STEP 1 - Set a goal

Let's start with a modest goal ($250.00 per month). As a new affiliate you should set a reasonable yet high enough so it will not be easy. As motivation think about what you will do with the extra dollars you will be generating. Anytime things get tough remind yourself just what you are going to do with the extra money you will be generating.

STEP 2 - Look at your potential competitors

If you're considering building a site about Persian Cats" search "Persian Cats" (using quotation marks) in Google and Yahoo! and look at the top 10 sites which appear in the search results. They are the folks you are up against.. Can you build a better site about Persian Cats? What can you do that will be better or more interesting?

How many links do your potential competitors have?

Do your potential competitors all hundreds or even thousands of links to them? This is very important, because links are important to search engines. You need good, relevant back links to your site. To find out how many sites are linking to a site, use the free Yahoo! Site Explorer. Go to http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com - and login (set up a free account if necessary).

Type the URL of the site you want to explore.
Click on "Explore URL".
Click on "Inlinks".
Modify your search to make it more useful. Select the options to show Inlinks "except from this domain" and "entire site". This will exclude internal links and show you all external links that Yahoo! knows about to ANY page of the website.

STEP 3 - Research affiliate merchants

Before you make a firm decision on a topic for your site, you'll should do research to see if there are affiliate products which match your topic. You want affiliate merchants that have great products and reputations and sites that look like they were designed by professionals. Always look for lifetime commissions. This simply means you will collect commissions with no time limit or expiration date. Select a web site topic that has affiliate programs which pay lifetime commissions or residual commissions. Check out www.digitalpoint.com This is an outstanding resource. Among it's many forums are is one called Affiliate Programs which includes discussion about Commission Junction, AZoogle, Amazon, ClickBank and Chitika. Do a little research before picking a program. Spend some time on the forums. It contains a wealth of information.

STEP 4 - Add affiliate links

As you write the articles for your site, weave affiliate links into them. Of course, sign up as an affiliate prior to listing the affiliate links. Don't just sign up, make sure that you are approved and fill out the appropriate paperwork so you can be paid. Expect to be asked for your Social Security number for tax purposes.

Always write as if you are writing a letter to a friend. You are not a machine, so remember not to write like one. You might begin a discussion with problems that you have had in the past and what you did to solve those problems. Your solution may be of interest to your readers and they will click on that hyperlink. When they follow that link the merchant will be in a better solution to make a sale and you will profit. Your job is to corral prospects, get them interested in more information and send them off to the merchant you represent to close the deal.

STEP 5 - Place AdSense ads on your site

If you have a good, popular site with good traffic, it's not difficult to make good money with Google AdSense and the best part is that AdSense is free.

This is the end of Part 1 of 13 Steps To Affiliate Money Making.

Ray Caran has owned and operated a multitude of businesses over the years. He has been selling over the Internet since 1997. To discover more secrets about making money as an affiliate on a budget go here: Affiliate Program Secrets

To subscribe to his free opt-in email go to: Affiliate Program Secrets and you will never miss an exciting issue.

Source: www.articlesbase.com