Affiliate Marketing and Making Money Blogging

Hey everyone - I just wanted to put an informative post out on a cool little internet phenomenon called affiliate marketing, and put in a plug for a great resource of information and training on how to be successful at it.

In short, affiliate marketing is selling another company's products, and profiting from a commission rate that they set. You help them sell products, and you get a cut of that action as a reward - it's a pretty sweet deal.

The thing is, it's not just as simple as saying, 'Hey everyone, look at this fabulous stuff this guy is selling, you should totally buy some of it.'

Like everything else with internet entrepreneurship, you have to do some market research - identify niches, produce genuine, persuasive content, be consistent in updating your blog, and more than anything, convince your readers to buy those products, click those links, and create affiliate revenue for you.

There are lots of ways to make money blogging, but this has definitely become one of the most popular ones. It can be very lucrative - my last job was with a site whose sole source of revenue was literally just affiliate commissions of internet security software sales, and we had a staff of about 20 people, it was wild. This business is huge, and has the potential to rake in some serious revenue, but you have to be smart about it if you want to have high conversion rates (that's your sales rate).

Affilorama is a company that has a TON of information for affiliate marketers, and it's a great place to get started. Their blog is chock full of articles with the latest tips and tricks to keep innovating your business, and their forum is full of helpful staff and other website owners just like you that can lend their firsthand experience to your questions and conundrums.

I love that - the ability to converge on topics as a community is so powerful, and it's a big part of what has made this site so successful - active and engaging forums.

Anyway, in addition to just having a community full of resources, they also offer courses, videos, and training that are specifically targeted to revenue streams for internet entrepreneurs.

AffiloBlueprint is a course that starts you at the beginner level, before you even have a site, and walks you step by step through the research and relationship building processes necessary for a successful business.

AffiloTools is a useful built-in analytics tool that allows you to track the success and efficacy of your campaigns

AffiloJetpack - Okay, this one is really cool. As of now, it's not currently available, but basically, Affilojetpack is a sort of leg up into the affiliate marketing business, where Affilorama hands you over five affiliate sites that are 80% completed, so all the hard work is done for you.

So many of us live in remote areas, and it can be challenging to live the kind of lifestyle we strive for and still maintain a job that requires a commute. As a new mom living in a VERY rural area, I was thrilled to discover all of the legitimate ways you can actually earn a solid income online. Affiliate revenue is a huge part of that empire, and as it continues to grow, I think we're going to see more and more people turning to blogging and other online sources of income.

Do you manage online income streams in addition to your permaculture endeavors? What do you do? Don't be shy, share with the class