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They both attempt to make money through the Internet
#1
We may all remember the dotcom era and the effects it had on us when it burst. Something seemingly similar called affiliate marketing has become the latest trend in making easy money on the Internet. Lest you worry that it will implode and end the same way the dotcom era did, I will shed some light on why affiliate marketing is here to stay. Let us start with a direct comparison.

 
Almost anyone can get involved
There is very little overhead
You can run your business from your basement
 
Affiliates piggy back on a trusted brand
Affiliates manage their own website
Affiliates don’t create a product or service
Affiliates are versatile and can adapt to changes in the market place
Affiliates can advertise for as many companies as they wish
 
For those who are not familiar with what an affiliate is, it is a person who makes money through advertisements on their website.

 
There are several things you should 
onsidering when special database you choose an affiliation. You should keep in mind the company’s credibility as well as their relevance to your audience. My own recent acquisition might help explain. Lots of the people I know have teenagers that will be driving soon, which inevitably means they are looking for a decent drivers ed program. A friend of mine told me about a new online drivers ed program they were going to have their kid take so I went to their site and saw that they had an affiliate program. The company is called OnlineDrivingUniversity. This company is associated with some reputable companies and they also have a 20% commission structure. I applied to be an affiliate through their site, was accepted later that day and now have a banner on my site.

[Image: special-database-8.png]
 
If you are interested in making 
affiliate marketing the main source of your income versus just picking up a few hundred extra dollars a month, then simply placing a banner on your blog is not going to be enough. What you will need to do is create an entire website geared towards marketing the product that you want to sell. You will then want to drive traffic to your site through SEO efforts, PPC efforts and linking strategies.

For example, if I really wanted 
make a ton of money from this drivers ed program I would buy a domain and create a website geared towards teen drivers or parents of teen drivers. The next step would be to create content that discusses driving. I would then have to make sure people want to click on the banners I place on my site as well. Finally, I would make sure that I push this site to as many of my friends’ friends as possible.

 
There may not be a guarantee to eliminating risk but there are some things you can do to minimize risk. If affiliate marketing has you excited and you want to be among affiliates that make over $10,000 a month (yes it does happen), you’ll want to diversify your efforts. The old cliché “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” applies. Instead of marketing five different types of driving schools it is best to market one or two driving schools as well as including health and beauty products, travel companies, flowers or gifts and computers; this way if one of these industries takes a hit then I’ll have four other alternatives that can still help me make money.
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