Is it best to dive right into affiliate marketing in “Trial by Fire” style? It might be if you are an expert on your computer and you can tolerate the cost. Realistically, for most of us, I would say no.
There are two basic ways of tackling online marketing. One is paid, the other is essentially free. Free, meaning very little or no cost.
For most beginners, it is invariably recommended that you start with the free article marketing method. The main drawback there is the time required to start making good headway with your marketing.
The standard method of sidestepping this is to use the major search engines, Google, MSN and Yahoo, with paid advertising. This would usually be PPC, or pay per click.
This involves you having a small ad related to the customers’ search, and every time someone clicks on that ad you will be charged a set price. The art of pay per click advertising is just that. It is indeed an art. However, it is not necessarily all bad.
Fortunes are made very quickly with pay per click advertising, but be well warned in advance, it can get very expensive. Once you become attuned to all the nuances of pay per click advertising, it can also be extremely lucrative.
Possibly the biggest advantage to pay per click is the speed at which you can generate sales. The hitch is exactly the opposite. If your ad and/or sales page are not good, then you can spend many dollars very rapidly. You see, regardless of whether or not your customer buys, you still must pay for that click.
And the price range for clicks is dramatic, to say the least. Starting at just a few cents for obscure markets, it escalates to many dollars for the popular search items. That would fit the description of Trial By Fire to a “T” I believe.
Common sense would dictate that you undertake at least some learning, and regardless of your choice of free or paid marketing, some good advice will go a long way toward easing the learning curve.
Some of the best advice is available right here and it will cost you less than a couple of dozen clicks at two dollars apiece!
