One of the most common questions you ask is, “How should I get started making money online?”
Implied in the question is a story that happens far too often: A
person new to the world of making money online gets sucked into any
number of scams out there, from blatant take-your-money-and-run scams to
buying info products that promise zillions of dollars and just don’t
work. That’s why, from when I first started erica.biz, I made a
commitment to only promote products that are actually worth it on this
site.
And there are surprisingly few of them. I am happy to say, however, that Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook makes the cut.
The Super Affiliate Handbook is a meaty 211 pages, complete with
screenshots, and it guides you step by step through the process of
selling other companies’ products to make money online.
Does Rosalind Have Actual Proof of Her Earnings?
Most “make money online” products show pictures of a glitzy lifestyle
and big checks. However, these pictures are pretty easy to fake (and
many of them, unfortunately, are faked.) One thing I look for when
looking at “make money online” products is: Is there proof that the
person creating the product has real income to back up his or her
claims?
One of my favorite things about Rosalind is that she goes out of her
way to verify her income. For instance, she regularly posts videos on
her website showing checks she has received. Unlike the “Make Zillions
In 10 Days!” headlines, Rosalind is the real deal. Her total income from
affiliate sales is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year; in
fact, the book was originally published with the title “The Super
Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 Last Year Selling Other People’s
Stuff Online.”
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
So, how exactly does Rosalind make so much money? The basic outline
of her business model is this: She sets up websites, delivers good
content, and promotes products on them. She mostly promotes other
companies’ products, and when someone clicks through her website and
buys the product, she earns a percentage of the sale. This is known as
“affiliate marketing”–where you, as an affiliate, earn a commission for
every sale you make of someone else’s product.
The Super Affiliate Handbook starts out with a look at being an
affiliate vs. other types of businesses, such as becoming a distributor.
You can sell just about anything online to make money–from books on
Amazon.com to dating site memberships to web hosting. Most affiliate
programs are free for you to join, making this a low-risk option for
getting started. And since you don’t have to hold inventory, you don’t
have to buy a bunch of products up front and then try to pawn them off
on your friends and relatives.
Affiliate marketing is great for those of you who are looking to earn
extra income from home, as well, since pretty much all you need is an
Internet connection and a computer to make money. It’s perfect for
stay-at-home moms and dads, college students, retired folks, and people
looking to quit their jobs or who just want to earn a few extra dollars a
month.
Rosalind’s Affiliate Sites: What Do They Look Like?
On page 14, Rosalind shows off a website she has developed to sell
affiliate products. (This is another thing I love about her book: actual
examples of real sites–not cheesy blinking red text crap sites–that she created to make money.)
The site she shows is a blog in the travel industry, and she points
out the reader’s problem and how her blog post solves it. Then she
explains how to set up an affiliate link. The book is designed so even
the biggest technophobe can do something similar. Rosalind points out
that she isn’t a tech whiz, either!
Starting on page 19, she reviews the tools she uses to manage her
affiliate business. I wouldn’t necessarily agree with some of the tools
she picks (she uses Eudora as her email client–I vastly prefer Gmail, or
its counterpart Google Apps for Your Domain), but it’s still helpful to get this birds-eye view of her business.
How to Find a Niche That Will Make You Money
On page 26, the real meat starts: Rosalind drills down into how to
find a profitable niche. Not every topic you might like to write about
will actually make you money. Sure, you could write about an obscure
topic, but you won’t be successful with it unless there are people
searching about it and there is something for them to buy in
it! Here, Rosalind takes you by the hand and shows you her method of
finding niches that you can actually sell products in.
Next, it’s time to evaluate your competition. Rosalind reviews two
free tools that will help you see what competitors are out there (I use
one of them every day!) She then shows a dead simple way to find
affiliate products in your niche…I love this particular trick.
Getting Your Site Online (Even If You’re Not a Techie)
On page 43, it’s time to get started building your site. Rosalind
shows you how to set up a web hosting account and install WordPress so
you can easily create a website. (Of course, if you’re just getting
started, you can have my expert staff do all this via my Blog Setup site.) She also reveals a critical mistake many marketers make when they get started; don’t fall into this trap!
Then, it’s on to building content for your site. Don’t worry–it’s not
as hard as it may seem. Rosalind gets you started with 10 headline
templates and some recommendations to help convert more of your visitors
to buyers. She even walks you through the process of hiring an article
writer (something I’ve done as well for some niche sites I run–it’s well
worth it if you don’t want to write.)
Making Some Money!
Okay, ready to make some money? That’s what the next section is all
about! Rosalind gets you familiar with Google AdSense, which allows you
to easily put ads on your blog. Then she introduces you to affiliate
networks, which allow advertisers to connect with “publishers” (you’re a
publisher now!) She shows you how to find matching products and sign up
for their affiliate programs. She gives you twenty different questions
to ask of every affiliate program to ensure that you will get paid.
Finally, she walks you through setting up an Amazon.com affiliate
account so you can sell every product that Amazon carries and make a
commission on it.
The next step is to build traffic to your site. Rosalind walks you through 31 different ways to market your website!
She shows you how to set up a Google AdWords account so you can
advertise on Google’s search engine and drive targeted traffic to your
site, how to write articles that link back to your site, how to set up
an opt-in email list, and even how to set up profiles on relevant forums
and blogs and comment on them.
A word of caution here: She mentions eBay ads, but eBay’s digitally delivered goods policy
no longer allows eBay users to run auctions for digital products.
Digital goods must now be in their “classified ads” section, which
doesn’t get a lot of traffic. I let Rosalind know about this. I’m also
hoping that she will cover Facebook ads in the next version of the
handbook. Still, this is an excellent overview of the various ways to
get traffic to your site.
Turning Your Site Into a Business
Next, Rosalind covers some daily, monthly, and yearly tasks you can
do for your sites. As you start making money, you can reinvest your
profits in hiring people to take care of some of these tasks, but when
you start, you can do these on your own.
I really like her section covering “How to Negotiate a Commission
Increase”. Believe it or not, companies will often reward those who
refer lots of happy customers to them…but you have to ask. Rosalind
covers this neatly with examples.
The final section is on how to deal with the inevitable problems that
come up: Your site is rejected as an affiliate; people steal your
content; an affiliate program doesn’t pay you. These issues do come up,
and I appreciate Rosalind covering them so extensively.
Though Rosalind makes huge amounts of money online, her method isn’t
effortless. But as someone who has made 5 figures in a single month, I
gotta say, when you get the check in the mail, it’s worth it.
Is This Book Worth Investing In?
Overall, Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook is an excellent
resource for those who are getting started with affiliate marketing. If
you want to learn how to really make money online and get
started without a lot of money, definitely invest in a copy of her
guide. It’s one of the most comprehensive resources I have ever seen,
and it’s updated frequently.
The Super Affiliate Handbook is well worth it as an “overview” guide
if you’re getting started making money online, and if you have a site
but haven’t made money with it, the traffic tips are great. I recommend
it in both these cases.
If you already have a blog and are making over $1,000 per month in
affiliate commissions, you can probably skip this. But if you’re not
there yet, this book will help you along the way. There is a full 60-day
money-back guarantee, so feel confident in placing your order today.
Claim your own copy of Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook now!
