Some of those schemes are legit and others are pure scam, I myself have fallen into the trap of those scam websites that promise you money for clicking on stuff.

I was on a mission to find a real way to make money online, and I was willing to put in any amount of work needed to make that goal happen.

This is when I found out about a great concept called “affiliate marketing”.

Simply put, affiliate marketing is about trying to sell products you don’t own and get rewarded with a percentage of the product price as a sale commission.

The below diagram can better explain to you the process of selling products as an affiliate marketer:

For a non tech savvy person this provides a great opportunity to start an online business without having to worry about product development and customer service.

You can pick any product you want to promote as an affiliate marketer and sell it on your own website using your affiliate link.

After this point your job as an affiliate marketer is done, and it will be up to the product owner to take care of the customer you referred.

In this guide I will show beginners and wannabe affiliate marketers how to build their first affiliate website.

How to Setup Your Affiliate Blog

Since all you need to sell any product as an affiliate marketer is your affiliate link, you don’t necessarily need a website to sell from.

You can simply launch paid ads campaigns with your affiliate link and still get paid your affiliate commission.

But the problem with this technique is that you limit your advertising opportunities to paid ads.

Depending on paid ads to sell your affiliate products is a big mistake if you are a beginner, there is so much that you need to understand about affiliate marketing first.

That’s why you need to build your affiliate website and do your selling and promotions from there.

Setting up a blog is the best kind of affiliate website you can build.

Running a blog allows you to focus on building a reputation in your market and at the same time sell your affiliate products via product reviews and banner ads.

It is rather easy to start your affiliate blog, although it will cost an average of $60 a year:

• $10 a year for a domain name
• $50 a year for a web hosting account (give or take)

These are the basic costs that will get you started.

You also need to install WordPress on your newly bought web hosting account, it is free and easy to install and your web hosting company will provide you with any assistance you need.

Once you setup your affiliate blog, you need to start thinking about which niche market you want to target.

Finding a Profitable Niche for Your Affiliate Blog

It is very important to turn your affiliate website into a niche blog, and don’t try to sell products in different niches all from the same blog.

Having a targeted website increases the chances of making affiliate sales.

You want everyone who visits your blog to find different solutions for different problems in the niche.

Turning your affiliate blog into an information rich source will increase the trust level with your readers, which is something you desperately need to sell your affiliate products.

Top affiliate marketers build an insanely high level of trust which makes many of their visitors buy pretty much any product they recommend.

There are many ways to find lucrative niches that bring in high affiliate commissions, but you need to pick a niche that you know a lot about.

Targeting a niche just for the sake of high commissions will limit your ability to provide in-depth solutions through your blog posts.

And it could make people perceive you as an average person and not an expert in your niche.

That’s why you first need to find which niches you are passionate about and then find out if they are profitable or not.

Use Google.com to find a list of niche ideas you can choose from.

If you want to promote software products then Google “software to a” replacing “a” with any alphabet letter:

If you want to promote ebooks or physical products you can Google “how to get rid of a” also replacing the “a” with “b,c,d…etc”

All these are techniques that will give you a massive list of niches you can promote products in.

Another way to find niches is to find out what life experience you have.

So if you know how to play a guitar or how to do fishing or even how to quit smoking then you can target those niches as well.

After you choose your niche you need to find out if it is profitable or not.

Let me take a niche like “losing belly fat” as an example, I am going to use the affiliate competition as an indicator of the niche profitability.

That means that if there are many affiliate marketers promoting products in the niche then it must be a profitable one.

To do that, search Google for (NICHE “money back”):

This will return to you a list of product names in your niche.

Do another Google search and search for (PRODUCT review):

The more reviews you find for the product means there are many affiliates promoting it, and that the niche itself is profitable.

Find High-Paying Affiliate Products in Your Niche

By now you should have your affiliate website and niche ready, and all what is left to do is to find products that you can recommend and sell on your blog.

You can search the marketplace of any affiliate network and browse through the collection of products they have.

Affiliate networks are companies that allow affiliate marketers to promote products, and they will be the ones sending the commissions to the affiliate and generating the affiliate link for them.

These companies host hundreds and sometimes thousands of products because they have contracts with many product owners to run their affiliate programs.

Clickbank is one of the most successful affiliate networks out there, and you can go to their affiliate marketplace to find products in your niche.

Type in your niche keyword to find affiliate products to promote:

The prices you see are the affiliate commissions that you will earn and not the product price, so find the product that can earn you the most money.

There are other affiliate networks you can use to browse for products:

• Amazon
• ShareASale
• Plimus
• com

At the End

Becoming an affiliate marketer is one of the best paths you can take to earn money online.

But affiliate marketing is also like any other online business in so many ways, you still need to work hard and commit to your plans and goals.

Beginner affiliates could find it easier to follow a reputable affiliate marketing course (like affset.com).

Such courses provide affiliate tools and advanced affiliate marketing strategies, but most importantly they provide step by step study guides for beginners.

The post How to Pick a Profitable Niche as a Brand New Affiliate Marketer appeared first on Work from Home Happiness.

Making a living as a blogger is a dream job for many (myself included!). But getting to the point where you earn a full-time income isn’t an easy road. Although some bloggers find near instant success, many more work for years before they’re seeing numbers large enough to live on.

Since I launched Work From Home Happiness at the end of April 2015, I’ve researched and gotten my hands on as many free resources as I could to help build the site the right way. And while I’m still learning something new every day and am, by no means, an expert, I wanted to share some free resources that may be valuable to anyone who wants to launch a money-making blog.

For the purpose of this article, I’m going to assume you already have a blog name, niche, and concept in mind (you may even have a blog up and running but are beginning to stall out and need a little push to get back on track).

If you haven’t thought of a blog niche or name, head on over to Niche Hacks for some ideas and inspiration. You’ll find tons of advice and practical tips for picking a profitable blog niche.

After you’ve got your blog niche and name picked out, it’s time to turn it into a fine-tuned money-making machine!

3, 2, 1 Launch Time!

The undisputed preferred blogging platform is WordPress. If you’ve never used WordPress before, it can be a little tricky until you get a feel for it. Once you do, it’s super-simple and you’ll be customizing, creating, posting, and updating like a pro.

Freebie Resource 1:

WordPress- Blogging on the Web

This is an online course offered through ALISON (a free global network of high-quality courses and educational programs to help you improve your personal skillsets!)

In this course, you’ll learn all the basics of WordPress and how to set up your blog. This really is a true beginner’s course that not only shows you how to get started, but helps you build your confidence so that you actually follow through and get your blog launched.

Create A-MA-ZING Content

Content really is everything. If you don’t fill your blog with some of the best content around, you will find it difficult to secure traffic or gain a loyal following of readers (and without traffic, you’ll never reach your dream of blogging for a living).

While you could outsource content writing to Fiverr or one of the other freelance marketplaces, you really should roll up your sleeves and take the DIY approach. After all, your blog should be a reflection of you (not someone pretending to be you!).

Freebie Resource 2:

Intentional Blogging – Become a Better Blogger in Only 12 Days

This is a 12-lesson course designed to help you create better content that actually gets read! Complete beginners and those already up and running looking for a little boost, will find tons of actionable ideas in this 12-day email course (one course emailed directly to you each day!)

With Intentional Blogging you’ll learn it all, from writing for search engines to formatting posts, and even discovering your blog’s unique voice, there’s tons of great information to help you create compelling content each time you update your blog!

Open the Traffic Floodgates

When I launched Work From Home Happiness, I naively had the Field of Dreams mindset of, “If you build it, they will come.” But in the online world, just because you set up a blog, doesn’t mean anyone will bother to stop by. The sad truth is, when you’re just starting out, much of what you write won’t get seen at all (so, thank you to those of you reading this!).

And that’s okay, as long as you use your passion to push through and keep going, knowing that with time and the right strategies, you will get the targeted traffic you’re looking for.

Freebie Resource 3:

How to Start a Profitable Blog and Get More Traffic

The Kindle Edition of this guide is free. Don’t have a Kindle? No problem! Amazon.com – Read eBooks using the FREE Kindle Reading App on Most Devices

And while this eBook covers much more than driving traffic (bonus!) there is a lot of advice on how to get more traffic and use your numbers to make your blog profitable. So whether you’re new to blogging or looking to take your blog to the next level, you’ll find helpful strategies to get you there with this eBook.

Monetize in Ways that Makes Sense (or Cents!)

The right monetization strategy for your blog is key! The ways you monetize will largely depend on your preferences, niche, and audience. Affiliate marketing and advertising networks are two popular ways to start earning money even if your traffic numbers aren’t quite where you want them to be.

Freebie Resource 4:

Become an Affiliate Marketing Expert

This is a 3-hour Udemy course created by Jeremy Schoemaker (aka ShoeMoney). He has a pretty impressive backstory and has turned into a millionaire thanks to his affiliate marketing efforts. In this course he shares all he’s learned and provides real-world strategies to help you do affiliate marketing the right way.

Freebie Resource 5:

AdSense Optimization for Your Blog

Another amazing Udemy course providing a step-by-step guide on how to best optimize your blog for maximum AdSense earnings. The video tutorials were created by Jeff Conkey, an AdSense expert with over eight years of experience helping others get the most out of ad networks. By the end of this video course, you will be armed and ready with the right strategies to start earning money with the ads you serve on your blog!

Keep Going and Growing

While you may have laid the foundation for what will be a profitable blog with amazing content, traffic coming in, and monetization strategies in place, there’s still the need to constantly market your efforts and bring it to new heights.

Running a blog is very much running a business. If you’re not exactly business savvy (don’t worry, neither am I) you can feel like you’re constantly spinning your wheels trying to take your blog to the next level. Having marketing strategies and plans in place makes sure your blog is always poised to grow while also giving you the opportunity to measure how well your strategies are working.

Freebie Resource 6:

Web Business Development Marketing

This is an ALISON course that reiterates all the things you’ve learned up to this point while also introducing marketing strategies to help you grow. This is much more of a broad overview of marketing best practices and all the different things you may want to implement to develop your blog as a business.

Freebie Resource 7:

Social Media Marketing

Another amazing ALISON course, this will take a more in-depth look at all things internet marketing with an emphasis on social media. You’ll learn about creating a booming Facebook business page and also how to connect with readers online. You’ll walk away from this course with a well-rounded understanding of social media marketing and be able to use those strategies to attract a greater audience.

Keep on keeping on…

They say blogging is a marathon and not a sprint. So, remember, be patient! Most bloggers don’t find overnight success. But with commitment and passion you can (slowly!) begin to grow your loyal following and watch your earnings grow every month. Although I’m new to the blogging world too, I’ve found that the best way to keep building my traffic each month is to learn, learn, and then learn some more.

There’s no secret method or trick that will help you reach your blogging goals. It’s up to you to learn the best practices and strategies that will turn your blog into a money-making business!

What do you think? Have you tried any of these strategies with success? Do you have any advice you’d like to share? Leave them in the comments below!

The post 7 Free Resources to Help You Launch a Money-Making Blog appeared first on Work from Home Happiness.