3 Ways To Make Money Without A Website

So, you've heard of this magical place online that allows you to generate income from home, but you are too scared to drop $10 on a domain and $5 per month on hosting. No problem! There are plenty of free solutions to that predicament, although not optimal, it's possible to make money through affiliate marketing without even owning your own website. Let's look at 3 ways you can start generating income today, without all the tedious money spending part.

Blogger

Of course, this is the format and blogging back end that DMB uses. It's free to sign up, free to start blogging, and offers plenty of customization options to start monetizing immediately.

Adsense is the big ad network currently in bed with Blogger, but that's just because Google owns Blogger. However, it's easy to add text and javascript widgets onto any blog template currently on Blogger. This means you can add snippets from networks like PepperJam, Commission Junction, or even eBay to start monetizing.
Squidoo

It's the ultimate in one page publishing, where you put all the information you can about a niche on a single page. This single page consists of videos, links, content information, etc along with Adsense and options for Amazon and eBay products. It's free to sign up, publish, and very user friendly with setting up affiliate accounts.

The bonus with Squidoo is that Google loves new pages on their website, which means more times than not a Squidoo page will rank almost immediately. Furthermore, some of my Squidoo pages get great attention from long tail keywords.

Hub Pages

This is another Squidooesque type website that allows single page publishing on any topic you want. Again, super newbie friendly when setting up affiliate accounts like Amazon and eBay so that you can monetize the page you just created.

Hub Pages seems a little bit more social than Squidoo, at least in my opinion. There are published rankings of pages, automatic links to other similar pages, and comment system. The entire process of setting up a page is a snap and takes less than 10 minutes.

Total Benefit

These are just a few short ways to get started in affiliate marketing, today! The long term benefit is that you can interlink all of these sites, since you retain creative control, so that they all rank well in the search engines. This will provide residual traffic for potentially years to come, always producing a small affiliate ad income.

Fast and Easy Keyword Research – Affiliate Espionage Versus Other Keyword Tools

Which keyword research approach do you like?

Do you want to be in and out of there and pick out the exact information you need – the wham bam thank you maim approach?

Or do you like to dig right down into the nitty gritty and trawl through a lot of data to find all the keywords you need?

If you favor the quick approach, then Affiliate Espionage is for you, however if you like to dig and analyze data, then Keyword Elite would be better for you.

Really what it comes down to is whether you want to conduct some quick laser focused keyword research and enter a new market today, or spend some time going through mounds of data, sifting for the gems and taking longer making those market entry decisions.

People just starting out on the internet, and seasoned experts alike, can all suffer from information overload and a keyword tool like Affiliate Espionage irons out the creases and gets you straight to the point. It helps people make more money by side stepping the analysis paralysis and noise generated by research tools like Keyword Elite.

This extra noise can both be a blessing and a hindrance.

As a user of both keyword research tools, I know Keyword Elite can uncover some really useful information, but only if you know what you are looking for and are prepared to spend some time sorting through the data.

However, if you don’t know what you are doing, it is easy to get bogged down or overwhelmed by the expanse of data, this kind of research tool cooks up. This is especially true if you are entering a new market where you know nothing about the competitors or keywords.

Wouldn’t you much prefer succinct keyword research advice that allows you to make a decision, without too much thinking on your part?

This is what Affiliate Espionage does.

In fact, I would describe Affiliate Espionage as a secret weapon, it helps you discover great markets by allowing you to emulate other people’s success by letting you spy on their online activities and the keywords they are using for their success. Whereas when you use keyword research tools like Keyword Elite you have to find your own successful keywords through trial and error.

So you can use Affiliate Espionage to quickly emulate the success of others or use other keyword tools if you want to spend time hunting for the golden gooses yourself.

Affiliate Espioange Exposes Profitable Pay Per Click Campaigns With Ease...Get Your Copy Here...

Bad Economy Equals Lower Prices and Lower Commissions

No doubt the economy is effecting online purchasing as well, which is trending towards lowering prices. These lower prices, coupons, etc are translating into obviously lower commissions. Where a referred visitor may purchase an average of $200 worth of product, with coupons and lowered pricing, the average may be down as low as $100.

So what's the best way to compete with lower commissions, based on factors you have no control over? My suggestion is to focus on more referrals, more visitors, and make up for the lower tiered commissions with volume. That's what the advertisers are hoping for, that the deals will translate into more sales, although lower dollars each.

Maybe more than ever affiliates need to be focusing on getting cheap traffic, by focusing heavily on SEO and less on PPC. Although SEO is an ongoing job, it can translate into lower cost visitors and have lasting effects. Where as on PPC when the campaign funds dry up, the visitors stop coming, and the cost per visitor adds up to lower your ROI even more on dropped priced sales.

Watch For Canceled Affiliate Programs

It's a tough economy and it's not just affecting the typical brick 'n mortar. At an increased rate I've been receiving notifications that some of the affiliate programs I'm using are closing or potentially running low on funds in their Network accounts. It requires careful attention so that you, the affiliate, are not the one left out to dry.

First, make sure the affiliate network you are signed up with has your correct email and check to make sure you are notified of changes. Just because a program within a network closes, doesn't mean the ads won't keep displaying, it just means you won't earn a commission.

Also, make sure that you sign into your Affiliate Network site every day. This will help keep you aware of new programs being offered, news, and potentially new tools to help you make more money. Lately, some of the news I'm getting from long term affiliates are coupon codes. These can be a great way to bring more visitors to your site, since you have something to offer them to buy from the company you are affiliating for.

Lastly, I can't stress enough, make sure you are getting updates from all of the affiliate programs you are signed up with. Often times the commissions end immediately, so the longer their ads are up on your site, the more money you will lose.

The Future Of Affiliate Programs

I tell myself on a daily basis to be positive, unfortunately I'm seeing too many changes, happening a little too fast, and I think it spells a rough road ahead for affiliate marketers. The internet is not immune to the troubles in the US and foreign economy, therefore we should start preparing for trends in online businesses just as we have seen them in 'brick 'n mortar'. I'm referring to cut-backs, lower wages (see affiliate commissions), and less accessibility.

First let's look at what companies must do to become more profitable in a failing economy. Consumer confidence is way down, so even fewer people will be buying online, therefore less impulse buying. The less impulse buying the less companies will need to rely on affiliates to bring in the long tail consumers. Either a consumer will know what they want and go to the source, or they won't be interested at all. Expect companies to withdraw existing affiliate programs and even more will wait to enter the market place with programs in place.

Lowering wages is a great way to pad your profit margin and in our case it means lower commissions. Lowering a commission on a program becomes much easier when it's spread out over thousands of affiliates, instead of just a handful of employees. Expect large cuts in commissions and new offers looking flatter than usual. I've actually lost track of how many programs are actually adjusting their commission rates from MaxBounty, luckily these have yet to effect me personally. One only needs to look at eBay for another example of 'cutting commissions', in regards to their recent hack of affiliates and the reorganization of their ACRU tiers.

Lastly, accessibility in regards to the ease of joining an affiliate program. At one time even larger affiliate managers accepted almost anyone into their programs, no matter traffic, or even visitor quality. Now things are getting tighter and bandwidth costs money, the days of sending traffic that doesn't convert to affiliate sites may be over. Expect to not be allowed to sign up unless you have a record of targeted traffic, or existing affiliates should start taking steps to record where and how their traffic is arriving on their site and where they are being sent to the affiliate sites. Finding the fine line in fewer affiliates and higher quality converting traffic will save a company countless dollars on less man power, for managing worthless affiliates(in their eyes) and remove thin affiliate competition from search engines.

The moral of this story is to start diversifying now, so if one revenue stream starts failing or making cuts you're not left out to dry. To an extent I'm speaking from experience and to another I'm kicking myself in the ass. Good luck and happy earning.

Affiliate Deals - Bigger Commisions

I've located another affiliate program that offers up some great commissions and has great brand recognition. The BlockBuster Online Rental Program is the newest program within MaxBounty with increased commissions, paired with a great offer to potential customers. BlockBuster customers can sign up for an initial price of $9.99 and receive unlimited rentals for a month. For the affiliate, you earn a commission of $44 per lead after a visitor signs up and submits their credit card to begin their membership.

What made me select this as a great affiliate deal is that it contains a number of key items I look for in any affiliate program I use:

• Brand Recognition
• Appeal to a broad base
• High payout
• Simple sign ups and lead generation
• Good support from the program manager. (MaxBounty)
• Great Creatives (banners, etc..)

It's worth taking a lot at no matter what topic your site covers. Chances are there are visitors that are interested in trying out rentals online and it's a great way to market and compete against NetFlix.

NewEgg Mall Affiliate Program

I'm not sure about you, but I am a massive fan of anything NewEgg. It seems like no matter what I am buying, if NewEgg.com had it, it was cheaper even with freight. The only problem was that their inventory of items was limited to electronics, but now they've got a whole line of products similar to Amazon at the NewEggMall. I've been biting the bullet waiting for them to release an affiliate program and now it looks like they are offering one through Commission Junction.

NeweggMall.com, a subsidiary of Newegg Inc., is a premier online shopping destination for general merchandise. Launched in 2008, this elegant e-commerce site boasts a wide-ranging selection of apparel, accessories, auto, home living, jewelry & watches, and outdoor & garden products to meet the demands of the most selective customers.

Building on the success of newegg.com, the second-largest online-only retailer in the United States and preferred destination for technology enthusiasts, NeweggMall.com brings the same customer-centric principles to the broader market: great product selection and pricing, fast delivery and outstanding customer service. With more than 15,000 unique products available on the site, NeweggMall.com continues to seek out, evaluate and add merchant partners who can deliver the high quality e-commerce shopping experience customers have come to associate with the Newegg brand.

Looks like the NewEggMall affiliate program will drop a 30 day cookie and earn you a 4% flat commission on whatever is purchased. This is lower than what you can get through Amazon, but a much better cookie length. Furthermore the regular NewEgg.com affiliate program only offers a 3 day cookie length, so you better get while the getting is good. Affiliate programs like Amazon only offer a 1 day action period and I think we will see NewEgg drop the length of their cookie after this site kick off as well.

Affiliate Incentives

It's important, as in any business, to familiarize yourself with the companies that you affiliate with. Knowing their business practices and strategies will help you become a better affiliate for them and also give warning to things you may want to step away from. By becoming entrenched with a certain company though, blinders can be put on to similar affiliate programs that may offer some nice incentives.

I operate a number of automotive themed websites and blogs, which I affiliate for parts warehouses and places like eBay. While eBay is my primary source of affiliate income I also subscribe to affiliate program updates in my reader from the operating affiliate network. This means that whenever an affiliate incentive is being offered by another affiliate, in this example AutoPartsWarehouse.com, I can take advantage of the bonuses they offer. Often these bonuses are time sensitive so staying on top of an offer is important.

Currently AutoPartsWarehouse.com is offering affiliates a $50 or $100 activation bonus. This means that for an accumulated sales amount of $300 or more, you will receive a one-time cash reward of $50. If you generate an accumulated sales amount of $500 or more, you receive a one-time $100 cash out reward. Obviously this can really add to a monthly income for affiliate beginners or long term marketers alike. Had I not been attentive to the updates from my Affiliate Network I would not have been privy to this great lil bonus that should be easy to accumulate for the month of July.

In addition to staying up to date with bonuses and incentives, often times companies will provide seasonal promotional material. Web graphics and banners for affiliate programs will be updated during the holidays for special promotions that the company may be running. Being July and the 4th is around the corner make sure you are using all methods possible to promote your niche and make those extra affiliate sales.

GoDaddy Promo Code

Creating an affiliate empire requires domains and your yearly purchases and renewals can really add up. Recently I started dumping old domains I never found time to develop, although still really nice ones, I had to let them go. The registrar of my choice is GoDaddy, because of service, dashboard functionality, and lastly prices, which are not always competitive. That's why I utilize GoDaddy promo codes whenever I can and then I pass them on to my friends.

I just received an email from GoDaddy announcing a promo that will go on until July 3rd 2008 where you can take 25% off an order of $75 or more.

Use GoDaddy Coupon Code gdp0645y before July 3rd 2008 to qualify for 25% off. Also, be sure to subscribe to our mailing list to get updates like these in the mail. Whenever I receive a discount offer on a product I think my readers will like, I'll make sure and post it here and email those on the list so that they can take advantage of the deal as well.