Well its been a little while, but its finally time to get back to our blog monetization plan. I apologize for the delay. The last few weeks have been heavily focused on research and applying the lessons we discussed in parts one, two, and three. In case you are just joining us, let me give you a quick recap.

Part one discussed the importance of proper planning. A big mistake a lot of newbies make is flying by the seat of their pants without knowing how they are going to make money. Sometimes it works out, but more often it doesn't. By having a concrete plan ahead of time, however, it is easier to stay focused, reach for specific goals, and accomplish your objectives.

Part two focused on the importance of growing your readership base. I cannot stress this enough. If you want regular recurring revenue, you need constant and steady traffic growth. Period. Part two shows you how.

Part three explained how to get started with Pay Per Click (PPC) ads. This will be a small start for many new bloggers. By putting the infrastructure in place early though, your profits will increase as your blog grows. Eventually, PPC can be an excellent component of your overall blog revenue stream.

Today I am happy to present part four of my blog monetization strategy, Internet Marketing 101. My goal for this post is to present an introduction to Internet Marketing for anyone out there who is just getting started. If you search the Internet, you will find a ton of information about Internet Marketing. For a beginner it is hard to sift through it all and determine where to start, what is good advice, and what is just another scam. My goal for this post is to provide beginners with all the information they need to get started and take their first step into Internet Marketing. More advanced topics will be covered in posts to come, but you should finish this article with all you need to immediately begin marketing products online. Some of this information may be old news to you veterans out there, so please chime in with any advice you might have. The rest of you be sure to ask any questions in the comments. Sound good? Ok, then lets get started!

Introduction to Internet Marketing

Internet Marketing, also called Affiliate Marketing, is a way to earn money in the form of commission for directing customers to online merchants. To become an Internet Marketer, all you have to do is join an affiliate marketing program directly with the merchant, or more commonly, through an affiliate marketing network. Once you are part of the program, you will be given special links (like the one I just used!) that you can post on your blog, add to your email footer, or use when posting to forums. When someone clicks on the link and visits the merchant's website, the ID embedded in the URL will tell the merchant that you were responsible for delivering that potential customer. If the visitor buys something then you will earn a percentage of the sale price as commission. Sometimes, just delivering the person to the merchant's website is all you need to do to get paid. This is called a lead (a lead might also require the user to sign up, join an email list, or some other no-cost opt in).

The concept sounds simple, but the execution is a little more complicated. Most people who read a blog are not there to shop. So why would they click on the link and go buy something? Luckily, the affiliate marketing programs are sympathetic to this. If someone clicks on your link and visits the merchant site, a tracking cookie is placed on their computer. If that visitor returns to the merchant site within 60 (or 90 or sometimes even 120) days and then buys something, you will still get credit for the sale. Nice, right?

The real skill behind Internet Marketing is HOW and WHERE to place the links so you get as many people as possible to click on them. The strategy for doing that is two fold. First, you want to use the links wherever you can (without annoying your readers). Second, you want to make sure people find the links when they are actually searching for what you are selling. These become the high probably conversions! Think of your affiliate links as little seeds that get planted into the Internet. It will take a little time for them to take root and start to grow. But eventually, the page they are on (if done right), will start to earn PageRank. Once it does, the search engines will deliver potential shoppers to your page. You in turn deliver people who are looking to buy to the merchant. Then the cash starts rolling in! It doesn't happen overnight. But over time, a LOT of money can be made with Internet Marketing.

In the sections that follow, I'll give you step by step instructions on how to run an affiliate marketing campaign. I will discuss joining an affiliate network, creating your affiliate post, and optimizing it for search engines. Realize that I am not a professional at this. What I am presenting below are some tips to get started. Once you take that first step, we can all work together to improve our results!   

Affiliate Networks

There are a ton of affiliate networks out there. Some of the big names are Commission Junction, ShareASale, Pepperjam Network, and now Google is starting to bully their way into affiliate marketing with the Google Affiliate Network. The first step in joining a network is getting approved. You will have to fill out a simple application form that has your contact information, tax ID number (SSN if your are an individual in the U.S.), and your blog information. Unless you blog is totally brand new and has ZERO content, you should have no problem getting approved.

Once you're approved, you can begin browsing the network for "programs" which are basically the types of products you can advertise on your blog. Some networks are better than others when it comes to programs they offer. My advice is to just pick one and try it out. If you don't find many programs that meet your needs, move along to another network. The important thing is to find a lot of products that relate to your blog's niche. Just don't pick a random product to sell that doesn't match your blog. You will lose readers quickly if you start advertising Viagra on your blog about pets!

Important Tip! - Just because you are about to engage in affiliate market to make money online, don't think you have to sell products related to making money online! You will have a much easier time selling into a niche where people really want to buy stuff. Let's face it - most of the world doesn't want to buy an SEO eBook! Check out my recent post for more on this topic.

I have had a good amount of success using ShareASale on my entertainment blog, Buzz Pirates. I have found a lot of products, from funny t-shirts, to home beer making kits that easily fit in with the theme of that blog. They have over 2,374 programs in over 40 different categories ranging from pets to weddings to sports/fitness to "green" products. Chances are you'll have no problem finding something to sell.

If you really want to get a jump start making money, then sign up for PepperJam Networks. Not only do they also have a great selection of programs, they will also give you $10 just for signing up. That's free money! You'll get a lot more than $10 though. They have an amazing Web 2.0 interface that makes using their service easy and enjoyable. They are also right up there with ShareASale as far as quality programs they offer. Sign Up for Pepperjam Network and Get a $10 Sign On Bonus

My recommendation is to sign up for a number of different networks. This allows you to pick the best programs that each network might have to offer.

The Affiliate Post 

Once you have picked a product to sell, its time to put your marketing hat on and get to work! You will find thousands and thousands of tips online about writing a good landing page, keyword optimization, semantic search recognition, visual aethetics... the list goes on and on. Honestly though, I wouldn't worry about that just yet. I believe the best way to get started with affiliate marketing is to pick a product that you really enjoy, know a lot about, and honestly believe in and then write a LEGITIMATE review about it. Instead of trying to trick the search engines, I have found that you can be more successful simply using them how they were designed! If you write a detailed review, you will be creating plenty of content that the search engines need to find and index your post. Just don't forget to include your affiliate links!

With a little practice, placing affiliate links becomes easier and easier. You will start to develop a sixth sense for where to put an affiliate link. As you write articles for your blog, you will find yourself typing a sentence, only to stop and think to yourself "hmm...I bet I can find a referral link for that!". You will end up stopping mid sentence to jump on your affiliate network to search for products and links. Yeah...it ends up taking longer to write blog posts. But the payoff is worth it.

There has been some debate about whether the affiliate post should be a regular blog post or a separate page. I think this really comes down to personal preference. The important thing is to make sure your users and the search engines can find the post. If you make the affiliate post a regular blog post, it has the potential to get lost deep within your blog. Technically, the search engines should still be able to find it by crawling your site, but chances are you and your readers won't.

In order to keep track of my affiliate posts, I like to have a single "staging page" that I include right on my main menu. It is usually called "Cool Stuff" or "Recommended Products" or something to that effect. That page will have links to all the affiliate reviews I have done on my blog. The nice thing about this approach is that it not only allows my readers to find my posts easily, but it helps me find them too! This is important when it comes to updating the pages to optimize them for the search engines. Which brings us to the next topic...

SEO, SEO, SEO

By writing a product review that contains affiliate links, you have successfully planted your internet marketing seeds. Remember what we said earlier though - the valuable traffic will come later when people who are looking to buy search for the product you have reviewed. In order for them to find your review and click on your affiliate links, it is important that you make sure your page ranks high on search engine result pages (SERPs). By applying the proper SEO techniques, your affiliate seeds can grow into you solid money trees that bring in regular cash months or even years to come!

An entire book can be written on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and this post has gotten long enough (well done if you've made it this far!). So instead of going into a long discussion, here are some general tips and links to information I have found very valuable.

• Continue to get as many backlinks to your blog as possible. Backlinks are a huge factor in calculating your PageRank. The higher your PageRank, the higher you will appear on search results. See my previous post on PageRank.  
• Having the staging page that links to all your affiliate posts is important so you can easily go back and update the page. Updating a page is important so Google constantly reindexes your page. You can update it with better keywords, more links, or other info that will help its PR and chance of being found. Garry Conn wrote a great article about the importance of doing this.
• Be sure to pick good keywords to focus on in your post. Make sure you use the keywords in the post title and in heading tags (H1, H2, etc.). Emphasis your keywords with <strong> and <em> tags. John Cow has a great series on picking good keywords.
• Be sure to choose keywords that get a lot of searches but have little competition. Forest Parks wrote a nice article about using the Micro Niche Finder to accomplish this.
• Monitor your posts over time. With your Google Analytics, see what actual search terms people are currently using to find your page. Use these as a guide for tweaking your post. Remember, its good to always update it!

We will investigate more SEO techniques in future posts. This should be plenty to get you started and well on your way.

Summary

This has been a lot to digest. I commend you for making it this far. For those of you who made it, here is a handy summary checklist of all you need to get started with Affiliate Marketing.

• Join an affiliate network
• Choose a product you know a lot about that fits well with your blog niche
• Write an honest detailed review about it
• Post it so its easy to find on your blog
• Research valuable keywords for the post
• Regularly update the post to optimize it for keywords and high SERPs ranking

The important thing is to constantly review and adjust. Not everything will work right away. When it doesn't work, do something different. When something starts to work, do more of it. Stick with it and over time each one of your affiliate posts can become a strong revenue stream for your blog.

If you have any additional tips, comments or questions, please leave a comment. I hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for reading!

Good luck!

Jeff