SoftballFever.com was not my first foray into website ownership. I've tried many other websites prior to this and while some have failed, most have worked due to one key factor: Affiliate Marketing. Affiliate Marketing is a free and simple addition to any website that will increase your revenues without you lifting a finger after the initial set-up. Previously I was very overwhelmed with the prospect of enabling my websites to be able to do this, but as years have passed the programs have become so easy to master that a child could do it. HTML knowledge is no longer needed, now it's simply a "copy" & "paste" function. Those "ads" you see at the bottom of our pages are all "payers". Every time someone clicks on one and places an order we get paid! Some are "repeatable sales" which means even if you go back and order directly from that company we continue to receive a sales commission. Our Softball Fever Affiliate Marketing Plan is that kind for two reasons: 1. because we feel it's only fair that if you draw in a customer you continue to reap the rewards. 2. because as a Travel Team Administrator I know the importance of Team Revenue. I'm not suggesting you limit your plan to just using our ads. You should find some unique products and services that you feel your visitors might be interested in, and there are many! By far the easiest way to do this is to join a program like Clix Galore (see ad below). It takes about 5 minutes to sign yourself up as an "Affiliate/Publisher". No credit card information is needed, you tell them who/where to send the checks to or have them send it to a Paypal account. After you've signed up you begin to search for interesting companies to link onto your website. If those companies approve of your website (we do automatically but some don't) you can choose what banners of theirs you would like to use and then just copy & paste the "html code" onto your web pages! That's it, that's all. Webmasters go to such lengths to develop websites for their teams. At the very least you should allow the site to work for you in return, while you sleep. And it's not just for Team Websites but can be used with MY SPACE pages, Internet Stores, Informational pages.....basically if you've got a web=site or a web-presence you can be an affiliate marketer! I hope this information has been enlightening to those that were in the dark on affiliate marketing. I urge you to at least consider the potential of this added source of income for your team by clicking the ad below and giving it a test drive! Hope everyone has a great 2008 softball year!

Michelle Masso-Buckelew