Affiliate Marketing if it aint fun dont do it

There are things in life that start out as great fun and after a while start to seem more like a chore. Affiliate marketing and making income from ads on a blog or website can be like that - if you are not careful.

Some people start a blog or a website solely to make money. If you are one of these people then good luck to you. I hope that your money making motivation carries you through the days when your interest in your website or your blog is dropping. Because it will drop, and you will need to remind yourself that it was all about making money and maybe that will keep you going.

Creating good quality content for a blog or website can be hard work. Don't get me wrong here - it's not slave labour or anything - but it does take effort. It's much easier to keep putting in this effort if your motivation is about more than just making money. It's much easier if you actually enjoy writing and you are genuinely interested in your subject.

This is why the fundamental advice to anyone just starting out is to develop a blog or website that reflects the things you are interested in or a subject you feel strongly about.

If you are running a blog you will need to produce content regularly and you are much more likely to be able to do this on a subject that you know and care something about.

When you write about something that interests you you will write with passion and you will make strong clear points that people will enjoy reading.

If the fun and interest goes from maintaining a particular blog or website then don't beat yourself up over this. It has happened to all of us. Leave that site for a while and ask yourself if you are truly writing about what interests you - then do it.

If you approach things this way then you are much more likely to build a solid blog or website. Do this and the money will flow and you will be still enjoying what you are doing in the future when your site is really earning money.

Internet Income from Advertising tips for 2009

Despite the doom and gloom in world economies there is no reason for gloom about Internet Marketing and Advertising for 2009. There is every likelihood that 2009 will see further major growth in online income from advertising and affiliate marketing. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned marketer this is the time to roll up your sleeves and get on with it and not a time to roll over and play dead.

Let's look at some trends that may influence the state of play for affiliate, pay per click and related Internet income programs in 2009.

The first thing to note is that many major companies are just beginning to see the benefits for them of online marketing in all it's forms so we should expect that companies who have not so far used Internet marketing much will continue to expand in this area. This will provide further opportunities for Internet marketers to make income from advertising.

Internet marketing is generally much cheaper, better targeted and often more effective at converting to sales that other forms of advertising such as print, radio or television. In a tightening market company marketing execs will want to get the biggest bang for their bucks and it will be hard for them to reach any other conclusion but that Internet marketing delivers this in spades.

Many companies will also decide that the way to ride out the hard times is not to pull their horns in on marketing but to push harder and if possible increase their market share.

These trends seem likely to largely balance any tendency for companies to reduce advertising budgets. Overall budgets may fall but with big companies increasing their spend there will continue to be opportunities for smart Internet entrepreneurs. Given these trends the hope then must be that Internet marketing activity will hold up fairly well.

Consumers may be less likely to make speculative purchases and seem more likely to base purchases on a deeper level of pre-purchase research. They will do much of this online so marketers offering information with value should as always fair well.

Historically marketers have often put much energy into building email lists and marketing by email. This will continue to be important but the trend towards increased use of Feeds such as RSS and Atom means that these are becoming extremely important marketing routes.

Sites which "add value" will be the winners in 2009. Consumers will be browsing and shopping smarter than they have ever done. Sites which can offer an interesting and compelling experience while they do their marketing will also be winners. In times of recession in the past the entertainment industry has often gone for glamour and glitz and a "feel good" approach. Consumers don't always want more doom and gloom when times are hard !

For site owners it remains important to monitor in detail how your keywords are performing. Search results are not static and neither is the competition for your keywords. You will need to continue to work hard to dominate search results on your chosen keywords and you should be prepared to research and identify new related keywords so that you are broadening and firming your search base.

While there are techniques that can help your keyword performance nothing gives results like top quality well written content. Content as always will remain king both for your site visitors and for the search engines. Creating good content around your chosen keywords remains the most effective technique to build a robust site that delivers targeted visitors.

Quality blogs in particular are loved by Google and are one of the best ways to secure good rankings where they have regular fresh targeted content. Site owners will continue to find that site promotion through article marketing to bloggers and news sites and through reviews will continue to be highly effective.

Social Media will continue to dominate and some of the larger companies may finally begin to master how to use social media. Blunt advertising on social media outlets has tended not to be the most successful and companies will continue to look for ways to tap into the millions of social media Internet users. Video sharing sites such as YouTube seem to be going from strength to strength. Indeed there are now TV shows which highlight the "best of" such homemade videos. Marketers who can find ways of using this media in an entertaining and informative way will do well.

So as always with the Internet things never stand still and they wont in 2009. There's no reason though to despair about making income from ads or affiliate marketing. Just remember that the competition wont be going away - it will be leaner and meaner so you will need to work hard and smart to deliver good income from ads.