In this holiday season online shopping is hotter than ever! According to US Commerce Department online sales continue to grow with a robust 25-27 percent this year over 1992. Online holiday shopping at a rate of 10 percent is also considerably outpacing the 5.7 percent growth of overall retail sales. Goldman Sachs predicts 23 percent of all gift-buying this holiday season will take place online!
So, if you don't have a product of your own to sell online, how can you profit from this exciting trend?
One of the finest ways of making money online is to promote other people's products or services by becoming their affiliates. Affiliate is a term used for a website that drives traffic to another website in exchange for a predetermined commission.
Thanks to the success of several affiliate programs in the early days of online business, most merchant websites, today, use some kind of affiliate programs to promote their sites and generate sales.
Considering the sheer numbers of affiliate programs available on the Internet, you may feel overwhelmed. However, if you set some basic criteria, it would be lot easier to find a good program that suits your need.
Free sign up
The affiliate program that you are planning to join must be absolutely free. There are way too many good programs available for free, why should you pay for one? Moreover, the programs that require payments to join are mostly multi Level Marketing (MLM) programs. Although, there may be many good MLM programs existing on the Internet, I don't think it's a viable option for an average person.
Good commission
You deserve handsome compensation for all your hard work! No matter, how you look into it, in most of the cases, promoting a product or service is not an easy job. Since you are doing the uphill struggle of bringing the client to the merchant's door, your commission should be real good one. What is an acceptable commission anyway? If you are promoting an information product, don't go for less than 50 percent. For more tangible products and services your bare minimum commission should be 15 percent of the sale. If you are promoting monthly subscription, choose a program that pays a portion of subscription fee as recurring commission to you as long as the client referred by you stays subscribed.
Tow-tier affiliate program
An affiliate program which pays certain percent as a commission from the sale for bringing in a client and another if that client brings in other clients. Two-tier affiliate programs are more preferable since once a client base is built, it becomes a great source of residual income.
Quality affiliate tracking system
The merchant should have a very good and well-organized affiliate sales tracking management software system. You have to be absolutely comfortable with the statistics generated by the affiliate program. The program should show such important aspects as repurchase, if any, by the client referred by you, your second tier affiliates, activities by your second tier clients, etc.If you do not feel comfortable with the tracking system provided by a merchant, better stick to the merchants, who use third party affiliate managing system. At least, you will know that a dishonest merchant won't be able to defraud you.
Efficient customer support
You should feel satisfied with the service and support you get from your affiliate program owner. A good program highly values its affiliates and gives priority to its customer support system. As the clients that you are sending to the merchant are primarily your site's visitors, you should be extremely picky about the quality of customer service the program renders. After all, your own site's reputation is also at stake here!
Promotional materials
If you are planning to promote an affiliate program, you will need more materials then mere banners. Unfortunately, even many high-end affiliate programs do not carry enough promotional materials to satisfy the need of the affiliates. Promotional material should include: contents to build mini-sites, various ad articles, different kind of text links, product brochures or presentation, etc.
Commission payment policy
The affiliate program should have a sort of minimum payment policy, where you can receive commissions if even you have made just one or two sales. A reasonable amount is US $25. Less than that is not viable due to processing costs. Commission should be paid each month. If you are located outside of US, see if the merchant makes payment through Paypal or other similar services or not. For most of the countries checks issued in other countries are not a good option.
If an affiliate program meets all these above mentioned criteria, you can consider joining in this program. However, to get best result from your efforts, before signing up, you should also consider the following rules:
You have to like the product you are promoting Any salesman will confirm you that this is one of the fundamental rules of selling. If you are selling a product or service you must have confidence in it. If you like the product and will use it yourself gladly, you found a product to promote! Don't waste your time with a product that is not
up to your taste!
Promote a product or service consistent to your website's subject matter If your site is all about soccer, you will be better off with products and service related to soccer. If this same site promotes,for example: pesticides, no matter how hard you try your success will be very limited! Before joining in any affiliate program first you should identify who your visitors are, what do they like and which products they will probably buy online. Once you know your niche market it's lot easier to find products or services for it.
Many webmasters think that in order to make money through affiliate programs, all you have to do is to come up with a site and fill up the site with affiliate links. Sooner all later people will click on them. Unfortunately this does not work! Making money through affiliate programs is also a business and like any business you have to have a proper business plan. Only a well prepared businessplan followed by its meticulous implementation can bring success to your affiliate endeavor.
By Nowshade Kabir
Senin, 30 Juni 2008
Making Money with Affiliate Programs - Part II
Making Money with Affiliate Programs - Part I
If you have a website and you are not involved in any of the thousands of affiliate programs available on the Internet, you are loosing great opportunities to make some extra income. As in the case of some top affiliate marketers this extra income might even transform into thousands of dollars.
Affiliate program is one of the most effective methods of producing sales second only to direct mail. According to Forrester Research, a marketing research company, in this year 21% of all online sales will be generated from affiliate sites promoting affiliate products.
If you do your homework right, you too can earn handsomely from the correct use of affiliate programs.
What is an affiliate program?
The concept of affiliate program is based on the age-old business practice of referral service. This is quite common in many industries. An attorney, for example, gets a certain percent of commission if he refers a client to another lawyer.
Back in 1996 Amazon.com started the first widespread use of referral service on the Internet. If a client comes to Amazon.com and buy a product using a link provided by Amazon, from a website which signed affiliate partnership agreement, that site receives 10 to 15% commission from the sale. The Amazon Affiliate Program became so successful that it prompted others to follow the suit. Today, affiliate programs became ubiquitous on the Internet making them one of the primary methods of online marketing of products and services.
Affiliate Program can be defined as Internet marketing system where a company allows and helps third party websites, called affiliates to post link and refer clients in return for a predetermined flat-fee or percentage-based commission.
Benefits of affiliate programs
Affiliate Programs became so popular because as a partnership it's a win-win situation for both the program owner and the affiliates.
Benefits for program owners include:
Increase Sales
The primary reason for most of the companies to adopt an affiliate program is the possibility of boosting sales. In fact, proper implementation of a quality affiliate program is capable of increasing sales dramatically.
Free promotion
A successful affiliate program can easily become the largest traffic generator for the company website. Many websites receive major portion of their visitors from their affiliate links. To find suitable websites with required content in order to run a banner or link campaign is time consuming and require large resources; affiliate programs in comparison can resolve this issue often with a far smaller investment.
Increase search engine ranking
Search engines, Google in particular, calculate link popularity as one of the main factors in their ranking algorithm. Backward links from affiliate sites certainly help improving this.
Branding
Thanks to its affiliate program Amazon.com banner links can be seen on numerous websites. Popularity of Amazon.com among the newcomers to Internet proves that Amazon.com was successful in creating its online brand name. No doubt, omnipresent visibility of their logo on the affiliate sites definitely had a huge impact on the brand recognition of the Amazon. Offline companies had to spend billions of dollars of advertisement money to get similar results!
How about the affiliates? What are the benefits they get from an affiliate relationship?
No product or service to carry
Online business with your own product or service might be rewarding, but it requires substantial investment from your part. With carefully chosen affiliate programs you can have your online business without the requirement of having your own products.
The investment is low as all you need is a website.
No need to have a merchant account
Since you don't carry your own products or services you do not have to go through the hassle of having a merchant account to cater your clients. Your affiliate program owner will do everything. All you have to do is supply clients through your designated link.
Possibility of residual income
Many programs pay you a commission from the sales made to the customers generated from affiliates, who have signed up as an affiliate following your link. This kind of affiliate system is called 2-tier system.
Visitor tracking system allows affiliate programs to pay you a commission when same visitor from your website makes repeat purchase.
Some affiliate programs that promote monthly or yearly subscription services pay a commission each month as long as customer referred by you stays subscribed.
Complement you website with added products and services If your site is dedicated to certain products or services, there must be other stuffs that go well together with your own products. It's a good idea to seek out viable affiliate products of these items and promote through your site. Your visitors will love this and this will help building loyalty among your visitors.
Have new contents for your site
many affiliate programs supply you with valuable marketing materials. Some of these materials can be nice addition to your site content bringing further value to your website.
Various Affiliate programs
There are two ways of running an affiliate program: The company owns and handles the program itself, using certain software.
The company uses third party administered affiliate programs. The reasons why many companies prefer to hand over management of their affiliate programs include technical aspects, cost factor and human factors.
- Companies do not have to spend money on developing, running and updating the software.
- Proven technology allows companies to concentrate on their job of selling their products and services.
- Many prospective affiliates prefer third party managed programs, because they rightfully ponder, in this case the program owners have less chance to cheat their affiliates.
Find below a list of some leading third party affiliate program administrators:
http://www.befree.com
http://www.linkshare.com
http://www.cj.com
http://www.clickbank.com
However, this does not mean that you should avoid company run affiliate programs. On the contrary, some of the most successful and best affiliate programs are run by the owners.
If you find an affiliate program that suits your requirement and you feel that the company is a reputable one, by any means you should give it a try!
By Nowshade Kabir
Making Money with Affiliate Programs - Part III
Whether you are a newbie to Internet or a proud owner of a website, affiliate programs are great opportunities for you to make money online. It is an interesting concept that allows affiliates to develop a source of income and the program owners to sell their products more effectively.
As an affiliate your job is to drive traffics to the program owner's site. You get a commission from each sale made to a customer that originated from your marketing efforts.
Once you become interested in making money through affiliate programs and do some research you will come to know that there are many affiliates, who consistently make thousands of dollars month after month.
James Martell, who also wrote a handbook on affiliate marketing, claims that he makes over US$ 40K each month from his 30 over niche affiliate sites.
Phil Wiley lives in a remote area near Australia's Great Barrier Reefs but it does not create any barrier for him to make a comfortable living from his online incomes.
Rosalind Gardner, author of the Super Affiliate Handbook, made over US $400,000 last year alone by promoting different affiliate programs.
There are numerous examples like these, but the question is do all affiliates make that much of money? Is it truly possible to make your living by promoting affiliate programs?
The truth is very few of thousands of affiliates are successful in making good amount of money from affiliate marketing.
If you follow the tips stated below scrupulously your chance to become a super affiliate will increase considerably.
Try the product first
Don't just start promoting an affiliate program because they offer handsome commission! Internet marketing is a complex and time consuming process! If you decided to spend your valuable time and ingenious brain in promoting a product, you better check out the product first. Try the product! As a consumer if you feel that the money spent on the product is really worth it, then you probably found a right affiliate program to market.
Sell products consistent to your website's content
If the visitors are coming to your site and spending time, that means they like the content of your pages. If you offer them something which is relevant to this content, chances increase dramatically that they will check out that product.
Write ad articles and text ads for the product
Don't use banners to promote your chosen affiliate programs! Our eyes are so accustomed to see banners that in very rare case, nowadays, we click on a banner. Use text ads instead! But don't just use the generic ads supplied by the affiliate program owner. Spend sometimes in creating the text ads. While writing the text ads, think how you can relate the content of the page with the text of the ad.
Write articles about the subject matter of the affiliate product and use links within the article. Studies show that the ad articles have good click through response. You can submit these articles to other websites and create a viral marketing process for your affiliate program. Get a domain name for the affiliate program
If you are getting result from promoting an affiliate program and would like to get more serious in marketing this particular program, get a domain name for this program and use it to redirect to the link given by you affiliate program owner. Here is why you should do this:
Many people don't feel comfortable with the idea that you will get a share from the sales made to them. A domain name convinces many of this type of people that you are not merely promoting an affiliate program, rather you have something to do with this product or better yet, some even might consider that you are not making anything out of a sale.
Redirect a buyer to a page with relevant products
If you sell a product of your own from a website, once the buyer finishes the purchasing process, i.e. charging credit card, redirect him immediately to a page with products that compliment the product he or she has just purchased. The idea here is to try to sell more products to the same buyer while he is still in the buying mood.
Build mini sites for the niche products
One of the best approaches in promoting affiliate programs is to build mini websites dedicated to these programs. Here are the steps you should take:
* Choose a market segment
* Choose niche products for this particular market segment
* Build a content rich mini website specifically oriented to this segment
* Promote related affiliate programs through this website
Use free materials, programs etc. to attract visitors
People love free stuffs! Especially, if there are values in them! Many affiliate programs supply free materials like articles, e-books, programs, etc. in order to help affiliates market their products. Use these materials sporadically to lure customers. If you don't get any worthy free materials from the program owners, search for free relevant materials on the Internet. You will be amazed to see quantity of free e-books, articles and other materials that you will be able to dig out! Create exit Pop-Up pages with specific and targeted offers
If the visitor of your site is leaving, why not showing him a page with highly specific targeted product offers? Best idea is to create several pages with highly targeted products for different pages. If the visitor browsed through a certain page, that means the content of the page some how interested him. If he decides to leave the site right after viewing this page, it definitely makes sense to show him an exit pop-up page with products consistent to the content of the page. Build a directory of e-books, articles, and affiliate programs
Information is the number one reason why people spend time online. It's not always easy to create large amount of contents required to satisfy the need of the visitors. Why not use materials created by others for this purpose? Besides, you can also use those materials to promote affiliate programs of your choice. You can add materials to your directory yourself and you can also ask visitors to submit their materials in relevant categories. Post Pay per click ad on the most successful affiliate program
If an affiliate program generates considerable revenue promote this particular program more aggressively by posting pay per click ad for this program.
Overture and Google Adwords are the best options available for pay per click advertisement campaign.
Affiliate programs are great way of making money online! However, don't expect an overnight success! Like any other business, here also you require proper planning and persistence. Most super affiliates confess that, in general, it takes one to two years of hard work to become successful in this field. So do your homework before jumping in!
By Nowshade Kabir
5 Ways to Start And Promote Your Affiliate Program
"What's the Buzz About?"
"I made $5,000 in one week"
"I quit my job and spend more time with my kids"
It sounds too good to be true, but if you're serious about working from home and you don't have a lot of money to start than keep reading?
"What IS an Affiliate?"
Basically, an Affiliate is an individual that is willing to market and promote another company in exchange for a commission.
An affiliate is NOT an employee of the company. There are no guarantees of earnings in most cases, and there are various methods of determining payments.
In most cases, the company presents the affiliate with a link to its site that has a special code. When this link is promoted and customers click on that link, the company can trace any sales or leads back to the affiliate. Commissions can be made either way depending on the nature of the business. Good affiliate programs will offer a period of time in which, if the customer does not purchase the first time, but comes back within that period (even through another link) the original affiliate gets the credit.
"How Do I Choose a Program?"
Typing "affiliate program" or "affiliate program directory" into a search engine will give you millions of suggestions. Some directories can give you advice or recommendations. If you are new to affiliate programs, it may be wise to stick with the free applications. Don't worry, many, if not most, are free to join.
Select a program you are interested in yourself. If feasible, try the product or service personally. It always makes for a better sale if you can give personal testimony to the offer. Try testing its popularity by checking the 'keywords' at Overture, http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/. By typing the words you think a person interested in your product or service would use when searching, you can see how many people have actually searched for it.
"How Do I Promote It?"
Easily!
1) List your company (being sure to use your affiliate link) in free classifieds. Again, these are easily found in the search engines. Try for 20 and keep adding on.
2) Determine who your market is?business people? Mothers? Car enthusiasts? Or those interested in health and fitness? Look for forums (public chat areas) or sites that cater to these individuals. Forums are great for connecting with people and building rapport, but be very cautious. Read some of the posts before making one of your own. In many cases there are strict rules about advertising, and you should respect that. View it as a social gathering and keep it light. This is where a personal recommendation would go over much better.
3) Write an article about the topic. A brief article 500-1000 words is perfect. Avoid advertising too blatantly. Some ezine (Electionic Magazine) submission directories will not allow articles that are too obvious. Creating a 'How To' or '10 Ways to?' would be a good way to start. You can then either incorporate your affiliate link in the article, or more likely, at the end when you create your author's credits. Submit your article to ezine directories (try for at least 50). For more information on writing ezines go to http://affiliate-start.com/ezine1.htm.
4) Join a traffic exchange program like TrafficSwarm. You can join for free and create a classified style add with a link to your site. By clicking other people's links you will collect points. Your points will mean your ad is being shown to others in the program who will view it. To see how it works go to http://www.trafficswarm.com/go.cgi?287887.
5) Search for newsletters catering to your market (see #2). Search for "business newsletter" etc. Subscribe to several and if you feel they are appropriate, contact them offering either your article for their use, or to check out the process for advertising in their newsletter. This method can reach thousands of people that have enough interest to subscribe and read a newsletter about that topic.
"A Word To the Wise"
Be very careful to avoid 'spamming'. This means advertising to individuals through their email when they have not given permission. This includes email 'blasting' and safelists. This can potentially include newsletters too, so verify their methods of getting subscribers before advertising.
"Enjoy Your Success"
If you follow these five steps, you should be certain to draw a handsome commission from your chosen program. We wish you success!
Cyprian and Shannon Emmanuel
How to Evaluate an Affiliate Program
There are thousands of affiliate programs offering wide range of benefits to their affiliates. However, many of these programs and the claims they make are not to be trusted. Good affiliate programs provide tremendous earning opportunities, but they need to be evaluated to distinguish them from doubtful ones. There are several factors to consider before someone decides to join any affiliate program.
Products: Organizations which operate affiliate programs generally have some products to sell. These products can be in form of physical products, e-products or services. It is important to ascertain that the organization has some products to sell and that it recruits affiliates to help them in running their business. One should be very careful with any organization that has recruitment of affiliates as their main business. It is best to avoid such organizations because their affiliate structure is like a house of cards which can crumble at slightest impact.
The organizations which have products to sell and market them thru affiliate programs cut down on the cost of advertising and distribution. This amounts to considerable savings which they share with their affiliates. If a new affiliate is already familiar with the products, this can be helpful but this is not a necessary pre-condition to join affiliate program. New affiliates can learn about the products quite fast.
Organization's Track Record : It is not difficult to find out about the organization before joining it affiliate program. Search engines are one of the sources which can be used for this purpose. Verifying the testimonials presented by the organization is another source of information. The organization should have proven track record of operating their programs for several years successfully. If the organization is new or just starting, the person starting the program should be well known with good credibility. This is precaution against joining organizations which promise get-rich-quick scheme and then disappear.
Support Available to Affiliates : Most of the new affiliates joining any affiliate program are new to the field of marketing on the internet. They need guidance and support for promoting their business and earning money for themselves. It is in the interest of the organization to help their affiliates to succeed. These organizations are in their business for considerable longer time than the affiliates, are more knowledgeable about their market and about the ways of promoting their products. They are in best position to provide their affiliates with proper guidance. Many organizations have excellent support system by way of trainings, tutorials, articles, books, marketing plans, marketing tools, forums just to name a few. These are generally available from websites accessible to the affiliates.
Apart form the promotional material and information available from the website, personal guidance can be vital. A new affiliate may not be familiar with all the resources available and will look for mentoring at least in initial stages. It should be remembered by the affiliate that her success will add to the success of the organization, the organization is obliged to help her.
Payment : Another factor to consider is the mode and frequency of payment to the affiliates. The affiliate should make sure that this suits her. Just to give an example - many organizations make payments thru PayPal, but PayPal does not transmit money to all the countries. Such details should be checked before putting time and effort for any affiliate program.
Affiliate Structure : There are many different ways in which organizations build up their affiliate structure. Many organizations have single tier structure in which affiliate is only paid commission for sale. Other affiliate structures are 2-level or multi-level deep in which the affiliate earns also from the efforts of personally sponsored members. In turn, the affiliate is expected to help her sponsored members to earn for themselves. This is one great feature of multi-level marketing leading to leveraged earning. You can read my article on leveraged earning at this URL :
http://www.sanjay-j.com/artlever.html
There are still more variations in the structure. Some organizations allow a limited number of affiliates directly under each affiliate. There is no "ideal" affiliate structure. But it is important to have clarity in the structure and the affiliate should understand the structure.
Compensation Plan : There is lot of variation in compensation plans starting from simple commission to more elaborate plan in which affiliates additionally earn thru the efforts of their sponsored downline members and also from a common pool. I personally favor plans which have provision for leveraged earnings where teamwork really counts. Residual earning is another attractive feature of affiliate marketing which can build into sizeable income over a period of time. I am not against any compensation plan so long as it is understandable and appears reasonable. You have perhaps noticed that I have put this factor as the last consideration. However it is an important consideration after all other considerations are found acceptable.
Persistence Pays - It takes time to build up business with any affiliate program, no matter how good the program appears. After joining any affiliate program after thorough evaluation, one needs to stay with the program giving it time to build the earning. Get-rich-quick scheme do work some times but they are rare exception rather than the rule and cannot be depended upon.
This small slogan should be ingrained in the thinking when someone joins an affiliate program:
PERSISTENCE PAYS.
============================================
Sanjay Johari
The 5 Sure-Fire Ways of Building Massive Traffic and Making Thousands in Affiliate Sales
Why are those top affiliates able to easily make so much money just by recommending and selling other people's products?
What did they do to be so different from the rest of the 96% of the affiliates out there who are making little or no money at all?
The key to making those huge affiliate sales really lies on what you portray to your visitors and what you can give to your visitors.
But before that, let's deal with getting lots of targeted traffic to your website so that you could build a huge mailing list to mine your income from.
There are a number of different ways to increase your targeted traffic and in this article; I will touch on 4 different effective methods.
Sure-Fire Way #1 - Ezine articles
Writing articles is a very good strategy of a free advertising establishing you as an expert in the field. When people read your article which provided them with good quality information, they will tend to follow and click on your link to learn more about how you help them.
In this way, your credibility is quickly established and you will soon be recognized as an expert in your field. Being an expert in a field will automatically attract hundreds or even thousands of visitors who will be looking for a solution on your website.
Your articles can also act as a one way link giving you a steady stream of traffic to your website permanently as long as it is being published.
If you need more articles or information on how to write quality articles, you can go to these websites:
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.ezinesearch.com
http://www.dime-co.com
http://emailuniverse.com/ezine-tips/
Sure-Fire Way #2 - Reciprocal Links
This free method is another great way to guarantee your website in getting a steady stream of highly targeted traffic. But in order to get highly targeted traffic, you will need to exchange links with websites that can both complement and compete with yours.
Not only that, they need to have a stream of huge targeted traffic so that you can tap into that vast wealth of the traffic using your link.
All you need to do is just to type in your keywords that describe what you are offering in any search engines and search through the results and finding those sites. After that, you will need to send them a personalized email requesting an exchange of links. Most will be happy to exchange links with you. Sometimes, you will need to include a few incentives in the offer.
Therefore, you will have many good quality websites providing you with a small amount of targeted traffic that will amount to a huge permanent source of highly targeted traffic to your website.
Sure-Fire Way #3 - Search Engine Optimization
You may want to optimize your website content so that the major search engines can easily spider your sites and rank them accordingly.
You need to maintain a good number of specific keywords targeted to your market on your website. This has to be done in a way such that the search engines spiders love the keywords and your visitors love your content.
This way, you not only attract visitors but also spiders from many search engines that will be happy to index your site. If you need help in creating theme-based content site pages that are full of keywords filled content, you can get this free ebook that will teach you how to create them.
Get the free ebook titled: "The Affiliate Masters Course" at: http://aff-masters.sitesell.com/acemarkbiz.html
Or if you want any good quality search engine optimization service, what I recommend is 1st Search Ranking at http://www.acemarketingbiz.com/links/1stsearchranking/
Both of these resources will definitely be able to help you in greatly improve your site's ranking.
Sure-Fire Way #4 - Pay-Per-Click Search Engines
This method is the most direct and effective in getting the type of traffic you want. This is because you can specify the kind of keywords your target audience will key in to search for what you offer.
If you are selling golf clubs, all you have to do is just to bid on keywords such as "golf clubs", "golf equipment", "golf" etc. You can specify the amount of money spent for every visitor who clicks on your link, so you can immediately calculate the total cost and the rate of return before you make a sale if you know your sales conversion rate.
In a way, you will have complete control over your advertising budget. A good big name pay-per-click search engine is Overture at http://www.overture.com but there is also another good quality pay-per-click search engine that charge a flat rate bid at http://www.acemarketingbiz.com/links/1stsearchranking/ppc.html
Ultimate Sure-Fire Way #5 - Building Your List and Pre-selling Affiliate Products
With all these traffic building and driving methods in place, you can get a substantial amount of traffic to your website. Now, in order to build a huge mailing list, you will have to create your own freebie or bundle one up as a package.
It can be in the form of a course, ebook, software or audio etc. this freebie has to offer not only good but absolutely incredible information to immediately entice and encourage your visitors to join your mailing list in order to get your freebie.
Once you have people in your mailing list, continue to offer them quality information, you can get readily available articles at ezines sites such as:
http://www.bizsitebiz.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.ideasmarketers.com
This is absolutely essential in continuing to build credibility and reputation for you. Once you have established a trust between your subscribers and you, you as an expert can easily make a few thousand dollars by personally recommending a few quality affiliate products that can help them solve their problems.
All you need to do is to send them an endorsement email stating the benefits you have gotten from the product and tell them they also can get those benefits by using the products and then direct them to your affiliate link.
Do not sell them; just create the urgency and the excitement to find out more about what and how the product you recommend can help them.
The key is to pre-sell them and lead them to the affiliate sales page with an open mind.
So all in all, you just drive highly targeted traffic to those quality affiliate sites which need your traffic and with your established credibility and reputation, you can easily make a couple of thousands with just one personal endorsement mailing.
Thus, this is the ultimate key to making the most affiliate sales and income for you.
By Richard Lam
5 Deadly Mistakes That Affiliates Make - A Quiz
Some people are making big money with affiliate programs-some are not. With a little research I have discovered that the people that are not cashing many checks are making the same five mistakes. Why not take a short quiz to see how you rate? Do you qualify as a novice, average, or super affiliate? Try this true and false quiz. You might learn something!
1. To make sure that you get all of the traffic you need, all you have to do is to put a link or banner on your site. Sales will come flooding in. (T or F)
2. It is a good idea to promote as many programs as you can on one web page created solely for that purpose. (T or F)
3. Free classified ads and FFA's generate sufficient traffic. You don't HAVE to invest money into advertising to be effective. (T or F)
4. Use the words, "amazing, fantastic, and incredible" as many times as you can to generate enthusiasm when advertising a site. (T or F)
5. If sales do not come immediately, you should drop the program and find another one that sounds better. (T or F)
How did you do? Let's see?
1. False. Although a smart affiliate will include his link on his web site, this alone will not result in much traffic. It is much smarter to branch out with several kinds of advertising such as paid emails and solo ads to business opportunity seekers. I have found that sending my ads to targeted traffic results in far more sales than "shot gun" marketing to one and all. Although we hope that people will click on our links, we have to get them there first. Targeted traffic programs are best.
2. False. While being actively involved in several different affiliate programs is not harmful, including a dozen affiliate links on a single page with no "main" product advertisment, brands the webmasters as amateurs-especially if the offers conflict with one another! On the other hand, a list of "resources" to the side that complements the main product is a good idea-and may result in sales!
3. False. Although these "freebies" may sound tempting to newbies, we that have been around the net for awhile have discovered that they are generally a waste of valuable time. Using that time to write articles with urls in the signature boxes or gaining testimonials for your site is more profitable. Actually, most super affiliates are willing to invest a few bucks to be successful. Paid email programs and solo ads are inexpensive and still effective. Many good programs will let you begin with as little as ten bucks. That's less than the cost of a decent lunch!
4. False. Using these "hype" phrases when advertising may not generate as much enthusiasm as it does skepticism. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. We know this. So, tell the truth. If you have a good product, then tell your potential customer how he can benefit. Then let him decide how "amazing" it is. If it really is so awesome, then testimonials will do the real advertising.
5. False. Big mistake! Give the program some time. DON'T give up quickly. While it's not a bad idea to test out new programs, don't jump from program to program. You'll find that legitimate programs with good products will pay off if you are patient. Your score: 2 or less correct. Right now, you are in the NOVICE rating. Your affiliate marketing skills need to be honed. But don't despair! You need help and there are lots of terrific techniques out there that are just what you need to achieve that affiliate income that you've always wanted!!
3-4 correct. You are an AVERAGE affiliate. You have obviously been around affiliate marketing awhile, but you could use a refresher course. I highly recommend finding a pro to learn from! Before long, you too will be a SUPER AFFILIATE!
All 5 correct: You are a SUPER affiliate! Keep up the good work and don't forget that the best affiliate marketers NEVER stop learning!
What affiliate program do I recommend personally? Well... mine, of course!
Smart Author Software. People are making money.
(See? No hype. Just the facts.)
By Kristi Sayles
Higher Commission Is Not Always Better
I have seen it a million times, especially from newer affiliates. They find two similar affiliate programs and immediately assume that the one that pays the highest commission is automatically the better affiliate program... not true! As an affiliate you need to look beyond the commission and evaluate the entire program. Yes, high commission are always nice to have but there are some things to look for that can make a high commission affiliate program practically worthless and a waste of your valuable time.
The first thing that you should look at is see how much the merchants are charging for their products. Merchants that pay a high commission is usually passing it off in the product prices. By boosting their prices up they make up for paying their affiliates high commissions by trying to get the customers to pay the bill. If the price is to high the customer will leave the merchants site and search for another merchant with lower prices. So you can promote the higher commission merchant to your hearts content. But if the prices are just to high for the customers you are simply wasting your time and effort on a dead cause.
Now, if you go with the merchant that pays a slightly less commission but has much lower prices then the customer is going to buy from them instead of the other merchant, therefore, giving you more conversions which will make you alot more money in the long run.
By Chet Brzezinski
How To Make Money On A Music Website Through Affiliate Programs?
Do you find yourself looking for a way to make some extra money? How about creating a website on something that everyone includes in their life, Music? The opportunities are endless and what's great about it is that you can make money on it while you're eating, sleeping, or just sitting around watching TV.
Don't get me wrong, it is a lot of work in the beginning to get everything started. Once you get your website built the way you want it though, all that is left is maintaining it to keep it at tip top shape. From there you'll be making money off of it 24/7. So, how do you get started and how do you make money off of it you may be wondering?
To start off you need to purchase a domain name, which is your website URL. You can do this at GoDaddy.com for a cheap price of $9.20 per year. Now you have your website name, the next step is to pick a host for your website. This is where you will build your website. You can do this at GoDaddy.com starting at $3.95 per month, or choose to go to another hosting company as there are many out there.
From there you are set to build your website, now how do you begin making money off of it?
There are many ways to make money off of your website. One way is to join affiliate programs through companies around the world. How an affiliate program works is you join under that company and refer people through your website to their website. Then, as people go to the companies website through yours, whatever the person buy's you get a certain amount of money off of their purchase.
The amount made varies from company to company and it even varies among the different products sold. The big name companies you'll often make less money off of, such as Best Buy and Circuit City you'll make approximately 3-7% on all sales. Smaller companies some times offer more through their affiliate programs, but people sometimes will opt to go to the well known companies instead.
For a music website you'll obviously want to join affiliate programs dealing with entertainment of some sort. Bestbuy.com and CircuitCity.com are good ones to join, but can be difficult to get into when you're just starting out. One good one can be found at:
http://www.best-mp3-music-downloads.com/buy.html
Clickbank.com is an affiliate network that is extremely good to join as you instantly gain access to you choice of over 10,000 digital products to sell on your website. There are nine categories associated with clickbank.com, but categories to focus on with a music website through clickbank.com would be fun and entertainment and sports and recreation.
Where you find the registration form for the affiliate programs is on the companies' homepage, and it is usually listed on the bottom of their homepage as affiliate program. When doing a music website you don't have to just stick with music affiliate programs either. You can focus on entertainment as a whole that way you can join affiliate programs for games, movies, posters and more.
Another way you can make money through affiliate programs is two-tier programs. Two-tier programs are programs that you make money off of people signing up for the affiliate program through you. Not all affiliate programs offer two-tier programs, but they are out there and signing up to affiliate programs with two-tier programs is to your benefit. A few entertainment two-tier programs that I have joined include;
www.best-mp3-music-downloads.com/allposters.html
www.best-mp3-music-downloads.com/mp3dollars.html
The best thing with affiliate programs is that they are free. You make money off of selling companies' products and it doesn't cost you a thing to register under the company. Another bonus to affiliate programs is that there is no limit as to how many you are allowed to join and put on your website. The sky is the limit with affiliate programs and money can be made 24/7 on your music website today at the cost of nothing.
By Jeff Schuman
Are Your Affiliate Programs Eating Away Your Money And Time
So many times I have heard this. So many examples I do remember. People have left the internet business after being disappointed with their so called affiliate programs.
An affiliate program is an excellent way to earn money especially in the beginning. I said beginning because at that time one does not understand the market and is too naïve to bring his own product out in right way.
Affiliate programs fill that gap nicely. You have got a ready-made product and a ready-made webpage too (though you can develop your own and you should be doing that). There is only one aspect left to make that money.
Making sales.
But you need to choose your affiliate program carefully.
An affiliate program should be free to join. You should be cautious of the programs that will charge you upfront to be able to become their affiliates. Sometimes you buy a product and get affiliate status as bonus. That is acceptable. But a good affiliate program should not charge you a membership fee monthly or yearly whatever the case may be.
There are some programs which charge you a monthly fee for becoming a member and you are expected to recruit more for getting a commission. These are not affiliate programs but MLM programs.
Be cautious when you join such programs. They do not offer a good product to sell. The only thing that you have to sell is the membership. Such programs may eat up a lot of your money before you realize their worthlessness. In such programs you sell a membership and your recruit is expected to sell the same in return.
This kind of sale is not only hard to accomplish but also associated with high attrition. That means the rate of members dropping out is very high.
Also you should get a good commission. Check the percentage offered. Good programs offer 50-60% commissions. Though high priced products seem quite lucrative due to apparent volume of money in commission but selling a high priced product may not be that easy task too. It is because the market for those may not be that large. So you need to select your product carefully.
One very important factor that is often ignored is your aptitude for the particular product. Select a product that you can associate your interests with. For example if you like gardening then a product that caters the gardening needs will be easier to sell than a selling a real estate product.
Because in sales first of all you need to be convinced about the usability and benefits of the product before you attempt to sell it. If the product is around the area of your interest you can easily identify the beneficial aspects. Then you will find it easier to convince your potential customers.
Study the market and demand for that product.
If the demand is high the sales are easier. To study the demand go to Overture or Google and look for the search made around the keywords of your product. It will give you a fair idea about the demand.
Plan your market strategies beforehand.
It is better if you make your own website instead of promoting the copy of the original page laced with your link. Having your own website gives you a unique identification and professional look. The other advantage is that you can promote multiple products on the same page rather than promoting different pages separately.
Web hosting is quite cheap now a days and webpage can be easily built in front page.
Try and give your full efforts into promoting what you have got. Affiliate programs are good way to learn the market tactics. Learn and try them best to your abilities.
Stick with the product you have chosen instead of jumping to the new offer of some other product. New products are being released everyday but being new does not mean that it is better and easier to sell.
Analyze regularly. Test regularly and keep working.
Your commission graph would definitely rise.
Wish you success.
By Arun Pal Singh
8 Basic Rules for Choosing The Right Affiliate Program
Joining an Affiliate Program is a great way to start earning a sizeable income on the Internet without many of the hassles that come with running your own business.
But the problem is? there are so much affiliate programs out there for you. In this article I will guide you to choose the most suitable and profitable Affiliate Program for you. I recommend you to follow this rule before choosing an Affiliate Program.
1. Find a great quality product or service
Remember that any recommendation you make will reflect directly on you. If you recommend a great quality product, the people you recommended will always trusted you and be interested in future recommendations that you make. If you recommend a bad quality product, and I'll guarantee that they will likely hesitate to act on any offers you recommend.
Don't get greedy. Only recommend products that you truly believe in.
2. Look for a program that offers top commissions.
I think it's perfectly reasonable for you to expect to be paid 30% to 50% of the profits on each product sold. 5% to 10% is very low. You should look for companies who understand the "lifetime value" of new customers you refer and appreciate your efforts.
Only consider joining programs that show a similar level of respect for their affiliates.
3. Make sure they have a high sales conversion ratio
Make sure that the affiliate program is turning a reasonable number of visitors into sales. If not, then your efforts directing traffic to their website will be completely wasted. A 1% conversion ratio (1 out of every 100 visitors) is quite good, 2%+ is better.
4. Be sure you'll be credited for every sales you make
You should find out what kind of tracking software the Affiliate Program that you're interested in joining uses. You MUST look for a program that uses quality affiliate tracking software that is reliable and tracks ALL (online, by phone, fax, mail orders, etc), because there are many companies only track online orders, and this means that you will never get credit for anywhere from 5% - 10% of your affiliate sales!.
Make sure they have a high sales conversion ratio and a good tracking software.
5. They should allow you to access your sales statistics real time
What I mean is that the Affiliate Program you join should give you a special username and password that you can use to access your own personal affiliate sales information right on their website. Many affiliate programs have done this, you don't have to worry about that, but incase they don't, you should reconsider to join them.
6. Look for a program that teaches you to maximize your affiliate sales
A good affiliate program will provide you with everything you need to be successful. They'll provide you with traffic-generating banners, text-links, and recommendation letter templates. They'll tell you which techniques work well in which circumstances.
Find an affiliate program that is similarly dedicated to educating their affiliates.
7. Make sure they are reputable.
I still feel I should mention the importance of doing business with a reputable company. I know many people who have worked really hard, made a lot of sales for a company, but then they have never been paid or forced to wait months and months to get their money, I've been there too. If you have any concerns about a company that you are thinking of doing business with, ask for references and do some checks on them before you join them.
8. Be sure to read all contracts and agreements.
Before you join any affiliate program, just make sure that you read all contracts and agreements very carefully. Pay very close attention to exclusivity clauses in the agreement. Be careful that any affiliate agreement or contract you sign does not restrict you.
By Syahriansyah
Why Top-earning Affiliates Have Their Own Domains And Websites
Many affiliate programs usually provide special web pages for their affiliates. This is one of the reasons why it may appear very strange, at first, that most top affiliates and the high earners from affiliate programs will most certainly always have their own websites, complete with their own domains specifically for promoting a certain affiliate program that they are involved in.
Why should these affiliates spend the extra money for a website, and even a domain name that both come with their own heavy demands when they already have so much visibility already through an affiliate program website? Actually there are a number of reasons.
Having your own website and domain will tend to attract more traffic than an affiliate site
A domain is bound to attract much more traffic than a long affiliate address. When surfers see what looks like a registered domain name, they will tend to take the site much more seriously than if they were to see the rather long affiliate website address. The affiliate can even ensure that they select a name that will be quickly picked up by search engines to give the site a high ranking.
It is possible to carefully monitor where the traffic is coming from
One of the major weaknesses of the vast majority of ordinary affiliate websites lies in the fact that it is not possible to analyze traffic and establish exactly where it is coming from. You would need to install some code and most affiliate sites do not give access to codes of the pages that they supply to their affiliates. The result is that folks are forced to operate blindly. Even as they instigate various advertising methods to get traffic to their sites, there is really no way they can track their visitors.
One of the most effective Internet marketing methods calls for the constant analysis of your traffic to establish where they have come from. The idea here is to find further ways and means of reaching that particular market niches. In this way you will find that your site traffic is constantly on the increase.
It becomes possible to harvest email addresses
With your very own affiliate website, it becomes a lot easier to collect names and email addresses from visitors to the affiliates independent website. It is usually not possible to do this from an affiliate website. When you do not do this, you fail to make efficient and maximum use of the leads you generate through your website and from all the marketing efforts you make to attract traffic. A person harvesting email addresses and building an opt-in email list is bound to make much more sales from lower traffic than a person with a much larger volume of traffic who does not build an opt-in email list.
It has been established that buyers usually need to be exposed to any product or service that you are advertising, several times before they can make a decision to buy. Emails are a great way to do this, and the only legal way to send out mass email is through permission marketing of using safe lists or your very own opt-in email list. This is a list of persons who have opted in to receive the latest updates and developments. This is naturally the more effective option.
There are various ways of harvesting email addresses from regular visitors to your affiliate website. You can offer an amazing free e-course or offer to send them some free fascinating software in return for their email address that you can then use to market to them again and again. It really is not surprising that top affiliates and top earners from affiliate programs insist on having their own websites and domains.
By Lois S.
Article Marketing 101 For Affiliate Program Managers
This article is for Affiliate Program Managers: Interested in increasing the amount of revenue that each of your affiliates creates for your business? Read on to learn about how to use your existing articles to grow your affiliate program strength.
From an affiliate perspective, there are only a few 'deal breaker' type things that I insist any affiliate program that I join must provide me:
Real-time reporting statistics
Real-time email alerts upon each sale
Payment on a consistent monthly basis
High price-point products
Package of articles that I can reprint on my websites and ezines
One strategy that many newbie affiliate program designers fail to offer is a package of articles that can be reprinted on my website along with my unique affiliate link. Of the tens of thousands of dollars I'll do this year as an affiliate, you would be shocked at how much of the revenue comes directly from reprinting articles of the affiliate programs I am involved in. This strategy works for me and it can work for you!
Here's what to do:
Designate 10, 25, 50, 75 or 100 articles that will be made available to your affiliates as a dump (meaning all at once and immediately).
Provide them with 3-10 articles per month thereafter that they can reprint along with their affiliate link.
Be certain to spell out the reprint rights of this type of affiliate article marketing so that your articles don't show up on bad websites you wouldn't want to associate with.
Here's what NOT to do:
Allow your articles to be private labeled. This is a poor strategy and will dilute your credibility. They should carry your name or the name of your primary author brand.
Don't give out all of your articles for your affiliates to use. Best to designate a specific "lot" of them that can be used by your affiliates and the rest are yours to keep exclusively for your direct sales audience.
Why this type of article marketing is important for affiliate program managers and affiliates:
Articles are like "sales agents" in that they keep selling for you, day after day, year after year. They also help expand your reach as each article gets indexed by the major search engines. Lastly, they give you another reason to send an email to your list members about the articles available.
This is a credibility builder for the affiliate program manager and it's a "Give" before the "Take" which begins the reciprocation cycle in a positive direction.
Note For Affiliates Who Use Articles To Promote Their Affiliate Programs:
Some sites (like ours at http://EzineArticles.com/ ) don't accept articles that promote affiliate programs, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't go find other sites that do accept articles that promote affiliate program links. I really meant this article to speak directly to affiliate program managers and not the needs of affiliate marketers.
To save you the trouble of sending me an email to ask why EzineArticles.com doesn't accept articles that promote affiliate programs, there are three reasons:
1) Because we don't accept articles that are available on a non-exclusive basis (meaning we only want to see original or exclusive licensed content) and...
2) Because affiliate marketers are not our ideal author profile type and...
3) Because most ezine publishers don't want to reprint articles that pitch an affiliate link. One of the primary purposes of our site is to be a resource for ezine publishers to find supplemental content for their next email newsletter.
With that said, there are plenty of competitor article sites that will allow you to submit your affiliate-link-laced articles, not to mention listing them on your own website.
Bottom line: If you offer an affiliate program to promote your products and services, consider immediately offering a package of articles that your affiliates can add to their website or send to their email newsletter lists to further promote your business.
By Christopher M. Knight
Affiliate Marketing Secrets that You Can Use
Affiliate marketing is a very hot topic on the web right now. Not surprising when you consider the fact that a vast majority of successful online entrepreneurs make their money from affiliate schemes and programs. Since the early days when Amazon was being set up and founder, Jeff Bezos was establishing affiliates as key marketing tools for any online enterprise, affiliates and affiliate marketing has come of age.
The amounts of income being made have clearly transformed affiliate marketing into a very serious business. There are more and more affiliates comfortably raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars every month.
The first important affiliate marketing secret to bear in mind is the reason why affiliate marketing remains the most effective way of marketing any online enterprise. It is all about the power of the referral. It is rather awkward when a website is trying to promote itself directly to prospects. Actually very different from the situation where somebody else refers the business to others, including people they do not know personally.
This works out superbly for several reasons. Firstly the affiliate as a consumer themselves is able to quickly identify the strong attractive points of the business that will best attract others like them.
The other little known affiliate marketing secret is that most of the top-earning affiliates have their own websites and blogs. Having their own websites gives these affiliates a tremendous edge over others. The sites are usually very closely related to the affiliate program that they are promoting. By having their own site, they are able to harvest the email addresses of the traffic to their sites.
Usually, most people you send to your affiliate site will not end up purchasing anything. However when you have their email addresses in your opt-in email list, you can continuously market to them and the affiliate will automatically end up with a much higher conversion rate from the traffic they generate as opposed to an affiliate without a website who just sends traffic to their affiliate website.
This is the affiliate marketing secret that makes a difference between affiliates struggling to pull in a good income and those comfortably making hundreds of thousands of dollars.
By Lois S.
Free Keyword Research Tools Are Not As Effective as Wordtracker
One of the most unanswered questions online today is, how to perform keyword research that gets free traffic from the search engines. Many SEO experts recommends using one keyword or keyword phrase per page, while others recommends using secondary keywords with your main keyword.
My philosophy is simple, you simply use both methods and check to see which method works best. You will also have to draw the line and recognize which is working best and continue with that method.
For me, I love to use one keyword phrase for review pages and for content pages I use secondary keywords with my main keyword, making the theme of that page much more search engine friendly. Our job is to please the spiders as well as our visitors.
My advice for newcomers is to build our first page using only a free tool such as GoodKeywords. I did the same with my first site, which ranked very highly for my choosen keyword phrases, due to the fact that the competition wasn't very high and I also didn't use the highly targeted keywords found in the search results.
Now, I must admit that I wanted to take my keyword research to higher heights and even discover a niche of my own with very little competition, and that is where free keyword research tools fails. They don't supply enough data for you to analyze if your keywords are actually worth while or highly competitive.
That is where, wordtracker and KRA comes into play. Wordtracker is the number one keyword research tool online, has been for many years and still is. Those who generate five figure monthly commission checks with affiliate programs knows the importance of wordtracker and just can't live without it.
KRA, is a tool by SEO expert Andy Williams that you can use to filter out secondary keywords and related phrases. If your into optimizing your pages for better search engines result, then I highly recommend you get yourself a copy.
You can reap the benefits of online keyword research by using these tools, and stop fiddling around with free tools. Free tools are for beginners who are testing the waters. It is now time for you to join the rank of professional marketers and stop hoping for success.
The best feeling you can get from your online marketing is when you make that first sale, and it doesn't matter how big it is. Stop targeting the wrong keywords and start building much more profitable content pages that only the smart marketers are targeting.
My final words: If a keyword research tool is so good, then why would you create a tool with an import possibility for wordtracker data?
About the author:
By Alexander Marlin, Ebenezer St. Maarten A.N
How To Increase Your Affiliate Commissions!
So you've joined an affiliate program, but really haven't figured out where you should start? Here are 12 great tips to get you started on your feet and enjoying the new year.
Here are 12 Awesome Ways To increase Your Affiliate Commissions!
Participate in web discussion boards and online forums. When I first joined an affiliate program, I read as much information as possible in the discussion boards http://www.sfidboard.com. This is a great discussion board to lurk in and understand the affiliate program and how things work.Once you get enough confidence to post your own comments, try a forum more like a Home Business Forum. This forum lets you include a link to your web site and any personal signature you choose, but is monitored. I included my web site link under my comment so that other could click on the link if they chose. Best part was that the search engine spiders took notice too.
Advertise your link in your signature file with every email you write.Use an attention-grabbing headline for them to visit your affiliate site. Also make sure your signature file doesn't get too big.
Your link should look something like this:
--
Jennifer Schilling
email address here
http://www.thinkingfaster.com
http://www.internet-business-success.biz
http://www.internet-business-opportunities.biz
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Why build JUST a Web site,
When You COULD Build a Business?
http://www.thinkingfaster..com/successsite.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Your link should look like this http://www.internet-business-success.biz/free.html. By redirecting your affiliate number and making your address be part of your web site, you will not loose out on any affiliate commissions.
Create unique affiliate program ads and your own banners if possible. If every other affiliate is using the same ad you are using, many web visitors may leave your web site quicker than you think. Give yourself an edge over your competition, by making an ad that makes your website stand out from the others.
Use a personal testimonial ad. You should only use this if you've actually bought the product or service. Tell people what kind of results and benefits you've received using the product. This can be VERY powerful.
Trade links with other webmasters who are promoting the same types of products you are promoting. You want to attract the same type of people that would be interested in buying the product you're reselling.
Some advantages might include more traffic for you and the other webmasters. Once your website gets ranked by Google, you will find more and more webmasters requesting link exchanges to your website.
.Create a newsletter or an electronic magazine (e-zine) advertising your website. Use your newsletter to advertise the affiliate programs you've joined. Or offer a free e-book in your newsletter with the advertisement and links of your affiliate web site. The free e-book should draw your target audience to down-load it instantly. You can also submit your newsletter to directories and start a traffic virus getting people to visit your website.
Offer free online services, utilities or useful website links from your web site. They could be search engine submissions, language translations, web site tune ups. Make sure that the service or utility that you are offering them is something you would personally use and is of an interest to your website. There, make sure to add as many of your affiliate links as possible so that people can see them and click on them.
Start your own affiliate program directory. If you have joined more than one affiliate program, list them all in a directory format on your web site. Advertise your free affiliate program directory to others so that they will want to be part of your directory as well.
Write articles and submit them to websites that do accept them is another great way to drive more traffic and increase your affiliate commissions. The MOST important thing to do is to add a "resource box" in the bottom of every article that you write. This has been used and proven to work by all top marketing gurus online.THIS is BY FAR the most effective way to increase your backlinks!
Make sure you practice good follow up skills and get back to all of your affiliates within 24 hours or sooner. If you are available to them, they will want to stick around. You will be able to answer questions just like you do with your own affiliate mentors. Copyright 2004 Jennifer Schilling
By Jennifer Schilling
Affiliate Marketing--Huh?
In my search for a presence on the internet, I searched many avenues, but was finding more scams and dead ends than I would care to speak about.
It was one last scam and six months of my presence on the internet that I realized that the only way I could possibly make a living on the internet -- and gain any amount of satisfaction --was to work for myself. Duh! But how? Affiliate Marketing seemed to be the answer.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is the promotion of another person's or company's product, in which you get a percentage of the profit if a sale is made. That doesn't sound so hard, does it? Well -- it's doeable if you have the information you need to get you started in this field -- and it is work. So let me begin the enlightenment.
First and foremost, you need passion?
What is Passion?
Passion is a feeling that you have -- a feeling that is so strong that it is your driving force in doing it.
As you can see, passion is needed in any venture if you want to succeed. With passion, it will drive you forward through the hard times, the bad times, and the good times when developing your business.
This passion thing, I must admit, was my first stumbling block. I believed I didn't have a passion for anything -- and feared that maybe, just maybe, the corporate world and it 70 hour work weeks may have consumed my passion.
However, I was not willing to give up. Not yet. I searched out sites, read articles, examined web sites -- in search of my passion. Then one day, in the middle of my research, I heard myself asking probing questions of -- Why? Where? When? How? My passion was found.
Research, curiosity and learning -- my strengths and my driving assets. My creation -- "My Affiliate Place", was born. It would be a place where an affiliate marketer or a want-to-be affiliate marketer could find information, articles, and free tools.
So, I say to you, if I can find my hidden passion, you can too.
Onward and upward --with my passion defined, I needed a web site.
Web site! Do I need one?
Many people say you can do affiliate marketing without a web site -- however, with a web site you can promote more than one product and reach a greater number of people with the same interests. And last but not least, marketing is the act of connecting with people -- and on the internet -- a web site is your vehicle.
Web Site Is Built. Now What!
Now that your web site is built, you will need to begin the promotion process. There are many avenues in which you can venture. To name a few:
1. safelists
2. ezines
3. classified ads
4. writing articles
5. Off-line advertising -- brochures, flyers
6. Search engine optimization -- To get help in this area, go to my web site at: www.myaffiliateplace.biz/affiliate_info -- to begin your optimization process.
As you can see, advertising is only limited by your own imagination.
To conclude, affiliate marketing is a viable way to begin your journey on the internet and to your own business. But as you know, with anything that is worth having, you must work diligently and passionately, and continue to grow and learn -- if success is to be yours.
To your success.
By Vickie J Scanlon
Affiliate Programs : Golden Opportunity or Waste of Time?
Now that the idea of doing business over the internet has been firmly established, many potential internet businessmen are searching for the best way to do business. Usually the choice comes down to whether you want to set up your own business and online store, or sign up for an affiliate program.
First of all, let's define what we mean by an affiliate program. An affiliate program is basically an internet business set up by someone else. They could be selling physical goods, education, information or any other products that can be sold online. By signing up as their affiliate, you are helping them promote their business or store. In return, they will pay you a commission for each sale you bring them. The amount of commission varies between different affiliate programs. Examples of affiliate programs include Amazon.com and Wordtracker.
1) EARNINGS
So how does an affiliate program differ from starting your own online store? Let's start by looking at the potential earnings. (After all, the main reason everyone wants to start an internet business is for the money). When you sign up for an affiliate program, you will be paid a commission for each sale you refer to the online store. This commission can range from 5% to 15% for physical products, and possibly up to 50% or more for virtual products such as subscriptions and ebooks.
On the other hand, if you start your own store, your profit can be much higher. For virtual products, your profit can be 100% of your selling price. After all, once the newsletter or ebook is created, you do not need to spend any more effort. When someone buys your ebook, they just download it from your website. If you are selling a physical product, your profit depends on whether you are manufacturing the product yourself, or buying from a wholesaler or dropshipping company. Your profit in this case could easily be more than 40% or 50%.
So, if you only consider the potential earnings, starting your own business is more lucrative than joining an affiliate program.
2) LOGISTICS
However, money isn't everything (Or so they say). When you are starting your own internet business, there are a number of logistic issues you need to look at. Here are a few things you would need to take care of:
a) Create your website
b) Design your product (if you are selling new products)
c) Create your product (if you are selling new physical products, or any virtual products)
d) Set up an online store
e) Set up a merchant account or payment gateway
f) Set up a warehouse or storage space (if you are selling physical products)
g) Have procedures and staff ready to fulfill orders
h) Set up an affiliate program to get others to market the products for you
i) Monitor for fraud
j) Monitor stock levels
As they say, "No pain, no gain". Having your own store pays very well, but requires a substantial time investment from you.
On the other hand, if you sign up for an affiliate program, all you need to do is set up a website to promote the program. All the ads, banners, marketing text etc will be provided to you by the affiliate program. Your only responsibilities would be to get people to visit your website, and hopefully click on the affiliate links to buy the products that you are promoting.
3) CONVERSION
Whether you have your own business or are promoting an affiliate program, the bottom line is the conversion rate, or the percentage of visitors that actually buy something from you. A number of factors influence this conversion rate. Factors as quality of the product, quality of the website, customer support are all important. However, I personally believe that the most important factor is trust.
When a potential customer arrives at your website, he will need to trust your site enough for him to be willing to buy from you. After all, on the internet you are just a faceless salesman. He doesn't know who is actually running the site and whether he will actually get the goods that he orders.
Having said that, one of the key methods of garnering trust is by recommendation and referral. If a store is being referred to or recommended by another website, the potential customer will feel that the store is trustworthy. After all, if the store is not trustworthy, why would the other website recommend it?
This is where affiliate programs shine. When you refer a potential customer to the store for which you are an affiliate, the customer will feel more relieved, since the store is being recommended by your site, a 3rd party. The customer will be more likely to buy from the store, benefiting both the store, and you as well.
There are both pros and cons to joining an affiliate program. You might earn less with an affiliate program compared to starting your own store, but I believe the benefits of not having to be responsible for the logistics makes affiliate programs are very viable "passive" source of income.
By Steven
Choosing An Affiliate Marketing Program
If you are new to affiliate marketing, you are probably overwhelmed with the number of programs available out there for you to join and promote. This article will provide a guideline to help you choose the right affiliate program for yourself.
In deciding what affiliate marketing program you would like to join, you should choose a product that you are interested in. The success of how well you do in this program will depend on how good you are at marketing the product. If the product is something you have no interest in or know nothing about, this will be reflected.
Also in regards to choosing the right program, you should pick one that can be easily marketed. If you become the affiliate of a product that only you and the product owner is interested in , you will not make any money and have a hard time getting people to sign up.
After you have chosen a product that you like and can market, if would be a good idea to investigate more closely the affiliate program that is being offered. If the product has a successful number of affiliates who are generally happy with things, then you can consider joining this program. However, if the affiliates of a particular program are disgruntled have many complaints about the company, then you should stay away from this company. This is why it is important to receive feedback from other affiliates.
Also this would be a good time to mention that it is not a good idea to choose a program with thousands of affiliates. This is because the market will be saturated with them, and instead of signing up or buying your product; the customer will just ignore one of many hundreds of ads they have seen before. There is one affiliate program that comes to mind! However, it is best to sign up with an affiliate marketing program that is not too saturated but has been stable for a few months.
Of course the best piece of advice about becoming an affiliate is to market and promote continuously. This could mean either offline or online types of promotion. Many affiliate programs will provide marketing tools to their affiliates such as banners and text links. You can use these everywhere to encourage people to buy the product. How good you are at marketing will determine how successful you are with your affiliate program.
Until The Next Time,
By Dr. J. Elisha Burke
Affiliate Marketing at a Glance: Helpful Hints
Regarded as one of the choice Internet marketing systems offered to small businesses, affiliate marketing has caught the attention of accomplished entrepreneurs across the globe. With virtually no risk involved in the affiliate marketing game, payment is made only after results are provided. That is one of the several reasons that this form of trade has such a high level of popularity. And with a considerable number of programs currently available online, it is critical to make yours shine brightly above all other professional affiliate marketing systems.
Those with affiliate marketing expertise can easily secure an income of five figures per month. However, less than 5 percent of all individuals involved in these affiliate programs reach this milestone. A huge blunder that many affiliate potentials make is trying to merchandise too many products instead of concentrating on one particular market. In lieu of dispersing your endeavors, focus on your passion, advertise it, and sell it to the best of your abilities.
It is your responsibility to research the product or services that you are offering to the public. With the information you gather, you can produce a resource that builds your credibility with future customers and fellow affiliates. When you have the confidence of your peers, you are building trust in the world of affiliate marketing.
Once you have decided the affiliate market you are interested in, it is time to actively recruit partners. It is in your best interest to find individuals that have already developed traffic and would profit from your offer. You should provide your partners with promotional material, and make their affiliate marketing job as fun and easy as possible. Always keep in contact with your partners, and be sure to deliver updates or changes on products and services. It is also advisable to send tips on how to be successful in the marketing environment.
Promotion is a major component in any form of marketing. Several top affiliates use pay-per-click search engines. However, use these search engines with caution. If you don't know what you are doing you may lose money. It is best if you discover how to obtain natural search results or employ a search engine marketing firm.
Becoming a marketing guru is definitely not something that will happen overnight. Affiliate marketing takes research, motivation, and most of all, patience. But, as with all things, in the end it is all worth it.
To keep yourself motivated and to receive more helpful information about the nuts and bolts of starting and maintaining a profitable online business subscribe to one or more online e-zines and read every line of every issue. There are also many e-books and e-courses full of step-by-step, how-to instructions to help you get started in this profitable business.
Until The Next Time,
By Dr. J. Elisha Burke
Three Critical Affiliate Marketing Tips For Higher Commissions!
Affiliate marketing is quickly becoming a very specialized form of online business. It seems that people all over the Internet are clamoring for more affiliate tips. And there are a ton of products, services, ebooks, ultra-high priced DVD sets, and a plethora of other "things" geared for affiliate marketing.
So, the question of the moment is how do you weed through this avalanche of "stuff" and find out what actually works. Because, after it's all said and done, the name of the game is making a living from affiliate marketing.
There are plenty of strategies and tips. There are plenty of people telling you which way is best and which way you absolutely should not do. Funny thing is, the things you should do don't work sometimes and the things you shouldn't do, work sometimes. It's really anyone's guess at what works and what doesn't.
However, there are three critical affiliate tips that you should take heed of and use on a consistent basis.
Affiliate marketing is built around content
Do you really want to make a name for yourself in affiliate marketing? Do you want a long lasting online business? Then you have to take very seriously this first critical tip.
Content is what drives affiliate sales. Period. You can advertise as much as you want, in as many different places that you want, but at the end of the day, it's the content on your site that will make the sale. Notice I said "your" site.
Affiliate marketing becomes a very lucrative form of business when you have your own website. A website that contains timely, relevant, and informative content. This content can be in the form of articles, product reviews, industry news, interviews with key people, or whatever people will want to keep coming back for.
Ken Evoy of Site Built It!(buildit.sitesell.com/glimmersales.html) says that content is the only way to Pre-sell your site visitors. I whole heartedly agree. Content will effectively pre-sell your visitors, that you work so hard to advertise to, into taking action... clicking through to the merchant and ka-ching... making you commission.
Affiliate marketing is made stronger through your list
Any type of online marketing depends heavily on a way to keep in frequent touch with previous website visitors. Having an ezine, newsletter, or other type of e-mailing list is a key component to affiliate marketing. A strong list of subscribers is a gold mine for savvy publishers.
The key to making an ezine work for you though is, again, strong, quality, and relevant content. Something that people will want to keep reading on a continuing basis. A weekly, or bi-weekly ezine can easily boost your affiliate commissions sky high by placing a few links within the content or as a product review or special recommendation.
Again, please note the use of "a few". Many ezine publishers just don't seem to get the idea of "a few". That means one to two affiliate links within the whole ezine. The key to publishing an ezine is to establish contact and grow a relationship with your subscriber. Not force affiliate links down their throat. When you can build a strong relationship with subscribers, they will be more likely to listen to your advice, your suggestions, and your recommendations.
An example of this would be Alan Gardyne of AssociatePrograms.com. His newsletter is crammed full of great tips and case studies of successful affiliates and what they are doing. He has grown a great list of over 22,000 subscribers who he can actually call a friend. Why? Because he has never crammed affiliate links down the throats of his subscribers. But, each and every issue of his ezine earns him thousands of dollars in affiliate commissions.
If you don't have an ezine, start one. If you do then take a hard look at it and see if you're using too many ads and not enough content.
Affiliate marketing depends on strategic linking partners
Search engines like Google, MSN, and Yahoo! are looking hard at sites and one of the criteria for high rankings is how many relevant links to your site there are. Meaning is there any other sites out there that are linking to you. This is very important for affiliate marketing websites.
And another reason why content is so important.
Every day I set aside one full hour of time in my day to research and email potential linking partners. Once I find someone who's site is comparable to mine I will email them, by name, and present my proposal. Keep in mind they do not have to link back to you. So, you must make it appealing. Either by reciprocating with a link to their site, a special comission for everyone they refer who buys from you, or some other way of enticing them to link to you.
Now, just any site will not do you any good. They must be relevant to your particular niche. For example, a fishing oriented website would not benefit, either by traffic or search engine rankings, by having a diet site link back to them.
Content, mailing list, link partners. Easy, right?
It is, but it takes time and dedication. You can create a very profitable affiliate program. Anyone can do it. But, it depends on you. Are you dedicated enough to do it?
Use these three critical affiliate marketing steps in your online business and you'll see an immediate increase in your bottom line.
By Tim Bossie
5 Affiliate Marketing Facts of Life
Affiliate Marketing (AM) is fast becoming a major trend in line business. With the internet still in its adolescent years, it has already established itself as an extremely viable career opportunity, bridging the advertising gap for companies, while providing much sought-after work at home revenue.
With the boom in affiliate marketing, however, there is a growing wave of new marketers that become easily discouraged when the initial hype wears off and they don't understand what to expect in the business. For those just entering the arena, here are a few Facts Of Life about Affiliate Marketing:
1) YOU WILL HAVE TO INVEST SOME MONEY
Affiliate marketing being a hybrid of the independent contractor & the self-employed small business owner, it is inevitable that some money be invested. While a contractor might earn a base pay + commission, they also have little or no control over product, promotion or price. And, while a self-employed owner controls all these, they also pay all the bills.
But an AM is neither. They don't control price nor, once they sign up, product. But they do control promotion. And, unlike a self-employed worker, they bear only a fraction of the costs. The advertising fraction.
So, the bad news is affiliate marketers do have to invest some money, at some point, even in the best programs or scenerios. But this has also become a growing trend in all sales positions, as well as positions in all industries. Many positions include a certain amount of investment. Any job that requires a uniform, for example, means investing in special clothes. Plus most realtors must pay for their own advertising.
The good news is that, unlike other sales positions (but similar to small business), the AM controls that cost because they decide on which advertisements to invest.
The best news is that many companies, like Plug-in-Profits (http://trackermo.com/pips.html), now offer great affiliate support and will guide the new AM until they understand the business and can stand on their own two feet.
2) YOU WILL HAVE TO INVEST SOME TIME
Affiliate marketing works on the slide-rule effect. That is, the more effort the AM invests, the richer the dividends. And, like a microcosm of a career, the AM works their tail off in the beginning-- then works less and less as their sales build. But this can be measured in months, rather than years (thus, the mirocosm).
Still, many enter the AM arena thinking all they have to do is sign up as an affiliate, then sit back and reap the rewards. And that's just when they should be getting busy. The rewards will come, but not until they've put in their time.
The bad news here is to expect to eat, drink and sleep marketing-- at first.
The good news is that, according to experts in the field, an affiliate can expect to see a return on their investment within the first 3-9 months, depending on how much time they spend at it.
3) YOU WILL GET BURNED ONCE OR TWICE
It's inevitable. Either by paying astronomical fees for hosting, for leads or for some other service (not to mention, the existence of scams), it happens. That's why "expert" and "experience" have the same root word. It takes experience to know what's going on, how to spot a scam, and to know a good opportunity when it arrives.
The good news is, experience is the best teacher of all. And a new AM will soon learn from their mistakes.
4) YOU WILL HAVE TO UPDATE YOURSELF
The internet has been called the most fluid industry ever. That's a poetic way of saying it changes faster and more often than a body of water. Engineers call it expotential growth, though it's more reminiscent of growth on a cellular level: Rather like a baby starting as two single cells and, in short nine months, becoming a fully formed infant. Or, like a pyramid scheme that really works!
Whatever the analogy, the point is the internet is constantly, incessantly, (sometimes annoyingly) changing. What was vital two years ago (SE placement, keywords, Pay-Per-Click), is now becoming passe, replaced by new types of more effective marketing techniques (PowerLinking, Opt-in lists, pay-per-buy).
All of which leads to--
5) YOU MUST BE PRO-ACTIVE
To keep the revenues up, AMs must find good resources to monitor the business. Newsletters, forums and affiliate resource pages all become vital to watching the latest trends. They are filled with the latest information, the latest ideas and the newest concepts in advertising.
Also, in the case of the AM with their own website, that must be updated occasionally, too while the affiliate landing page will be updated by the company. But when an AM opts for their own page, they must be aware that every few months or years, a new enhancement takes off. Right now, the latest is audio and or animated spokespeople.
Once an affiliate marketer arms themself with these facts of life, they have a very good chance of succeeding in this new arena.
By Marige O'Brien
Affiliate Marketing Step... Set Yourself Apart from the Rest.
I'm sure you've heard the expression, "This is where you separate the men from the boys."
It's usually used when you're faced with some ridiculous stunt like jumping off a bridge with a rubber band tied to your foot. Or when you're staring at a sheer cliff with nothing to climb up it but your hands and feet. Or when you have a job walking around six inch beams 200 feet up in the air.
Yeah, I'd say that would be some severe separation.
We can use the same expression for affiliate marketing also.
The real men (and women) are the ones that can set themselves apart from the rest of the pack, make a name for themselves, and start making new trends. The boys and girls are the ones that follow and try to pick up the scraps left over.
How do you set yourself apart to start building a long lasting, profitable affiliate business?
True affiliate marketing success lies within creating your own product.
I know that sounds like a strange tip for people involved in affiliate marketing, where you sell other people's products. But, if you take some time to look around at the most successful people in the affiliate marketing world you'll see one major difference between them and the rest. Or the men from the boys.
They all have their own product, or products.
You're probably asking yourself, "Doesn't this defeat the whole affiliate marketing concept?" Actually it strengthens it.
Set Yourself Apart for Affiliate Success
More than anything else, having your own product to sell sets yourself apart from the rest of the field. Most affiliates try to get by with the ads and articles that are supplied by the merchant. Some will buy Google Adwords in the hope of turning that traffic into commissions. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.
Having an ebook, software, membership site, print newsletter, or whatever other product, or service, you can think of will leverage your affiliate business exponentially. You are no longer a follower, but someone who visitors will see as one that is trustworthy and determined to stay in business, not just collect a quick buck.
Increased Reach Through Your Mailing List
Your own product means more subscribers. More subscribers means more reach to place reviews of affiliate products, small ads, and recommendations of products.
Expert Notoriety
This is more of a side effect from having a larger mailing list. You are perceived as an expert and your recommendations will be taken more seriously. It's a lot different than being a nobody and having a few articles about a topic linking to an affiliate product.
Trend Setter
A majority of our population here on earth don't like to be first in line. They like to follow. Let them follow you. Be a trend setter in developing new products to teach or help others.
If I could give you one magical affiliate marketing tip it would be to create your own product. A short, well thought out and informative ebook can do more for your affiliate marketing business than any automated software or DVD package every will.
By Tim Bossie