Affiliate marketing is a situation where a person signs up with a merchant to sell the merchant’s products in exchange for a portion of the sale price. This sale is called a commission.

Merchants may also offer pay per click, where the affiliate is paid for each click through, or pay per lead, where the affiliate refers someone to the merchant’s site to complete a specific action, like completing an application.

For those who don’t want to create or sell their own products, marketing affiliate programs is an easy way to get started in business quickly.

With millions of products available on the internet to sell, there are a few things you want to consider first before starting your affiliate business.

1. What is your topic?

Before you consider anything else, you want to brainstorm your first topic. There are many ways to do this.

The search engines all have some type of site, like Google Trends, or Yahoo Buzz, to show you what the hot topics are. You may choose a hot topic, or you may want to do research on topics you are interested in.

I believe in choosing topics you are interested in because you will have to do some writing like product reviews and promotional materials. It’s easier to write about something you are interested in. Just make sure there is a market for the products you want to sell.

2. What types of products do you want to sell?

There are both digital and physical products available for sale on the internet. A digital product is an electronic type of product you download to your computer like an ebook or software.

The advantage of digital products is that they offer higher commissions than physical products. The problem here is that there may not be any digital products related to the topic you choose.

3. Will you build a website? If so, what type of website will you build?

There are lots of ways to build websites from creating a simple one page website for list building or offering a product review, to creating a blog or affiliate store using some type of script.

If you’ve never built a website before, then there are a few things to learn. You may consider building a blog on free sites like Wordpress or Blogger, but let me caution you here. Your site may end up deleted and then you’ve lost all of that content.

If you do decide to build a website, you’ll also need a domain name and web hosting. Do your research and get the most powerful web hosting possible for the price. You want tools like Fantastico to help you build your website and install scripts. This will make building your website a whole lot easier.

4. How will you promote?

It is easier to promote your affiliate business if you build a website, especially if you choose to write articles. The reason is that most article directories won’t accept articles that have affiliate links in the resource box.

The same applies to some free classified ad sites: some don’t allow you to use an affiliate link in your ad. That doesn’t mean there aren’t sites that won’t accept affiliate links. You will simply need to do a little research.

There are plenty of free ways to promote your new affiliate business if you have a website: search engine optimization, article writing, free classifieds, free ebooks, social marketing.

Consider what you like to do first. If you’re very social, you may find social marketing the way to go. If you like sharing information, consider articles. With free classifieds, it’s easy because classified advertising is something we are all familiar with offline.

Regardless of which technique you choose, remember to build your list so you may market to your visitors more than one time. This will help you recycle your traffic and get more from your traffic building efforts.

If I had it to do over again, my business structure would be much simpler. I would buy my name as my domain for branding purposes. I would build a blog as my main website and then put each of my books in separate subdomains as individual sales pages.

Then I would create pages on my blog for each of my products to cross link them. After that, I would simply focus on writing my blog, building my following, and building my blog into an authority site.

You’re probably wondering why I’m telling you this. I doubt you care how I build my business. However, if you’re a writer looking to make more money from your writing, there really is a simple formula for doing it, the one I just told you about.

Every writer needs a blog, and here are seven reasons why:

1. Blogging scripts help you build a website without knowing a lot about HTML or SEO.

Most hosting services offer something called Fantastico now. What Fantastico does is allow you to install scripts without having to know HTML. One of the scripts you may install is Wordpress. If you want to build a blog, then Wordpress is the best platform for you to build your blog because it’s flexible, ranks well in the search engines, and contains plenty of plugins to help you do things automatically.

2. A blog allows you to connect with your readers.

Blogging has caught on across the internet. In fact, blogging is so popular that it has replaced the news sites as a way to get news. A blog is a great way to connect with those who are interested in the topic you write about.

3. Blogs make it easy for you to build a following.

Writing is probably one of the easiest ways to build a following of readers. This is very important especially in terms of your income. If you have a loyal following of readers, every time you come out with a new book or piece of writing, you already have a market lined up.

The easiest way to build a following is by allowing your readers to subscribe to your blog through both RSS and email. Then your readers may choose how they read your content.

4. With the right blog platform you will automate many of your marketing tasks.

I use Wordpress, and the reason is that it offers so many different types of plugins, as well as allowing me to future post. Future post is where you write when you want to and then tell Wordpress when to post.

Wordpress also offers plugins to create sitemaps for the search engines, post your entries on the social networks, and allow your readers to bookmark your posts building valuable backlinks. Automating as many marketing tasks as possible saves time and allows you to focus on writing.

5. You have the option of writing about a specific topic or writing about your work.

According to best selling author Patrice Ann Rutledge, as a writer, you have a choice about what type of site you create. If you write non fiction like I do, you want to write about a specific topic. If you write fiction, then you’ll want to focus more on yourself. Few other professions allow you this choice.

6. It allows you to improve your writing.

By blogging regularly, you are writing more. The more you write, the better you will get at your craft. Writing is not really an art form. It is something you will get better at if you practice it regularly. Blogging is an easy way to do this.

7. You don’t have to be an extrovert to write a blog.

I believe that many writers are introverts, that they hate marketing, and they really don’t want to be bothered with others. Maybe that’s the reasons writers make so little money.

The beauty of a blog though is that no one ever has to know what you look like, how old you are, or anything else. If you write a good blog, you will connect with your readers and sell your writing. Isn’t that what it’s really all about?

Although articles are a highly effective way to promote your business, it’s not enough to write good articles. You need to seek every possible promotional opportunity there is.

The advantage of the internet is that there are a lot more opportunities for you to publish your articles. You may also syndicate them to sites that use RSS feeds.

If you want more traffic, and more sales from your articles, you may want to consider using these techniques to help you market.

1. Drip your articles into the article directories.

You’ve probably heard about the duplicate content penalty. As an article writer, you don’t need to be concerned with this. Your job is to syndicate.

To get the most from your article writing submissions, spread out the submission of the article. Surfers read articles; search engines don’t.

When you spread out the submission of your article, it’s more likely to go viral. The reason is your article won’t be seen thousands of times on thousands of sites. Your article will be seen more over time allowing you to get more traffic.

There are plenty of services out there to help you do this, and you can even automate your submissions. Don’t stop there though.

2. Find ezines that accept articles.

There are thousands, possibly millions of ezine publishers who want good content for their ezines. By submitting to ezines, you are opening up a new market for your articles.

Many who might not normally see your article because they don’t visit article directories now have a chance to read your article and get to know you.

3. Look for websites that accept articles.

This is different from submitting to article directories. There are tons of websites out there on just about every topic you can imagine.

What these sites all have in common is that they’re authority sites in their respective fields. These sites will have a page rank of five or better.

Look for a submission form on the website. Check the page rank. Although sometimes you may have to submit an original article that you can’t post anywhere else, it’s well worth it because syndication isn’t a one shot deal.

4. Look beyond the internet to print.

According to Amazon, there are 80,000 magazines in their catalog. I’m sure there are a whole lot more. If you really want to give your article some legs and have the cachet of having a print credit, pitch it to a trade magazine on your topic.

Rewrite your article, polish it, and then submit. You’ll have customers with money in hand coming to you. Consider newspapers as another viable source of publishing.

5. Do social syndication.

There are plenty of article writers who will tell you not to include your article on your website. I believe that when you fail to include your articles on your site, you’re really doing a disservice to your readers.

Add your article to your website, especially if you have a blog. Post to Twitter, Friend Feed, and sites like that.

Syndication as widely as possible is key to your success in article writing. It’s also the easiest path to turning your articles into viral marketing traffic machines that will drive traffic to your business long after you write them.

An affiliate business is the easiest type of business to start. You don’t need expertise in any specific topic.

Instead, you may choose your favorite hobby or a topic you are interested in. Once you’ve chosen your topic, then you have lots of options on how to get started.

Before you get started though, there are a few things you need to do. Take these steps, and you will succeed in your new affiliate business very quickly.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Do a skills assessment.

Even though affiliate businesses are easy to start, you still need certain skills to get started. If you don’t know how to build a website or how to market, you will either need to learn or find someone to outsource to.

If you outsource, make sure you understand what is involved in the project so you know how much things cost.

The easiest way to do this is to use reputable sites that offer ratings for service providers. Some examples of these types of sites are Guru.com and Elance.

2. Read as much as you can on affiliate marketing.

With many libraries offering access to the internet now, your local library now offers you all of the tools and resources you need to get started. Read all of the books the library offers on affiliate and internet marketing.

Search their databases for more information. Databases offer plenty of resources like print articles and book resources. Librarians are also a wealth of information on how to find things. Ask for help if you need it.

3. Research your topic.

If you choose a topic you are interested in instead of a topic you may have experience with, you will want to thoroughly research your topic. Find several books on your topic as well as searching the internet and library databases for more information.

If you don’t like to read, then choose audio or video. Audio and video are widely available throughout the internet, and you can watch or listen to them for free.

4. Choose your affiliate programs.

Creating the right mix of affiliate programs is crucial to your success. You will want to choose from as many different types of affiliate programs as possible. This includes pay per click, pay per lead, and pay per sale.

Add programs that offer a recurring income. This is income you make month after month after you have made the sale.

You will also want to include programs that offer lifetime commissions. This allows you to make more money from each customer you refer to a merchant.

5. Write your first marketing plan.

How you choose to market depends on what you are marketing, as well as how much money you have, and what skills you have. Writing promotional materials is a vital part of any marketing plan.

If you don’t know how to write a specific type of promotional material, you will need to learn. Choose only one or two marketing techniques to start and add techniques as you get more marketing savvy.

Although a certain amount of skill is helpful to starting your first affiliate business, a willingness to learn and take action does more to guarantee your success.

It is not enough to build a beautiful website. Although I’m sure there are plenty of “beautiful” websites out there that make money, there are far more important issues you need to consider when building your websites.

Whether you plan to create a one page sales letter or a content rich website, you need to consider these factors:

1. Use proper layout and design techniques.

Proper layout and design techniques are related to the overall look of your website. This includes the fonts you use, the colors, and any graphics you may include.

Avoid using fonts that are hard to read. Avoid text colors that are hard to read. Although yellow might be a pretty color for curtains, it rearely works for any type of website as a font because it’s so difficult to read. Black text on a white background is always a good choice.

2. Offer easy to use navigation.

When your visitors arrive at your website, they need to be able to locate what they are looking for quickly. If your visitors have to click more than twice to locate the appropriate page, they may just get frustrated and leave. Organize your content in such a way that visitors locate it quickly by using labels for your pages that make it clear what the pages are about.

3. Avoid resources that don’t contribute to your website.

Once your website has been around for awhile, and you’ve had a chance to gain rankings in the search engines, you will have a lot of people contact you to exchange links. Be very careful about the sites you choose to exchange links with.

First, if the site isn’t relevant to what you offer, having a link from that site really won’t help you with your rankings. It also dilutes the topic of your site by offering something unrelated.

When you do exchange links with others, make sure the sites complement and not compete with your website. If possible, exchange links with sites that have affiliate programs and offer an affiliate program for your site. It will be easier for you to get links, and if you only exchange links with sites that offer affiliate programs, you avoid losing money by sending referrals.

4. Make sure your website loads fast.

Although many have DSL or cable modems now, there are still millions who are on dial up. If your site is slow to load, or you’ve designed it primarily for one browser or another, you’re not helping your visitors, and they’ more like to click away. Make it fast and make it compatible.

5. Test the links on your website.

Broken links are a fact of life. If you change your content, you may end up with broken links. Make sure you test all of your links to make sure they work. There’s plenty of free software you can use to do this.

Ultimately, if you want great conversions, offer content your visitors want that they can’t get anywhere else. Make it easy to read, make it clear, and give your visitors what they want. You’ll make the sale.