Q: There seems to be a lot of fast-talking scheisters out there wanting to teach the subject of affiliate marketing. I’m wanting to build a solid affiliate marketing business over time, not a quick cash approach. What’s the best ‘first step’ in learning how to build a solid affiliate marketing business?

A: First of all, I wanted to look up scheister, so I could be sure to spell it correctly.

I checked in with my old, hard cover Webster’s New World Dictionary to get a dictionary definition for anybody not familiar with the term.

So, a scheister is a slag term, especially for a lawyer, who uses unethical or tricky methods. Also described as a pettifogger.

Now I am not familiar with the word pettifogger, but it doesn’t sound like a good thing to be.

As far as the first step in building a solid affiliate marketing business, I would suggest the first step would be to start up a blog.

Just go out and get a hosting account, which can run as low as $7/month or so. Pick a host that will provide a free installed of WordPress, which I would suggest for running your new blog.

You will also need a “theme,” which is essentially the layout of your blog. These are really easy to install on WordPress. There are many available for free.

Plus, purchase a domain name, which will run you about $8/year.

After that, start blogging about am issue to topic that interests you.

Populate the blog with some content, and then link it up to Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter accounts.

When you’ve got a week or two of content, start testing out some relevant affiliate offers on your site. You’re not going to see much activity for a while, because you don’t have much of an audience, yet.

But stick with it.

This is a great time to learn, because you’re not investing much money into it. Consider the process an education.

As you’re learning, search on Google for affiliate marketing blogs and forums to interact with others and pick up tips on improving your site.

You can go months with an investment of $50, so it’s a pretty low threshold. Good luck.

Q: How many affiliate networks as a merchant we should join to make affiliate program successful? We have joined about top 7 affiliate networks and we are still looking to join more. Please suggest.

A: Wait… what? You already belong to seven networks? I am assuming this question is related to CPA networks.

It would be insane to create that many instances of a revenue share affiliate programs on different networks.

Anyhow, rather than try to place your offer everywhere, I would suggest limiting the offer to maybe a couple of networks, if not just one.

When you spread the offer across so many networks, it becomes diluted. If you’re exclusive to a bigger network, you may get attention from the bigger affiliates, and if you go exclusive with a smaller one, ask for enhanced exposure and hype.

My advice is to go with 1-3 networks and determine which one is the biggest driver for you, and then go exclusive with them.

Q: I have been looking into affiliate marketing and online marketing pretty hard lately and i have no experience in the field but would like to get started. If you had to recommend one book or e-book to read to get you started with affiliate marketing or online marketing what would it be? i’m just really looking for something that will jump start me into online based marketing. You seem to be a really honest guy and i respect your opinions. Thank you for sharing so much of what you know.

A: There are a handful of books out there on affiliate management, but I haven’t come across anything on the affiliate side that I thought was particularly useful.

While this is self-serving, because it’s a book I published, I would suggest “Internet Marketing from the Real Experts.”

In a nutshell, the book is a compilation of articles from 88 people in affiliate marketing and related industries, and they share their personal insight and experience.

The book was published in 2010, so it’s current information from the people that actually do this stuff day to day.

Video: Book to Get Started in Affiliate Marketing

Q: I am excited about launching my first affiliate site however am concerned about the costs involved in building my database. I understand that co-reg partners may assist in reducing the costs but am still worried that my outgoings will end up being more than my incomings during the first few months.

A: Start small. It’s not really rational to think affiliate marketing is different from any other business.

You can’t just jump in and have a big, successful business in affiliate marketing.

You have to be patient and put in time to learn and grow.

I would suggest against laying out a lot of money to get started, especially if you don’t have that money to lose, because you probably will lose it if you race into things without an understanding of how it all works.

Focus on building your site organically, and spend more time than money until the point where your time is worth more than your money.

Also, it’s essential that you test everything to determine what’s working the best. Otherwise, you could be wasting vital time and resources.

Q: Where is a good place to find contracts? Specifically, I am looking to create a contract with a content provider where we split affiliate revenue. Where is a good source for such contracts?

A: There are two different options. One resource I use for boilerplate legal documents is LegalZoom.com.

They have a variety of contracts for a reasonable price, and you can then customize them for your needs.

Otherwise, if you have something that is more specialized, I would suggest consulting with a lawyer.

You should be able to find somebody locally that will assist you at an hourly rate.

I’ve gone with lawyers for some contracts, especially more substantial deals, to be sure everything was done right.

While it can be a little frustrating to spend that sort of money for a few pages of information, consider the importance of this document in protecting your interests, and the fact that you aren’t equipped with sufficient legal knowledge.

Think of it in terms of this quote from Jim Rohn: “You don’t get paid for the hour. You get paid for the value you bring to the hour.”

Video: Source for Contracts

Q: What are the top WordPress plugins that an affiliate needs?

A: It really varies, depending on the type of affiliate you are, as some networks have plugins, but if you’re not promoting those networks, it doesn’t really matter.

There are also WordPress plugins that accomplish tasks that not every affiliate needs.

In the latest Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, affiliates were asked, “Which affiliate marketing related plugins and widgets are you currently using?”

The results were somewhat skewed towards affiliates promoting products, as 20.7% stated they used the Amazon Reloaded for WordPress plugin.

This was followed by the ShareASale Make a Widget plugin at 14.1%, the WP-Marketer plugin at 9.8%, and LinkShare accounts for 26.1% across their three plugins.

Also, there was the DataFeedFile.com Featured Product Plugin with 5.4% and the DataFeedr plugin with 2.2%.

And there is the Avantlink Widget plugin and the Simple Link Cloaker plugin. I use the Pretty Link plugin to shorten my affiliate URLs.

My suggestion would be to check the blogs of the networks you promote, because there aren’t really top plugins for all affiliates.

Q: I see you run your affiliate business from home. Can you tell me some of the products and services you use to make up your office?

A: I’ve been working from home for five or six years now. I learned quickly that I had a need for the various business machines that I had taken for granted when working in offices.

For instance, I still have a somewhat frequent need to send and receive faxes. So, I use CallWave, where I am able to get incoming faxes as a PDF via email.

When I have to sign a document and fax it to somebody, I’ll just scan the document and email it. No fax machine needed.

I have a landline for my phone, but often I want to record a call for an interview to transcribe or other needs. In those instances, I’ll use Skype with a recording program called Pamela.

Another phone related service I use is FreedomVOICE, which provides me with a toll-free number that forwards to my regular number.

And I use Google Voice for incoming phone calls, because I am able to have it ring to my office phone and two cell phones. Also, they provide a free voicemail transcription service, and those messages are sent via email.

When it comes to email, I used Microsoft Outlook in the past, and that was a burden to run with people scattered in different states. There would be times when the PST file got too big and Outlook crashed, as well as other occasional problems.

This was fixed by switching over to Google Apps accounts for Gmail. I am able to manage the email server easily and there is tons of space (25GB of email storage per employee), so that’s not an issue. Also, it integrates nicely with Google Calendar, Google Documents, etc.

I do two different things to backup my data. I have a 1 TB external hard drive that is set to automatically backup any new files nightly.

I also use a service called Jungle Disk for an online backup. This is also set to make an incremental backup each evening. Jungle Disk becomes a virtual drive on my computer(s), so I can access those files from anywhere – very convenient.

Having that redundancy makes me comfortable, but I was thinking of adding a second online backup service to be that much more comfortable. Some people might call it paranoid, but it’s a modest fee to know my data is safe.

I have a Cisco-Linksys E1000 Wireless-N Router, and had been leasing a cable modem from Comcast until recently, when I realized I could buy my own.

My current modem is a Cisco-Linksys CM100 Cable Modem, and it will pay for itself, compared with leasing from Comcast, pretty soon.

And I actually have two each of the router and the modem (plus two Comcast connections), because I had some dead spots in my house, and wanted to be able to get fast Internet access anywhere inside and outside the house.

Speaking of Internet outside your house, be sure to use the security options for your browser, so your neighbors aren’t tapping unto your connection. While you’re at it, change your SSID to something that will freak out most people. One of mine is “install-virus”.

When it comes to the mailing address, I previously used my home address, and I regret doing it. For privacy reasons, I would suggest getting a box at your local post office or UPS Store. I did the latter a couple years ago. I prefer the UPS Store over the post office, because they will accept FedEx’s for you.

Q: How can I make money as an affiliate with articles?

A: There are a number of ways you can monetize articles, and I’ll share some things I am doing.

I am an EzineArticles.com Expert Author, and when other people post those articles on their sites, I get traffic from a link they have to include with the article. So in this regard, articles are a traffic source to my relevant sites.

In turn, I am able to monetize that traffic that comes from my articles. Plus, since these sites are linking to me, I get some degree of SEO benefit, as well, and I’d consider that a form of currency.

Also, EzineArticles.com has a variety of RSS feeds where you can import excerpts of articles to your blog. It varies from category to category, but I’m using a handful that have new content daily.

For instance, one you can take a look at is FatShawn.com. I initially created this as a fitness blog I intended to update regularly, but lost interest along the way.

So, instead of just shuttering it, I figured I’d start pulling in relevant content, and I began importing the articles on running from EzineArticles.com. I run some Google AdSense and affiliate ad units on the blog.

As far as pulling in the RSS feed(s), I use a WordPress plugin called AutoPost.

There are certainly other ways to monetize content, but these are a couple things I am doing.