It is WONDERFUL if you already have a website up and running, making you some money, and selling a product. Regardless of topic, your site NEEDS a list, and can profit from one! 

Perhaps by today, if you entered this with a site up already, this has been a pretty smooth ride so far.

HOWEVER: This is why I said THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX. This business model can be set up independently (should be) of your site and be earning you extra passive income from another resource.

Sample suggestions:

*Lose weight like the celebrities   *Master your fear of x (anything really!)  *Easy Meals for the working mom etc etc etc

Ok, but I have just gone on and on and we have yet to get to todays lesson! Here we go:

If you do not have your own product or service to offer your visitors you will need to find products to promote. Even if you already have your own product or service you can offer other related services to your visitors in order to help them
and thereby make more money.  Here is how to find other products: 

First go to Clickbank  -

- This site comes recommended first due to the high percentage commissions they offer: usually in the 50% range.  ClickBank offers only downloadable electronic products such as software and ebooks.  There are no shipping or material costs so the profit margin on each item sold is 100%.  This allows the creators of the products to be very generous to
the affiliates that help sell them.  This also allows you to promote a product that your visitor will receive instantly!

ClickBank is free to join and they pay in a very
timely manner.  Click here to join:

Clickbank

To find products just visit the site, do a search for your topic and see what comes up.

Now lets find more products to promote:

Go to Google.com and do a search for your topic + affiliate program. So for example “quilting + affiliate program” (only affiliate program in quotes) if quilting was my niche. The search results will pull up different sites which offer
affiliate programs for selling their products. It is more common to find commissions up to 15% per sale, but if you find a more expensive product than what is being offered at ClickBank it could translate into being the same amount earned. There are many marketers who insist that it is easier to sell a more expensive product than an inexpensive product since there is more credibility on a product with a higher price tag.  I am not convinced .

Sign up to the programs you find.  They should all be free.  Follow the instructions on how to link
to them in order to insure that you receive your deserved commission.  

There are also many networks of affiliate programs where you can sign up once and have the ability to
promote products from many different sites, all with one-stop reporting and one big check per
month instead of many small ones.  Here are some examples:

Major Affiliate Networks

Commission Junction

Probably the world’s largest affiliate network.  They are free to join as an affiliate (you) but their merchants have to pay hefty fees each month so most of the companies they deal with are upscale, respectable firms.

Linkshare.com
 

Similar to Commission Junction

Smaller Networks:

We have had good experiences dealing with the following networks, all of whom have dozens to
hundreds of merchants that you can work with:

Websponsors.com

Directleads.com

AffiliateFuel.com

Azoogleads.com

One final and important note:

As we mentioned at the seminar, for most businesses it is critical to “keep the customer”, meaning that if a customer buys something you need to know who they are so that you can sell to them again in the future.  Most sales in almost all businesses come from repeat customers, not first-time customers.  If you have your own business you
probably know already that this is true.

Therefore it is important to remember that your affiliate revenues should be seen as a supplement to your business — offering those items to your visitors that you currently can not offer them directly.

The long-term goal should be to expand the list of products that you can sell yourself.  The products
you sell through affiliate programs can help you zero in on what works best for you and your site. 
Then look to find ways to provide the products yourself or via drop-shippers who will handle the
fulfillment of orders while you get to keep a bigger percentage of the sale and the customer
him/herself.

Keep at it!  Until next time,