Last few months, I shared 5 ways to build passive income from your web site in this blog and Affiliate Program is one of them. Yes, we can make money from affiliate program and in most cases those money is considered as Passive income that we needed to achieve financial freedom. In fact, there are a lot of online marketers make a living, achieve financial freedom and become rich from affiliate program itself. 

So today, let us see what affiliate program is and how we can build passive income from it.

What is Affiliate Program?

Affiliate Programs, or Associate Programs, are a kind of agreement between you and the merchant company that they will pay you some commission if you can refer people or traffics to their site. In most cases you only get your money if someone who referred by you purchases something from the merchant site.

In a nutshell, you become the “sales man” for the merchant company and your job is bringing people and sending traffic to their site through an affiliate link. An affiliate link is a link that provided by merchant company to keep track that the traffic is brought by you.

Below is an image that I get from Howstuffworks.com that will give you a big picture on how affiliate program works.

 

Passive income & Affiliate Program

In order to make money from affiliate program, you have to think and use some ideas to promote your affiliate products or services. Here, indirectly, you are building a marketing empire that going to promote your affiliate program automatically in future. This is the advantages of internet marketing. For every article you wrote, every links you put in forum can generate traffics again and again to your affiliate site. This means that you can make money again and again. Even you stop promoting, you still can earn money through your old works.

Although you may feel that you don’t make any money in starting, don’t worry, you will make some in future. The more you expose your affiliate link in internet, the higher chances that someone will click on the link and purchase through your link. Affiliate program is just a number game and marketing is the way to increase the exposure chances of your affiliate link.

Tips to Get started in Affiliate Program

Following steps are just showing you an overall picture on the process how you can make money from affiliate program. In future, I will write a few series that will cover more information and know how in affiliate program and show you how to make some money from it. At this moment, please read through the 7 tips to get started in affiliate program in general.

1. Select a topic or field that you have passion and some basic know how.
2. Do some market research and find out what is the problem that most people have and ask in this topic.
3. Search and understand your targeted audience especially their problems and demands.
4. Search around the net and look for products or services that can help them and they are really demand on this
5. Apply to be their affiliate partner.
6. Have a marketing plan that will show your expertise to your targeted audience and help them to solve problem.
7. Take action to test and improve your marketing plan accordingly.

Above are just the 7 general steps to make money from affiliate program. There are a lot of information and know how you have to learn in order to success in each steps.

Conclusion – Be ready for some hard works

When I was a Tae Kwan Do trainee, my master always encourages us with a statement – No Pain, No Gain. If you read those personal development books, you will find out that most of them are talking about how to take action, feel some pain by making mistakes and improve yourself. This is the ultimate formula to succeed in everything. Making money from affiliate program is almost the same.

From my experience, you will start confusing and feel uncertainty because of information overload. How I know this? Because I have this feelings too as newbie in affiliate program. But don’t worry, I’m working on a series that will guide you through the process of getting started in making money from affiliate program. This is because I know affiliate program is a great start for you to build an income system that will bring you the excessive cash which will help you to achieve financial freedom.

 

Do you ever ask yourself these questions before?

“How can I start a blog that make me money?”

“I have a blog but how come I can’t generate income more than $100?”

“I want to know how those bloggers do something different that make them so much of money from their blogs?”

“How can I run a part time business that brings me full time income?”

…….

Do you ever ask yourself the above questions before? Or do you curious how to make money from a blog? If you do, then please spend a few minutes to read this article. This is because in the next few paragraph, I’m going to share with you my honest comments, reviews and opinions over a blogging ebook, Blog Profits Blueprint.

PS: I’m not selling this ebook and I’m not the author too. However I just help the author, Yaro Starak, to pass this FREE ebook to you. Although it is free, but the information inside is worth thousands dollar. I said this because the information inside really inspires me to make this blog better which I believe will make me thousands of dollar in future.

 

What is Blog Profits Blueprint? Nothing but Just a FREE Ebook that worth thousands dollar.

Blog Profit Blueprint is an ebook written by my favorite entrepreneur blogger, Yaro Starak. Yes this is another FREE ebook on the internet. But FREE does not equals to cheap quality. However to me, this ebook is valuable because of the information inside. Iin the Next few paragraphs, I will show and prove to you why this free ebook is so different from other free ebooks that you can get from the Internet.

 

Yaro Starak is one of the online entrepreneurs that I always give the highest honor to. If you read his blog before, you will understand what I’m saying. He is doing a great job by sharing some of the tips, experience and know-how over his blog with all of us. One of the theories that he mentioned before which I 100% agree and support is how to make a blog become a business instead of self-employed. From here I know Yaro is having some similar mindset with me where both of us are looking for freedom and time, however, at the same time, we are trying to do anything that make us money with little of time.

If you ever blog before, you will know that blogging is not a true business model. You have to spend time to write contents, handle comments and market your blog. Sometime this really makes me feel that I’m self-employed instead of running a business. You might hear some of the advices from blogging gurus that “You must update at least 1 post per day for your blog”, then you really treat a blog is a job. However, Yaro is different. He is promoting the theories “Running a Part-time business to Earn a Full Time income” for blogging. Wow! This is rock, don’t you think so? Now, this information is shared over his free ebook, Blog Profit Blueprint.

What actually inside the Blog Profit Blueprint? 

Now let me share with you what is inside the Blog Profit Blueprint Ebook that make me keep saying it is good for you.

Actually Blog Profit Blueprint is a report where Yaro shares the details and steps how he make $6000 and more monthly just from blogging. This is 55 pages book that will share all the basics that blogger must know such as how to choose a topic, how to write, how to bring traffic and how to make money. All the theories are easy to understand.

Without further ado, let me show the table of contents and some of the highlights from the book that I think is a “Must Read” for you.

• How To Make Money Blogging
• How I Discovered Blogging
• Blogging as a Business, Not a Job
• What’s Next?
• Who Is Yaro Starak?
• What Is A Blog And Why Are They So Popular?
• How Blogs Make Money
• Two Key Ingredients For Attracting Attention
• Why Do You Blog?
• How To Choose Your Blog Topic – Passions Vs. Profits
• Let’s Talk Tactics
• Content + Marketing = Traffic
• What Is A Pillar?
• How Do You Create A Pillar?
• How To Market Your Blog
• Time vs. Reward
• Most People Are Lazy
• Communication Channels
• The Power of Leverage
• Compound Effects
• Think Big Picture, Work Little Picture
• Traffic Tactics
• Peer Relationships
• Network Effects
• Start With Your Peers
• Bigger and Better Content Pillars
• It’s Time To Make Money
• Can Blogs Be A Stable Income Source?
• The Holy Grail of Blog Monetization - Recursive Affiliate Income
• The Next Best Option – Direct Advertisers
• The Problem with Google AdSense
• Other Monetization Options
• My Top Blog Monetization Methods
• Turn Your Blog Into A Business
• Why Most Bloggers Fail
• Do You Have Enough Information To Succeed?
• Congratulations! – Now Get To Work
• Advice For Beginners, The Lost And Confused
• Private Mentoring For Serious Bloggers
• Affiliate Opportunity
• Thank You For Your Attention

PS: Those titles in “bold” are “Must Read” For you.

Personally I already opened this free ebook in my notebook and read through it more than 5 times because I’m serious in making money from blogging and I know the content inside can really help me to do so. This is why I spend so much time reading this book. But of course, after reading, I must take action and apply the know-how from the book so I can get the results.

There is 1 statement from Yaro inside the book that, Blogging is just like running a business. You write your content and providing value to your reader. However, just like other business, you must learn how to market your blog. I agree with Yaro that marketing for your blog is important and this is the only way we can bring visitors to our good content and transform them to our repeat readers. So I spend 10x more time in reading those sections that touch the topic of marketing, such as Content + Marketing = Traffic, How To Market Your Blog, Communication Channels in the book.

As you can see from the list, according to Yaro, without congruency between strategy and tactics, no amount of good advice, tips, techniques, case studies or even the holy grail of blogging wisdom – “write good content” – will make you success. Now don’t you think that Yaro’s theories are so different? Maybe you should grab a copy of the ebook to read it. Don’t Trust me! Read and feel it yourself.

Grab a Free Copy of Blog Profit Blueprint Here

PS: You do have to give your email address to get the book, but don’t worry, I already give mine to Yaro and so far I don’t receive any spam mail from him. Instead, I’m getting some updates, know-how from him directly to the email. So don’t worry, you loss nothing.

Grab a Free Copy of Blog Profit Blueprint Here

Enjoy the Book!

Harrison

It seems like Ebay has a lot of effect when comes to building an online business system. Today, a lot of web sites or online business systems are built based on the concept of Ebay and I think Prosper.com is one of them.

Prosper.com is a community that lets people lending and borrowing money to each other in Ebay style or peer-to-peer. It is a very famous site that many people are paying attention on it. You can lend or borrow money through Prosper over the internet without leaving your house hunting for lenders and borrowers. As a lender, you can easily find people to lend money to over Prosper.com. This is because since Prosper launched, it has attracted more than 270,000 members to their service. As a borrower, there are plenty of people ready to lend money to you over Prosper.com. The good thing is you don't even have to open your mouth shamefully, well, you will know this feeling if you try to borrow money from others.

Prosper.com is a great investment opportunity, at least to me, because it is a source of making money or funding for your investment and business. So in this article, I am going to share with you some of my thoughts over Prosper and see how we can leverage on it to achieve financial freedom.

Without further ado, here is the information:

How Prosper Work

Before we move on to talk about how to leverage Prosper, we must know how it works and how it can help us.

Generally, Prosper is a place letting people lend and borrow money in a form of People-to-People lending through the internet. It is by-passing the bank as the middleman of the transaction and letting people dealing with people directly. I brought a simple example from Prosper.com and show you how the concept works.

John needs a small loan, $3000. So he posts a listing over Prosper.com for a loan he wants and interest that he can afford. Lisa and other lenders start bidding on John's listing at a rate that is fair. At the end, the bids with the lowest interest rate will combined into a single 3-year loan for Joe. Each month, John's payment will be deducted from his bank account until to the lenders until the loan is paid off.

John's $3000 loan is not always coming from a lender. It can be a combination of money from several lenders.

If you want more information, you can always go to Prosper.com.

The Theories to Make Money from Prosper

Now you should have an idea how Prosper works. So let us move on discuss how to make money from it.

Generally, you have 2 ways to make money from Prosper:

1. Lend Money to others. Lending your money out through Prosper and earn some interest as passive income.
2. Get funding for your business and investment. Collect some money through Prosper to start your business or invest in a higher return investment.

Lending Money to others can be a good idea to build passive income. In Prosper, no bank or other parties as middleman, you and the borrower are dealing directly. So the process is quite simple and the interest rate is quite high too, at least all the interest is paid directly to your pocket. In Prosper, you can lend out your money up to 24%+ high interest rate which considered as a high-return investment. This can easily give a great competition to your saving account.

On the other hand, if you have a great business idea, however you don not have any money to start it. Now you can get some fund for your business through Prosper. Of course, you must prepare a great business proposal to explain your business idea to lenders so they can have a brief idea about you. Your credit is also important here. Besides that you also need to do some research and calculation over how much interest you can offer to people. Maybe not as high as a bank loan. Just offer the rate that you can afford.

The risk of Prosper Money Game

Every money game has its own risk, this is what I always believe. In this world, there are no financial investments that are guaranteed, except saving account. So before you jump into the money game of Prosper, you must understand the risk of the game and the rules to play it.

Well, don't you agree that risk only exists if you lend out your money? Come on, if you borrow money from others, the only risk you have to worry is whether you can pay back the money on time. This is all about your money management. However, if you are a lender, then you have to treat yourself as a banker and think about the risks exist such as late payment or default.

Actually Prosper is doing some good job in their system to protect the lenders:

1. All the potential borrowers must submit their information for credit check. From here, you will know:

• The credit rating of a borrower. Ranging from AA through E, HR(High Risk) and No credit(NC).

• The debt-to-income ratio of a borrower.

A borrower also has to key-in their important information such as social security number, 2 phone numbers and also driver;s license number. This will ensure a borrower is coming from USA.

1. Prosper has developed good relationships with the major credit reporting agencies. So any missed payments or default cases will be reported immediately.

1. Borrowers have a better chance of receiving some better bids on their loan if they from a group of trusted users. So if a borrower missed payments or defaults, the reputation of the entire group is at stake. So if the borrower is from a trusted group, the group leader may take some action to help you in order to protect their group trustworthy rate.

If you ever been to Prosper.com and read their lenders section in FAQ, you will know that you are advised to reduce risk by diversify your investment money / lending money. For example, you have $2000 extra money to be lent out. Then you bid $100 on 20 listings with an average interest rate 10% and 1 out of 20 is default, you still make money. Anyway, here is the calculation:

$2000 @ 10% - 3 years loan

$100X20 @ 10% Interest = $2323.80

($2323.08 is the total money you will get at the end of the loan)

However, something happen, 1 of the borrower went to default. So…

$100X19 @ 10% interest = $2,222.81

($2222.81 is the total money you will get at the end of the loan with 1 default lender)

PS: the above example is extracted from Prosper.com

Like what you can see, you can protect your money by diversify it to different borrowers. Well, every investment has its own risk, it is about how you manage the risk.

Tips Help Lender assess risk

As an investor, we cannot stop because one investment has risk. Instead, we should learn how to assess the risk and then compose a plan to manage it. So here are the tips that we can use to reduce the risk of making money from Prosper:

1. Debt to income Ratio. Please pay attention on this ratio. From this number you will know the financial health of the borrower and whether he/she able to pay back the full loan in 3 years time.
2. Group Ownership. If a borrower belongs to a good credit group, there are high chances that he/she will pay back the money to you. But of course, good group = lower interest rate = less money for you.
3. The reason. Read the story why borrower wants the money. To me, I will never lend money to someone to buy doodads such as car, gadgets and etc.
4. Credit Information. this is the most useful information for you. From the information, you will know the credit history of a borrower and hence analysis whether you can trust the borrower.
5. Employment/Income Source. So you want to know whether a borrower can pay back the money to you? Then you must know their income sources. Whether he is working for someone, unemployed or self-employed. Why kind of job or business they are doing and of course you must predict whether he can afford his debt.

Conclusion

There are many positive and negative thoughts on Prosper over the internet. Some people think that it is too risky to give a try on Prosper. But there is a man who have lent out $750,000 in Prosper and decided to leverage on Prosper for retirement. So it does not have right or wrong to invest in Prosper. Every investment has its own risk, the only thing is whether you want to spend time to learn how to manage it or not. I am not saying that Prosper is suitable to you and it can 100% make you money and make you rich. But to me, it is a kind of investment that we can leverage on to achieve financial freedom. At the end, it is your rights whether you want to give it a try or just look for the next new investment.

Good luck!

Harrison