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How to Make Affiliate Sales

June 9, 2009 by Shawn Collins

Q: If you joined an affiliate program and the product was digital with a price range around $20, how would you make four sales in your first month if you had a strong desire to succeed, no money (or very little), no Web site, no mailing list, and not much experience?

A: The first thing I would do would be to get a piece of paper, and I would make a “to do” list. The first item on the list would be to create a Web site.

So anyway, I don’t know how you would plan to promote affiliate links if you have no assets where you could promote them. Since you don’t have money to put into it, PPC is off the table.

I would suggest that you create a new blog around the topic of this affiliate program that you wish to promote.

There are services where you can start up a blog for free, but I would suggest getting your own hosting (~ $10/month) and domain ($10/year). And then install WordPress, which is free, to manage the site.

Then you should start creating content around the topic of the site. Don’t worry about the look of the blog – just start churning out content. Understand that nobody is going to be visiting or buying from you initially, so you’re operating in something of a vacuum.

This is the period where you can either persevere or quit. You probably won’t make four sales in the first month, unless you’re really aggressive in marketing the site.

Note: aggressive doesn’t equal spam, but rather hard work.

Later on, get a nice looking WordPress theme, and add in plugins to customize the site more.

Focus on building a quality site and eventually the sales will come.

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