If you are running any sort of online business you constantly have to keep learning to keep going and making money. One way to learn while you are working or on the go is by listening to a podcast.

I am not talking about a certain podcast from your industry which you should be listening to anyway, I am talking about one that is outside your industry that you can learn new ideas to spark up your business. I often listen to podcast that are based around a hobby or something that I want to learn about.

A few weeks ago we were at Affiliate Summit meeting new people and I started talking to someone about SEO and when I asked them certain questions it became apparent that they had no clue.

I told them if they wanted to learn about SEO they could find a few podcast and listen while they worked on their sites. Of course since they were just getting started in affiliate marketing I also steered them to www.geekcast.fm where I am on a few podcast and there are other good podcast on the subject also.

I listen to almost every podcast on Geekcast since they are mostly about making money online. You can get them delivered automatically using Itunes which is a huge time saver. You can listen in the car (since most radio stations suck now anyways) or you can listen using an Ipod while taking in your morning run.

If you make time to learn your business should improve. If you can’t find a podcast in your business then start your own, you can be the expert in your field and business will come to you. You will be considered a leader in your field and business will come to you in ways you never expected.

Once again Affiliate Summit has come and gone and I am filled with information overload as I am sure the other 4000 + people that also took in the Summit are feeling.  We got in to Las Vegas on Saturday morning and settled in before we headed over to the Rio for registration.

After meeting up with a bunch of affiliates and affiliate marketers it was time for dinner and some networking at the parties. We went over to the Palms for dinner at N9ne and then to the party with the nice people from Buy.at up at the nightclub “Rain”. It was a great place for a party as we took up on the second floor which had soundproof rooms for networking, that was a great place to meet others and discuss affiliate marketing and meet the people at Buy.at.

Sunday it was time to get up early and head over to the meet market which was very crowded with merchants trying to meet with affiliates. This is as always my favorite part of summit. I always seem to meet some new programs that I usually wouldn’t talk to but the face to face meeting is huge. This summit was a little different for me as working as an outsourced program manager I was not there to talk to merchants I was there to meet new affiliates to bring into our programs. Just walking around the meet market I met quite a few affiliates that will be joining our affiliate programs.

I probably met more affiliates in sessions and outside the sessions then I can count. In between the sessions I could be found in the Bloggers lounge which was a nice retreat from all the traffic in the hallways. I met quite a few bloggers that I had been following on twitter for a while and some that I am now following. Heather did a great job as the blog mistress, I hope she is the blog mistress for all summits to come.

As you could probably figure out I was in the session that Loxly was the moderator for on Mommy Bloggers. The mommy bloggers in the session discussed how mommy bloggers work together to spread the word for each other. It is in such contrast to everything I learned as an affiliate it blows my mind. I was taught to not share my sites with other affiliates as they may steal your ideas and make their sites outrank yours.

This session has opened my eyes a bit and I am now putting together a little “sports affiliates club” where we will not only share ideas we will share our sites with each other and help each other by leaving comments on each others blogs and tweeting them out for each other.

After the session it was back to the meet market and then to the bloggers lounge where I seemed to have about 5 coffees lol.

Once again I attended Affiliate Summit where I was on the Geekcast.fm Live session. It was a good way to wrap up the show. There was a lot of people on the discussion and it went rather well once we get started.

The cast was fun and it was a blast doing this.

* Michael Buechele, Owner, MikeBuechele.com (Twitter @mikebuechele)
* Deborah Carney, CEO, Team Loxly (Twitter @loxly)
* Trisha Lyn Fawver, Affiliate Manager, Paulson Management Group (Twitter @trishalyn)
* Jim Kukral, Owner, TheBizWebCoach.com (Twitter @jimkukral)
* Vinny O’Hare, President, Vincent O’Hare Consulting (Twitter @vinnyohare)
* Scott Parent, Vice President of Emerging Media & Strategy, MediaTrust (Twitter @americancliche)
* Lisa Picarille, Online Marketing Consultant, LisaPicarille.com (Twitter @lisap)
* Lisa Riolo, Consultant, LisaRiolo.com (Twitter @lisariolo)

Looking forward to Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas in January.

Still trying to digest all the information I picked up from this years Affiliate Summit in New York City. Besides seeing old friends I met a lot of people that I never had the chance to meet before even though I had been chatting with them online for years.

We arrived on Saturday just in time to make it to the www.buy.at party. Those people over there are some of my favorites in affiliate marketing. Their party was on the roof of the Empire Hotel near Lincoln Center. Good time was had by all. Below is Charlie Calabrese explaining about the Buy.at merchants. Lucky for us he is a better speaker then a RC helicopter pilot but we won’t go there.

My favorite sessions was the site reviews as I love it when they break down a site and explain what is wrong with them. I could sit in those sessions all day long. The session with @streko and @sugarrae @graywolf was my favorite one, can’t wait for the video.

Speaking of videos here is one from my friend Joe Sousa of all the parties. Warning there is singing and dancing involved.

The best part of Affiliate Summit for me was the Peter Shankman keynote. I met Peter last year at Affiliate Summit but  that was only a panel, this year he had over an hour and it was great. If you want to know anything about Using media Peter is your guy.

There are a few others that have recaps. Adrants and my favorite OutSpokenMedia who reviewed the session I was on the panel for Geekcast Live.

Affiliate Summit is only a few weeks away and it usually takes me a few weeks to get everything together for it but this year is slightly different. This year I will be recruiting affiliates for the affiliate programs that I am managing with Team Loxly.

In past years it was simple I just grab a stack or two of business cards and hand them out all over the place and just show up. Now I have to get prepared for questions about the Team Loxly managed programs as well as change my mindset from affiliate to affiliate managing.

Back in the day I learned very quickly that if you wanted to succeed  online you have to be a student of the game, study every possible angle and ways you can make money online. Becoming an affiliate manager was just a natural step. One of the first niches I got involved with was in the automotive sector so when Team Loxly decided to take on Drop Stop I jumped at the chance to become an affiliate manager. It is very tough to take a new affiliate program and get sales at the start but Drop Stop is a unique product that sells itself.

Affiliate Summit is in my hometown of New York City this year.  Debbie and I have made a podcast about places you must see in New York as well as some tips about summit. Enjoy it and if you see me at Summit say hello.

Affiliate Marketing 101

Affiliate marketing programs are a great way to get income for your website, and a great introduction to e-commerce. The more people that drop by your website, the great your chance will be at creating an excellent income.

Affiliate marketing programs are where a company offers to pay you a set amount for either a click through from your website, or a set amount for visitors signing up, or even a percentage of a purchase made by visitors as a result of being referred from your website.

Even if visitors don’t make a purchase immediately, almost all programs offer cookie duration, normally consisting of 30 – 90 days. What this means, is that as long as the visitors have the cookie in their cache, you’ll still receive a profit from the sale. I believe a three day cookie is just fine but I will always take a longer duration on the cookie. Lifetime cookies are the best believe it or not there are some companies that have their tracking cookie last an hour. These programs will never ever get a place on any of my sites. This is another reason to only work with a few affiliate managers as they would never do anything so bad to a program as this shoots themselves in the foot so to speak.

The biggest amount of time in maintaining your site will be searching and implementing affiliations with various companies. Even though there’s a lot of money in affiliate marketing, you have to take the time to search for the best affiliate programs.

One thing that you may not be happy with, is the idea of other companies banners littering your website. If you use too many banners or links on any web page, it can confuse and help to irritate your visitors. More than one animated element on a web page can be very distracting as well.

Affiliate tracking can also be a problem

Once you have applied to become an affiliate for a company, they’ll usually supply you with a personalized link or code. It’s very important that you implement this code into your page correctly, or you may be sending visitors to the company without receiving any profit.
A majority of snippets in the code will contain a unique user ID, which the company uses to distinguish which site sent traffic. Odds are this piece of code will also let you know what page on your site the sale came from. This information is gold as you will be able to tell what pages on your website are driving customers to the merchant site where the sale took place.

Affiliate marketing is the revenue sharing between online advertisers (and merchants) and online publishers. Compensation and pay is based on performance measures, normally in the form of clicks, sales, and online registrations.

The advertisers and merchants are normally referred to as affiliate merchants, and publishers or sales people are known as affiliates.

The many benefits of affiliate marketing include the potential for making lots of money. You can automate a lot of the advertising process and receive payment only for desired results, which includes sales, registrations, and clicks.

Even though most merchants will assume some level of risk with fraud, there is still a level of risk involved. Once you know what you’re doing with affiliate marketing, you’ll be on top well before you know it.

Affiliate marketing has been a contributor to the rise of many companies online, including Amazon.com. Amazon.com was one of the first adopters of affiliate marketing, and now has thousands of affiliate relationships.  Ebay also uses an affiliate program to sign up new memebers.

When it comes to making money online, affiliate marketing is in a league of it’s own. You don’t have to worry about bosses breathing down your neck, and you are in control of everything you do with your company and your website.

Affiliate marketing also gives you the chance to stand behind products you know and love, be offering links and banners to them on your personal website. You’ll receive money for each product purchased that you represent, which is reason enough to participate.

If you’ve been looking for extra money, affiliate marketing is the way to go. You can stick with one merchant or go with as many as you need for your business. Affiliate marketing on the internet is truly becoming more and more popular – making now the time for you to get your foot in the door.

Another good place to read about affiliate programs is www.Abestweb.com. You can learn a lot about what makes affiliate programs work as well as meet up with some good affiliate program managers.

After being asked that question a million times I decided to make a website about it. There are many ways to do affiliate marketing and some are neither right or wrong. Here is the short version of the way I make my websites.

You make a quality value added website that people find in the search engines and you add a few links to some great online shopping destinations.

When the people click on the ad on your website they go to another website that sponsored the sale. When the people buy from that store you get a commission. That’s right you can make money from the comfort of your own home.

Affiliate programs are without a doubt, the fastest way to make money on the internet. There are countless affiliate programs on the Internet today. Most of the big named stores have one and odds are if you have purchased something online you have been on an affiliate site where you received a product review or something similar before you made your purchase.

The principle behind affiliate programs is quite simple. You will only have to pre-sell the products of an affiliate merchant. For every sale that can be traced through your referral, you stand to earn a generous commission that ranges from 5% to 50%, depending on the affiliate merchant. There is no quota to be met. There is no minimum number of sales that you have to reach. You are not even restricted to join a single affiliate program, as you could enroll in as many affiliate programs as you wish. Be careful though as joining too many programs at once is usually a rookie affiliate mistake. I know this because I did it too. I am still taking down bad affiliate programs html two years later.

Making money through affiliate programs is as easy as 1-2-3. Here are ten proven steps that would help you jumpstart this very good income stream. It is not easy at first but it does pay off in the long run. The best part is you can start from home at first. It will get as big as you want it to be. It can replace your 9-5 job too with a little more work. My family and friends are driving me crazy asking me about it so I decided to help get them and whoever wants to read on all about it.

1. Start your own website. Even if you are involved in an affiliate program, it’s very important that you develop your own site with a clear and solid theme. Don’t fall for the free web site hosting sites as they will be the only ones making money on it. Build a web site with a clear, concise theme that is based around a niche that is supported by tons of quality articles and helpful information on your topic. Choosing a theme is a hardest part as it requires a little research unless you know a lot about a hobby or something. It is better to start with a subject that you know a little about as it will keep your interest while you are building a site and you will develop more pages quickly this way.

2. Find an affiliate program. Everything has to start from here. Integrate related affiliate programs into your site. Your website should be related to your chosen affiliate program. If you decide to make a website that sells jewelry, there is no way you can be successful if you join an affiliate program of a bookstore. It is tempting to join every available affiliate program that sounds lucrative, but in this case, more is not always the best option. It is best to join at least one or two affiliate programs that fit your sites audience and represent the product or services that you sell.

3. Make Your Site Interesting. Your website should not be full of blatant ad and uncontrollable pop-ups. It’s important to that your site is a not just page full of links and advertisements to the company you are affiliated with. You should maintain a unique and well-organized content throughout your website. You should have at least 20 pages of original content and keep building your site from there. Yes I did say 20 pages if you don’t think you can do that quit now.

4. Build A Good Reputation. You should build credibility to encourage visitors to respect and trust your recommendations. A helpful way to build credibility is to provide useful information and Quality articles to your visitors. This will give the impression that you know what you are talking about and that you are trustworthy.

5. Promote High Quality Products. Again, quality is better than quantity when it comes to your site. Don’t ruin your reputation by referring less-than-satisfactory products and services. Don’t waste your time on junk. Build a site full of junk and all you have is a site full of junk that no one wants. Did you ever see a line outside Fred Sanford’s house waiting to buy his stuff? I didn’t think so.

6. Promote Yourself. Encourage potential customers by creating or joining user group forums, e-mail groups, and discussion boards. This way, you are able to target, interest specific groups immediately. Actively participate in the discussions without being too aggressive in promoting yourself. Remember to include your contact information and website in your signature. There is no better website promotion than viral marketing.

7. Create Your Own Mailing List. Customers can also be referrals. Build a mailing list that will keep them updated for new products and services. This will help you in establishing a connection with your customers. This way, you can gain their trust. Just don’t spam them with too many emails or they will hate you.

8. Maximize Affiliate Income Through Referrals. Referrals are an exponential form of marketing where your profits as an affiliate can be can increase. The more traffic you bring to the site, the more you can maximize profits.

9. Maintain Your Website. Your website is your internet portal in making money through affiliate programs. Ensure a pleasurable visit for each visitor by maintaining a clean layout and updating the site contents. It is best to add fresh quality content every now and then to keep the site interesting and up to date.

10. Optimize Your Site For Search Engines. Use available free tools that help in search engine optimization. A favorable ranking for the right key words can mean a consistent, steady flow of targeted traffic for your site. Don’t try any tricks to get better rankings as they only work in the short term.

11. Learn All You Can. I cannot harp on this enough but the more you learn the more you earn. I try to learn something new everyday. I usually put it on my affiliate tips page or my new website www.Nyfalcon.com which happens to be my screen name online.

What I am Really Trying To Say!

So lets just say I make a site about sports, I put up a few links to sporting good stores and when people buy I get a commission. The commissions range anywhere from 2% to 20% of the sale in the sports business. Sounds real simple doesn’t it? Well to tell you the truth it is really a lot of hard work when you first start your website. The rewards are huge once you get your site on its way.

I was fooling around with putting some affiliate links on my site but I really wasn’t making any serious money until I met a man named James Martell and his lovely wife Arlene in New York City. This meeting has changed my whole way of thinking about how affiliate marketing works. James explains how taking practical steps to make money from home.

What you will see on this site:
On this site you will see some places I have traveled and it’s all because of affiliate marketing. It really is a great business to be in. The best part is you can even do it in your spare time until you start making serious money.

I went to Las Vegas in 2004 for a friends of www.Abestweb.com webmasters convention to learn how to make even more money online. Imagine being able to go to Las Vegas or wherever you want in the world and make money. The freedom to do this from wherever I want is the best part of the job. All you need is an internet connection. 

Recently I have been making websites for people that always wanted one for their business or personal use but didn’t know how to make one or was scared about expenses that comes along with it. I have also been making websites that features some of these bargains I find. The way I look at it is if I can make a few bucks why can’t the next guy. So I went through the task of getting a few friends involved and all of a sudden this became a job of sorts. I also get a part of what sells on their site. Pretty cool huh.

I will also be using this site to rant and rave about the newest things out on the market or what I am currently listening to, reading, or watching on television. This site is actually my testing ground to see if I can get a niche subject high in the search engines and to study the competition for that subject. In a way this site is a hobby to me. Life can’t be all about business you know. Speaking about business you can read all about mine here.

Sit back get yourself a cup of coffee and welcome to my world. Along the way I will show you what affiliate programs are good and some that are bad. I will also tell you why they are good or bad. You may want to add my new RSS Feed to keep up with me.  You can sign up for my new E-mail list also.