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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?
- Read
James Martells Affiliate
Marketers Handbook and subscribe to his
Affiliate Buzz audio newsletter; youll learn everything
you need to know about affiliate marketing.
- 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.
- Write
articles that appeal to your audience. Remember to make it creative
and interesting to read.
- Validate
the keywords. Have several sources that show the keywords for
your market.
- Say
goodbye to procrastinating. Make the time. Just do it. The payoffs
worth it.
Be
sure to Bookmark this site
as you are sure to find some new and useful information on each
visit. We are constantly doing research in the affiliate marketing
niche, and as we uncover new and profitable affiliate marketing
products, we will post them on this site.
If
you want to be one of the first to know of these late breaking
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