Paydotcom affiliating - no idea where to start

[Pusinsky]

Hello everyone. I am very new to this internet marketing venture. I always wanted to try out affiliate marketing. Since I live very, very far away from the US I couldn't work with Amazon Associates or Clickbank. The only network I found so far that accepts payment method via PayPal is PayDotCom.

However I had no idea how exactly does one go marketing their products. I understand at a glance that I am supposed to build a webpage or blog which includes the banner/link to the products with my ref link in it. I tried to look at some well-done examples but I can't seem to find any.

I don't want to blindly try out things on my own as I may waste a lot of time on doing something wrong. Can any of the experienced marketers here share some pointers?

[Rebecca800]

Hey Pusinsky

There is a lot to learn about internet marketing but here are the basic steps you should look into:

1. Create your platform - a website or blog - to put your affiliate links and banners.

2. Send traffic to your site, either by writing lots of quality content (so that the Search Engines send you free traffic) and/or with a Pay Per Click campaign (using Google AdWords or similar to advertise on other sites).

3. Learn how to pre-sell your visitors, which means putting them in a warm, open-to-buy attitude before sending them to your affiliate partner's site to close the sale and earn your commission.

To be a really successful affiliate, there are many other things you can learn, including:

- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Writing for the internet
- Choosing profitable website niches and affiliate products
- Running successful PPC campaigns on a budget
- Building subscriber lists
- Free traffic building strategies
- Creating buzz for your website
- and lots more that aren't coming to mind right now!

I've created two affiliate-based websites in the last year now with reasonable success (you can see the sites in my signature). The first time with my lucid dreaming site I focused on building lots of good content first, which generated my traffic and then I monetized those readers by choosing relevant affiliate products.

The second time, I chose the product first, then built the site concept around it. In both instances, though, I gained traffic organically through Google by learning to write good SEO'd content. Traffic is the key word here - it's no use building a blog and waiting for the world to find you... it wont! I also dabbled with PPC campaigns but in competitive niches it is really difficult unless you really know what you're doing.

I expect this will lead to more questions but at least you have an overview of what's in store! There may be alternate routes others can suggest too. If you want to learn more about how I did it, see my About Me page.

[Pusinsky]

Thanks Rebecca800!

Your websites look nice. Tell me please, do you made them yourself or do you outsource it to others? I would like to learn how you design them.

[Rebecca800]

Hey Pusinsky - my partner is a website designer and made both my sites. He can design you a similar one based on my template if you're interested. We usually only offer this service to fellow Site Build It users but I am sure he can do it for you too if you ask nicely! Design Templates by Cre8ve Online

[Tristan Bull]

The guy who owns paydotcom, Mike Filsaime is actually one of the top Internet Marketers today. So you might want to check out some of his stuff or even send in a support ticket I'm sure they can point you in the right direction.

Cheers,
Tristan