Affiliate marketing is a simple and easy to start online business model that doesn't require you to have any inventory, fill any orders or process any payments for the products you've sold. The simplicity of the model, the opportunity to earn income online with little more than a computer and an internet connection, drives many newbies to start their own affiliate marketing business.

But in spite of this being the perfect online business (not to mention a never ending supply of "how to" books revealing the latest "lazy" affiliate marketing strategy), most newbie affiliate marketers FAIL to make a single dollar in commissions.

So If you're struggling with making money affiliate marketing and you want to turn things around, this Hub reveals a simple affiliate marketing formula you can use to make your first affiliate marketing commission check.

It doesn't matter which affiliate program you want to use this formula with: Amazon Associates Program, Commission Junction, ClickBank, Ebay Partner Network or MoreNiche - it will work for you IF you APPLY it.

Are you wondering why you can't make money affiliate marketing?

I don't know you or your affiliate marketing strategy, but there could be any number of reasons why you haven't made any money online yet: it could be information overload; the wrong niche(s); the wrong products; or you're not getting the right kind of of traffic.

What might can help you "turn the tide" (outside of the right mental attitude, a good work ethic and persistence) is to get a big picture view of what it really takes to make money online. The following simple affiliate marketing formula can help you accomplish this:

Profitable Niche + Profitable Products + Traffic That Converts = Affiliate Commission Checks

This simple affiliate marketing formula will help you gain a basic understanding of what's really important when it comes to profitable affiliate marketing campaigns and starting with the next module, we're going to examine each part of this formula.

What makes a niche profitable? Before answering that I want to make sure you understand what a niche is. A niche is simply a market made up of a narrowly defined group of people with a specific interest. Niches can be further broken down into sub-niches. Ex: car buyers is a general niche which can be broken down into the following sub-niches: new car buyers, used car buyers, luxury car buyers, etc.

In order for us to make money affiliate marketing, we must look for niches where people are spending money on a solution to a specific problem or to fulfill a particular desire or passion. And since we're smart affiliate marketers, we don't stop there. We also want markets where people are actively thinking about their problems, desires or passions often and are motivated to search for as well as buy a solution to it online. The more they think about X, the more likely they are going to be motivated enough to spend their money on a product or service that solves their specific problem. I know this is different from what the "guru" marketers preach, but this is what you really need to understand if you want to make money affiliate marketing.

Be sure to visit each of the resource sites to the right and use them to help you discover profitable niche markets. Here are a few other points for you to keep in mind:

• Keyword research is NOT niche research! Keyword research reveals the terms being searched for in a niche, while niche research helps you understand the problems, desires and needs of buyers in that market. You can find this stuff out by discovering where this market hangs out online. Google "your keyword phrase" + forum and make note of the active discussions.
• Don't choose a niche just because you can make money in it affiliate marketing - select one that you are passionate about or at least have a strong interest in. Keep in mind that you're dealing with real people who are looking for solutions, so you need to have a mind and heart to help them - if you don't, people in that market will vote their dollars with the affiliate that does have passion for what they're doing.
• Forget about what the "usual suspects" in internet marketing say about pursuing niches with little competition; look to enter competitive niche markets - because that's where the money is ... when you see a number of advertisers and affiliates in a niche market, that's where you want to be.

   

After you've thoroughly researched your niche, finding the right affiliate products to promote to your prospects will be relatively easy. What you want is a product that (a) solves the problems of the people in your niche market, and (b) offers you a decent affiliate commission payout for promoting it.

Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• It takes the same amount of effort to promote a product with a low payout as it does one with a high payout, so promote the the higher paying offer that addresses your markets problems or desires. For digital products look for affiliate offers that pay you $20, $25 or more per sale.
• Offer your prospects more than one product, type of product and products at different price points. One of your product may be of a greater quality than another or offer more value to the dollar. Even though info-products can be digitally delivered, physical products (which generally have a higher perceived value) may better suit your prospects needs and give you a better commission.
• DON'T promote products that offer little or no benefit to your prospects. This is something you really have to beware of especially in the how to make money online niche. Cut through the sales copy and get to know the product -- who can really benefit from it and its limitations.

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With this last leg of our simple affiliate marketing formula, we need to figure out how we're going to start sending traffic to the merchant's website. You can accomplish this through pay-per-click (PPC) marketing using Adwords, Yahoo! or MSN. You can also get traffic for free using search engine optimization (SEO) tactics. Which is best? PPC advertising will get you traffic the fastest, but running these campaigns and discovering which keywords convert the best for your affiliate offers can be expensive. Natural or organic methods are free, but requires quite a bit of work and time to see results. One of my projects took 3 months to see results from the SEO strategy I used to promote niche affiliate products; but it was well worth it because the primary product paid me close to $200 in commissions for every visitor that made a purchase. When everything started clicking, I was sending approx. 100 uniques per day to the merchant's website and converted at 1:32 (that's 1 sale for every 32 visitors). You do the math :-).

Keywords to Focus Your Efforts On

No matter which traffic method you use, the keywords you use will be critical to your success. We're not concerned with just any old traffic, but traffic that converts prospects into buyers, so we focus on keywords that buyers use when they're ready to make a purchase. The people in your niche who are ready to purchase a solution to their specific problem are using search terms that indicate their interest in making a purchase - ex., buy "keyword", compare "keyword" prices, "keyword" review. Think about it. Which would be more valuable to you as an affiliate marketer, to have your blog or website ranked above the fold on the 1st page of Google for the keywords "platinum jewelry" or for the keyword phrase "buy platinum jewelry"?The "buy platinum jewelry" search term, of course!

There's More to Getting Traffic Than Your Keywords!

There's more to getting traffic that converts than the keywords you use. There's also on and off page optimization, the relevance of your content and the linking structure/strategy you use. But make no mistake abou it - if you don't research, analyze and target the right keywords, you're not going to have the success you could have. That's the bottom line. To help you get a better understanding of this, be sure you check out the resources in the module to the right.

Now you have a simple formula and some new resources you can use to make money affiliate marketing.

Don't underestimate the value of what I've revealed in this HubPage article. Print it out, get yourself a journal to track your thoughts on your affiliate marketing projects and apply it. 

I really hope this article has shed some light on what it takes to earn money as an affiliate marketer. Take action, stay focused on what's important to making your affiliate marketing business profitable and keep your online business moving forward. 

Okay, school's out .... it's time to take action and.get to work!