It’s very exciting to have your own business. You get to make decisions yourself, live life on your own terms, and determine how successful you become. We live in a great time for entrepreneurs – it’s extremely exciting, whether you’re new or experienced.

At the same time, working for yourself can be very isolating. It can be hard to stay motivated and have the right mindset when you’re relying on yourself. If you’re finding yourself procrastinating, feeling confused and overwhelmed, and feeling isolated… then the chances are good that the dream of working for yourself isn’t exactly what you thought it would be so far.

The operative phrase in that sentence was… so far.

It can be scary to realize this. Many people dream of working for themselves all their lives. People want to own their own business and dream about how wonderful it will be. But then reality hits. The grass isn’t always greener. It’s not uncommon to run into mindset issues and problems when you work for yourself.

Well, it doesn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to work in isolation, struggling on your own. There are people out there who can help motivate you, help you stay on track, and help point you in the right direction.

You can bounce ideas off of people. You can hire people to hold you accountable and to show you the way. Whether you need a little bit of hand holding or a lot of hand holding, there are people out there who can work with you and help you.

In fact, it’s a really good idea to find a coach, mentor, or accountability partner. In some cases, you’ll want all three. It doesn’t matter where you are with your level of experience or how successful your business is, it’s important to connect and work with others.

What Is a Coach?

First, let’s go over what a coach is. A coach is someone you’ll typically hire because they’re at a higher level in business than you are. They’ve been there, done that, and you’d like to learn how they got to where they are so that you can follow in their footsteps without taking too many wrong paths yourself (Like they may have in the beginning).

They’ll help you take stock of your business and figure out what you should be working on. A good coach will help you apply the 80/20 principle – knowing that just 20% of your efforts are leading to 80% of your results.

A good coach will help you cut the fluff and only focus on what’s most important in your business. They’ll help you stay motivated and help to hold you accountable. They can give you business advice that only comes from experience. This can help you get to where you want to be much more quickly than if you were to do it on your own. There’s something to be said for following in the footsteps of success, and that’s exactly what you’re doing when you hire a coach.

Experience is a great teacher, it’s even better when you’re learning from someone else’s experience, so that you don’t need to make the same mistakes and have the same do-overs that they did.

Of course, as is the case anytime you work with someone else, you have to make sure your coach is compatible with your personality and your needs. Sometimes, your coach will need to show you tough love, and that’s okay. Don’t be annoyed when it happens. But overall, you should really enjoy working with your coach and you should find that they help you get to where you want to be.

There are many different types and styles of coaching. There are business coaches that will meet with you in person. There are others that operate solely online. Sometimes, coaching is offered one-on-one and other times it is offered in a group setting, which will be much less expensive, depending on how and how often you get to communicate one on one with the coach (such as via teleseminar or webinar, email, phone, etc.).

Do some digging and figure out what will work best for you. You can find the ideal coach who will help you earn more money much more easily.

What Is a Mentor?

A mentor is different from a coach in some important ways. A mentor is also an expert who can help you achieve what you want to achieve. A mentor isn’t always someone you hire or pay. In fact, a mentor doesn’t necessarily need to know that they’re your mentor.

There are people out there you admire. You look at their journey and find that you’re on a similar path. They inspire and motivate you. This is a great thing and can help you keep going when the going gets tough. They can help you see things you wouldn’t see on your own.

You can find a mentor by reading blogs, websites, and books. There are people out there who document their journey and steps and invite you along for the ride. This can be highly inspirational and motivational.

You can find a mentor on forums and on social media sites. These are people who are helpful and knowledgeable and who really stand apart from the crowd because of their success and how they help people.

Again, you don’t necessarily have to pay for a mentor. A mentor can be someone who knows they’re your mentor or not. They can be someone you communicate with directly or not.

And for all you know, you might be someone’s mentor if you have some experience and have been helpful to others already.

It can be as simple as you posting a question in a private forum or Facebook group and there they are, giving answers.

I suggest you find yourself a few different mentors. These are people you look up to. These are people who motivate and inspire you. We all need mentors in our lives to help us reach the next level.

The important thing with a mentor is that you should be careful that you do as they do, not just as they say, because there might be a huge discrepancy there. It might also be difficult to determine the difference with some people, so don’t rush to select a mentor just because he or she says they’re doing fabulously.

What Is an Accountability Partner?

An accountability partner is someone who can help you stay on track in business. They might be on the same level as far as business is concerned or they may not be. Really, it doesn’t matter as long as you keep each other on track. It can be helpful to choose someone who’s going through the same things you’re going through.

You and your accountability partner might communicate with each other back and forth, talking about what you have and haven’t accomplished. You might email or Skype each other to make sure you’re on track

You can have an accountability partner that’s online or offline. The only important thing is that you hold each other accountable and help each other achieve your goals much more quickly.

It’s hard to stay on track when you’re the only one who cares about your business. When you find an accountability partner, you both care about each other’s business. It helps you stay connected and on track.

No matter what level you’re on, it can help to find an accountability partner to check in with.

I don’t recommend that you choose a spouse or friend as an accountability partner, because it can cause friction in your personal life if your accountability partner (or you) has to call one or the other out for failure to accomplish certain tasks that you were supposed to.

Your accountability partner should be someone who understands what you’re going through, and the technical language you use. They don’t necessarily have to be more experienced or more successful than you are.

Find Your Coach, Mentor, or Accountability Partner

Hopefully, you’re inspired now and know that you don’t have to go it alone. It can be hard to work for yourself, even when you know you’re finally living your dream.

You’ll achieve whatever you want to achieve much more quickly if you find yourself a coach, mentor, or accountability partner… or all three. There’s no shame in reaching out and getting help. In fact, it’s one of the things very successful people have in common. You want to be more successful, so reach out and connect with someone who can help you.

What type of content do people love, yet you don’t see much of it in most niches?

Comics, of course.

You can start your own comic strip with the help of sites like this:

https://www.pixton.com/

Why would you want your own comic strip? Namely to get the social shares and links. A good comic strip could go viral and bring many new visitors to your site.

The key, of course, is to target it to your audience and your niche, so that you’re getting the right kind of traffic for your website.

It won’t necessarily be easy, but for some people, this will be the marketing hen that lays the golden egg over and over again.

Truth is, thinking outside the box and doing things a little different than everyone else is often what it takes to stand out and become truly successful in your business.

Go create a new comic strip today, share it with your circle of influence (on your website and social media) and find out what your audience thinks of your newly discovered talent.

Affiliate marketing is all about the connections you make. There are people out there who need and want to buy the things you’re promoting – you just have to know how to reach those people and get them to buy even when they’re currently on the fence.

www.homebusinessideas.com/images/productcreatorinterview.jpg” alt=”Promote Affiliate Products with Interviews”>

You may know already that people are a lot more likely to buy things if someone they know, like, and trust has recommended it. That’s where you come in. You’re going to be that person they come to know and like. They are going to trust you to make product recommendations that will really serve them in all the right ways. They’ll start to feel like they really know you if you host interviews and they can hear your voice.

It’s also likely that you’ll make more sales when you combine the power of your audience with the power of the product creator’s audience.

The product creator attracts an audience. They have their own audience and the benefit of the buzz and chatter that’s going on about them and their products on the web.

The product creator also has something absolutely no one else has—an in depth and intimate knowledge of their product. They know their product inside and out. They have a story about why they created the product. People want to know these things.

These days, people want to buy based on a story. They want to buy when they know someone has gone through what they’re going through. Or, at the very least, when someone has taken the time to really understand what they need and want. That’s what the person who created the product you’re promoting is for the people of your niche.

When you conduct interviews to get more product sales, you’re combining a few different things people need when they’re about ready to make a buying decision.

You’re giving them access to the actual product creator through the product. You’re also giving them access to your thoughts and opinions on the product. That can help people make the right choice when it comes to buying the product.

Getting Started Interviewing

Hopefully, you’re ready to get started interviewing. It really can be a nice way to introduce people to the products you’re promoting and to increase your conversions.

But, what if you’ve never done any interviews before? It can honestly be really intimidating to get started, if only because it’s something that’s new to you.

Think of it as a conversation. The other parts are easy. Get some questions ready for the product creator or ask your audience what they’d like you to ask.

Use some simple recording software – you can use recording tools and Skype for an easy way to do this.

Prepare yourself. Paint a word picture for the audience of what the product is and how it’s going to change their lives.

For much of the interview, you probably won’t want to directly sell. You’ll want to focus on problems, emotions, and solutions.

At the end, though, you’ll probably want to include a call to action where you promote the product outright and tell people where they can buy it.

How To Get Interviews With Product Creators

If you’re newer to affiliate marketing or don’t yet have strong relationships with product creators, you may wonder how you can get people to agree to an interview with you.

It might not be as difficult as you might imagine. After all, product creators want to sell more of their product.

It is a fact that many of them are short on time. There are probably other affiliates who are asking them for interviews.

Some affiliates interview the person and then do nothing with it, which wasted the interview subject’s time, so after a while people become reluctant to be interviewed. You need to assure your guest that you’re really anxious to not only interview them, but to actually use that interview to promote their product and make sales.

You just have to approach people and ask them. It does help if you get to know their business and build at least the start of a relationship with them. But, you really don’t even need that.

Just ask! You might get some “no” answers but you’ll certainly get some “yes” answers.

Figure out where people would best like to be approached. If they’re active on email, it might be email. If they’re on Skype, they might prefer Skype. Or, it could be Twitter or Facebook or wherever they tend to spend a lot of their time.

You can make it clear that the interview won’t be long (or maybe it will be – highlight what’s in it for them). Detail the size of your audience or where and how you plan to promote the interview to make sales.

Making Your Interview Available

After you’ve run the interview, you should save it and make it available. Depending on your level of skill, you can edit it to make sure it’s great. You can eliminate any dead space and things like that. You can add an intro and an outro.

At the very least, you should email the link to the interview to the people on your email list. Make it available on your blog.

Upload it to file sharing and audio sites.

Your goal should be to get your interview in as many places as possible.

You’ll probably also want to give the interview to the product creator so they can share it with their audience. They may or may not want to share it because you’ll be getting the affiliate commission as part of the interview. Others won’t mind because it’s additional exposure and ready-made content they can use to get sales they might not have had otherwise.

Running A Webinar to Earn More As An Affiliate

I want to mention that in addition to recording interviews as a straight audio file, you might also consider running a webinar with the product creator.

Webinars and Google Hangouts are great because people can see your screen, and/or your faces, live. You can show things on your screen (or on the product creator’s screen) or a PowerPoint presentation or something like that.

People love being able to join live because they can ask questions and feel like they’re really part of something.

Interview and Profit!

Hopefully, you’re really excited about the prospect of conducting interviews with product creators to make more sales of products you’re promoting as an affiliate.

It’s really simple to do and helps boost conversions. It’s different hearing a candid interview with someone than it is to just read about them.

Make sure you ask great questions and ask members of your audience what they want to learn about the most. Make your interviews interesting and try to ask things other people aren’t necessarily asking.

Make it your mission to spread the interview in as many places as possible. Also, consider transcribing the interviews so people can read the content as well.

Affiliate marketing is an industry with lots of potential, but you have to be careful when it comes to choosing which merchants you’re going to promote. There are definitely good and bad merchants out there. I don’t mean to scare you, but people have been burned by not investigating a particular affiliate merchant thoroughly enough before promoting it.

Even if a merchant is good and pays well, there may be other, even better merchants out there for you. Some merchants convert better than others. Some merchants pay faster than others. Some merchants pay more than others. You have to investigate and weigh your options, and it doesn’t always come down to who pays more than others.

Affiliate marketing can be a very lucrative business, but it’s important to be smart about how you approach it. First and foremost, make sure you can trust the merchant. Take a look at what other affiliates in your niche are successfully promoting. Make sure the merchant you’re interested in has a reputation for paying fairly and on time.

Research the merchants in your niche based on what’s written about them on the web. Read reviews about them and even consider contacting other affiliates about them. Sure, there are merchants out there like Amazon and eBay that you won’t really need to investigate because they’re well known for being legitimate.

But, what a lot of people don’t realize is that there are other merchants that might be even more lucrative than the usual suspects. There are other merchants out there that are easier to make sales with because they aren’t anywhere near as saturated.

It depends on your niche and your goals, of course, but promoting these lesser-known merchants might be the right path for you. That’s why you should do more digging to find great merchants than you otherwise would if you were choosing something like Amazon or eBay as an affiliate.

Consider how often and how much you want to be paid for your efforts as an affiliate. This totally depends on your niche, your audience, and the opportunities that are out there for promotion.

When you find a merchant you’re considering, in addition to their reputation, consider what they sell and whether it’s a good fit for your audience. Sometimes, promoting something might be really, really enticing because you see the dollar signs, when in reality, that particular product or merchant may not convert at all for your audience.

And there’s no real way of knowing upfront whether something will or won’t work. You can do your research and pay attention to your audience, but in the end, it’s going to take some testing and tracking and trying different offers before you find the perfect merchants.

Also, think about the future you might have with certain merchants. With certain merchants, you’ll be bumped up in payment with the more you sell. This even happens with merchants like Amazon where you’re paid on a tiered system.

But even with private, lesser-known merchants, if they see that you’re a good affiliate, they will often give you special deals for your audience, special percentages, and more.

Again, I recommend that you test different products and merchants to see what works for your audience. That’s really the only way to know, beyond the initial research you do.

As part of testing the different products, especially with digital products, I strongly suggest that you either obtain a review copy of the product (many merchants will be glad to provide one to proven affiliates), or purchase the product itself.

By doing that, you can get an inside look at the product, compare it with the sales page, write an in depth review, and especially you can weed out the bad products or poorly supported products before you recommend them to your followers.

Keep Track of Who You’re Promoting

This might sound silly, but once you really get started as an affiliate, you’ll probably end up promoting many different merchants. It’s important to keep track of who’s supposed to be paying you, how much they’re supposed to be paying you, and by when they’re supposed to pay it.

In an ideal world, everyone would just pay you what they owe you like clockwork. It doesn’t always work that way though. If someone is late in paying you, you may have to contact them. You don’t want to leave money on the table by just letting your payment due slide because of disorganization.

Of course, if someone doesn’t pay you at all or has a hard time paying you on time, then you probably should drop them as a merchant. Sometimes, it’s disappointing how people who used to pay well in the past suddenly have trouble doing so, and so on.

Trust me, from my own personal experience, this does happen.

Maintain Solid Relationships with Your Merchants

It can be really helpful if you maintain solid relationships with your merchants. You want them to contact you first with new offers, special rates, and more. It’s these relationships that can really help you earn more and grow your business.

Also, if you decide to create your own products in the future, these relationships will really help you because these merchants might, in turn, become affiliates of yours.

Or, you might find opportunities to joint venture partner with certain merchants. You can really scale your income up if you have solid relationships with proven merchants. Remember that they have their own customer base. When combined with yours, the opportunities are endless.

How to Find Affiliate Merchants

You can easily find merchants to promote depending on which niche you’re in. For example, if you’re in the Internet marketing niche, then you can search JVZoo.com, ClickBank.com, and WarriorPlus.com—these are great places to look.

If you’re looking to promote physical products, then you probably want to check out Amazon first and foremost. Commission Junction and ShareASale are other great options for physical products and more.

You can also search for merchants by typing in keywords related to your niche combined with affiliate related keywords (“your niche affiliate”). You might find great merchants that not many other people are promoting. This can be a great boon for you because there’s less competition to contend with.

You can also pay attention to what other people in your niche are promoting. If you see that someone is promoting a product that is selling really well and that you really like, follow the trail and figure out how you can become an affiliate for that product as well.

Choose a Merchant and Get Promoting

Do your due diligence on choosing a merchant, but don’t spend all your time researching. Yes, make sure that a merchant is going to pay you and pay well. Spend some time getting to know your audience and what they are most likely to buy.

But in the end, you aren’t going to make any money if you don’t actually promote. So, choose a merchant and promote them to test them out and start earning. Don’t fall prey to analysis paralysis. Move forward, build your business, and promote products your customers will love… and rinse and repeat. That’s how you earn money as an affiliate with great merchants.

I don’t know what day you’re reading this.

But I do know that today someone, somewhere, just launched a brand new Internet Marketing product or course that will finally teach you the secrets to building a successful Internet Marketing business in just months.

How do I know this?

Because every single day of every single year, someone does exactly this.

And here’s the best part – many and even most of these products work.

They truly do. That is, they work as long as you do the work.

Which bears repeating – Building an online business takes actual WORK.

There is no magic button to making a million overnight.

If there were, no one would be waiting tables or working at dead end jobs because everyone, and I mean EVERYONE would be rich.

So just get thoughts of overnight wealth out of your pretty brain the next time someone tries to tell you they found the magic button and they’ll share it with you for just $97.

However, if you are willing to work, and you’re willing to invest in your business, then I will tell you the secret to having an honest to goodness real business within 3-4 months that does indeed earn you a minimum of $5,000 per month.

The sad things is, most people who read this aren’t going to actually DO it.

And that’s because it’s not sexy and it takes WORK.

Darn, there’s that 4 letter word again.

And one more thing – if you want to accomplish this in 3-4 months, it’s probably going to take an investment as well.

Now, before you get unraveled because I suggested you have to WORK and INVEST, think about this…

…what job can you get – with no formal training – that will pay you $5,000 a month to start, with monthly raises? And that calls for you to work from any darn place you choose, when you want, where you want and how you want?

Name me one job like that and I’m in.

But there’s no such thing.

Imagine for a minute that you apply for a job.

The interviewer says to you, “The only training you need will be on the job. You’ll be making $5,000 a month by your third or fourth month. Each month that you want a raise, you can have one. There is no limit to what you can earn, it’s up to you. You can work from home or anyplace you like. You can work whenever you like, as little or as much as you like. And if there is any part of the job you don’t like doing, you can outsource it to someone else.”

That, my friend, is a job applicant’s dream come true.

And it’s exactly what you can have, if you want it bad enough.

So what’s THE big internet marketing secret I mentioned in the title?

If you haven’t already guessed it, keep reading.

If you have guessed it, are you doing it yet? If not, why not?????

Okay, here we go, and I warn you – you have heard this before.

You may have heard this 100 times before.

But what counts is the ONE time you hear it and actually start DOING it.

That, my friend, is LIFE-CHANGING.

And it’s why I’m taking so long to lead up to this – because I’m trying to help you make THIS the time you actually DO it and make it yours.

Here we go…

What you need to succeed is a LIST.

Yes, I told you that you heard this before.

But if you really want total financial freedom, you need a list.

You need a list.

You need a list.

YOU NEED A LIST.

Whew. Sorry about that. I get a little keyed up when I see people buying every latest greatest newest product out there when all they need to do is get busy and build a list.

Having a list gives you a ready market for any products you want to develop and create.

It allows you to sell affiliate products whenever you want.

It allows you to make money on demand.

Whoa – did a big bill just land in your lap? Send an email and get the money to pay it.

Did you just find something in the store you MUST HAVE RIGHT NOW?

Send out an email and in a few hours you can have it.

Think about this… properly built and handled, a list of 10,000 people can give you an income of $5,000 a month if you promote the right affiliate offers.

This doesn’t even include promoting your own products.

Plus when you have a list of 10,000, you also have leverage.

You can ask other marketers to promote your products to their lists in return for promoting their products to your list.

And you can build your list from zero to 10,000 in a couple of months, especially if you’re willing to invest in your list building efforts.

First, choose your niche. Health, finance and business, relationships, self-improvement… choose something you enjoy yourself that’s filled with people who spend money.

The hungrier your market, the better.

Either create a lead magnet or have one created for you. It should be an offer so enticing that visitors can’t help but opt-in to get it.

Put an upsell after that squeeze page to earn some up-front money.

Run solo ads or Facebook ads to send traffic to your squeeze page. Just spend a little bit here and there at first until you get your squeeze page and upsell page tweaked and optimized for best results.

Then buy more traffic. Use the profits from the upsell to buy MORE traffic.

Yes, you will be spending money.

But done right, you will also be making money.

Worst case scenario, you spend $5,000 to build your list of 10,000 people.

Best case scenario, you make that $5,000 or more on your upsell to pay for your list building.

It’s a leap of faith to do this. Which is why most will never do it. But because most never will, that leaves plenty of room for YOU to do it.

Don’t have money to invest in traffic? Then you’ll have to use ‘free’ methods, which aren’t free. They involve spending time and effort, but again, it’s totally worth it.

Now here’s another ‘secret’ to getting this done – anything, and I mean ANY PART of this endeavor that you don’t want to do yourself, you outsource. Get someone else to do it for you.

Yes, outsourcing costs money.

You’re building a business, aren’t you? You are looking at earning a $5,000 a month income within 3-4 months, so just make the investment and do it.

Mail your list consistently as it grows. That means once you have your first subscriber, you start mailing 4-7 times per week.

This is where you’re going to put your real effort – into writing emails that make people WANT to open them and read them.

You can’t force people, but you sure can entice them.

Whatever it is that your particular list wants, give it to them.

If you don’t know what that is, hang out where they hang out, talk to them and ask them what they want, what they need, what one thing would make a big difference for them.

“But all of that sounds like so much work!”

Guess what? If you want to build a business it’s going to take work. It’s going to take going through some bad stuff, some stuff that doesn’t work, some stuff that costs you money to build your business.

But once it’s built, you have a perpetual fountain of money on your hands.

You keep building the list, you keep emailing the list and you keep promoting to the list.

Build, email and promote.

Imagine the lifestyle where you can be any place in the WORLD, send out an email and literally get money into your account that same day.

5 sales, 50 sales, 500 sales, all from one email.

But to get to that point you’ve got to do the work first.

And I don’t care how many programs you buy. The fact is sooner or later you will finally come to the realization that regardless of what else you might be doing, you should also have a list.

Because a list is security.

It’s money in the bank.

Now think about this:

A year from now something happens and you need to make serious money FAST.

Maybe you found the house of your dreams but you’re short $20,000 for the down payment.

Maybe your son needs an operation and your insurance won’t cover $20,000 of it, and they won’t do the operation until you get the money.

Maybe the IRS says you owe $20,000 in back taxes and they’re about to take your home.

Whatever it is, you need a substantial amount of cash in your hands NOW.

But thankfully, a year ago you began building a list.

Within 4 months your list was up to 10,000.

Now it’s over 30,000.

You send out one email.

And the next day you have $5,000 in cash.

So you send another email the next day, and two more after that.

And you have your $20,000.

You get the house. Or your son gets the operation.

Or the IRS leaves you the heck alone.

Now that is security. That is power. That is freedom.

And it all starts with you, right here, right now, creating your funnel and building your list.

If this is the only piece of internet marketing advice you ever take, you will succeed and succeed big.

Build. A. List.

Starting now.

Yes, content is what drives interest and action online, but if you want to be a really effective content marketer, there are some things you really should know if you want to succeed (the best marketers in the field are already aware of and doing these things)…

1. Writing content is only half the job. The other half is promoting your content. You’ll do best when you invest as much time promoting your content as you do writing it.

2. Content that is at least 2,000 words tends to rank a good deal higher on Google than content that is less than 2,000 words.

3. Depending on the niche, infographics will often produce a better return on investment than any other form of content.

4. Content marketing, once started, must be continued to see results. If you aren’t consistent with your content, traffic will drop and you’ll lose ground.

5. Write blog posts as though you’re talking to your friends – not as though you’re trying to impress a teacher or professor.

6. Time-based or news-related content can get you some quick traffic. But evergreen content that continues to be relevant for months and years produces the best long-term results.

7. Regardless of your niche, it’s a great idea to consistently guest post on other blogs to build links and traffic.

8. Link out to other sites from within your content – even if it’s your competitor’s site. Your goal is to benefit the reader and if you do a good job of that, your content will be shared and attract more visitors and followers into your circle of influence.

If you truly expect your content to drive consistent traffic and sales for your online business, take these tips to heart as you develop and apply your online marketing plan.

There are so many different ways you can promote products as an affiliate. There are paid methods and free methods. There are methods that produce results quickly and methods that take a longer period of time to pay off. One of the most exciting methods, in my opinion, is forum marketing.

I have an affinity for forums. That might be because I own one. There’s something incredible about belonging to a forum. In many ways, the most active members of a forum become like family. Working online can be isolating and belonging to a forum makes it so much less so.

There’s a lot of relationship building that happens on forums. And while we’re not really here today to talk about relationship building on forums, that’s a big part of using forums for marketing. People buy from those they know, like, and trust. People buy from those who are “in the know” and have a reputation as an authority figure. That’s exactly what can happen when you become active in a forum (or more than one forum).

As an affiliate marketer, it’s your goal to interact with your target audience. You want to put your link in front of those who are most likely to click through and buy what you’re promoting. That’s how you get paid, after all.

How to Choose the Right Forum

One of the most important parts of this is choosing the right forum in the first place. You have to find one that’s very targeted to what you’re promoting. There are bound to be great forums out there in your niche.

Which one is the most active? For effective affiliate marketing on forums, it’s important to choose one that’s highly trafficked. Ideally, there should be a constant stream of new threads and replied-to threads.

Some forums and niches are more active than others. You want to get the best results for the time you spend.

Note that some forums are dedicated to more general topics while others are dedicated to narrower topics. Consider what will work best for your goals and what you’re promoting. It might be the case that joining a more general forum is the right move because there will be plenty of ways for you to interact and connect with people as well as more chances to promote related products down the line.

Do a search for great forums. Make sure it meets all criteria before you sign up and start investing a lot of time into it.

Proper Etiquette for Marketing on Forums

I’m a longtime forum owner so of course proper forum etiquette is important to me. Never would I recommend that you join forums just to spam them. Never join and just start posting your link everywhere. That’s definitely not what this is all about.

One of the first things you should do is familiarize yourself with the culture of any forum you’re interested in. That means signing up, reading popular threads, paying attention to how the most active members present themselves, and reading the rules of the forum. Every forum you encounter will have its own culture and way of doing things—it’s important to respect and understand that or you’re not going to get very far at all with your forum marketing.

Be friendly and open with forum members, especially when you’re new. Some will view you with an air of suspicion until you’ve proven yourself and that’s okay. Be who you are, be helpful, and show that you’re ready and willing to become an active and beloved participant of the forum.

How to Use Your Affiliate Link on a Forum without Making People Angry

I’ve mentioned already that I don’t recommend you join a forum and just start tossing your affiliate link around. That will make people (extremely) angry and you’re not going to make any sales anyway.

First, take a look at the rules. Are you even allowed to use affiliate links? Are you allowed to self-promote on the forum threads at all? Often, the answer is no—even on marketing forums. This comes as a result of forum owners having to deal with too many shady affiliate links.

Generally, you’ll only be allowed to use your link within your signature file. Most of the time, that link can’t be an affiliate link. So, what’s an affiliate supposed to do? The easy answer is to redirect your link, but that’s not really good marketing anyway because you’re doing nothing to pre-sell your audience before they see the sales page. You’ll kill your conversions and the forum probably won’t like that you’re redirecting an affiliate link in the first place.

The better answer is to write a review or pre-sell page of the product on your website or blog. That way, you can win people over with an interesting and insightful review or overview of the product.

It’s a win-win for everyone—the forum is happy because you’re offering something of value—an article on your own website that gives people information. The people who click through your link are happy because you’re helping them make a buying decision. You’re happy because you’re using the power of persuasion and pre-selling to get people to go ahead and click through your link to buy the product you’re promoting.

What’s a signature file? It’s that little space you get to fill out in your control panel or user profile edit area. It shows up underneath everything you post. There are generally rules for what you can include in the signature file, so make sure you follow those rules.

Make sure you study up on how to create an effective signature file link. Include a little mystery. Consider what’s going to get people to click on your link. You’ve chosen a particular forum because it’s a good fit for your niche. The people are actively interested in things like what you’re promoting. So figure out how to target them. The combination of a great reputation on the forum combined with an effective signature file link can be a winning combination for promoting affiliate products on a web forum.

What Not To Do When Promoting Products as an Affiliate on a Forum

This bears repeating—don’t just start spamming your link everywhere. Don’t use your affiliate link on the forum at all, in fact.

Generally, don’t promote products as an affiliate (or your own products) at all on forum threads.

Don’t start promoting without first interacting and providing value on a forum—you want people to respect you and take you seriously. The more you give, the more you’ll receive.

The Perfect Plan for Marketing Products as an Affiliate on Forums

Here’s what I recommend. First, find the perfect, active forum that’s full of targeted forum members. Sign up and familiarize yourself with the culture of the forum as well as the rules. Take a look at how successful, prominent members of the forum handle promotions—especially how they handle affiliate promotions in particular.

Then, start posting and sharing. Be helpful. Ask questions when you have them. Just generally dive in and start chatting.

I should mention that many people are intimidated at the thought of joining forums and posting right away. They get the feeling that it’s like speaking in front of a crowd or something like that. But really, there’s nothing to worry about. Just start posting and that fear will go away.

Post daily. Get to know people and build relationships with people. In the meantime, start building up a blog you’ll use for promotions. Write reviews and articles on the products you’re going to promote. Better yet, create a squeeze page where you give something away for free. Once targeted people have joined your list from your forum link, it will be much easier to market to them.

Whether you link them to a squeeze page to join your list where you’ll then promote affiliate products or you link them to a review or details on a product that might interest them, keep the needs of your audience in mind. They’ll buy if it’s clear you have their best interests at heart and you’re persuasively promoting the product.

The better your reputation over time, the easier it will be to get people on your list and make affiliate sales. You can do quite well using forum marketing—especially once you’re a prominent member of very active forums. Some marketers have built entire businesses based on forum marketing, with great results. It’s a stellar way to get targeted traffic.

Get Started Promoting Affiliate Products with Forum Marketing

Take this opportunity to get started with forum marketing today. It’s a fun, easy, and free way of marketing affiliate products and starting to make sales. You’ll be surprised about how quickly those sales can start coming in. Forum marketing has worked for as long as there have been forums. There are few better, easier, and more effective ways of building a reputation, creating relationships, and getting sales of products you are selling online.

You’re an affiliate marketer, or you want to be, and you want to have the best possible chance of effectively marketing the products you’re promoting as an affiliate. It makes sense to turn to content to do that.

Writing and posting great content on the web is an effective way to promote products as an affiliate. When you write content, you’re going with the natural flow of the web. It’s what people want and need.

It’s learning how to write effective article content that’s important. Then, you have to know where to post it, how your audience will respond to it, and how you can make that sale.

What Article Marketing Is

Article marketing can mean a variety of different things, so let’s simplify it. It’s basically just writing an article for a particular audience with the intent of promoting a particular product.

In some cases, you’ll write the article to address a niche topic or sub-topic more generically—you’ll address the issues, problems, and solutions surrounding a topic and then you’ll point to an affiliate product in a resource box that can help the reader. That’s the sort of article you’d write when you’re restricted as far as promoting directly within the body of an article.

In other cases, you’ll write an article that directly talks about a particular product you’re promoting as an affiliate. You might review the product, talking about its pros and cons. You’ll help the reader make a buying decision. Your goal with an article like this is to pre-sell the reader on buying the product.

When you pre-sell in an article, you’re targeting those who are on the fence as to whether they’re going to go ahead and buy. They want just enough information to know whether the product is right for them. Your article will give them the answer that, yes, they should buy the product.

You’ll use the power of persuasion and your understanding of who the reader is and what they really want at their core so you can make sales of the product that you’re an affiliate for.

Promoting products as an affiliate via article marketing isn’t about writing dry, boring articles and praying someone clicks your link. It’s about understanding your reader and doing a good job of moving them toward the buying decision – whether you outright talk about the product in the body of the article or not.

How to Write Articles to Make Sales

Now, let’s talk about how to write great articles so you can make sales as an affiliate with article marketing.

First, research your audience. Who’s most likely to buy the product you’re promoting? What do they really need and want? What are their emotions? What’s most likely to impact their buying decision?

You can learn more about your audience on forums, social media, through blogs, and more.

After you’ve gathered some information, consider where you’ll be posting the article. The way you’d write an article for an article directory that doesn’t allow direct promotion of products in the body of an article (only in the author’s resource box) is different than the way you’d write an article for your own blog or website.

In some cases, you’ll write two articles. You’ll write the more general article for the article directory and you’ll write the more specific, product focused, article for your own blog or website. You can link that article directory article or guest post article to your product review and specific pre-sell article.

For a more general article, choose a hot-button topic, problem, or desire the people in your niche have that directly relates to the product. You’re not going to specifically address the product at all at this point.

Write a great, attention-grabbing article title. Write an introductory paragraph that’s filled with emotion and will really draw the reader in. Give them great tips and hints throughout the body of the article. Trail off in the conclusion… leading them to your author’s resource box where they can click through to learn more about the exact product that will be the answer to their prayers.

By the way, that sort of article style is mostly geared toward the “problem/solution” type articles and products. If you’re selling a physical product on Amazon your approach will be a little different. If you’re at all confused or unsure, visit an article directory like EzineArticles.com and take a look at some of the top related articles there so you can get a feel for what others who are promoting similar things are doing.

When it’s time to write a specific product-focused article, you’ll introduce the problem people have, lead them to the product, talk about the pros and cons of the product, and guide them to the sale. You can give a call to action at the end for them to go ahead and buy the product because it’s the best there is and will help solve their needs perfectly.

You need to include your affiliate link in your product review article, of course.

Article Marketing In Article Directories

What are the most popular article directories for the niche you’re targeting? Go ahead and find the answer to that question. Then, take a look at the types of articles others are successfully posting on these sites.

You’ll have your own style, of course, and you’ll want to test and tweak as you go, but this kind of digging can really lead to some great insights on effective article marketing.

Write several articles on your topic, all pointing to a squeeze page or a product review article on your website. You’ll put this link in the author’s resource box that is typically allowed on article directories.

Usually, you’ll have to write many articles over time to really build your traffic up to sufficient levels that will produce consistent sales for the products you are promoting.

Article Marketing Via Guest Blog Posting

A much more effective method these days is contacting highly trafficked blogs in your niche and asking if they accept guest posts. Many do – they love the hands-off way they can get great content for their website visitors.

Write an article that will be effective and interesting to their audience. You’ll generally be allowed to include an author’s resource box just as you would with an article directory.

Link to your product specific post on your own blog or website or to a squeeze page. You’ll either ask for the sale right away within your product review or you’ll give people more information once they enter a name and email, and you’ll work to get the sale once they’ve joined your list through your email follow-ups.

Blog owners only want great content that will really help their audience so make sure you focus on writing high-quality articles that add real value, else nobody will want to publish them.

Article Marketing Via E-Newsletters

Another way to make sales as an affiliate using articles is by submitting content to e-newsletters. Are there popular email newsletters in your niche? There are many out there that accept submissions. Do some searches or ask around to find them.

You can write great content that will be sent out to hundreds and potentially thousands of email subscribers in your niche. As with other forms of article marketing, you’ll want to point these subscribers to your own web properties to make sales of products you’re promoting as an affiliate.

Succeeding With Article Marketing As an Affiliate

In conclusion, article marketing isn’t like it was years ago where all you had to do was write hundreds of articles for an article directory to make sales.

These days, you have to be more strategic about it. In the end, it’s all about creating high-quality, helpful and sometimes entertaining content that will really resonate with your audience. Implement some of these tips and you will surely gain more exposure, traffic and sales through your article marketing efforts.

Affiliate marketing is exciting because there are so many possibilities. You can promote digital or physical products in your niche. You can even promote services. That opens up a lot of opportunities to earn a fantastic income as an affiliate. It also opens up the need to make some decisions.

If you had your way, you’d be able to promote anything and everything. People would be buying from your links left and right. Well, it just doesn’t work that way. It’s important to be strategic about the things you promote. You can’t and shouldn’t just promote anything and everything. You should only promote the things you know your audience will need and want, are of high quality, and suit the way you want people to view your business.

That’s right—you only want to align yourself with certain products and/or merchants. It’s not a good idea to promote something that’s of low quality just because it will potentially earn you a good commission. You might end up with a lot of refunds on your hands. More importantly, people will have a lowered perception of you and might not put much (or any) stock into your future product recommendations.

Things are so different, so much better, when you apply a certain set of criteria to the things you choose to promote. Ask yourself:

1. Will this product solve a problem or delight my customers?
2. Is this product of high quality, so as to have a low refund rate?
3. Is this product priced fairly to the customer, even considering my affiliate commission?
4. Is this product, and the creator of the product, something and someone I’m proud to associate myself with?

In addition to those questions, you have to find the product in the first place. There are so many out there. It’s hard to know where to look.

How to Find a Great Product to Promote

First, decide what type of product you’re interested in promoting for the promotion you’re doing right now. If a physical product suits your goals for now, you might look for a product to promote on Amazon. Or perhaps you want to promote something on ShareASale or Commission Junction.

Browse around. Look at the affiliate networks you’re already approved for. If you’re not already approved by relevant affiliate networks, like those mentioned above, then you may want to preemptively apply for approval. Most affiliate networks require you to already have a website to apply with, so you can submit your current website or quickly create something with WordPress. Most of your affiliate promotions will likely stem from your website so that will help you get that out of the way so you can then freely start promoting.

Keep in mind that some affiliate merchants might check out your website or blog before giving their approval, so it should be ready to be viewed. That doesn’t mean you have to have a ton of content on the site, but it should certainly be more than the default “Hello World” post that WordPress starts you off with.

You can do a simple Google search. Search for the type of product you’re interested in promoting along with “affiliates” or “affiliate program.” Try different keyword variations until you find what you’re looking for. Sometimes, you’ll find great, high paying products you can be an affiliate for that are high converting but not at all saturated because not as many affiliates know about them as compared to a product on Amazon.

If you’re interested in promoting a digital product, then you might search through products found at places like Clickbank.com or JVZoo.com. There are many digital product based affiliate programs out there.

Just as you can with physical products, you can search for digital products you can be an affiliate for. Search for keywords related to your ideal product along with “ebook” or “course” or whatever it is you’re interested in.

Write down the products that interest you. You might even come across some services that interest you and are available for affiliate promotion.

If you haven’t already, apply for the various products and networks that interest you. You’ll want to apply early because it can sometimes take awhile for approval. In the meantime, you can apply your list of criteria so you can make the final decision as to what you want to promote.

Will This Product Solve a Problem or Delight My Customers?

First ask yourself if the product truly serves the needs of your customers. At this point, you should have a pretty solid idea of what the people in your niche need and want. If you’re new to your niche, then I recommend you pause and get to know your audience more.

What are other people promoting successfully in your niche? What do your potential customers talk about on social media and on forums? What are other leaders and authorities in your niche recommending to their followers?

Put the customer first. It’s easy to get swayed by a shiny looking commission but you’ll do a lot better over the long term if you really consider the customer first.

Ideally, the product will solve a desperate problem they have. That way, they’ll be eager to purchase the product, landing you a commission. If the product is very high quality, this creates a win-win situation. They’ll have solved their problem and you’ll earn money.

Other products are for pure enjoyment or entertainment value. Is the “wow” factor there? Will people be really eager to buy the product you’re interested in promoting? Do your due diligence to make sure this is the case.

Is This Product Of High Quality?

Ask yourself how high quality the product is. There are certain products out there that are really attractive on the surface. They might have a fancy sales page or shiny exterior. But, when you open them up, they’re just a mess. They’re not helpful to anyone except for the product’s creator whose pockets are getting lined with cash because of gullible customers and either gullible or shady affiliates.

You don’t have to own every product you promote. In some cases, it’s a very good idea though. Ask for a review copy if it’s a digital product. The author might be reluctant to give review copies to unproven affiliates, though, so don’t be annoyed if they say no. You should just go ahead and purchase a copy if you think you’ll be promoting it.

At the very least, don’t be afraid to ask questions about the product and find out more information about the product.

Search around on Google. What are the current reviews like? Today’s web customers tend not to be afraid to share their opinions, both good and bad. Take that to heart. Hopefully the product you’re considering will still be very high on your list.

Is This Product Priced Fairly?

Now, consider the price. There are some products out there that are way overpriced and are only that way because the product creator is over compensating for affiliates. They’ll charge $2,000 for something for the sole reason of giving the affiliate half.

Now, you might view that product as actually being worth $1,000, even if you’re getting half. That’s fine. It’s just a judgment call you’ll have to make for yourself.

It’s not just about fairness—it’s also about conversions. Will you make more sales of a $10 product given your current customer base or will you make more sales of a $100 product that has more features and benefits? Think about it. Figure out which type of promotion is likely to land you the most commissions while being fair and enticing to your customers and readers.

Is This Product Something I’m Proud to Associate Myself With?

The products you promote should be something you’re happy to associate yourself with. Is the product you’re considering part of that equation? Does the product creator have a good reputation?

Your reputation is very important and you don’t want to risk it for a little bit of money. You want to build a fantastic reputation because your readers have come to really trust you. They know that if you’re recommending it, that it’s a great purchase.

Making the Choice

You have some decision making to do. Hopefully, this process doesn’t intimidate you at all. There are so many products out there that it can be overwhelming. You don’t want to make the wrong choice.

The great thing is that, after you’ve done it a few times, you’ll be a natural. You’ll be able to apply these criteria without giving it nearly as much thought. You’ll pick great products left and right, earning a great income as an affiliate and delighting your customers as a result.

And of course, you’re not limited to just one product. The product you choose to recommend today won’t make or break you. Far from it! You’ll promote many products over the months and years, getting closer and closer to what your customer base will be thrilled with and buy like crazy.

You’ll repeat some promotions and end others early. You’ll go with the flow of the new products that are coming out. You’ll promote the classics over and over again. You’ll develop a reputation as someone who promotes the best, most helpful, most exciting products around.

And speaking of promoting the classics, that’s something that many affiliates neglect. Many, especially those who are promoting digital products, only bother to promote products that are brand new and “hot”. You should keep your eyes out for evergreen products that people are constantly looking for, and consider adding recommendations and reviews for them in your autoresponder sequence. You’ll have far less competition that way, and separate yourself from the crowd of “me too” affiliate marketers.

I started to compile a bunch of stats to show you how popular video marketing is becoming. And then I realized – the last thing you need are more stats about how video is taking over the internet.

The fact is, if you’re not using video yet, you’re losing customers, clients and revenue.

Consumers love video. They watch video. They ENJOY video.

They even enjoy video when the video is selling something, as long as the video still entertains and informs.

So how can you use more video in your business?

And how can you make those videos perform as well as possible in getting your viewers to take action?

Here are ten tips to get you started in the right direction:

1: Make your video is about the story, not about the sale.

Anyone can slap up a sales video and put it on YouTube. “Buy my product!” But will it get views? Not likely.

Instead, tell stories and deliver value. Let’s say you’re selling a course on how to do marketing for chiropractic offices.

It’s tempting to tell the viewer why your course rocks, why it’s exactly what they need, and how it’s only available for a limited time.

But what if you make a series of short videos, with each video providing one powerful marketing tip just for chiropractors?

I guarantee those videos will be watched and shared among the chiropractic community.

You’ll establish massive credibility. And of course you can politely refer them to your website at the end of each video.

These videos won’t sell your course for you.

But what they will do is make it far easier to get the sale.

Think of it as romancing the client…

First you take them out on a date or two or three…

And THEN you close the sale.

Your success rate will be much higher than if you try to close the sale while the two of you are still strangers.

2: Make the first 10 seconds the BEST 10 seconds ever.

One stat says that 20% of viewers will click away from a video within the first 10 seconds.

Now you’ve got to ask yourself – why would they do that?

They came to watch something, yet they leave almost immediately.

There could be a few reasons:

• Your video doesn’t appear to be what they expected. If they are coming from a link that says, “Free iPad!” and your video is about growing organic veggies, you’re going to lose them. Continuity is key here.
• You have a long, boring, “Look at me!” intro. You’ve seen those intros where it’s 30 seconds of how great the company, video creator, brand or whatever is. The problem is, no one cares but the person who made the video. Lose the long intro.
• You dilly dally around. Taking the first minute of the video to finish setting up your recording equipment is a major no-no.
• You don’t start out with a bang. You want to get right to the meat of the subject by quickly introducing what’s happening and then making it happen.

Think about movies back in the 50’s, 60’s and even 70’s – they all had long boring intros filled with lots of credits and no action.

Now think about todays’ movies – from the first moment there is action; something that captures your attention and makes you want to stay tuned to find out what’s happening, why it’s happening and what’s going to happen next.

When it comes to writing fiction, teachers often tell their students to lop off the first page or two, because they’re usually full of long, boring intro stuff to set up the first scene. But when you lop that off and start with the action, BOOM – the reader is captivated.

Videos are the same way. Start with the good stuff and let it just get better from there.

3: Don’t be so serious.

Your video might be to inform and instruct, but that doesn’t mean you have to sound like a boring, stuffy college professor.

Find ways to inject fun and humor into your presentations. This doesn’t mean to inject knock-knock jokes that have nothing to do with the topic at hand. Instead, find the humor in what you’re teaching or talking about. It’s always there, you just have to look for it.

Now I know that when you get in front of a camera, if you’re like most people you get nervous. And when you get nervous, you might not be able to find the humor in anything, except perhaps your own nervousness.

Three things I can tell you – if you practice beforehand in front of a friend, you’ll be surprised at the funny things that come to mind. Go ahead and try your humor on your friend and listen to their feedback. They’ll tell you which ones work and which to leave out.

Second, when you’re filming, continue to think of the camera as your friend. You’re just having a friendly conversation, regardless of whether it’s you on camera or you’re using slides.

Third, have fun. If you’re having fun then the viewer will likely have fun as well.

4: It’s good to be human.

No one really likes someone who is perfect, or even someone who comes across as perfect. That’s why it’s okay to make mistakes on camera.

If you are nervous or if you do something wrong, just acknowledge it and move on. For example, you drop something you were showing the viewer. Laugh, pick it up, make a joke about your nerves or your butterfingers or whatever, and move on.

It’s a funny thing when we admit to the audience that we’re human and we can laugh at our own foibles – the audience begins to like us more, and they root for us, too.

I even know people who purposely make a mistake or do something clumsy, just so they can get the audience on their side.

It’s a truly effective technique when done right.

5: Tell embarrassing stories about yourself.

As an extension of the last point, use yourself as an example of what not to do. Let’s say you’re teaching dating tips. You want to tell the viewers what not to do. Instead of saying, “You should never, ever do this or that because it just annoys the other person,” say this:

“I was once on a date and I made the dumbest mistake possible. What happened was…”

And then go on to tell a story about yourself doing something stupid or wrong or whatever.

Notice that now instead of lecturing the viewer, you are sharing a valuable story about how you goofed up.

This does a couple of things…

It teaches the viewer in a way they will remember, because people remember stories much better than lessons.

And it’s yet another opportunity to show just how human you are, and make the audience like you even more.

But what if you never made that mistake yourself?

It’s up to you, but I see no harm in telling the story from your point of view anyway. Again, it’s a highly effective teaching method, and everyone loves somebody who can laugh at themselves.

Just look at comedians – they are continually telling audiences about the stuff they’ve done that wasn’t too bright. And audiences love them for it.

6: Optimize your videos for search.

Here are a few tips for doing just that:

If you can, host your video to your own domain first, before uploading it to sharing sites. This has the potential to get people to link back to your own domain, which will also help your overall SEO efforts.

Enable embedding on your video to increase the likelihood of receiving inbound links.

Add your videos to your sitemap to give Google information about your video. This gives Google useful metadata that can improve Google’s ability to include your video in search results.

Use tags for the relevant keywords. Write full descriptions and add a unique title.

And remember this: If it has a box, Google needs you to fill it out in order to help you rank.

7: Educate your audience.

Some of the best videos you’ll ever make, that your prospects and clients will love, are videos that teach your viewers something useful.

Whether it’s to get a result they want, show them how to best use your product, or provide useful tips, people enjoy short ‘how to’ videos that teach them what they want to know, when they want to know it.

Which of course means you need to be found when they are looking. To do that, go back to #6 and make sure your video shows up in the appropriate SEO searches.

8: Let your customers speak for you.

Social proof is best done by your customers on your behalf. For example, you can ask customers to film themselves talking about how they use and love your product.

Case studies are an excellent way to showcase your product while teaching your audience how to achieve the result they desire.

Your customer might talk about their buying decision, what might have stopped them from buying, and why they went ahead and got the product.

Next they might talk about their results of using the product, what specific features they like, and the biggest benefits of using the product.

A good customer testimonial or case study can be worth an entire sales letter when it comes to converting new prospects into customers.

9: Add a call to action

Whatever kind of video you’re making, don’t forget to add a call to action at the end. It might be to visit your website, go to a landing page to grab a free report, check out a sales page or whatever.

Just remember that your videos should be 90-95% great content and just 5-10% sales.

10: Add a video to your landing pages to increase conversions.

Naturally you’ll want to test this out, but odds are you’ll see a nice bump in your conversions on your landing page if you add a short video.

The video should quickly introduce yourself and let them know what they’re getting when they subscribe. Make it friendly and fun for the viewer, and try to inject a little humor.

Most of all, give one very clear and immediate benefit of subscribing to your list and grabbing your free offer.

I know a marketer who never sells anything on his videos. All he does is provide helpful tips, tell silly stories about his industry and act as a helpful friend to his viewers.

And his sales are through the roof. Why? Because people love him and trust him.

Video isn’t hard. What’s difficult sometimes is relaxing enough to simply be ourselves and lend a helping hand or tip to the viewer.