Work from Home | Best Affiliate Marketing Tools

Why Affiliate Marketing Does Not Work & What to Do About It

November 6, 2019January 29, 2019 by John Crossley

If you are here, you might be considering whether affiliate marketing really works? There are plenty of reasons why affiliate marketing might not be working for you and you are looking for help to turn the corner and make it work. But let me answer that first question – does affiliate marketing work? Yes, totally but there are some factors to consider when thinking about why it might not be working for you.

First off, there is no big secret as to how it works and a lot of it comes down to one factor – Patience.

The Biggest Factor to Achieving with Affiliate Marketing is Patience

One of the biggest mindsets you need to get out of when starting any online business, including affiliate marketing is that you will not immediately earn a return for the time you invest. People sink a lot of time and effort into an affiliate marketing business and will see no return after 3 or even 6 months and walk away from it stating “Affiliate Marketing Does Not Work”, when really 6 months is the point where your website is starting to earn the traction it needs with the search engines to turn your articles into a money-pot.

The main thing I see with struggling affiliate marketers is they are drawn into these training platforms that are not telling you the truth about the need for patience.

Think about it, unless you find a genuine training platform like Wealthy Affiliate that is honest and realistic about the timescales needed to make this successful – Most affiliate marketing (or programs advertising themselves as affiliate marketing) state that you can be earning money really soon after starting…

Whether it is an e-book, a training course or learning from a guru they all lull you in with false promises of a passive income stream that can happen overnight.

In reality, the biggest thing you need to get over is that this is not a reality. I did not earn anything from affiliate marketing for 6 months and if I had stopped at the 6-month mark I might have been in the same place you are and questioning whether Affiliate Marketing works.

That 6-month point is really important in your affiliate marketing business. The market is being flooded with people wanting to do affiliate marketing, but as most give up on the 3 or 6-month Google consider this when deciding on where to rank your content. If a website is still alive after 6-months and is offering high-quality content, that is a great sign for your rankings and will mean that you will start to get good traffic. Traffic is what you need to make money with affiliate marketing.

Another key reason as to why affiliate marketing does not work for some is because they do not know how to do it properly.

Affiliate Marketing Does Not Work Because People Do Not Know How to Do It the Right Way

Another big reason as to why affiliate marketing does not work for most marketers is because they are learning from scammers. There are thousands of products out there claiming to be the best affiliate marketing training, but in reality, have been put there by fraudsters to get your money or personal information and leaves those that fall for the trap believing affiliate marketing does not work.

They give away enough information to get you to buy the product, but not enough information for you to find any success with their tactics.

There are many factors to consider making sure affiliate marketing works for you, but you also need a training platform that is honest, can be trusted and ensures you are put on the right track from this point onwards. We highly recommend the training and tools available at Wealthy Affiliate. They are the training platform we used when we first started out with Affiliate Marketing and without the support from the team, I might not have stayed the course and saw that first sale after 6 months.

With clear training on choosing a niche, creating a website, writing content that converts and SEO and other marketing methods they are a highly recommended and up-to-date training. Learn more about what they offer and their success stories within my Wealthy Affiliate Review.

Many Affiliate Marketers are using Outdated Tactics

Another factor as to why affiliate marketing does not work is people using outdated techniques. One Example is using duplicate content. Some products out there claim that their system will generate you content for your website without you needing to do any work? How? They steal another person’s work and display it on your website.

But the search engines are actively looking for duplicate content and using duplicate content will lead only one way – your website and content not getting ranked at all.

What the search engines and people searching via those search engines are looking for is high-quality content that provides value and helps people with their query.

In days gone by, some affiliate marketers used tactics including just writing a 20-page website, and sending unnatural links to it by spamming blogs, comment sections, etc. This would benefit the website for about 3 months, before Google found out and would penalise the site. This technique stopped being effective since a change in Google’s algorithms in 2011. But I have still seen training material showing affiliate marketers this tactic, even though it will not work at all.

If you can provide high-quality content that helps people and provides value, you have the key ingredient to making affiliate marketing work. You just need to remain consistent posting this high-quality content regularly to see it turn into a successful affiliate marketing business.

Affiliate Marketers Not Treating It Like a Business

It is possible for anyone to launch a website and start affiliate marketing nowadays. You can get a free website really easily and little or no financial barrier to getting started. This brings with it the idea of testing the water with affiliate marketing, with little commitment needed.

This leads some to not get into the right tracks that this is a business model. It also means they do not have a business plan for their affiliate marketing business.

Think about your current goals, if they are just to make money – then this could be a factor into why it is not working. Even if you start with small goals, like I am going to write 3-4 articles a week that is a better goal to start with.

We all have a financial goal, and that is normally the main reason why we have chosen affiliate marketing as a way to achieve that. But a normal bricks and mortar business will not expect to turn a profit in its first year. Now, an online business doesn’t have the outlay a normal business does, but why does that mean you can immediately expect it to turn a profit straightaway.

Set yourself daily, weekly and monthly goals that are not about earning money. It could be creating articles, spending an hour doing proper keyword research, researching your niche and engaging with others in your niche, learning how to get started in video marketing.

There are tons of things that you can set yourself up with, and the beauty is if you are constantly working on your business and creating excellent value – guess what you will start converting this into sales.

Not Getting into the Mindset of an Entrepreneur!

One of the things that I notice about people who say affiliate marketing does not work, they think it works in the same way as working in your day job!

Think about a job that pays by the hour for a moment, you do an hour’s work and you get paid an hourly rate.

Affiliate Marketing does not work in the same way. A true entrepreneur plays the long game. I know affiliate marketers who are earning money from articles they wrote years ago, and they are still converting. The article might need a little update every now and then as things do change, but in essence it is the true way a passive income works through affiliate marketing.

Affiliate Marketing is in definition about playing the long game. Write a high-quality article that helps, is based on a low-hanging fruit keyword and offers value to the person who reads it. Once you have posted it to your website and shared it on social media. You start researching into your next article. Don’t get hung up on Google Analytics, it can work against you as you will not see a great deal of traffic and that can be demotivating.

Just focus on writing articles, regularly and keep that going for 6 months, then plan for your next 6 months.

I know it is hard to hear, but with effective training and support, it doesn’t need to a journey you travel on your own.

Get the Right Training & Support You Need to Succeed!

One of the things about those early stages of an affiliate marketing business is it can feel kind of lonely. If no one is interacting with your website, it can seem like you are writing content for no one and it can be something that leads you to believe that affiliate marketing does not work. But that is why I love the guys at Wealthy Affiliate.

You do not need to do this alone, you can join a community of like-minded entrepreneurs who can help in ways you may not fully understand at this point.

First off, you will gain access to high-quality training that will ensure you are following the right path for your affiliate marketing business. this includes:

Picking the Right Niche – some people start too broad, and end up not being competitive enough and failing
Doing Effective Keyword Research – without keyword research you have no chance of ranking your content
Writing Quality Content – It is the key ingredient Google is looking for, they want to offer value to their users in the same way you need to with your content
Social Media Marketing – this is essential for your business, but you will be surprised how many do not know how to utilise this effectively.

One of the key things that Wealthy Affiliate offer that I have heavily used in my time with them is the ability to learn from some of the Super Affiliate’s that are on their platform. To be able to learn from them and to ask them questions at any point was really motivating in those early stages before I started earning money from Affiliate Marketing. With a free starter membership, you can truly experience the platform with no commitments and see how it differs to any training you have experienced in the past and also see the opportunities that lie within. It is really empowering to live chat with some of these affiliate marketers and learn new techniques that work, with proof. Read some success stories and try to incorporate it into your online business and learn from some techniques that haven’t worked too.

Conclusion

Let’s just clarify the key points of this post.

You need to have a lot of patience with affiliate marketing. This is not an overnight success route. If you can only post once a week, it will take a lot longer to get the search engines trust and the rankings that this means to get traffic.
If you feel you have not had the best training, you need to go back to basics and learn it from the best training platform out there – Wealthy Affiliate.
The only tactic you need to concentrate on is doing the right keyword research and posting high-quality content that provides value and helps the reader
This is an online business model – if you are currently playing at it, what will it take for you to commit?
Think like an entrepreneur! Don’t work to get paid, work to build a future for yourself and your family.
Get the Right Training and Support – Read my Wealthy Affiliate Review and see how this amazing platform can help your affiliate marketing business

I know you might be currently thinking that Affiliate Marketing does not work and you might be thinking that it will never work. But I want to assure you, it can and does work! I would not be where I am today without it and I love the fact I found Wealthy Affiliate when I did. I had been caught out by an online scam and could have given up on my desire to make money online. At one point, I did not think it was possible. That was the point I saw a review for Wealthy Affiliate and found out about affiliate marketing.

It is a proven route to make money online, but it is so easy to fall for a fake affiliate marketing training out there. I want to guarantee anyone who reads my Wealthy Affiliate review, they are totally genuine and are a really supportive platform. They are all about you making up your own mind about them and offer the free starter membership as a way for you to make your own decisions. A truly great bunch of guys.

If you ever feel like you are struggling, just reach out. We have all been there and thought the same. But that does not mean affiliate marketing doesn’t work, we just need to keep believing and learning.

Thanks for reading this, if you have any questions or want to add any experiences with affiliate marketing, I would love to hear from you. I will respond as soon as I can. thanks

The Six Figure Mentors Review – Don’t Join, Until You Have Read This Review!

November 28, 2020January 28, 2019 by John Crossley

Welcome to our Six Figure Mentors Review!

I am guessing, that someone has just introduced you to a program that will “allegedly” help you earn tons of money and you want to see if it is the real deal, right?

First off, it is great to see that you are doing some research before buying into a “seemingly good” product or scheme.

Research is the best way to avoid online scams and only find legitimate ways to make money online!

To be completely transparent with you, we are not affiliated with the Six Figure Mentor program in any way, so relax we are not here to pitch or sell anything. We just want to help you get all the facts you need to know before you decide on what the best course of action for you is.

The Six Figure Program has many claims about being able to help you achieve a 6-figure income. But there are also a number of reports that this is a total scam! We wanted to find out what the truth really is, a scam, a proven money-maker or something inbetween.

Let’s get started with a quick product overview…

Swagbucks Review – Easy Money Completing Surveys?

December 9, 2020January 27, 2019 by John Crossley

Welcome to our Swagbucks Review!

If you are looking into whether completing surveys and watching videos is a good way to earn money online and wondering if Swagbucks is any good, then you have come to the right place.

First of all, I love the fact that you are doing your research as this is a great way to avoid scams and find genuine ways to earn money online.

Swagbucks offers a number of ways to earn money online, and it is a really popular site. But is it really a good return for the time spent doing them??

That is what we will cover off in this Swagbucks Review.

Payzeno Review – Is Payzeno a Scam?

September 8, 2021January 25, 2019 by John Crossley

Welcome to our Payzeno Review!

If you have been looking into whether the Payzeno digital marketplace is worth your time or is Payzeno a scam? Then you have come to the right place, I will share with you what this digital marketplace is like and answer your questions.

First off, it is a great sign that you are doing your research prior to making any decision about online products, it is a great mindset to have and help you afford scams and find only genuine opportunities to earn money online.

Whilst Payzeno is a genuine digital marketplace, there are too many signs that it is not worth your time and I will share them with you in my review. Let’s get cracking!

40 Ideas on How to Make Money by Working at Home

November 6, 2019January 15, 2019 by John Crossley

Whether you are looking for a part-time gig or an idea that means you can leave your day job behind, we have come up a list of ideas on how to make money by working at home.

Figures still show that many people have started looking at getting part-time jobs due to concerns about the economic outlook. In the UK, we have Brexit looming too, and many are not too sure what that means to us.

Some of the ideas on the list are just that, a part-time gig that could make you a little money but then there are some ideas that with the right investment of time and effort they could lead you to having them as your only income required. Our main aim is to just get you thinking and actually see what the opportunities there are out there. If you also have ideas that are not on the list, write them in the comments and we can make sure people are aware of those too.

Collectibles or Antiques. If you know your stuff around certain collectibles, this can be a great way of earning money from your hobby. I recently went to the Star Trek convention (I know, I am a nerd). But the money in collectibles is immense and you can definitely earn some good money buying and selling via eBay. It could be antiques, collectible trading cards, even classic video games are making a comeback. So if this is up your street, it could be an option.
Car Boot Sales. This is an obvious one, but one that many might not consider. Being a part-time job that increases your earning and means you get to travel a little. My advice would be to consider selling specialist items that helps build you a reputation as a go-to person. By becoming an authority, you can start increasing your prices.
Garden/Garage Sale. You would be surprised what you find when you start having a clear out, and if a car boot sale isn’t your thing you might consider a garage sale. You could even engage with your neighbours to sell their stuff and split the proceeds. You get rid of unwanted stuff and earn a bit of money, too.
Baby Sitting. If you know any parents desperate to get out for an evening, you could offer yourself out for baby-sitting duty?
Bed & Breakfast. Got a spare room and live near a place of interest or close to a student area? You could offer that room up for money. There are certain elements to this, including planning, mortgage lender and health and safety approval. But, you could also offer your room out to rent via airbnb. They have some great info for you on that link.
Host & Teach Foreign Students. Following on from the B&B idea, you could rent your room out to a foreign student looking to learn English. The advantages here are they are not a long-term stay normally. Which gets rid of the problem when you have someone renting your room who is a pain in the a**. Get in touch with your nearest English language schools and let them know you have a room available. You can check for a list of schools in the UK, via idiom.co.uk. You can make up to £200 a week, depending on your location.
Biscuit & Sweet Making. Everyone has a sweet tooth, and these can make you some great money. Bake and package them well, you could try reselling them through a local gift shop. You can also sell them via your social media.
Cake Making & Decorating. You will be surprised what people will pay for a quality cake. Gem makes and sells cupcakes, and they always come back for the next special occasion. Start out by offering them out to friends and family via social media and then you could start expanding if to want to. If you are quite artistic and offer a high-quality cake, wedding cakes are big business and obviously an opportunity for you.
Catering. There are no formal qualifications necessary for catering, this is about producing and delivering quality food. You might find it easier to manage the business with an NVQ in hospitality and catering.
Dinner Preparation. This surprised me in my research, but people are making money by preparing meals for others. It looks like they need to spend some time finding customers. But might be worth a go?
Childcare/Childminding. This can be a good way of earning money from looking after children. But this isn’t for everyone. You need to be able to care for other people’s children in the right way. Have ample energy and drive to keep them entertained and you will also need to satisfy OFSTED criteria (If you are in the UK, check your local legislation if you live elsewhere). Any adult who looks after other people’s children for more than two hours on any one day in a location, other than the child’s home needs to register with Ofsted. (this excludes babysitters and nannies). It isn’t complicated and includes medical, criminal and domestic safety checks. Nannies can actually look after the children of up to two sets of parents, in one of their home environments, with being registered with Ofsted. If you fail to meet the criteria you could end up in court, so check here for the full list of Ofsted restrictions.
Computer Repair. If you know your way around a computer or the software on the computer, you could offer your services out to troubleshoot their problems for them. Despite technology being a necessity in many ways, people are still not fully able to resolve the issues that crop up when using them. Offer yourself out locally, and typically word of mouth will go a long way with this model.
Cosmetic Sales. In the UK, everyone will have heard of Avon. This will require you to be able to spend lots of time meeting and chatting with people and selling mainly via networking or parties that you would run in people’s homes. You will need to be a little outgoing and be able to present to others quite well.
Data Entry. This isn’t the most exciting item on the list, but it can be a steady stream of income. It also has the advantage of being flexible, as you tend to be paid by how many entries you complete and not the time you spend on it.
Become a DJ. Many DJs started out with it being a part-time job before being able to earn enough to make this their full-time gig. It does take a lot of work building up contacts and getting booked. You will also require the right equipment, a deep love of music and be able to cater for a wide variety of parties. You could also consider being a ‘roadie’ for an established DJ to gain some experience and useful contacts.
Become a Doula. The founder of MoneyMagpie.com, Jasmine Birtles has said you can make between £12-£15 an hour by being a doula. You might be asking what a Doula is? It is a birth partner and post-birth partner. You can complete a short course with BritishDoulas.co.uk and offer support to new mums, offering moral support, helping around the house, etc.
Flower Arranging. Catering to a local audience, you could earn money with flower arranging. This brings to mind earning money from something you love doing.
Making Greeting Cards. If you love making things and have an eye for design, you could start making greeting cards. Ask a local card shop what sells well, and ask for any advice to being distinct. You could then start selling them via eBay or etsy. The only watch-out is be mindful of your material costs. Look out for bargains as it can be more expensive to produce then it is to sell.
Handyman Services. Not everyone is great at DIY and are more than willing to pay a local handyman to help them out with that flatpack furniture or completing a repair around the house.
House Cleaning. If you are a bit of a ‘clean freak’ you can make money from cleaning other people’s house. Whether you start out on your own or sign up with a franchise model like Molly Maid you can make money.
Ironing/Laundry Services. Set up your own local service offering ironing and laundry services. You will be surprised how many people hate ironing and will hire you out. It is a bit of a crowded market though, so do your research and check out what other people are charging and what for. So, you can pitch yourself as unique. If you do not want to go out on your own, you sign up with domestic agencies.
Sell Your Old Jewellery. You could go one of two ways with this. You could sell them online via eBay but not necessarily get what they are worth. Or you could organise a jewellery part to sell it. There are actually websites that organise these parties, such as ounces2pounds.co.uk
Sewing & Alterations Services. This is becoming more popular as more people come to the decision it is better to repair clothing then spending a lot more on new items. Definitely a local market thing, but word of mouth will do the trick for getting your name out there.
Leaflet Drops. This is an idea that can make you money and keep you healthy. Pop into local shops or restaurants and offer to help deliver leaflets or menus. Or check with local slimming world consultants, etc.
Online Surveys. Whilst not a great return for your time, you can earn some pocket money by completing online surveys. Depending on the survey site, you can earn 50p up to £5 for a survey. Our personal favourites are Swagbucks and Prolific Surveys. Prolific Surveys is mainly universities looking for people to complete surveys and the returns are slightly better than Swagbucks. But Swagbucks offers more than just surveys to earn money online.
Market Research. Get paid for your opinions. Companies rely on market research to understand their consumers and you can get involved.
Musical Performance. Any good with a musical instrument or can sing? People are often looking for alternatives to what everyone is doing, particularly with weddings. You can earn money from offering your services out.
Virtual Assistant. Businesses are looking out for personal assistant to complete tasks for their business, accounts, etc. You could offer yourself out via Fiverr. By freelancing, you don’t need to be local to the business to help them out and most of the work will be communicated via email.
Become a Personal Tutor. If you are a part time teacher or on a break, you could always offer your services as a personal tutor. It helps you out by keeping yourself up-to-date with the curriculum and making you a little money.
Become a Pet Groomer. People absolutely love their pets but aren’t particularly fond of the grooming bit. Become a groomer and earn some money from it.
Pet Minding or Walking. On average you can make between £10-£15 per hour, per dog. You will need public liability insurance just in case but can be a very lucrative market.
Rent out Your Things. It is interesting what you can actualy rent out nowadays. You may have heard of renting out your driveway, but you can actually rent out your lawnmower or even a baby bath. Try out sites like rentnotbuy.co.uk.
Scrapbook Making. Many people collect everything they need to make a scrapbook and then don’t go through with actually making it. You could offer to create it for them for a fee.
Website Designing. This is a very competitive market as websites have become easier to manage and create. But you can still make money through this. Fiverr offers you the ability to offer your services out as a website designer.
Wedding or Social Photographer. You will need a website and blog (learn how we can help you with this) but if you are confident about your ability then there is no reasons why you cannot get started. Be mindful, it is competitive. But if you are good you will find the business flows in and do your homework. This is their wedding photos, they will be expecting high-quality shots.
Become a Wedding Planner. This might be right up your street. If you are constantly keeping yourself up-to-date with current wedding themes and trends and like organising this could be a great way to earn money. You will need a website and blog to get that exposure you need (and we can help you out there).
Submitting Letters to Magazines. You can earn between £10-£200 for a good letter or photograph that you submit to a weekly magazine. Women’s magazines are particularly always after a story to place in their pages. Even tame stuff can sometimes get in…
Creating a Blog & Selling Ad Space. Sharing your experiences or helping people via a blog is quite a lucrative idea for making money from home. Write great content, share experiences and gain an audience. You can then earn money via selling space on your blog for ads. Google AdSense is a good way to earn money.
Creating a YouTube Channel & Selling Ad Space. A similar path from the blog but creating videos and sharing them on YouTube and making money from advertising. The more views you get, the more money you can make.
Affiliate Marketing (My Personal Favourite). If you are going to create a blog, affiliate marketing will earn you a lot more than ads. If you have a traffic building blog, you could earn money from promoting products or services and earning commissions from when someone goes from your blog and buys the products or service. This is an idea that can lead to a full-time income from home.

If you would like to see how Affiliate Marketing Really Works, then check out my guide here.

If you are truly looking for a way to money from working at home, there are plenty of opportunities in the list depending on your circumstances and time available. But the reason Affiliate Marketing is my favourite is down to the fact that you can truly make money from something that you are really interested in or passionate about and see it build into a full-time business that means you can give up the day job and make it the only way you earn money.

If you have any questions or would like to know more about affiliate marketing, blogging and the unlimited potential that it holds please read my guide on how affiliate marketing works and if you have any questions please let me know with a comment below and I will come back to you as soon as I can and help where I can.

What is Affiliate Marketing for Dummies? Road to Passive Income

September 20, 2021January 14, 2019 by John Crossley

If you are looking for a guide that will explain affiliate marketing for dummies, you have come to the right place. We try our best to keep things simple and ensure you go away fully understanding a subject and also go aware with a clear path on how you can get started, if you so wish.

Affiliate Marketing is an awesome way of earning money online. But I often find that people try to overcomplicate the process and that is when we start to feel lost, when really it is really quite a simple premise. Let’s make sure you fully understand how Affiliate Marketing works?

How Does Affiliate Marketing Really Work?

There are 3 parties that are involved in affiliate marketing. The first party is you as an affiliate marketer. The second party is the seller of the product or service. The third party is the buyer of that product.

Let us use an example to break this down. Let’s say an affiliate marketer has a blog that is focused on a niche which is in the realms of fitness, let’s say losing belly fat. We will get into the need for a niche later.

So, this affiliate marketer has a blog that focuses on helping people lose belly fat. They have a ton of hints and tips, they also promote products or services that are relevant to that niche. It might be a kitchen gadget that makes preparing a particular recipe easier. That is where the affiliate bit comes in. The affiliate marketer links their blog post about that gadget to a marketplace such as Amazon through an affiliate link.

The readers of that blog read that particular blog post and decide they want that gadget as it makes preparing that particular (health shake) recipe easier to do and so they follow that link to Amazon and buy the product.

The blog owner has just earned a commission through affiliate marketing.

That is the simple premise behind affiliate marketing. You promote products and services and receive a reward or commission for introducing a buyer.

It is a method that benefits both the buyer and the seller as it reduces the costs of marketing which can be an expensive business and Amazon actually launched in this way. When Amazon first launched it was a small online book store and rather than spending money on advertising, they reached out to their buyers to promote their books to others with the reward of a percentage of the sale price.

Now Amazon is the biggest marketplace in the world and still follow that same model but cover a whole lot more than just books.

How Do They Track Your Sales?

This is the point where people can overcomplicate affiliate marketing. You see it involves tracking cookies and if you do not know what a cookie is, this is where it can seem like it is an alien language.

Let’s describe how a cookie works, and then we can explain how they track your sales.

A computer cookie is a small file sent from a web page to your computer to be stored in your web browser. The main purpose of this file is to help the web page keep track of your visits and activity. That doesn’t always mean a bad thing. Think about if you do your online shopping online, a cookie will help keep track of the items in your shopping basket. Without cookies, this couldn’t happen.

If you stay logged on your social media, cookies also help keep you logged in.

So, how does that work with affiliate marketing. Well, when you sign up with an affiliate network or Amazon, you are given a special link that you use when you are promoting these products and services.

When that reader read that article and decided to buy that kitchen gadget we were discussing earlier. The blog post would have had a link that went straight to the sales page on Amazon. That link would have had a signature in it that identified that it was you who introduced this buyer to Amazon.

You might be asking how cookies came into this. That buyer might not buy that product you recommended but explored Amazon a bit and bought a similar one. The cookies would have meant you still get the commission for the sale. Amazon offers 90-day links, so if they go through your link. Have a look at the product and decide they will look later, as long as they do actually buy it you can get the sale.

Let’s Explain A Niche

So, affiliate marketing works by you introducing someone to a product or service and receiving a commission for doing so, but you will notice earlier I mentioned that you would need a niche.

Whilst the premise of Affiliate Marketing is really that simple, it isn’t enough to just sign up with Amazon and creating a blog website and promoting a load of products…

If you start too broad, you will find it much harder to get started and find any success. You need to target a specific niche, that is very focused and will give you the better edge to get started with Affiliate Marketing.

What Is a Niche?

A niche is a narrow segment of the market with which to target. What the hell does that actually mean??

The best way to pick a niche and actually understand what a niche market is by going onto Amazon. Picking a category and then see what the sub-categories were and click on one, then keeping doing that until you cannot go any further. That is how narrow you need to go to start a niche.

If I picked Men’s Grooming, there are six sub-categories:

Shaving
Skin Care
Body Care
Hair Care
Dental Care
Kits & Gift Sets

But those are still too broad for a niche. Let’s pick Shaving and then this brings to the following sub-categories:

o Manual Shavers
o Electric Shavers
o Groomers & Trimmers
o Pre-Treatments
o Aftershaves
o Accessories

In that category, those would be my starting points. But honestly, we could go narrow if we wanted to and you could target disposable shavers for example.

When thinking about your niche, you want to target something you already have an interest in and then target as narrow a niche as you can. You will expand later on into the broader market, but the first stage of your business will be getting your name out there. That is why we need to target a niche.

Always start with a tiny segment of the market to improve your chances of getting it working right and then you can start getting broader as you have built up your authority.

Become an Authority in Your Niche

This is an important one to making Affiliate Marketing work for you. Think about it, would you buy something if you didn’t trust the seller, the promoter, the marketplace??

The first stages of an affiliate marketing business are showcasing yourself as an authority or expert in your chosen Niche.

Why am I going to trust you and follow your suggestions… that is because you are trustworthy and know your stuff.

That is the place you want to get yourself to after choosing your Niche.

That is also why we suggest you pick a niche that you actually know a lot about or are willing to learn a lot about and it is much easier if you like the niche too.

Imagine if I started a blog on women’s fashion… Yeah, I struggle with men’s fashion let alone making people believe I know anything about women’s fashion.

Let’s Confirm your Understanding

You start off by selecting a niche, a tiny segment of the market. It is based on an interest or passion you already have with that topic and can show some knowledge about it to others. You are willing to learn more about that topic and will start on your journey to becoming an authority (expert) in that niche to help people who want to understand that niche too.

You don’t need to be an expert writer, as the art of affiliate marketing through a blog is that it is a conversational type article. If you can explain it to one of your friends, then you can definitely succeed within affiliate marketing.

What Next…?

People get put off the idea of affiliate marketing when they learn they need to learn how to create a website or start blogging or anything technical as they are not that great on the laptop or computer. This is where I can come in and help.

Before I started my first blog, I didn’t have a clue on how to do anything like create a website. I didn’t even know what Affiliate Marketing was. But I was looking for a way to earn money from home.

I stumbled onto the topic of Affiliate Marketing and had a number of the worries that you may be thinking right now…

But I found something that made it simple and easy to understand, I could learn everything I needed.

All I needed to put in was TIME & EFFORT.

It doesn’t matter what your skill level is with a computer or that you are not that great at writing or social media. Because I got expert help and support from day one.

If you are willing to put in the time and effort, like I did and spend time learning and following the steps that are involved, you will shortly have the following:

Your Own Affiliate Marketing Website

What I am offering is a training platform that can help anyone of any skill level create their own affiliate marketing business that will earn them money online. You will gain access to a community of like-minded entrepreneurs that will be on hand to help you at any step to ensure you understand what to do and how to do it. You will also gain access to my help and support at any time.

The only thing that will stop you succeeding at Affiliate Marketing is you telling yourself you cannot do it.

I know plenty of affiliate marketers who are earning full-time wages from their businesses and some of them didn’t know how to go on Facebook before they started.

What Am I Offering?

I am offering you access to a training platform that has transformed the lives of thousands of wannabe Affiliate Marketers. It offers World Class Training, Access to Websites & Expert Help and Support and what is more you get to join for FREE.

A Starter Membership is absolutely free, with no catch. It allows you to fully explore the platform and start your affiliate marketing business.

Think about it, by the end of lesson 4 you could have your own affiliate marketing website in your chosen niche. It will be fully optimised to be found by the search engines and all you would need to add from that point is content.

Everything involved with an Affiliate Marketing business can be taught and learned and Wealthy Affiliate will be there to help you at every step of the way.

3 years ago, I didn’t even know what Affiliate Marketing was and now I am sharing my knowledge to help others find genuine opportunities within Affiliate Marketing.

If you want to start your own affiliate marketing business with expert help and support, then I highly recommend you sign up for free below. Just click on the banner below and start your own affiliate marketing business for free.

If you still have any questions or want to learn a little more before committing anything, I totally understand. But I ask that rather than worrying about it ask me any questions in the comments below and I will definitely respond to you with an answer.

Good Luck with Your Journey within Affiliate Marketing, whichever direction you decide to go.

How to Create Your Own Blog Website – Step by Step

November 6, 2019January 13, 2019 by John Crossley

If you have been looking for how to create your own blog website, then let me assure you that by the end of this post you will fully understand the benefits of having your own blog website, how to get your own free blog website up and running in minutes and learn some of the benefits from the platform we recommend for that blog website. Plus, some features that will help you achieve the goals you have set out with your new blog website.

Let’s start by clarifying what exactly a blog is?

What is a Blog?

Wikipedia states that a blog is an informal or conversational type of website that shares information in a more casual way.

But when you start exploring the opportunities that lie with a blog website, it can be so much more. The main aim with a blog should be to help others. Whether that is sharing your experiences in a topic, helping people with how to guides or helping people with buying decisions and that is typically why most people explore the blogging route as they can start to earn money online with their blog through Affiliate Marketing or CPA Marketing.

Most websites that you land on with a search will be a blog, this website is a blog website helping people online. But the key to your own blog is a that it can be in any subject and be something that you want to write about.

But some argue you do not need your own website to have a blog? I think that having a blog without a website is so limiting, so let’s explore why you need a website for your blog.

Why Does Your Blog Need a Website?

Like I said, some will state that you don’t need a website to blog or make money, I’ll just use social media or write articles and submit them via a blog website.

But the problem is, you start limiting your reach by doing this and then there is the risk that the website that you were using to submit your articles closes down or dramatically loses their audience. You have just lost your audience and any money-making opportunities.

I have also found that social media is quite unreliable when it comes to whether people will click on your links or not. I am not saying that social media is bad, it is a good way of getting your blog out there but there are examples where it can be really hard if you use it as your only avenue.

But if I give you the example of Instagram. Due to their focus on paid ads, you will struggle to get your posts out to the type of audience that you were able to in the past.

Your Own Blog Website becomes a foundation to your business. It also becomes your brand.

That brand is what you can sell on all the social media channels, link back to when submitting articles to other blogs, etc. It also means you have full control over your blog business.

That is why you need your own website, getting a great brand name and creating awesome content will bring people to your blog. To achieve anything with your blog, you need traffic coming to it. Then they can engage with your content, and maybe follow some of your recommendations to earn money from those links.

Your own blog website starts with the right Content Management System, we highly recommend WordPress.

WordPress + SiteRubix = Awesome Blog Website

I have used a few content management systems in the past, and some you need a degree in computer coding to be able to achieve anything, others like Joomla are not simple to use either. Then I started using WordPress and I found it is so easy to use that it means you can focus on more important stuff, like creating content and getting it found by the search engines.

Another factor to consider is the web hosting that comes with your chosen CMS. There are some free providers out there, but the more traffic you get you then start having to pay higher levels to keep using their hosting.

I also think WordPress is preferable to sites like Wix, as again the more traffic you receive will start to mean you have to start paying.

Our Preferred WordPress web hosting is SiteRubix. It is the web hosting behind Wealthy Affiliate, and with a free starter account you gain access to 2 free websites using WordPress on their hosting. It also comes with some great training, to help you get started on the right path, gain traffic and customise your blog website. Learn more in my Wealthy Affiliate Review. Between Site Rubix & Wealthy Affiliate you will have an awesome start to your own blog website.

How to Create Your Own Blog Website for Free

If you want to get started with creating your own blog website for free based on the subject or niche that you want to blog about, follow the steps below.

Step One – Choose a Relevant Website Name (URL). You can use the tool below to check whether your preferred URL is available.

Step Two – Complete Your Free Account Setup. Create your free account to continue onto the website builder. (You are minutes away from your own blog website)

Step Three – Choose a Title for Your Website. This will be displayed on the header of your blog website.

Step Four – Choose Your Theme. Choose from the available themes to get the look you want for your website.

Step Five – Click Build Your Site. Within seconds you will have your own blog website.

That is it, you now have your very own blog website. From then on, you can start creating content, and start working on achieve your goals that you had set out.

But at this point, having a blog website is not the end of the stages you need to progress through to reach those goals.

That is where the partnership between Wealthy Affiliate & SiteRubix come into play.

You need to learn how to grow your blog website…

How to Grow Your Blog Website

From experience, I know some will think that having a website is all they need to start making money. But in reality, having a website without some key elements means that no one could find your blog website. If no one can find your blog website, it would be like talking to the wall.

If you have completed the steps above, you will have gained access to the training available on Wealthy Affiliate that explores the key steps you need to take in the early stages of your blog website. It will teach you how to achieve the follow things that are so important, that if we do not do them, there is no point starting a blog website.

Creating Content on your website starts with effective keyword research, if you are not entirely sure what I mean by keyword research, I have written this guide to help you out.

The training included within Wealthy Affiliate, will cover keyword research and these other important factors:

Search Engine Optimisation – If the search engines cannot find your blog website, you will not have any traffic to engage with.
Content Creation – Writing natural conversational articles becomes easier the more you write, but there are some key tips in the training to make this easier for you.
Getting the Most out of WordPress – Training on all the features of WordPress.
Getting Traffic – How to promote your website to gain traffic
Using Social Media Effectively – Use social media the right way will also help you gain traffic.

One of the other key factors in Wealthy Affiliate’s training and tools is the art of monetising your blog website.

How to Monetise Your Blog Website

Let’s be honest, the majority of people looking for how to create your own blog website for free will be looking to make money from their blog.

There are a number of ways to monetising your blog. Affiliate Marketing, CPA Marketing, PPC Marketing, and Wealthy Affiliate has training that helps you understand and fully utilise those methods to earning money from your blog.

If you have not heard of any of these methods, I have included guides in the links above to each of those methods to help you understand. But most associate bloggers with Affiliate Marketing, so I will go through this premise below.

Affiliate Marketing is a great way of earning money online, especially if you do not have any of your own products or services to sell. You can use this model to promote other people’s products or services and earn a commission from the sale. It can be described as a passive income route, as you could have written a review on a product that makes you money for years to come.

There are 3 parties involved in Affiliate Marketing – You (the blog owner), the owner of the product/service and the Buyer (visitor to your blog). You write a review that promotes a product/service and the buyer decides to buy it based on your review. They follow your affiliate link to the product sale page and buy it. The owner of the product or service rewards you for the sale by giving you a percentage of the sale price as a commission.

You will all of heard of Amazon, and they offer an affiliate program. So many bloggers promote products available on Amazon and receive a commission for every sale they introduce.

Companies offer this as it is a much cheaper way of promoting themselves than multi-million-dollar advertising campaigns.

Wealthy Affiliate offers training, help and advice towards being accepted by these affiliate programs and writing articles and reviews that correctly promote products and services so you can earn commissions.

If you want to fully explore the benefits, help and tools available with a Wealthy Affiliate membership, I highly recommend you read my review. If you would like to get started with your blog website then you can get started with a free Starter Membership with Wealthy Affiliate.

If you have any questions or would like to add your experience with blogging, then please add them to the comments below and I definitely respond as soon as I can.

If you would like more information about any of the topics below, you can always drop me an email to john@bestaffiliatemarketingtools.org. Thanks

Best Reasons to Work from Home & How to Get Started!

November 6, 2019January 12, 2019 by John Crossley

Have you been looking for a way to work from home and want to understand is it something you can do and the benefits to it? I have come up with the best reasons to work from home and, more importantly how you can actually get started with your own home-based business online.

Working from home is seen as the ideal business idea. But whilst there are plenty of benefits, which we will go through there are a couple of watch-outs that you need to be aware of too and I think it is only fitting we go through a couple before we discuss the benefits to ensure you know whether it is the right path for you…

The Watch Outs of Working from Home…

The majority of us would love to be able to work from home, not answer to a boss and sit at home in our pyjamas making money and some of us are actually doing that. But I need to highlight the fact that it is a lot easier to sit and watch the tv, then it is to take the action required to make that money online.

Whether you have your own product to sell, you want to harness affiliate marketing or CPA marketing or want to become a social media influencer to make your mark and earn money online, the key attributes you need to understand are… You need to put time and effort into anything to make money!

If you want to work from home for an employer, that’s fine but they are going to expect you to achieve something with your day.

If you are planning on working for yourself and working from home or working as a remote worker for a company doing telesales, etc. the only way you will earn anything is by putting in the time and effort to earn the rewards from it.

I am going to focus on the working from home with your own home-based business for the rest of the post as that is what the majority of people are looking for, a way of earning money online from your own home-based business. That is the goal of many, and are looking for ways to make money online and work from home.

You are going to have to work hard to achieve the success needed to ensure you can work from home and enjoy the benefits that we are going to go through shortly.

It is so easy to sit at home watching the tv, or surfing the web and going through social media that you soon realise you haven’t achieved anything today. My personal advice to anyone who is getting started online or has their own online business is to set daily, weekly and monthly goals. They don’t have to be mega or hard to achieve, but setting goals is a key step in your future success and allows you to track and see whether you are on-track with your business.

Right, let’s get onto the best reasons to work from home.

Your Own Schedule

One of the worst things of working a normal job is the schedules, whether you work a 9 to 5 job or work in retail. The work schedule is something that doesn’t really work for everyone. My day job consisted of being up and out for 6am most mornings and I was lucky if I got back for when my son was going to bed.

My first benefit of working from home is the fact that you create that schedule, you work when it is best for you and your family. I personally prefer and get more done on the evening, then I do in the mornings. I know a number of entrepreneurs who like getting up first thing in the morning and just getting on with it, so they have the afternoon for their own endeavours.

The thing is, it can be really personal to you. The other thing is, that if it is the right time for you to do the work, you are going to be more productive and produce better results because of it.

Being able to drop the kids off at school and not having to pay childcare means you get the benefit of seeing more of your children and then getting back and working from home.

More Time for You

Another benefit you get from working from home is having more time for you and your interests or time with friends. If you get the right business model from home, you will find that you do not need to invest hundreds of hours into it to see results, and this means that you can have more time to spend on things you want to do. Meet up with a friend for coffee, go out for the day and then pick up the work on the evening.

Without having to drive into a job or an office, you gain a lot of time for both your business and for you. When you are finished, you are already home and can get on with what you want to do.

You could actually start a home business in a niche that you love, this allows you to earn money from something that you want to do.

Make Money from Something you Love

If you started a business in something that you actually want to do or a niche that you already know a lot about and enjoy, then it makes it much easier to do the business and it won’t feel like a chore to do it, meaning you will enjoy doing all the things required to get really involved in that niche and promoting the business.

If you have your own product or service, then you could explore avenues like eBay or etsy to get it out to an audience. This will allow you to get started quite effectively, but if you have aspirations of your own brand, you could really benefit from your own website with you could use alongside eBay and etsy to sell your products and services and grow it to the point where you are making enough to be able to work from home full-time.

Check out how you can get a free website for your brand here.

If you haven’t got your own product or services, you could start a home business where you are promoting other people’s products and services and turning this into a full-time income. This model is called Affiliate Marketing, you can learn more about this model here.

The benefits of staring a home-based business based in a niche that you enjoy is you get to engage into that niche, and as it is something you already enjoy – you will enjoy it.

People go and pick niches because they seem profitable but run out of ideas or even stop working on it because they get bored. That will not lead to you being able to work from home!

Lose the Commute

After years of driving into work and getting stuck in traffic more often than not – working from home means you no longer have to worry about the commute. It is awesome to be able to just grab a cup of coffee and then walk to my little office and get started without worrying about getting into the car and sitting in dreaded traffic.

Whether you drive in, have to sit in a crowded train carriage, write a bicycle or sit on a bus – think of how much time you would gain back from your day by just losing it from your day?

This is time that you can use to scale your home-based business or just time to use for yourself.

Your Control Your Income

One of the things that stops people from choosing to start a home-based business is the fact they worry that they will not earn enough to be able to live on or replace their current income.

But the reality is that a home-based business allows you to earn what you are worth, and not what your company or boss thinks you are worth.

You will not always get a pay rise at your job, or even get paid depending on the amount of effort you put into it.

As a business owner, you set your income goals, the prices of any products or services you sell. All you need to do is invest the time and effort into achieving those goals to earn what you are earning now and more.

The other advantage of a home-based business is the fact that you could start it on the side of a normal job, so you can also make the decision on when you make the transition.

Get Tax Benefits

There are a number of tax benefits to having your own business from home, writing off equipment, supplies and a portion of your home or car cost, if appropriate.

You can also claim utilities.

Another thing to factor in is at your normal job you will be taxed on what you earn. In a home-based business you can deduct your expenses first and then pay tax on your net income, not your gross income.

I would highly recommend you check this out properly with a tax expert or accountant, but there are definite benefits.

Wear What You Like

We all know that a uniform or formal wear is a pain. If the weather is hot, they are uncomfortable, sometimes they are not flattering and then there is the ironing and the cost of washing it all too.

Working from home allows you to not worry too much about what you are wearing, even working in your pyjamas if that is your preference.

No Boss – Become the Boss

There are a number of reasons why people start looking for ways to work from home or earn money online. One of the reasons is their boss. Working from home means you become the boss. You will start out small and you are the only worker in your business. But then you start making money and get to a point where you are recruiting works or using freelancers. That is the point where you become the boss, and you can ensure you are the boss to those people that you would have wanted when you had the boss.

Get a Greater Feeling of Satisfaction from What You Achieve

What does it feel like when you have achieved something? It feels good, right? But when it is achieving something that is revolved around your business and your goals, it feels a whole lot better.

I am serious, when you first start out with your own online business it feels awesome just to get something completed. Whether it is getting your website launched, getting your first order or commission, getting your first comment on your website, getting some feedback via eBay or social media that they loved your product.

It makes such a difference when it is aimed at you. I worked for a big retail company, the feedback was always generic. Getting that sort of feedback feels ok, but nowhere near the same to your own business.

Get Started with a Home-Based Business Today

Learn New Skills & Grow as a Pro

Starting your own home-based business allows you to learn a whole range of new skills and grow as a professional. You might start small, but with a global reach of 4 billion people that have access to high-speed internet you will be able to reach a large audience with your products, services or offering help.

You might think that it is not possible to learn again, but if you get the right training platform you will surprise yourself with what you are able to achieve.

Whether you have your own product/service or want to explore the opportunities that lie with affiliate marketing, you will soon see how you can start your own business and be able to say you can create your own website, your own social media channels, write effective articles to promote your business. Understand your customer trends to help you scale your business and reach a larger audience.

You Can Get Started with Your Own Home-Based Business without a product or service, just a niche chosen from something that you love and in the next week you could learn from the following lessons:

Understanding How to Make Money Online
Choosing a Niche – Gain access to 590,000 Niches
Building Your Own Niche Website
Setting up Your Niche Website
Getting Your Website Search Engine Friendly
Creating Content

Even if you have your own products or services, this training will lead you to be able to make the most of the internet and the huge audience that is available, but without the right training you will not be able to effectively target the right audience who is going to make those purchasing decisions that make you money.

As long as you are willing to learn and put the time and effort in, you will see the result you are after with a home-based business.

Get Started with Your Own Home Business

To see the benefits from those best reasons to work from home, you need to get started with your own home business. Are you ready to learn and earn from your very own home-based business? Then, I do recommend a training platform that offers education, the ability to create your own website and get expert help and support at any time for your home-based business.

The training platform I recommend is Wealthy Affiliate. Don’t think that it can only benefit those looking for affiliate marketing, as a lot of the training they offer we used for Gem’s wedding stationary business which sells wedding invitations, utilises drop shipping and affiliate marketing. That is all part of the scalability of an online business.

The essence of the training focuses on those key steps that you need when starting out with an online business, getting it ready for the search engines (Google) so that people can find it, writing effective content that means that search engines like it to ensure it ranks higher.

But the biggest benefit you gain access to is industry experts that are there to help you whenever you have questions or issues that you need an answer to.

So, if you are looking for a way of working from home with your own business, I highly recommend Wealthy Affiliate. You can see for yourself, with a free starter membership. There is nothing to pay and no credit card required, unlike some other training platforms and you will see for yourself what is on offer and whether you can benefit from the tools and training that they offer.

Being able to work from home with your own online business gives you so many benefits. As long as you commit to the time and effort required to realise your goals, you will never want to go back and work for someone else or go back to the daily commute.

So, those are my best reasons to work from home and how to get started with your own home-based business regardless of whether you have a product/service or not. Let me know what you think in the comments, have you got any other benefits or watch-outs to working from home?

If you have any questions or anything to add, please write them in the comments below and I will respond as soon as I can.

Thanks

John

ClickBank Affiliate Magic Review – Is It Worth Your Time?

December 10, 2020January 8, 2019 by John Crossley

Welcome to our ClickBank Affiliate Magic Review!

If you have been looking into whether the ClickBank Affiliate Magic is worth your time, then you have come the right place. Within this ClickBank Affiliate Magic Review, I will share with you what I learned from purchasing the software and test drive it to see if it is something that can help your affiliate marketing campaigns convert.

First off, it’s great to see that you’re doing your research before buying into any “seemingly good” product.

That is how you avoid scams and find only legitimate ways to make money online.

To be completely transparent with you, we’re not associated with ClickBank Affiliate Magic in any form. We’re not here to pitch or sell you anything.

Instead, we want to reveal to you what we found as part of our research and whether or not we would recommend it to you…

Chris Farrell Membership Review – Is it Worthwhile?

September 20, 2021January 6, 2019 by John Crossley

Welcome to our Chris Farrell Membership Review!

The Chris Farrell Membership has been around for a long time and Chris is regarded as a high profile name in the world of affiliate marketing, but I wanted to ask the question in this Chris Farrell Membership Review… Is it still Worthwhile?