As a matter of common sense, if you sell an item for someone else, then you will want to get your commission. Unfortunately, when it comes to online blog marketing, you can easily be fooled by people that will setup affiliate programs, and then never pay you a dime. On the other hand, if you provided your social security number, or other sensitive information, you may also wind up becoming a victim of identity theft. No matter how tempted you may be to buy into promising affiliate marketing programs,clubs, or other venues, you will need to stop and make sure that you are truly about to work with a creditable company.

1) The Modified Formula One Method

When the stock market crashed in the 1920’s, many people were afraid to start investing again. Individuals such as Benjamin Graham began to lay a framework for sound investing strategies. One of his most famous students, Warren Buffet created something known as the “Formula One” plan. Basically, before you invest in a company, you will need to evaluate it based on its actual performance as opposed to simply going along with what other investors think.

If you can apply the Formula One Method to finding creditable online affiliates, you will have a much better chance of finding ones that will pay you a reasonable amount of money for your blogging services. Some important questions include:

a) Do the testimonials on the site sound the same, lack dates, or all appear to be from one time period? Under these circumstances, you may be dealing with fabricated testimonials, as well as a fraudulent site. When in doubt, look up the WHOIS information from the domain, and try to find out if the site has actually been up for more than a few days or months.

b) Have you heard of other people actually succeeding with this program? Typically, if the site has a good reputation, you will either hear of it mentioned in many places, or it will rank at the top few the search engines. For example, Clickbank, Amazon Affiliates, Google Adwords and Ebay Affiliates all have strong reputations.

c) What kind of information are they looking for in the application? If you have to provide social security numbers, banking information, or other sensitive financial data, you will be well served by taking a step back and looking for ways to protect yourself from identity theft. Unfortunately, even the most reliable servers can be hit by hackers and identity thieves.

2) Basic Types of Affiliate Marketing Programs

As you may be aware, different companies will use different methods to determine what your commission will be. For example, MSN, Yahoo, Google, and Ebay all offer Pay-per-click plans. Basically, if someone jumps from your site to a customer page, you will earn a small amount of money. If the person actually buys the product, you will earn a larger commission.

You may also be interested in product exchange programs, such as Amazon, Clickbank, and http://Paydot.com. Typically, these programs act as a clearinghouse for thousands of digital and mail order products. While you may not earn revenue when a visitor clicks on the sellers page, you will get larger commissions for each item that is actually sold.

Many people today avoid making use of niche specific programs because it requires careful evaluation of each company. On the other hand, if you can isolate a popular niche, you are sure to find at least two or three creditable companies. You may even decide to purchase some of their products during the process of building up your own blog network.

Many people enjoy the challenge of making money with an affiliate marketing blog. Once they hit on the right formula, they are often able to take that information and transfer it to just about any niche. It is also important to realize that being able to make money as a blogger also includes finding affiliates that will actually pay your commissions. When you step back and evaluate your options using a somewhat modified Formula One strategy, it will be much easier for you to uncover legitimate programs.

Author Bio: Learn how to make money blogging today. Visit Brian’s website, http://www.HomebasedBlogging.com and learn how you can make money online from blogging using social media, affiliate marketing, podcasting, article marketing, and many other money-making topics from blogging professionals.

Category: Writing
Keywords: blogging, work at home, make money online, freelance writing, social media, blogger