19-Year-Old College Student, Earning Extra Income from Home

GotDot.com profiles Samantha Morris a 19 year old business major at the University of Victoria in Canada, whos earning extra income for college saying goodbye to the starving student days.

Going hungry as a student is practically synonymous with the college experience. Many students live in cramped quarters, cutting mold off cheese and eating it with day old bread the coffee shop gave away, feeling lucky at discovering an uneaten Snickers Bar, calling it a meal, which sure beats the packaged macaroni and cheese, which has been the only staple in the cabinet for months. It gets so bad some students sell their blood just to pay for classes and books.

Samanthas not starving. As fellow students like to say, Shes been there, done that, proving to be quite a role model too. In the past this gal worked part time jobs. The money barely paid for books, let alone the apartment, food and college tuition.

Like many college kids Samantha surfed the Internet, instead of finding the latest rock and roll song she discovered a way to end her starving college days for good. She found affiliate marketing, earning extra income from home, on her hours, around school work, and an active social life.

As Samantha says, No more going hungry before class, thanks to affiliate marketing I have enough money for living expenses and school and Im saying money too. Maybe Ill study in Europe. Anything is possible now.

Samantha mentions that most students arent prepared for the future. In the class room the learning is passive. Samantha says, With affiliate marketing, its active learning and real world experience. And experience is everything.

Samanthas learning marketing, finance, design, and the sweet joy of financial independence at a young age. Sometimes its the young ones that show the way. Anyone can make a success with affiliate marketing. Listen to Samanthas story and youll learn how.

What is affiliate marketing?

By now most people have heard all about the success of Amazon.com. What they may not know is that Amazon spawned an Internet industry in 1996, by allowing independent website owners to earn commissions by referring paying customers to them. This is known as pay-for-performance-advertising or affiliate programs.

With affiliate marketing its important to remember, that there are three primary roles consisting of the merchant, the affiliate (publisher) and the third party (Commission Junction). The merchants (advertisers) pay a commission on sales generated by customers, which the affiliate (publisher) sends to their sites. Commission Junction (third party) pays affiliates on behalf of the merchants and provides a tracking system. The merchant handles all order processing, shipping, and customer service.

Visit Commission Junction, to see a partial listing of their top-notch merchants offering affiliate programs.

How Samantha got started in affiliate marketing

Samanthas says with the enthusiasm and bubble of youth, Its cause of Jamie. Shes referring to her mentor, James Martell, an entrepreneur, and successful affiliate marketer of over 70 specialty shopping sites and author of James Martells Affiliate Marketers Handbook.

Samantha says, Jamies system is very straight forward, its inspiring, really gives you confidence, that you can have financial independence on your terms, not the bosses.

Got Dot: How did you choose your market niche?

Samantha says, Oh! That was easy. My friends love decking out their cars, I know the lingo and how fanatical it can get. And its great, a real money maker! Down the road Id like to have a fashion and cosmetic site, that one will be more girly of course.

Each website Samantha builds follows the proven, 8-step system developed by James Martell for web site construction. These principals are incorporated into Samanthas successful specialty shopping sites.

Keywords are the search engine building blocks. Marketing on the Internet is all about placement and being seen. To be successful you need keywords that people use for queries on the search engines. Thats how your site will be found. James provides a proven formula for choosing keywords and producing keyword focused content.

Got-Dot: How did you discover that Ground Effects are associated with cars?

Samantha says, That one surprised me. It didnt sound like a car accessory word at all, but on key word tracking it proved otherwise. The buyers know its specifically about cars. Just, goes to show you, you should never assume you know a market really well, before researching the key words.

Got Dot: Can you give another example how this keyword driven content works?

Samantha says, Type Honda body kits as a query on a search engine. What youll find is an article on my website with the exact keyword Honda body kits. By following Jamies system you get top positioning on the search engines and the traffic to prove it!

Got Dot: How do you measure the success of your efforts?

You need traffic and conversion to make affiliate marketing work and to make money. With Commission Junctions tracking system you can check merchant activity, monitor which site is getting sales, and where the sales are coming from. Say for example, if a keyword isnt driving the orders, you know where to tweak it, so it can perform like the high rollers.

Got Dot: How about the money?

Initially, Samantha set a goal of earning the equivalent of her part time job working at a grocery store. Now shes making enough money to pay for tuition, books, and living expenses. And the University of Victoria is not cheap! Her next major goal is earning $10,000/month.

Got Dot: Whats your favorite part of the business?

Samantha likes writing the articles and the visual aspect of building a website, making sure the colors are aesthetically pleasing. When asked what else is there, she laughed and coyly said, Watching the money roll in.

Got Dot: What advice would you give another student?

1. Read James Martells Affiliate Marketers Handbook and subscribe to his Affiliate Buzz audio newsletter; youll learn everything you need to know about affiliate marketing.
2. Set goals. Even its a small one, like writing ten pages a day. It makes a huge difference having the goal and the sense of accomplishment that comes along with it.
3. Write articles that appeal to your audience. Remember to make it creative and interesting to read.
4. Validate the keywords. Have several sources that show the keywords for your market.
5. Say goodbye to procrastinating. Make the time. Just do it. The payoffs worth it.

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