What IS Affiliate Marketing??

paolo4: Google Adwords can be expensive if you are a newbie. Careful how you use it! If you are making money great.

I absolutely agree - Adwords is not for newbies.

I think it is better when you are brand spanking new to the whole affiliate marketing thing..... to learn about writing articles, blogs, using keywords correctly etc, and then when you are ready (and you will know when that is ) you can take the risk on the google adwords thing.

I don't recommend adwords to newbies either. What I am talking about here is a bit advanced practice for those who are already using article article marketing.

You spend a considerable time writing and optimizing around a certain phrase, or pay money to get your articles written. And it makes you frustrated if after all of that hard work, money spent, and time consumed you get a few or no sales because the phrases were chosen based on guessing and other theoretical calculations that for some reason do not represent reality.

What I am recommending in my post, the PPC campaigns (msn or yahoo are cheaper and allow direct linking for test campaigns) will give you an idea about what phrases sell more than others, what phrases never generate sales, and based on that you can make better use of your writing time (or expenses). It's money well spent in my opinion.

But for beginners, and for everyone actually, contact your affiliate manager or the owner of the product for this kind of info. If you don't get a clear answer find something else to sell.

Some product owners (like those who maintain high gravity on clickbank) know what they are doing, and are doing their research part because they already have a huge database that cannot be available for single affiliates no matter what their sales volume is. And based on their own data they can recommend the best keywords for you to either bid on or write your articles about. Those ones know that your success contributes to theirs, so they take you seriously.

If you get an answer like"use this tool" or "here is how to find the keywords" it means that they either don't know or they don't want to help ... just drop it and find something else. An acceptable answer is a list of the keywords or phrases, and some numbers next to each one indicating sales volume (not necessarily an exact number of sales, could just be an order number).

Also use your common sense to judge the urgency of each search phrase. I've read somewhere (maybe something written by Travis from bum marketing): does it sound like their hair is in fire?

If you get that list of phrases and have more money to spare than time, do PPC to confirm the accuracy of that list and to start making money immediately.

Finally, only use my method (in the previous post) when you have a proven crowd of buyers, and a product that perfectly fits the need of that crowd, but you are on your own because there is no real help from the owner or the affiliate manager.

After you already have winner phrases or keywords, expand your campaigns with more web 2.0 sites, more articles, more directories ... etc.

Thanks Yahia - I love how you take the time to explain things.

yahia: I don't recommend adwords to newbies either. What I am talking about here is a bit advanced practice for those who are already using article article marketing.
And that was how I took your earlier post - I just wanted to chime in to let newbies know that it is okay if they don't have a clue what you are talking about.

Wow, great advice Yahia. I like the idea of contacting the affiliate manager or owner of the product for keywords - that totally makes sense. I'm new affiliate marketing, and luckily have found a little success right out the gate. This will help me even more, appreciate your words of wisdom!

Thank you MountainMom5, I really needed to hear something positive today before I go crazy, life is tough sister

JoyBringsWealth: This will help me even more, appreciate your words of wisdom!
You are welcome JoyBringsWealth.
Good luck with your new career.

The two essential tools for me in my internet marketing are, being afilliated to products which are of a good rating & are related to my business & creating a list of customers through name & email lists (Aweber) & giving them good information now & in the near future.
So afilliation & List building are crucial to the continued growth of your business & ofcourse let people know about your websites.

Mark

Another way of selling your product fast and building your list of subscribers quickly is through Joint Ventures.

Does anyone know anything about "emmediatetraffic.com"? :

Thank you..

And just a note: Affiliate Programs are always FREE to join, if they are legitimate. If they charge a fee or require you to purchase a product, then they are not a true affiliate program with a product that is marketable by itself.

MichaelZ: And just a note: Affiliate Programs are always FREE to join, if they are legitimate. If they charge a fee or require you to purchase a product, then they are not a true affiliate program with a product that is marketable by itself.
Amen! Great point and thanks for sharing that.

hechtd: Does anyone know anything about "emmediatetraffic.com"? :
It's a Clickbank product but am not sure what it does. One nice thing with it being a CB product is that if you don't like it, you have 60 days to get your money back.