If you are new to Internet marketing you probably have been exposed to never-ending hype advertisements. Depending on what stage you're in with your marketing career will determine whether you have come to the realization that all the glitter is not gold. The truth is there is a method to the madness, and if you're privileged enough, then you will be on your way to succeeding in the most rewarding business ever. Before you can succeed on the Internet, you must realize one thing: There is going to be some work involved.

I entered the Internet marketing arena in 2006 when my real estate business seemed as though it was taking a turn for the worse. I had great marketing skills from being a salesman in the housing market, but it became evident to me real fast that there was a difference between selling homes and marketing a home based business. I do not think that there is any training you can have that will prepare you for success on the Internet besides the Internet itself.

After months of trial and error, I came to the realization that success on the Internet has very little to do with your past experience, education or your financial background. Being successful in Internet marketing has everything to do with your marketing plan and how your apply your plan to your daily regimen.

Until I was able to take notes from experience marketers and put together a plan that was catered to my strengths, I was unable to make a dime. Fortunately for me, my plan came just in time because I was seriously considering calling it quits. Today I am going to share with you the affiliate marketing plan that changed my internet  career.

My plan includes 7 key components:

1.    Squidoo
2.    Wordpress or Blogger
3.    Article Marketing
4.    Keywords Research
5.    SEO
6.    Traffic Exchanges and Safelist
7.    PPC Advertising

The first step is to set up a Squidoo lens on your affiliate product or a list of products. Squidoo is a social networking community that allows anyone to set up your own personal websites, referred to as lens. The advantages of Squidoo is that it is free to set up and carries a very high PageRank which Google loves.

The next step is to set up a blog with either Blogger or WordPress. Both are free to set up an account with, but I do recommend that you host your own blog by purchasing your own domain name. Once your blog is set up, start adding quality content to your blog using keywords-rich text related to your niche.

Finding the right keywords that are searched for frequently and not heavily contested by other competitors is vital to getting good placement in the search engines. There are several keyword tools to choose from but if you are just starting out, you can use SEO Book or Google AdWords Keyword Tool. Both of these tools provide you with suggestions for good keywords and how often those keywords are searched for monthly.

Depending on your niche, it may be difficult to find single keywords that are not competitive, so in those cases you can opt for using long tail keyword phrases instead. Once you have selected at least 10 keywords or keyword phrases, you can begin to use those keywords in your blogs and articles.

Article marketing is another key component of any marketing plan. Articles perform several key functions in your internet marketing success. Once your article is submitted to an article directory, your article may also get picked up by other directories, thus creating more exposure and backlinks. I have received the best results from using EzineArticles and Isnare. Using these two directories will help to distribute your story to thousands of other directories.

Many marketers frown at the thought of using traffic exchanges and safelist as a marketing method, but I have found great success using them also. There is a method to safelist and traffic exchanges, and it is simple: Do not advertise your affiliate product. If you want success with traffic exchanges and safelists, you need to advertise a squeeze page providing some sort of free gift that is related to your product. Add an autoresponder form to your squeeze page to build a opt-in list and market to your prospects forever.

My last method is PPC advertising. Pay per click will help generate traffic to your business immediately, but I do suggest you take caution before starting a PPC campaign. Unlike other advertising, you do not want to embellish your ads or omit any important information. I suggest you include as much information as possible so you don't receive any curiosity clicks. Pay per click is exactly what it states, you will pay every time someone clicks on your ad.


How to tie it all together

Now that we've got all the components, you need to tie everything together. Using your Squidoo lens as the base, send all your traffic to your lens, using PPC campaigns, article marketing, and your blog RSS feed. Doing this will strengthen your lens rank within the Squidoo community, creating even more traffic to your affiliate products. Using your keywords, send hyperlink anchored text directly from your Squidoo lens and blog directly to your affiliate landing page. You should also send the prospects from your autoresponder campaign to your affiliate landing page also.

It may sound difficult at first and it may take you a while to set everything up, but once you have the system set up, you will create a whirlwind of traffic to your affiliate product. The steps included in this system will take some research on your part because there was too much information for just one article. But if you are willing, this system will lessen the learning curve and help propel you towards internet success.

Marc Marseille is an Internet marketer who specializes in affiliate marketing and list building marketing methods. To view a sample of this marketing plan in action, you can visit http://www.squidoo.com/Cash-Leverage.