Earning Affiliate Income With Bum Marketing

You may have heard the term "bum marketing" bandied around internet marketing forums and blogs. At first glance, it may not seem like something anyone would want to do. After all, who wants to be a bum? But it is actually a good way to start earning affiliate income, and it is especially suited to the beginner who doesn't have much in the way of funds.

Bum marketing is a strategy that utilizes nothing but free methods to make affiliate sales. It earned its name because--as is often said--"It's so easy and cheap, a bum could do it!"

But you don't want to be lazy with this method. Sure, you can work at home with this method in fewer hours than you'd spend working for somebody else, but any internet marketing method that doesn't involve spending money is going to take a little bit of work, even if it doesn't break your back.

The largest part of this affiliate marketing strategy centers around what is known as "article marketing." Basically, you write articles; submit them to high-traffic, Google-trusted directories like Ezinearticles.com; and begin to gather traffic.

Some of your traffic will come straight from the directory. People often use these websites to gather information or research a topic. Also, a good directory's pages often do very well with Google and other search engines. It's entirely possible to get an article on page one of Google's search engine results pages (commonly called the SERPs), before your own site gets there.

This isn't guaranteed with every article, however. It is partly a numbers game, which is why it's important for you to submit articles regularly!

At the end of each article, you will be given space for an author bio. This is one of the most important parts of the article--it includes a sales pitch about what you can do to help others, as well as a link back to your site. People can follow that link and buy whatever you promote on your affiliate marketing website. It will also help your site get more and more backlinks, which will help your website's rankings with search engines.

Articles aren't the only useful part of the bum strategy. You can also make a lot of sales through using forums wisely.

The key to using forums is to provide value and get people intrigued by what you might have on your website. Make 20 or 25 posts, answering people's questions and providing useful information, and then create a signature line that has a link to your site. You can do this in your user control panel. If you are helpful, polite and give out useful information, you can drive a lot of web traffic to your site and earn a substantial affiliate income!

For further information on affiliate marketing Alan King suggests you check out his friend Mike Filsaime's site at PayDotCom. Paydotcom is a great resource for finding niche marketing products.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com