The first thing you need to do is to sign up to an affiliate network. As mentioned previously there are loads to choose from.
If you already have a website, you can skip this step, otherwise, you will need to sign up to clickbank.
When you click on the sign-up link you will be taken to a form to enter your details. Fill out each section as requested – this part should be a simple case of just filling in the blanks, but before proceeding, please read below…
Please pay special attention to the bit I have highlighted at the bottom. It is entirely up to you what you use as a username but I would try to choose something that is hard to relate to you. The reason for this is because you do not want other marketers to know what products you are marketing.
If you use your first and last name it is easy for anyone to find this out. While this is a much less common problem than it has been it is always better to err on the side of caution. Also, if it is an obvious username, some people do not like having another party involved so may just decide not to purchase because of it.
Your affiliate link would take the form:
http://username.merchant.hop.clickbank.net
You can generate your affiliate link inside the clickbank marketplace and I will show you how to do this later. When you do, clickbank now encode the link so it is a lot harder to guess and track for anyone but the affiliate, and these will look something like the following.
http://3jh678jh89fgs-hbgv8vdv.hop.clickbank.net
Try to construct your username so it is something you will remember, you might want to mix up your initials and the digits of a family members birthday for example. Don’t spend too long thinking of a username though, it’s not the be all and end all of your article marketing campaign.
So far so good. But there is still lots of work to do so lets crack on. I would highly recommend a pen and paper for the next sections as some note taking may be needed especially if this is your first time running through this guide.
