Is online affiliate marketing the right thing for you? You won't know unless you take it for a spin.
If you don't try, then you will never know if you could have been a great affiliate or not. You have nothing to loose and all to gain. In the worst case scenario, if you go wrong with affiliate marketing, then you didn't loose that much because you can start a low budget affiliate marketing business, so that you don't loose to much money if things don't work out! You actually gain a lot of experience in affiliate marketing and online business, too.
If you put some work into your affiliate business and treat it like a business, because it really is a business, then, you will be successful. Remember, if you treat it like a hobby business, you will get a hobby income! So, stop doing what you are doing and make this day the day that you commit to changing the direction of your life.
As with any business start up, affiliate marketing makes no exception, in the sense that you will need to spend an amount of money on the basics to get you started (but, as I said, you can start off with a low budget). You have to decide how much money you can afford to invest in your affiliate marketing business.
But, the amazing advantage that affiliate marketing has over any other known business is that you can start it from scratch (and I do mean scratch - there are people who have started their affiliate marketing business with a low budget of as little as 100 $ and are now earning over 300 000 $ a month!!!) and you still have a pretty good chance of making good money.
Here are 3 items that you will have to make a budget for (it's up to you to make it as low as possible):
The Domain Name.
The domain name should be short (1 to 4 words max), easy to remember and related to the subject. You can find domain names for as low as 1.99$ to even 12 $ or more! Be very picky with the registering company and make sure that it is a well established one. Ask around, go to forums and blogs and see what people are saying about the company. Don't just go and get a domain at the first website you find, do your research!
You don't want to lose your domain name once you have decided on it (this actually happened to some people - so be carefully). It's very likely that you'll get a very good deal if you register your domain name for two or more years in advance (and this is good for your low budget affiliate marketing business plan as well, because you save money).
Website Hosting.
Web hosting fees vary a lot between hosting providers, so be very carefully in picking one. Set up a comparison chart and write down each hosting plan according to your low budget strategy. I know great hosting companies that charge around 8-10 $, but there are also ones a lot more expensive (it really depends on a multitude of factors: bandwidth, storage etc). But, remember that the highest fees don't always mean the best service.
A suggestion here: if you can avoid free hosting because it can be unreliable (but as they say: better free than none at all). The idea is to get your affiliate marketing business on the road, and even if you don't do great at first, you can learn and do better in the future, so just do it!
Software.
You definitely need to track your expenses, income, traffic and conversion from your affiliate marketing business. You have to know which methods are bringing in more traffic and which are just a waste of your time. You also need to keep your expenses on a low level (so that you can stick to your low budget) and the simplest way to do this is to use a Microsoft Excel document or a similar program. Don't ever forget that if you want to have a real business, you must treat it as a real business!
These are just some of the things you can watch out for when starting a low budget affiliate marketing business. Now that you know what to do, you can take the long and painful road of searching the best hosting company or the most reliable software or... you can take the easy road and choose a verified system like the one you'll find in the biobox bellow!
Whatever you choose, lots of success to you!
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