2006.12.25

Merry Christmas

Posted in General at 1:42 am by admin

I’d just like to thank everyone who visited CyberWyre in 2006, who posted a comment, or wrote me an encouraging email. This past year truly was incredible — For me, I went from working a 9-to-5 day in, day out, to learning a valuable skill: how to earn an income from basically nothing at all through the Internet, and then finally reaching my goal of retuning to school to study without as heavy of a financial burden.

Thank you everyone, it truly has been a great year. Have a safe holiday season and I hope to hear from all of you in the New Year.

Best wishes,
Matt

2006.12.01

Getting Started with Christmas Affiliate Programs

Posted in Blogging for Profit, Other Money Makers at 11:03 am by admin

Forget Thanksgiving — anyone who goes Christmas shopping in November is crazy as far as I’m concerned. The first of December marks the beginning of Christmas season for me — the tree goes up, the weather sharply cools down, and I start to plan my shopping. Like every year before it, this year will make new records for the amount of Christmas purchases which are made online. Like every year before it, this year is the best year to start selling online through affiliate programs and make a few extra bucks to pay for those “must-have” gifts that you’ll need to purchase for that special someone, or even yourself.

I’ve spent months reading about affiliate marketing, perusing forums and trying to learn from others who claim to be making upwards of $10,000/month from this stuff. I still haven’t quite figured it out but I’m getting closer, and I wanted to share some of this knowledge with you.

The Basics of Affiliate Marketing

Well, it really isn’t too complicated in theory. You refer someone to a product through a link, and if they make a purchase you receive a kickback. It might be a couple bucks, it might be a couple hundred bucks, it all depends on the terms of the referral program and the size of the purchase. The real work in affiliate marketing is actually marketing someone else’s product. This includes developing a nice brochure-ware website/blog, answering customer questions, and generating traffic to your site. From what I’ve learned, this is the basic process flow for succeeding in this line of business, and the direction I intend to take this holiday season with my own attempts.

Affiliate Marketing To-Do List

1) Find a product you want to market

2) Design a nice website / blog describing the product and provide something of value to the reader regarding this item. A good suggestion is to write a detailed, honest review of the product you are selling.

3) Promote your website on Google AdWords. Find inexpensive keywords to market your site which have a CPC is less than the average return you will see per visitor to your site. More on this later.

4) Sit back and let the referrals roll in.

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