Top Affiliate Programs

Are you looking to join the right residual income affiliate programs? First off, I want to let you know that you are making the right decision because these types of programs will pay you every month for the work that you potentially did months or years ago – residual passive income.

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Affiliate programs DO PAY.  Amazon Affiliates are one of the top methods for earning an extra paycheck while remaining at home watching the kids or working the hours you like and leaving the standard 9 to 5 J.O.B.  But, it can be a daunting task to setup a professional website and learn how all the ins and outs of online marketing.  But, Amazon isn’t the only method for creating a solid work from home business.  While there are many scams and pyramid schemes out there, there are some legitimate home business opportunities and Pure Residuals is here to give you the pros and cons of the major players.

How can you find the right business for you?

The first thing you will need to do is make sure there is a hungry niche that you can fill. What I mean by this is make sure people actually want what you have to offer. The worst mistake you can make is to get involved with a company product or service that nobody is willing to spend money on. If no one is spending money on what you have to offer, you will not make any money.

Also, the second piece of information I can give you is to do your due diligence. This is very important because it will show you who are the real companies are that are really going to help you from the ones that are only interested in taking your money. I have been burnt many times in the past by not doing the proper research.

It seems like there are so many different website out there that say the same thing.

How can you know who to trust?

This is where doing the proper due diligence comes in.

The last thing you should look for is a program that is affordable. I hate to see people risk all of their money to join a home business opportunity. The reason why this is the worst thing that you can do is because once you do this you will put yourself in a position of need. People who get too needy want to get rich fast. If you are familiar with business then you should know that this is not a good combination. You cannot get rich quick with any company in a fast amount of time.

The last part of the whole equation would be to get to work! If you are serious about making this whole dream a reality you will have to go out there and make it happen. Always remember that you are in charge of your success, nobody else is. So if you get involved with a residual income program, these are things that you should look for.

What is an Affiliate Network?

Affiliate Networks are the Internet warehouses for Fortune 500 companies to find an army of online marketing specialists that build websites or know how to market without one.  Building a website is much less expensive, but you don’t necessarily have to have one to earn affiliate commissions.  The companies looking for online affiliate marketers sign up as “Publishers” or “Vendors” with the affiliate networks.  This is typically free on their part.  Then, affiliate marketers submit a profile (website description, background information, online marketing strategy) to the publishers to gain approval to market their products or services.

Here are a few of the major affiliate networks available today:

• Amazon Associates
• Clickbank
• JVZoo
• MarketHealth
• CJ Affiliate – formerly Commission Junction

There are many online affiliate marketers making thousands of dollars each month with each of these major affiliate networks.  It takes work, dedication and discipline, but once you begin earning that passive monthly income, you’ll never look back.

How To Affiliate Market

Affiliate marketing is basically bringing customers and companies together.  The affiliate is the outsourced marketing agent for the company’s’ services or products.  So, how does an affiliate generally create this joining of customers and companies?

Step 1:  Discover a Niche Market YOU Like –

The first thing a beginning affiliate marketer should do is determine a topic, niche market or field they are interested in. An “interest” matters simply because if you have a passion or true interest in something, you’ll enjoy more researching it and creating your website.  Also, there is a larger possibility that you actually have some experience with the products or services that you’ll be marketing.  Amazon has a ton of products within many, many niches.  While Amazon will ship direct to your customer from the respective companies, Clickbank on the other hand deals more with digital downloads and training videos in respective niche markets.

Step 2 : Determine Which Products You Would Like to Market

After you have settled on which niche market you would like to pursue, you can check out which products are available to earn affiliate commissions on. I check several places including the four major affiliate networks above.  I even might check eBay as they have an affiliate marketplace through CJ Affiliate (in addition to Dell, IBM and many other major Fortune 500 companies.)  Once you find a handful of products you feel are right for you, you submit your application to sell as an affiliate and will subsequently be provided an affiliate link.  This is a weblink to the products coded with your very own affiliate key.  So, any sale made is attributed to your efforts and gain you monetary compensation – a commission or percentage of the sale.

Step 3: Build a Professional Website

The next step in affiliate marketing is to build a professional looking website.  There are several platforms available for performing this task, but likely the most proficient and highly used website platform is the WordPress CMS (Content Management System).  There are several WordPress hosting services available, but most are not fully-featured WordPress platforms – at least not for free.  Wordpress.com does offer WordPress websites free of charge, but each of their free accounts are restricted.  To gain full access, you have to upgrade to a paid package AND pay for a domain name.  With Wealthy Affiliate, this is not the case.  Check out my full Wealthy Affiliate Review here.

Step 4:  A SOLID Content Marketing Strategy

While you could pay some big money upfront to drive website traffic to your newly built website, this could make you go bankrupt!  It’s a great way to get started IF you know pay per click marketing really REALLY well, but PPC is truly an art and can take years to master. Wealthy Affiliate does teach PPC, among many other methods, but the true KING of website traffic has been and will always be content marketing.  Content marketing is basically creating engaging, unique content – articles, videos, tutorials, etc about your chosen niche market and then more specifically for your chosen products or services that you’ll earn commissions on.  If you consistently develop unique engaging content for your website, the Internet search engines will notice it and drive organic search traffic to your website nearly for free.  I say nearly, because I consider developing articles, videos, tutorials relatively time and research.  Your time isn’t exactly free now is it?  But, if you use your time efficiently and really know how to drive targeted website traffic (people truly interested in your products) you’ll see this as a way to earn money on a free advertising budget.  Discover how to best design a content marketing strategy like a pro and you will dominate your chosen niche market!

Step 5:  Branding Yourself and Website Promotion

Once you’re well on your way with your content marketing, it’s important to learn to brand yourself and build your online reputation.  This will support your content marketing and create a synergistic effect on your targeted website traffic. Online marketing when taken to the “next level” is all about branding yourself and relationship management.  Not only the relationship with your customers, but also with other webmasters and business owners.  Joint Ventures have made many business owners millionaires and can truly rocket a new business through the roof.  And, joint ventures aren’t as difficult as they sound.

If you’ve never attempted online marketing in the past, it can be hugely daunting at first.  There is much too learn. But, I and many others are making an extra paycheck each and every month via the top affiliate programs reviewed on this website.  There are huge communities of affiliate marketings joining forces and making it happen and you can too.  It does indeed take the eagerness to learn something new and being disciplined and dedicated.  You have to treat it like a job and not a hobby.

But, it can soon replace your day job and provide you the time and luxury of working from home or yes, actually earning money while you sleep.  Your professional website is up and running 24/7, even if you aren’t!

Take the plunge and make a life decision that can award your efforts at a level you truly deserve.  Sure, like many things you’ll get out what you put in.  But, if you work hard up front, that passive monthly income check will continue to grow and build and much less effort will be required on your part.  This article is simply a snapshot of the many exciting things you’ll learn and believe me, there is nothing like earning that first affiliate commission paycheck!  To your success!