Amazon Associates - Product Research

Product research is an incredibly important part of market research. In the context of building a successful Amazon affiliate website there are several things to watch out for when choosing a product to promote.

First of all the product should be expensive enough for you to make a decent commission on. The Amazon affiliate program offers an average of about 6% on sales so I would go for a price range of $100 or more so that you can make at least $6 per sale. However if you feel you can get a ton of sales for lower-priced products then by all means go for it.

Another factor you should take into account is the selection of products for your chosen keyword. For example I recently researched a keyword about hard drives that had a HUGE selection. However other keywords will have much lower selection like DJ Speakers (another niche I recently researched). So make sure you have a wide selection of relevant products you can promote in your niche.

You should also look at the product reviews of the products you'll be promoting. I wouldn't worry too much about the ratings of the products but more about whether or not they have ratings. They can be a great source of content for your site and can help drive sales if used properly. Also when your customers see those reviews they will more warmed up to buy instead of just going into the purchase with no input from other users.

The last thing you should check on for product research is if the products you're going to promote actually sell well online or not. The best place I've found to check that is eBay. All you have to do is login and check the completed listings for your niche. If there are a lot of sales within a small time frame (a day or two) then you know that a lot of people are willing to buy your niches products online. However if you find that those products only sell occasionally or there are a lot of listings that close without selling it may not be the best niche to build a website around.

In my experience as I've followed these basic guidelines Iv found numerous profitable products to promote with the Amazon Affiliate program.

Amazon Affiliate Program - Market Reseach

Doing market research before starting a business is like having an accurate flight plan before you go on a trip. If you don't have anything planned out there are a whole slew of hazards that can endanger your flight, make it failure and take you somewhere you don't want to go. Imagine an eager young pilot who wants to get out and be free like the birds but who has no plan. He gets up in the air and immediately has a rush of adrenaline. He's away from civilization doing his own thing.

However that rush soon fades and He finds himself a little lost. He frantically searches for landmarks or cues that will show him where he is. Instead He decides to just keep going in the same direction because he figures he find some city or airport. Unfortunately His freedom is taken right back and he is a slave to his aircraft. He soon begins to run out of fuel and has to make a crash landing. If only he had made a flight plan he could have traveled somewhere exciting. Instead he was just thrilled to be up in the air.

So it is with business. Eager young entrepreneurs romanticize about owning their own business so they rush in and find out quickly enough that they're lost and too far invested to just stop. With a business if you're just winging it even if by some slim chance you turn a profit you will most certainly end up in a place you dont want to be. You may even need to make a crash landing by filing bankruptcy. If only you had made a flight plan. If only you had done thorough market research.

In this Course we're going to review the elements of market research as it pertains to creating and profiting from websites based on Amazons Associate program. With proper, in depth research you'll discover niches that will make you consistent money by selling Amazons products.

1. Keyword research
2. Product research
3. Competition research
4. Domain name research

Before we go in depth into the "how" and "what" of each element we will discuss the "WHY". Understanding why will give you the motivation and big picture perspective necessary to really make this course successful for you and will help you realize your personal financial goals. This is going to be specific stuff that will really help you in the long run and many of this can be applied to a lot of different business models as well.

1. Why Keyword Research?

Simple. People use search engines to find what they're looking for on the internet. Search engines use keywords to organize the results they deliver to their user. Some keywords are used more than others and therefore it would be very profitable to convince the search engine that you're worthy to be served up as a website for the higher volume keywords. Why keyword research? If you choose the wrong keywords you wont get any traffic to your website. And in this game traffic=money.


2. Why Product Research?

After some keyword research lets say you come across the keyword "chocolate candy bar". The next step would be to check out what products would be relevant. Obviously chocolate candy bars would be a good thing to sell if that was your chosen keyword, however people don't buy candy bars on the internet. Not only that but candy bars are very inexpensive so even if you were able to sell any each sale would amount to pennies. This is why you do product research. You need to find products that will pay well and that people will buy online.


3. Why Competition Research?

If you were to pit a mouse and a rottweiler against each other who would you bet on? The obvious choice is the dog. He far out matches the mouse. In one swing the dog could break the mouses neck. When you're just starting out you want to choose small niches where you'll be able to reasonably compete. Don't go after the electronics industry. You'll go up against behemoths like best buy, circuit city and Walmart. The more narrow your niche market the less competition there will be and because you're just starting out you'll want to go small.

4. Why Domain Name Research?

This is what your website will be known by. You want to make sure you can get a reputable domain extension and a reasonable keyword rich name. Doing proper research on potential domain names can dramatically effect how soon you start to see sales.

A Day In The Life Of An Affiliate Marketer

Being in the affiliate marketing business is not that hard now with the internet at your disposable. It is much easier now compared to the days when people have to make use of the telephones and other mediums of information just to get the latest updates on the way their program is coming along.

So with technology at hand, and assuming that the affiliate is working from home, a day in his or her life would sound something like this…

Upon waking up and after having breakfast, the computer is turned on to check out new developments in the network. As far as the marketer is concerned there might be new things to update and statistics to keep track on.

The site design has to be revised. The marketer knows that a well-designed site can increase sign ups from visitors. It can also help in the affiliate’s conversion rates.

That done, it is time to submit the affiliate program to directories that lists affiliate programs. These directories are means to attract people in joining your affiliate program. A sure way of promoting the affiliate program.

Time to track down the sales you are getting from your affiliates fairly and accurately. There are phone orders and mails to track down. See if they are new clients checking the products out. Noting down the contact information that might be a viable source in the future.

There are lots of resources to sort out. Ads, banners, button ads and sample recommendations to give out because the marketer knows that this is one way of ensuring more sales. Best to stay visible and accessible too.

The affiliate marketer remembered that there are questions to answer from the visitors. This has to be done quickly. Nothing can turn off a customer than an unanswered email.

To prove that the affiliate is working effectively and efficiently, inquiries would have to be paid more attention on. Nobody wants to be ignored and customers are not always the most patient of all people. Quick answer that should appear professional yet friendly too.

In the process of doing all the necessities, the marketer is logged on to a chat room where he or she interacts with other affiliates and those under that same program. This is where they can discuss things on how to best promote their products.

There are things to be learned and it is a continuous process. Sharing tips and advices is a good way of showing support. There may be others out there wanting to join and may be enticed by the discussion that is going on. There is no harm in assuming what opportunities ahead.

The newsletters and ezines were updated days ago, so it is time for the affiliate marketer to see if there are some new things happening in the market. This will be written about in the marketer’s publication to be distributed to the old and new customers.

These same publications are also an important tool in keeping up to date with the newly introduced products. The marketer has put up a sale and promotion that customers may want to know about. Besides, they have to keep up with the deadline of these sales written in the publications.

It is that time to show some appreciation to those who have helped the marketer in the promotions and sale increase. Nothing like mentioning the persons, their sites and the process they have done that made everything worked.

Of course, this will be published in the newsletters. Among the more important information that have been written already.

The marketer still has time to write out recommendations to those who want credible sources for the products being promoted. There is also time to post some comments on how to be a successful affiliate marketer on a site where there are lots of wannabees.

Two objectives done at the same time. The marketer gets to promote the product as well as the program they are in. Who knows, someone may be inclined to join.

Time flies. Missed lunch but is quite contented with the tasks done. Bed time….

Ok, so this may not be all done in a day. But then, this gives you an idea of how an affiliate marketer, a dedicated one that is, spends the marketing day.

Is that success looming in the distance or what?

Quick Cash - Thrive Learning Institute

There are a ton of ways to make money in this world and in this article I'm going to outline a method that I've found to be very effective at bringing in a good amount of cash to help pay the bills. Now this method probably won't make you millions but, if you work it right, you should be able to bring in a few thousand every month and could probably make enough to to quite your job.

The model is a combination of offline and online marketing. Lets start with your source of income. There are many companies on the internet that promote their products through affiliate programs. Companies like Amazon and Barnes Noble have enormous affiliate programs and there are thousands of small business that promote their products through affiliate networks like Clickbank or Commission Junction. But in this article we're going to deal solely with web hosting affiliate programs.

Web hosting companies pay handsome commissions for referring a new customer to them. Hostgator pays at least $50 per referral and FatCow pays out $100 for every person you send their way! All you'd have to do is refer 30 people per month to Fatcow to make $3000/month! So the question is how do you find these 30 people per month and how do you get them to sign up for hosting?

This is where the offline part comes in. You're job is to sell free (but legitimate) websites. Do you think you can sell a free website? I think you can too. Think of all the small time professionals that could benefit from having a nice website up that they can refer people to: Photographers, Real Estate Agents, Summer Sales Reps, Insurance Reps, brand new businesses, MLM networks and the list could go on and on. All you need to do is show these people how having a website will improve their business and your in!

Once they've signed up with hosting through your affiliate link have them send you their login information and then go in and install Wordpress. Wordpress is great because they have a lot of great FREE themes for you to use to make a site look really nice. Once you got it set up you hand it over to them and your done! TADA! At most it should take you an hour and can often take no more than 30 minutes. not a bad hourly rate if you ask me.

Thrive Learning Institute - Find Products on Clickbank

Thrive Learning Institute recommends Clickbank as one of the most complete providers of information products through affiliate programs available on the internet today. The first thing to do is to go and set up an account.

1. Go to Clickbank.com.

2. There will be lots of options there on the main page to explore. There are two large areas, one labeled "Affiliate" and one labeled "Vendor". A vendor is someone who has an information product to sell, like an eBook they've written. An affiliate is someone looking to make money promoting other people's products. That's you! In the "Affiliates" box, click "Learn More"

3. You can scroll through the tutorial overview that appears on the left. On the right, click "Sign Up".

4. Fill out the forms and complete the signup and verification process.


Once you have an account setup, the next step is to go into the Clickbank market place and begin looking for products that relate to your topics. There are two basic approaches to this, and they're both valuable.

1. Literal Thinking - In this approach, you'll be looking for products that directly relate to the topics and the keywords/keyphrases that you researched in the previous benchmark. If your topic is "Organic Vegetable Gardening", then you're going to be looking for products that teach all about organic vegetable gardening. You'll probably get more visitors converting into buyers this way, because by the time they search out your site, you know they're interested. However, it can sometimes be tricky to match the products to a niche exactly.

2. Lateral Thinking - In this approach, you step back from your niche a little bit, and look for products that relate to a slightly broader topic, to a wider audience. In our example, you might search for products in "Organic Gardening", or "Vegetable Gardening". Be careful not to get too broad, or you will find yourself swimming in a sea of competition, and all that wonderful keyword research you did will be wasted.


Whether you do one or the other, or a combination of both, the process is the same. Go to the Clickbank main page, and click on the "Marketplace" link at the top. You'll be presented with a search page, where you'll input your keywords and begin searching for good products.

An important part of analyzing the Clickbank products is understanding the metrics listed underneath each listing. Here's a key to help you interpret what each of those numbers mean:

1. $/Sale -The actual amount you will earn per sale. Every time a visitor to your site clicks through and buys this product, you'll make this much money. Ideally you will want around $20-$25 a sale, or more.

2. Future $ - Some products have recurring fees that the customer pays, like a membership. When there are recurring costs, there are also recurring commissions. This is really good for you, because each sale you make can become a residual income as that customer continues to maintain their membership.

3. Total $/Sale - The percentage of the sale that is your commission. Look for at least 50%.

4. %Redf - The amount of sales coming from ClickBank affiliates.

5. Grav - "Gravity" A weighted scale representing how many people were paid by this program in the last 8 weeks. Basically, this ClickBank metric represents the popularity. The higher, the better. If you can find products related to your niche that are above 70, that's excellent. There are many products that are newer, that are good, that haven't had time to build up their gravity yet. Try to get the highest gravity you can in your niche topic.

For more tips and how-to's from Thrive Learning Institute read more posts.

Thrive Learning Institute - How To Become A Wealthy Affiliate Marketer: Stay Focused

I don't know how long you've been in affiliate marketing, but if you're like most people in this business, you have a problem. And that is actually getting things done.

Maybe it's not just this business, maybe that's just how people are in general. But no matter what forum I've been in, I always see the same thing, and that is that most people have a very hard time putting out large quantities of work.

I'm sure you've heard the phrase "If you throw enough stuff at the wall, some of it is going to stick." Well let me tell you people, it's true. And anyone who is a seriously wealthy affiliate marketer will back me up on that claim. But most people's main problem is that they stop throwing too soon.

This has definitely been my biggest problem. I had been in affiliate marketing for close to a year before I really started working on it. During that time I had had some successes, and even some pretty big successes, but I still wasn't accomplishing at the rate I wanted to be accomplishing at.

The first thing I realized I needed to do was to stop learning. Or at least stop trying to learn. I realized that I knew enough to be making money, and that the learning was holding me back. I was spending more time learning than working.

By extension, I realized that I needed to get out of the forums. We go to the forums for the great information there, as well as the community they provide, but I think another reason is that being active in a forum is a great way to avoid working while feeling like you actually are.

Every person that I have known on a forum before they really achieved that success has taken a vacation from the forum in the interim. If you're trying to reach a goal, then reading and responding to posts is only going to hold you back. While I'm somewhat active in several forums, including the Wealthy Affiliate forum, if I ever hit five or so posts in one sitting, I know that I'm gotten sidetracked, and I get myself out of there as fast as I possibly can.

Keep the distractions at bay, and keep pumping out articles, or PPC campaigns, or whatever you've decided to do to make that money keep coming. And that is what's going to make it or break it at the end of the day.

Learn more about Thrive Learning Institute by reading our clients testimonials.

The SEO Success Pyramid

Matt Mcgee over at smallbusinessSEM.com recently wrote a column on the SEO success Pyramid.

I really liked the article because he explained in real terms that building a website isnt about making a ton of money really quickly. Its about building something worthwhile through hard work and proven principles, just like Thrive Learning Institute teaches. There are 5 levels of the pyramid culminating creating that all coveted “Trust”.

Commitment

this is a no-brainer but is such a hang up for so many. Your success is directly connected to your commitment to a project or a goal . This is true in every facet of life whether it be relationships, sport, business or spirituality. Anything worthwhile wont come to yo in a flash of undisciplined genius. Its often the steady and persistent that produce the greatest value and in fact produce the most imminent of geniuses. Commit yourself for the long run. Its worth it.

Planning

You can get far with a deep commitment to success however if you just work hard and have no plan or direction then all that work will no doubt dissolve to nothing. Set clear goals. Picture the perfect day, then break down all the steps necessary to getting there. Create several plans of action and prioritize them. Then get to work . You planning will pay off in the end as it steers all that horsepower you have toward the desired goal.


Product/Service

There is no substitute for quality. Tricky salesman ship might fool customers into buying something useless for a while but people aren't stupid and soon enough you'll find yourself out of business and out of money. Create or provide something that people need. This is the surest way to guarantee staying power.


Education/Information

In this industry access to education and information regarding the intricacies and nuances that are evolving are essential to creating a successful SEO strategy. Yesterdays success strategy could be wildly different from today's because of a new piece of software a new policy or a new up and coming competitor. You need access to high quality information so you don't get left behind in the stone ages of may 2009.


Patience

Patience is perhaps the most important quality to possess in the field of search engine marketing simply because it just takes time for the best strategies to take hold and start working their magic. There are no quick fixes or paths to instant success. There are some exceptions but they are just that, exceptions. So hunker down and get to work. Thrive Learning Institute guarantee's you'll see abundant success, just be patient.

Make Money Fast

Tons of people are always asking how to make money fast on the internet. Thus we see the birth of trillions of get rich quick scams that make only the dishonest and shady money while the honest are left in the dust with $597 less than before and a few sticks when they thought they were getting power tools. Thrive Learning Institute delivers those power tools.

Creating Fast Income will obviously be riskier because if it weren't then everyone would be doing it. So here's a few ideas you can use to start making money today.

Affiliate Marketing

You can make a ton of money very quickly with affiliate marketing. All you need to do is get some highly targeted paid advertising that's directed to a landing page where you advertise other peoples products. That traffic buys those products and you make a killing with a simple web page and some seed money for advertising.

Obviously there's a downside. If you mess up your ad or your site is horribly optimized for conversions then you could realistically end up in the hole instead of going down to get your new Harley. I would suggest starting with a bit of seed money that is dedicated solely to learning good PPC techniques and learning how to optimize a landing page for conversions so that when the rubber meets the road you can really rake in the dollars.

Blogging

Blogging is another way to make a good amount of money online. You'll need to find a niche that you know a lot about and can write a lot about or you will burn out quickly. But with some basic SEO knowledge and a lot of useful, entertaining content you can monetize in so many different way IE advertising networks like Adsense, affiliate marketing, and you can even create your own products over time. That's where the real money is and Thrive Learning Institute will get you there.

The Art of Being Controversial

If I started blogging about my personal political or religious views on this blog (that is, the Thrive Learning Institute Blog) it is quite likely that they would fire me. Those things are far too controversial for a professional to be talking about on a professional blog like this one.

Your blog, however, is an entirely different matter, especially if you're involved in affiliate marketing (revenue gained from people clicking on Ads on your site). In that case, do anything that would get you fired at work!

It may seem a little strange, but by upsetting people, you're guaranteeing yourself increased traffic. It's not so much about getting people involved in a positive way as it is about getting people emotionally involved -- and as deeply emotionally involved as you possibly can.

Why does this work? Well, human's are idiots, to start with. When we see a set of headlines online, if we know we agree with one, we are only somewhat likely to click on it. On the other hand, if we see something that upsets us, we immediately dive in -- knowing fully well that it will just make us more angry.

People who disagree with you will make long comments trying to prove to you that you're wrong -- and then those who agree with you will become upset with them. This is a way that you can get a lot of "content" generated for your blog, with little to no effort from you! People engaged in these internet arguments will check back frequently, sometimes get friends involved, and are likely to check back in for future posts.

So, yes! Be controversial, and be willing to step way out of your boundaries. By emotionally entrenching people, you're getting yourself a group of people who will return to your blog again and again -- and thus, a group of people who are likely to make you money through your affiliate ads.

Of course, having a successful blog of affiliate site is far more than talking about controversial subjects -- and there are many ways to maximize your profit. For more information on how a quality coaching company can help your business succeed in affiliate marketing, e-commerce, or any other branch of making money online, simply visit www.thriveli.com.

Passive Income: The Truth

If you have been looking around at work-from-home styled jobs, you have undoubtably seen ads that try to convince you that you can "work from home, making hundreds every day while only working two hours per week!" Once again, we have to ask the question -- is this legitimate?

The truth is, this kind of pitch is an oversell of something that is very plausible. Affiliate websites, using Google Adsense or direct banner ads, can give a very fair amount of revenue. But what can you realistically make off of an AdSense website?

Many "non-experts" find that they can create an affiliate website that generates between $1 and $3 per day. This is, of course, after their website has been found by Google, and is being viewed by a fair amount of people. So, this ranges from $30 per month to $90 per month. And how much work does a website or blog like this take? Well, you should generally post about once per week to keep your ranking up and your followers happy -- so often under 1 hour of real work per week. So, for between 2 and 4 hours of work you can get between $30 and $90. That means you're paying yourself anywhere from $7.50 per hour to $45.00 per hour. Not bad, by any means!

However, I know very few people who can pay the bills off of $90 per month. So there are a few directions to go to increase this amount of revenue. Option 1 -- you can focus on making one or two websites very successful. Option 2 -- you can build a hundred different websites and increase your $90 to $9000 per month. Option 3 -- you can go somewhere in-between, focusing on a few websites (generally under 20) which all receive a higher income than your typical AdSense site.

There are downfalls with each of these methods.

Option 1, it is very difficult to find a single category or subject that will pay you enough to support you off of one website. It's possible -- that's where these people claiming their hundreds of dollars a day are coming from. It is also very difficult to do search engine optimization for a website well enough that you can make this kind of income. Sites like this will take a lot more care and attention, and will have to be a great "discovery" of a niche market that is not yet saturated.

In addition, if Google changes its search parameters and you're pushed down a page, your income may fall through the floor! You are far more susceptible to the whims of the internet, and most of us don't like our income to be based on something that risky.

Option 2 has very different problems. First, you will have to find 100 websites that can generate income. Though you can spout off a lot of gibberish without much effort, it won't make you much money. You have to find profitable keywords. No one is going to pay to have their farm animals sold online, for example, so you probably don't want to blog or make a website about farm animals. So you have to do the research to find 100 different websites. You have to then build 100 websites. Even if these are pre-made blogs, this is going to be difficult to do, and highly time consuming.

Also, to make even the $1 to $5 per blog, you will have to do some basic marketing for the websites, posting your link on directories, forums, etc. So the setup time for Option 2 is pretty massive. To set up 100 effective, money-making blogs, and market them, may well takes months of hard work. If you decide this is what you want to do, don't expect any less than a few hundred hours of work before your website are making you the money you want. In addition, you have to maintain these websites for them to be profitable! Even if you know your subjects, and can post quickly and effectively, you can expect to be working 50 hour work weeks.

Then again -- $9000 a month is nothing to scoff at, and if your objective is earning a lot of money, and you don't mind putting in the effort, this may be a viable solution for you.

Option 3 tends to be the most effective and successful. Setting up a dozen blogs or websites is far easier than setting up a hundred, and your general "labor" after setup will probably be somewhere between 6 and 24 hours per week, meaning that your schedule will be very flexible. However, you should still expect to invest the equivalent of 3-4 full time work weeks to get these blogs/websites up and running.

With effective online marketing and updating, which takes time, patience, study, and experience, you may well see each website generating $5 to $15 per day (this is a reasonable goal -- you will likely be frustrated if you aim too far above this). Just to make the numbers here more clear, with a dozen sites, that may be anywhere from $60 to $180 per day, or between $1800 and $5400 per month. This is the equivalent of somewhere between a $75 per hour to a $900 per hour income, for the time you are actually investing.


Of course, knowing the general outline of making money through blogs, or affiliate marketing websites, is one thing. Knowing the details of how to do is successfully is something entirely different.

For more information on how a coaching company can help you in building your own affiliate website empire, and generate great money online with a reasonable time investment, simply visit www.thriveli.com.

Where to Find Affiliate Programs

How To Sign Up For Affiliate Programs as an Affiliate: There are a number of ways to sign up for affiliate programs, some of which are more effective than others. The main ways to sign up for affiliate programs are:

• Join Affiliate Networks- This is by far the most effective way to sign up with affiliate programs. Affiliate networks allow you to sign up for several affiliate programs at once instead of having to go to several individual sites and sign up for them one at a time. The majority of larger companies are running their affiliate programs through affiliate networks because it allows them to not have to worry about keeping track of sales and sending out checks to all of their affiliates each month. Some examples of affiliate networks are www.cj.com, www.linkshare.com, www.clickxchange.com
  
• Sign Up On Individual Sites- If you find a company whose products you would like to sell but they aren't in any of the affiliate networks that you are a member of you can go to their site to get setup with them. To see if a company has an affiliate program you will want to go to their site and look for a link that says something like "join our affiliate program" or "become an affiliate". If you don't see it on the home page the next best place to look is on their sitemap. If you still can't find it you can email them to see if they have an affiliate program.
  
• Affiliate Product Networks- There are several affiliate networks that focus more on digital products (such as ebooks), software, and services. The profit can tend to be considerably higher on these products due to the small product cost but can sometimes be harder to sell. Some examples of these affiliate product networks are www.clickbank.com and www.paydotcom.com.
  
• Go To The Search Engine- If you are wanting to join a pay-per-click affiliate program like Google Adsense or the Yahoo Publisher network it is best to go directly to those search engines to get signed up. Again the addresses for those are (adsense.google.com) and (publisher.yahoo.com).
  

For more information on starting affiliate marketing contact Thrive Learning Institute Today