by D’vorah Lansky, M.Ed.

I’d like to thank Jim for graciously hosting me, as a guest blogger, in celebration of the launch of my newest book, 21 Ways to Launch a Successful Virtual Book Tour.

A virtual book tour is where you travel, from blog to blog, across the Internet. You are featured as a guest blogger and share content with the readers of those blogs. One of the most common questions I receive about virtual book tours is, “how do I find blogs to travel to?” While the task may seem daunting, it really is much easier than you might think.

Before we talk about how to locate blogs and line up guest blogging opportunities, there is something important to consider. You don’t want to just travel to any old blog. You want to be featured on blogs that attract your audience. For example, if you write about “fly fishing in British Columbia” ideal blogs for you would be those that discuss:

• Fishing
• Fly Fishing
• Fly Fishing Equipment
• Sports Fishing in Canada
• Life in Canada
• Life in British Columbia
• Etc.

These types of blogs will attract readers who are likely to be interested in your book. Travelling to blogs that focus on topics not even remotely related to the topic of your book, is not a good use of your time and energy and the owners of those blogs may feel the same way.

To identify possible virtual book tour destinations, begin by taking a pad of paper and making a list of all the blog owners you know who write on your topic or write on a topic of interest to your target audience. You may have a list of one, five, or even ten or more blog owners. It is to your advantage to start by reaching out to people you know as these folks are more likely, not only to host you as a guest blogger for your virtual book tour, but to help promote you and your book.

The next step is to visit those blogs and decide which ones you’d love to be able to travel to. There are a few things to look for to help you decide. First, make sure that the blog is attractive, up to date, and that it appears that new, fresh content, is being added regularly. Next, verify that the topics discussed on the blog are indeed ones that attract your target audience.

Another way to locate blogs that attract your target audience is to visit blog search engines and perform keyword searches. My four favorite blog search engines and directories are:

• Technorati.com
• NetworkedBlogs.com
• HuffingtonPost.com
• Google.com/blogsearch

When you go to these sites, you can perform keyword searches and then visit the blogs that capture your attention, to make sure they meet your criteria.

A third way to locate blogs for your virtual book tour is to visit the blogs that are on your “A” list and treat those blogs as if they are “mini search engines” themselves. What I mean by this is many blog owners include outgoing links to related sites, in the sidebar of their site. They also may already host guest bloggers, who write on topics of interest to their audience. You can visit the blogs of these guest bloggers and explore the possibility of becoming a guest blogger for them.

Tips for Connecting with Blog Owners

Once you’ve identified the blogs that you’d love to travel to during your virtual book tour, it’s time to build a relationship with the blog owners. If you know a blog owner already, it would make sense for you to simply reach out, let them know you are conducting a virtual book tour, and that you’d love to feature them as a host and drive targeted traffic to their site. Blog owners are always eager to have more site visitors so this approach lets them know what you are doing and how it benefits them.

For blog owners that you don’t yet know, you’ll want to spend time on their blog, replying to comments, and becoming part of the community. By doing this you will be demonstrating your expertise on the topic and you will become familiar to the blog owner. These types of relationships take time, but are well worth the effort.

Do You Write as a Guest Blogger?

Are you already writing guest blog posts for blogs that attract your target audience? If not, can you see the value in this type of targeted activity? Scroll down and share your thoughts and questions in the comments section below.

This post is being written in honor of a virtual book tour celebrating the publication of my third print book. You can enjoy the festivities by joining us on the tour to 21 blogs, in honor of 21 Ways to Launch a Successful Virtual Book Tour. Scroll down to access the virtual book tour schedule as well as a link to the book on Amazon. Thank you and enjoy!

D’vorah Lansky, M.Ed., is the author of 21 Ways to Launch a Successful Virtual Book Tour. Visit her book blog and check out the full schedule for the virtual book tour, celebrating the launch of this exciting new book: www.VirtualBookTour21Ways.com

D’vorah offers virtual book tour workshops and courses for authors, entrepreneurs, and virtual professionals. She has taught hundreds of people, across the globe, how to conduct successful virtual book tours. You can purchase her newest book on Amazon at: www.VirtualBookTour21Ways.com/amazon

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I believe firmly in the concept of teaching the young people in our lives how to earn and manage money from a young age, and have found that affiliate marketing is an excellent way to do this effectively. I’ll share some of my ideas and experiences with you here.

Affiliate marketing is the process of recommending something you have used and benefited from to others, in exchange for a commission when a sale is completed. When I first explained this to my oldest grandson, then aged twelve, he understood it completely, or at least as completely as someone of that age and experience level is able to. We had been in the middle of a conversation regarding how he could earn some money to buy an expensive pair of athletic shoes, and I thought it was time that he was exposed to what I was doing as a part of my online business and to teach him what I was doing.

Teaching Others Reinforces What You Know

Being able to teach someone else what you are learning will expedite your own success and mastery of online marketing, so I knew that if I could teach him how to earn money as an affiliate marketer that would mean that I understood what I was doing on a deeper level. I listened carefully to his questions, as those would be indicative of what others wanted and needed to know and learn when I began teaching affiliate marketing strategies to others the following year.

That was almost six years ago, and I’m proud to report that both he and his younger brother have now embraced the idea of using the affiliate marketing model to earn their own spending money.

Young People are Motivated to Earn Their Own Money

You will find that young people are much more open to learning about making their own money once they encounter a situation where they wish to buy something that the family is unwilling or unable to purchase for them. This could be a new bicycle, a pair of athletic shoes, or a class trip. When my grandson wanted to buy a pair of basketball shoes with a two hundred dollar price tag, he met with resistance from the adults in his life. Once he saw that he could earn the money himself, he was all ears to learn how to do it.

Choose a Niche on a Topic You Know and People are Spending Money On

We worked together to find a niche that would be right for him and settled on an activity he had an interest in, as well as some experience in as a participant. Also, another criterion was that it be something that adults were also involved with and spending money on. I explained to him that we did not want to choose a niche that only catered to teens. Finally, we searched to make sure there were several products, both physical and digital, that could be recommended through an affiliate link in order to properly monetize this endeavor.

Reading, Writing, and Speaking About Your Topic Helps You To Learn More

I started him off with article writing so that he could get the experience of writing about his topic. Then we chose an affiliate product he could recommend in the resource box at the end of the article. Even though the potential was only a few dollars per sale, this was the best way for him to get his feet wet as a new online entrepreneur.

The next step was to have him start a blog on the topic. This required a commitment on his part to write one article to use as a blog post every single week for the next six weeks, and also to find and read several other blogs on his niche topic. I’ve found that the more you read, write, and speak about your niche topic the more you learn. You also want to know as much as possible about the other people who are already prominent experts in your niche. When someone asks you about something and refers to one of these people, it’s best if you have familiarized yourself with their writings and perspectives on the topic. If they are blogging, subscribe to their blog’s feed and start reading it regularly, commenting on their posts whenever it’s appropriate.

We then chose five appropriate affiliate products he could recommend to the people who would be visiting his site. These included physical items such as books and equipment, as well as digital information products.

Keep It Simple and Share Your Thoughts and Experiences

My goal was to keep this as simple as possible, and to teach him about business along the way. This included long discussions of why I believe it is worth the time to build your own business rather than to simply trade your time for money. I also told him I would match what he earned through his online endeavors for the first three months, making it easier for him to reach his financial goal without losing interest.

This boy, the same one who used to sleep with several stuffed animals and who was afraid of the dark, struggled with many things as he got started with his affiliate site, including the writing; staying focused; and the desire to go after every new idea he thought of or heard about. It reminded me of what I went through in the very beginning, and I shared that with him. We laughed, and then he got back to work.

After six weeks he had earned forty-eight dollars. Not a King’s ransom, but enough to whet his appetite for what was possible in the future. And those two hundred dollar shoes? His parents and I chipped in so he could get them, with the promise that he would keep on writing and learning more about becoming a successful entrepreneur, using affiliate marketing as the business model.

Connie Ragen Green is a former classroom teacher and real estate appraiser who left it all behind to come online at the end of 2005. She quickly discovered affiliate marketing and now teaches this online marketing strategy to people around the world.

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When you think about adding affiliate marketing as a part of your business model, you probably think about recommending other people’s products, courses, or services in return for a commission. It is typical to receive anywhere from thirty to fifty percent of the sales price when it comes to digital products. The affiliate model is simple and straightforward in that you promote the product, people buy it, and you are paid your commission four to six weeks later. But have you ever thought about earning ongoing, recurring income from the products and services you recommend?

Recurring income, as an extension of the original affiliate model, makes sense for so many reasons. This revenue can provide you with financial peace of mind; offers increased credibility with your prospects and clients; and allows you to know which of your prospects is serious about being in business for years to come.

Financial Stability and Peace of Mind for You and Your Family

No matter how solid your business is, there will be times when you are not able to keep up with the day to day demands of being an online entrepreneur. Whether this is due to illness within your immediate family, shifts in the economy, or for some other unforeseen situation, there may be long stretches of time where you are not creating and releasing new products and not staying connected with your list through your blog and emails. Or, you may be busy with writing a new book, or with creating a product or another project that demands most of your time. During these periods, receiving regular commission checks from recurring affiliate programs can make a huge difference in your income and overall financial stability.

Finding the Right Recurring Products to Recommend

When I was just getting started with my business, I paid very little attention to recurring affiliate programs. I was earning affiliate income each month and that was what I was focused on building. It wasn’t until I had been online for about two years that I stopped to analyze exactly where my income was coming from. That’s when I became keenly aware of how important it was to include recurring, ongoing products and services in my mix of recommended affiliates.

The programs that work best for my business model include autoresponder services, teleseminar services, hosting, forums, and membership sites run by the people I have known for several years and admire for how well they service their clients. You’ll need to take a close look at your niche to see which ones will be best for your market.

For example, I have been a member of Jim’s program, The Net Reporter, for several years now. I consider Jim and his training to be among the best available anywhere, and love telling others about it. The Net Reporter is a subscription membership program that we pay for by the month, and you can get started with recurring affiliate income by sharing this valuable resource with your circle of influence. If this program is invaluable to you, as it is to me, then it stands to reason that your community would also benefit from being a part of the program.

Look no further than your email inbox and your hard drive to discover the programs and services you are using and paying for by the month or the year. If you are still a member or subscriber, then obviously they are of great benefit to you in your business. These are the ones that make the most sense for you to promote and recommend to others.

Over time you will build up the revenue from these recurring programs so that the payments come in like clockwork. I never take this for granted, however, and continue to share the information of what is working for me with my prospects and clients.

Increased Credibility with Your Prospects and Clients

We are judged by the company we keep, so it makes sense that we will be perceived as more credible when we recommend excellent products and services to our current prospects and clients. By aligning yourself with the top names in your field, you set yourself apart as someone who truly cares about the quality and depth of what you use in your own business. Sharing these resources with others shows them how much you care about their success.

You may want to add a page to your site that discusses the resources you value as a part of your business. Make it clear that you are using your affiliate links to recommend each one so there is never a misunderstanding. I do this by saying that everything I recommend gets my ‘Green Seal of Approval’.

Future Clients and Joint Venture Partners

We all want to do business with the people who have similar values and belief systems as we do. Over time you will see that the people who are also willing to be a part of the same membership sites and subscription services you are involved in are more likely to understand how you are conducting your business. Those with similar training and using the same tools and resources in their own businesses as you are may also be the exact people you will want to reach out to as future clients and joint venture partners.

The relationships I have built over the years are with people with whom I have a similar understanding of business. It just makes sense that we would share our best resources and continue to collaborate on projects where we are all benefitting from the training and ideas of those we have the most respect for as thought leaders in our respective fields. Look for these like-minded individuals as your business continues to grow.

As you can see, recurring income from affiliate marketing can enhance everything you are working towards in your online business. Focus on your affiliate marketing plan to ensure that you reach as many people as possible with the information they need in order to get started with the recurring programs and services you are recommending. If possible, make contact with the people who have signed up through your affiliate link and find out how else you may serve them. Many times you will receive the name and email address of those who have signed up from your recommendation and this is the perfect time to reach out to them in a big way to move forward with your business relationship. Above all else, only recommend the people and the products you are using and benefitting from on a regular basis.

Connie Ragen Green is a former classroom teacher and real estate appraiser who left it all behind to come online at the end of 2005. She quickly discovered affiliate marketing and now teaches this online marketing strategy to people around the world.

If you want to learn more about Connie’s Affiliate Marketing techniques, check out “Affiliate Marketing Secrets Explained” right now!