Affiliate Marketing: Is it worth it?

I'm getting this curiosity about affiliate marketing and I'm wondering how many of you are into it, if at all. This topic came up yesterday during a discussion and I'm wondering if any of you have any experience in it, if you're making some money off of it, and what are some tips and tricks that can be employed in driving traffic to your site.

Comission Junction seems to be a good starting place to learn more about this. Spectra actually led me to it and I've been looking around. But what are the tactics for a good successful site that will get good traffic and serious hits.

From what I understand it's a small thing right now that will eventually get larger and more competitive. Any thought on this?

Spectra...somebody?

Cheers!

Zerimar,

http://www.home-business-reviews.com/Jame%20Martel-Affiliate%20Markets%20Handbook.htm

I recomend using this book as your bible. This is how things are done...for the most part. Things are changing of course, but you need a starting point. After learning how it all works and what it is, then you need to know how Google, Alexa, Overature and the likes work. But for now, you need to build a base to work from.

When I said it was small, thats not completely true. There is a number of people doing it, but only a handful are REALLY successful at it. However, it is tiny compared to where the ceiling is on this field. Where we are right now, is a lot of bad looking sites with terrible graphics, terrible everything making all the money. Most of these people are NOT designers. So all they know is the business end of things. Once the desingers of the world learn how this stuff works, we are going to see an influx of quality affiliate sites. The first people that get on board are the ones that will clean up. After that, people are just going to expect a quality site and all the terrible ones will be gone. This is where the competition will really step up. It's already ruthless when it comes to Ad Words and bidding on search terms, and it is tough to optimize a site for Google, especially since their algorithims for spam and link farms are so tight. It takes a lot of know how in creating a site that maximizes what you are seeking.

Basically, if you read that handbook, it will explain everything. It's written in a way that's easy to read. It's for non technical people. You'll learn about link exchange, content pages, the works. Give it a shot. I'll reply further to any questions or whenever someone has something to say.

Spectra,

I checked out the link. It sounds interesting, but I'm not sure about the trust man. I mean, I've seen sites like these before, they don't look professional and $167 is pretty steep when you're on a budget like me.

But who knows, I just might give it a shot and see what happens. But it sounds interesting and something I'd like to research. However, it does come with a money back guarantee, so it could be worth diving into.

Thanks for the link, I'm really going to consider this. By the way, how did you find out about all of this? Do you have an affiliate site going on yourself?

The sites like Spectra posted always look like scams to me. The way I'd approach something like affiliate marketing is much different. I'd make a content site, then just link banners or even specific products from there.

These sites that start out saying you'll make 50 billion dollars in no time just immediately make me stop reading. It's hard work, and it's not going to happen overnight. It may never happen at all. You have to find a niche and keep working at it.

Deker, I know what you mean man. The site has one of those "get rich quick" schemes to me man. And that chunky guy up on the corner doesn't look to convincing either man. He just looks hungry :D

I think I'd rather go at it alone man, and just hook up a site and see what all this jazz is about. As I posted on my last thread, I was approached by a frustrated couple this weekend, because they forked out $200.00 bucks to go to some seminar on this "affiliate marketing" and they were there for 6 hours.

They were told they were going to have their site built by this company and look that they would link them to everything, and that they're only obligation was to pay hosting and domain name fees.

But it looks like this company packed its bags and moved on. No where to be found physically, but supposedly they have a site. I'll post it here once I hear back from the guy. I want to see the validity of it.

Seriously though, I'm sure one can start it up on their own with dedication and research.

Cheers!

That link I posted was purely for his book. It will tell you how to do everything on your own, step by step...

Spectra, remember you told me about www.boosk.com? I noticed it redirects to another site which is http://www.webtickers.com/borders/#redirect

Now if I reduce that to http://www.webtickers.com/ it then takes me to http://www.economy-travel.com/

Does this guy just have one domain name, and then buy more domain names to point to the ones he wants to make money from? For instance you buy x.com and then you set it up and by y.com to make it go to x.com and then maybe buy z.com and make y.com go to z.com or maybe re-route from x.com to z.com. Is this pretty much how it works, so that you have links everywhere in various categories to get people clicking away?

Just wondering as I research this affiliate marketing thing more and more.

Cheers!