The Absolute Easiest Way to Get Started

Then you are just beginning affiliate marketing and you haven’t even gotten started yet all the information coming at you can seem completely overwhelming. But there is an easy way to get started and it is important that you do get started because you will learn more by doing than you will ever learn by reading.

So I believe the absolute easiest way to get started in affiliate marketing is to do the following five steps:

1) Go to Amazon and pick a product.
This product can cost any amount of money, but it might make more sense for it to be between $40 and $200. This is a good price range to get you a decent commission but not cost so much money that nobody is buying it.

If you can pick something that is trending right now even better. By trending it means something that people are buying now or will be buying soon – for example if Christmas is coming up then maybe pick a toy that is popular. Or, if it is the end of spring, then pick a product like a portable swimming pool or a certain color of swimsuit or maybe even some fancy summer sandals.

2) Go to squidoo and sign up
Create a lens on squidoo about the product that you have picked.  When you first start you may not be able to use the Amazon module. If this is the case, link to the product on Amazon in a regular link and then do whatever you have to do to get enough points to be able to use the Amazon modules. Once you can use Amazon modules, go back in and add at least one.  Add an eBay module also.
Write in the first person with a conversational and friendly tone.  Don’t copy reviews from anywhere.  Tell a little story about the product and paraphrase the reviews that are already on Amazon if you don’t know much about the product.
Look around at other people’s lenses to get an idea how  a lens should look. Put a link to your product in the very top intro module if you can.  Title your squidoo lens like this: Buy Product Name Online.  Title all your module titles with a variation of the product name.
If you want to get an idea of what a good sales lens looks like at squidoo look at this lens:
http://www.squidoo.com/bubble-chair-circle-and-ball-chairs-buy-stylish-round-furniture-online
Don’t copy the topic but do you structure your lens in a similar way if you aren’t sure what else to do.

3) Post your published lands at squidu.com and in the Facebook group related to squidoo.  Participate in the community and visit other people’s lenses so they will visit yours.   Build a back link to your lens at loveblinks, webnuggetz, and hubpages.  You can also start your own free blog at blogger and send a back link to your lens from there.

4) Over the next few weeks pay attention to your stats and see what kind of keywords people are coming into your lens on.  If it is a keyword that is and actually present on your lens, if you think it is related you can add it into your lens in the content. If you don’t think it is related you can create another lens about this keyword and sell whatever the keyword is about on it.

5) Repeat the process.  You are trying to get a feel for how promoting products that aren’t yours works online.  Try to take what you have learned about creating lenses and apply it to your own blog.

Getting started in affiliate marketing is a marathon, not a sprint. It will take time and work. But this is the absolute easiest way to do it because squidoo has a built-in community of friendly people who will help you with your lens and who will help you get some attention to it. Also, squidoo makes it easy to put up pages that are designed to make money.