I think we can all agree that starting an affiliate business is one of the easiest ways to begin making money online. Simply put, affiliate marketing is a relationship between a merchant who offers their products and services and an affiliate who agrees to promote them.

The affiliate’s main task is to promote those products and services and in turn receives a commission when a sale is completed. Whenever a buyer is referred to the merchant’s site via the efforts of the affiliate, and makes a purchase, the affiliate gets a percentage of the sale amount. No payments are made to the affiliate until the sale is completed. The three most common ways an affiliate is paid is PPS (pay-per-sale), PPC (pay-per-click) and PPL (pay-per-lead).

Some affiliates only earn a few dollars each month while others earn 5 and 6 figures on a consistent basis. There is no limit on the amount of money an affiliate can earn and their earnings are usually based on their determination, strategies and creativity. Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn an online income and one of the biggest benefits is not having to create your own product or service. Those who promote the merchants products aggressively and passionately, will ultimately see much more income. Nearly every affiliate starts out making small amounts but that can grow with the right strategies and a positive mind set.

There are lots of ways affiliate marketers can increase their earnings. Ask any affiliate how much money they would like to make and most likely the answer will be; “as much as possible”. Some affiliate checks are very small and may only be a few dollars while others are getting very large amounts well into the thousands. Over a period of time, it is possible to see those impressive amounts as well. Being a successful affiliate marketer and generating those large checks does not happen overnight. It can only happen if you’re willing to put in the time and work hard. You also need to be creative, willing to learn, seek out ways to drive traffic and take action.

Most affiliates want to see lots of those affiliate checks coming in each month but it’s not as easy as it may sound. Do you think by joining many affiliate programs that you’ll see more and larger checks? The answer is ABSOLUTELY NOT! Unfortunately, there are many affiliates that think by joining multitudes of affiliate programs, they are making a good choice. Yes, it is very easy to join affiliate programs and get instant approval. What happens when a person does that, is they fail to give each of the programs the attention and commitment it should have and in most cases the results are dismal.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having multiple income streams but you’ll be doing yourself a great favor by concentrating on one program to begin with. Try to pick the product or service that you are passionate about and have trust in. Products and services that you personally use are the best ones to promote. When you have hands on experience with a product, it shows that you are sincere and enthusiastic. Believe it or not, customers can sense that, plus it makes your product more credible and believable. That generally leads to a much higher rate of conversion.

Once you see that your first choice of programs is starting to make some money, that’s the time to consider joining an additional program and from there you should duplicate the process. One of the most common mistakes affiliates make is taking on too much at one time. Their intention is to create multiple income streams but for the majority, it simply does not work.

You will realize more success by focusing on one program and giving it your best effort until it starts producing income. Only then, should you seek another program and give it your best shot. Maybe the question should be how many big fat checks you want to receive rather than how many checks you want to receive. The answer to that question is dependent on how determined you are to maximize your income. By utilizing the right strategies, tools, taking action and persevering, it is possible to get those big fat affiliate checks.

If you are currently an affiliate marketer, do you focus on one product or service at a time? Or do you promote many products at once hoping to see many affiliate checks? Please feel free to share your experience with promoting affiliate products and services.

I’m sure many of you have heard the phrase “multiple income streams” but what does it mean? Many business people create multiple income streams both offline and online as a way to make themselves and their businesses more secure. Today’s business people feel that having multiple streams of income can possibly save them from the “famine-effect’ of the industry.

If you choose to involve yourself as an affiliate marketer, it is recommended that you have multiple income streams. In the event that one of your income streams stops producing, you can still produce income from one of your other streams. If you ask any successful online marketer, you will find that they all have established multiple streams of income.

One of the first steps to take when creating multiple streams of income is to evaluate your resources and start by doing an assessment of yourself. Write down the answers to the following questions:

What strengths do I possess?
What are my talents and abilities?
Do I have good writing and creative skills?
Am I good at selling?
Do I have good communication skills?
Do I have artistic or unique skills that others don’t have?

The answers to those questions will help determine the types of business you may excel in.

The next step is to take an inventory of the physical resources you may have. Items such as a computer, printer, DVD burner, digital camera and cell phone can all be used as resources. How about your friends and family? Do they have resources that you have access to? There is nothing wrong with using the resources, talents and abilities of everyone you know. Remember the saying; “No man is an island”.

Those are the steps you should consider when trying to create additional income streams. If you are currently a web site owner or webmaster, you certainly have an advantage. If you haven’t done so already, why not join an affiliate program to make some additional income from your web site/blog.

Becoming an affiliate marketer is a very desirable way to create multiple income streams. The reason for that is; there are so many various affiliate programs, products and services to market. Most programs are easy to get started with and you can begin earning some money as soon as you sign up. As an affiliate marketer, you earn commissions by promoting and selling the products and services you are affiliated with. Another advantage to being an affiliate marketer is the fact that in most cases, you are provided with various marketing materials and some excellent training. As an affiliate marketer, you can rest assured that there is always an abundant number of products to sell and income to make.

You have the choice of how many hours you want to work as an affiliate marketer. This gives you the option to chose how many products you want to promote and how many income streams you want to build. As an affiliate, you can earn commissions without investing any money, owning a product or dealing with inventory or customer related issues. Your primary function is the promotion of the products and services and driving traffic to the merchant’s site.

As an affiliate marketer, you should promote more than one related product on your site so you can give your visitors a variety of options to chose from. By doing so, you will have created multiple streams of affiliate income. There is nothing wrong with using this strategy and it’s a way to protect your business and expand your horizons. In the event one of your merchants closes their affiliate program you will always have another to fall back on.

Be sure to choose only those affiliate programs that you have an interest in so you can be most effective with your advertising and promotions. Don’t be tempted to sign up for programs you know nothing about. Always go with products and services that you are enthusiastic and passionate about so you can gain your visitors interest and direct them to your affiliate links.

It does take hard work to make a good income and just like any other business, you need to be persistent, patient and try to learn all you can. The old saying “don’t put all your eggs in one basket’ is very true as it relates to building your multiple streams of income.

Do you currently have or are you in the process of building your multiple streams of income?

The concept behind InstantPlugNPay.com is really very simple. It was developed by Craig Haywood (or the blue guy) who is also the owner of highly successful sites like TrackThatAd.com, MyViralPopAds.com, ExitLightBox.com and MyViralSurfer.com

From the above sites you can probably deduct that Craig focuses heavily on Viral Marketing which is good when you consider what he’s done with InstantPlugNPay.com

A quick summary of the IPP homepage reveals that IPP is a resell rights product website which integrates with mlm through viral marketing, but that doesn’t even begin to lift the layers of nice goodies. In Fact, Jane Mark from JPEAdvertising.com describes it better…

“I know. It’s resale rights gone MLM and viral but that doesn’t tell half the story. People who have no idea how to sell resale products have it made. You set it for them You give them autoresponder sales letters and new, jazzy sales pages to work with. You give them all the viral tools to sell the products and they sit back and relax.

They don’t have to do a thing. I love it.

They can even let people know by Twitter that they have a new product for sale right from the members area by just popping in their twitter information.”

Here is how it works…
Every member of IPP gets a product store where all products in the store (supplied by Craig) is linked to your own domain name. (which you create free when you join)Every month Craig ads 3 new products to the store, does the ad copy for you, integrate an auto responder follow-up series for you (which he hosts on your behalf). He also ties viral marketing to every product to ensure your visitors multiplies your selling efforts as well as social network marketing through the means of Twitter Tweets. Btw., if you join IPP Craig also helps you to virally grow your Twitter followers

Now, this is where it gets interesting. This is the first and only program I know of where you can make a substantial income without even paying a dime (although the pro benefits are exceptional…more on that later). As a free member you will get 50% commission for any product sold from your store. The member who referred you will also get $2 for every product you sell, as will the member who referred them. Going pro makes this even more lucrative. Every time you sell a product to someone, they will also get an option to join IPP (under you), so this makes it easy to get in more people underneath you, however, Craig has gone the full 9 yards to ensure getting sign ups is as easy as possible, by also providing you with a tracker that virally promotes itself (in other words, affiliate links you advertise) as well as your IPP products at the same time. At the same time, you will also have access to all the information of people who buy from your store, which means you can import leads into your auto responder of known buyers.

Going Pro…
I am not going to tell you the price to be a pro member as this violates Craig’s terms of service. What I can tell you is that it is so low, I thought it was a joke. But on a more serious note, it gives you the opportunity to rake in a small fortune every month. As a pro member you will also earn 100% on all products in your store paid directly to your PayPal account. If you don’t have PayPal, Craig also provides you with another option that is globally accepted. Something which made me realize Craig thought of everything is the pro member affiliate benefit. Since you get 100% profit on products in your store, it is only fitting that you should be able to get affiliates to promote your products for you. As a pro member, each product in your store is set up with your own affiliate program which pays out 50% to your affiliates and 50% to you. All of this is handled without you having to do anything. The system even recruits affiliates for you.

Final Thoughts…
The InstantPlugNPay.com system is a rare gem. It is a full stay at home program where no skills are required from you. Everything, and I mean everything is done on your behalf. I know you have probably heard the term: “You’ve never seen anything like this.” a thousand times before, but this time it is true. This is one program I am giving a rating of 10 out of 10. Hint: When you log in for the first time, you will be presented with a one time offer to go pro. While you can still upgrade later at a price which is still a joke, I highly recommend you do it when you are presented with the oto as it is the lowest you will ever get it at.
Click on the banner to get started.

If you’re anxious to build your list fast, this FREE report by Justin Michie provides the crucial steps you can take to see results quickly.

With years of marketing experience under his belt, he has discovered what works and what doesn’t for building a list. In his report, Unstoppable List Building, he shares his findings with you, along with tips on how to make some of the strategies work for maximum benefit.

This is a no-nonsense report that drives right to the core of what works, and gives you the real secrets to building your list. Justin tells you right from the start what to expect from this report and why he has chosen his approach.

It is presented with new marketers in mind, but is equally valuable to seasoned marketers. If you have limited experience, this report will help you to start building a quality, responsive list fast.

He is making this paid report FREE for a limited time, so grab your copy of Unstoppable List Building while you can: Unstoppable List Building

It covers how to use classified ads and social marketing to build your list quickly. It tells you when to use single opt-in and when to choose double opt-in, and why there’s a difference.

You’ll learn the difference between targeted and untargeted traffic and why you should care which type of traffic you drive to your squeeze page and onto your list. He lists the three things you need to get started, and where to get them easily without paying a huge price.

You’ll discover some effective free and paid methods for attracting subscribers that many successful marketers are using to boost their lists, and much more, including building trust and making money on demand.

The meat of the report focuses on viral marketing. While this concept has been around for a very long time and is utilized by top marketers, Justin shares with you some details that will set you apart from the rest.

Viral marketing involves getting others to distribute your products that contain links to your offers. But Justin takes this one step further by giving you tips on how to encourage even more people to distribute your viral product. These are methods that have worked to literally explode his lists in record time.

To give you a clear look at the process, he spells out a typical scenario in 7 steps. You will see how this powerful strategy will spread your viral product and your promotions around the Internet like wildfire.

The 65-page report is chock full of valuable ideas that you can implement right away to start building your list, or to expand the one you have.

Grab your free copy of Unstoppable List Building while you can, before Justin takes it down:
Click here for your free “Unstoppable List Building” report

NOTE: The following is a guest post from one of my favorite internet marketing mentors. This is part 5 of a 5 part series.

Why I Love Affiliate Marketing – Part 5
By Jimmy D. Brown of “Affiliatenaire”

The word “overhead” is not a favorite among those who run businesses of any kind. Nobody likes the expenses of operating a business. And nobody really talks about them much when it comes to promoting all of the “money-making” products and services online.

But, don’t kid yourself, there’s a lot of overhead.

That brings me to the fifth reason why I love affiliate
marketing…

** You don’t need a big budget to make it work **

Do you have any idea how much money is spent running an internet business? There are monthly fees for…

* Autoresponders
* Hosting
* Management
* Advertising
* Scripts
* Much more

There are regular fees for…

* Licensing
* Outsourcing
* Support
* Customer Service
* Maintenance
* Development
* Recruting
* Much more

It’s not uncommon to spend tens of thousands (even hundreds of thousands) of dollars in operational costs — which is fine if you’ve been in business a while and are making the bucks. However, if you’re a newcomer, it can be taxing on your budget!

SIDEBAR: I paid one girl over $30,000 last year just to oversee one small part of my business. No one talks much about it, but there ARE a lot of expenses involved before you get to the “bottom line” of profit.

BUT, with affiliate marketing, you don’t need a big budget to make it work! You can simply use a variety of free and low-cost marketing methods to generate clicks to your affiliate link.

That’s why I love affiliate marketing.

You don’t need a big budget to make it work.

…………………….

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of “Affiliatenaire”, teaching you how to create big-time affiliate commission checks in only 1-3 hours each week. Discover how you can get cash in the bank without a website, experience or even an idea!

NOTE:  The following is a guest post from one of my favorite internet marketing mentors. This is part 4 of a 5 part series.

Why I Love Affiliate Marketing – Part 4
By Jimmy D. Brown of “Affiliatenaire”

I’m sure by now you are well aware that there are those who have reported HUGE amounts of money being made with their online businesses.  What you may not be aware of is the amount of work involved in generating those “sales” (not always net profit, mind you … this isn’t “spendable” income in a lot of cases.)

That brings me to the fourth reason why I love affiliate marketing…

** You don’t need to manage an entire business **

While it can be quite lucrative, running an entire business with employees, inventory, partners, vendors, and other associates, it can be a time-sucking, frustrating ordeal.

Imagine…

* Processing refunds
* Putting out fires when partners SPAM
* Managing day-to-day operations
* Overseeing projects you’ve outsourced
* Recruting new affiliates
* Training everyone to help you
* Paying taxes
* Taking care of the paper trail
* Doing all of the “stuff” that business owners do.

Didn’t you want to start an internet business to make more time for important things in life?

Why not make a lot of money WITHOUT making a lot of extra work for yourself?!

It can be a lot of extra work and stress. BUT, with affiliate marketing, you don’t need to manage an entire business! You are simply responsible for promoting your affiliate link… someone else handles all the rest.

That’s why I love affiliate marketing.

You don’t need to manage an entire business.

…………………….

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of “Affiliatenaire”, teaching you how to create big-time affiliate commission checks in only 1-3 hours each week.  Discover how you can get cash in the bank without a website, experience or even an idea!

NOTE: The following is a guest post from one of my favorite internet marketing mentors. This is part 3 of a 5 part series.

Why I Love Affiliate Marketing – Part 3
By Jimmy D. Brown of “Affiliatenaire”

Some people have the ability to persuade others and talk them into just about anything. Especially when it comes to influencing their buying decisions. They know how to push the right hot buttons, say things the right way and generally get consumers into an emotional frenzy to the point they are ready to click an order button.

There are two key words in that paragraph that really need to stand out in your mind: “some people”.

Not everyone has this ability. In fact, only a few do.

That brings me to the third reason why I love affiliate marketing…

** You don’t need to write a world class salesletter**

Have you ever tried to write a salesletter? There’s a reason why professional copywriters charge up to $10,000 (and sometimes even more) for a SINGLE salesletter. It takes a lot of experience and skill to write a top-gun salesletter, which is why most people have a hard time convincing people to buy if they do create their own products and website.

They simply don’t have the right salesletter in place to make it all work. Without good copy, it really doesn’t matter how spectacular the offer is, you’re simply not going to get many sales.

SIDEBAR: The average conversion rate of site visitors who become buyers is reportedly less than 2%. That means 98 out of every 100 do NOT buy. That’s why sales are so incredibly bad for a poor site … you *might* get 2 sales out of every 300-400 visitors.

BUT, with affiliate marketing, you don’t need to write a salesletter! You simply direct people to someone else’s high-octane salesletter for THEM to convert your leads into commissionable sales.

That’s why I love affiliate marketing.

You don’t need to write a world class salesletter.

…………………….

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of “Affiliatenaire”, teaching you how to create big-time affiliate commission checks in only 1-3 hours each week. Discover how you can get cash in the bank without a website, experience or even an idea!

NOTE: The following is a guest post from one of my favorite internet marketing mentors. This is part 2 of a 5 part series.

Why I Love Affiliate Marketing – Part 2
By Jimmy D. Brown of “Affiliatenaire”

Pop quiz time. What does “HTML” stand for? Don’t know that one? How about this – what does “FTP” stand for? OK, one more chance. Do you know how to work with either?

That brings me to the second reason why I love affiliate marketing…

** You don’t need to build a website **

What scares people more than creating a product is building a website!

* What in the world is HTML? Or FTP?
* How much does the software cost? And hosting?
* How do I upload files?
* Why isn’t it formatted correctly?
* Why don’t my graphics look like the ones the pros have?

If you are a complete beginner, it can be very difficult (even using templates) to get an attractive website in place. And hiring a professional to do it for you is out of the budget for most people.

But, with affiliate marketing, you don’t need to build a website. You simply send visitors to someone else’s professionally designed site through your affiliate link.

SIDEBAR: Just in case you’re interested, HTML stands for “hypertext markup language” and is the coding used to build webpages. FTP stands for “file transfer protocol” and is the process used for moving files from your computer to a website, or vice versa.

Really, in a manner of looking at it, you get to take advantage of the time and money invested by someone else to develop the site. Think about it: when you promote an affiliate link, it reflects firstly upon YOU. You are the one who is advertising the link, recommending the product, sending people who have interacted with YOU to the website.

The professional site of someone else really represents you as the promoter, in the eye of those who have clicked through your link.

You get the benefits without the bother.

That’s why I love affiliate marketing.

You don’t need to build a website.

…………………….

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of “Affiliatenaire”, teaching you how to create big-time affiliate commission checks in only 1-3 hours each week. Discover how you can get cash in the bank without a website, experience or even an idea!

NOTE: The following is a guest post from one of my favorite internet marketing mentors. This is part 1 of a 5 part series

Why I Love Affiliate Marketing – Part 1
By Jimmy D. Brown of “Affiliatenaire”

Do you find yourself “starting” to create your own product to sell online, but never “finishing” it?

One of the things I love about affiliate marketing is –

** You don’t need to create your own products **

Many people find the idea of creating their own products to be an overwhelming and even paralyzing task.

* I don’t have any good ideas!
* I’m not a writer!
* There’s too much competition!
* I don’t know how to set everything up!
* I can’t figure out where to start!
* It’s too hard!

These are just a few of the valid reasons many people give when it comes to not creating their own products to sell. I’m sure with a few minutes of brainstorming, we could come up with a list of many more.

With affiliate marketing, you don’t need your own products. You simply promote someone else’s already proven successful offer for a commission.

And, truth be told, even if you ARE a writer and you DO have lots of ideas and you CAN figure it all out…

** Nobody wants to create new products all the time **

As good as you may be, you don’t know everything! Why try to create a product on every topic imaginable in your market when you can earn just as much money by simply promoting someone else’s really good offer as one of your profit streams?

That’s why I love affiliate marketing.

You don’t need to create your own products.

…………………….

Jimmy D. Brown is the author of “Affiliatenaire”, teaching you how to create big-time affiliate commission checks in only 1-3 hours each week. Discover how you can get cash in the bank without a website, experience or even an idea!

To those who are not familiar with affiliate marketing, two-tier could be a new term to you but to those who are involved in this kind of money making experience; it could mean an additional income stream. Two-tier is an enticing feature of a particular affiliate program wherein, affiliates are allowed to sign-up additional affiliates below them. So that when the sub-affiliates otherwise known as second tier affiliates, earns a commission, the affiliate above receives a commission also.

In a two-tier system, the first tier of commission is just like in the usual affiliate program. The sole difference is that it has an additional tier/s or sub-affiliates, whereby marketers also gain a commission once the people that the additional tiers referred to the program generate sales. Theoretically, affiliate programs can have a multi-tier program with an infinite number of tiers, however, there are practical limitations. As tiers increase, the affiliate program draws more webmasters who are mostly interested in gaining profit from other’s work and effort.

The two-tier affiliate program is also recognized as Multi-Level Marketing. When you sign-up for an affiliate program, you are identified as the first tier and the person that you have recruited or encouraged to sign up is the second tier. If there are additional tiers, then the system can now be regarded as multi-level marketing (MLM). But today, MLM isn’t as effective and successful as it was several years ago. It is because at present, affiliates can freely select from thousands of affiliate programs and they can quickly switch from one program to another.

You would probably go wrong if you think that you can depend on your second tier to do the job for you. So, if you want to use two-tier affiliate programs to your advantage and generate more income by encouraging sub-affiliates to sign-up below you, make sure that you carefully choose your affiliate merchant. Pick those merchants who generate a stable stream of high quality products, give high or just commissions, offers real time tracking, furnishes you with a proven and tested advertising arsenal and treat their affiliates very well. You can also sign-up for the merchant who gives high visitors-to-sales conversion rate.

It is also advisable that you engage yourself with a web merchant that has a user-friendly website which you can access anytime so that you can monitor your statistics including visits and sales. If possible, choose the one with powerful marketing tools which you can use in promoting their products.

You’re just wasting much of your time and effort and worse, damaging your integrity once you promote poor affiliate programs because your visitor will surely presume that the product or service you are reselling must be dreadful too. That’s the reason why it is important to pick first-rate affiliate programs. Through these, you will not only build up a good relationship with your visitor, but also, you can easily get more tiers to sign-up under you. You should also be cautious of some affiliate programs that give more importance on the profits to be earned in taking on other affiliates than on the income from sales, because you’ll just eventually find out that someone has already closed those sales without informing you. Usually, this kind of affiliate program offers a very low first-tier payment but a sky-scraping second-tier commission.

If you want to start an affiliate program of your own, you surely have to decide whether it will be a single tier or two-tier affiliate program. I’m not here to say which of these two programs are better but let me tell you the benefits you could get out of two-tier affiliate program.

First, your profit will increase due to increased sales from the customers that your second tier has referred. Second, you have a much broader customer base to which you can sell your products and services. Then, you gain more and stable income because the customers referred by your affiliate and sub-affiliates could probably develop a lifetime loyalty on your site and your products. Plus, you have an army of sub-affiliates who will promote and resell your products and services to their visitors and subscribers.

Two-tier programs have been a proven winner and should be considered as the number one choice for budding affiliates as well as for the affiliate program managers.