Getting Started in Internet Marketing

One of the very first things confronting a new internet marketer is what to sell.  You have two basic choices: you can promote someone else's product or you can develop and sell your own.

From a start-up cost  and a time-to-market standpoint, promoting someone else's product is the preferred method.  Lets face it, you will not have to handle payments, refunds, dealing with customers or any number of other details the owner of a product may encounter.  You simple promote, as an affiliate, any product or group of products of your choosing.  In fact, your start-up costs may be zero if you choose to use one of the free blogs available such as Blogger.

So, assuming you will follow the affiliate method, your first step will be to locate a product to promote.  For many, that will mean going to Clickbank.com, signing up as an affiliate and then browsing to the "marketplace" to find your first product.  Although Clickbank is not the only source for products to promote, they are probably the easiest for a beginner.  They have thousands of products and services you can select from and Clickbank will take care of getting you paid.  This will happen as soon as someone makes a purchase using your affiliate link. Clickbank will transfer your commission (less a fee) directly to your affiliate account.  So, as you can see, your only requirement is to promote products.

Typical commission rates are 50 to 70 percent of the sale price (again less Clickbank's fee) so if you promote high end products you can make a very good living.  Many products offer recurring charges and you will get paid on them as well.

Some things to consider when choosing a product to promote:

• Pick products that pay at least $20.00 (it does not take any more effort to pick a product that pays $100.00 or more).  Anything less that $20.00 is not really worth you time, unless you have a love for the product.
• Gravity is a measure of the amount of sales occurring on a product by multiple affiliates over a period of time.  Many believe choosing a product with a gravity over 50 is beneficial as there is a proven market for the product.
• Consider choosing a product that has recurring billing as this will greatly enhance your earnings.
• Many vendors have detailed promotion tools set up which will help to get you going quicker.

There are many other things you might consider, but these are, in my opinion, the most important to start.

More to come