Introduction - The Opportunity of a
Lifetime

Welcome to High Performance Affiliate Marketing. This e-book will show you everything you need to know about making money online as an affiliate.

The format of this e-book is concise and to the point. I won't waste your time discussing unnecessary details or bore you with useless statistics. This e-book is all about practical hands-on information that you can use right now to start making money online.

Throughout the e-book, I'll be pointing to some third-party resources for further reading and learning. If you're unfamiliar with a certain topic, I encourage you to follow the link and learn more about it.

This e-book is not the encyclopedia of the Internet. This e-book has just one focus: To show you how to make money online, the easiest and fastest way possible.

How to Use This E-Book

This book doesn't need to be read cover to cover like a traditional book. You can skip to whatever sections you think will provide you with the most benefit. If you're new to affiliate marketing it may help you to follow the natural progression of each section. The sections are organized to build upon previous ones.

Why an E-book?

Nothing changes faster than the Internet. With an e-book, I'm able to update you with the latest information in real-time, while it's still relevant. If this e-book were published as a traditional book a lot of the information would be obsolete by the time it hit book shelves.

Free Updates

Unlike other e-books, which only get updated every couple of years; this e-book will be frequently updated with the latest and most important online marketing information.
When new versions are made available you will be notified through e-mail. This will allow you to stay on top of the industry and keep a step ahead of the competition.

IMPORTANT - If you haven’t done so already, make sure you add jeremy@quityourdayjob.com to your e-mail address book. This will ensure that my e- mails reach you and don’t get blocked by your ISP or corporate e-mail filters.

E-book Support Forums

One of the biggest benefits of this e-book is the member support forums. If you have a question, or don't understand something, post it in the support forums, and either I or another forum member will try and help you out.

To access the support forums please reference the “Getting Started” e-mail that you
received when you first purchased the book. If you can’t find this information contact our support team (http://www.quityourdayjob.com/contact/) and we will resend you this message.

Expectations

The information in this e-book is only as good as your commitment. I could give you the winning lottery numbers, but it's no good if you don't go down to the store and buy the ticket. The same rules apply to this e-book. You won't be successful unless you take
action!

If you are serious about quitting your job, and becoming a full-time super affiliate, you must combine this valuable knowledge with your own hard work and dedication.


Section 1: Affiliate Marketing 101 –
Preparing for Success

In this section you will learn the basics of affiliate marketing. You will learn what it is, how it works, and most importantly, how you can make money as an affiliate.

If you are brand new to affiliate marketing, or just getting started, I recommend that you take time to read this section so that you can build a strong foundation for further
learning.

If you are already comfortable with the basics of affiliate marketing, you can skip ahead
to Section 2.

1.1 - What is Affiliate Marketing?

In simple terms, affiliate marketing is where you refer visitors from your website to a merchant's website. A merchant is any individual or company that sells products or services online. Wal-Mart®, Home Depot®, eBay®, and Yahoo® are all examples of merchants with affiliate programs. These companies pay their affiliates to promote their
products and services online. Merchants with affiliate programs range in size from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies.

You earn commissions when the visitors you refer complete some type of action on a merchant's website. For example, you may earn a commission if the visitor you refer makes a purchase, completes a lead form, or downloads some software.

1.2 - How Does Affiliate Marketing Work?

When a visitor comes to your website and clicks on one of your merchant's links, a tracking cookie is set on the visitor's computer. A cookie, in Internet terms, is nothing more than a small text file that is placed on a user's computer when they visit a website.
This cookie tells a merchant that a visitor was referred by your website. When that visitor makes a purchase, or completes some other action on a merchant's website, the merchant gives you a commission. That's it!

You don't have to fulfill any products, handle customer service issues, or do anything else. All you're doing is referring visitors from your website to a merchant's website.

1.3 - The Benefits of Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing? What's in it for me? I'm glad you asked. Here is a summary of just a few of the benefits you can experience as an affiliate:

Flexibility - Business on your terms

Perhaps the #1 benefit for affiliates is flexibility. I haven't had to punch a clock, report to
a boss, or sit in rush-hour traffic since I quit my day job and became a full-time affiliate. I take vacations whenever I want. I never miss my kid's school or sporting events. And I've never been happier!

Money - The only limit on your earning potential is you

Almost as nice as the flexibility, is the money. I don't consider it easy money; I've
worked hard for every dollar I've earned. However, I'm in control of what I make! When you own an affiliate business you're in the driver's seat. If you need to make more money, you just spend more time working on your affiliate business.

The nice thing about earning money from an affiliate business is that it can be residual. Wait! What do I mean by residual? It means that my websites make money even when
I'm not working on them. This frees me up to build more money-making websites, which also earn residual income. As you can see this has a multiplying effect. In the last 3 years
I have developed over 100 websites that have helped me to earn a substantial monthly income. For the most part, these websites are self-sustaining. If I take a week off and go
on vacation my affiliate websites are still making money.



I didn’t attach this graph to boast, I simply wanted to demonstrate how you can grow an
affiliate business year after year. I launched High Performance Affiliate Marketing in early 2006. Many people had assumed that I had cashed out and just wanted to make money selling e-books, but I’m a big believer in practicing what you teach.

My affiliate websites are not 100% maintenance free. However, I only have to spend a minimal amount of time each month maintaining them. This maintenance is mostly just reviewing reports and trying to determine ways to earn more money.

Low Start-Up Costs - You don't have to mortgage your house to launch an affiliate business

The costs associated with starting up a typical brick and mortar business range from tens
of thousands of dollars, to millions of dollars. This presents a huge obstacle for most aspiring entrepreneurs. Even starting your own e-commerce website can be expensive and difficult.

You can launch a quality affiliate website that can start generating instant cash for just a few hundred dollars, even if you have little or no experience developing websites.

No Employees - Unless you count yourself

One of the biggest challenges facing business owners today is finding and managing good employees. Employees can cost a business a lot of money. When you add up the cost of an employee's salary, benefits, and other entitlements, it can add up quickly! There are also hidden costs associated with having employees. Consider the costs of
unemployment if you have to lay off an employee. Consider the liability if an employee gets hurt on the job. What if an employee sues you for wrongful termination? What if an employee goes to work for one of your competitors?

As you can see it can be quite a burden to have employees working for your business.
With an affiliate business you can run the business without hired help. Not only does this save you a lot of money, but it also eliminates risks associated with having employees on your payroll.

No Inventory - All you need is a computer and an Internet connection

No need for an inventory when you have an affiliate business. The only "goods" you're selling is information. You're delivering that information over the Internet, so there's no need to deliver anything either. That's the beauty of having an information business or becoming an infopreneur.

No Customer Service - Let someone else worry about it

Nearly every business has customers and therefore must provide customer service. An affiliate business is unique because you don't necessarily have customers, but rather

website visitors. You are merely referring these website visitors to online merchants who
sell products and services. These merchants handle any customer service issues that may arise.

Unlimited Products and Services to Promote - The possibilities are endless

Online merchants range from Fortune 500 companies like Wal-Mart®, to small
businesses like BackCountry.com, and everything in between. The selection of products and services that you can promote with your affiliate websites is unlimited!

Market to a Global Audience - They don't call it the World Wide Web for nothing

The number of potential customers you can reach through your affiliate business keeps growing every day. Millions of new users a month from all over the world are accessing the web. This means that the marketplace is growing too. In 2006 the Internet welcomed
its 1 billionth user. The bigger the marketplace gets, the more opportunities you will have
to make money online.

1.4 - Separating Fact from Fiction

There's a lot of hype right now about people making money online. You may have heard
or read stories about Internet entrepreneurs making millions of dollars a year in their sleep, while their websites run on auto-pilot, only waking up to check their bank balances, and play golf. On the other hand, you may have heard that the market is too saturated, and that successes are few and far between. Don't believe the hype! This
section will identify some of the most common affiliate marketing myths, and help you separate fact from fiction.

Fiction:

Running an affiliate business is easy.

Fact:

Running an affiliate business is easy when compared to the challenges of starting up a traditional business. If you were to open up a brick and mortar business, you would have
to buy or lease a location, hire employees, carry inventory, and deliver products or services to your customers. It is very expensive and time consuming to start a brick and mortar business, and if you fail you have a lot to lose.

Running an affiliate business is also a lot easier than running your own e-commerce website. With an affiliate website you simply refer visitors to merchants, and let the merchants handle the transaction. Your job as an affiliate is over when the visitor lands
on the merchant's website. It's the merchant's responsibility to secure the transaction, handle customer service, and deliver the product to the customer.

While it may be true that starting and managing an affiliate business is a lot easier than a brick and mortar business, or e-commerce website, it's not entirely easy. Running a successful affiliate business does require you to attract new website visitors and to get
those visitors to click through and do business with the merchants you're promoting.

Fiction:

Get rich quick!

Fact:

Building a successful affiliate business is not something that happens overnight. It takes time to develop a good website with good content. It also takes time to build a constant flow of visitors to your website. While you can make a lot of money with affiliate marketing, don't expect to flip a switch and become a millionaire over night. Anyone promoting these "get rich quick" schemes is only making themselves rich, while their customer’s only hope to one day become rich.
Fiction:

The affiliate marketing space is too crowded.

Fact:

The potential for affiliates to be successful has never been better. Consider these facts:

• The population of web users continues to grow month after month, with no end in sight!
• People are making more purchases online than ever before.
• More homes have broadband than ever before, making it easier to shop online.
• The web is the largest marketplace in the world. Reach hundreds of millions of users!

It's never been easier to carve out a niche for yourself in affiliate marketing.

1.5 - How Does an Affiliate Earn Money?

There are four basic actions in which affiliates are paid when they send their visitors to a merchant's website.

1. The visitor buys something from the advertiser (pay per sale).
2. The visitor completes a lead form (pay per lead).
3. The visitor downloads, installs, or uses some product or service (pay per action).
4. The visitor clicks on a link and visits the merchant's website (pay per click). Below are detailed explanations of each action:
Pay Per Sale:

Pay per sale is the most common type of affiliate program on the web. With pay per sale you refer visitors to a merchant that sells products or services. You earn a commission
when that visitor buys something from the merchant. In most cases you earn a percentage
of the sale, but in some instances you may be given a flat dollar amount.

Most merchants that sell products online pay their affiliates a percentage of sales. Merchants that fall into this category include, Home Depot®, REI®, Dell® Computers, and most big e-tailers on the Internet.

Most of the merchants that pay their affiliates a flat dollar amount sell services. Merchants who sell web hosting, online dating, and other online services tend to
compensate their affiliates with a flat dollar amount, rather than a percentage of the sale.

Advantages of Earning a Percentage of Sales

• You can earn a ton of cash on big ticket items.
(Example: You refer a customer who buys a $2,500 computer).
• You can earn a ton of cash when your visitors buy multiple items at once.
(Example: You refer a customer who buys a pair of shoes, matching purse and jacket).
• Some merchants will pay their affiliates commissions on repeat purchases.

Disadvantages of Earning a Percentage of Sales

• Your visitor may buy a small ticket item.
(Example: The customer you referred buys a pair of socks, and never returns to purchase anything else).
• Your visitor may return the merchandise, which could result in your commission being reversed.
(Example: The shirt your visitor bought last week just doesn't fit right. They return it, and your commission is reversed).