Many people hear about the benefits of working from home in Affiliate Marketing and want to get in on the action. The concept is simple – promote someone's products or services and receive commissions for leads or sales. It's wonderful to hear others talk about the awesome results of working your own hours and earning income from home. But what exactly do you need to do to make money online? Let's discuss eight important steps to become a successful Affiliate.

You are going to need a website in some form or another so that you can promote merchant products. There's no point in developing a site where there is no prospect of making money from it. What are people looking for that's currently difficult to find? Is there a topic you know a great deal about where information and related products could be provided to customers on a website? Do you already have an amazing product in mind that you know there is a huge demand for and want to build a site around?

Consider website ideas where you can tie in merchant products that your target market will be receptive to. Try Googling some ideas and see what comes up. Are there any sites devoted to the subject? Are there merchants offering products that you could include on your site? If so, your idea could be very successful!

2. Build a Website – Landing Page or Niche

Once you've got your website idea, there are two types of websites you can build. You can create a small one page website called a landing page with the goal to immediately send customers to the merchant. Common types of landing page websites are for promoting ringtones and matchmaking where a large button encourages visitors to leave and be transferred to the merchant. You just act as a quick go-between. These types of websites can be very good in the short-term but are not great at encouraging people to come back to you because they don't have any real content or value. Their only purpose is to connect customers with the product they want as a fast as possible.

A second type of website is a niche site. They fill a current void and grow over time. Niche sites offer a wealth of information on a specific subject that is currently unsaturated. For example, if you know a whole lot about growing tomatoes, you might have a niche site all about tomatoes. As opposed to a landing page, people come to niche sites for their information and because they've established themselves in the niche. People listen to recommendations about products and visit merchants you've recommended because of the helpful content you provide on your website. If your site is the tomato leader, I'd be more open to listen to where you recommend buying seeds.

You can either build a new niche site from scratch using a program like FrontPage or DreamWeaver or start a blog (e.g. Blogger.com). Although more limited on the design, the latter will allow you to quickly start posting your relevant content and promoting your affiliate products.

A domain name is the name of your website and how people will know you online (think '.com', '.net', etc.) The best domain names are short, to the point, and have at least one of your key words. Taking the tomato site example from above, a good name for your website might be TomatoZone.com because it immediately conveys what the site is and the key word 'tomato' is great for search engines. It's also easy to say over the phone and for customers to remember. Most likely you'll need to try different names until you find something that's available.

You need someone to host your website so that it is available to everyone on the Internet. There are tons of hosting companies out there with different packages and prices. Compare services and go with what you feel comfortable with. I always recommend monthly payments instead of locking in with a long-term contract in the beginning so that if you are unsatisfied after a few months, you can always change companies. When I first started out I went with a web hosting company that was down much too often and had nobody to contact for support. Suffice it to say, I learned to be careful. When your site is down, you make no money!

If you're building a niche website, start adding lots of rich content and keep adding it on a regular basis. People will come to your affiliate website for the content you provide. If you're recommending a merchant product, review it on your site or compare it to others on the market. Provide useful tips and information your target market want and will keep coming back for. In the tomato website example, you should include how to plant tomatoes, how to make them get bigger, the varieties, etc. Before long people will be bookmarking your site and telling others to visit.

You can find articles on your topic at many article websites online and include them on your site. By adding a forum and allowing your customers to talk about the subject is a great way to create a community of returning visitors. These two examples are a great way to add content to your site without doing it yourself!

The whole point of your website is to generate income, right? You need to add your affiliate links to your site. Not sure where to find merchants with affiliate programs? Try Googling your website topic and 'affiliate program'. Most merchants have a page devoted to their affiliate program that will be indexed by search engines. You can also visit one of the many affiliate program directories for related affiliate programs. I would recommend looking into residual income programs which pay you commissions for the life of the customer. That is, you get them to buy from the merchant once and you receive commissions each month or each re-order thereafter. So if your site is down, you can still be making sales from past customers!

If you're talking about a product, include your affiliate link to the merchant website in the text. These types of links always do better than a banner ad because it's interpreted more as a recommendation by you and less like advertising. For example, on a page about how to plant tomatoes you could recommend a specific type of garden tool you've had great success with. What goes through the mind of your customer is, “this site is so helpful - they really know what they're talking about - maybe I'll check out this product!” Bam, you have a sale.

I would recommend adding some related banner ads to your site as well. Or once you have a good page rank, traffic, or reputation, charge websites to put their ad on your site. Lastly, don't forget to add Google AdSense to your website. It's free and you'll earn money each time someone clicks one of the links.

A newsletter list (mailing list) is one of the simplest ways to touch base with your website visitors. People who like your site will sign up for your newsletter (usually added to the side of your site). You then have a list of email addresses of people interested in what you have to say and who are receptive. Essentially they have said it's okay to send them content related to your site! Periodically you can send them information they would find helpful as well as include some affiliate links to products they might be interested in.

Even though people will come to your site for the rich content you've provided, you still need a way to get people to come in the first place and continue to keep your customer base growing. The best way to accomplish this is for people to see you as an expert in the field. Write articles on your subject and submit them to article websites. People reading your articles will see you as a valuable resource and visit your website to find out more. You can also submit your website to directories and reply to forum posts with your website URL in your signature. Not only will these methods increase visits from readers, they also help your search engine rankings. Look for Article sites, Directories, and Forums related to your topic and with high page rank.

You can also pay for advertising on high page rank sites or use PPC advertising like Google AdWords where you only pay when someone clicks your link. Although quicker, you must be careful not to pay too much but make very little.

These are the eight general steps that most people take to start earning income as an affiliate marketer. It may take some time to get rolling but once you establish your website as a valuable resource, you can become extremely successful working from home. So find some affiliate programs and start promoting. You have nothing to lose.

Curtis Kopeschny, B.Sc. works from home as a successful Affiliate Marketer after over 10 years developing high quality professional websites for various businesses. He has written numerous articles about residual income, affiliate programs, and earning a living working from home. He is co-founder of Residual Income Finder, a unique directory of residual income affiliate programs.