carefully read the affiliate agreements - you would be amazed what lurks within. Finally check out ABestWeb.com. This is one of the best Affiliate Marketing forums where the people are friendly and very smart! Do not expect them to give away all the secrets on your first visit. When they get to know you, they will open up and help you on the road. ABestWeb.com a great place to get the low-down on what Merchant/Networks are good, which convert and what methods work in making money from Affiliate Internet Marketing. Find out more about choosing a merchant from the section titled "Choosing Merchants".

Moving on to a content site
After you research, research, research, start off small and begin with a small Google PPC campaign for your favorite Merchant. Maybe $3.00 a day. Tweek your campaign (see other parts of this site) and in time you can start work on a content site. Since content sites take so much time to create, I would not start there. You can have a Pay Per Click program up in an hour and then get to work on the content site...