Affiliate Programs: Who can you trust?

As I wrote earlier, the first affiliate network I signed-up with was Pilmus, so I could represent Holly's book Honest Riches. Since I had found Honest Riches to be a legitimate course on how to make money online, it was easy for me to trust signing up with Pilmus to be an affiliate, as this is the company Holly has chosen to handle her affiliate program.

Having trust in the affiliate companies you sign-up with is extremely important since they are the ones you are trusting to send you your earned commissions! For those new to affiliate marketing you have two basic ways to proceed: sign up with a network or sign up with individual programs. If you sign up with a network, you can represent several of that networks offered affiliate programs. When you earn commissions, your payment is processed to that network, then all the commissions due you are combined into one monthly payment to you. In comparison, if the company you want to represent as an affiliate offers the program on their own, as opposed to thru a network, you can sign up and receive your commissions directly from the individual company.

How do you know which networks or companies to trust? Do your research, look for reviews and ask people you know and trust who they use and suggest. The way I've "met" people who's opinion I trust is through a few online work-from-home forums.

The final thing I've learned is if you use a product that you think is great and feel would be a terrific niche to represent, find out if the company offers an affiliate program. If they do not, then send and e-mail and ask how you might be able to represent their program. I did this once and the company offered a discount code that the customer could use, then it would track for the commission that would be credited and paid to me. When I first approached the company and they said "yes", that they would create a program for me, I sort of felt like the dog that chased the car, and the car stopped! It was exciting and a bit scary at the same time!

In closing, the main reason I feel that affiliate marketing is a smart way to begin when learning to build a legitimate online business is that it does not require you to house and ship any product. It does help to buy the product or have familiarity with the "thing" you are representing, but from there, all you do is promote and send interested buyers to the company! It's the smart way to start.

Blogging For Profit

By now you may be wondering how I could have been blogging for several months now, but have just written about setting up my blog. Easy to explain: I kept notes of my experiences and have been trying to get them all transferred into my blog. Looking forward to finally getting caught up in "real time". So, that's that!

One of the new "terms" I picked up from Honest Riches is to "monetize" a blog or website. With Blogger.com you can monetize your blog in two ways: AdSense by Google or sign up and incorporate banner and link advertising through affiliate programs.

My first choice is to implement AdSense advertising. If you are not familiar with the AdSense program, it is run by Google and to participate you enroll in the program. After you are accepted, you follow the directions and with Blogger, you use the easy to navigate options to ad the text and image ads to your site. It's automated so that the ads are chosen by Google and are targeted to be relevant to the content of the page they are appearing on. The "monetization" is created by revenue generated on either a per-click or per-impression basis. From what I've gathered, think in terms of less than pennies on the dollar. A low return, but again, all you are doing is letting the ads appear on your site.

At least by adding AdSense I have taken the first step towards "blogging for profit".