Getting Started Online (Part 2 of 2)
By: Natalie J Williams
eBay ID: pc-training-pro

THIS IS PART 2CONTINUED
View all of my Guides and read the Getting Started Online Guide PART 1 First

Ok, now that you have the APO Spreadsheet on your computer, here are some places where you can find affiliate programs. Now don't think you have to apply to all of them right now. I STILL apply for affiliate programs on a daily basis and add them to my website. If I see a product I like and think my website visitors would like it, before I put it onto my site, I first check to see if they have an affiliate program, join it and then put the product on my site, using my affiliate link.

Note: There are basically 3 different ways to find affiliate programs to join.

1. Through websites that offer you links to affiliate programs of other companies. You would sign up for each affiliate program separately through the companies website. (Affiliate Portals)

2. Through websites that offer thousands of affiliate programs by joining their site. Therefore you would have one log-in for as many different affiliate programs that you join off their website. (Affiliate Network)

3. Through the company's website that is actually offering the affiliate program (Affiliate Programs)

The affiliate programs you will need to seek on your own, because there are literally thousands and thousands of companies that offer affiliate programs for their own products. The links I am providing are to the portals and networks where you can browse categories to find the affiliate programs you'd like to join.

Here are a few Refer-It Commission Junction 2-Tier ClickXchange AssociatePrograms ClickBank Affiliate Match LinkShare Site Cash Be Free

Again, try the online hyperlinked version for links to the above.

Write a free ebook within the subject of your theme Add your affiliate links

Is your theme about entertainment on the internet? Write an ebook about the "Top 100 Joke Sites" or "The Best Match Making Sites". Add all entertainment affiliate links in your ebook along with your website address and contact information.

Now give this ebook away like mad. Free for everyone. Be sure to put in the ebook that they have 100% resell or give-away rights, so they too will give it away. Push it enough and you can have thousands and thousands of your ebook all over the internet all filled with your affiliate links. Are you beginning to see how this can be profitable?

Submit the ebook to free ebook sites.

When I suggested to someone to write an ebook in his spare time, he said he would type the title and start the table of contents and then get stuck. Problem: How to you type a table of contents when you haven't even written the book yet? How do you know what is in it and which chapter each piece of information would be in. Never try and come up with a title or table of contents before you write a book. Just start writing. I know, you're saying "Write what?". I wish I had the correct answer for everybody, but I don't. All I can tell you is when I decided to write this ebook, I just opened up Microsoft Word and started typing. Later, I printed what I had, added things, deleted things and proofread. I decide where to add which affiliate link, where to add links to related websites, etc. Then I do it all over again. Eventually, I will have a whole book. Then I compile it into an ebook.

You may want to look at Extreme eBook Creations. Their package gives you ebooks on subjects about writing and promoting ebooks as well as the actual eBook creator software for free.

Write an ebook to be sold, within the subject of your theme. Add your affiliate links

The same as before, however with this ebook, try to add something of extreme value that would push a person to purchase the ebook, such as a whole package of eBooks with resell rights, or a free vacation certificate. Let the potential buyers know they can resell all of the ebooks one-by-one or as a whole package. Or they can use the package as an incentive to sell another of their products.

Another way to add value would be to include other free eBooks with the purchase of yours, or something else free off your website.

List the ebook on eBay. Experiment with different pricing and listing options.

When I offered my 1st ebook for sale on eBay, I started at $4.00 and with a regular .30 listing. I sold about 30 of these. Profit = $120.00 - .30 listing fee

The next time I listed it, I upped the price to $7.00 and paid extra to have my listing in bold print. I sold about 20. Profit = $140.00 - 2.30 listing fee

Then I got really bold and upped the price to $9.00 and put the auction on a Featured Plus auction ($19.95 listing fee). I sold around 30 of those. Profit = $270.00 - 20.25 listing fee

Even bolder, I went to a $14.99 price and put the listing in a Featured Home Page ($99.95 listing fee). I only sold 9 of those, so I barely broke even. Profit = $134.91 - 99.95 listing fee

I decided to stay with the $9 price and Featured Plus. It not only generated the most profit, but more people saw the auction and even if they didn't buy the ebook, they sometimes went to my "About Me" page which contains information about my website or they would buy one of my other auctions.

With the right auction title on my listing, I can get up to 500+ people look at my auction. A great deal of them visit and join my website and likely purchase my product off my website other than through eBay, saving me the final value fee eBay charges. I say likely, because there is no way for me to track if the person first saw my auction and then came to my website and purchased.

Put your "to sell" book on ClickBank

The initial cost to open a Vendor ClickBank account is $49.95. Note, this account is only if you want to SELL something through ClickBank. If you are just selling the products of others… your account is free.

Once you set up your ClickBank account, you are not listed in the Marketplace until one of your product is sold, so you may want to go ahead and purchase one yourself, so you can get listed. You receive all your money back minus the ClickBank fee with your next commission check.

This is optional and probably best for later on. As explained earlier, ClickBank handles the transaction of selling digital goods (software, eBooks, etc). People who are interested in becoming affiliates visit ClickBank to look for products they want to promote and sell. So if your product is listed on ClickBank, people will want to sell your item for a commission. ClickBank charges a $49.95 fee to put your item on their site. Your item will then be place in their "Market Place", available for people to browse and purchase OR they will become your affiliate and sell your item for you.

Advertise the heck out of everything (Lots of free, but good ways to do this)

eBay "About Me" Page: Look at my current "About Me" page on eBay

eBay Leading Auctions Leading auctions, to me, are a way to auction items and it's nice if they sell, however you are after the bigger picture of enticing them to your website. You most likely will have the same items for sale on your website anyway. Use eBay for an inexpensive advertising tool. As I said before, with 500+ visitors to my auction listing, I feel it is money well spent. And if my item sells, all the better. So I never feel I've lost anything with my auctions. Also, with a leading auction, I don't worry about making a profit on the item and therefore can sell it for less.

Auto Responders Ahhh, the magic of auto-responders. There are many programs around that offer auto-responders for a fee, of course. DO NOT PAY for an auto-responder. Do it yourself and it is free!! I use Microsoft Outlook for my email program. In the program, I can set up 'Rules', so that if I receive email with certain criteria that I set up, it will automatically respond with an email that I also set up. Outlook is certainly not the only program that does this, but if you have the MS Office suite on your computer, you have Outlook and I suggest you use it. Or download the Eudora eMail Program for free I have listed in the "Software" section. Check the companion website for instructions on setting up auto-responders.

Message Boards Join and contribute, use your signature to promote

Most message boards will not allow you to advertise or 'spam', which is a good thing. There are ways around this. Just put some information in your signature link and post away. Don't just post anything. Answer questions, get into the conversation.

Free For All pages I absolutely do not recommend these. When you submit your site to a Free For All link site, or worse a service that will submit your site to thousands of FFA link sites, it only serves the purpose of giving thousands of companies your email address. Then the major spam starts. When your site is submitted to these FFA's, you are agreeing that you will receive email from them, so you are bombed with literally thousands and thousands or emails. If the temptation is too great and you must do it, please by all means, get a free email address somewhere and use that when you submit. On the flip side, you may want to set up a Free For All Link page on YOUR website, then you will have the advantage of receiving emails from the people who add links to the page.

Other auction sites/Free to list sites There are many auction websites where it is free to list items. Take advantage of that for free advertising.

Advertise on related newsletters Be selective. Search for eZines you think your web customers would read. Advertise in them.

Offer exchange advertising on your newsletter

Search the eZine databases for other eZines that compliment what you are doing and offer a link/advertising swap with the eZine owner so his subscribers see your ad and your advertisers see their ad.

Send out your own newsletter Put in new stuff from your website

On one of my websites, there is a link for "What's New". It is automatically generated by my site and shows me a list of the newest items I have added. When it's time to write my Newsletter, I simply visit this page and copy over the newly listed resources, articles, etc.

Check with the affiliate programs you've joined because many offer articles with your affiliate link attached so that you can put the article in your newsletter.

Add free stuff in your newsletter. People love anything free. I have many free things I can offer, and if my visitor purchases something from the company or applies for a trial version, I receive a commission.

Add content to your newsletter: In this ebook, I have linked many sites that offer free content for your website and newsletter. These sites are searchable, so you can find an article on just about any subject you need. Always add the authors information. You'd want YOUR info added later when it's your article someone is going to put into their newsletter.

Submit articles to others newsletters and websites: Just as you will be using other people's articles, you can submit your own articles to these websites. Then other eZine authors may use your article with your information and website link in their newsletter.

I am going to supply you with links to some of the places I have advertised using the above mentioned methods. Keep in mind, I have targeted sites that I would most likely find people who are interested in MY website theme: Working from Home/Selling online. However, MANY of these are great advertising vehicles for anything you sell.

Contest Alley Add your contest for free Freebies For Women Add your Freebie for Free Work at Home Parents Inexpensive advertising on their site e-Business Moms Submitted my "Success Story" for free JaffaMSOnline Submitted my Free eBook to their ebook listings Moms Online This site offers a lot of free ways to advertise. Moms Online Contest Prize Donation Donate a prize for their contests and receive free advertising eBook Directory Submit your eBook for free Yahoo Message Boards Free to post eZine Database Post your eZine/Newsletter for free GoArticles You can submit articles you write for free, adding your bio/website links in the article. People download these articles to put in their newsletters and/or on their website. Media Post Search for any type of advertising you would like: Web, TV, Radio, Newspapers. This is an excellent tool, especially when you are ready to do a press release. Link Promote Submit articles for free. WorkAtHomeBooks Add your free eBook here Workathome-com.com Add your Inspiring Work-At-Home story here for free and add your links. eZine-Universe Submit your eZine for free Submit Listing Submit your website and eBooks for free Google Search A Google Search set up so it found websites that accept Free eBook submittals. Bizy Moms Join this site and post on the boards. Club Mom Join this site and post on the boards. WAHP (Work At Home Parents) Join this site and post on the boards. WebMomz Join this site and post on the boards. WebDecals Have a decal made for your car. I put one on the back of my car with a URL leading to a separate page on my site to track the visitors. I get about 10 new subscribers a week from this method.

Constantly be on the look out for ways to promote yourself.

Whenever you are surfing around, if you see a product that would compliment your website, search around on their website for a link that says "Affiliates", "Associates", "Resellers", "Make Money", etc.. Join their affiliate program, add a link on your website and add their information to your Affiliate accounts list.

If you see a message board, post a message.

Join every club you can find. Yahoo Groups, AOL Groups, MomsNetwork.com, InternetBasedMoms.com, HomeBusinessDirectory.com, etc… you can always find these free. Don't just join and forget it… post at LEAST once a week. If it's a fast moving message board where your message will be cycled down to the bottom in a day, post every day.

Add your free ebook everywhere you can find that will accept it.

Subscribe to Newsletters that allow free advertising to new subscribers.

Never stop thinking.

Sell YOURSELF. Do not sit anonymously behind a website. Be out there, post on your message boards, introduce yourself, put up a page "About the Owner", maybe with a picture. It's better if people know you and trust you. And don't mis-use this trust. I have a directory of wholesalers and drop-shippers for sale on my website. Sometimes people from different countries will email me and ask if the directory would be good for them. I tell them absolutely not. These companies ask for US business licenses or Resale Certificates and only deal with US companies. So I will not just try to make a sale when I know I am deceiving the person.

This is where the work never ends. Don't ever stop advertising yourself. Whenever you are on the internet, be on the look-out for message boards, free advertising sites, link exchanges, etc.

Create a text document containing the following:
A short description of your website (About 30 words or less)
A long description of your website (Up to 250 characters)
List of keywords pertaining to your website
An example of what you would post on a message board, keeping it short and adding a signature line with your website address

This document comes in handy when you are posting information around the internet, so that you don't have to keep re-typing them over and over.

Create a Newsletter, nicely formatted, sent the same way every time.

Design a newsletter with your web page creation program. Decide on a nice layout, colors and fonts that possible match your website as well.

In my newsletter, I set aside the same advertising areas/space for people to purchase and I have a page on my website that describes the rates for the different spaces. You can write your own articles, of course, but if you ever feel stuck, there are plenty of resources you can find that will supply you with articles with re-print rights. Just like above, where I mention you can submit articles with your website link and information for other people to use in their newsletters, you can use articles that OTHER people write in YOUR newsletter.

Highly Recommended Resources are listed on my About Me page.

Checklist

Step 1: Decide on your website theme
Step 2: Open accounts for online transactions
Step 3: Purchase domain name and open hosting account
Step 4: Download necessary software
Step 5: Create website with free resources and opt-in list
Step 6: Join affiliate programs
Step 7: Create an eBook for give-away
Step 8: Create an eBook for selling
Step 9: Put your product on ClickBank
Step 10: Advertise everywhere
Step 11: Continuously promote yourself, your site and eBooks
Step 12: Create newsletter and distribute regularly
Step 13: Continue on with all steps with any new website idea =)