There are many ways to create passive income through writing and publishing content. Some people choose to write articles on eHow to earn residual income while others may decide to start a blog and add advertisements or publish an eBook. The internet and other media sources have opened up so many business opportunities to make money for anyone willing to dedicate their time and hard work.
Another potential passive income opportunity besides publishing an eBook or writing for eHow is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is an income source that I really had never considered in the past, partly because I had no understanding of what it was. At a high level, affiliate marketing is a way for a writer to publish content that includes an affiliate link to a product or service that they are trying to sell. It may sound a little sleazy and there are a ton of affiliate marketing scams out there. However, there are also a lot of honest and legitimate programs and products available that can be used to create passive income.
Recently, I purchased PotPieGirl’s One Week Marketing product that she is selling which details how to generate affiliate income by using Squidoo and other free tools. I typically don’t tend to buy products like this as I like to learn things on my own. Fortunately I talked myself into using some of my eHow earnings on purchasing these new materials that could help jump start a new passive income stream. This product was the reason I began my affiliate marketing passive income stream, which has the potential to be huge.
Want to know why I am so positive about affiliate marketing? Like any new passive income stream, I try to start slowly and with caution. After reading through the materials for One Week Marketing, I started creating new campaigns mostly on Squidoo that centered around the concept of promoting an affiliate product. Once I got a few of these campaigns started, I decided to use the concepts laid out by PotPieGirl using tools other than Squidoo. I won’t give away any of the secrets from the product – but it worked! It actually worked!
I will be honest that I was skeptical about the affiliate marketing hype. Besides reading up on One Week Marketing, I had also been reading up and researching other supposed success stories. I went several weeks without a sale and was becoming a bit concerned that I was doing something wrong. I always try to preach being patient and focusing on the long term – but it can be a little frustrating when you devote countless hours to a project that isn’t producing any tangible results.
After several weeks of no sales and little inspiration moving forward with this income stream, I opened up my Clickbank account and there it was. My first ever affiliate sale! I was ecstatic – all of those tireless nights plugging away at my laptop finally paid off! Even better was the fact that my sales commission from selling this item was more than my last two months of eHow earnings combined. Selling that one item was also more than what I have earned from AdSense over the last several months.
Sometimes staying on track and being focused only takes a little event. My little event was the sale of one affiliate product. That sale showed me the power of affiliate marketing and the income it can earn for you. Using One Week Marketing as a tool gave me the foundation to build my business model around. Did it go out and sell the product for me? No. Purchasing these materials did not pick out my niche topics to write on or tell me what tool to publish the content on, or even pick out my affiliate product to promote. What it did give me was the motivation and thought process on building affiliate campaigns which is truly a valuable asset.
As you can tell, I am so excited about the future opportunities available through affiliate marketing. I have only been publishing content for less than two months so much of my material is still very young. PotPieGirl writes about affiliate marketers making well over six figure incomes per year just by building campaigns around products to sell. I plan on being one of those people!
I plan to share any tips or tricks I come across along the way in my affiliate marketing endeavors. I will admit that I am still a rookie in this business and have a lot to learn. However, I believe it is important to help out anyone interested in starting an affiliate marketing income stream. Look for more posts on – How to create passive income through affiliate marketing in the future.
What tips can you provide on your affiliate marketing experiences?
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Congrats my friend. Making an affiliate sale is exciting indeed!
I started my third OWM campaign last night. As I was going to get the link for the product, I noticed a funny little number on my account (where zeros typically reside). In fact, it was a sale from my first attempt, which I have not touched in weeks. Overall, just a few sales a month crushes any income that I make on eHow.
With regards to affiliate marketing, pick one technique and get good at it before moving on. You will make more money that way and have more fun in the process!
Dusty’s last blog post..The Future of My Online Empire – What’s Next?
@Dusty – Thanks! It is a great feeling and motivator to make that first sale. The great thing is that it wasn’t a little sale, it was a big sale so I am pumped!!!
Great job on your sale! Was this from a Squidoo campaign?
My advice for affiliate marketers is to always be exploring new niches. I earned $350 in March from a specific product; in April it was $0 as the item is somewhat trend-specific and the topic was not in the news much in April. So keep seasons and trends in mind and capitalize on them, but be ready to mvoe on and promote other things as well.
Maria @ Residual Income Web’s last blog post..How to Make Money with a Website: Monetizing a Site
@Maria – Great points. Question for you – if you wanted to promote an product around a seasonal product or holiday, how many weeks/months before hand would you write the content?
If the blog or site is well established, a few weeks to a month or so is fine. If you are starting a whole new site or blog, you’ll need six months or so, plus backlinks, to get traction with the search engines — unless competition for the keywords is very low, in which case winning top spots for searches will be easier. There are so many varying factors, it’s hard to make it an exact science.
My articles that led to over $1,000 in affiliate commission from the one merchant, including the $350 in April, were written in anticipation of the trend, about ten months prior.
Maria @ Residual Income Web’s last blog post..How to Make Money with a Website: Monetizing a Site
Great news about the Affiliate Sale. I’m also glad to hear that someone I read has taken the leap to invest in an affiliate “how to” guide. How did you choose Pot Pie Girl? I’ve never heard of her.
The Almost Millionaire’s last blog post..Life is Good!
@TAM – I actually have been reading her blog for some time now and trusted what she has to say. She offers some good SEO tips on her site which I have been using on eHow and they are working very well. I know our fried Dusty from Chasing The Bull has also had good success with One Week Marketing.
I actually was already working on a post about my experiences with various affiliates and types of blogging income, and I linked back to this post. I still haven’t tried out Clickbank yet, though I’m hearing many good things about it. I wish they had a better description of what types of products are available to promote without having to register first though. It’s hard to know if they’ll have anything that fits my niche that I could actually promote.
Eco Money Girl’s last blog post..Make More Money Blogging
Affiliate programs are definitely great. The ones that are even better are the residual income ones where people sign up for a monthly subscription. You get paid every month. Of course, the hard part is finding one that people will like enough to stay subscribed for years to come.
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