Article Submission Service 101
Basically, an article submission and distribution service is a web-based service that helps you submit your articles to various directory sites. Most services have an in-house editor who pre-screens and edits your articles to ensure that they meet the standards set by the publishers.

However, by joining such sites, you will have to pay for your monthly or annual membership fee whereas you only have to pay a one-time purchase fee for article submission software.

Top Online Article Submission Services
If you would like to see how each one stack against each other, here is a rundown of some of the top online article submission services today.

Unique Article Wizard
With the Unique Article Wizard (UAW),  you can submit a completely unique version of your article to more than 20,000 top article directories, ezine publishers and niche blog networks in less than a minute. UAW guarantees spun articles will be high-quality and not the gibberish that comes out with some article spinning. Additionally, it gives readers a unique version of the article they are reading by simply clicking on a link, thereby allowing for better syndication of your articles.

UAW also allows you to use multiple pen names and lets you schedule your submissions the way you want to. It organizes all your articles so you can instantly see which ones have been published and where they have been published. It even offers a nifty plugin for your blog so you can provide updated content to your site without having to do it manually. By signing up for their service, they promise your articles will be indexed by the major search engines within 48 hours, and you will be getting about 200 backlinks to your site within one to three weeks.

SEOLinkVine
With SEOLinkVine, you have to submit at least one article into the system, provide three relevant backlinks for your article, set how quickly you want to have your links generated and let the system work for you. Blog owners who want to get unique, high-quality articles can simply create a free account, and they will automatically receive free niche articles directly to their blog. As a result, you will create free one-way backlinks to your sites from different IP addresses.

The service also spins your articles automatically and allows you to drip feed your content to avoid raising any red flags with the major search engines.

Magic Submitter
With the Magic Submitter, you can automatically create and verify your accounts at hundreds of article directory sites, video-sharing, PDF-sharing and press release sites, social and micro blogging sites and forums.  It has about 2,000 sites in its database so you can expect to generate thousands of one-way backlinks for every submission. You can even add hundreds of websites to the list should you choose to do so.

Magic Submitter automatically spins your articles and allows you to drip feed your articles all over the web. It can also solve all captcha verifications using any captcha service provider you choose and provide you accurate reports for your submissions. Using this service, you can even ping, bookmark and spin your links.

Linkvana
Linkvana is one of the more expensive article submission services out there, but it guarantees to create thousands of quality one-way backlinks for your site from its network of high PR blogs, high authority forum sites and social networking and bookmarking sites as well. It offers a “time-released” system to make your link-building campaign look more natural and optimize your backlinks to ensure that you will get better results over time.  As long as you are able to submit unique, good-quality articles to the system, Linkvana promises to help you create quality backlinks in a matter of days.

Aside from submitting your articles to its vast blog network, Linkvana allows you to track all of your link-building projects under one easy-to-manage dashboard. It also offers a keyword tool and tracks the performance of your keywords. It allows on-site and off-site research, affordable content outsourcing services and lifetime free upgrades.

Linkvana offers a 5-day free trial so you can try how it works before deciding if this article submission service is the right one for you.

Remember, using an article submission service can help you achieve your goals, provided that you choose one that will keep you from being penalized by the major search engines and use it properly. For best results, choose one that offers to drip feed your content and submits equally to sites having low and high PR. In addition, limit the number of articles submitted for any one site and vary the anchor text and pages linked. Mass submitting articles falls into a gray SEO area and needs to be used with caution.

The answer – use an article submission software. To help you choose the right article submitter that fits your needs, you may want to compare the features of the top article submission software in the market today. Here are some of them:

Article Marketing Robot
Article Marketing Robot (AMR) is considered by some online marketers to be the most effective submission software for article marketing. Using this program, you can:

• Automate the task of creating and confirming author accounts. AMR reportedly has one of the highest success rates when it comes to account creation. Moreover, you don’t even have to worry about filling in all those captchas – AMR can take care of it automatically.
• Submit your articles to about 2000 article directories. As a result, you will get a lot of backlinks and generate more traffic to your sites. AMR also updates its article directory database regularly so you don’t have to worry about outdated links.
• Drip-feed or blast your articles all over the internet. AMR allows you to schedule when you want to submit your articles. This can be very valuable in view of the recent changes implemented by Google with regards to link velocity. As you may know, Google now gives more value to backlinks created over a period of time rather than those that are created in one go.
• Come up with unique versions of your articles. AMR has a built-in article spinner so you can spin your articles prior to submitting them to various directories. It can spin articles on synonym, sentence and paragraph level so you don’t have to worry about it being discredited by Google.
• Upload your articles to all your WordPress niche blogs.
• Easily find your published articles with its live URL reporting feature.
• Convert your links to RSS so you can submit them to various RSS directories.

AMR comes with a 60-day 100% money-back guarantee.

Article Demon
Article Demon works in almost the same way as AMR does. It allows for automated account creation, lets you add your own article directories into the database, retrieve live URLs of your published articles and save them in a .CSV file, ping your links, and even allows for contextual linking.

The software also allows you to choose the most appropriate category for your articles, lets you submit your articles over a specified period of time, and choose your submission speed. Additionally, Article Demon comes with its own article spinner and rewriter so you can submit unique articles to each directory you choose. Article Demon also comes with lifetime free upgrades and a 60-day money-back guarantee so you can be sure that you have your investment well protected.

Brad Callen’s Article Submitter
Brad Callen’s Free Article Submitter comes in three versions – Free, Gold and Platinum. The Free Article Submitter gives you access to more than a hundred article directory submission sites while the Gold version grants you access to about 700 article directories.

However, while the free version comes at an unbeatable price ($0), it is still not yet fully automated. You have to manually select the directory you want to submit your article to and then hit the ‘Submit’ button after you are satisfied that the submission fields are all completely and accurately filled up. If you are using the Gold version, you basically have to go through the same process, but you will have more article submission sites at your disposal. On the other hand, the Platinum version is fully automated so you can submit your articles to hundreds of article directories with a single click of your mouse.

Instant Article Submitter
What can Instant Article Submitter do to help you with your article marketing campaign? Much like AMR, Instant Article Submitter (IAS) facilitates one-click account registration, allows for scheduled article submission, and gives a detailed report on your submission status. Additionally, IAS also offers the following features:

• Image verification support. This feature allows you to submit your articles to directories requiring captchas without having to fill in any codes.
• Category selection. The software allows you to choose the appropriate category for your articles to increase the chances of having them accepted.
• Directory selection. IAS lets you choose the directories you want to submit your article to. It currently has 206 directories in its database, but you can add your own directories if you want to. You can also save the directories you selected and retrieve them whenever you want.
• Resource bio inclusion. If you are submitting your articles to directories that do not have an author’s bio section, IAS will automatically add it at the end of your articles.
• Instant Article Creator. IAS comes with Instant Article Creator, a software that can help you write good quality articles in less time.

While some naysayers claim that article marketing is dead, especially after the implementation of the most recent Panda updates, article marketing remains to be an effective tactic that can help improve a site’s ranking. In fact, with the crackdown on black hat SEO methods, article marketing will prove to be

To get rewarded for all your efforts, you need to avoid the usual article marketing mistakes committed by most article marketers. Here are some of them:

1. Glaring grammar and spelling mistakes. To build credibility in your chosen niche, your articles should reflect authority and professionalism. This cannot be achieved if your articles contain grammar and spelling mistakes. So, do yourself a favor and check your articles before submitting them.
2. Ignoring article guidelines. Each article directory has its own guidelines in accepting articles and not following these rules may result in outright rejection. To make sure your articles get accepted, take note of the minimum word count required, the maximum number of links allowed both in the body of the article and in the author resource box and the overall quality of your article.
3. Being overly promotional. Most article directories do not accept articles that contain blatant promotional and/or commercial content. So, while your main goal for submitting articles to these directories may be to improve your bottom line, try not to write articles that mainly serve to promote your products or services. Write something that provides real value for your readers and keep your promotional links in your author resource box.
4. Poor formatting. Most internet readers do not actually read articles. They merely skim through it. So, make your articles more reader-friendly by using headlines, bullets and shorter paragraphs.
5. Submitting the same article to many directories. Some article directories will let you submit articles that have already published elsewhere on the web. While this may seem to cut your efforts considerably, remember that publishing the exact same article on many sites will likely be a waste of time.
6. Submitting articles that are not optimized for your primary keywords. For your articles to achieve higher search engine rankings, they need to be optimized using your primary keywords. As such, you must do a proper keyword research before attempting to write your articles. Try finding long-tail keywords with low competition and decent monthly search volumes and optimize your articles using these keywords.
7. Not using the author resource box effectively. The author resource box should do more than just inform your readers of who you are and what your expertise is. It should also serve as an effective call-to-action that will entice your readers to click on your links. So, consider what you will put in your resource box carefully. Do not take this for granted since this is the only place you can use to promote your business and sell yourself to your readers.
8. Using the same author resource box and links. To maximize the SEO potentials of your articles, make sure to use several variations of your author resource bio. You should also consider using a variety of anchor text links and URLs. By doing so, you can promote several pages at once using a single article.
9. Using only a few directories to submit your articles. Needless to say, submitting your work to just a few directories may not be enough to give you the results you want. So, the best thing for you to do is to choose a number of reputable article directories that you will use for your article marketing campaign. In choosing the directories, you may want to consider the directory’s page rank, approval turnaround time, relevancy to your topic and the tools available for you to use (consider widgets, RSS feeds, built-in social media tools and the like). In addition, keep in mind that certain directories are better for different niches. Top article directories is a good place to find the best directories to use.
10. Not submitting enough articles. Please take note that merely submitting a single article to several article directories may not be enough. You need to work on your article marketing campaign consistently to produce the effects you want.
11. Neglecting quality. While submitting a lot of articles to a number of directories may work in your favor, you should still check for the quality of each of your articles, especially if you use an article spinner. The best value in article directories comes when the articles are republished by others. Unless the articles are up to the same quality they would be on your own site, they will not be republished.

Now, do you know why your article marketing campaign is not producing the results you expected to see? Avoid committing these mistakes and you’ll get better results next time.

Top Article Directories

Not all article directories are the same. With the time it takes to create quality articles, it is a good idea to choose the directories they are submitted to carefully to make sure all your hard work counts. Since different directories vary in the topics they specialize in, the best directories to choose for any niche will vary. However, the following directories are some of the top-performing ones across a variety of topics and are a good place to start.

EzineArticles (http://ezinearticles.com/)

With a Google Page Rank of 6 and an Alexa rating of 313 at the time of writing, EzineArticles (EZA) is a good place to start any article marketing campaign. After all, no one can deny that Google sends some love to this site. Perhaps the fact that every article in EZA is actually reviewed by a human editor has a lot to do with this. We all know that Google loves quality content, and that’s specifically what EZA aims to provide.

EzineArticles has four (4) levels of free membership – Basic, Basic Plus, Platinum and Diamond. New members are automatically granted the Basic status, but they can work their way up to the Platinum and Diamond status once they have proven their worth.

EZA also offers a paid membership subscription (Premium Membership). Although it doesn’t necessarily guarantee that each one of your articles will be accepted, being a Premium member allows for speedier reviews and provides you with insider keyword data to help you come up with articles guaranteed to rank higher in the search engines.

To make sure your articles get accepted at EZA, you should always submit original, good-quality articles. EZA rejects overly promotional articles, so make sure the title and the body of your article do not contain any promotional links. You can use the author resource box to link to your business website or blog but make sure it does not point to any direct affiliate links.

ArticlesBase (http://www.articlesbase.com/)

ArticlesBase is another free article directory to consider. With an Alexa rating of 1,300 and a Google PR of 6, submitting your articles to this directory can get you a lot of traffic. Aside from this, articles submitted to ArticlesBase also rank high in the search engines since it only accepts original, good-quality articles and rejects overly promotional articles. However, whereas EZA allows two live links at the author’s resource box, ArticlesBase allows three links. Unfortunately, a major downside regarding this site is that the links are nofollow.

Another great thing about ArticlesBase is that aside from allowing your visitors to share your articles with their network on Facebook, Google and Twitter, it also allows visitors to socially bookmark your articles with a single click of a button. Your readers may likewise choose to follow your work via RSS, so they will be notified whenever you publish a new article. Hey, isn’t that great?

For webmasters who receive more than 5000 unique visitors per day, ArticlesBase also offers a revenue sharing program wherein they share 30% of their Adsense revenue.  Additionally, you get to brand all the members you refer with your links and information.

GoArticles (http://goarticles.com/)

With a Google PR of 3 and an Alexa rank of 2,679, GoArticles, ‘the web’s largest free content article directory,’ is a good place to start. This online article directory gives your links a dofollow attribute and guarantees fast approval of articles as well (a bit too quick, in fact, which means not all of their articles are of the best quality).

The resource box can have a maximum of three links pointing to your site. You can put another three links in the body of the article, but these should be related directly to the content and should not be promotional in any way.

Idea Marketers (http://www.ideamarketers.com/)

Why submit articles to Idea Marketers? Well, aside from having an Alexa rank of 4,768 and a Google PR of 5 at the time of writing, Idea Marketers is more than an article directory. It is actually a content directory. As such, you can use it to promote your ebooks and other products, press releases, audios and YouTube videos as well.

Idea Marketers doesn’t accept commercial advertisements disguised as content but is more lenient when it comes to the number of links you put on your article and resource box. However, they still advise you to use your better judgement in determining how many links your articles should contain.

This content directory site also gives your links the dofollow attribute and offers social sharing via several social networking sites (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google +1) so your content can potentially go viral all over the web.

ArticleSnatch (http://www.articlesnatch.com/)

ArticleSnatch has an Alexa ranking of 4,969 and a Google PR of 5. Given this information, you should also consider using this site to distribute your articles over the web. To minimize the risk of rejection, you should only submit original articles with absolutely no explicit or overly promotional content.

ArticleSnatch allows a maximum of three links in the author resource box so you can use it to direct readers to your own sites and other helpful sites (as long as they are not affiliate links). Hyperlinks are also allowed in the body of the article (one link per 100 words of content), but such links will receive a no follow tag. Submitting articles that are in direct violation to these guidelines may result in account termination, so beware.

Amazines (http://www.amazines.com/)

Amazines tag itself as ‘the ultimate free article directory’ and has a Google PR of 4 and an Alexa rank of 6,757. It allows multiple links in the body of the article, and offers dofollow tags as well. As such, you will also get a lot of benefits by submitting articles to this site.

With so many directories to choose from, it is best to first concentrate on a select number. Use the ones above and/or any others that offer good benefits. Factors to consider include:

• The popularity of the directory: A popular directory will bring in more readers, better links and more republishing links.
• The quality of the articles in the directory: Keep in mind that those directories that do not screen what they accept well may end up with a lot of junk on them.
• The number of backlinks allowed: Two to three are common.
• Where backlinks are allowed (backlinks in the article body are more effective than those at the end of the article).

In addition, whatever article directories are utilized, be sure to take the time to properly fill out the profiles with pictures, descriptions and any other requested information.

Article marketing is not a quick way to rank content. However, with the right directories and good articles, it provides long-term results.

More directories can be found here.

The obvious solution to doing more and doing it properly is outsourcing. Work that is done on a computer can be carried out almost anywhere in the world. This not only makes it easy to hire talent from around the world, but it also makes is possible to get it at affordable rates. The world is full of people happy to do jobs you do not have the skills, time or desire to do. Freelancer outsourcing sites make it easy and safe to find and hire these people and help your business succeed.

Use the sites below to find the best talent. A few points to keep in mind when hiring freelancers include:

The cheapest bidder is not always the best value.

• First hire for smaller jobs and then award bigger ones if the freelancers prove they can do good work.
• Use milestone and other forms of secure payment, usually offered by the freelancer site, whenever starting with a new freelancer.
• Freelancers usually will not have the same mindset as full-time employees. Keep in mind that even the best freelancers sometimes may become temporarily become unavailable in the middle of projects.
• Be extremely careful to communicate all job requirements in the most clear and concise manner possible.
• Remember that different freelancer sites will specialize in different talents.

Freelancer.com (http://www.freelancer.com/)
This site is often the first stop for those looking for web designers, programmers and web content writers.  By creating a free account, you can start browsing their database of qualified professional freelancers. Alternatively, you can also post your project as soon as your membership is approved and start receiving bids from interested workers.

After selecting the service provider you want to work with, employers who are enrolled in the Free and Basic Plans will be asked to pay a 3% Employer Fee (or $3, whichever is higher). Employers with Standard and Premium Membership Plans, however, do not have to pay for any additional fees. The site highly recommends that you pay for the services of your chosen freelancer using their Milestone Payment system. This will increase your reputation and give you protection in case anything goes wrong with the project.

Elance.com (https://www.elance.com)
Elance guarantees ‘instant access to great talent’. This site is especially useful if you are looking for professional freelancers to do your programming, marketing, creative and administrative work for you. Basically, Elance operates almost exactly the same as Freelancer.com.

However, while Freelancer.com allows employers and providers to communicate outside the site (through emails, phone calls, etc.), Elance provides online tools within the site to facilitate communication between the parties. It even facilitates online collaboration between your chosen contractor and your internal team. Elance accepts different funding options through credit card, Paypal, check or wire transfer.

vWorker (http://www.vworker.com/)
You can use vWorker (formerly known as RentACoder), to find freelancing professionals in the fields of web programming, design, writing and publishing. Just like the other sites, vWorker also works on a bidding system. Once you decide to accept a bid, you will be asked to authorize a credit card or PayPal charge (or a check via snail mail) and your chosen freelancer will be notified to start on the project. Your funds will be held in an Escrow account and will only be released once a milestone or the project is completed. If your project cost is more than $500, the site will provide you with your worker’s phone, email and IM ID. However, vWorker strongly recommends that you keep all communications within the system to protect you against any untoward eventualities.

You can also use vWorker’s crowdsourcing and trialsourcing features. With crowdsourcing, you post your project along with the prize you are offering, review submitted entries from interested freelancers, and award the prize to the winning entry. By using the trialsourcing feature, you go through the same process and proceed with hiring the winner to complete the project.

Guru (http://www.guru.com/)
If you prefer to hire US based freelancers, then this site is for you. As an employer, you will simply be asked to register for a free account to be able to start posting projects. You don’t have to pay for any other fees since the system already takes transaction fees from its freelancers. You can stay in contact with your chosen provider by using the site’s IM features or by using the contact information indicated in their profiles.

The site offers two modes of payment – SafePay and Guru Invoicing. With SafePay, your funds are held in a safe account until you release them to your provider. With Guru invoicing, however, your payment goes directly to your provider.

oDesk (https://www.odesk.com/)
Pretty much like the other job freelancing sites discussed earlier, you can find a lot of web and software developers, designers and writers in this site. If you are in need of people to take care of your administrative functions, sales and marketing, and customer support services, there’s a great chance you’ll find them there.

You can hire contractors either on an hourly basis or on a fixed rate basis, depending on the nature of your project. With its team collaborative software, oDesk guarantees that an hour billed is an hour worked. As such, you don’t need to worry about being billed unfairly. As for payment, you can pay oDesk by credit card or by check, and oDesk will take care of paying your contractors for you. Note: you will need to hold a security deposit with oDesk if you’re going to pay by check.

Fiverr (http://fiverr.com/)
Have you ever wondered what people would do for $5? If you are mainly looking to have some small tasks done, you can visit the Fiverr marketplace and choose among the numerous ‘gigs’ listed on the site. After finding and ordering the service you’re looking for, you only need to pay $5 through PayPal or credit card, and your order will be delivered within the agreed time frame. If you are not satisfied with the product or service, you have up to 48 hours to have it fixed by the vendor (service provider). But what if you don’t find a suitable ‘gig’ that matches your specifications? If that’s the case, you can use the ‘Request Gig’ feature in the site.

Scriptlance (http://www.scriptlance.com)
If you are mainly searching for programmers and web designers, you may want to check out this site to post your project for free. However, you will be charged $5 once you select a winning bid. This fee will be refunded if no suitable bids are found.

99 Designs (http://99designs.com/)
This website prides itself to be ‘the fastest growing design marketplace in the world’. So, whenever you need a customized web template, banner ads, logo, icon, or brochure design, you may want to check out what this site can do for you.

FreelanceSwitch (http://freelanceswitch.com/)
FreelanceSwitch is yet another site worth checking if you are looking to outsource your project. It offers a roster of freelancers from nearly all fields of interest so you can simply check their profiles to see if anyone fits your criteria. Alternatively, you can post your project for free and wait for the interested applicants to contact you.

Problogger (http://jobs.problogger.net/)
Are you looking for a blogger? Then, you would definitely want to advertise on Problogger. However, posting a job on this site will cost you $50 for 30 days.

Warrior Forum (http://www.warriorforum.com/wanted-members-looking-hire-you/)
Have you ever considered using a forum in looking for freelancers? It is a viable option, the Warrior Forum Wanted Ads section. You only need to pay $5 for your posting.

Warrior is just one forum. Any of the follow affiliate marketing forums can potentially be used to find good freelancers and other services.

Finding qualified freelancers doesn’t need to be difficult if you know where to look for them. So, whenever the need arises, check these sites out. Your ideal freelancer may just be waiting for you to make your move!

When websites are monetized with affiliate marketing or CPA affiliate marketing, visitors need to purchase a product or perform some other action for the publisher to be paid. With PPC ads on your site, visitors only need to click on the ads for you to make money. These clicks will not pay as well as selling products, but they are easier to generate. In addition, some types of sites are not well suited for affiliate marketing, or you may want to use ads in conjunction with selling products. However, keep in mind that ad websites usually need significant traffic to generate good income since most visitors do not click on ads.

Many ad networks also offer CPM (cost per impression) ads, but these pay the lowest.

If you want to see how this website monetization strategy will work for you, here are some top ad networks for publishers that you may want to consider:

Google AdSense (www.google.com/adsense)

Without a doubt, Google’s Adsense is still the undisputed leader in the world of PPC advertising. AdSense is relatively easy to join and is open for publishers all over the world. It provides highly relevant ads related to the website’s content resulting in higher click-through rates (CTR).

However, everything definitely has its pros and cons – and Google’s Adsense is no exception. Among the most common complaints against this advertising program include the following:

• High payout threshold. With the minimum payout set at $100, those with very little traffic may need to wait for a long time before they can cash in their earnings.
• Unclear ad rates. With AdSense, there is no way to determine the individual ad payout rates.
• Google has the right to discontinue running ads on your site anytime. This can get blog owners into trouble if they heavily rely on Adsense for their income.
• Bad ads appearing on the site. While you can ban 200 URLs from advertising on your site, this may simply not be enough for certain niches and entering them can be tiresome.

Chitika (www.chitika.com)

Chitika is one of the best alternatives there is to Google’s Adsense. Aside from having decent CPC rates, Chitika also has a lower payout threshold ($10 for Paypal, $50 for checks) and can be used alongside other ad programs including Google’s AdSense and Adbrite without any trouble. As such, using it can multiply a website or blog’s potential earnings.

So, what’s the catch? Well, Chitika only displays high paying, highly relevant ads (Premium ads) when traffic is generated via the search engines and when your visitor is from the US, Canada, UK, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and India, among others. Lower paying and less targeted ads (Select ads) are then shown when traffic is generated from social networks or from any other referral methods as well as when your visitor is not from any of the countries mentioned above.

AdBrite (www.adbrite.com)

With AdBrite, website owners can fully monetize their traffic since the network pays a certain amount per 1000 unique page impressions. It also allows website owners to review and reject ads, set individual ad rates and sell ad space from their sites. AdBrite ads can be used alongside AdSense ads, has a lower payout threshold ($5) and offers a larger percentage (75%) to website and blog owners. Isn’t this quite a refreshing change?

Still, some publishers are not satisfied with AdBrite ads since they generate low CTRs when the ads are not relevant to the content of the sites at times. Others find the delay in the payment of the revenues to be quite annoying.

BidVertiser (www.bidvertiser.com)

Just like AdBrite, BidVertiser also allows publishers to manually approve ads. With its transparency policy, publishers can see how much the advertisers are bidding for individual ad spaces. BidVertiser’s low payout threshold ($10) and bonus payment structure for high converting ads entice publishers to choose their program over other ad networks. However, some publishers are turned off by the low CTR and the irrelevant ads that sometime appear on their sites.

Clicksor (www.clicksor.com)

Clicksor offer higher percentages (85%), fast payments (15 days) through check or PayPal. Minimum payout is set at $50 for checks and $20 for Paypal. However, some publishers report malicious codes being installed on their websites after using Clicksor.

Infolinks (www.infolinks.com)

If you would rather have inline text ads, then Infolinks may be the one you’re looking for. Some publishers claim that they had better CTRs and higher earnings with Infolinks. Perhaps this is because the ads are non-intrusive and are placed where they cannot be ignored.

Kontera (www.kontera.com)

Kontera text link ads are contextually relevant and generally unobtrusive so they naturally attract more clicks. However, those little windows that open when visitors hover over the links can be very annoying for some readers.

While there may not be a perfect ad network for publishers at present, using this monetization strategy can undoubtedly help website and blog owners maximize the earning potentials of their sites. So, if you are ready to make money from your website without affiliate marketing, ads may be the way to go.

The first steps

Before really looking at affiliate marketing, you need to look at yourself. Anyone in the business needs to know how to stay motivated to get things done, and pursuing personal interests is the best way to stay driven. Make a list of your interests and think of the kind of information you can create as well as what products those interests relate to.

Find a niche
Interests then need to be narrowed down to niches. How to find a niche covers the critical aspects of this process to include long-tail keywords and keyword tools to find them. These principles should not only be considered when finding a niche but also when looking for new keywords to expand websites with more content.

Choose a domain name

The first step in creating websites is choosing domain names. SEO (search engine optimization), domain name extensions, how attractive the name is to visitors and other factors all need to be taken into account. The name can have long-term consequences and cannot be changed without losing all the links to the site. Therefore, it needs to be taken seriously.

Start building a website

Building affiliate websites is a continuous process, and it is best to get started as soon as possible. Build a money making website covers this process and the different site building software (to include creating a WordPress affiliate website) you can use. At this time, hosting will also need to be chosen.

Become an expert
Content is what makes a homepage and an affiliate marketer. To create the best content possible, it is important to learn be an expert your niche. Sign up for Google Alerts to receive daily email updates on selected keywords. Use how to find forums to take advantage of all the information offered by forums in your niche.

Create content

With keywords in hand using techniques outlined in how to find a niche, start creating content. Website writing involves creating articles focused on unbiased reviews, telling people how to do things, etc. in a way that quickly catches the user’s attention with information that is easy to access. If it does not, readers will soon move to other sites. In addition, have a plan for the website that uses siloing to organize content for readers and search engines.

Keep learning affiliate marketing

Learning about affiliate marketing a continuous process, and a lot needs to be taken in as you go. In addition to the information offered in affiliate marketing and online marketing, affiliate marketing forums are a great place to learn about and expand your knowledge of affiliate marketing. In addition, most marketers read at least a few affiliate marketing books, and you may want to take an online marketing course.

Find affiliate programs and products

After you have begun the process of building up a website, you can start joining affiliate networks (some kind of website is required to join most networks). Ace Site creator has a resource on affiliate programs for every interest. In addition, there are the top affiliate networks. For those not interested in focusing on particular affiliate products, AdSense and other ad networks that can be used to monetize any type of website, as long as it is getting traffic.

Deciding on what products and programs to promote can be more difficult than finding a niche. Look at the affiliate networks for products that pay well that do not have too much competition. Products that are generally easiest to promote include those that appeal to women and an older crowd since most affiliate marketers are younger men. Topics like sports and technology are, therefore, among the toughest.

Some tricks to finding the best programs and products for you are covered in how to choose affiliate products. Use those tips, along with SEO checkers (tools such as the free SEO for Firefox by SEO Book), to look at the competition (the top sites that appear in a web search) of the product keywords you are targeting.

Optimize for search engines

SEO, optimizing websites so that they rank high in search engine rankings, brings in the free, quality traffic that every marketer needs. The techniques are continually evolving as the internet and search engines continue to change. While the single most important underlying SEO strategy always needs to be focused on creating quality content, there are certain basic strategies that remain constant. Publish every web page with on-site SEO in mind. At the same time, select the off-page SEO techniques that work best for you.

With the process as extensive as it is, most web marketers use some combination of SEO software and SEO outsourcing to carry out as much SEO as possible.

Addition SEO information can be found in SEO techniques and SEO classes are also available for those who would like to learn more.

Use different forms of online marketing
After a website has been established, it is then time to try different online marketing campaigns. Many of the types you can try are outlined in online marketing strategies and include email marketing, social network marketing, viral marketing as well as video marketing.

Best PPC and PPC cover how to use pay per click (PPC) to bring traffic to a website and offers. Be certain to approach PPC campaigns with the right knowledge, or you risk spending more on the campaign that the revenue it brings in. At the same time, keep SEO in mind as well as the relative advantages of organic vs. PPC promotion methods.

Note that landing pages are a very effective tool when marketing specific products.

See market digital products to learn the special techniques required to succeed in the very lucrative but competitive market of ClickBank and other digital products.

The above can get you started on making money online through affiliate marketing. It should be more than enough to keep you busy. This resource will be expanded over time so keep checking back as you work!

Commissions
It is important to look at both what the merchant pays and how they pay (how often, payment method, merchant’s reputation, etc.). Keep the following in mind:

• Digital products generally pay a much higher percentage but are more difficult to sell.
• Recurring commission products are great, but remember the commission will only keep coming as long as the customer is paying.
• Affiliate marketers, until they come more experienced and established, generally start out with the larger programs that are easier to join and offer more resources. It then becomes time to start seeking the most lucrative offers.

At the same time, do not let greed take over. There is no point in promoting a product with a great commission if it is not going to sell anyway. Make sure the product is something people will buy and keep, since refunds will also cost you commissions in the end.

Products you are interested in
While this almost goes without saying, it is very important. Promoting products you are interested in makes the process easier as well as more interesting. There is a need to consistently create quality content and good reviews, and readers can often sense the level of enthusiasm of the writer.

Broadness of a market
It is tempting to go for products and niches with a broader appeal to attract more readers. However, broader niches will also have more competition. It is a usually best for newer marketers to focus on smaller niches. For example, focus on a certain type of apps for cell phones rather than apps overall.

Saturation
Look at the results page for the keywords in a webs search. If the market already appears saturated with tough competition, it is likely time to try something else.

Generally, since affiliate marketers tend to be younger, male and interested in technology, niches related to those audiences tend to be more competitive.

Resources the affiliate program offers
Simple links are not going to be enough to generate sales unless the site really has a lot of traffic. Programs with plenty of tools and resources will be much easier to promote. Great resources include product articles and email templates to make marketing simpler.

Check landing pages
Many products, particularly digital ones, require some kind of landing page for the product to generate significant sales. Make sure any sales or landing pages are attractive to potential buyers and can be directly linked to from your site.

Banners also need to be appealing or people will not click them.

Would you buy it?
Put yourself in the customer’s shoes when deciding on products to promote. Something you would buy, or better yet have bought, is the kind of product you are likely to have the most luck marketing.

Price of the product
The price is, of course, related to whether or not you would buy it, but it needs its own consideration. Look at the prices of the competition and alternatives before deciding.

Relation of the product to your website
Visitors with pet care on their minds are probably not going to pay any attention to the latest computer equipment. Products need to be on the theme of the website or directly related to the interests of site visitors.

Avoid fads
While very established marketers may be able to cash in on fads, the average marketer will find these products the most difficult. It takes time to build up traffic to offers on a typical website, and the fad will likely have faded by then.

Select evergreen products
The opposite of fads are evergreen products that are likely to stay relevant for the foreseeable future. Choose at least some of these to give marketing efforts time to bear fruit and generate recurring commissions.

Check reviews
Before investing time in a product, search for reviews of it and find out what people are saying. This can serve the dual purposes of learning whether a product is worth promoting and to gain a better understanding of what you should cover if it is.

Get started with some of the top affiliate networks.

Commission Junction (www.cj.com)
Commission Junction is one of the oldest and largest affiliate marketing networks on the internet and is a good choice for novice webmasters interested in affiliate marketing. Commission Junction serves 62% of the top 500 retail companies that use third party affiliate services on the internet. This is a flagship brand in the affiliate marketing industry so inevitably there will be negative reviews and dissatisfied customers. Commission Junction pays the marketers from Commission Junctions capital rather than from the merchants so payment is predictable and reliable. The downside is that Commission Junction does not work with accept PayPal as do many other online businesses.

Commission Junction works over 1500 top brands, including Yahoo, Dell, Home Depot and many others. The company has offices all over the world and can provide many tools to help webmasters be successful marketing online. Commission Junction has different ways for webmasters to earn as well as creative banners and links to help with promotions and increasing revenue from the website. It requires webmasters to apply to each merchant opposed to having an open venue model like other affiliate marketers. This leads to different terms and refund standards with individual merchants instead of a standard for the entire network. The user interface and webmaster services may not be the best but Commission Junction has established a strong place among the top of affiliate marketing industry.

ClickBank (www.ClickBank.com)
ClickBank has been rated the number one affiliate-marketing network for the year 2011. This affiliate-marketing network has been around since the late 1990s and has a strong niche in the digital information, and retails products online. ClickBank has over 50,000 different products for affiliate marketers to choose from and there are currently over 100,000 active affiliate marketers. ClickBank claimed to paid affiliate marketers over 1.8 billion annually with over 35,000 transactions per day in 2011. ClickBank offers up to 75 percent commission to affiliate marketers and provides direct deposit for quick and easy payments.

ClickBank has a wide variety of high-end digital products and accepts over 13 different currencies from around the world. It also allows affiliate marketers to work with any of the available merchants without individual applications. ClickBank has a referral program for finding qualified vendors to join ClickBank as well; the compensation is a small percentage of each sale from the vendor. ClickBank is a great resource for blogs and niche websites selling eBooks and digital products. This affiliate-marketing network can be very lucrative for both novice and experienced webmasters alike. ClickBank has many popular products and software that appeal to both the major mainstream and niche markets of demand on the internet.

Amazon Associates (https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/)
The Amazon Associates is one of the most popular affiliate programs on the internet. This is another flagship brand; one of the oldest and best-performing affiliate programs available on the internet. Amazon is a very popular retail website that receives 40 percent of its revenue from the affiliate program. Amazon is not the easiest affiliate program to navigate, but it is one of the most profitable and trusted networks on the internet. The program is free to join, and the Amazon program provides many innovative tools to help webmasters promote affiliate products and build a wealthy online business.

Amazon has product image links, normal text links and enhanced links with product images and text along with the Amazon logo. If the visitor buys anything on Amazon after following the link, the site owner will be paid; the purchase does not have to be on the specified landing page. This is a benefit to most marketers because many visitors will purchase something from Amazon more willingly than from another website. Amazon also has professional banners and widgets to help marketers promote products. Amazon has aStore, which enables webmasters to build up to 100 storefronts that only take minutes to make with no programming knowledge.

LinkShare (www.linkshare.com)
LinkShare was founded in 1996 and was rated the top affiliate marketeering network for 2011 by a number of media outlets. This is one of the most popular and profitable affiliate-marketing networks to join on the internet. LinkShare works with many Fortune 500 companies like J.C Penney, American Express, Avon and 1-800 Flowers.com to name a few. LinkShare provides three services to drive the revenue for the network. This affiliate network has focused their efforts on affiliate marketing, lead generation and search marketing as well. LinkShare offers real-time reporting to make it easier for affiliates to track significant trends in their sales numbers.

The affiliate network is free to join and only has a one-dollar threshold for direct deposit. This affiliate network has innovative products to help promote popular merchants, and the customer service is top quality to support a variety of diverse webmaster needs. LinkShare also has different levels of affiliate programs to accommodate different levels of webmaster and ecommerce needs. Experts from the company can serve as consultants to help guide and manage the online business into profitability and sustainability. The headquarters is located in New York City, but the company does have locations all over the country.

Shareasale (http://www.shareasale.com/)
Shareasale gets generally positive reviews online from webmasters and bloggers. This affiliate network could be a great jumping-off point for a new online marketer. Shareasale is based in Chicago and was founded in 2000. Currently, this affiliate network has more than 2,500 retail products and over 2,000 merchants for affiliate webmasters to work with. The affiliate network offers customized links and high commission rates in niche markets. Shareasale pays webmasters once a month as long as the minimum $50 threshold is met; the network pays by direct deposit, PayPal or check by mail.

The affiliate network also has a small referral program for webmasters as well. Shareasale pays the affiliate webmasters based on the performance or sales generated and according to the specific terms that vary for each particular merchant. Shareasale will be most beneficial to webmasters with at least minimal knowledge of affiliate marketing as the amount of information can be overwhelming for some. There are many creative links and banners to help webmasters convert sales and increase commissions daily as the traffic generation techniques improve. Shareasale is one of the largest affiliate marketing networks a webmaster can join on the internet.

PepperJam (http://www.pepperjam.com/)
PepperJam Network is a mid-level affiliate-marketing network that gets relatively positive but mostly mixed reviews. PepperJam Network was founded in 1999 and is now one of the more renowned CPA networks today. The network hosts its own referral program and pays webmasters for approved affiliate applications. PepperJam is free to join and is a lucrative program for the people that dedicate a consistent effort and have steady online traffic sources. PepperJam provides a commission summary, transaction details, summary reporting and creative link details as well as other services to help webmasters be successful.

Pepper Jam is a GSI Media company that is near the top of the ranks for online technology and marketing.  Pepper Jam takes a “better the work, better the pay” type approach and in turn is very strong on the customer service side.  This affiliate marketing company is very user friendly; Pepper Jam establishes long relationships with their merchants through their expert customer service and up to date technology.  Pepper Jam’s customer service and industry experience combined with their innovative technology makes this is an excellent source for affiliate-marketing positions.

oneNetworkDirect (http://www.onenetworkdirect.com/)
The oneNetworkDirect affiliate network currently has the largest digital retail product collection available online. Digital River was founded in 1994; the company now operates the oneNetworkDirect affiliate-marketing network. The company has its headquarters in Minnesota. Digital River focuses on helping large global companies manage profitable ecommerce ventures online. Some of the most popular merchants that work with the OneNetworkDirect  affiliate network are McAfee, Roxio, Big Fish Games, the Microsoft Store, Logitech, and EA Sports Games to name a few. Many of the software products mean high margins for webmasters and there are many creative banners and links to help boost conversion rates.

The network pays the affiliates directly, and oneNetworkDirect provides a trial tracker to help increase commission for webmasters. The software products for this affiliate network are consistently in high demand, so there is a great potential for earning sales revenue here; the products pay up to 80% commission. The affiliate network also offers extra bonuses and rewards for ever-achievers as well. This is a network is definitely worth researching for webmasters who are involved in the technology or software niche. The payment threshold is only $25, and the network pays out to webmasters once a month.

Avantlink (http://www.avantlink.com/)
Avantlink is a smaller innovative affiliate network that is worth looking into. This affiliate network has innovative tools for webmasters and a very active blog for support as well. The tools can help webmasters increase their commissions because the software keeps the prices and items up to date with the merchants at all times. Avantlink wants professional and serious affiliates in their program. The most noticeable brand name merchant is Eddie Bauer for now, but the affiliate network does have a wide variety of products, especially in the household and outdoor equipment sectors.

Avantlink could be a profitable network for webmasters who are interested in a specific market or underserved niche. The network does not have big brand name merchants yet, but the standards are still high so affiliates can be certain the products and landing pages are of top quality. Avantlink has been recognized as one of Utah’s fastest growing companies for 2011. The innovative tools are what differentiate Avantlink from its competitors. There are tools for customized links, dynamic deal feeds, deals of the day, embedded video ads and other link widgets as well. There is also Avantlink WP to make the network tools easily function on within WordPress.

Google Affiliate Network (http://www.google.com/ads/affiliatenetwork/)
Google originally purchased its affiliate network in 2008; the search engine empire has been steadily growing the affiliate-marketing network since then. Google Affiliate Network is one on the best affiliate marketing networks for people to join if they are already fans of Google. The affiliate network has over 850 popular advertisers who have a variety of products for nearly every market. The payments are tied in with the Google AdSense account so reaching the threshold is even easier for active webmasters with AdSense. There are several Google tools to support webmaster’s affiliate campaigns in this network.

Google provides easy product searching and link building for webmasters as well as customizable links for the more advanced users. Google also provides link subscriptions to keep the merchant’s products fresh on the webmaster’s website. The real-time reporting is very thorough and can be customized; many webmasters use Google Insights and Adwords along with AdSense to build a strong foundation for affiliate campaigns. The commission varies with each individual merchant, and affiliates are typically paid within 30 days of the sale. With the support of the other platforms and the Google Affiliate Network, Google can be a one-stop shop for all of a webmaster’s affiliate campaign needs.

eBay (https://ebaypartnernetwork.com/files/hub/en-US/index.html)
The eBay Partner Network is a well-known affiliate-marketing program offered by eBay for webmasters and bloggers to make money.  eBay is one of the most popular name brands on the internet so this can be a very lucrative affiliate network for almost any type of experienced network on the internet. The eBay Partner Network went through some structural changes around the year 2008 to raise the quality of the leads generated by the lead program; this reform purged many affiliates and focused the compensation on quality clicks and leads that translate in both the short-term and long-term. eBay has reshaped an affiliate program that is now based more on quality visitors than quantity.

Webmasters will still need to be experienced and have some substantial traffic on a website in order to be accepted. The changes in the affiliate program make it easier for webmaster to focus their efforts into one or a small number of high-quality sites opposed to a multitude of micro niche sites with superficial content. Assertive and experienced webmasters are able to make thousands of dollars each month with this affiliate program by sending quality clicks and visitors to the online auction site. eBay totes that the top 25 affiliates in the program make more than $100,000 per month. Webmasters can use links, banners and images to send visitors to the eBay website. Once the visitor signs up, confirms and buys, bids or lists an item the earnings per click data goes to the webmaster. The minimum payout threshold is $25; eBay uses either PayPal or direct deposit to send payments once a month.

Affiliatenetwork.com (http://affiliatenetwork.com/)
Affiliatenetwork.com often ranks in the top 20 affiliate-marketing networks. This subsidiary affiliate network focuses on lead generation and performance based advertising. The network has many good offers for consumers and has a strong in opt-in email service for affiliates. For the most part, the network works with merchants and affiliates in highly profitable specialized niches. Some of the markets Affiliatenetwork.com works in are sub-prime financial, including auto loan, credit and cash advance offers. This network focuses on supplying merchants with high-quality customers while providing high revenues for publishers as well. Some of the offers online associated with this network are CashBailOutUSA, HomePaycheck.net, CashWire 1500, AutoLoanBailout and Diplomasforjobs.com. The minimum payment for this network is only $25. The reviews for this network are generally positive, although there are a few dissatisfied with internet users who felt the network was disorganized in regards to in-house communication and customer contact. There are currently more than 175 offers available for webmasters on this network. Most of the offers are highly profitable cash advance and auto loan websites.

AffiliateFuture (http://www.affiliatefuture.com/home.asp)
AffiliateFuture is an affiliate network that is focused mainly on the UK and has a wide variety of merchants available. The affiliate network has affiliates in America, the UK and Europe as well. This affiliate-marketing network is free to join and has no obligations for affiliates or merchants once they sign up. Affiliates can decide to start or stop working for any affiliate they decide. The wide selection of available merchants makes this a great choice for webmasters involved in promoting products for niche websites. This affiliate network does not have the larger name brands of the other major networks, but the wide variety of products makes up for no-name brands.

The AffiliateFuture offers real-time tracking and pays once a month so webmasters are easily able to track their expected commissions every month. This network has rent-a-car services, merchants that sell supplements, books, shopping affiliate programs and beauty affiliate programs as well. Almost any kind of merchant can be found on the AffiliateFuture network. There are some small issues in regards to communication, tracking and the referral program depending on the user’s location. AffiliateFuture does seem to wholeheartedly attempt to resolve disputes with affiliates though.

Peerfly (http://peerfly.com/)
Peerfly is a CPA network that gets positive reviews from most webmasters who use the affiliate network and is one of the best. The affiliate network is based in Florida and was founded in the year 2008. This affiliate network is very reputable and is a member of the Better Business Bureau. This CPA network has stringent standards and is quick to suspend or ban any webmaster they feel is manipulated or circumventing their system.

This network has very popular trial and various types of offers that pay most webmasters as least one to three dollars.  Some of the featured offers provided by the Peerfly affiliate network are the SnoreZip Trial, As seen on TV, Smoke Deter and Lower My Bills.  This affiliate has over 545 offers for webmasters to promote. The minimum payment threshold for this network is $50 and the pay can be monthly, weekly, biweekly or even sometimes on a daily basis by request. The affiliate network offers a 5 percent referral commission to webmasters as well. The pay can be sent by wire, check by mail or by PayPal. Many webmasters are successful in obtaining consistent income with several offers and programs provided by this network.

Linkconnector (http://www.linkconnector.com/affiliate.htm)
Linkconnector is a small affiliate network that receives relatively mixed reviews. This affiliate network does not have any major brand name merchants; affiliates have complained that some of the merchants are rather suspect. However, there are also many happy affiliate marketers pleased with their Linkconnector’s experiences. This network is very adamantly against fraudulent behavior by the affiliates in the network. The affiliate network pays once a month, and the minimum threshold is $100 for payout. This is a smaller affiliate network in the industry, but they do offer a variety of ways for webmasters to earn high commissions.

Affiliates can be paid a number of ways when working with the Linkconnector affiliate network. This network allows affiliates to manage many campaigns under one account by applying easy link creation and dynamic feeds as well. Affiliates can be paid by pay per sale, pay per call, pay per go, pay per click or pay per lead transactions. The affiliate network provides webmasters with a number of ways to track the information to follow the commissions and conversion rates throughout the month. This can be a very lucrative network for assertive webmasters able to develop a niche among the list of diverse merchants at Linkconnector.

ClixGalore (http://www.clixgalore.com/)
Some webmasters have ClixGalore rated as one of the top affiliate networks available on the internet. This is a smaller network with high-quality incentives for both merchants and affiliates. There are currently over 9,500 merchants and over 20,000 active affiliates apart of this network. This is a global affiliate network with a presence in the USA, India, Japan, Australia and the UK. There are a limited number of name brand merchants available, but there are many unique products that provide affiliates advantages in niche markets. There are a few different types and tiers of commission available in this network.

There are many webmasters who have problems with this network because of payment problems and more often subpar customer service. There are a number of complaints about the quality of service and communication when dealing with the network. There were settled disputes, when the network contacted the webmaster and apologized, as well as disputes that went unresolved as well. Webmasters should take the time and do some extra research exploring options before settling with this affiliate network. This network has a variety of tiers of pay and programs to incentivize webmasters to earn high commissions.

Affiliate.com (http://affiliate.com)
Affilaite.com is one of the most popular CPA networks around and a favorite of many marketers. This large network was founded in the year 2001 and has a great variety of merchants and available offers to help webmasters gain high commissions. There are only relatively few isolated negative reviews. The affiliate network can provide real time direct tracking so webmasters can stay informed of the weekly payments. This can be a very valuable network to webmasters working in micro niche websites. Other webmasters are able to make substantial conversions from just one or two favorite offers.

Some of the available merchants on this website provide services related to the automotive business, different opportunities related to education, babies and family, beauty, careers, credit and debt, dating, diet/ Fitness/Exercise, electronics, food and grocery, men’s’ interests, mobile and ring tones, rewards and giveaways, sweepstakes, travel and others as well. This is one of the most well respected networks in the industry. Affiliate.com accepts both novice and experienced webmasters. The network also has domain services and an email marketing service to help webmasters increase their commissions.

ClickBooth (http://www.clickbooth.com/)
ClickBooth is a very popular affiliate network with some webmasters and advertisers. The company is based in south Florida and has been rated as one of the top affiliate networks in the world and as one of the fastest-growing private companies. This affiliate network offers CPA and CPC offers for advertisers to earn high commissions. The network works with some of the top companies on the internet like Google and Yahoo. ClickBooth pays out over 15 million in commissions each month and there are currently over 70,000 webmaster affiliates. This network also offers a 2% lifetime referral commission to webmasters as well. The network pays out once a month, and the minimum payout is a $50 threshold.

ClickBooth has over 4,000 offers available for webmasters to promote on their websites. Over 400 of these offers are exclusive to the ClickBooth network. Both the CPA and CPC programs from this network have proven to be extremely profitable for some webmasters. There are text links and image links that offer a variety of easy ways to earn high commissions. Webmasters also have the ability to customize banners to match specific website themes. The programs vary greatly so it will take some time finding the most profitable offers that fit an appropriate and viable niche. There are webmasters who claim this network is a fraud and report payment problems, but the overwhelming majority of the reviews are extremely positive with long-term testimonials and accolades.

Adknowledge (http://www.adknowledge.com)
In 2010, Adknowledge affiliate network acquired the popular Hydra network. Adknowledge is an affiliate and exclusive CPA advertising network. This affiliate network has now become the largest private affiliate network in the world after the acquisition of three other networks as well. Adknowledge was founded in 2004 and currently has over 10,000 advertisers in the network. Adknowledge provides affiliate network opportunities for webmasters, monetization opportunities for game developers and email marketing opportunities for those with massive contact lists. Adstation is their email-marketing platform that allows webmasters to choose ads and custom templates to apply to emails.

This affiliate network has two different programs for websites. Their XML Feed is a CPC program claiming high payouts, and there is also the Engage widget that recommends relevant ads and reputable articles beneath content. The Adknowledge provides both CPC and CPA opportunities for affiliates. This network requires the website be at least two months old and must have a good Alexa ranking with considerable numbers of visitors every day. There are real-time statistics available and many tools in the user-interface to help webmasters optimize commissions with the network.

Paydotcom (http://paydotcom.com/)
Paydotcom is very similar to the ClickBank affiliate program. This affiliate-marketing network has many of the same products as its rival ClickBank and some it does not. Many webmasters find this affiliate network easier to use than ClickBank, although the user-interface is lacking and over-simplistic to other users. Finding information within the tracking system can be a task at times for some marketers; the information is not as instant or obvious as with ClickBank. Paydotcom pays by PayPal once a month, however this affiliate network does not pay the webmasters directly. The merchants pay the affiliates, so there can be delays receiving paid commissions at times.

Affiliates can earn up to 80 percent of the commission through links and various widgets provided by Paydotcom. The network provides the ability to create instant order buttons, secure download pages and other useful tools as well. Some of the top sellers in this network right now are The Best Spinner, My Data Team Global Data Entry & Traditional Data Entry Jobs, the 3WayLinks.net Subscription, Instant Article Wizard and The Smart Cash System – Make $4000 Per Week From Home program.

Skimlinks (http://skimlinks.com/)
Skimlinks offers an innovative and effortless platform for webmasters to create additional revenue from content on websites.  This network has over 17,000 merchants in over 25 different affiliate networks so affiliates can receive high commissions. By simply installing a plugin and registering the websites, webmasters can make additional income off the appropriate merchants in the Skimlink network that match the websites content. Many webmasters like this network because of the easy opportunity to make extra revenues with minimal work.

Skimlinks uses Skimwords and Skimlinks to automatically monetize the links and content already on the website. This allows webmasters to earn additional revenue from their content easily.  The network has a poor tracking system, and reporting can be delayed for up to two days at times. Many webmasters are not able to track what the visitors are actually buying through Skimlinks. However, marketers can track the clicks for outgoing links. This network platform is a great avenue to earn from major big brand merchants that were otherwise seemingly impossible to join. This is a favorite for webmasters who have been previously denied to programs that may be a part of this vast network.

Getting started with blog affiliate marketing

Before you start your marketing site, you will have to choose the topic. The most important thing is to select one that interests you so that you can write about it as an expert. This means that you can provide loads of useful information for your readers, who will keep on returning for more. Register a domain name related to your niche.  Once you have got the niche selected, you will have to decide on your blogging platform. WordPress is good with search engines, and it is easy enough to set up. Most people starting up a blog choose this platform.

The benefits of blog affiliate marketing

When you do blog affiliate marketing for a living, you will find that there are many options, products and methods to choose from. Still, this is the beauty of this marketing method: you will get all the flexibility you need, and your blog posts will keep on making money long after you posted them. However, updating and monetizing your blog is hard work, but the more you update your site, the better it will rank. You generally need to do at least some email marketing to really make money in online marketing. If you build a relationship with your readers, you can send out offers and cash in. Although setting up a system requires planning, time investment and patience, the rewards can be outstanding.

Promotion methods of blog affiliate marketing

Unfortunately, blog marketing needs advanced promotion methods. With millions of blogs published online, to beat the competition, you have to start an aggressive campaign from the beginning. The simplest way to get traffic to your blog is through search engines. You will need to study some basic search engine optimization skills to include on-page SEO. To get your blog affiliate marketing site ranked in search engines, you have to use the right keywords in your posts. Building links to your blog through article marketing is one of the best ways of promoting your site at a low cost. You can also do video marketing, social bookmarking or create competitions or quizzes as well as various off-page SEO techniques. Anything you do to build up traffic to your blog will make you more money long term. However, you need to know that affiliate marketing is not a “get rich quick” scheme, and you will need loads of determination, patience and most likely some expert guidance on how to monetize your site. Alternatively, you can team up with other website owners, with relevant content to exchange links or buy low cost traffic.

Choosing networks and offers for online marketing

Selling ads

To monetize your blog, you might decide to simply run ClickBank or Adsense ads. While this is not technically affiliate marketing but selling advertising, it is a way to monetize just about any type of site and does not require targeting the content to the ads. Blog owners are paid for each click visitors make on the ads. These clicks will pay anything from pennies to tens of dollars, but this form or marketing generally requires a lot of traffic to generate a significant income.

CPA blog affiliate marketing

If you are confident that you can pull in a lot of targeted traffic, you might choose a CPA affiliate marketing system. In this case, you can get paid for generating leads for companies, and you do not have to sell anything in most cases, but simply need people to sign up for a free offer or submit their email address. Depending on how the offers pay, you may need to get loads of conversions to make money. The benefit of joining CPA networks is that you will usually get information on how much other people make per click promoting the same offers. However, you will have to consider that the offers change regularly, and you need to change your links as well as content when one of the CPA promotions is paused or cancelled.

Clickbank marketing

If you choose to promote Clickbank products on your blog, you have to make sure that you find ones that are relevant to your existing content. You also have to look for high gravity products. Selling digital products is one of the most profitable online marketing methods since products will pay a high percentage of the sale. You will need to read reviews of the program and create your own opinion, sales page and bonus offers if you want to beat the competition. Writing Clickbank reviews will only become profitable if your readers feel that you know what you are talking about. If you can afford it, you should buy and review the product yourself, to give your readers full insights and gain their trust so they will buy from you.

Selling affiliate products

A middle road between selling ads and digital products is selling affiliate products. These products tend to be easier to sell than digital goods, but it is harder to sell a product than to get someone to simply click on an advertisement. The content should be related to the products being sold. Amazon, Commission Junction and LinkShare are some of the biggest networks and offer a lot of products.

Obviously, there are other models and networks as well. Apart from the reputations, payment plans and reliability of these networks, be sure they offer the right variety of offers and conversions to suit the blog they will be marketed on as well as your personality.