Now, we see a variety of ways in which we can make some kind of money online, but what we need to do is find a way that actually catapults you to online success, one that is not only feasible, but legitimate and a big money-earner.

You have not one, but two ways to do this. Lets say you have a product that you created - this could be an ebook. You can publish this ebook attractively, promote it and sell it to make money. The crucial thing here is to get the right topic, and you could be making a lot of money quickly. But this sort of thing can take up a lot of time, energy and investment since you will have product development, setting up a website, stocking inventory and handling customer support. All this involves a lot of work.

Alternately you can sign up for an affiliate program. Affiliate programs are the easiest way to profit online - and they are very popular. You choose products made by someone else, and promote it for a commission. Advantages are:

• No product development
• No office
• No stock
• No customer hassles
• No capital

While you could actually do it all without a website, it is advisable to build one so that you can attract traffic.

But wait! What if the affiliate programs you sign up with didn’t bring in the commission you expected? Worse still, what if you were unable to sell your affiliate products because there’s no demand? Don’t despair! There’s a way out.

You must become what is called a ’super affiliate’. And believe me, it is the smartest way to work. Compare the advantages with simple affiliate marketing - as a super affiliate you don’t get involved in product development. You don’t even need a website. How simple is that? What you will do as a super affiliate is generate your earnings by identifying hungry markets and established profitable products that are already being marketed. The next step is generating traffic - not with your marketing efforts but through easy to set up advertising campaigns like Google AdWords.

To summarize - the best and the easiest way to profit online is

• Become a super affiliate
• Capitalize on existing resources in the form of established products and marketing models
• Combine them
• Enjoy profits

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Many web masters work very hard to attract unique visitors to their website but once they start pulling links, something curious happens. They ignore their incoming traffic altogether in their frenzy to woo even more traffic. They simply give details of the services they provide and ask their visitors to pay up. To them, the only source of income from their web traffic is through making a sale.

But making money on the Internet need not be a linear process at all.

Did you know that web gurus generate a neat income by monetizing their web traffic in various resourceful ways? You can do the same. Let me tell you how.

Selling ad space: Big players on the Internet are always looking for new places to sell. If you are pulling lots of eyeballs, you can make money simply by allowing associated ads on your site. Inviting merchants to advertise on your website will give you immediate ROI (Return on Investment).

Affiliate programs: This is the cheapest and easiest way to monetize your web traffic. By integrating popular affiliate programs into your website, you get a chance to earn a high percentage of commission on the products you promote. Promoting products closely associated with the theme of your website has a very high conversion ratio. You can promote as many products as you want.

Ebay programs: Another great way to make money from web traffic. Simply place an Ebay product listing along with your website content. For instance, if you sell weight loss tips, place a block of weight loss supplements listed on Ebay on your website. The advantage? Ebay pays excellent commission rates. And if the products you promote are good, your visitors will thank you for it!

Sell text link ads: Sites like text-link-ads.com allow you to increase your revenue in a quite and uncomplicated manner. Simply place their text link on your site and start earning! They take care of all the hassles of billing and payment; you only need to receive the cash! More importantly, they offer you various tools that help you ensure that only quality links are published on your website. The good news? Commission is sky-high: almost 50%!

Google Adsense: This one has been around for a long time but people STILL manage to under-utilize it. Get a membership from Google and start publishing appropriate adsense script along with associated content. Every click you generate earns you money, sometimes even as high as $25 per click!

Newsletter ads: Your newsletter is a vehicle of interaction and you can promote anything you want through it. Besides promoting products, you can even sell ad space on your newsletter.

Membership website: Every successful guru has at least one of these. The logic is simple: people pay money to access content on your website. Why? Because you are the expert!

Link directories: If you are the proud owner of a page rank of 5 or more, many websites, particularly the new ones, will want to place their links on your website. You can charge a nominal fee for this.

Assignments: As you start pulling in more traffic, a vast number of speaking and writing assignments will automatically find their way to you. People will want to interview you or hear you deliver a speech. This will keep your cash registers ringing.

This letter presupposes that you already have roaring traffic tearing its way to your website. But if you’re wondering how to develop this kind of traffic in the first place, just wait until my next article when I reveal a powerful arsenal of traffic-building strategies.

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Not every affiliate who signs up for an affiliate program will have the same level of enthusiasm to promote your products. And that’s why recruiting is a continuous process so that you have an affiliate army that is fresh and eager to sell at any given point in time. Before beginning to recruit, you would need to know where you could find the best affiliates. You could probably advertise or get your competitor’s affiliates to join you for a better commission. The best affiliates don’t always go looking for affiliate programs. Rather, merchants seek them out.

When your affiliates do start signing up, you would need to have a screening system so that you can review them based on certain factors. This is important, as you will be ultimately responsible for what your affiliates do, in relation to your affiliate program. Here is a checklist:

• Preferably look for affiliates who have an active site from which they work. Often, affiliates who do not have one could turn out to be spammers just out for a short-term buck.
• The affiliate who signs up must have content that is complementary to your affiliate program, with enough content that makes sense. There are sites that are just ad-heavy that should be avoided.
• It is important to note whether the affiliate site has gambling or adult -related content particularly if you do not have a website that is related to it.
• Avoid the misuse of content. It is better to provide affiliates with good content of their own rather than risk them duplicating your entire website. This will not only hurt your search engine rankings but also confuse your clients and visitors.
• Make sure that the affiliates promote your product just as you give it to them. Some affiliates tend to make false claims about the product, with the result that customers come knocking at your door when the products are different from what they expected.

In this context, it is worthwhile for you to know that good affiliates or super affiliates as they are referred to, also make their affiliate program selection based on various issues. Some of these are - the reputation of the merchant, promotional support, communication levels, whether there’s a refund guarantee in place and the quality of the product. On the financial side are the kind of revenue share levels, how well the affiliate program is tracked and the payment reliability factor. So with these in mind, its time to go recruit your affiliate army.

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Which affiliate program will help you make money online? Lets look at a few questions here - the answers to these will get you closer to deciding to go with the right affiliate program:

• For how long has the affiliate program been in existence?

Now, it is not as if a new affiliate program is no good - but chances are they are still ironing out minor issues and probably have issues with promotional material. As far as well established programs are concerned, most of them have already got their payment systems, statistics tracking and promotional material well in place and running like clockwork.

• You want to know the amount of commission you can earn

While a majority of affiliate programs have commissions in the range o f 2% to 75%, don’t get intimidated by this variation. It all depends on the product or service you decide to promote. 2% of a high value product is better than 75% of a low value product - see what I mean? Commission structures differ from company to company. While one may pay lower commissions to earn a profit for themselves to enable them function smoothly, there are those that will offer their affiliates more, to generate more sales and therefore more profit. You, as an affiliate will have to look at the long-term commission you can make from a dependable program.

• Do you believe in the products?

Unless you sincerely believe in what you are promoting you can never put in your full effort. If you like the product, and wouldn’t hesitate to use it yourself, you’ll find yourself talking about it with ease. Writing testimonials wont be an issue - and you’ll find that selling it is fun. Only choose products that you believe in.

• Does the company offer just a couple of products or several?

In instances where the company has a good commission structure and offer just one or two products that you really like - and you find selling them quite easy - then it makes sense. But it is always a good idea to link with a company that offers more products and services, enabling you general income from more than one product.

• Customer support

You want to be part of an affiliate program that motivates you and provides you with all the support you need, when you want it. Preferably look for one that has a regular newsletter that keeps you updated with the latest information about the program.

• Frequency of payments

Different affiliate programs pay at different frequencies - while some pay every six months, some pay when you have reached a minimum commission amount. You could look for programs that directly deposit to your PayPal account or checking account.

There! You are all set to go out and choose the most profitable affiliate program for you. In my next part, I’ll talk about how to manage and track your affiliate programs.

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