Promoting affiliate programs is one of the best ways to make money from your blog. Unlike Adsense or other forms of advertising, you can be more successful at this. The trick is to eqip yourself with the correct software for the job, and the right marketing strategy.

The best way to build affiliate sites is by using WordPress. This is because WordPress if not only a blogging platform, but also a complete Content Management sytem for online marketing. You can easily add useful marketing plugins to enhance your blog, automate it, and increase your profits.

The first thing you want to get as an affiliate marketer is the WP Ninja Affiliate WordPress plugin. This is an all-in-one system that cloacks and tracks all your affiliate links. However, the most powerful feature about it is that it allows you to instantly turn any keyword in your blog into an affiliate link.

Installation is a snap. If automation is your goal, this plugin is something you definitely want to add to your marketing arsenal.

The second item on your shopping list should be the Review Site plugin and themes. This plugin ransforms your blog into a product review site, very useful for smaller and more targeted niche markets. No matter which niche market you’re building a blog in, there are always products, services, events or even people that you can “review”. This plugin also allows your readers to submit their own ratings.

Now that you have the tools, think about your affiliate marketing strategy for a moment. Any idea which keywords to target? Have you done intensive research on ClickBank to find the most profitable products to promote as an affiliate?

You should focus on less competitive, yet reasonably profitable niche markets instead of the ones everyone is going for. These markets are usually easier to work in, and you’ll start seeing results much, much faster.

Affiliate marketing is not rocket science. Anyone can make a lot of money with it as long as they are willing to invest int good tools, and have the correct guidance.

Before reading just look at this site for all your Flat House Share needs!

By Melanie Mendelson:

You don’t need to have a website to make money on the Internet. Here is a proven strategy to make money online without a website:

Step 1: Find Affiliate Product

Find a product to promote where you make good commission on each sale. Generally, you will get the biggest commissions on digital products. Digital products are defined as something that is downloaded directly to a customer’s computer after purchasing, like electronic books or software.

Since there is no extra cost per unit, no inventory and no shipping, the commissions are much greater than on regular “physical” goods. The most common commission on digital products is 50%. The best place to find such products is Clickbank.com.

Sign up as a reseller (also called affiliate) for a product that looks the most appealing to you. After you sign up, you will get a unique affiliate link where you need to send people to purchase the product.

Your affiliate link will have a special code that will tell the product owner that it’s you who referred the customer. The affiliate link code will allow your commissions to be tracked correctly and assigned to you.

Step 2: Get Domain Name

Get a domain name to redirect to your affiliate link. A domain name is a .COM name (like yourproduct.com). You can get it for under $9 at GoDaddy.com. GoDaddy.com will allow you to redirect your domain name to your affiliate link at no extra cost.

So when someone types in your .COM domain in their browser, it will go to your affiliate link. The visitor will see the website with the product you promote, and the commissions will be tracked correctly.

The reason why you need a domain name is that it’s memorable and it makes you look more trustworthy. Affiliate links tend to be too long and arouse suspicion. For example, most people would rather click on the link bestwidgets.com as opposed to abcwidgets.com?reseller=john

A domain name will make your affiliate link look like it’s your own website. So basically, you will have a product to promote and a website to send people to and get commissions – without really having your own website.

Step 3: Drive Traffic

In order to make sales, you need to get visitors to your domain name (which will forward them to the website of the product that you resell). You can pay for advertising and hope that your profit will be greater than advertising cost, or you can use free ways to generate traffic.

The most effective way to get free targeted visitors to your domain name is by writing and submitting articles. You can write short articles on the topic related to the product that you promote. At the end of the article, you include your author bio and your domain name link.

You will then submit your articles to various websites, and allow them to publish your articles as long as your link is included. Your articles will get published in many places on the Internet, and will be advertising your affiliate link at no cost to you whatsoever. People will read your articles, like what you have to say and click on your domain name link ready to buy.

Once you start getting regular sales from your articles, you can go back to step 1 and find another product to promote using this strategy. After a while, you will build up a nice source of Internet income – without even having a website.

Remember its always easy to make money with your Roommate too

If you need to monetize the traffic – read these make money with adsense tips.