If you have been researching a real way to make a sustainable income online, then you have probably reached the same conclusion as thousands of other marketers – affiliate marketing/blogging is the best and maybe smartest way to earn a passive income. The real issue is not whether it’s a good idea, but rather what is needed to get the job done. Fret no more! My goal in this post is to give you a crash course in how to set up your affiliate income, and how to do it!

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is basically the art of selling products/services offered by other people. What does this mean? It means you can literally throw out a link, send people to that link, and make money when people go to that link and buy. Sounds easy, right? Well, yes…but so few learn how to do it consistently! People literally debate this topic until they’re blue in the face. I am not here to debate. I am all about taking action and seeing results.

>>> For one of my favorite courses regarding affiliate blogging, please read my Google Sniper Review here. <<< 

There are literally hundreds of ways you can do affiliate marketing. My preferred way is to set up a website and use various marketing tools to accomplish my goals, as opposed to just one or two. Content is still king, and the more you throw out there, the better. Let me introduce just FOUR of the basic tools/services you may benefit from using.

Best Affiliate Tools

Web Hosting

Building websites is the best way to promote a passive income – period. The hardest part of using websites is trying to get a grasp on SEO – I will share with you some of my secrets on this topic if you sign up for my list through the form on the right margin of this page. In order to build a site though, you must first have reliable Web Hosting.

There are several questions you should keep in mind when selecting a proper web hosting company. Among them include the following:

• Does it have cPanel?
• Do you get a free domain when you join?
• Do you get unlimited sites included with your bandwidth?
• Do they provide you with free scripts for WordPress, Drupal, and
  Joomla (blogging platforms)?
• Do they offer VPS hosting upgrades for when expansion becomes a
  necessity for your business?
• Do they offer a site builder with free tools and scripts included?
• Is the service RELIABLE?
• Do they have decent support?

There are a few Web Host companies out there that offer these features, but I prefer Just Host. They have been nothing but reliable, friendly, and have assisted me whenever I had a problem of any kind. You can start with them currently for just $2.95 per month with your first domain included free…not a bad deal! You can check out Just Host by clicking here.

Keyword Research

Do you have Web Hosting and/or a site already? Great! The next tool you should probably seek is a proper keyword research tool. Check out my full review for my favorite keyword research tool by clicking here.

A lot of people rely on the Google Keyword Planner for all of their keyword research needs. The Google Keyword Planner is powerful, but does not always paint the full picture. Others rely on premium keyword research tools like Market Samurai or Traffic Travis, but these tools aren’t cheap and most aren’t willing to spend that much for something they feel they could get for free. My personal favorite research tool is a paid tool, yet it is affordable and highly efficient and effective. It is called Long Tail Pro.

Long Tail Pro is easy to use. You can look up multiple keywords at once, check out Google Title Competition alongside your target keywords (number of articles/posts with your keyword in their title), and check out competition difficulty all at the same time. It costs $97 to obtain a license, but the software is worth every penny if you value your time!

 >> You can try out Long Tail Pro risk free for 10 days FREE OF CHARGE without the use of a credit card, if you follow this link. << 

If you click the link above, you can try Long Tail Pro for 10 days risk free. You don’t even need a credit card on file! They are so confident you will love Long Tail Pro, they are willing to put their money where their mouth is.

Keyword research is one of the most important skills to master, since ranking anything on Google requires the use of keyword analysis. If you want traffic to your site, then knowing which keywords to target is extremely important.

Autoresponder

Someone once said, “the money is in the list.” Yes, I know you’ve heard it and yes I KNOW YOU’RE PROBABLY SICK OF HEARING IT, but it’s THE TRUTH! Autoresponders provide the biggest leverage you can possibly own in the world of internet marketing!

Your list should be the whole point of your marketing! Everything you do online should be about building your list. Not just a rolodex of random email addresses, but a list of buyers email addresses that will make you a residual income! In order to do that, you need an autoresponder.

Autoresponders are everywhere. Some programs embed them into a monthly membership service, while some programs ARE THE AUTORESPONDER. An autoresponder is simply a program that allows you to maintain a list of email addresses and send them mass emails. Some of them are more expensive, while others offer you more features and control over your list.

If you are a big-time marketer, then you more-than-likely have Aweber. People seem to love Aweber the most, even though they can be among the most expensive, especially for people with big lists. I have been a member of Aweber, Trafficwave, and a few others in my time. I eventually went away from these paid services, and had my own autoresponder custom-built on my server. It is MY personal autoresponder and there is no risk of it going away (unless I cancel my web hosting service).

If you want to get your own autoresponder custom built on your server, then please contact me. I will have it done for you for $100! No more membership fees – 100% control over your list. If you wish to continue with Aweber, than that is great too. They are a trustworthy service.

Backlinking Resources

If you are a blogger, then you know that simply slapping up posts with keywords isn’t quite enough. You know Google won’t rank your site high for competitive keywords if you don’t do a certain amount of backlinking.

Backlinking is just another way of saying your site is getting “trust juice” from other sites. The more trust your site earns, the higher your reputation on Google will become and thus rank higher. It is an extremely complicated formula and no one outside of Google really knows how a site will rank with certain given factors, but I can promise you backlinking is one of the most important factors for ranking high in the SERPs.

Having a go-to backlinking resource can save you a lot of time and money. There are certain things you can do on your own which will take you time, or you can pay someone to do the majority of the work for you. I do both with each review post I put up. I have a trusted resource for my backlinks and it gets me on page 1 nearly every time I use it.

If you need any help, I can help you with backlinking. For $50, I can use my backlinking resource to help catapult your posts to page 1. Of course, depending on the keyword you are trying to rank for, the age of your site, and the quality of the article you are trying to rank, I can’t guarantee that you will see page 1 right away. But you will see a significant increase in results!

Affiliate Marketing Tools Conclusion

Affiliate marketing requires a lot of work, patience, time, and in some cases money, before any results are seen. It does take some level of tenacity and there is a learning curve. If you have what it takes and are willing to invest in yourself and the proper tools, you WILL make money with affiliate marketing.

For a brief rundown of each tool, here they are again:

• Highly recommended course on affiliate blogging: Google Sniper 3.0 – Read my review and get into this today!
• Web Hosting: Justhost – For a reliable hosting company that is considerably cheaper than most, try Justhost.
• Keyword Research: Long Tail Pro – If you are looking to save time, money, and find excellent results, then Long Tail Pro is a great place to start!
• Autoresponder – If you want to build your greatest asset a marketer could ever have (your list), then an autoresponder is bar none, the most important tool you can possess. That is why I bought my own. If you want your own, contact me! I’ll set it up for you.
• Trusted Backlinking Source – If you want to compete for affiliate marketing products in launches, then you need to know a lot about backlinking, or know who to turn to to do it for you. I can assist you in this matter! If you have a youtube video or site you want backlinked, I can help!

So next time some asks you the question: “What is Affiliate Marketing?” I hope you’ll know the answer! Best of Luck to you and I hope you have a prosperous 2015 and beyond!