Internet Money Streams Blog
Turn your dreams into Internet Money StreamsIntroduction To ClickBank Affiliate Network
Intro to Affiliate Marketing 101
For those of you who have never heard of affiliate marketing or affiliate networks in general it is probably a good idea to pay attention to this post. You can very easily make money by selling other peoples stuff online. It may sound a little strange, but this is how it works.
You become an affiliate for a company selling a product on the internet. For example you may have seen those x10 camera ads all over the internet and maybe in your mailbox (hopefully not) but i know those ads have had some serious exposure.
Well, when someone goes online and purchases that item the advertisement is usually ‘tagged’ in some way that references your affiliate account. When and if someone decides they would like to purchase the item that you have presented to them you get a commission of the sale. Kind of like a finders fee or a birddog in other markets.
You find someone interested in a product, provided them a way to make a purchase, and the Vendor thanks you for the sale by giving you a certain percentage per sale you make.
Is it hard to do Affiliate Marketing?
Not at all in fact most affiliate networks give you the all the tools you need to get started. However, becoming successful in the business can sometimes be tough. There is alot of competition in some markets, and if you don’t have any patience i would cruise on past this article and keep a movin’.
The benefits of Affiliate Marketing though are enormous. The idea of Affiliate Marketing is that you have Internet Money Streams, or multiple products that you are selling and you get a sale here and there which adds up to good money at the end of the month.
Is it possible to sell a single item as an Affiliate and Make Money?
Absolutely, however there is a catch there also. Mainly you have to have built your own product or be selling a product that is in such high demand and there isn’t a large number of affiliates already trying to sell it to the general public. Early Bird Syndrome.
Most affiliates are professionals and it can be kind of hard to beat them out to the gate. Especially if you are a newer affiliate of anything and are trying to get your reputation built.
What is the difference between Affiliate Programs and Affiliate Networks?
Well think of it like this. An Affiliate Program is a single vendor normally that you sign up to sell something which means 1 product. In order to sell more products you search and find out additional affiliate programs. And when you get paid you normally get paid from all the programs independantly. If you are an affiliate for 5 programs you recieve 5 checks, etc.
Affiliate Networks are more of a clearing house for affiliate programs. They allow you to signup with 1 account and sell multiple affiliate products in one place. The affiliate network may have 10 products or possibly even 10,000+ products. Another benefit of an affiliate network is when it comes time to collect the cash you get a single paycheck from all your programs.
So nice…. Anyways, all this to say i use ClickBank for finding some of my affiliate programs. It is a nice service with great uptime and i have had nothing but good experiences from it. They always payout regularly and on time.
What can i expect to make on products that i Sell?
Well depends on alot of factors from what network you signup with, what vendors commission payouts are and can vary from each product you want to sell.
Net sale amount of product after ClickBank Processing Fees: $26.70
55% of the Remainder: which is $14.69
Therefore, as the referring affiliate for this sale, you would earn $14.69.
CamStudio – Great Screen Capture Software
For those of you who may be new to video marketing there is something that you have to do.
1.) Get a screen capture software so that you can showcase your talents, tips, tricks, etc. on video
2.) Make sure that you don’t pay an extreme price for the software as well. In fact, if you pay anything for it you are definately looking in the wrong place.
The program that i use to capture my screen is called camstudio. The best part is that it is completely FREE! that is right.. completely FREE! I love sourceforge!
If you don’t know about sourceforge then you definately need to do so and you will find that alot of software you can get for free just by looking on that website.
To download your free edition of CamStudio just visit sourceforge and search for it.
Your Internet Business – What do you want to achieve? How will you get there?
It is extremely important when planning your Internet business structure that you also plan what goals that you want to achieve within a certain time frame. For example you may want to be able to generate enough income to cover all your start up costs and overhead in time that you have spent online within the first month.
I think that this is a modest goal and that you could accomplish this quite easily, but having goals and accomplishing milestones in your new company is vital to knowing where you are going and how fast you are going to get there. These metrics will help you determine what you are doing and if it is a good thing. You will use this information to find out if your business is taking you where you want to be, and if not you will have to change your operational plans.
Change for any Internet based-business operation is essential. In order to compete you have to structure your business very dynamically and be agile enough to work around whatever may come up around the corner. This isn’t always easy to know, and it is never predictable.
Plan for success rather than failure so that you know how to handle it when it comes. There is nothing worse than having a great amount of business and nowhere to direct that business to, or not having the resources to drive sales and overall profitability.
You should draw up your companies business plan. Business Plans can be very general or very in depth. If you have no idea what it takes to get your business plan together there are free resources available from the Business Plan Center Organization. This site is free and has plenty of insightful articles to help you get a business plan started and in place.
You should also visit the IRS website for small business – especially if you are planning to be self-employed because of tax purposes. The IRS website has alot of information that will be useful to you getting started and you will know what to expect when you start making money.
You may need to consult a lawyer or a CPA and discuss what type of business entity that you are going to desire setting up. There are many types of businesses, and a qualified individual (more than me) can help you with that. I certainly don’t do my own taxes… i got people… so to speak. 
Your business plan is your companies performance road map, without it you are like me on a road trip without GPS! Good intentions and absolutely no clue where i am going.
Till next time.
Micro Vs. Macro Competitors in a specific Niche
For many users out there and IM’ers (Internet Marketers) you may have your own formula for finding and getting traffic online. One thing that you consistenly do however you choose to do it is find as much about the competition as possible in a chosen market or niche.
Some claim that many products, offers, etc are too saturated in the market and therefore are not decent opportunities to persue. Personally i have seen this on a few occasions recently and i thought i would briefly describe the differences in Micro and Macro competition to aid in suggestion of future endevours.
A Macro competitor in the world of Internet Marketing would be your competition that is out there bidding on the same keywords or writing articles, joining groups, posting videos, focusing on the same keywords that your site is using.
On the other hand a Micro competitor can be far worse as their product offerings is normally the exact same product that you are selling.
It is important to understand the differences of these types of competitors to help within your calcuations of market saturation before attempting to push particular offerings.
Internet Money Streams Revealed
The title basically says it all, and that is going to be the main topic of this blog. We are not only going to be focused on different ways of making money on line, but rather methods that you can use as well with us to start generating a decent income from home.
You may be thinking that it isn’t possible, but it is. We will cover various topics on Internet marketing in an effort to help you succeed at becoming a successful on line entrepreneur.
