AffiliateGrounds

If you haven’t heard of Squidoo and you want to make money online, especially as an affiliate marketer, then you need to read this post in it’s entirety. Squidoo is a community website that allows it’s users to create pages (called lenses) for subjects of interest. In other words, you can create good-looking landing pages with your affiliate link in it with Squidoo. It’s completely free to use, no upgrades or anything like that.

One of the great things about Squidoo is that it’s a web 2.0 property, which in the short sense means it’s an interactive site also meaning Google and other search engines love them.  Other examples are wordpress, blogger, facebook, etc.

What sets Squidoo apart from all the others is that it allows you to just create a single page. You don’t need a blog for it. Just a single page.

They are extremely easy to create and use, rank high in the search engines, very cool looking pages to keep interest in the viewers of your lens (page) and the best part is that you can make money with Squidoo!

Now, of course, you can put your affiliate links throughout your Squidoo lenses, but Squidoo also allows you to make money from them.

One really cool feature about Squidoo is that they have a bunch of really nice modules you can add to your lens. Whether it’s a poll, picture, Big arrow (make your affiliate link stand out from the rest of the page), amazon modules, itunes modules, etc.

You can place Amazon modules on your lens that creates a feed of different products that will be listed on your lens. When someone clicks on the amazon product and purchases it, you earn money.

I could go on and on about Squidoo and trust me, you’ll hear much more from me in the future, but for right now, you need to download this free ebook:

When first starting out as an affiliate marketing, you’re very eager to get earning as fast as possible. Let’s be honest here, who isn’t? However, affiliate marketing is surely not a get rich quick thing, instead affiliate marketing is a business like any other and it takes time to build a successful affiliate marketing business.

Although, there are some who have been able to “get it right” their first time. Now, getting it right could mean anything because in this business it’s about doing what works for you. Just because one person is successful following one method, doesn’t mean anybody can do this method and be successful too. So, affiliate marketing takes time to become successful, but it can be done.

Now, getting back onto the topic at hand. Many people starting out are ready to get this whole thing going and start making some money. They quickly find a product and grab their affiliate link and now it’s about driving traffic to it, so they can make some money. However, this is a part many beginners ignore and times are a changing and it just doesn’t work anymore. Many link their traffic directly to the product/sales page, this is known as direct linking.

Many beginners start off doing this and then become discouraged because they send all this traffic, paid or free, directly to the product/sales page and see low conversion rates. Conversion rates are just comparing how many visitors does it take to get a sale.

The beginner has low conversion rates for one of two reasons or perhaps both. They are direct linking, so those who click on the add are only curious and not actually ready to buy or the beginner didn’t target his audience well enough.

The problem with direct linking is you can write up a very intriguing ad, but those clicking on the ad are only intrigued and are not really looking to buy. So they simple visit the sales/product page, check it out and leave. That’s it. Never to return again.

Direct linking is way to fast and the visitor needs to be extremely targeted, perhaps one who is actually looking to buy that specific product right now and that’s how they came across your add.

Now, you can definitely make sales direct linking, don’t get me wrong, however it’s going to be a low conversion rate, so you’ll need many more visitors to make a sale.

Later, we’ll talk about what you can do instead of direct linking to help increase your conversion rates and boost your sales.

In you haven’t yet, be sure to sign up to me free 5-day make money online mini course, I know you’ll find a lot of helpful information over the next 5 days. At least, so I’ve heard from my subscribers.

One of the great things about affiliate marketing is that it’s a business that can be completely free to run. Honestly, you can drive traffic to the product page or your own landing page made on places like Squidoo, Hubpages. Your own blogs on blogger, wordpress. A website on Weebly. You can write articles related to product and it’s purpose ans submit them for free to article directories to drive traffic to your pages.

However, paying for products and services can help improve your affiliate marketing business and if you’re just starting out, it’s always best to get the right training on affiliate marketing. These all cost you money out of your pocket, but some of you may not have too much money, if any, to invest.

So, a great way to fuel your affiliate marketing expenses like training, software tools, etc. is to take surveys and get paid for them. Now, like many seem to think, surveys will not replace your 9-5 job. You do not make much money taking them, however, if you’re properly trained and you work hard, affiliate marketing can definitely allow you to quit your job.

You can earn a buck or two a survey, but when you take enough, they can surely add up and help cover any affiliate marketing expenses you may have.

A great paid survey place that is free to join is CashCrate. I’ve used it many times to help earn a few bucks here and there to help cover my training and software purchases which can really speed up your affiliate marketing business.

Taking a couple surveys each day that will take you only a couple minutes each can very well cover your expenses. Don’t invest the money you earn from your current job, take online surveys and use that money you earn from them.