How To Make Niche Profits Without a Website

You don't need to buy any "amazing new ebook" or a bunch of fancy software. You don't need to write hundreds of pages of content or hire someone to.

You don't need to do a ton of research to find a topic You don't have to spend a dime and you can start doing it right now.

You don't even need a website.

Just follow the simple instructions below and you can make niche profits on autopilot.

1. First choose a topic-It doesn't matter if it's a more competitive topic, you won't be competing for search engine results.

Once you have chosen your topic go to overture.com and use their free keyword selector tool to get a list of commonly searched terms related to your topic.

Find a keyword that has a good number of searches and a relatively low number of quality results on yahoo. Quality results meaning pages with good content on that particular keyword.

2. Create a short informative ebook on your chosen keyword.

Use common sense here; this should be on a topic related to your keyword that people will want to read. It doesn't have to be incredibly long. A 5-10 page ebook can give someone all the information they need.

Once you have written the ebook, find some affiliate programs to join and include them in your book. Do your best to weave this affiliate links into the content of your ebook.

3. Make your ebook viral

Allow people to personalize your ebook with the website link and their name. An ebook creator like ebook paper will let you do this easily.

Another great idea is to add a tell a friend form to your ebook. If people enjoy your ebook they will probably be happy to share it with a friend.

Even better give them an incentive like a free gift and you'll have an incredibly powerful viral technique.

4. Find website owners in your niche to give your ebook away.

This is the most important part of this system. It's how you'll get your viral ebook started.

Search for website owners in your niche and ask them to give your ebook away. Offer to change the ebook in any way they want except your affiliate links.

You could offer to: Change the author's name to theirs. Add their autoresponder form to the ebook. Add links to any other websites or products they might have.

*Another way to get your ebook started is find a discussion forum related to your niche and start posting with your ebook advertised in your signature.

You may think that free ebooks have been done to death. Yes they have, in the internet marketing niche. There are literally thousands of niches where practically no one is using this technique.

Once your viral ebook gets picked up by a few websites you will have an automatic money machine on your hands.

Now imagine if you created 10 of them, or even 100.

Ten Ways Affiliates Sabotage Themselves

If affiliate marketing is so lucrative, then why do so few ever turn a profit? Read on, and I'll tell you why.

1. They don't consistently study the craft. By treating affiliate marketing like a hobby instead of a business, they squander time and money, spinning their wheels as other marketers pass them by.

2. They are a jack of all trades and a master of none. It is amazing what a little focus can do for someone trying to succeed online. By establishing a clearly defined set of goals, 20% of affiliates consistently continue to earn 80% of the commission.

3. They don't write special reports. Free special reports with giveaway rights can be powerful pre-sellers for products that offer generous commission. They're also easy to create with free PDF software available online, and can make the difference between a profitable and unprofitable marketing campaign.

4. They either rely too much, or too little on Google Adwords. By figuring out how to utilize Adwords to develop recurring revenue streams, a small percentage of affiliates are using Adwords to earn more and more income online month after month, year after year. How can you use Google Adwords creatively to move your business forward?

5. They don't capture e-mail addresses. Everyone says that the money is in your list. Then start building your list baby! It's much easier than you think. I'll cover this in greater detail in future articles.

6. They don't cloak their links. Up to 80%, or more, of affiliate commission is stolen, depending upon the product. Thus, quality link cloaking software is a must-have for anyone truly serious about succeeding with affiliate marketing.

7. They don't utilize viral marketing. Did you know that you can get a lot farther by leveraging 1% of the effort of 100 people than by expending 100% of your own efforts?

Managing a successful viral marketing campaign is as simple as filling a need that people have and giving Web surfers a huge incentive to share it with others. (If you don't get anything else out of this article, make sure you jot this point down).

8. They don't help other Internet marketers to succeed. What's that, you say? You only care about your own success? Then how will you develop loyalty among your website visitors? How will you keep them coming back?

People need a reason to choose your website over everyone else's. Do you your best to serve your visitors and you will generate customers for life.

9. They rely on the efforts of sub-affiliates to earn their commission. If you are recruiting sub-affiliates, take the time to give them the tools to make some sales. If you do, they'll appreciate your efforts and keep coming back to you again and again.

10. They don't think outside of the box. Some of the best Internet marketing breakthroughs haven't yet come into existence.

Become a visionary. Change the face of the Internet. Don't become one of the masses!

Your success in Internet marketing is completely up to you. Every day is a fresh start, and there's nothing you can't accomplish. How soon will you be earning a six-figure income online?

The Secret Success To Exploding Your Affiliate Profits

Are you concentrating too much on manually promoting your affiliate programs? Are you burning yourself and your profits out? Well, a few little adjustments will increase your profits and help you free up your time for other projects and endeavors.

Many marketers can make a small fortune simply by promoting one simple affiliate program. Too many times internet marketers choose to promote numerous affiliate programs and end up never getting the sales they desire because they promote too many affiliate programs manually and do not automate the process.

If you must promote more than one affiliate program then it would be best to automate the entire process leaving you with more time for other endeavors. Automation is the key! Every successful marketer uses automation and their profit margin is substantially increased because it leaves the door open for them to pursue other profitable ventures online. How can you do this?

For instance, choose a program/software that automates your internet marketing completely or a system that has been proven to get results. Always plug into a system that will do the work for you. Again, smart marketers use automation.

The first step to big profits is understanding the benefits of automating your business. Stop manually trying to make an online fortune and get started automating today!

Anthony Tomei

Anthony Tomei is a successful internet marketer and success coach. He is also a motivational speaker. Anthony is CEO of Tomei Enterprises Corp.

Affiliate Programs : Golden Opportunity or Waste of Time?

ow that the idea of doing business over the internet has been firmly established, many potential internet businessmen are searching for the best way to do business. Usually the choice comes down to whether you want to set up your own business and online store, or sign up for an affiliate program.

First of all, let's define what we mean by an affiliate program. An affiliate program is basically an internet business set up by someone else. They could be selling physical goods, education, information or any other products that can be sold online. By signing up as their affiliate, you are helping them promote their business or store. In return, they will pay you a commission for each sale you bring them. The amount of commission varies between different affiliate programs. Examples of affiliate programs include Amazon.com and Wordtracker.

1) EARNINGS

So how does an affiliate program differ from starting your own online store? Let's start by looking at the potential earnings. (After all, the main reason everyone wants to start an internet business is for the money). When you sign up for an affiliate program, you will be paid a commission for each sale you refer to the online store. This commission can range from 5% to 15% for physical products, and possibly up to 50% or more for virtual products such as subscriptions and ebooks.

On the other hand, if you start your own store, your profit can be much higher. For virtual products, your profit can be 100% of your selling price. After all, once the newsletter or ebook is created, you do not need to spend any more effort. When someone buys your ebook, they just download it from your website. If you are selling a physical product, your profit depends on whether you are manufacturing the product yourself, or buying from a wholesaler or dropshipping company. Your profit in this case could easily be more than 40% or 50%.

So, if you only consider the potential earnings, starting your own business is more lucrative than joining an affiliate program.

2) LOGISTICS

However, money isn't everything (Or so they say). When you are starting your own internet business, there are a number of logistic issues you need to look at. Here are a few things you would need to take care of:

a) Create your website

b) Design your product (if you are selling new products)

c) Create your product (if you are selling new physical products, or any virtual products)

d) Set up an online store

e) Set up a merchant account or payment gateway

f) Set up a warehouse or storage space (if you are selling physical products)

g) Have procedures and staff ready to fulfill orders

h) Set up an affiliate program to get others to market the products for you

i) Monitor for fraud

j) Monitor stock levels

As they say, "No pain, no gain". Having your own store pays very well, but requires a substantial time investment from you.

On the other hand, if you sign up for an affiliate program, all you need to do is set up a website to promote the program. All the ads, banners, marketing text etc will be provided to you by the affiliate program. Your only responsibilities would be to get people to visit your website, and hopefully click on the affiliate links to buy the products that you are promoting.

3) CONVERSION

Whether you have your own business or are promoting an affiliate program, the bottom line is the conversion rate, or the percentage of visitors that actually buy something from you. A number of factors influence this conversion rate. Factors as quality of the product, quality of the website, customer support are all important. However, I personally believe that the most important factor is trust.

When a potential customer arrives at your website, he will need to trust your site enough for him to be willing to buy from you. After all, on the internet you are just a faceless salesman. He doesn't know who is actually running the site and whether he will actually get the goods that he orders.

Having said that, one of the key methods of garnering trust is by recommendation and referral. If a store is being referred to or recommended by another website, the potential customer will feel that the store is trustworthy. After all, if the store is not trustworthy, why would the other website recommend it?

This is where affiliate programs shine. When you refer a potential customer to the store for which you are an affiliate, the customer will feel more relieved, since the store is being recommended by your site, a 3rd party. The customer will be more likely to buy from the store, benefiting both the store, and you as well.

There are both pros and cons to joining an affiliate program. You might earn less with an affiliate program compared to starting your own store, but I believe the benefits of not having to be responsible for the logistics makes affiliate programs are very viable "passive" source of income.

The Secret Shady Practices of Affiliate Marketing

You've probably heard it a hundred times...affiliate marketing is a great way to make money online.

What if I told you affiliate marketing was basically unethical or that the field is dominated by shady practices?

You disagree?

Well let's explore affiliate marketing from the merchant, affiliate and customer viewpoints.

Affiliate marketing is a revenue sharing partnership between a web merchant and one or more affiliates, where the affiliate is paid a commission for referring clicks, leads or, most often, sales to the merchant.

The affiliate signs up to the affiliate program via an online application form, receives an affiliate link, and can then promote the products and services of the web merchant via his own website, ezine, pay per click search engines or other advertising means.

The affiliate's role, then, is to introduce the potential buyer to the seller acting as a kind of middleman.

In return he is paid a commission of any sales resulting from referrals.

But haven't we always been taught to cut out the middleman where possible?

Well, yes, but in affiliate marketing the customer pays the same price regardless of whether he arrives at the web merchant's site directly or via the affiliate's link.

Or at least that's how it should be.

How does the web merchant benefit from running an affiliate program?

The main advantage to the web merchant is that via his affiliate program he can recruit a large sales team of affiliates at zero cost and make many more sales in a way that his website alone could never hope to do.

How does the affiliate benefit?

The advantages to the affiliate are that he can make money in a business where he doesn't have the upfront costs of creating his own product, and doesn't have to worry about ecommerce, bookkeeping, or customer support because that's all handled by the merchant.

How does the customer benefit?

The customer gets a solution to his problem (provided the product or service does what it says it does) that he may not have found without the affiliate's help and does not have to pay extra.

So it's a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Or at least it is in principle.

However in the real world both affiliates and affiliate program owners can be involved in some shady practices.

Shady Practice #1

Unscrupulous merchants close down programs without warning and without paying commissions or tempt new affiliates with high commissions then drop those commission rates dramatically a week later.

Affiliates - protect yourselves from this situation by selecting the affiliate program carefully.

Ask yourself these questions.

Has the site existed for more than a year? Is it clear what the site is providing and are the terms and conditions of the affiliate program explained clearly and comprehensively in simple language? Are there good online reviews of the program in websites or discussion forums? Does the program provide realtime commission stats online? Are ready-to-use affiliate marketing tools available?

Shady Practice #2

Affiliates are sometimes guilty of misleading or false advertising - making claims or promises about the product or services which are totally untrue or greatly exaggerated.

Shady Practice #3

Illegal use of logos, trademarks or other branding. This includes infringement of intellectual property rights and violation of copyrights.

Shady Practice #4

Spamming.

While legitimate affiliates are jumping through hoops to comply with the can-spam laws, the shady characters continue to find their way around it.

Shady Practice #5

Affiliate link hijacking is the replacement of your affiliate id with the hijacker's in the affiliate link.

You don't get your rightful commission - the hijacker gets it instead by buying through his own affiliate link.

It's best if you can avoid displaying your affiliate link and affiliate ID in the browser address bar.

One technique uses a zero-frame or invisible frame to make it appear you are sending visitors to a page on your website when, in fact, you are really sending them to your affiliate link.

To prevent the hijacker from viewing the web page's source code to see that you've loaded an affiliate link, use javascript encryption to scramble the page code or software to prevent the source code from being viewed.

Make no mistake about it...

In any area of human activity, particularly where there is money to be made, there will always be people who try to cheat, exploit the gullible and do harm.

The proper way to engage in affiliate marketing is to act ethically, build a relationship of trust with your prospects and customers then provide value by consistently exceeding your customers expectations.

And this applies to any business either online or offline.

How To Generate Targetted Traffic

Let's get started! First off, you must know how to drive targetted traffic to your website. What good is a
website without traffic? You may have the greatest internet sales machine on the planet but it will be
worthless without good targetted traffic.
NOTE: I will be referencing “lead capture pages.” This is the same thing as a “squeeze page.” All of
these traffic techniques are going to be driving traffic to the same place. A website that will capture the
visitors contact information and get them on your own mailing list. The specifics of these webpages
will be covered in step two later.
For now, let's focus on learning the absolute best ways to drive traffic to your site. There is no need to
learn every single traffic secret and tip on the planet. Let's focus on the 4 or 5 that will bring you the
biggest bang for your buck as soon as possible.

"5 Star Affiliate Programs"

Joe Bucks- High Profits on Health Supplements and Beauty Products
Pays out 50% PLUS 50% Commission on Re-Orders PLUS bi-monthly payments, NO chargebacks, 800# tracking and more. Over 50 sites to promote - free articles, stores & templates for affiliates

TheNerds.net - Top Commission on Electronics, Computer Hardware & Software
High payouts + free datafee + RSS feeds + 800# phone tracking + parasite-free + ShareaSale. All these essential elements add up to make this an affiliate-centered program you can't afford to pass up

TextLinkAds - Partner and Profit on Both Sides of the Advertising Revenue Equation
Many advertising related affiliate programs pay you commission for either ad buyers or new publisher referrals - TextLinkAds pays you generous commissions for both

Revenue Allies - BRAND NEW! DishNetwork and DIRECTV Affiliate Programs
Earn industry leading commission rates on Satellite TV sales benefit from 999 day cookie tracking. This new affiliate program knows how to treat partners right. Check out the $1,000 sales contest

$100 - $145 Commission on DIRECTV & DISH Network sales
$45 per approved activation on COMCAST High Speed Internet Service
2nd Tier commission - $20 Bonus for sales made by affiliates you refer
999 day cookies, so you get long term credit for customers you refer
800# phone tracking to ensure you get credit even if customers order by phone
Trusted 3rd party tracking, reporting and payments by MyAffiliateProgram and the Kolimbo Network
Parasite-free and committed to staying that way
Dedicated, pro-active affiliate management team lead by Gregory Santore

Wynn Las Vegas - Exciting New Entertainment, Tickets and Travel Affiliate Program
Profit from the Billion Dollar Las Vegas Travel Industry. The 1st Las Vegas luxury resort to combine two of the most successful online industries, travel & online entertainment tickets - into one program% Commission on Wynn Las Vegas Hotel bookings

5% Commission on the sale of Las Vegas Show Tickets
5% Commissions on Gift Certificates and Travel Packages
45 day cookies
3rd party tracking, reporting and payments by Commission Junction
Parasite-free and committed to staying that way
Dedicated, pro-active affiliate management team - Email partners AT wynnlasvegas DOT com