So you decided to investigate making some money online ?
Or you want to jump right into it ? Need Extra Cash ?
Doesn't matter who you are, if you are 18 or 60, rich or poor, this page is for YOU !.
After years of struggling to make a decent living online, I finally succeeded, and my online income now exceeds my expenses threefold on a bad month. So I am financially Free. I still work, and darn hard most of the time, but I now have time for myself, and the things I enjoy when I want it. And if I really want I can take a month off without affecting my income. I work hard now not to pay bills but to make sure I reach my six figure income goals.
So lets not waste any time and get started.
Lesson 1 - The Basics
You must have heard about ecommerce and the Billions of Rands that are being spend daily. Well you can have a slice of that pie.
Most multi million Rand generating websites sell something. But you don't want to do that.
Why Not ?
Unless you have lots of capital for Stock or Shares, Staff, Designers, Marketing, rent a warehouse, setup distribution contracts, and run a big company then it is simply out of reach to most people. These companies in most cases get their sales from people like you and me. This is called affiliate marketing. You put in a bit of time and effort, and refer someone to these companies, they make the sale, ship the item, or supply the service, you have to do NOTHING after you referred someone to them. They do the work, you get a commission.
To let you know who works this way here are some good earners in my portfolio that use affiliate marketing : Liberty Life, OutSurance, Dial Direct, Barclays, IBO Home Loans, Intersoft, Netflorist, Woolworths and thousands more.
I currently earn in excess of R22 000 per month from the above businesses and they are doing all the work for me. From lead follow up to sending flowers.
Lesson 2 - How to get these companies to make me money.
Well many websites have links where you can sign up to their affiliate programs, but this becomes time consuming. You have hundreds of websites and usernames and passwords to remember. I hate Work. Work Smarter and not Harder.
So why not have one username / password where you can link to multiple companies and income streams. You can. !
Sign up at OfferForge South Africa - They provide you one interface to earn money from : Reebok, Europcar, BidorBuy, DialDirect, Net Florist and many more.
Once you signed up read further...
You now have access to the TOP South African companies who makes LOTS of money for their affiliates from one single interface.
Take your time, read the "Getting Started" section, and familiarise yourself with the website.
Lesson 3 - Choose a winner and promote it.
Choose a winner and promote it. you will now ask how the heck can you do that.
My start-up advice is trial and error. To start out I would suggest Netflorist, as they are a well established brand, and don't require monthly premiums like insurance companies, and their products is very good.
Using the "campaigns" Menu option you select what company you want to promote and can choose the links you use to promote it. You can choose from a Text link, HTML link that converts to a picture or advertising creative when displayed.
When someone clicks on the link it will go to the OfferForge tracker (used to record the referrer for commission payment i.e. you) and then redirect to Netflorist. If the person that clicked on the link buys something from Netflorist you get commission (10% in the case of Netflorist) and they handle the billing and delivery, you did actually nothing, they did all the work.
Start by putting Netflorist in you email signature, or email your friends with your link, BUT DO NOT SPAM
Lesson 4 - Advanced promotion
Now you know how it works, and can start promoting your chosen affiliates even more. You can put your links in newsletters, on your blog. website, on your friends website (With his permission of course). Now you know how it works, and that someone gets money when you click on an online advert on any website.
Lesson 5 - Google Adwords
Personally I like Google Adwords to buy my clicks. With Adwords you only pay for clicks on your link, and not for ad impressions (views) so if my ad is seen 1000 times and only 3 people click on it I only pay for 3 clicks. You also get to set the price you are willing to pay per click. Setting a high price will ensure lots of clicks, but little to no profit, as all your income will be used to pay for the clicks. Setting it too low will result is very few clicks, and almost no exposure.
I started my Netflorist campaign with 5c per click and a few keywords. (A keyword is something a Google user search for) Over time I added in excess of over 300 keywords, and raised my price to 6c a click to get more exposure.
A tip :
Don't use keywords not relevant to the product company being promoted, as this will result in lots of views but little clicks.
"flowers, bouquet, flower delivery, interflora, gifts" are good keywords for Netflorist, since someone searching on Google for any of those terms are more likely to click on a Netflorist ad and buy flowers than someone searching for car parts and seeing a Netflorist ad.
It is a balancing act, and this is where the work comes in, you have to monitor your keywords, remove the non performers, add better performers, adjust your bids for clicks so you get lots of good quality clicks, that generate you money. Once a campaign makes me constant profit for three months in a row I change my daily budget to unlimited, since I know my keywords, and click bid combination earns me a constant profit, so unlimited budget = unlimited profit. Remember to still monitor your good earners at least once a week, as you need to take action should your profitability situation change.
Another Tip :
With adwords you can select the target region. Make sure it is set right, for Netflorist you only want South Africa as they only deliver in South Africa. No point in paying for American clicks to a website not delivering flowers in America.
Lesson 6 - Never Give up
What if your first try didn't make you money ?
Well try again with a different product. refine your system, learn as much as you can, Knowledge is power, and you don't need money to make money, just some intelligence.
Change your strategy, change your product, change everything, or only one thing. Sometimes the difference between a super earner and a loser is one cent in Google Adwords.
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This article was posted by Karen McGrath - thanks Karen, great post
