Affiliate marketing can be very interesting work, but it’s challenging too. It’s hard to sift through all the information out there and figure out what works for you.

However, one thing many people strongly recommend is redirecting your affiliate links. The logic is that many people just feel more comfortable clicking a link they can understand. Also, some have a bias against clicking a link when they think you might get a commission off of it, even though they’re no impact on their cost. Just an odd bit of human nature.

There are advantages beyond your clickthrough and sales rate to cloaking your affiliate links. I find it is simpler to remember my links. You don’t have to go looking for your link every time; just use the redirect link you created. If they’re well named you won’t have to look them up very often.

There are a number of ways to redirect your links. How you do it depends on what you’re comfortable with and what you can do on your server. You can buy a variety of solutions for this if you want link tracking, or create your own free solutions.

Free Solutions

The basic free version is to create a page and do a meta redirect. The one trouble with these is that they can be a touch slow. But all you have to do is create a plain HTML page with META HTTP-EQUIV=”Refresh” CONTENT=”5; URL=html-redirect.html” in it. The 5 indicates that the redirect will take place in 5 seconds, and you can bring it to 0 if you want a fast redirect. And of course if you’re directing to a new domain you will need to include the full address.

I’m most fond of the 301 permanent redirect using my .htaccess file. You can create one of these using Notepad (not Microsoft Word or other word processing software), but before you upload it to your server, be sure there isn’t one there already, as it will mess up your site if you overwrite an existing file with a new one that doesn’t have the current information. But if you have one there already you can edit it to add the new redirects.

The code is simple: Redirect permanent /filename addressyouareredirectingto. Once again, if you’re going off site that means you will need the full address. This works only on Linux servers having the Apache Mod-Rewrite module enabled.

You can also do this in PHP. Within the brackets to start and finish PHP commands, place the following code:

Header( “HTTP/1.1 301 Moved Permanently” );
Header( “Location: http://www.new-url.com” );

There are many more ways to create redirects, and if you aren’t using them already I strongly encourage you to investigate them. They make your affiliate links look cleaner and may help with your sales. Just check that the tracking is working properly when you use them.

Paid Solutions

There are quite a number of paid ways to cloak your links. The advantage to these is that some are stronger cloaking, and may hide your affiliate link even on the merchant site. However, you do need to be careful that your cloaking does not break the merchant’s Terms of Service. It’s a pain to have to change out links and find a new merchant.

That said, I found a couple that do look interesting.

The first is specific to bloggers using Wordpress. Wordpress Link Cloak allows you to declare keywords that you want linked to particular links. It sounds good to me both as a quick way to create links in a blog and to keep you from forgetting to monetize a post, one of my own failings.

The other that caught my eye is more general purpose. It’s called Super Affiliate Link Manager. It allows you to create cloaked links so you can brand them and track them. Being able to track your links is something I feel is key when you’re using a paid solution. It’s just nice to have a way to track your links beyond what the affiliate program itself provides.

No matter whether you go free or paid, take the time to cloak your links. It might just help you to increase your earnings, and make your site look a little neater.

If you want to make money from your website, you’re going to have to monetize it. The immediate questions that come to mind are when, what type and how much?

When Do You Monetize?

There are all kinds of theories about this. Some say to wait until you have some traffic, so that your early readers aren’t scared off by the ads. Others say to do at least a little right away.

And then there are the people that go beyond whole hog. You know the sort. The ones who put nothing but banners up and forget about content of any sort. But they hardly count as they rarely make anything from it.

I’m inclined to go with monetization right from the start. Not everyone likes seeing ads, but if they object so strongly do you really need them anyhow?

What Kind of Monetization Should You Use?

Your focus should be on providing interesting content to people you hope will allow you to earn money in one form or another. That means that both your content and monetization should be attractive to your current and potential readers.

There are a few kinds of ads to consider. The 125×125 ads are very popular in blogs right now. You will often see two columns of them off to the side, or sometimes just one. They’re big enough to get the point across without taking up excessive real estate on your site.

You may also see more traditional banner ads or large square ads beneath content. The idea here is to draw the eye as the reader finishes the article.

But you should not forget to monetize from within your content. Review relevant products and include your affiliate link. Keep it honest, of course. Dishonest reviews can quickly cost you your reputation. So can sloppy reviews.

You can also just throw in links when you mention a product, without doing a full review. Do this primarily for relevant products, but if you’re writing about how cute your cat is and decide to talk about how you take photographs of your cat, a link to the kind of camera you use isn’t so bad an idea.

How Much Should You Monetize?

Everyone has an opinion on this. Some feel even one ad is an intrusion. They probably never read magazines or newspapers, as those have far more advertising than just about any website. But no matter how much some want online content to be utterly free, even free of advertising, most people aren’t running websites just for the fun of it. They want to earn some money.

You should find the balance that works for you. Speaking frankly, I would say I monetize less than I should. It’s something I ought to take the time to work on, so I can increase my income. It would probably have more of an impact on my bottom line than spending hours writing articles, which is something I do willingly.

Placement is one of the major keys to solid monetization. If all your ads are in one place, they’re easily ignored. There’s a reason why people talk about ad blindness. Spread things out so that there are more chances for readers to notice your ads.

You’ll also want to consider how much you monetize by each type. All banner ads of a single type makes for easily ignored ads. A mixture of banners and text, placed appropriately throughout the page, should provide you with better results.

What About Google AdSense?

Certainly the quickest way to monetize is through Google AdSense or similar context sensitive ads. They give you relevant ads for very little effort. But they aren’t necessarily the best way to monetize, even though I still use them extensively.

Think of it this way. Many ads will be from affiliates or sites with affiliate programs. If they’re making good money from having their ads on your site, you can probably earn more by promoting the products on your own. Not always, but you should look into it and figure out the best ways for your site to earn money.

If you start out with AdSense on your site, be careful. You want to be sure that you don’t get so comfortable with that income that you never try anything else on that site. Easy doesn’t equal smart.

Above all else, don’t be afraid to try to earn money. You’re working hard on your site. You deserve something for your efforts.

As a general rule, I have a feeling for what’s coming in, moneywise. I know what most of my sites tend to bring in monthly and plan around that.

But there’s an exception to that, and it delighted me today with a surprise $1000+ commission check. Obviously a very nice surprise.

You see, one program I belong to doesn’t have a way for me to track my sales. I get checks pretty regularly from the company with records of my sales, but I can’t follow it online. Only the fact that they do pay well on sales keeps me going with them. Normally I do $50-100 per month with them.

So over $1000 was quite a pleasant surprise in today’s mail.

Of course I’m hoping that trend continues. That’s not a bad income at all for a site that doesn’t require tremendous maintenance. A little, sure, but less than many of my sites that earn less.

No, no clues as to niche or affiliate program. I get to keep some secrets!

It’s fun to make jokes. Getting a laugh is something just about anyone can appreciate. This is probably why so many people love to write humorous articles for their websites. They get attention, sometimes lots of attention.

But is it the right kind of attention for your business? That all depends on what your goals are.

If all you want is traffic, then it might be. A really funny post on your site can bring tons of StumbleUpon, Digg or other social media and viral traffic. But what it probably won’t bring is sales or repeat visitors, at least not in great numbers for the amount of traffic.

Humor, used well, can generate sales, but it’s more challenging.

Think back to any television commercial that made you laugh. It could be the “Where’s the beef?” ads from Wendy’s. It could be something more current.

Do you remember what the ad was about? What company ran it? Whether or not it made you want the product?

Appropriately used humor can do all of that, but too often ads are made funny more to be funny. There’s too little emphasis on the actual product they’re trying to sell.

One of the most challenging steps can be keeping the joke appropriate to your business. You generally don’t want to anger a significant portion of your potential customer base.

If this is something you’re going to want to use regularly in marketing your home business, you need to develop something of a style in it. You may even be able to take advantage of a running gag and have people look forward to the next time you mention the purple eel or whatever the key part of the joke may be.

So how do you learn to use humor?

The first thing you need to do is look at what makes you laugh. If it amuses you, it might just be funny to others. Then again, you could just have a really odd sense of humor.

Now look at ads that have made you laugh. Especially pay attention to any that are in an industry related to your own.

Also pay attention to comedians and others who earn a living by being funny. Read the comics.

Start coming up with funny things about your home business. You can write a list down on paper, on your computer, or any of your kids who doesn’t move fast enough when you’re looking for something to write on. Just don’t use permanent marker on them. People ask so many questions….

Show your ideas to others. Get feedback.

Write the ad, blog post or whatever, including the joke you thought of. Remember to keep a call to action in there, somehow!

Write it up for your site or email campaign, and give it a try. Track your results. Hope for results beyond your wildest dreams.

Humor doesn’t work for everyone, but it has its place and can be highly effective. Give it a try if you dare.

Normally I give these things a few days before upgrading. I like to see the bugs get worked out before I suffer through seeing what happens to my sites in an upgrade.

But Wordpress 2.5 had some issues that were bugging me. So I went for it.

This is a generally important upgrade anyhow. There’s a security issue that isn’t public yet, and they’d rather see people fix it before it becomes an issue than after. Sounds like a good practice to me.

I’ve noticed with interest some discussion about whether or not blogging is the right business model to use. Much of this is started by SiteSell’s new page discussing when blogging is not the right option.

Then again, Problogger has released a book on blogging. It’s now available for preorder on Amazon.

I have to say, I’m biased in favor of blogging. I have regular websites, and they do quite well. But blogging gives me some flexibility that is more challenging for a website to offer.

Almost… almost everything I say on a blog of mine could be read at any time and still be relevant. I’m not much of a news blogger, and that’s one of the areas where Ken Evoy of SiteSell acknowledges that blogging does well.

But some of the problems he addresses aren’t an issue for every blogger.

Yes, blogging can be stressful, if you’re too focused on a high level of production. That’s an easy trap to fall into, especially in competitive areas such as tech or news. Everyone wants to get in on the story first or at least very early, to get all the links.

Then there are bloggers like me. I blog a fair bit, but not constantly. Sometimes not even regularly.

He also doesn’t quite have it entirely right about the hierarchy of blog posts. Yes, they’re reverse chronological, but they’re also organized into categories and sometimes even subcategories. There’s a lot of flexibility there. And even if you use category pages to show what’s in the subcategories on a regular website, you have to use some sort of order that is often chronological by when you wrote it… whether or not the piece is dated.

But he has a lot of really good points too.

Many people dive into blogging because they hear about the big successes, such as Darren Rowse. They don’t take the time to build their blogs properly. They may have no idea what they’re doing overall, but darn it! They’re going to make a ton of money off this thing.

And that is where SiteBuildIt excels. It gives you the tools you need to build your site correctly. If you follow their course step by step, your site will be quite carefully developed, with both users and search engines in mind. The blindfold you didn’t even know you were wearing is gone.

Since Darren Rowse’s book is only on preorder right now, obviously I can’t review and compare it right now. But I can note that his blog generally has excellent articles and I’ve gotten some great ideas there. I’d be willing to trust that his book is of good quality.

So What Has Worked Best for Me? Sites or Blogs?

Honestly, I’m having some pretty decent success with each. I’m often prone to use my blog to provide new information for my sites, linking to posts from the blog on regular website pages as appropriate. In many ways it’s an easier way to manage the content.

If you know what you’re doing, you can work your advertising and so forth pretty well with a blog.

In terms of searches and traffic, my oldest website does best by far. The website itself is static, but it does have a website attached to it, which does bring in some of the traffic. That should scarcely be a surprise. But my next best site is a blog that’s about a year old.

The thing I like about my blogs is the RSS feeds so that people can subscribe to them. I use Feedburner so that I know about how well each blog is doing in that area. I’m not a big name blogger by any means so far, but I’m working on what I have.

SiteBuildIt does offer that feature too, however, so it’s certainly not a reason to choose blogging over SBI. Any kind of a site feed is nice because it allows people who like your work to subscribe through a reader or even email if you set that up, and know when you’ve updated. It’s a great tool.

Sure, subscribers may read your latest post and then bounce away, but you’re bringing them back. Hopefully over and over again.

It really boils down to how much help you want. If you want a lot of help figuring out the best ways to build your website, SiteBuildIt may well be for you. If you just want to get going, you may want to blog since it’s cheaper and relatively easy to get started. But success may take longer.

And then there’s how much you really know about the internet and marketing already. If you’re new to the whole idea, SBI is very likely the right choice. It will save you hours upon hours of research and quite possibly keep you from making one or more false starts.

On the other hand if you’ve been looking over this whole online marketing thing for a while, you may be comfortable with going it on your own, or you may have found a resource you would prefer to use. There’s a lot out there.

I just got back home from my son’s speech therapy. It’s a half hour of nothing to do for me, as parents have to wait outside.

Nothing, that is, but think.

While some days I talk with the other parents waiting for their kids, other times I pull out my notepad and start brainstorming. It’s a great way to come up with ideas.

Today, for example, my focus was on coming up with new blog article ideas. That’s when I decided to write this article. I also came up with 25 other ideas.

None of them are fully developed. Some will take research, while others will require mere minutes to write. Some will generate multiple articles.

All in all, that’s not a bad return for a half hour of time.

I promised the other day I would post about finding great niches on eBay for people using Build a Niche Store. It’s time to start that process!

Check Hot Sellers on eBay

eBay makes this relatively easy in some ways. Go to the Sell page, and scroll down to the “Cash In!” section. You’ll see a link called Find out What’s Hot! There’s a ton of information there to help you figure out what you want to focus on.

Now there are a few big clues I can give you to help you pick. First of all, don’t go too general. Sure, lots of people buy iPods on eBay, but lots of people are trying to earn money through the affiliate program on them too. Go more specific. Tighten up that niche.

You can, of course, go for the big niches. You just have to be prepared to deal with more competition. If you’re just starting out, it’s generally a shorter learning curve and less frustrating if you start out with a smaller niche.

Another important thing is to pick something you will enjoy creating content around. While BANS creates a great site for you, you will still want some unique content that you’ve created on the site as well. You can buy and rewrite private label content, you can review individual products that tend to sell well, just create something more to draw the search engines and (more importantly) buyers to your site.

Now whether you create that content on or off your BANS website is up to you. I’ve done it both ways.

Also consider is whether the product is seasonal or sells well year-round. There’s nothing wrong with promoting seasonal products, but you should be ready for the impact that will have on your site.

You can see a lot of hot products by checking out the Hot Items by Category. It’s only updated every few months or so, so it’s not terribly accurate.

And here’s a biggie: eBay has a new Marketplace Research tool. It offers up to 90 days of completed sales data, average sold prices, top searches by category and trend graphs. It’s not free, but you can pick your subscription level depending on if you’re just doing some quick research or if it’s going to be ongoing.

For free tools, there’s also Terapeak. It will give you similar data, as well as the percentage of auctions that actually sell, which can help in deciding if sales are good enough in your niche.

The higher the percentage of successful sales, the better, but don’t be at all surprised to see many in the 30-50% range. Just wander through eBay and you can quickly realize that most products do not sell more than half the time. Many sell far less often.

The other metric you’ll be interested in, of course, is the average sale price. Since your commission is based off what eBay earns, which is based on the final sale price, you want good numbers here. However, a niche that is easier to dominate that produces a lot of little sales can be better than a more challenging one with larger sales. It’s all a matter of balance and personal preference.

Personal Interests

What do you like? Is there something you’ve bought on eBay? What do you see around your house?

It doesn’t take a lot of detailed research to find things that you know people tend to buy. Pretty much anything you own has the potential to be sold online.

Once you’ve found your potential niche, you can use Terapeak to see how well it does on eBay. Maybe it works, maybe you need to think some more.

What About Pay Per Click Costs?

Even if you aren’t doing pay per click, it can be interesting to see what others are paying for traffic on Google and other search engines. A niche with a large number of PPC ads on it is often profitable for those running the ads.

But sometimes a profitable niche has been missed in the pay per click market. This is more common on the tighter niches, another good reason to really work on choosing your niche.

There’s a free tool offered by Google that lets you check out your keywords. You can add in the average CPC in the filter section so that you can see what others are paying. Type in $50 for your estimated Max CPC to see what it thinks you would be paying for that keyword.

You don’t have to use pay per click to promote your sites if that’s not your style. Many do just fine with other kinds of marketing. But the data’s still interesting, and you might come up with a niche you hadn’t yet considered.

There are lots of other ways you can research a niche, but I find these ones work pretty well. The key is to get creative and find a topic you want to work on.