There are many reasons why you might be looking for a stay at home computer job these days. Probably the most common reason at the moment is the pandemic. But before all that, there were still many reasons why people are looking for ways to stay home and make money using their computer or the internet.
Whether that is to spend more time with the family, hating the daily commute, hating your job, or the fact that you have got used to working from home recently and now you are expected to be back in the office.
We want to help you, and have come up with several ways of being able to earn money from a stay at home computer job, including the way we earn a passive income online.
Are you looking how to start an online business? Whether you are looking at opportunities to start an online business or are looking at ways of taking your small business into the online world, this post will help you understand the steps need and also how you can get started with a platform that will help you get started online and scale your business ideas.
What Is Your Goal Online? Which Direction Are You Planning on Taking?
I appreciate your goal will be to earn money online, but there are different ways of achieving it with an online business. I have gone through 3 of the most common business types that are successful online.
Selling Your Own Products
If you have your own products or have a service to offer, then you already have the groundworks for an online business. Many people creating their own products, sell them on platforms like eBay or etsy – but having your own website allows you to target multiple markets with your own brand.
Drop Shipping
If you are unsure what drop shipping is, it is where you are the storefront for products from a wholesaler. You receive an order, you forward that order onto your supplier and they fulfil the order.
There are a few pros to this business model, but there are also a couple of cons.
Pros:
Low Start-up Cost
Low Cost of Inventory, as you are not storing the stock
Low Order Fulfilment Cost
Cons:
Less Control over fulfilment timescales, may not always be ideal
Reliance on another people’s stock, if they run out you run out. Meaning you need to constantly stay up to date with their stock levels
Less Profit, the profit margins are really low as you need to remain competitive.
Poorer Customer Service. Anytime your supplier doesn’t deliver as expected, you will have to deal with the fallout from your customers.
Whilst there are many drop shipping opportunities out there, there is a lot of work that goes into it. Much more than any other business style. My preferred method is Affiliate Marketing.
Affiliate Marketing
The reason I prefer Affiliate Marketing is that you can start a business in something you are really interested in, it has a low start-up cost and you can achieve a full-time income with the right strategy. If you are unsure on what Affiliate Marketing is, I have written a full guide, check it out here.
But in short, Affiliate Marketing is where you promote products and services and receive a commission for introducing a customer to that product or service. It is the model I have been using for a couple of years and is the one that gives many people online the freedom to build an online business.
We all don’t have a day job that is something we really want to do, but an affiliate marketing business allows you to invest in a business that you really want to do.
Whichever route you decide, starting an online business starts with picking your niche.
Find a Niche
If you haven’t got your own product or service, you need to start with picking a niche. It needs to be based on something you have a real interest in. The reason I say this is, you will need to fully engage in the niche to build a successful online business that actually turns profitable.
Key steps to building an online business is being able to create content, but if you pick an area that you have no interest in or know nothing about – do you think you will be able to create content in it?
Affiliate Marketing allows you to build an online business in something that you are interested in, so why wouldn’t you take the opportunity.
Now, one of the key things people get wrong is by starting too broad. To get the best results, you need to target a niche – let’s clarify, a niche is a tiny segment of the market.
If you are interested in gaming, just targeting gaming is way too broad – what you need to consider is getting as narrow as you can, i.e. Xbox One Accessories would be a niche.
Create a Website – WordPress is the Right CMS
Once you have chosen your niche, you will want to create a website – this will be the foundation for your online business. I recommend WordPress, as it is an awesome Content Management System and is so easy to use and customise.
You will want to create a domain name (website address) that is relevant to your niche. Learning how to do keyword research will help you a lot in your online business.
You can choose a website name below and see if it is free…
Create Great Content that Helps!
One of the key things of any website is content. You will get nowhere if you do not create engaging content. No one logs onto a website to learn about something or get help and is happy to see low quality content.
But one of the things many get wrong is they are trying to sell, rather than helping.
People are looking for help when they search online, you are looking for ways to start an online business, people need help.
Helping people converts a lot better than selling. We all hate people who oversell.
Learning how to create helpful content is going to be a great help to your journey on creating an online business.
Use Search Engines to Drive Traffic to your Website
You will need to learn how to create awesome content that is search engine friendly to drive traffic to it. Some will recommend Pay-per-click marketing, but this is a really expensive method if you get it wrong, it will become a complete waste of money.
You are much better off using the SEO method and ranking naturally. Whilst it might take longer to rank, it is free and with great content it is easier to rank for the right keywords at the top of the search engines.
Become an Authority in your Niche
You will also need to work on your authority in your niche. Being an authority in your niche is key to becoming a go-to website for people and it becoming a profitable online business.
Building up trust is an important step with this.
To become an authority, is actually easier than you might think, it comes from creating quality content that helps, it is content that gets engagement from people (comments are a good sign of this) and traffic.
The more content you create, the more engagement you will get, and this leads to traffic. This is the key to getting online sales.
How to Get Started Today!
Affiliate Marketing is an awesome business model and is one that can lead to a very profitable.
But I want to share with you an opportunity that will not only give you an online business but will also provide all the training and support you need to start an online business, with help and support from myself too.
Anyone can start an online business, but that doesn’t mean it will be successful. There is so much to learn and if you don’t get it right you will not fulfil your goals.
I started an online business a couple of years ago and without the training I recommend, I would not be earning anything from it.
The training is a step-by-step guide that will take you through building a website, creating content that converts, getting social engagement and scaling that business to a point where you are earning a full-time income through it.
Wealthy Affiliate is the platform I have been using, and they offer everything you need to get started with an online business, read my Wealthy Affiliate review for full details.
But without them, I would not be in a position where I am now.
They have training material on all aspects on an online business, they also have a community of Internet Entrepreneurs that you would be joining to bounce ideas off and get expert help and advice from them.
If you are serious about starting an online business but want to check if Wealthy Affiliate is right for you, they have a free starter membership that gives you the chance to experience it with no catch and no credit card required.
I am a Premium Member of Wealthy Affiliate, that is not a secret, but my online business would not be where it is now without Wealthy Affiliate.
Have you got any experience with starting an online business, is there anything else you might add to the list?
Have you got any questions you want to ask or anything you need to know about Wealthy Affiliate or Affiliate Marketing? Please leave them in the comments below and I promise to come back to you.
Thanks for checking out my post and good luck with your journey towards an online business.
Has someone just tried to get you to sign up for Global Affiliate Zone? Are they trying to convince you it is the best way to make money online? Or is it an online scam?
You are definitely in the best place, we have done all the hard work for you and completed a review for you to learn everything you need to know about Global Affiliate Zone.
First off, it’s great to see that you’re doing your research before buying into any “seemingly good” product.
To be completely transparent with you, we’re not associated with Global Affiliate Zone in any form. We’re not here to pitch or sell you anything…
If you are just learning about Affiliate Marketing and are wondering if this is the right decision, we will cover off what you gain access to within GAZ and also letting you know whether it is the right decision for a beginner too.
Are you looking to learn Affiliate Marketing? Getting Started in Affiliate Marketing is an aspiration of many who are looking for a way of earning money online and finally giving up the day job.
Affiliate Marketing is in a massive growth stage at the moment and to be successful you need to understand what Affiliate Marketing is, and what there is to learn to be successful in Affiliate Marketing. But more importantly, you are here to find out what is the best Affiliate Marketing Course for Beginners!
But in short, Affiliate Marketing has 3 parties. You (the affiliate), the Product/Service Owner & the Buyer. By signing up with an affiliate program you get rewarded by introducing a buyer to a product or service with a commission. This is typically a percentage of the product price.
Check out this graphic, which shows you process…
Whilst the premise is simple, there is much more to learn than just understanding how Affiliate Marketing works.
What Else Is There to Learn in Affiliate Marketing?
There is actually a lot that you need to learn effectively to become successful at Affiliate Marketing – the first thing I will discuss is the need to treat this like a business model.
Thinking about it as a business will have so many benefits to your chances of earning money from affiliate marketing.
When I first started out, I came across an article of Affiliate Marketing and I started looking at a number of opportunities to get started and I came across an online certification course to getting started with Affiliate Marketing – it is an amazing course and covers all aspects of an online business, but before I share with you the course it also highlighted what you need to learn to become successful, but whilst it looks complicated it really isn’t.
But by going through the course I learned what other things I needed to know to get the most out of Affiliate Marketing:
Picking a Niche for your Affiliate Marketing Business
Building a Website & Optimising it for the Search Engines
Creating Content for your website and getting it ranked on the search engines
Social Media Marketing & Getting Social Engagement
It might seem like there is a lot to learn, but that is why I spent my time researching and finding the best course to learn it all. There are plenty of courses out there, but they do not necessarily offer the best courses – mainly due to their training being a little out of date or expect you to pay up front without giving you the chance to see if that course is the best for you. They also offer only training and not any tools towards achieving it.
The course I want to share with you is the platform that I myself has been using for over two years. Their training is geared towards people who have no clue to an online business, step-by-step guides and videos to help you get started. They also offer you the tools included (such as a WordPress website builder and keyword research tool) as part of the membership. I have exclusively used Wealthy Affiliate for my online business, before I started with them I had no clue on how to get a website ranked in Google or even build a website.
Why Wealthy Affiliate Offers the Best Affiliate Marketing Course?
Wealthy Affiliate’s platform offers 3 elements that sets it apart from other Affiliate Marketing training platforms:
Education – All aspects of an online business and affiliate marketing are covered in step-by-step guides, videos, classrooms.
Awesome Tools – WordPress Website Builder, Website Hosting, Keyword Research Tool, Social Engagement Tools, etc.
Expert Help & Support – Get Help & Support from a community of Internet Entrepreneurs all with the same aims. You will also get Expert Support from Me.
The key training that I want to share with you is the Online Certification Course. It is ideal for beginners and by the end of the first course, you will have picked a niche, have a website up and running and actually be ready to start on your affiliate marketing journey.
Online Certification Course
This course is set out into 5 sets of 10 lessons and is all geared to getting you started with your own online business. See details of the first 10 lessons below and what the course objective is:
One of the things I love about the training at Wealthy Affiliate is that it is written for those that haven’t got a clue, the videos will talk you through all the tasks that are set, and you can actually tick the tasks as you complete. This makes it much easier to see where you are up to. When you log back on and click back on training, it will take you straight back to where you were you up to.
Their use of pictures is also really helpful. Again, this shows you the steps that are being set out in the training.
Getting Help When You Really Need It
But I think the biggest benefit of the training at Wealthy Affiliate is the community. Everyone gets stuck sometimes, but by asking the question in the community will give you an answer. You will also find that, unlike other platforms, you get help and support from the owners of Wealthy Affiliate – Kyle & Carson.
When I first started out with my first niche website, I wasn’t too sure what niche to target so I asked the community and it was actually Kyle who answered it and advised me I was being too broad.
The training is great and is constantly kept up to date, and there is plenty of training that has been created by the community on a number of subjects and will benefit anyone in their online business, but I think the help and support you get is just as useful as the training.
How to Get Started with Wealthy Affiliate – With My Support
I always recommend anyone to research a product before trying it, and I will still give you that advice – if you want to learn more about Wealthy Affiliate, here is the link to my Wealthy Affiliate Review.
But unlike other training platforms, you will not need to pay to experience Wealthy Affiliate with their free Starter Membership account. Kyle & Carson (WA Owners) are determined that you are fully happy with their platform and the only way you can see if the training course and the tools are for you is by checking it out.
I have seen many training courses where you have to pay just to try it and when you actually find it is no good, it is difficult to get a refund.
To get started with a Free Starter Membership at Wealthy Affiliate, Click Here. If you do decide to try it out, make sure you get in touch. I would love to help you out.
In my opinion, Wealthy Affiliate offers the best affiliate marketing course for beginners.
If you have any questions about Affiliate Marketing, Wealthy Affiliate or if you want to share your experiences with Wealthy Affiliate, please leave a comment and I will get back to you.
Have you been wondering if Awin is a good fit for your affiliate marketing campaigns, well you’re in the right place?
Awin has been around in the UK for a while now, it is only just getting recognised over in the US. This seems like a prudent time to give you a full breakdown of what the Awin Affiliate Network is like and whether it is a great fit for your affiliate marketing business.
First off, it’s great to see that you’re doing your research before buying into any “seemingly good” product.
Affiliate Marketing has been gaining more popularity, it has become a more popular option for people looking for ways to earn money online and start an online business. There are many genuine examples of Affiliate Marketing but How do You Avoid All of the Affiliate Marketing Scams that profess to be Affiliate Marketing but are actually MLM products or just pure scams designed to leave you out of pocket.
We will be exploring these in more detail in this post.
Scammers Are Everywhere – The Landscape is Changing
Whilst we would all like to believe that every opportunity online is a genuine one… there are many out there that are sullying the name of Genuine Affiliate Marketing.
We are now seeing a number of companies crossing over into the Affiliate Marketing industry, that are in fact nothing to do with Affiliate Marketing.
Unfortunately, many people looking for a genuine affiliate marketing opportunity are lacking in the knowledge to find out what the signs are to spot these scams or opportunities that are not related. That is why I wanted to write this post and help anyone find out how to spot these and avoid them.
Find Out About a Genuine Affiliate Marketing Opportunity with my Wealthy Affiliate Review
How to Spot Affiliate Marketing Scams
I want to share with you the 5 most common scams out there professing to be affiliate marketing but are actually just ways of wasting a load of money without any return or handing over your personal information for people to flood your inbox with loads of marketing for other products wanting you to spend money. (the Common Theme)
1.Low Ticket to High Ticket. There are many scammers out there that will try to sell you a product/service on a very low-ticket price. They will state that they will offer you everything you need to get started for a low price like $7-$49. But in reality, you will find that as soon as you join there will be a lot upsells immediately after. Upsells that can easily run into the $1000’s. They will also get quite rude if you do not buy these up-sells. They are not pleasant at all. Make sure you know what you are actually buying through proper research first. 2.Free Plus Shipping Book.
You may have seen these in your social media feed but are very common. Companies pitch you the idea of getting a free book, all you need to pay is for the shipping. At first, these look like a great deal – you get a book that helps you learn a subject, but they are actually just a ploy to get your personal details. That way they can send you a lot of promotional stuff about the products they want you to buy. You will also notice that these books are not actually that great and are again just promotional towards their real product.
3.Join Program, to Promote (MLM).
There are companies that present themselves as Affiliate Marketing but are actually Multi-Level-Marketing (MLM). Anything that is MLM is not Affiliate Marketing.
The difference is the multi-levels. You need to really careful with these types of programs. Once you are in, typically at a high price ($1,000-$50,000) to recoup your money you have to then promote the program to others to buy into.
The FTC regularly take these types of programs as fraud, Pyramid schemes or Ponzi schemes. This can cause you problems if you are involved in one of these schemes as you just as liable as the owners.
4.Social Media Feed “I am in” for more details.
I see these every day on Facebook, but it is not just Facebook where you will see it. A marketer tells you how much they are earning (typically with a screenshot of earnings), how they can change your life then they pitch you the idea that they can teach you how to earn money like they do – by asking you to add to the thread “I am in” “Info”.
Let’s be honest, this is a red flag for me already and typically they are not making any money (or at least they will not be making the figures they state) and it gives them your details to try and sell you a network marketing scheme where you have to do the same to invite other people to the scheme.
5.Showcase Lifestyle & Money.
Any product that sells itself purely on lifestyle or flash cars is a scam. The typically do not even mention a product or service, they just have a great video saying that this opportunity means you can earn loads of money whilst sitting by the pool and letting the ‘program’ do the work.
It is very hard to actually find out what you are getting into with these schemes, they focus on creating an emotive response to it. It is clever in a way, as they show you a fantastic lifestyle and you get drawn in – But that is where you need to understand these schemes are out there to make the owners money and not make you money.
If you find that any product or service you are researching falls into any of these 5 categories, it is best to back away. Otherwise you will fall into an affiliate marketing scam.
Why Do These Scams Exist?
They exist purely to make the owners money. They make money due to people getting drawn into the schemes. When looking for ways to earn money online, you will fall across these schemes all too often and without proper research you can imagine how many people who do not understand fall into these traps.
The FTC and other government agencies out there created to protect you from such scams are always busy, and they do not tend to waste their time with a company until it is taking a minimum of $10m in revenue.
This means a lot of the smaller schemes can remain undetected and might last years, as long as they can suck new people in.
The only way we can stop these companies from going on is by understanding that these are scams and avoiding them altogether.
If you do not hand over any money to them, they will eventually have to either go legit or get out of the affiliate marketing game altogether.
Do Not Get Discouraged, Genuine Affiliate Marketing Opportunities Exist!
If you have read this and are feeling a bit discouraged, please do not be. The Affiliate Marketing Industry is very ethical, it is absolutely huge and has amazing amounts of opportunity.
Affiliate Programs are appearing everywhere (genuine ones), all of the major brands and services have an affiliate program. There are literally 550 million products and services online you could promote.
The opportunities for you to carve out your own successful affiliate marketing online business, without any experience are out there.
There is a legitimate process to building an online business, and it looks a little like this:
1.Choose a Direction for your Business. This could be anything, there are a million niches out there.
2.Build a Website/Blog to Promote Your Business. This is really easy nowadays. Within platforms like Wealthy Affiliate, you could easily have a website up and running in about 30 seconds.
3.Getting Traffic to Your Business. There are plenty of ways to do this. The primary way of doing this is getting your content ranked in the search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo) which is free to do, but there are other ways too – paid traffic, using social media and email marketing to name a few.
4.Earn Revenue through Affiliate Programs. This is where the affiliate programs come in. Whatever the niche, there are plenty of products/services that you could choose to promote in exchange for affiliate commission. Affiliate commissions range from 2% to 75% depending on the company and it can lead to a high stream of income.
That is honesty the simple process of how Affiliate Marketing works. All you need is a platform that can help you with the training, tools and environment to create and grow your own affiliate marketing business.
This platform is Wealthy Affiliate and it is completely free to join through their starter membership (no obligations or credit card required).
By the time you have completed lesson 4 of their training, steps 1 and 2 will be complete. You will also find by the end of the first course, you will understand the process of affiliate marketing, creating content and getting it ranked in the search engines, finding traffic and building a business for long-term success.
Anyways, I hope you have found this article useful and hopefully understand the types of scams that are pretending to be Affiliate Marketing and how not to get sucked into them. If you have had any good or bad experiences with Affiliate Marketing, then please share your opinions or if you have any questions please leave a comment. I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Creating your own blog is a great way of expressing yourself and sharing your story with others who have a similar interest to yourself. In this post we will be exploring a blog in more detail and showing you how easy it is to get yourself a website to house your blog, how to scale it to reach more people and also how to monetise your blog if you so desire.
What is a Blog?
In short, a blog is defined as informal or conversational updates on a website. But in reality, a blog is so much more.
It is a way of exploring the subject you enjoy in more depth, allowing others to join in and learn from you and get ideas. You will regularly land on a blog site when exploring different subjects, such as a food blog – these are great at checking out new recipes, new ideas and the health benefits of a certain diet.
Or if you are into the outdoors, you will find a blog where they explore certain parts of the country you are thinking of checking out. Why go somewhere to find it isn’t what you expected, check it out from someone who has been there before.
Blogs are so useful nowadays, when most people buy online they want to check out other people’s opinions on products, activities, etc. That is where a blog is really useful.
Why Does Your Blog Need a Website?
Some will argue that you don’t need a website to blog or earn money online. I will take a moment to argue that you need a foundation for your blog. Many people start a blog to share their story but actually decide to move it into an online business and earn enough money to work from home. This is why you need a website. A foundation to an online business where you can share your content across multiple channels including social media.
You Blog Website also needs the right content management system and hosting.
WordPress + SiteRubix = Awesome Blog Website
WordPress is an ideal base for a blog website. It is a great content management system with great functionality that is really easy to use. But your hosting is just as important. Think of your website being the house and the hosting is the land the house is built on. You cannot have one without the other.
SiteRubix is a fantastic hosting provider, it is part of the Wealthy Affiliate family and with a free starter membership you can get 2 free websites using WordPress on their SiteRubix hosting.
How to Create Your Own Blog Website
Let’s get down to how you can create your own blog website in 5 easy steps for free
Step 1 – Choose a relevant website URL. Use the tool below to check whether your preferred URL (website address) is available.
Step 2 – Complete Your Free Account Setup. Create Your Account to Continue onto the Website Builder.
Step 3 & 4 – Choose a Title for Your Website & Choose a Theme. In the example I have chosen My Dog Training Site
Step 5 – Click Build Your Site.
There, you now have your very own free WordPress website up and running in a matter of seconds.
Having a blog website is all well and good, but what you really want is to know how to grow your blog website and increase the number of people it reaches.
One of the great things about having a blog is getting people to engage with your website, ask you questions, share their experiences and creating a relationship with you as the website owner and the readers. But if no one can find your blog, then that is a big stumbling blog.
Wealthy Affiliate offers much more than a website for you to start blog with, they have specific training on subjects such as:
Search Engine Optimisation for Your Website – If the search engines do not find your website, no one will find it
Content Creation – Creating content for your blog that actually works and engages with the audience.
Training on WordPress – Learn How to Get the Most out of WordPress
Growing Traffic – How to get people to visit your blog
Mastering Social Engagement – Social Media can play a huge part, get the most out of it for your blog.
How to Monetise Your Blog Website
Whilst there are a number of bloggers who are not looking to monetise their site, most are looking for ways to bring some money in from their online pursuits. Affiliate Marketing is a great way of monetising your blog and is less complicated than you might think.
There are 3 parties involved in Affiliate Marketing. You (blog owner), the Owner of the Product/Service and the Buyer (Visitor to Blog). You introduce the buyer to said product/service and they choose to buy it, and you get a commission for the introduction.
It is a simple premise, by including product reviews in amongst all of your other content with an affiliate link it can lead to you earning money through your blog.
Amazon is one of the biggest marketplaces online and it has its own affiliate program called Amazon Associates. Their commission rate is lower than other programs but has more customers than most, so it evens out.
More and more people are researching products and services online before they buy – there is the opportunity to earn money.
Now there are some things that will help you succeed:
Only pick Products and Services that your readers would benefit from
Don’t Sell to them, helping them decide will yield better results
Don’t flood your content with affiliate links, there are strict guidelines on this stuff
If you truly want to benefit from Affiliate Marketing with your blog website, my biggest recommendation is Learn Affiliate Marketing the right way. Wealthy Affiliate has some fantastic training that will take you through building a website, understanding affiliate marketing correctly, adding affiliate marketing to your blog, growing your blog the right way and leaving you with a business that can earn you a living from home.
If you would like to ask any questions about creating a blog, affiliate marketing or Wealthy Affiliate – please leave them in the comments below. I am here to help anyone get started online and I promise to come back to you with an answer to your questions.
Did you know that Amazon started out as a small online book retailer in 1996? It was run from Jeffo Bezo’s garage.
Like most small businesses, Amazon decided to tap into the readers’ love of books to help spread their brand and message. Instead of spending a fortune on marketing, Amazon paid people a commission when they referred a customer who bought a book from Amazon. Once the customer bought a book, the referrer got paid their commission.
The Amazon Associates Program was launched in 1998 and changed the face of earning money online. Starting out the only way of earning a high income was through selling a lot of books – but it was the start of something exciting.
Amazon is now one of the biggest retailers in the world and offers an extensive list of products for you to choose to promote. Whatever your niche, Amazon will have something that fits the bill.
Whilst it has a low commission rate (4%-8.5%) compared to others out there, it’s extensive library of products makes it very easy to find products to promote and a high customer base that trust Amazon (proven in how many people buy off Amazon).
Like any home-based business that aims to make money online, earning a genuine income with Amazon requires research, time and effort and knowledge around online marketing.
I’ll break down the pros and cons of the Amazon Associates program, as well as some tips for making the most of it too.
Pros of Becoming an Amazon Affiliate
There are several great reasons to join Amazon Associates program, including:
Amazon is one of the biggest selling platforms out there reaching a large customer base
Its brand is well-known and trusted
There are no thresholds to be accepted into the program (minimum traffic figures, etc.)
There is a large catalogue of products you can choose from to promote
Amazons suite of tools to help you sell specific items is great
It has a good reporting system allowing you to track your progress, see what is selling and getting clicked on
You can receive direct deposit payments into your bank account
Amazon offers good customer service to its buyers, reducing the risk of having your visitors get annoyed at you if there is a problem.
Even if your visitor doesn’t buy the product you referred but buy something else you still earn a commission.
Cons of the Amazon Associates Program
Nothing is ever perfect, including the Amazon affiliate program. Here are a few downsides:
The commission rate is low compared to other affiliate programs. If you sell 6 or fewer items a month, your rate is 4%. You can earn up to 8.5%, but that’s achieved by selling more than 3,131 products.
Their cookies only last 24-hours. (A cookie is the thing that shows you were the one who introduced that buyer). That means if your referral doesn’t buy within 24 hours, you won’t get credit. (However, if the product is added to their cart, the cookie lasts 90 days.)
You’re not allowed to send Amazon affiliate links in emails. That includes blog posts that get sent as an email. Since email is an excellent way to send great offers to your readers, this rule is a bit disappointing.
If you have a U.S. site and are promoting products in the Amazon U.S. store, you won’t get credit for referring someone who ends up buying the product from outside the country (i.e. Amazon UK). You would need a separate account for both the US & UK and promote both options to your readers.
Payment options are only through direct deposit, check, or Amazon gift card. There is no PayPal option.
Minimum pay-out is $100, which isn’t that much if you make lots of sales, but a lot of you’re only earning a few dollars a month.
Getting Set Up as an Amazon Affiliate
Getting started with the Amazon Associates program is free and easy. Here’s how:
Check Out the Rules – for example, it is against the Amazon Associates policy to include Amazon affiliate links in an email.
Determine the product(s) you want to promote. This is easy by searching like you would if you looking to buy a product.
Choose how you are going to promote the products – best way is with a niche website that includes helpful content and product reviews (with your affiliate links included).
Build Traffic – You need traffic to benefit from any affiliate marketing campaign. A large steady stream of traffic will increase the revenue opportunity.
Getting the Best Out of Your Affiliate Business
Having been in the affiliate marketing business for a couple of years now, I must point out that there are some key things to consider before just deciding to sign up to an affiliate program and thinking it will become an overnight success. Amazon is a great partner to have in any affiliate marketing business, but there are some key tips I would like to share to point you in the right direction and ultimately succeed.
An Affiliate Marketing Business will benefit massively from having a website and not just a blog. It is the foundation of your online business and allows you to build up a base of trust with your future readers.
Competition is high, so choose a niche that you can really get behind and focus on – this will allow you to build up an authority business in a niche you know a lot about. The readers need to trust that you are there to help them, this will in turn mean they are more likely to follow your recommendations.
Keep it Relevant, if you have chosen the ‘Lose Belly Fat’ niche (a profitable niche), then keep it relevant to that. The readers want to lose belly fat and want to find a website that helps them with ways to do this. If you started writing about products that do not relate to this, then it will have a bad effect on your traffic.
Help the Readers. Helping the readers with problems in your niche, helpful guides, how-to guides. Helping will be more profitable than selling, trust me.
Choose Products Carefully. Don’t just go for the high-end ticket product due to it being a higher commission rate. Only promote products you would buy or have already bought. Choosing the right product will build creditability, choosing the wrong one will turn the readers off.
Maximising Your Sales with Amazon Associates
There are some great ideas for posts you could write to maximise your sales:
Write content for your blog or website about a product available on Amazon. People are increasingly looking to the web to research a product before buying one. Keep the product choices relevant to your blog and write an article about it. If your blog is about photography, link to cameras and other photography equipment.
Write Reviews of New Products. If it is new, people will want to learn more about it before investing in it, write a review about it.
Write about Best-Sellers. You can use the best-sellers list on Amazon, once you have an affiliate sales history you can check your states as to what is a best seller in your niche.
Promote Sales & Special Offers. Keep an eye out for Amazon special offers (such as black Friday) and promote those products that are relevant to your audience.
Write about or promote related products. Back to the photography website, it may be about cameras – you could explore related products like camera cases, bags, etc.
Affiliate Marketing is a great way of earning money online and working from home. But it does take more time and effort than most people realise. Some will start a website, put a load of affiliate links on it and wonder why it isn’t actually working. There are real people searching online and finding these pages and all they want is help:
Help to Understand the Product
Which Product is the Best?
What Other Options Are There?
Which is the Right Product for Them?
Ultimately, the main reason why affiliate marketers do fail, is because they try and rush it and do not treat it like a business.
If you are able to build an online business that helps the reader, providing information and resources that meets their needs and has effective product reviews (based on your experiences) you will find Affiliate Marketing Works. Amazon is a great partner to work with, but they only provide the tools – You need to put the time and effort into it to make it work.
If you are new to Affiliate Marketing or are struggling to get your Affiliate Marketing Business off the starting blocks then I may know where you can get right help and support.
Getting the right help and support is integral to building up a profitable Affiliate Marketing Business – Wealthy Affiliate is our No.1 Recommended Product and helped me build an online business when I knew nothing about affiliate marketing or an online business. Read the review and make up your own mind on whether it can help you, but I have to say it was the best thing I could have found when I was looking for ways to earn money online.
If you have any questions about Amazon Associates, or anything else to do with Affiliate Marketing then please leave me a comment below. I will definitely come back to you with an answer.
If you haven’t got SSL on your website and are looking for an option that doesn’t cost a fortune, then you have come to the right place. Keeping your website secure for yourself and your readers is paramount to building up a trustworthy relationship, but typically SSL isn’t cheap. I’ll be exploring what SSL certificates are, why your website will benefit from having a ssl certificate and more importantly how you can get 25 websites with SSL for a lot less than you might think? Let’s start with what is an SSL Certificate and Why Do I Need an SSL Certificate for My Website
What is an SSL Certificate?
SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer – it establishes an encrypted link between an internet browser (the reader) and a web server (the website). It is a way of protected the data passed between the two. Think about when you log onto your online banking, you will see a green padlock in the address bar and the website will start with https://
I have a SSL certificate on this website, because I want to ensure my readers are safe. I take internet safety very seriously.
Why Does Your Website Need an SSL Certificate?
There are multiple benefits to having an SSL certificate, the key one among them is building trust between you (a website owner they haven’t met) and the reader (a potential buyer).
An E-Commerce Website – if you plan on selling your own products or services, then you will require SSL. If you want someone to hand over their credit card details to buy something, they are going to want to trust you. A website with SSL encryption is a requirement in this situation.
Capturing Any Data – If you want people to take any action, whether that be sign up to your email list, write a comment on your website or enter their payment details. SSL will help them trust the website.
Search Engine Rankings – The search engines have recently stated that websites with SSL will rank better than those without SSL. This is a key reason why people are doing extensive research into SSL certificates. Bloggers who didn’t have e-commerce sites didn’t really pay for an SSL certificate, but this could have affected their rankings.
In the past, SSL Certificates have been really expensive sometimes costly $100 per website per year. Many bloggers, affiliate marketers or even small businesses have not been able to afford to pay that on top of everything else.
Then Wealthy Affiliate Came Up with a Better Option!
Let me explain, my website is hosted with SiteRubix, which is included in a premium Wealthy Affiliate membership. I can have 25 full domains, all with SSL Certificates included in a $49/month or $359/yr membership.
Compare that with the 3 sites I have, if I had SSL elsewhere I would be paying hosting fees plus SSL which could easily mean I would be paying well over $400 dollars a year.
Where Can I Get Free SSL Certificates for My Website?
SSL Certificates are so important these days, but that doesn’t mean it has to cost the earth. The reasons I state this is free SSL is down to everything else you receive in that premium membership that can benefit any small business, affiliate marketer or blogger. The benefits far outweigh the cost.
Like I said, elsewhere I have seen SSL certificates for one domain being $100 a year, but I have 3 websites hosted that is almost equal to my annual membership to WA anyway.
But let’s explore the other benefits that Wealthy Affiliate Offer on top of Free SSL Certificates for 25 full domains.
Step-by-Step Training that factors in all aspects of:
WordPress
Website Design
Content Creation
Local Marketing
Social Media Marketing
Affiliate Marketing
SEO, Traffic Building, Analytics, Rankings, etc.
The List of Training is endless
Top Website Hosting – A Premium Member can host 25 full domains and 25 subdomains, with unlimited email accounts included
Key features designed to improve your website speed and security done at the server to improve your readers experience
A WordPress Website Builder that takes 4 easy steps to have a website up and running.
Expert Help & Support – You would be joining a network of internet entrepreneurs all with the same goals of helping each other and achieving success.
There are many factors that are needed to be successful online, whether you are selling your own products or sharing your story with some affiliate marketing going on.
The search engines are constantly looking at ways of improving the safety and security for everyone, especially with all of these recent data breaches – So it makes sense that they are looking for content that is safe and secure for the people searching for it.
But that doesn’t mean that you need to pay over the odds for an SSL Certificate, Wealthy Affiliate has been the best thing that has happened to my online business, but I leave you to do your own research on that – Here is my full Wealthy Affiliate review for you to check out and WA also offers a free starter membership that lets you make your own mind up about it before investing any money.
If you are looking for a SSL Certificate that doesn’t cost the earth, offers top-notch website hosting that is easy to transfer your current domain over and get some help and support with your online business that will take it to the next level, then do check out Wealthy Affiliate for a Free Starter Membership and make up your own mind.
If you have any questions about SSL certificates, web hosting or Wealthy Affiliate then please put it in the comments below and I will definitely respond with an answer.
Thanks for the taking the time to read this post, take care.
I got asked recently, where did you get your logo from and how much did it cost? When I replied it didn’t cost me anything, they were a bit shocked. But creating a logo does not have to cost the world when starting a business.
In fact, it is really simple to do with a free tool called Canva.
In this post, I am going to share with you what exactly is Canva, but also show you how to create a logo for free using Canva too.
What is Canva – Your New Online Friend
One of the biggest hurdles some of us come across when designing graphics for a website is, we do not think we are creative enough. We have a go using just a blank canvas without any inspiration and wonder why the end result looks awful. (I know, I have been there).
Then I noticed a training video on a new tool called Cana, so decided to give it a try and I haven’t used anything else since for any graphic (blog header, Call-To-Action, Social Media header) since.
Canva is an awesome online tool, that is free to use and creates some great graphics for your business including creating a logo. There are some elements that are paid, but I have been using it for about 9 months now and have paid $1 for a background I really liked. But other than that, there are some great features to this tool and you will not need to pay for anything unless you feel it is right for you and your business.
Let’s Explore Some of the Features
It is really versatile and covers any sort of graphic you may have for your website:
Featured Image for a Blog
Facebook Cover Image
Facebook Post Image
Twitter Post Image
Pinterest Graphic
Instagram Post
YouTube Headers
Banner Ads
A number of Document types including presentation
Blog Banners, Desktop Wallpapers
Infographics
A number of Marketing Materials – business cards, leaflets, etc.
The one you are interested in – a Company Logo.
The list could go on, but hopefully this gives you an idea of the types of graphic/image you can create using Canva.
There are multiple ways of creating a graphic, in this case a logo. The reason is, you can choose a suggested template by scrolling the list (it is quite clear on which ones are free and which ones are paid) and using that one as a base design. Or you can use a blank canvas and choose different elements, shapes, colours and text to create your own design.
You can upload your own images and if you really like one of their designs change the image in that design with one of your own.
Your logo needs to represent your brand fully, so changing things until you are happy is a key factor to any product you use to design graphics.
How to Create a Logo for Free using Canva
Let’s go through the steps to creating a logo using Canva.
Step One – Create a free account at canva.com
Step Two – At the top of your dashboard will be an option to ‘Create a Design’ Number one in the list is Logo. Click on that option
Step Three – Get Creative! Choose from one their preset designs (which are all customisable).
All choose Elements from the side menu and use a number of photos, shapes, etc. to create the image side to your logo.
Choose Text to add your company name and URL.
You can also upload your own image, if you already have something in mind.
Step Four – Once you are happy with your Logo, click Download at the top. (Key point – make sure you download it in the right format).
Once this is done your Logo is now ready to use. It is ideal for a website as it is already set at the right size for a logo on a website.
Conclusion
I hope you found those 4 steps really useful in your quest to creating a logo for free. I also hope you find Canva a really useful tool for anything else you might need for your website or business.
People are very image orientated online, just look at the popularity of Instagram and Pinterest, so having the right imagery on your website is key to success. But that doesn’t mean we have to pay through the nose to get some great images. Thanks for taking the time to read my post, if you have any questions or need help using Canva, please let me know in the comments. If you have actually used something else to do this sort of thing, let me know I love hearing about other great products I can share with my readers.
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onto a website to learn about something or get help and is happy to see low quality content.
the name of Genuine Affiliate Marketing.
It is a way of exploring the subject you enjoy in more depth, allowing others to join in and learn from you and get ideas. You will regularly land on a blog site when exploring different subjects, such as a food blog – these are great at checking out new recipes, new ideas and the health benefits of a certain diet.
Like most small businesses, Amazon decided to tap into the readers’ love of books to help spread their brand and message. Instead of spending a fortune on marketing, Amazon paid people a commission when they referred a customer who bought a book from Amazon. Once the customer bought a book, the referrer got paid their commission.
Their cookies only last 24-hours. (A cookie is the thing that shows you were the one who introduced that buyer). That means if your referral doesn’t buy within 24 hours, you won’t get credit. (However, if the product is added to their cart, the cookie lasts 90 days.)
server (the website). It is a way of protected the data passed between the two. Think about when you log onto your online banking, you will see a green padlock in the address bar and the website will start with https://
