March is gone, and April is here. It came fast! I’m sure loving the beautiful weather we’ve been having. Definitely can’t complain about that. Seems as though we completely skipped Spring and went straight to Summer, already hitting over 80 degrees! Crazy, I know.

Anyway, here are my blog posts from last month worth reading (again maybe?). If you found them helpful you’re welcome to post a comment letting me know, or if you have a question then ask away. Seriously, don’t be shy here.

Without further ado, here they are:

A Complete Step-By-Step Guide to Setup a Money Making Website

Blog Commenting Contest – Win $10 from Dennis Edell (The commenting contest has been restarted for this month, so head on over and leave a comment for Dennis. Don’t worry, he doesn’t bite ).

Why I Chose Affiliate Marketing and Why You Should Too

Finding Your Perfect and Profitable Niche on the Internet

Write Online Product Reviews to Make Money Online

Again, feel free to comment on my posts, and if you’re feeling really nice, hit that little green ReTweet button. I’d appreciate the love. And, you may want to follow me on Twitter so you don’t miss any updates.

Stay cool, and have a Happy Easter tomorrow.

When I first came online, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing or even know where to start. All I knew was that I wanted to make money online. A passion that has stuck with me even till today.

Once I was introduced to affiliate marketing, it started to make sense to me. Of course, everyone made it sound so easy. You know, the pie in the sky, hyped up promises… and so on and so forth.

I can assure you it’s not quite that easy, but that didn’t stop me from pursuing my passion and finally getting my own little slice of pie.

At the time I didn’t know anything about niches and why I should target a small niche rather than diving into a huge niche, such as the “work from home” niche. As it turns out, that’s why it’s been a struggle for me. Had I started over and did my research first, I would’ve gotten into a smaller niche where I could get my slice of the pie more quickly and maybe even get more than one slice.

But, while the “work from home” niche has its struggles, the rewards can be huge once you do gain momentum and become an authority site. Afterall, it’s one of the biggest niches on the entire internet.

I’m not going to tell you what niche you should or should not get into, but rather explain why affiliate marketing should be your choice for making money online. I believe it’s the way to go for most people… at least in the beginning.

Here’s 3 reasons why you should choose affiliate marketing:

1. You don’t need your own product – Unless you already have a solid plan in your mind from the start, a product is the furthest thing from people’s minds when they’re just looking for some extra income. This is why affiliate marketing is lucrative because it allows people to capitalize on other people’s products.
2. No special training required – One of the best things, I think, about affiliate marketing is that you can jump right into it head first without having a clue what you’re doing. That sounds like a bad thing, but when you think about it, there’s no better way to learn something than to just do it. And, affiliate marketing allows for this. You can learn while you go, and if you somehow manage to really mess up, there’s usually plenty of leeway for this and can easily be fixed.
3. Zero cost is required – Seriously, you can start making money with affiliate marketing for absolutely no money out of your pocket. Of course, there will come a time when you’ll want to setup your own website/blog, but the cost is less than $100 a year. But, that’s not necessary in the beginning, although I highly recommend it as it will help you further along from the start.

Now, rather than going for the big bucks at the beginning and picking a very competative niche, I recommend finding a smaller niche to start with. Besides, you can make a lot of money even with smaller niches, believe it or not.

What are you passionate about? Do you have a hobby?

Answering these questions will help you determine what niche you may want to get started in. It helps to like what you’re doing, not to mention being knowledgeable in that area will help tremendously.

Stay tuned as my upcoming post will detail how you can determine if the niche you want to get into will be profitable or not. You don’t want to waste your time if there’s not a big enough market in your niche. Weeding out the profitable niches from the duds will aide you in your decision.

In the meantime, here’s some homework for you. Write down all the hobbies and interests you have on a piece of paper. You could have 1 or 15… It doesn’t matter. Jot them down and save them for my next post as you’ll be using this list to narrow down your interests and hobbies to just one that you’ll target for your affiliate marketing venture.

However, if you want to skip this and go right for the big bucks and target the “work from home” niche (the most money online is spent in this niche) just as I am, I recommend reading this post.

See you soon.

Another month has gone by. Seriously… is it going as fast as I think it is? I seem to keep losing more and more time each day and getting further behind on stuff. I apologize for the minimal amount of posts. I’m doing my best to keep up and provide quality content to you all.

Alas, another time for a blog post roundup of last month’s posts. I have some awesome posts included in this, as well as some awesome ones to come. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them so far and have benefited from them.

I don’t take my blogging lightly. I put a lot of thought into what I’m writing and always have you, my readers, in mind. As always, your feedback is welcomed and appreciated.

Okay, without further delay let’s get started. Be sure to check out any posts you may have missed.

Affiliate Marketing is the New Job on the Market

30 Ways to Get Free Website Traffic In Minutes

Are You a Struggling Internet Marketer?

Proven Strategies to Increase Website Traffic and Generate Sales

Legitimate Worldwide Work From Home Opportunities

Are You Targeting ‘Paying’ Keywords?

How I Get Backlinks to My Blog Posts Resulting in Sales

Google Celebrates Valentine’s Day – They Gave Me $100!

The Official Alibaba.com Success Guide

I was very pleased to see the first post on this list had gotten Re-Tweeted 27 times so far. Thank you to all who spread the word to your Twitter followers.

The Twitter Tweetmeme plugin has proven to work well and makes it easy for Twitter users to Re-Tweet posts. If you’re not yet utilizing it on your own blog, you should be.

Again, thank you to all my readers!

With the economy still way below normal and jobless rates not seeing a high increase, people are still looking for new job opportunities, both offline and online.

When I lost my job in 2008, I decided to start building an online presence and get a proofreading portfolio together. I wanted to provide a valuable service to others and build up a clientele. At the same time I hammered down on my online business and tried to learn as much as I could about internet marketing. I knew there was money to be made online, and there still is.

That’s why I truly believe that affiliate marketing is the new job on the market. Trillions of dollars are being spent online, and as an affiliate, you can claim your share.

Affiliate marketing is by far the easiest and most lucrative business model, so it’s no wonder why you see so many new affiliates these days. I imagine that there are many people looking for something different, just like I was when I lost my job.

I wanted this post to be a little different, so instead of me rambling on about stuff you may or may not already know, I thought I’d make it extremely easy for you to find all of my posts related to affiliate marketing.

So, simply click the link below:

http://www.replaceyoursalary.com/work-from-home-blog/category/affiliate-marketing

and you’ll have every post I tagged with affiliate marketing at your fingertips. This will surely give you enough information to read up on for the next day or two until I get a new post up. Hopefully you’ll find some informative information as well as some inspiration if you’re thinking about getting into affiliate marketing.

Have any thoughts? Share them below…

Wow, I can’t believe we’re a whole month into 2010 already. January felt like it went so fast. Almost too fast, actually.

But alas, a new month is here, and we gotta keep pushing forward. It’s the beginning of February, so that means another edition of blog post roundup.

If you happened to miss any of my posts in January, you can find them below. Hope you enjoyed them.

Work From Home Cartoon Humor

What Do You Plan To Accomplish In 2010?

Are You Finding It Difficult To Make Money From Work From Home Opportunities?

Affiliate Power Group – Online Business Coaching – Affiliate Marketing Training

6 Tips To Help You Reach Online Success

5 Tips To Market Yourself On The Internet

3 Reasons You Will Never Make Money Online

5 Things You MUST Do To Make Money Online

In my previous post, I briefly mentioned about the importance of having a mentor or group of mentors that can guide you on the path to online business success. One of my loyal blog readers, Dennis Edell, pointed out that all successful people (especially the top 1%) have a mentor. Well, I don’t know that I’d consider myself successful (financial wise), nor am I in the top 1%, but I do have a group of mentors that have helped me out tremendously in learning affiliate marketing.

The reason for this post is to introduce you to the group of mentors I’ve had the privilege of working with. What’s unique, I believe, is that they’ve been open to helping ANYONE who is either new to affiliate marketing, struggling to make money, or looking to take their online businesses to the next level. There’s not too many successful internet marketers that are willing to work one-on-one with people, as pointed out by Meka, a recent reader of this blog.

Of course, they can’t literally work one-on-one with every single person, but I think they got a pretty good setup in place. They have a membership site designed specifically for people who want to get into affiliate marketing by setting up niche blogs. This is certainly the starting point in which anyone who is serious should take in order to start earning some extra income online.

The membership site provides an outline and step-by-step action plan to follow, from planning, getting your website set up, marketing/advertising, optimizing and bringing in a residual and passive income month after month. The mentors who started this membership site all are regular people just like you and me who had a desire to be their own boss and work from home. They saw an opportunity and did everything they could to see their dreams become a reality. They call themselves the Affiliate Power Group.

The mentors have been successfully working from home with affiliate marketing full-time for a number of years and are now sharing their experience and knowledge with the rest of us. That’s my main goal and purpose of this Work From Home Blog. I just love helping people and giving back, and it’s obvious that they’re very willing to do the same.

The great thing about Affiliate Power Group is that they have a built-in forum (just updated) where you can ask questions and get direct answers from the mentors as well as other members. This is where the one-on-one attention is created because you have direct access to each mentor at anytime. You can also email or message any of the members directly for specific questions if you prefer.

As mentioned in my previous post, being able to have direct communication with those who are successful in your field will give you the edge you need to become successful yourself. It helps you grow mentally and provides personal development needed to turn that “hobby” of a website into a real online business. I’m not saying you have to go spend a $1,000 to form an LLC, but you have to realize that creating a successful online business takes a lot of hard work and persistence. If you treat it like a real business, it’ll reward you as such. That’s something that took me a long time to realize, which is why I’m still not where I want to be yet (my monthly income reports are proof of that).

Affiliate Power Group is able to help anyone just starting out, struggling to make money, or trying to take their affiliate marketing business to the next level.  You can give their affiliate marketing training a try for just $1. $1 will give you access to the entire membership site plus all the bonuses. This is a huge deal, and I know once you see the value you’ll receive, you’ll want to continue your membership.

The total cost of the membership is very undervalued. Although, I like to look at it as the mentors over-delivering, which is really what they do. Seriously, learn the business or take yours to the next level for just $1 today. You won’t be disappointed.

December was a very busy month for offline commitments, not to mention Christmas celebration and New Year’s.

I was able to post a considerable amount, although not as much as I would like. I did however meet one of my goals, and that was to get my Alexa Rank down to 250,000 or less. The lowest reached was 245,449.

I was happy to reach my accomplishment, and I have my readers to thank for that. Thank you! 2009 was a great year, and I look forward to great things to come in 2010.

Let’s recap the posts for December:

November Income Report

Work From Home With Affiliate Marketing

How To Avoid Getting Scammed With Work From Home Jobs

Make Money With CPA Affiliate Networks

Where Can You Find Legitimate Work From Home Jobs?

Finding The Right Legitimate Work From Home Job For You

Merry Christmas!

I’m giving away $10 – Limited Offer – If you’re new here, I highly recommend you check out this post.

Do Legitimate Work From Home Jobs Exist?

That wraps up December and the 2009 year.

I wish everyone a very happy and successful 2010. Let’s make it the best year yet!

I had made this offer available to my newsletter subscribers only, but seeing as how I apparently don’t have any serious subscribers, I have decided to open this up to anyone.

I honestly can’t imagine why anyone wouldn’t jump on an offer like I’m about to propose. There’s no risk involved, and so much to gain.

Here’s the deal…

I’m looking for a few people who seriously want to start making money online. I’m talking about people who don’t have a clue about this business and want to get started on the right foot. If you’re completely new to internet/affiliate marketing, and you’re ready to take action and positive steps towards your financial future, then this offer is for you.

I’ll give you $10 if you take me up on this. There’s no time limit.

This offer was originally limited to the first 5 people, but I’ve decided to offer this to everyone who takes advantage of this. So every single person who signs up for a HostGator account through my link will receive $10 from me.

Here’s what you need to do…

1. Sign up for a web hosting account with HostGator. Those are my affiliate links. During the sign-up process, enter coupon code “wordpress” (without quotes) to get started for just 1 cent ($0.01). It’s very important that you do this, otherwise you’ll be paying more than you have to.

2. Register a domain name with NameCheap. Again, my affiliate link. The cost is less than $10.

Keep in mind that your domain name should describe what your website will be about. This website will be the starting block for your “business,” so take some time in choosing a good domain name. Don’t make this complicated, though.

3. Email me your receipt of purchase from HostGator and NameCheap. Once I confirm that you have purchased both through my affiliate links, I will send you $10 through PayPal. Send me your PayPal email address at this time as well.

I’m basically refunding the $9.95 you spent for your domain name and the $0.01 for hosting, so there is absolutely zero cost to you.

NOTE:

I highly recommend clearing your internet cache and cookies before clicking on my links above. This will ensure I get credit when you purchase through them.

Once everything is underway, I will setup your blog for you and teach you how to start marketing and making money with your new blog. This is where the real value of my offer is. This is crucial to your success, and I’m going to help you get there.

IMPORTANT:

I’m looking for people who are serious about this and want to start taking the steps to change their life. The most important step is the first one… and that is simply to TAKE ACTION.

Remember, because I’m paying you $10 into your PayPal account, you have absolutely nothing to lose. You can get started for free right now.

If you have any questions or comments please leave your thoughts in the comments section below or email me directly.

I look forward to working with you and helping you reach your dreams for 2010!

This is probably a question that gets asked all too often, and for good reason, really. There’s many people looking to work from home, and finding legitimate opportunities can be a downright pain. It doesn’t have to be, though.

I just wrote a recent article: Legitimate Work From Home Jobs – Where to Find Them providing some simple steps you can take right now.

It’s going to be a time-consuming process, as you need to define your goals, needs and interests. These should all line up with the job you’re interested in. There are literally thousands of opportunities out there, both offline and online. It’s not something you want to rush into.

Here’s a short story about how I started working online (If you even care lol)…

5 years ago when I was working a full-time job, I had the desire to work for myself. I knew people were making money online, so I started searching for jobs or opportunities. I used search engines like Google and MSN (at the time) and looked at hundreds of results.

I eventually came across the Plug-In Profit Site (my affiliate link) which introduced me to affiliate marketing. I haven’t looked back since. Just a year and a half ago I decided to venture into proofreading and re-writing, as I felt I had a natural skill for those things.

Both affiliate marketing and proofreading/re-writing are something I’m highly interested in and have a passion for. This is essential when looking to work from home.

In one of my previous posts about working from home with affiliate marketing, I talked about how affiliate marketing is the easiest way to get started making money online.

This post is going to cover a way in which you can start generating money with affiliate marketing without having to actually sell anything. Interested? You should be. You can earn a decent amount of money from your web traffic by promoting CPA ads.

CPA stands for Cost Per Action. The way CPA ads work is that you promote a particular ad or ads that are related to the content and niche of your site.  CPA ads can be found for practically any niche you’re in.

When someone comes to your site and sees a link to a product or service you’re promoting for a CPA network, and they click on the link, they’ll be taken to the owner’s site for that offer. Your affiliate ID will be included.

Here’s the best part. All that person has to do is take some sort of ACTION. This action doesn’t involve actually buying anything. If the person is interested in the offer and fills out a form to learn more, you automatically get credited for the sign-up. This earns you a set commission into your account for that CPA affiliate network.

The commission earned for each sign-up can range from $1 to $3. If a sale is generated, the commissions can be $20 all the way up to $60 or more, depending on the offer.

Here’s an example…

You’re promoting a survey site for a reputable company, and they’re paying $3 per lead. Someone comes to your site, sees the ad and clicks on the link. They go to the survey site and read over the offer. There’s a form that requests their name and email address so they can be sent further information (which is how leads are generated). They fill out the form, and you’re automatically credited with $3.

It’s that simple. You don’t have to sell anything at all. Although, the money you can earn is a lot more if you do make a sale on top a lead.

Here’s a tip: The shorter the form is, the more likely someone is going to fill it out. So, try to find offers that only have one or two lines for them to fill in. If you can’t, don’t worry, if it’s a good offer it may convert just as well. It all comes down to testing different offers.

Here are the two CPA Affiliate Networks that I use and earn money from:

MaxBounty

Responsive Data

I just want to note that getting approved for CPA affiliate networks can be a little tricky. If you decide to sign up for one of these and run into any problems, just let me know, and I’ll help you out.

Also, both of these companies have the option to be paid directly to your PayPal account, which is very nice.

Do you use CPA affiliate networks to earn money? What companies do you use? How are you doing with them? Share your comments below…