Q: I am fairly new to affiliate marketing, but have been around the blog world for about a year. I am currently out of work with a back injury and my income is lower than normal. I am putting a lot of time into my online blogging life, and things are going great, but I want to get more into affiliate marketing and making money that way. But I don’t have a lot of cash to put into it, maybe $300 a month. What would be the best way to start earning money as an affiliate and re-investing 50% of the earnings as I go along?
A: You can certainly get started for little money, and since you have a blog presence, you’re already ahead of the game a bit, assuming you want to use the blog to generate your affiliate revenue.
Given your budget, I would recommend some limited testing in various places, like StumbleUpon, where you can get targeted clicks for $0.05 each.
Also, check out BlogAds, where you can make buys for time periods of one week, two weeks, one month or three months. Depending on the niche, you might be able to find some great bargains for targeted traffic.
Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing could work out for you, too, but keep a close eye on your budget, as it can easily get blown out quick.
I would also encourage you to invest your time in social media. Give a try at creating videos, participate in the comments on relevant blogs, and become active on Twitter to build more of a name for yourself in your area of concentration.
Over time, you’ll be getting an increased amount of inbound traffic from people that enjoy what you’re doing, and that organic traffic will be more valuable than paid traffic in the long term.