Working Online & Starting an Affiliate Marketing Business

Can you make an income online working from home or anywhere you like? The answer is of course you can. You may know of people among your family and friends making a living with a home based internet business already. The problem is as with any other business is when you start out it will cost you time, some money and may take months if not even a year or two till you find a system that works for you.

Having said that the opportunities are limitless and you can easily start to earn serious income, or at least enough money to replace your day job.

Now the internet as with every arena in life is full of "false prophets" The hype of the so called "gurus" in internet marketing could either fool people into thinking they could be earning thousands of dollars a month in just a week or two, or just put the sceptic off thinking they can ever earn an online income. I've fallen for many of these so called "full proof get rich schemes" The truth really for most people who are ready to put the time, effort and research in is somewhere in the middle. The Internet has come to the rescue for many people looking to earn an income working from home, and providing people opportunities in easing economic crisis in these uncertain times.

Working online are words not included in most past edition dictionaries and it is only until recently that the words have become familiar to our sight and hearing. Even if you are now gainfully employed, it is great to have the option to plan another source of income.

A little about me. Well I'm 32 years old guy who lives in the UK and Thailand. I've done various jobs from Civil Servant, TV Researcher/slave, most recently Teacher of English in Thailand for over 2 years. Now I am working online as an Internet and Affiliate Marketer while working part time as a University Administrator for Sociological research in the UK. Its ok working at the University, as jobs go its pretty cool. But I don't want to have to rely on that forever, at the mercy of diktats from the powers that be. So I've always been looking at ways to make an income outside of normal employment and that's how I got into working online.

The one thread that's run through working for other people all my life is its difficult to get the security and control that I want in life. That's why I love working online. Working in your own online business is probably one of the best ways to make a living. Not only can you potentially earn your day job income many times over, but you don't need answer to a boss, no more commutes and work whenever you like. (I'm a night owl suits me great) and work from any location or country, (on the beach has got to be the best). I will hopefully be in a position in a few months to quit my job and work online full time.

In this age of recession and job losses a lot of people have considered trying to go self employed and what better way to start than your own home business, and gain the freedom to control their financial destiny. What better way can there be than starting a business online? Take a look at your computer Are you aware that this simple and ordinary gadget where you play computer games or find friends on Face Book or Twitter is like the genie in Aladdin's lamp? Your internet can be your gateway to a fantastic source of income.

What does working online mean?

Your only requirements for working at home is being computer-literate, having a computer and having a internet connection. To work online, you only need your computer, internet connection and that's it. You don't even really need any technical skills, A lot of the people who have been very successful in Internet Marketing had no technical background say in creating websites.

So Which online jobs are available?

There are a number of online jobs available

- Network marketing - You will be selling products and services and at the same time.
- Telemarketing - Your only activity is to sell a product or service online. This is an amazing way to earn and it gives you rich potentials.
- Data entry - You have to be affiliated with a reputable website to get your source of work. Once you become a member, you are provided a list and you can choose the company you want.
- Typing - You will be typing papers for professionals, especially for doctors (medical transcription) and lawyers (legal transcription).
- Online advertising - You will be posting the company's ads, banners and short texts online. No prior skills are needed as you will be provided with a step-by-step video guide.
- Product Creation- Sell your own services online, like a Travel Agent or teacher, sell your goods on Amazon or eBay. Create an Ebook or digital product that you can sell online and people can download automatically.

Affiliate Marketing

I am interested into moving into product creation in the future, and have made some money selling products on eBay but my favourite online work and how I started is Affiliate marketing, which is similar to a referral scheme. With affiliate marketing you don't have to worry about creating a product, dealing with customer services or payment processing, or any of the work involved in product creation.

Affiliate marketing is a procedure in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer that buys a product. With affiliate marketing, you will receive large commissions just by referring customers to some good quality products or services.

For example, if you refer a software developer to a particular software site, by being the affiliate marketer, you will get a commission. Your sole aim is to market the products of other product creators by joining their affiliate programmes. If people buy through your website or affiliate link then you will get a commission for that sale. Typically your commission is between 50-70%. Affiliate Marketing is a multi billion dollar industry growing year on year, so your potential for earnings online are huge.

Remember it is best that the products you choose to promote as affiliates are of good quality that will offer value to the customer, and that you would choose to purchase yourself. You don't want to be spending time on promoting products you yourself don't believe in.

People and businesses are always looking at ways to address the needs of people. The most popular hot markets for buyers online fall into the four areas of:

1. Wealth- How to make money online, Internet Marketing, Betting, investing, debt reduction
2. Health- Physical Mental health, nutrition, weight loss, dieting
3. Relationships- dating, how to attract a partner or save a marriage. I would also include adult material in this niche. Many people will find this area incompatible with their own morals or conscience but it still remains one of the most searched for topics on the internet.
4. Salvation and self development- Spirituality, self realisation and gaining confidence.

If you are looking for products that fall outside any of these four categories the likelihood is that product will not sell online. Internet Marketing Gurus will tell you "Go to where the buyers are already buying, DO NOT try and sell in a market without any proven buyers" Makes perfect sense. But believe me its true, and it will save you a lot of time and wasted energy. The reason why there is no buyer market outside of these four general areas is that all the successful marketers have made their fortunes or just regular full time incomes within one of these niches. As they say if it ain't broke don't fix it. You also want to be careful that the product you want to promote is not highly competitive. If there are thousands of affiliates out there flogging the same product then that market has been saturated and you will have to struggle really hard with your competitors. So finding that special niche product will be like gold dust.

You should concentrate on areas where there are proven buyers not try and create market in an area where there are none. One example I will provide is that I tried selling products in the tattoo niche. After all the work and promotion I put I got precisely no sales. If I had properly researched the market I would have found out that people are not going to purchase a tattoo online. Much like a haircut, for such services customers will want to be physically at the place offering that service.

Affiliate marketing is constantly changing and systems that used to work may no longer give you the same success. Right now mobile marketing is one of the biggest new ways to market your products online.

As part of a combined marketing strategy using Search engine optimisation, Pay per click advertising, Social media it is already proving very successful way for many marketers to get customers for their products.

Affiliate marketing can truly be great way to earn an online income. If you want to learn more about starting an affiliate marketing business check this website out: & you sign up for amazing FREE bonuses for affiliate marketing including FREE access to A Web Business Explained 26 Videos, & Create Your First Money Making Website.