Probably the most common question asked by those new to affiliate marketing is:  “Do I need a website to make money with affiliate marketing?”  There is no definitive answer to the question; it depends in part on how much time and effort you will be able to put into it.

Building a good affiliate website takes time.  Not only does it take time to build the website itself, but you need to have high quality relevant content, and continue to add new content.  Not only should your content be well written and useful to your visitors, but it should ideally be unique.  There are no short cuts to getting unique, keyword targeted content.  You will either have to write it yourself or pay for it.

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If you want a lot of organic search engine traffic, you will have to build links by submitting articles, writing a newsletter, or by some other method.  Building good quality links from websites with high search engine rankings takes time, but it is vital if you want more traffic to your site.  Though there is very little cost involved in setting up a website and paying for web hosting, you should be prepared for the possibility that you will spend untold hours creating a website that earns little or no money.  It could take you several tries before you find the right niche and the right website.

If you don't have a product of your own to sell, you can place affiliate ads on your website or run content or image ads from Google Adsense or another service.  Overloading your website with banner ads is not an effective strategy to make money at affiliate marketing.  You should use your ads sparingly, and place them where they are inconspicuous and are relevant to the content of the page.  A simple text ad usually converts into sales much better than a banner ad.

Your other option is running pay per click ads, which eats into your profits.  If you are going to pay for pay per click advertising, you might consider saving some time by  simply promoting someone else's products. 

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When you buy pay per click advertising, you bid on the keywords and phrases that you want to trigger your ads.  For instance, if you were promoting a website that sold fishing equipment, you might bid on the keywords, “fishing rods”, or “cast nets.”  Your ads would only appear when someone performs a search for the keywords you have chosen.  Your ad position is determined by your maximum bid amount, the relevance of your keywords to the site you are promoting, and a number of other factors.

After you choose your keywords, you must create ads.  When someone clicks on your pay per click ad they are directed to the website you are promoting.  Your ad will have your affiliate ID inserted in it so if the visitor makes a purchase, fills out an application, or performs some other action, you will be credited with the commission.   

Each pay per click advertising program has its own standards when it comes to ad size, number of keywords per ad group, and what is and is not acceptable content.  Google will often disapprove ads where copyright infringement may be an issue, or where the content of the ads is considered inappropriate.  If your ads do not meet certain minimum click through rates, your keywords may be disabled.  Spending weeks and even months building a profitable pay per click campaign, only to see it shut down without warning, can be maddening.

When you build a pay per click campaign, some keywords will convert better than others.  In fact, you may find that a small number of your keywords earn most of your money.  Over time you should eliminate keywords that aren't converting, and split test your ads to find those that have a better click through rate, and more importantly, a better conversion rate.  Testing and refining your ad campaigns takes time and money, but with experience you can learn to make good money promoting affiliate products with pay per click advertising.

When choosing between building an affiliate website, using pay per click advertising, or a mixture of both, the greatest consideration will be money, and the second, time.  If you have the cash necessary to get a pay per click campaign off the ground, it can earn a good deal of money in a short period of time.  If you are on a tight budget but have plenty of time, an affiliate website may be a better option.  You could experiment with both to find out which one works best for you.  With persistence and a little luck, either method can make you a lot of money.

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