Starting a blog is going to be one of THE most important steps that you take in your business.

Everybody these days are blogging about something. The good thing is, if you have a topic that you want to share with the world, then you can make your voice be heard via a blog.

If you are in business for yourself and you provide a product or service, then starting a blog will help you to actually share your thoughts, ideas and creativity with people that matter the most, whilst in turn building an audience.

It also helps you to become an authority in your niche if you use your blog as a resource to help others solve a problem.

When I started this blog, I had no real reason but to share my daily thoughts with people who might just want to read my life experiences.

I suppose I was treating it like a journal.

But it was only until I realised that I could monetise my blog did I become serious in transforming it from a daily journal to a business.

You may be wondering whether you should start your own blog and whether there is any sense to having one.

There is absolute sense to having one and here is why:

• You get treated with greater respect because you can easily build authority and credibility with a blog. People automatically think you are successful.
• You can automate any business right from your blog so that you can spend more time doing what you love and less time stressing about the bad.
• You have a great platform to market yourself, any product or service by giving a lot more information on your blog.
• You can add value to people’s lives by sharing content that will help them.
• You can build connections with more people in your field thereby expanding your knowledge and know-how and helping you grow.
• You can talk about literally any topic on a blog and share your thoughts and opinions.
• It helps you to stand out and get more results because most people are too lazy or impatient to create a blog. When you work hard and create something spectacular people tend to trust you more and buy from you as opposed to “some other marketer”.
• On a lighter note, it helps you to be creative and just have fun.

Do you like my blog? Do you have a blog yet?

Well I am going to teach you exactly how I started this blog and how you can do the same.

When I started this blog, I had many resources to turn to. I mainly used You Tube tutorials and had to dig my way around.

For some people they may not have the patience and so I thought it would be beneficial, to have everything in one place right here on this page.

When starting a successful blog I am going to teach you the ONLY way that you should start and that is through WordPress.org. Not WordPress.com (and there is a difference).

The Difference Between WordPress.org And WordPress.com

WordPress.org is a self-hosted platform which means that you get to choose your own hosting and domain. You also own all the content on WordPress.org.

With WordPress.com however you will get a sub-domain and your content is not yours. Essentially if you are building a blog on WordPress.com, that blog does not belong to you and can be taken away from you at anytime.

Also if you intend to monetise your blog, you are taken more seriously when you have a WordPress.org self-hosted blog as opposed to a WordPress.com blog.

Reason being, when you apply to affiliate networks, you have a higher chance of being accepted with a WordPress.org blog rather than a WordPress.com blog.

With a WordPress.org blog you pay for your hosting and a WordPress.com blog is free.

If you want to start a successful blog then I urge you to invest in yourself  and DO NOT get a free blog. It will harm you later on.

Start a Successful Blog

What Is WordPress?

You may be familiar with other blogging sites such as Tumblr, Wix, Weebly or Blogger.com.

So I would like to tell you why you should choose WordPress.

WordPress is a content management site.  You can use it to build a website or blog.

It is very user friendly and you can upload any content that you want and customise the themes how you wish.

There are also many plugins available that help you to manage your website so that it looks sexy and attractive!

After all you want a site that people enjoy looking at right?!

I think that WordPress is the best tool that you can use to build your blog. I am sure that famous brands like Jay Z, Justin Timberlake, Usain Bolt, etc agree with me. They all use WordPress.

Build Your Blog

Let’s get started.

In this tutorial I am going to teach you the following. You can click on any of the links below to go straight to the topic:

1. Choose a domain name
2. Choose a domain extension
3. Set up web hosting
4. Check the availability of your domain name
5. Purchase your domain name
6. Install WordPress
7. Choose your theme
8. Build and launch your blog
9. What’s next?

 1. Choose a domain name

What is a domain name?

Simply put, it is your website name.

So my website name is www.iamdawn-marie.com.

Truthfully your domain name does not matter but here are a few things that you should consider when choosing a name.

• It should not be too long
• It should be something that people can remember
• It should be easy to spell and type
• It should represent you and the brand you want to build
• Using Namecheckr make sure that the name you choose is available on social media platforms just in case you want to create an audience using social media as well.

If you are having a hard time and you want some inspiration for a domain name then you can also try the following cool domain name generators like:

• Namemesh
• Lean Domain Search
• Nameboy

2. Choose A Domain Extension

There are now many other extensions besides the .com extension.

Some other extensions available include,

• .net
• .online
• .xyz
• .blog
• .info
• .tv
• .co

These extensions are rising in popularity and there is no rule as to whether you should go with these alternatives or stick to the old fashioned .com extension.

I do believe that these other extensions allow you to be creative with your domain name. For example, I own the domain iamdawn-marie.online because I am an online entrepreneur.

If your niche has an appropriate extension then go for it! However .com continues to be the popular choice but truthfully I do not believe it matters, in my opinion.

Ready to check if your domain name is available? Check here now.

3. Set Up Web Hosting

If you are serious about your blog and starting a successful business from it then paying for a domain name and hosting is a must.

Hosting is just the power behind your website or blog.

Think of it like the foundation on which your home lies. Without a proper foundation you will have just a stack of bricks that can topple over at any time right?!

For your web hosting I recommend Bluehost. This is the web host that use for I Am Dawn-Marie. Their customer service is really helpful and they were very patient with me when I first got started.

I arranged a super deal for you with Bluehost where you get a FREE domain, 1-click WordPress install, site builders and 24/7 support.

NB. This deal is ONLY available through my website as the Bluehost staff were really nice in extending their awesome courtesy to me and my readers. To get this deal make sure that you use any of the links on my page to get this special pricing. 

Click here to open up the Bluehost window. 

Then click the green “Get Started Now” button.

You will then come to a page like this:

Select the price plan that you want but I would strongly recommend that you go with the Prime plan and here is why:

You will see that the prime plan offers domain privacy.

When I started online marketing and purchased my domain I made the HUGE mistake of not protecting my domain. What that meant was that ANYONE on the internet had access to my personal details which included my name and email address. 

Essentially anyone can  find out who owns your domain and you can therefore be subject to A LOT of spam. Trust me, you do not want that because you will be receiving a lot of emails from people offering you SEO services.

Learn from my mistake guys!

The prime plan also comes with a lot of unlimited features and is cheaper and more value for money over a period of time.

To get the price of $5.95, the prime plan must be purchased over a 36 month period and must be paid in full so it works out to be just about $214.20.

I strongly recommend that you start on the 36 month price plan for three good reasons:

• It works out to be cheaper.
• You do not have to worry about your hosting needs for three years!
• It shows that you are committed to yourself and your blog. This is going to be the best investment you ever made in yourself and the rewards you get from it are going to be PHENOMENAL!  

4. Check The Availability Of Your Domain Name

Whatever domain name provider you are going with, they will always tell you whether your chosen name is available or not.

Enter your domain into the new domain box and click Next. If you already have a purchased domain then enter it into the box marked I have a domain name and click next.

5. Purchase Your Domain Name

You will come to the page where you can enter your contact information and select your price plan duration.

If you decide to go with the basic plan then you should at least choose the Domain Privacy at minimum.

If you do not you will regret it!

Finally all you have to do is enter your payment details, read the Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy and click Submit!

Once you have completed your purchase, watch out for an email from Bluehost with your billing and account information.

That’s it! It’s that simple right??!! You are now the very proud owner of your first ever website and hosting.   

6. Install WordPress

Ok! So you have your website.

Now for the exciting part! Installing your WordPress blog.

It really is simple. Let’s go.

Once you have purchased your domain and web hosting you will be asked to choose a password for your WordPress account before you can log in.

Once the password is created Log in.

7. Choose Your Theme

When you log in you’ll be taken to a page that looks like this where you can select a theme. Don’t spend too much time thinking about this part as you can always change your theme later on once you’ve been inspired.

With your theme selected click on the box that says start building which will allow you to log into WordPress.

When you’re logged into WordPress, you will be asked whether you want your site to be personal or a business.

Well I guess you want to make money from your blog and have a blog business so yea, go on and choose business!

Because this is new to you, everything may be overwhelming but clear your mind and slowly take a look around.

Get familiar with it. Do not be afraid to click on links to see what it takes you to.

Now the fun part!

Let’s add some sassiness to your blog by installing a theme.

To start installing your themes hover over “Appearance” then select Themes.

WordPress has a few free themes so check them out and decide which one is good for you.

Once you select your theme, make sure that you are happy with it because if you decide to change it after you have done a bit of work, it can be somewhat difficult.

Whatever theme you choose there will be instructions on how to install and customise it.

You can also refer to YouTube that has tons of videos on how to install your perfect theme.

Be sure to check them out!

8. Build And Launch Your Blog

So once your blog is set up the way you want it, make sure to launch it so that people can see what you’re up to!

9. What’s Next?

Now that your blog is up and running you may be thinking what next?

This is where you build your blog with content based on topics that interest you and learn how to monetise it.

I created a super duper 5 Days To Building A Successful Blog where I teach you in a step by step format, how to grow and monetise your blog so you can create a successful blog.

Happy blogging!

P.S How did you get on with creating your blog? Let me know in the comments section below.  

The post The Complete Beginner’s Guide To Starting A Successful Blog appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

Not really? Read my article How To Do Affiliate Marketing Without A Blog Or Website, where I break down for you how to start affiliate marketing without a blog or website.

Do you really need a huge eCommerce site to do eCommerce? Nope.

Some people get overwhelmed by the idea of having to buy webhosting, build a website menu, design a website and all of that.

There are easier ways to build a website to promote a product and the good news is that you don’t have to hire a web designer or spend hours trying to put a website together.

In this article I am going to speak about a handy tool called LeadPages that I use as my marketing arsenal.

I use it to create one page blog posts, design landing pages, lead capture pages, sales pages, eCommerce one product pages. The sky’s pretty much the limit but you need to know how to be a little creative with it so that you can get what you want out of it.

What You Will Learn

• What is LeadPages
• Why LeadPages
• How to build a lead capture page
• How to build a one-page blog post
• LeadPages for eCommerce
• How to add affiliate links to your pages
• How to use it for lead boxes
• How to analyse your pages
• How to automate everything
• Other features of LeadPages

What is LeadPages?

LeadPages is a landing page builder. So it builds one page at a time although you can interlink to several pages all within the LeadPages platform.

Unlike your conventional websites, like this one you’re reading, you don’t need to set up webhosting yourself or spend a lot of time designing your website.

If you were interested in doing that then check out this article here.

LeadPages has its own hosting so if you were to create a landing page here, you will be given a LeadPages subdomain like yourname.leadpages.net.

Although it is possible to have your own custom domain where you can mask that subdomain using your own domain.

LeadPages is not only a landing page builder.

It also allows you to generate leads with a lead capture page builder. It helps you to generate sales with their sales page and checkout functions.

If you have a website or blog you can include pop up lead boxes inline with your text as well to capture leads.

You can also build out a complete sales funnel from opt in page, to bridge page to sales page.

If you want to do a webinar, yup! That’s something that you can customise as well as they have the features to help you create one.

Why LeadPages?  

I’ve been working online and I have tried so many landing page builders like Clickfunnels, GetResponse, Aweber, BuilderAll.

But I keep coming back to LeadPages because it is so easy to use and its design templates are stunning.

They look insanely professional and for anyone who does not have a creative bone in their body, the templates that they provide make it easy for you to change the text, drag and drop your own images and you’re done.

The price point is also amazing.

When I started with Clickfunnels, I was not able to maintain my payments because it was quite pricey at $97 a month.

I needed to find an alternative builder and was put onto GetResponse but this did not have the feature to allow me to build a sales funnel. Neither did Aweber. Although both are superb for email marketing.

Then I was introduced to BuilderAll and whilst that is the marketer’s ultimate tool as it has everything a marketer dreams of at a really nice price of $29.99 a month, I still was not happy because the drag and drop elements were sloppy.

LeadPages is perfect because it has everything that you need that Clickfunnels, BuilderAll, GetResponse and Aweber has all in one and the price point is ideal at $35 a month.

How To Build A Lead Capture Page

Building a lead capture page is quite easy when you don’t need to worry about coding or design.

The great thing about LeadPages is that they have over 130 mobile responsive templates that allow you to choose which one fits your brand or your style.

Once you have selected your template you can either preview it or work on it to make it yours.

In preview, you get to see how the page responds. It also offers you inspiration for your own page so creativity is not really necessary.

After selecting your template to work on, the editor makes it easy to edit the elements of the lead capture page so you can add or takeaway from it as you like.

The editor also has widgets that you can drag and drop onto your lead page to customise it. So if you want to add a headline, text, image or video, simply drag the widget and position it where you want it to go.

What I love about LeadPages are the helpful automatic guides that show up to assist you in dropping your widget so it snaps into place and creates a neat outline of what you want.

Other features for your lead page include the countdown timer, social share buttons and a calendar.

You can also customise the sections of your lead pages by adding background images, changing the default colour, increasing or decreasing margins and adding or taking away borders.

For marketers who love tracking, LeadPages allows you to easily put in place your pixels so you do not have to worry about source codes.

The one thing I despise about webpages is those that do not help you in adding pixel codes to your sites. If you are not tech savvy like I am, LeadPages makes it easy for you to add tracking pixels or other meta data to your web page by giving you a box to complete.

If you are using Facebook to promote your page and you want to make sure that Facebook pulls the right information for your page when it is shared, LeadPages also ensures that this is done correctly by having a Facebook Open Graph platform where you can add whatever text you want to appear on Facebook.

How To Build A One Page Blog Post

So this part is probably going to be the most exciting for wannabe bloggers who really don’t want to go through the hassle of designing a blog but want a website to write a blog.

Kind of ironic right but I hope you get my drift.

With a little bit of improvisation LeadPages helps you to create one page blog posts where you can add content for a product that you want to promote.

To do that you can use their blank templates, their letter templates or one of their sales templates.

To make it blog-like it will require you to add a few links here and there but that’s about it.

You can transform these pages into a blog-like post and promote any affiliate links that you want.

Here is an example page that I created into a blog-like post.

I could have gone on to add a comments section to finish it off but I did not want to do that.

You can see how the links at the top of the page lead to my actual website and blog, giving the impression that the page forms part of a wider website.

If you wanted to optimise the page for SEO, LeadPages allows you to add meta data to your page with their SEO platform.

Simply enter the data in the fields provided and save.

By completing these fields will help Google index your page and rank it in the search engines.

LeadPages For Ecommerce

Sometimes you don’t want to create a huge eCommerce store like I taught in my tutorial on How To Build An Online Store using Shopify.

You may only want to sell one product.

Well thankfully LeadPages helps you to create a one page eCommerce page to promote a single product with an eCommerce channel.

There are four eCommerce page templates and one thank you page template that you can use.

Once you have created your page using the available templates you can integrate your payment processor such as Stripe to collect payments from your customers using their checkout feature.

You can also build your email list at the same time with an opt in form before the visitor purchases or after they purchase.

How To Add Affiliate Links To Your Pages

Another great thing about LeadPages is that it is easy to add affiliate links and secure them so they do not cause link juice to be carried over to the affiliate page.

You may have known that Google penalises web pages that have too many affiliate links on them, referring to them as non valuable pages.

Google advises affiliate marketers to use nofollow tags at the end of their affiliate links to avoid this.

LeadPages conveniently allows you to add nofollow tags at the end of all your affiliate links.

To add your affiliate link simply grab your affiliate link and highlight the text that you want to hyperlink. Select External URL then paste your affiliate link in the pop up.

Select Save then tick the box Use NoFollow. This will automatically add the no follow tag to the end of the affiliate link so that your link juice does not pass to the affiliate offer.

You can then customise your link by changing the colour or making the text bold. All links are automatically underlined.

How To Use It For Lead Boxes

LeadPages have opt in boxes that you can embed into your website using a bit of code that LeadPages gives to you.

Instead of taking your visitors to another page, these leadboxes pop over the website allowing them to enter their details without having to navigate away from the page.

It’s very simple and streamlined to add these boxes to your website and you can even change the colour of the boxes so it suits your brand or style.

If you want your box to pop up at a certain time or pop up on exit as someone tries to leave your website, LeadPages takes care of that by giving you the option to configure how you want your box to perform.

Personally I use lead boxes as part of my blog and include them where it makes sense to invite my visitors to sign up for my content upgrade or courses.

Once the visitor enters their details, I can then direct them to a customised thank you page or take them back to the content that they were viewing so they are not distracted.

I found this feature of LeadPages to be exceptional.

The only other piece of software that has this feature which I have used before is Aweber although Aweber’s forms need some serious updating so that it looks more modern.

I have yet to see this feature on Clickfunnels or Builderall. I suppose because they are not blog friendly.

How To Analyse Your Pages

What good is your web page if you don’t know how well it is performing or what your visitors think about it?

Every marketer knows the importance of tracking and optimising your webpages for better conversions.

LeadPages offers on page tracking allowing you to see how many people visit your page and perform a desired action on it such as opting in.

You can even split test pages allowing you to test the performance of pages against each other.

Their simple to use split test feature allows you to create two pages. Their analytics then tell you which version gave more conversions.

The split test feature is only available on the Pro and Advanced plans starting from $48/month.

If you prefer not to get the Pro or Advanced plans you can always use a rotator tool from Clickmagick which allows you to rotate your links sending equal amounts of traffic to the link.

Clickmagick has a free 14 day trial then is $12 per month after.

How To Automate Everything

Ok so you have created your blog post or have your lead page created and you are ready to get some sales.

Once you have put everything together you can either use LeadPages Facebook Ads integration to drive traffic to your pages.

LeadPages tracks everything for you on page and you get to track your ads’ performance on the Facebook Ads platform.

If you do not want to use LeadPages Facebook Ads feature then you can create a Facebook ad directly on the Facebook platform and direct traffic to the LeadPages webpage.

If using a blog post make sure that all your affiliate links are working properly.

If using a lead capture page to generate leads, make sure that your opt in forms work properly and that your leads are directed to the correct email list via the LeadPages email service provider integration.

If you do not want to build an email list using a third party software, LeadPages allows lead magnet deliveries. They capture your leads’ email addresses and then send the lead magnet what you want your lead to receive.

They also have their own email marketing software called Drip.

This is how you  can automate an entire business model if you want to generate sales.

Even if you have a product to sell or are doing eCommerce you can use the same set up of sending traffic to your web page via Facebook Ads or whatever advertising mechanism you want to use. Then allow LeadPages to take all payments for you via the integrated checkout feature.

Other Features Of LeadPages

So I have outlined the main features of LeadPages that I use and love.

Other features that you may want to know about include:

• Drip LeadPages own email marketing software
• ConvertedU LeadPages training platform where you can learn all about marketing
• Webinar integration You can integrate webinar software with LeadPages. So if you are promoting a webinar you can have your lead opt into a lead capture page, then direct them to a webinar that you host directly on LeadPages.
• WordPress Plugin LeadPages integrates with WordPress so if you have a website or blog and you want a lead page to pop up automatically on visitor arrival or exit, you can add code to your WordPress website using the LeadPages plugin.
• LeadLinks you can have your leads opt in to different lists or webinar schedules with links added to emails. All the user has to do is click on a link for the function to work. LeadLinks is only available on the Pro and Advanced plans starting from $48/month.
• LeadDigits if you aren’t online you can also capture leads via a mobile device. Text messages capture email addresses and automatically add the lead to an email list or webinar. LeadDigits is only available on the Pro and Advanced plans starting from $48/month.

Wrapping Up

Well that’s all folks. If you want to do affiliate marketing and want a simple platform to host your links, you really do not have to build a complicated website.

You can use LeadPages as a webpage builder to promote a single or several products on a single web page. You can use it to capture leads on a lead capture page  and even generate sales with their sales pages.

I feel like LeadPages is an all inclusive marketing tool that every marketer and semi-blogger should have.

At a price of $35 per month the features that you get are incredible.

Were there any features that you have in your builder that you think LeadPages might need? Leave them in the comments. LeadPages has a suggestions menu that I frequent to make useful suggestions.

Cheers

The post How I Use LeadPages And Why You Don’t Need A Real Website appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

In fact it was the first thing that I was told to do when I started my direct sales business.

Dawn you have to have a launch party!

A launch party I said? I did not have a place to have a party let alone the friends to come to my party!

I was the one who had very few friends and living in a studio apartment at the time.

So having a launch party was simply out of the question.

But despite the fact that I did not have parties, I was still successful in recruiting tons of people AND making tons of product sales in my business.

The thing is, when most people were doing parties, I took the time to learn different strategies that made me stand out. 

In an industry where competition is HUGE it is important to make the difference.

Sometimes going in the opposite direction is OK.

I would admit that a few Facebook parties did get me sales here and there, but what actually skyrocketed my business was using new, modern-day approaches to direct sales.

So what did I do differently?

5 Simple Ways To Grow Your Direct Sales Business Without Having Parties

1. Online Marketing

There is so much power in the internet and there is a reason why most successful businesses leverage this platform.

But many direct sales consultants seem to forget that it is there or if they know it is there, they do not know how to use it.

The internet provides a playground of opportunity, to find people who are searching for AND interested in your products when you have exhausted your warm market.

When I started direct selling, I went through my warm market in a matter of days.

Although I was trained to use social media outlets like Instagram and Facebook to find new prospects, many other people were also doing that!

It is no wonder why I sucked big time at trying to build a brand for myself. I mean, every time someone reached out to me in my DMs about my product, they usually followed up with something like “Oh yea! XYZ told me about this so I would buy from her”.

I had to come up with an alternative and it was to use the internet.

Using the internet to build a brand for yourself opens so many doors because you are in touch with a lot more people, both locally and internationally.

If you really understand how to use the internet to build a global direct sales company, then you can build a huge business. Check out my latest article where I explain how to build a global direct sales business.

It also meant that I could target people who were actually looking for my product rather than rely on people who only supported me, because I was a friend or family member.

So here’s what this looks like when I do a search, using my keyword research tool, to find people who are looking for a specific direct sales product.

Let’s say that product is the infamous skinny wrap that helps you tighten loose skin.

When I search for a keyword that could be searched by people on Google or other search engines, this is the type of results I get:

The above screenshot shows you the keyword that I have entered on the left which is “tighten loose skin” and on the right, it shows you the potential volume of searches on the search engines for variations of the keyword.

So for example, “loose stomach skin” gets approximately 1300 searches on the search engines. “Tummy skin tightening” get approximately 590 searches on the search engines.

This means that you have the opportunity to show your product to these people who are actually searching for a solution to “loose stomach skin” and “tummy skin tightening”.

And if you market your product properly to those people, then they are more likely to buy that product.

That is what is so amazing about search engine marketing.

Meanwhile on Instagram or Facebook, I was taught that every person I spoke to was a potential prospect. Knowing what I know now, I have to say … not really!

I would waste hours searching for that ONE person to say yes, when I had thousands of targeted people on Google who wants a solution to loose skin.

The most important thing that you can learn here, is to go after targeted people, as opposed to everyone.

It will make your life so much easier and running your business so much fun!

If you are looking for targeted prospects for your direct sales or network marketing business, check out this blog post or read my review of MLM Leads and Udimi Solo Ads.

How To Convert Searchers Into Leads and Buyers?

This was a secret that no company to my mind ever mentioned, although I strongly believe that every direct sales consultant should use.

(Before you use these methods, make sure that your company policy supports it.)

I used a marketing sales funnel. 

What Is a Marketing Sales Funnel?

A marketing sales funnel automatically introduces a prospect to my product via a lead capture page. 

A lead capture page, is a website page where I tell my audience what I have to offer, then entice them with something free in exchange for their name and email address.

By having a lead capture page, I was building an email list for my direct sales business so that I could find new prospects for my business.

Click this link to see what my lead capture page for direct selling consultants looked like.

My lead capture page will then take my prospect to a bridge page where I speak about the product and tell them more about why they should buy it and how it can solve their problems.

The bridge page also includes a link that directs the prospect to the website where they can purchase the product if they want to.

By using Google and other search engines, I could easily target my ideal customer and ask Google to show that potential customer my lead capture page via an internet link.

A marketing sales funnel, literally catapulted my business to success and gave me the freedom of time that I desperately needed.

Marketing sales funnel builders like Clickfunnels and LeadPages allow you to create a targeted website, then use that website to capture people’s information who are really interested in your offer.

This meant that I no longer had to speak to over 100 people, just to find that one person who would say yes.

It also meant that I could automatically get sales into my business, without me speaking directly to my prospect. The sales funnel did all the talking for me.

Click the video below to see how this process is completed with Clickfunnels.

>>Free Book Teaches You How To Use Sales Funnels For Your Direct Selling and Network Marketing Business <<

2. Email Marketing

You have probably heard somewhere before that “the money is in the list”.

Yet you are probably not building your email list at all.

An email list, is simply a list of subscribers who provide their email to you, so you can send them promotional content like newsletters, product offers or posts directly to their email address.

Do you know that social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat do not belong to us?

When we build an audience using these channels, there is a risk that it can easily be taken away from us when we least expect it.

Imagine growing your audience to over 20,000 people. Now imagine the time and effort put in and then one day it is wiped out! Gone!

This is why you should be working on building your email list as any audience we create here belongs to us.

Yes! We have complete ownership of our email lists.

When I started building my email list I did not quite understand the phrase “the money is in the list”.

Now that I have an email list of over 1000 targeted subscribers, I can send one email with valuable content and generate a sale from that email blast.

Optinmonster also confirms the effectiveness of email marketing over social media with their blog post Email Marketing v Social Media Performance.

So how do you start building an email list?

Well you must have the following tools to start:

• A website or lead capture page – I use LeadPages for my lead capture page builder but you can also use Clickfunnels or any of these awesome builders to start.
• Email autoresponder – I use and recommend Aweber because it makes sure that all my emails are sent directly to my prospects’ inbox. There is also GetResponse which is another great autoresponder and they have some pretty neat lead capture pages as well.

I then strategically place my website link, on the internet or my social media accounts and capture prospects’ details if they want more information about my product.

Building an email list allowed me to easily follow up with my prospects and continue to remind them about my products.

This was a key way that helped me to get so many sales into my business.

Related Article: 

• How To Start Your First Email List From Scratch  
• How To Build A Profitable Email List Step by Step
• How To Get Email Subscribers As A Newbie

3. Blogging

If it is one thing that you can do for your direct sales business, it is blogging.

That is because blogging allows you to provide a hub where prospects can go to, to get more in-depth information about you and your product.

I DO NOT recommend your company’s website blog, but your own personal blog that is hosted by you.

The reason why I would recommend your own personal blog, is because it belongs completely to you.

What is a blog?

A blog is like your home on the internet. It is a place that you fill with content on just about anything.

So if you are in direct sales and you are selling hair care products, you can personalise your blog with posts about hair care that will help viewers solve their problems.

A blog will help grow your business

If you optimise your blog so that it can be found in search engines, you are accessible by many more people than you can meet at home parties or Facebook parties.

With parties, most times you operate in ways that are sales-oriented. You really only have about an hour to impress upon your prospect why they should buy your product.

Let us not forget that people do not like being sold to.

However with a blog, your prospects have the time to read your helpful posts.

If the right amount of value is provided, you bet they will be ready to buy immediately.

A blog helps establish trust and credibility

When you write a blog, you establish yourself as an expert. Do not worry if you are new to blogging or your direct sales company.

You can easily do research on your company’s products and write posts in your own words. The internet is also full of resources that help you to recreate posts that provide solutions to your prospects.

By blogging, you stand out and this can be your unique selling point.

After all, you are using a forum that other direct sales consultants hardly or do not ever use!

Furthermore when you present yourself as an expert, more people will trust your recommendation and are thus more likely to buy from you.

Ready to start your own blog? Read my article The Complete Beginner’s Guide To Starting A Successful Blog  which provides a step-by-step walk through on how I created this blog. You can actually start your blog for as little as $3.95 a month with Bluehost and WordPress. 

Related Articles: 

• Network Marketing Blog 5 Reasons Why You Need Them  
• The Complete Beginner’s Guide To Starting A Successful Blog

4. Facebook Marketing

Yes you can use Facebook groups to promote your products to your circle via Facebook parties but Facebook is bigger than that.

Just like online marketing, Facebook has a huge database of information on its users.

This allows you to specifically target people who may be interested in your products.

So if you are a direct sales consultant in a weight loss company, you can create an ad and ask Facebook to show it to people who are interested in Diets and Weight Loss or Easy Weight Loss.

Do you think these people will be interested in your product that helps them to lose weight?

Of course they will be.

So not only are you connecting with people who are not in your inner circle but you are connecting with the right kind of people who are ten times more likely to buy your product because they are interested in it.

When you use Facebook’s platform in this way you can collect your prospects’ information exactly as you would by using lead capture pages if you want to use email marketing to follow up with them later on.

If Facebook Ads is your choice of growing your direct sales business without having parties, then I would strongly recommend the Social Traffic Blueprint Facebook Ads Course by Jon Penberthy and Jubril Agoro.

They teach you everything you need to know about how to place a Facebook ad the right way. I would not try Facebook ads without doing a course or understanding the ad platform thoroughly as you can waste a lot of money. Be sure to also check out Facebook Blueprint which is a user guidance for Facebook Ads.

Check out the response that I got from one Facebook ad for my company’s product which generated hundreds of product sales. 

If you would like to use Facebook as a traffic source feel free to check out the course here.

5. Pinterest

If you are in direct sales then Pinterest is one of THE best platforms that you can use to grow your business.

Best of all, it is a FREE platform.

Not many people go to Pinterest because it is one of those social media outlets that is rarely heard of for business, but did you know that Pinterest has more than 150 million monthly active users and is actually a search engine? So people are actually searching for solutions to their problems on there.

I have said over and over that I absolutely LOVE Pinterest. It is the one place where I can showcase my business through my blog and get targeted leads and sales.

With Pinterest you can surf visually stimulating images and get ideas for hair styles, wardrobes or gift ideas.

I however use it strategically to drive traffic to my blog or website.

Check out the amount of traffic that I am getting from Pinterest to my blog below.

Do you think that if you can get this amount of traffic to your website that you can make a few good product sales?

To learn how to use Pinterest I first invested in a course called the Pinterest Traffic Avalanche course by Alex Nerney and Lauren McManus. This course taught me some really cool things on how to increase traffic to my website with Pinterest.

In the course they also teach you pinning strategies, how to create viral pins that get the most traffic amongst other valuable lessons to grow your business. If you wish to use Pinterest as a traffic source feel free to check out the course here.

How to create pins

How I do this, is I create beautiful pins using an easy to use graphic tool like PicMonkey and stock photos from Shutterstock, then connect that pin to my blog.

I then share my pins in targeted group boards where I can connect with people who may be interested in one of my topics.

So for example, I am a part of many network marketing, direct sales and affiliate marketing group boards because I know that people on these boards have followed it because they are interested in it.

Before now, I would have never thought about using Pinterest as a business tool but once I discovered that I could actually grow my business using it, I became absolutely hooked on the idea.

Final Thoughts

Online marketing is huge. It is a known fact that the top direct sales consultants grow their business using the internet and with the help of various marketing tools.

However even today, consultants are still encouraged to use the “belly-to-belly” strategy which in my view only helps you achieve mediocre results.

Cheers,

P.S Are you using any other ways to grow your business without home parties? Show me some love in the comments and let me know. I would love to hear more from you.

Resources That Will Help You Even More

How To Use Sales Funnels To Grow Your Network Marketing Team a free e-book that will teach you all you need to know about using sales funnels to build your direct selling and network marketing team.

Start A Blog ECourse 5 Days To Blogging Success my free blog course will teach you how to start a blog and build it around your direct sales business.

Power Coaching if you have a product, service or business, personally work with me and I will help you automate and leverage the internet so you can live the life that you truly want. I will help you take your business to the next level with personalised coaching sessions. My coaching sessions are $247/hour. Please only complete the application form if you are serious about utilising my coaching. Click here to complete the application form. 

Aweber the internet’s most powerful tool to help automate your email communication. This is what I use to build my email list and send my newsletter to my subscribers to form the relationship. It is one of the biggest tools you will need in your business.

The post 5 Simple Ways To Grow Your Direct Sales Business Without Having Parties appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

I am a Younique consultant and would like to know if it is a good idea to use a blog to promote Younique products?

Immediately I thought, “Heck yea!”

When I thought more about the topic and looked further into it, I realised that whilst blogging has been around for a good few years, not many network marketers are using this platform to promote their business.

And this is the reason why – people are simply following other unsuccessful people and the masses are not blogging! 

So if every Jane, Julie and Anna are not blogging, then why should anyone else consider doing it?

If many people are not doing it, does that not mean that it is not profitable? Why would anyone want to stray from the norm?

And herein lies the reason for this blog post and WHY you should really be blogging as a network marketer.

Before I go anymore into the reasons why, let us look at some top network marketers who are crushing it with their network marketing blog.

• Julie and Pauli Kalungi are home based business trainers and mentors who have grown in network marketing through their blog. They really took off educating themselves on the ins and outs of network marketing and built info products around their brand with the goal that their blog will be a “one stop shop”.
• Jelena Otrovska is a Russian network marketer who used her blog to become a top earner in her company. She is now a certified coach helping other network marketers master network marketing.
• Michelle and Bill Pescosolido are network marketing enthusiasts who now enjoy six figure incomes from building their brand on the internet. Their joy is helping other network marketers build their business online. They started network marketing after Michelle wanted a way to make money from home as a stay at home parent. The internet and social media helped her create massive wealth by helping other people successfully live out their dreams.
• Tanya Aliza joined network marketing in 2009 and in 2010 took her business online. By taking her business on the internet and making a home for herself, she became the number three recruiter in her company and promotes different tools and resources on her blog to help other network marketers do just as she did.

The one thing that these marketers have in common is that the moment they took their business online and started using websites to recruit other network marketers into their businesses, they found success.

If you look at their websites you will see that it is a place where they host all their products and different programs that they use to build their business.

Their blogs also tell their story and deliver messages which are used by many as training platforms and best of all for the top earners, their business is all automated.

This is exactly how top earners become top earners in this industry and it is still amazing that not many marketers are using this.

So let us talk about…

The Top 5 Reasons You Should Have A Network Marketing Blog

1. Helps You Stand Out

Not every network marketer has a blog and when you do, it helps you to stand out from the rest.

It shows prospects that you are not “just another network marketer”.

There are many network marketers that a prospect can choose to buy from or join, so you need to give them a reason to choose you over your competitors.

What will make you unique is your selling point. What else can you offer?

You will see later on, that a blog can help you gain authority and credibility. Especially when you are providing tons of value on a subject and can give your prospect a place to go to for resources that probably was not already there.

For example, most network marketers would give a prospect a website link to their company’s landing page. The prospect may be has seen it many times but when you come from a different direction and show them something that they have not seen, it keeps you in their mind.

Having a blog shows that you are providing an extended service to the prospect.

So you may have weight loss recipes or tips and advice for losing weight faster which other network marketers do not have.

You may provide product reviews to help the prospect decide whether to buy your product.

Be a distributor in a new way and stand out from the all too familiar crowd.

2. Creates A Home For You And Your Brand

With a network marketing blog you can add anything to it that you want to help a prospect get to know you.

It is your central hub to showcase all there is to know about you. You will then be able to leverage that hub and channel your prospect to other marketing platforms that promote your brand.

For example, you may have social media sites that you can direct your prospect to. You can connect better with them in a Facebook community group or on a YouTube channel.

Your blog can act as a training ground where you host content that will help your team learn more about your business building strategies.

Without this, you may have to take a more hands-on approach to training your team. In my article How To Automate Your Business And Take Control Of Your Life, I spoke about how a blog can be used to automate your business so you can get more freedom of time to focus on other things that matter.

You can also use a blog to “talk” about your products and do the selling for you.

3. Become An Expert Or An Authority

People use blogs to create content that establishes them as an authority or expert.

Now you may be thinking that you cannot be an expert when you are just getting started with network marketing.

This was one of the issues that Tanya Aliza had when she first started blogging and she said

… this was a concern of mine in the past before I drew a line in the sand and got started. The reality is that when you have your Brand, Blog and Sales Funnel built, people will automatically think you’re successful. That’s what happened to me.

Ray Higdon also said that he started teaching other people what he was learning even though he had no results.

So the point is, you can be an expert even if you have very little proof of your progress.

You can also do this with a blog by writing about the things that you have learnt. Then simply build a platform where people come to you, for information to help them solve their problems.

Soon enough you will have a library of knowledge which then helps to promote your credibility and authority in your niche.

When you have that credibility and authority, people are more likely to buy anything from you. This is when you will use your sales funnels to sell your products and make sales in your business.

4. Create A Duplicatable System

A blog is your marketing tool. It is your artillery that fires up your business and guess what?!

Once you have a system, that is spinning the wheels for you automatically and creating leads and sales, you can teach your team the same thing.

A blog is not a difficult thing to create. You can provide online tutorials that show your team how to set up their own blog and use it in their businesses.

The same thing goes for sales funnels. These systems are what will help you and your team create huge downlines which only means more money in your pocket.

Most network marketers struggle with distributor retention because they teach their teams to use prospecting and recruitment methods which no longer work today.

With a blog you can create a blueprint that is an easy to follow guide.

What better way to help any network marketer get the results that they want.

Only of course, if they are willing to follow the steps and put the work into it.

5. Have Long Term Success

Some people are put off from creating a blog because they see it as the slower path to success. This is a myth in the blogger’s world.

Blogging is a lot of work as you need to put the time in to create the content but once you have a fully established blog, it does the work for you without you having to be present.

This is why so many bloggers make hundreds of thousands of dollars from content that is produced a year ago. This is the power of having a blog that can generate residual income.

With any business you need to consider the merits of having long term goals. A business that only has a short term vision is more than likely to fail over one that has a long term vision.

By starting your blog now you can set your business to thrive.

You are also more likely to be successful, over those who have no clear plan of how they are going to create a sustainable business.

This is what is most important. If you are continuing to prospect through social media or face to face, you are more than likely to get exhausted.

You are also less likely to have the freedom of time to do whatever you want because you constantly have to be in front of the computer or on the road.

This is not a proper business strategy.

Having a blog is the best way to create longevity in your business.

Do you have a blog yet? Read my article The Complete Beginner’s Guide To Starting A Successful Blog In 2017 to set up your own network marketing blog.

Then follow the Ultimate Blogging Strategy for Beginners 90 Days To Success for a step by step guide to growing a successful blog.

Or take my free 5-Day course that will teach you how to start a blog in 5 days, how to get visitors to your blog, how to monetise your blog and how to grow your blog.

Cheers,

P.S Too much overwhelm and don’t know where to start? Then check out this free ebook (just pay shipping), Network Marketing Secrets, which condenses everything on how to start your network marketing business online.

P.P.S If you enjoyed this article on Network Marketing Blog – 5 Reasons You Need Them, please leave me a comment or any questions below.

Wait a minute! Have you subscribed to my You Tube Channel, where I give more free training? I am growing so be part of the community.

The post Network Marketing Blog – 5 Reasons Why You Need Them appeared first on I Am Dawn-Marie.

As a beginner affiliate marketer, you should be selecting affiliate products from the networks that actually want to work with you and help you grow in your career. In this blog post, I will share with you, which networks I consider to be beginner affiliate-friendly, so you can find the best affiliate programs for beginners.

Before you read on, consider checking out my blog post for beginners, that teaches you how to start affiliate marketing today.

When deciding on the product to promote there are a few things that you should consider before you actually start investing time or money in promoting it.

This post will help you with those criteria so you can be sure you are investing your time and effort in producing content around these products that will convert and pay you the best commissions.

What you should consider when choosing your products:

The commission rate commissions should be at a level that you are comfortable with and is going to give you a good return on investment. When looking at the compensation plan, consider how many people will need to see this product in order for you to get a sale and how much you are going to achieve when you make a sale.

Usually products that have a higher commission rate are more difficult to sell and require greater effort put in compared to products that have a smaller commission.

Whilst the effort is greater, that only means you will need to add more value to your affiliate marketing funnel in order to convince your target market to take action which will lead to a conversion for you.

One way to achieve this, is through the use of bridge pages.

Recurring commissions this is how you create passive income when the product that you promote has a subscription base. Recurring commissions are great because it means you only need to do the work once and you will probably gain a lifetime customer who will contribute to your income every month.

This does not mean that products that do not have recurring commissions should be avoided. It simply means that you will have to continue looking for customers to enter your sales funnel or visit your website to keep a steady flow of income each month.

Grab Your Step By Step Guide To Making Money With Affiliate Marketing

High conversions before promoting a product you should do your research to find out how marketable the product is. Is the product a good one? What are people saying about the product? What do other marketers say about the ease of promotion?

These are some questions you should be asking yourself before you jump in to promoting a product.

Ease of approval most affiliate programs and networks are easy to join if you can show that you have a proper website and that you have a sound marketing plan to promote the product. Other affiliate programs require you to be a paid member of the product before you start earning commissions. That way there is no approval process, but the commission structure is higher in that you can earn very handsome payouts.

With these criteria in mind I have handpicked some of the best affiliate programs for beginners, if you are now starting affiliate marketing or even writing as a blogger.

Top 10 Places To Find The Best Affiliate Programs For Beginners

1. Clickbank 

Clickbank is the best known marketplace to find products that you can promote on your blog or website and in an affiliate marketing campaign.

It is one of the oldest platforms and widely used by marketers when they want to make extra money.

With its search and category features you can easily find any product that resonates with you within your niche.

It is simple to start promoting products on this forum because you do not need to be approved. You can simply create a free Clickbank account and immediately have access to tons of products that you can promote.

In order to do well with Clickbank products, pay attention to the gravity score of the product. That tells you how popular it is amongst other marketers.

Popularity determines how well a product converts. It also means that there is more competition.

As a beginner it is important that you understand how much research plays a part in you selecting the best affiliate program that actually converts with cold traffic.

So before choosing a product, be sure to carefully go through Clickbank’s metrics to make sure you are choosing a product that has the best chance at success.

I always aim for products that have a gravity score that falls between 50-100. Anything over 100 means that it is highly competitive and if you try to break through as a beginner you are likely to be up against skilled marketers.

Clickbank automates the entire sales process. They deal with all customer refunds and you can see how you are performing from the analytics within your dashboard.

You can receive payment from Clickbank via direct deposit or check depending on your country.

To join Clickbank as an affiliate, sign up here. 

2. ShareASale

This is an affiliate network like Clickbank which houses numerous products that you can promote depending on your niche.

ShareASale is great for pay-per-lead products and pay-per-sale products.

What is pay-per-lead? This is a system whereby you are paid for any lead that you direct to the merchant’s website. In order to qualify for the payment you may have to provide leads who confirm their email address with double opt-in or provide a name, email address and contact number. Leads may also have to sign up for consultations in order for you to qualify.

What is pay-per-sale? This is whereby you promote a product and get paid following the sale of the product.

To start promoting products on ShareASale you must apply to the merchant whose products you are interested in. Therefore it is still possible that even though you are accepted to ShareASale as the affiliate network, you can be declined by a specific merchant who owns the affiliate program.

If you are declined then do not be despondent as there are many other similar products that may fit the description that you want.

Always be sure to consider the amount that you will be paid per lead or per sale in order to get the best return on investment.

Be mindful of the merchant’s terms and conditions to see what type of traffic is allowed because you can be terminated if you provide traffic that does not meet the merchant’s criteria.

To join ShareASale sign up here.

3. Panthera Network

This is an affiliate network which you must apply to, to get started.

Once you have applied and are accepted, there is no further application to be made to promote the product of your choice.

The network is an easy to use one as you can simply search for the desired product and you are provided with your affiliate link to share with your audience in a campaign, on your blog or website.

When applying for Panthera Network, the best and quickest way to get accepted is to contact the affiliate manager by phone.

The reason for this, is because you can have personal contact with the affiliate manager in the event he/she has questions about your objectives when using the Panthera Network.

When I first joined Panthera my application was approved within 10 minutes and although there was a small objection to the number of visitors to my site (as it was fairly new), I still got accepted because I took that extra step, contacted the affiliate manager and discussed my aims with him.

I would strongly recommend that you do the same. Their contact details are provided in the email that you receive once you have completed your application.

To join Panthera Network sign up here.

Grab Your Step By Step Guide To Making Money With Affiliate Marketing

4. Amazon Associates

You really cannot lose with Amazon Associates, although I have seen people who advise against relying on Amazon Associates as a way of earning a substantial income as an affiliate.

If your goal is to make a full time income with Amazon Associates then it is possible to do so.

Your niche simply needs to be a profitable one centred around high-cost products.

Amazon Associates is not great for low cost products unless you intend to send millions of visitors to your website to produce thousands of sales per month.

My advice therefore is to focus on a product and niche where the cost of the product is in the range of $1000 and upwards.

After researching the internet, I have found some examples of successful Amazon affiliate websites which you can use as inspiration for your own blog or website.

Lucieslist.com is a baby product reviews and a survival guide for new moms to help them cope with new parenting tasks.

Outdoorgearlab.com is an outdoor gear reviews website which helps buyers decide on the best products for their outdoor activities.

Snapsort.com is a digital camera and comparison reviews website to help customers quickly determine the best products for their needs.

Thisiswhyimbroke.com is a website featuring odd and innovative gift ideas. They are not a reviews website but simply list some of the products that are unusual that they have found on Amazon.

Thewirecutter.com is a gadget, gear and electronics reviews website that helps the customer figure out which product they should get for their needs.

As I mentioned before, in order to be successful with Amazon Associates you either need a high-trafficked website or a website where you are promoting high cost products.

Amazon is free to join and the approval process is quite easy. When you submit your site for approval, ensure that it is live. It does not appear to be the case that the website needs a lot of traffic to get accepted into Amazon Associates but it must already have some content on it.

Also you must ensure that you strictly comply with Amazon Associates program policies as if you do not, you risk losing your account and forfeiting any commissions that you may have already earned.

What I like about Amazon Associates is although you may have referred a customer to their site for a particular product that you recommended, you will still get paid from that referral if the customer buys any product from the Amazon site within 90 days.

To join Amazon Associates as an affiliate sign up here.

If you are interested in learning how to build niche affiliate websites, where you can promote Amazon Affiliate products, my interview with Affiliate Marketer, Leon Angus will help you. He makes money from Amazon Affiliates using niche affiliate websites and gets traffic to his website by search engine optimisation.

5. CJ Affiliate by Conversant 

You may know this network as Commission Junction.

It is similar to the ShareASale network in that you must apply to the respective merchant in order to start promoting any affiliate products.

Application to the CJ Affiliate network is a simple process. Like any other network, it is a good idea to ensure that your website is live and that you have a clear marketing plan before completing your application.

To be honest, I have not used CJ Affiliate as much as I would like to. Once I got into the CJ Affiliate program and applied to a few affiliate companies, it took a little over two weeks to be approved by those companies.

This is not a poor evaluation of CJ Affiliate but rather of the specific companies that I applied for.

I did find however that when I sought out the same companies on another network, I was approved a lot faster. Sometimes I did not have to make an application to the company as is the case with Panthera Network.

CJ Affiliate does support all types of commission models. They include pay-per-action and pay-per-sale.

It is a solid affiliate marketing platform hosting every type of product that you can think of for whatever niche you are interested in.

To become an affiliate of CJ Affiliates sign up here.

6. Rakuten Marketing

I have only recently joined Rakuten Marketing so I have not had time to assess the features of this affiliate network.

It is a reliable network as it is among one of the oldest affiliate marketing networks in the industry.

Rakuten is free to join.

It hosts over 1000 merchants so there is bound to be some product within your niche that you can include in your portfolio.

If you see the name Linkshare anywhere on the interwebs then this is reference to Rakuten as they re-branded their name recently.

To join Rakuten Marketing as an affiliate sign up here then click “Publisher Sign Up” in the top right hand corner.

7. FlexOffers

I  love FlexOffers. In fact they are one of the affiliate networks that helped me earn over $10k in affiliate sales by promoting one of their products. 

Like the other above networks, FlexOffers provides a connection between affiliate marketers, bloggers and advertisers. They help advertisers get their products out on the market and help affiliate marketers and bloggers make money from reputable brands and products.

FlexOffers has over 12,000 affiliate products in a wide range of categories that you can select from. You must have a website that you own in order to join this affiliate network.

Once you have been approved, you can search their advertisers and select the ones that best relate to your niche.

You also get your own affiliate manager so if you have any questions about your account or an affiliate product, you can speak directly to them.

As to payout of affiliate commissions I had to wait approximately three months to receive my commissions. Like most affiliate networks, FlexOffers’ payment terms require that they receive payment from the advertiser before they can pay you. 

This results in you, as the affiliate, having to wait months to receive payment. This was the only thing that I did not like about this company.

FlexOffers does have a Revshare program, which means that if you refer someone who is approved as an affiliate, you can earn a certain percentage of whatever sales they make.

To join FlexOffers, you can start here.

Make sure that the information you provide about yourself and your website is accurate. The review process does take approximately three to seven business days but if it crosses this you can always follow up with them.

8. Clickfunnels Affiliate Program

Clickfunnels is owned by Russel Branson and is an in-house affiliate program. This means that it is a product by itself and you must go directly to the company to join as an affiliate.

The difference with the affiliate networks and affiliate programs is that you may join affiliate networks and find numerous products under one umbrella that you can promote.

With affiliate programs you can join directly with the company so there is no middle man.

You do not have to be a customer of Clickfunnels to become an affiliate.

However it will be to your advantage if you understand how Clickfunnels work so that you can promote it, when recommending it to your audience.

This is why most websites get trust from their audience because they have used the product themselves and can provide the best user guidance to help the customer make the right decision about whether the product is for them.

You are able to earn 40% commissions from each sale that is made of the Clickfunnels product. This equates to either $38.80 or $118.80 depending on the product plan that the customer purchases.

Commissions are recurring as Clickfunnels is a subscription based product.

They also have a Dream Car Contest where if you refer 100 active members to their software, this entitles you to a $500 monthly check towards your dream car.

If you refer 200 active members then you are entitled to receive a $1000 monthly check towards the reimbursement of your dream car payments.

To join Clickfunnels as an affiliate sign up here.

9. Aweber Affiliate Program

Aweber is an email autoresponder service and is widely used by marketers and bloggers to communicate with their email list. 

If you teach your audience about list building or email marketing, Aweber is an ideal product for you to promote and recommend within your content.

For example, you may have created a blog post on “How To Build An Email List of 1000 Subscribers” where you can recommend Aweber as an email marketing software to build that list.

You can also create content specifically around Aweber reviews or promote it as part of your affiliate marketing funnel.

It is free to join the affiliate program and you earn 30% commissions from each sale that is made.

Aweber has a structured price plan.

So the bigger a customer’s email list, the more money they pay for their subscription.

This will therefore impact on the type of commissions you earn with Aweber depending on the purchase plan the customer chooses.

You will continue to earn commissions on this product as long as the customer continues to use their account. This makes it a great source for passive income.

To join Aweber as an affiliate sign up here.

Grab Your Step By Step Guide To Making Money With Affiliate Marketing

10. The Social Traffic Blueprint Affiliate Program

The Social Traffic Blueprint Affiliate program is a program that is associated with the Facebook Ads course presented by Jon Penberthy and Jubril Agoro.

You get the chance to earn while you learn. If you want to know more about how to use Facebook ads to drive traffic to your business, then this is a great investment to help you succeed with Facebook Ads.

At the same time you can sign up to their affiliate program and promote the course to other marketers who want to learn how to use Facebook ads as well.

The Social Traffic Blueprint program allows you to earn up to $400 per sale.

This is a great affiliate product if you want to earn a high commission payout.

In order to start promoting this product you must be a course member. The course actually costs $997 and comes with group coaching, access to their private Facebook group, 24/7 support and lifetime access to the course and updates.

To take part in the course and become an affiliate join here.

Final Thoughts

Joining the best affiliate programs for beginners is easy if you are looking to monetise your blog or website or simply promote these programs as part of an affiliate marketing campaign. The easiest programs to promote are those which are proven to convert well.

My handpicked selection of programs and networks will help you choose some of the best affiliate products, that you can have on your blog or website to add content to it.

Some great ways to promote affiliate products are in “How To” blog posts or List blog posts. If you do not want to use a website or blog, you can also promote affiliate products with traffic sources such as Bing Ads or Facebook Ads.

Now that you’ve joined some affiliate networks of your choice you should check out my ebook on How To Do Affiliate Marketing Without A Huge Blog or Website 

It’s the perfect solution for those who are looking to promote an affiliate product, but really don’t want to create a traditional blog. This ebook teaches you how to do affiliate marketing or promote any product with small valuable blog posts.

Plus it comes with a bonus freelancing guide that teaches you how to get other people to pay for your business costs and how to use free traffic methods to promote your content fast for incredible results.

You can check it out by clicking here!

Remember that the most difficult part of any business is showing up. Make sure and show up today to get the best chance at success.

Don’t wait too long to invest in you.

Cheers,

P.S Did I miss something? Let me know in the comments whether there are any other affiliate networks you have joined and which one?