Upsells Make Your Business A ProfitThis article is, hopefully, going to share with you some information, on how to add a product which will make clients want to upgrade. A product which will offer a lot of value at a dollar amount people will feel is a great deal. Up-sells are a money making concept, which has been around for a long time. See if you remember this. Would like an apple pie with that?
Many internet marketers do not have an up-sell able product. They only have one product that they sell. It might be an e-book or informational course or anything of that nature. Trouble is, they are missing out on enormous profit potential with every sale they make. They could be reaping the easy profits that come with a well-placed up-sell. But, like with anything, if you do not understand something, you can not use it to your advantage.
An up-sell refers to an offer you make to your customer at the point of purchase. After they click the, buy now, button. You present them with a small piece of copy that explains the benefits of packaging together what they just bought with the up-sell product.
This tactic is very simple, but the results can be phenomenal. It is not uncommon to get 30-40% of your customers to take you up on an up-sell. The reason for this is because your customer has just decided to make the purchase. And once they are in that mindset, it is exponentially easier to get them to buy more.
Up-sells are used everywhere. Have you ever noticed in the mall the selling proposition, Buy one and get the second one 50% off. This is a perfect example of up-selling in the physical world. Online is just as easy. And over time, including up-sells will add up to tremendous profit increases.The product you offer as your up sell absolutely needs to be synergistic with the main product you are selling. It should work to enhance your main product or make it more complete.
If it's unrelated or only partially applicable to the interests of your target market, you will not make near as many up-sells as possible. Hone in on what interests your customers most. Cater to the wants and desires of them and most will take you up on your up-sell proposition.
In the copy of the up-sell itself, stress the great benefits that will be gained. If you fail to get persons attention, they will quickly move on and click "no thanks". Do this by showing the undeniable advantages of packaging the up-sell item with their original purchase.
This approach is guaranteed to make most people think twice before passing up your offer. You will likely be able to convert 30-40% of your customers to the up-sell item. This can mean massive increases in profitability to your online business. And it is so easy. I can't imagine why anyone would let their site go on without having an up-sell. You know better now.
Go add a well-placed up-sell to your site now! This may be just what you ads, blogs, web sites, etc. needs to move you online business to the next level. To making a profit. Personally they have made a great difference for us. My comments are my own, based on personal experience.
Monday, December 17, 2007
The Number One Killer - Why You Failed In Affiliate Marketing
The Number One Killer - Why You Failed In Affiliate MarketingJust imagine about this, "A visitor arrives at an affiliate's site that is really just one, big sales site. Put yourself in these visitor's shoes for a moment. They don't see inspiring, editorial content - they see a sales effort. But they were searching for content!" So what is going to happen is that your visitors will leave the moment they see that you are trying to sell something to them!
So how can you make money with affiliate programs then? With a very simple and very easy principle, pre-selling. Pre-selling is what you always do in your life. After you watched a movie in the cinema, and you find it nice, you will recommend to your friends. The very same principle applies in affiliate marketing. You need to recommend your affiliate products or services to your visitors, but selling them, but pre-selling them!
Make your visitors feel like you are a friend and you are giving your opinion and recommend them your affiliate products. This is the real way of making real money with affiliate programs. You should know that people resist sales effort. When you receive a call from a salesman, you will reject the salesman, because you are not in the mind of buying any products at that moment. It is the same in your website. When visitors arrive to your site, they are looking for either solution to their problems, or information that they need. Therefore, these are the two things that you should provide them, not selling them with your affiliate products.
All you need to do is recommend your visitors and prospects. You are the one who is going to lead them to the sales page of your affiliate company, and your affiliate website will sell them their products, and you make money. Let your affiliate website do their job, your job in affiliate marketing is to pre-sell.
Now you understand that what you should be doing if you want to make money with affiliate programs. Remember, your mission is to warm up your visitors, provide them with useful content and value that they are looking for. They will click through your affiliate with pleasure; they will arrive to your affiliate website with a ready-to-buy mindset. This way, your conversion rate will be higher. Make this clears, you should not tell your visitors what to do, let them click through themselves, let them think that it is their decision to do so. This is what makes all the difference.
Always, after you've set up your websites, try to think from your visitors' shoes. What exactly did they can find from your site, and did your site really going to help them solve their problem and give useful information? Think from your visitor and customer's point of view, then you can provide an effective, and better conversion website.
So how can you make money with affiliate programs then? With a very simple and very easy principle, pre-selling. Pre-selling is what you always do in your life. After you watched a movie in the cinema, and you find it nice, you will recommend to your friends. The very same principle applies in affiliate marketing. You need to recommend your affiliate products or services to your visitors, but selling them, but pre-selling them!
Make your visitors feel like you are a friend and you are giving your opinion and recommend them your affiliate products. This is the real way of making real money with affiliate programs. You should know that people resist sales effort. When you receive a call from a salesman, you will reject the salesman, because you are not in the mind of buying any products at that moment. It is the same in your website. When visitors arrive to your site, they are looking for either solution to their problems, or information that they need. Therefore, these are the two things that you should provide them, not selling them with your affiliate products.
All you need to do is recommend your visitors and prospects. You are the one who is going to lead them to the sales page of your affiliate company, and your affiliate website will sell them their products, and you make money. Let your affiliate website do their job, your job in affiliate marketing is to pre-sell.
Now you understand that what you should be doing if you want to make money with affiliate programs. Remember, your mission is to warm up your visitors, provide them with useful content and value that they are looking for. They will click through your affiliate with pleasure; they will arrive to your affiliate website with a ready-to-buy mindset. This way, your conversion rate will be higher. Make this clears, you should not tell your visitors what to do, let them click through themselves, let them think that it is their decision to do so. This is what makes all the difference.
Always, after you've set up your websites, try to think from your visitors' shoes. What exactly did they can find from your site, and did your site really going to help them solve their problem and give useful information? Think from your visitor and customer's point of view, then you can provide an effective, and better conversion website.
Affiliate Programs Can Be Very Beneficial To Internet Market
Affiliate Programs Can Be Very Beneficial To Internet MarketAn affiliate program is, simply defined, a sales job in which you earn a commission. You will be an independent representative of a company, offering their services and products to prospective customers. When one of the customers makes a purchase, you get a portion of the profit. Internet marketers can increase traffi'c to their own web sites and make money form the sales of others through affiliate marketing programs.
Internet marketers can be affiliates for several products from multiple companies, on as many web sites as you operate, in as many businesses as you desire. You don't have to travel to remote locations, yet the internet places you in front of a worldwide marketplace. This gives you incredible diversity in the products you choose, markets in which you do business and neighbourhoods in which to sell, all from the comfort of your own home in front of your computer screen. You could possibly make several sales at once, but you will never have to deal with face-to-face rejection. When doing business on the internet, you don't necessarily need to make sales to earn lucrative commissions. Certain affiliate marketing programs will pay you if someone just clicks on a link you place on your web site, fills out an application, or even requests additional information. And here's the most attractive part - your web sites work for you twenty four hours a day, each and every day.
Commission rates will depend on the types of products or services that are offered. Tangible goods that will have to be shipped to customers will pay lower commission rates than products like e-books or software that can be downloaded immediately. However, 10% of a $600 television is more money than 60% of a $40 software program, so you have to remember to consider the big picture when deciding what affiliate programs to join. For the best affiliate sales experience, you will want to offer products and services that will appeal to the targeted audience of your web site. As an internet marketer, you will need to appeal to the interests of your customers when placing affiliate links on your web site.
There are various ways to join affiliate programs. Some retailers operate their own program, and you will join through the merchant web site. But many internet marketers choose to operate through an affiliate network. These independent companies offer sign-up, payment, tracking and affiliate program management services to retailers and affiliate marketers. A couple of well-known names are Clickbank and Linkshare. Simply perform a search for affiliate programs and you are sure to find more.
Your sales and clicks are tracked by software. It is your job to make sure your links follow the procedures and rules posted by your merchant or affiliate network. Some browsers, a'd-blockers, and coding practices can prevent the tracking links on your web site from functioning correctly, and you might not get credit if one of your clicks results a sale. Most affiliate marketers encounter this problem eventually. When it happens, remember it's not intentional, so do not feel as if you have been victimized in some way. Internet marketing technology is very good, but it's not perfect.
For almost all internet marketers, joining affiliate marketing programs give you a cheap and easy way to get started in an online business. These programs can help you produce income while you learn internet marketing techniques and work towards developing your own product or service.
Internet marketers can be affiliates for several products from multiple companies, on as many web sites as you operate, in as many businesses as you desire. You don't have to travel to remote locations, yet the internet places you in front of a worldwide marketplace. This gives you incredible diversity in the products you choose, markets in which you do business and neighbourhoods in which to sell, all from the comfort of your own home in front of your computer screen. You could possibly make several sales at once, but you will never have to deal with face-to-face rejection. When doing business on the internet, you don't necessarily need to make sales to earn lucrative commissions. Certain affiliate marketing programs will pay you if someone just clicks on a link you place on your web site, fills out an application, or even requests additional information. And here's the most attractive part - your web sites work for you twenty four hours a day, each and every day.
Commission rates will depend on the types of products or services that are offered. Tangible goods that will have to be shipped to customers will pay lower commission rates than products like e-books or software that can be downloaded immediately. However, 10% of a $600 television is more money than 60% of a $40 software program, so you have to remember to consider the big picture when deciding what affiliate programs to join. For the best affiliate sales experience, you will want to offer products and services that will appeal to the targeted audience of your web site. As an internet marketer, you will need to appeal to the interests of your customers when placing affiliate links on your web site.
There are various ways to join affiliate programs. Some retailers operate their own program, and you will join through the merchant web site. But many internet marketers choose to operate through an affiliate network. These independent companies offer sign-up, payment, tracking and affiliate program management services to retailers and affiliate marketers. A couple of well-known names are Clickbank and Linkshare. Simply perform a search for affiliate programs and you are sure to find more.
Your sales and clicks are tracked by software. It is your job to make sure your links follow the procedures and rules posted by your merchant or affiliate network. Some browsers, a'd-blockers, and coding practices can prevent the tracking links on your web site from functioning correctly, and you might not get credit if one of your clicks results a sale. Most affiliate marketers encounter this problem eventually. When it happens, remember it's not intentional, so do not feel as if you have been victimized in some way. Internet marketing technology is very good, but it's not perfect.
For almost all internet marketers, joining affiliate marketing programs give you a cheap and easy way to get started in an online business. These programs can help you produce income while you learn internet marketing techniques and work towards developing your own product or service.
How to Run A Successful Affiliate Program
How to Run A Successful Affiliate ProgramThere are many people who log onto the internet everyday looking for a way to make money online.
They start with all the best intentions, but unfortunately, before they know it they are getting bombarded with information and are simply spinning their wheels.
I completely understand this. There is so much internet marketing information online and once you get started it seems like “information overload”.
Therefore, I will try to keep this as simple and short as possible.
Many people will sign up with an affiliate program promoting the affiliate’s product or program. This makes sense. Starting as an affiliate marketer is probably the easiest way to get started online. There are many affiliate programs out there that will give you everything you need to promote their products or program…Well almost everything.
You see, many of these affiliate sites will give you a website, but you don’t own the site. It is a gateway site. You don’t even own the domain name for that matter.
Being part of one of these programs is not bad though. I belong to several. SFI is a perfect example. I joined their program and have several sites that they gave me to promote their products and their affiliate program.
But if you are truly going to make money with these types of sites you are going to have to do a lot more than simply sign up for their program.
It is simply unreasonable to think that people are going to just stumble upon your site and sign up for your program and start making you money.
There are a few things you need to do if you truly want to make an affiliate program work.
First of all, you must have your “own” web page with your “own” domain name and your “own” host. You will then have links from your “own” site to the other “gateway” site(s). You will promote your gateway site it, but you will promote it through your own site.
There are so many reasons for this I couldn’t possible fit it into this one article, but basically the site is yours to run the way you want to. Think of it this way…it is “your” store and you are selling “their” product.
Your web page could be designed as a short sales letter that focuses primarily on this one program if that is what you choose. Or, you could focus on several affiliate programs and products within the same market. For example, a sales letter with the top 3-5 money making opportunities.
THIS IS IMPORTANT: Either way, promoting one program/product or promoting several, you will not only want to own your own site, you definitely want to be able to “drop in” on potential customers from time to time. What I mean by that is you want to capture email addresses of people who visit your site.
To do so you need to give something away that is of enough value that people are willing to give up their email address and receive something from you week after week or at least month after month.
A newsletter/ezine is perfect for this. Send out a weekly or monthly newsletter on your topic that includes articles, tips, e-courses, bonuses etc. This way you can plug your programs over and over again (not just once).
I know this sounds like a lot…design your own web site and your own newsletter.
However, there are programs available that actually set everything up for you, including a website, an autoresponder, a pre-written newsletter, and even unlimited support.
Plug-in-Profit (PIPS) (http://www.money-teacher.com/pluginprofitsite.htm) is a perfect example. You can have a web site that site is 100% yours to change however you wish. The site comes ready to promote 5 different programs. You could work with as many of them as you want and you can also add your own.
You also get a pre-written newsletter and autoresponder that is also 100% customizable. The newsletter is obviously designed to promote the programs that come with the web site, but you can change it however you wish.
PIPS may or may not be what you are looking for; however, if you truly want to be successful online you will definitely need your own web site and your own newsletter.
They start with all the best intentions, but unfortunately, before they know it they are getting bombarded with information and are simply spinning their wheels.
I completely understand this. There is so much internet marketing information online and once you get started it seems like “information overload”.
Therefore, I will try to keep this as simple and short as possible.
Many people will sign up with an affiliate program promoting the affiliate’s product or program. This makes sense. Starting as an affiliate marketer is probably the easiest way to get started online. There are many affiliate programs out there that will give you everything you need to promote their products or program…Well almost everything.
You see, many of these affiliate sites will give you a website, but you don’t own the site. It is a gateway site. You don’t even own the domain name for that matter.
Being part of one of these programs is not bad though. I belong to several. SFI is a perfect example. I joined their program and have several sites that they gave me to promote their products and their affiliate program.
But if you are truly going to make money with these types of sites you are going to have to do a lot more than simply sign up for their program.
It is simply unreasonable to think that people are going to just stumble upon your site and sign up for your program and start making you money.
There are a few things you need to do if you truly want to make an affiliate program work.
First of all, you must have your “own” web page with your “own” domain name and your “own” host. You will then have links from your “own” site to the other “gateway” site(s). You will promote your gateway site it, but you will promote it through your own site.
There are so many reasons for this I couldn’t possible fit it into this one article, but basically the site is yours to run the way you want to. Think of it this way…it is “your” store and you are selling “their” product.
Your web page could be designed as a short sales letter that focuses primarily on this one program if that is what you choose. Or, you could focus on several affiliate programs and products within the same market. For example, a sales letter with the top 3-5 money making opportunities.
THIS IS IMPORTANT: Either way, promoting one program/product or promoting several, you will not only want to own your own site, you definitely want to be able to “drop in” on potential customers from time to time. What I mean by that is you want to capture email addresses of people who visit your site.
To do so you need to give something away that is of enough value that people are willing to give up their email address and receive something from you week after week or at least month after month.
A newsletter/ezine is perfect for this. Send out a weekly or monthly newsletter on your topic that includes articles, tips, e-courses, bonuses etc. This way you can plug your programs over and over again (not just once).
I know this sounds like a lot…design your own web site and your own newsletter.
However, there are programs available that actually set everything up for you, including a website, an autoresponder, a pre-written newsletter, and even unlimited support.
Plug-in-Profit (PIPS) (http://www.money-teacher.com/pluginprofitsite.htm) is a perfect example. You can have a web site that site is 100% yours to change however you wish. The site comes ready to promote 5 different programs. You could work with as many of them as you want and you can also add your own.
You also get a pre-written newsletter and autoresponder that is also 100% customizable. The newsletter is obviously designed to promote the programs that come with the web site, but you can change it however you wish.
PIPS may or may not be what you are looking for; however, if you truly want to be successful online you will definitely need your own web site and your own newsletter.
Affiliate Programs 101!
Joining an affiliate program is one of the easiest ways to start an online business and generate income for your website. These revenue sharing programs are very popular on the net. And is the way many new entrepreneurs started online.
When you join an affiliate program your task is to promote the merchants services or products on your website or in your ezine. This is easier than you might think because the merchants supply members with banners or links back to their site to promote the product. Plus they tally up your clicks or sales.
But Beware!
Make sure you understand all the details of the program. Avoid MLM programs. Only the first tier group will reap rewards. Avoid any program where you recruit other affiliates. And your earnings are based on a percentage of their profits. Your profits plummet if your recruits abandon the program.
Affiliate programs pay their members a fixed amount for each sale, click through, lead, or banner impression.
Here's a simple breakdown of most payment plans:
-Pay per sale.
A commission is paid for each sale your site/ezine generates.
-Pay per click through.
You receive a payment for each valid click to the sponsors website.
-Pay per lead.
You receive a payment for each sales lead for a service or product.
-Pay per impression.
You receive a payment each time a merchants banner or link is displayed to the merchants site.
Joining an affiliate program is easy! Just be sure to select an affiliate program with appropriate services or products that match your targeted audience.
If your ezine/website attracts Rugged Out-doors motorcycle enthusiast, you certainly would not display maternity clothing or baby booties.
Or if your ezine/website attracts young teenagers, you certainly don't want to display senior citizen products like walkers or vitamins for older adults.
Always read the fine print. Make sure you understand the payment clause. Many affiliate programs will only send you payment after you've accumulated a certain sales amount. Anything from $10.00 and up.
Affiliates might pay every other week, per month or per quarter. You will receive a payment if you reach the minimum balance in sales during that pay period. Most balances are accumulative. So, if you do not reach the minimum during one pay period it will be rolled over to your next pay period and added to any sales balances. Once again, read the fine print in the affiliate agreement when you sign up for pertinent details.
Here are a few popular affiliate programs.
Clickbank http://www.clickbank.com
Commission Junction http://www.commisionjunction.com
To find more affiliate programs, go to one of the search engines like:
Google http://www.google.com
Type in affiliate programs. Click on the one's that interest you.
Are you a newbie and want an easy way to get into business fast? Join an affiliate program!
One Super Affiliate Rosalind Gardner shares her techniques and secrets in her newest ebook. Check it out if you want to get into business fast.
"Super Affiliate Handbook" Click Here: http://hop.clickbank.net/?xy123/webvista2
BB Lee is the editor and publisher of SmallBizBits Newsletter.
Join our list today and receive your ebook bonus.
http://www.geocities.com/smallbizbits
To subscribe... mailto:Smallbiz-subscribe@topica.com
When you join an affiliate program your task is to promote the merchants services or products on your website or in your ezine. This is easier than you might think because the merchants supply members with banners or links back to their site to promote the product. Plus they tally up your clicks or sales.
But Beware!
Make sure you understand all the details of the program. Avoid MLM programs. Only the first tier group will reap rewards. Avoid any program where you recruit other affiliates. And your earnings are based on a percentage of their profits. Your profits plummet if your recruits abandon the program.
Affiliate programs pay their members a fixed amount for each sale, click through, lead, or banner impression.
Here's a simple breakdown of most payment plans:
-Pay per sale.
A commission is paid for each sale your site/ezine generates.
-Pay per click through.
You receive a payment for each valid click to the sponsors website.
-Pay per lead.
You receive a payment for each sales lead for a service or product.
-Pay per impression.
You receive a payment each time a merchants banner or link is displayed to the merchants site.
Joining an affiliate program is easy! Just be sure to select an affiliate program with appropriate services or products that match your targeted audience.
If your ezine/website attracts Rugged Out-doors motorcycle enthusiast, you certainly would not display maternity clothing or baby booties.
Or if your ezine/website attracts young teenagers, you certainly don't want to display senior citizen products like walkers or vitamins for older adults.
Always read the fine print. Make sure you understand the payment clause. Many affiliate programs will only send you payment after you've accumulated a certain sales amount. Anything from $10.00 and up.
Affiliates might pay every other week, per month or per quarter. You will receive a payment if you reach the minimum balance in sales during that pay period. Most balances are accumulative. So, if you do not reach the minimum during one pay period it will be rolled over to your next pay period and added to any sales balances. Once again, read the fine print in the affiliate agreement when you sign up for pertinent details.
Here are a few popular affiliate programs.
Clickbank http://www.clickbank.com
Commission Junction http://www.commisionjunction.com
To find more affiliate programs, go to one of the search engines like:
Google http://www.google.com
Type in affiliate programs. Click on the one's that interest you.
Are you a newbie and want an easy way to get into business fast? Join an affiliate program!
One Super Affiliate Rosalind Gardner shares her techniques and secrets in her newest ebook. Check it out if you want to get into business fast.
"Super Affiliate Handbook" Click Here: http://hop.clickbank.net/?xy123/webvista2
BB Lee is the editor and publisher of SmallBizBits Newsletter.
Join our list today and receive your ebook bonus.
http://www.geocities.com/smallbizbits
To subscribe... mailto:Smallbiz-subscribe@topica.com
How to Succeed with Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are the first choice of most newcomers to net earnings because they have many advantages:
1. All you have to do is to join a merchant program as an affiliate and send visitors to the merchant site
2. All other work such as making a sale, delivering the product or service, receiving payment, attending to the complaints or making a refund, is handled by the merchant site.
3. The merchant site also sees to it that you are paid commission when a sale is made through your efforts.
4. You are also rewarded when a sale is made through the efforts of an affiliate referred by you to the merchant site.
All easy and simple. But most affiliates soon find that in spite of their best efforts they are not making any money.
This is because the affiliate earnings depend not on how many visitors they send to the merchant site, but how many of them buy the product or service of the merchant.
So just sending visitors to the merchant site is not enough.
You can do this easily by joining traffic exchange or autosurf programs. Your merchant site will be seen hundreds of times but it will not make a sale. This is because these visitors are not interested in your site. They are looking at it to earn credits so they can show their site to others.
This is not to say that traffic programs have no use at all.
I have used them successfully to build my downline in free-to-join programs, but have never made a sale through them. Most members of such programs are promoting their own programs. They could get interested in joining other opportunities, but would rarely go for a product themselves.
So if you want to earn from affiliate programs, the thing to do is to send interested visitors to your merchant site.
Who is an interested visitor?
This is the visitor who reached your site by himself. He is looking for the product you are promoting. This is why he took the trouble of finding it from a search engine or from the particular kind of ads or forums.
This visitor is red hot for a sale. He is already interested in your product. If he finds what he wants on your merchant site, he is very much likely to look at the product's features, mentally compare it with other similar products, ask for more information by giving his email address. All this can lead to a sale and a commission for you.
How to target interested visitors
The best way to reach interested visitors is promoting your products through search engines submissions, placing catchy ads, posting in forums or through your own website.
This may sound daunting to newcomers at first but all these are do-able with a little effort. You can get help for mastering all these skills from the resources freely available on the internet.
Joining right affiliate programs can also help a good deal to gain affiliate mastery. While great many affiliate programs give you a few text ads and banners and be done with you, there are some programs that give valuable training to succeed.
Be positive
Most newcomers to internet earning fail because they expect to be rich in a week, if not overnight. When this doesn't happen as it rarely does in real life, they get discouraged. They are also influenced by others who like them tried but failed to earn with affiliate programs. The result -- they give up, frustrated.
The reality is that nobody becomes rich overnight in internet marketing. You have to work at it consistently. Most important of all, banish negative thinking from your life and believe that if others have succeeded, you, too, can and will.
That perhaps is the most important ingredient for your success.
1. All you have to do is to join a merchant program as an affiliate and send visitors to the merchant site
2. All other work such as making a sale, delivering the product or service, receiving payment, attending to the complaints or making a refund, is handled by the merchant site.
3. The merchant site also sees to it that you are paid commission when a sale is made through your efforts.
4. You are also rewarded when a sale is made through the efforts of an affiliate referred by you to the merchant site.
All easy and simple. But most affiliates soon find that in spite of their best efforts they are not making any money.
This is because the affiliate earnings depend not on how many visitors they send to the merchant site, but how many of them buy the product or service of the merchant.
So just sending visitors to the merchant site is not enough.
You can do this easily by joining traffic exchange or autosurf programs. Your merchant site will be seen hundreds of times but it will not make a sale. This is because these visitors are not interested in your site. They are looking at it to earn credits so they can show their site to others.
This is not to say that traffic programs have no use at all.
I have used them successfully to build my downline in free-to-join programs, but have never made a sale through them. Most members of such programs are promoting their own programs. They could get interested in joining other opportunities, but would rarely go for a product themselves.
So if you want to earn from affiliate programs, the thing to do is to send interested visitors to your merchant site.
Who is an interested visitor?
This is the visitor who reached your site by himself. He is looking for the product you are promoting. This is why he took the trouble of finding it from a search engine or from the particular kind of ads or forums.
This visitor is red hot for a sale. He is already interested in your product. If he finds what he wants on your merchant site, he is very much likely to look at the product's features, mentally compare it with other similar products, ask for more information by giving his email address. All this can lead to a sale and a commission for you.
How to target interested visitors
The best way to reach interested visitors is promoting your products through search engines submissions, placing catchy ads, posting in forums or through your own website.
This may sound daunting to newcomers at first but all these are do-able with a little effort. You can get help for mastering all these skills from the resources freely available on the internet.
Joining right affiliate programs can also help a good deal to gain affiliate mastery. While great many affiliate programs give you a few text ads and banners and be done with you, there are some programs that give valuable training to succeed.
Be positive
Most newcomers to internet earning fail because they expect to be rich in a week, if not overnight. When this doesn't happen as it rarely does in real life, they get discouraged. They are also influenced by others who like them tried but failed to earn with affiliate programs. The result -- they give up, frustrated.
The reality is that nobody becomes rich overnight in internet marketing. You have to work at it consistently. Most important of all, banish negative thinking from your life and believe that if others have succeeded, you, too, can and will.
That perhaps is the most important ingredient for your success.
5 Tips To Choosing The Right Affiliate Program
Affiliate programs can be a great way to make money online. You don't have to spend time developing your own product, worry about taking orders, or take care of customer service.
If you already have a high traffic website or run an e-zine you can stand to earn a steady flow of commissions every month without a lot of extra work on your part.
To help you get started promoting affiliate programs, I've provided the following 5 tips to help you choose the affiliate programs that are right for you.
1. Choose affiliate programs that match the content of your site. If your site targets a niche market than choose affiliate programs that offer products to that niche market.
2. Choose affiliate programs that pay a high commission. For example 30%-50% on your direct sales.
3. Join affiliate programs that pay two-tier commissions. This enables you to not only earn commissions on your own sales but also on the sales of people who you introduce to your affiliate
program.
4. Join affiliate programs that offer a line of products so that you can earn commissions when your referrals come back and purchase other services or products.
5. Join affiliate programs that offer their affiliates great marketing support. Many affiliate programs offer their affiliates pre-written ads to use or get ideas from, sales letters, marketing courses, and articles to use in promoting their services.
Remember, the best affiliate programs will see their affiliate program as a partnership with you and combine high commissions with excellent support so that you can start earning money
promoting their products as quickly as possible.
If you already have a high traffic website or run an e-zine you can stand to earn a steady flow of commissions every month without a lot of extra work on your part.
To help you get started promoting affiliate programs, I've provided the following 5 tips to help you choose the affiliate programs that are right for you.
1. Choose affiliate programs that match the content of your site. If your site targets a niche market than choose affiliate programs that offer products to that niche market.
2. Choose affiliate programs that pay a high commission. For example 30%-50% on your direct sales.
3. Join affiliate programs that pay two-tier commissions. This enables you to not only earn commissions on your own sales but also on the sales of people who you introduce to your affiliate
program.
4. Join affiliate programs that offer a line of products so that you can earn commissions when your referrals come back and purchase other services or products.
5. Join affiliate programs that offer their affiliates great marketing support. Many affiliate programs offer their affiliates pre-written ads to use or get ideas from, sales letters, marketing courses, and articles to use in promoting their services.
Remember, the best affiliate programs will see their affiliate program as a partnership with you and combine high commissions with excellent support so that you can start earning money
promoting their products as quickly as possible.
Why Two-Tier Affiliate Programs are Best
Why Two-Tier Affiliate Programs are BestWhen you join an affiliate program or start an affiliate program of your own, you have to decide whether it will be a single tier or two-tier affiliate program.
With a single tier program you earn a commission on any sales you make and that is it. If you are running your own affiliate program, you pay your affiliates a commission for any sales they refer and that is all.
However, with a two-tier program, affiliates are allowed to recruit sub-affiliates and are paid a small percentage of the sales these sub-affiliates generate. For example, the affiliates may earn a 30% commission for selling product X himself; and when one of the sub-affiliates makes a sale, the affiliate may get a 10% commission as well. This is very profitable for the affiliate as he can recruit an army of sub-affiliates, all earning commissions for him without any effort on his part except for the initial recruiting process.
If you are starting an affiliate program of your own should it be two-tier or single tier? Some might shy away from the seeming expense of a two-tier program. But is it really that expensive? Many affiliate program managers make the wrong decision on this.
Let’s look at an example. You have an affiliate program up and running and an average affiliate joins your program. Mr.Average has a web site that receives average traffic. He also has an ezine with thousands of subscribers published monthly. Mr. Average posts your affiliate links to his web site and promotes your product to his ezine list.
Initially, he generates good sales. However, a point comes when he saturates his market with your product and his sales begin to drop. He begins to lose interest in your program and your sales remain small. What happens if you set up a two-tier program? Rather than trying to keep your commission pay outs small, you motivate your existing affiliates to recruit other people to your program. This will exponentially increase your affiliate sales. Would it not be worth paying the referring affiliate a percentage of their sub-affiliates’ sales? Now when Mr.Average joins your affiliate program this is what would happen. When he has saturated his market with your product, he would now promote your affiliate program to his customers and ezine subscribers. Many of Mr.Average’s customers and subscribers decide to join the affiliate program. This in turn will motivate Mr.Average to continue promoting your products and recruiting affiliates.
Now what is the situation?
1) Your income increases because of increased sales.
2) You have a much larger customer base to which you can sell ‘backend’ products.
3) An increase in your income because of the life time loyalty of the customers referred by your affiliate.
4) An army of sub-affiliates who will sell your products, and in turn promote your affiliate program to their customers and subscribers.
The little extra in affiliate sales commission pay outs will be more than compensated for by the exponential sales increase. This is why the two-tier affiliate program is a guaranteed winner and should be the automatic choice for potential affiliates and affiliate program managers.
With a single tier program you earn a commission on any sales you make and that is it. If you are running your own affiliate program, you pay your affiliates a commission for any sales they refer and that is all.
However, with a two-tier program, affiliates are allowed to recruit sub-affiliates and are paid a small percentage of the sales these sub-affiliates generate. For example, the affiliates may earn a 30% commission for selling product X himself; and when one of the sub-affiliates makes a sale, the affiliate may get a 10% commission as well. This is very profitable for the affiliate as he can recruit an army of sub-affiliates, all earning commissions for him without any effort on his part except for the initial recruiting process.
If you are starting an affiliate program of your own should it be two-tier or single tier? Some might shy away from the seeming expense of a two-tier program. But is it really that expensive? Many affiliate program managers make the wrong decision on this.
Let’s look at an example. You have an affiliate program up and running and an average affiliate joins your program. Mr.Average has a web site that receives average traffic. He also has an ezine with thousands of subscribers published monthly. Mr. Average posts your affiliate links to his web site and promotes your product to his ezine list.
Initially, he generates good sales. However, a point comes when he saturates his market with your product and his sales begin to drop. He begins to lose interest in your program and your sales remain small. What happens if you set up a two-tier program? Rather than trying to keep your commission pay outs small, you motivate your existing affiliates to recruit other people to your program. This will exponentially increase your affiliate sales. Would it not be worth paying the referring affiliate a percentage of their sub-affiliates’ sales? Now when Mr.Average joins your affiliate program this is what would happen. When he has saturated his market with your product, he would now promote your affiliate program to his customers and ezine subscribers. Many of Mr.Average’s customers and subscribers decide to join the affiliate program. This in turn will motivate Mr.Average to continue promoting your products and recruiting affiliates.
Now what is the situation?
1) Your income increases because of increased sales.
2) You have a much larger customer base to which you can sell ‘backend’ products.
3) An increase in your income because of the life time loyalty of the customers referred by your affiliate.
4) An army of sub-affiliates who will sell your products, and in turn promote your affiliate program to their customers and subscribers.
The little extra in affiliate sales commission pay outs will be more than compensated for by the exponential sales increase. This is why the two-tier affiliate program is a guaranteed winner and should be the automatic choice for potential affiliates and affiliate program managers.
12 Tips For A Successful Affiliate Program
12 Tips For A Successful Affiliate Program
1. Look around at other competing businesses that offer affiliate programs, and think of ways that you can make your
affiliate program more attractive.
2. Pay your affiliates well for their efforts.
If you're thinking about offering a 10% commission for sales of your product and a competing business is paying a 50%
commission for referrals, you'll lose affiliates to your competitor.
3. Make your affiliate program more lucrative by offering residual commissions.
This is an excellent choice if you offer a product that is paid for on a residual basis such as webhosting or access to your membership site.
4. Offer lifetime commissions.
Your affiliates will see the power of lifetime commissions, and work hard to promote your business and send you more
sales.
5. Make your affiliate program two-tier.
Reward your affiliates by giving them a commission on the sales of people they refer to your affiliate program.
6. Don't leave your affiliates out in the cold.
Provide your affiliates with lots of sales items that they can use to successfully promote your products.
Some items you could offer your affiliates:
- e-zine ads (sponsor ads, classified ads, 2 liners)
- signature file ads
- sales letters/solo ads
- brandable ebooks
- sample recommendations
- email courses
- your articles that they can reprint with their affiliate URLs in your resource box.
7. Be quick to respond to your affiliates' emails.
An easy way to lose your affiliates is to not respond to their questions in a timely manner, or to not respond to their e-mails at all.
It shows that you don't value them, and since their are tons of other affiliate programs, you would be losing potentially
very good affiliates to other businesses.
8. Provide your own tips and advice.
Follow up with your affiliates with tips and strategies that they can use to increase their commissions.
9. Reward your top affiliates with higher commissions and bonuses.
You'll be able to achieve more sales over the long term because your top affiliates won't jump to another affiliate program where their efforts are more appreciated.
10. Publish an affiliate's newsletter.
Your affiliate's newsletter will help you to share your tips with your affiliates, and keep them going in the right direction.
You could also use your newsletter to keep your top affiliates excited about your program.
Some effective ways to do this are:
- Share what your top affiliates do to earn big commission checks.
- Showcase their sites and tell why their sites sell.
- List your 5 or 10 highest earning affiliates for the month.
11. Track your affiliates' sales accurately.
Your affiliates will find out if they send you customers and you don't credit them with their commissions.
Your affiliate program will lose credibility and you'll end up losing your affiliates as word gets around.
12. Participate in affiliate marketing forums.
Share your valuable advice and expertise with the members of the forums you participate in.
Include your signature file that promotes your affiliate program, and always follow the rules of the forums you join.
1. Look around at other competing businesses that offer affiliate programs, and think of ways that you can make your
affiliate program more attractive.
2. Pay your affiliates well for their efforts.
If you're thinking about offering a 10% commission for sales of your product and a competing business is paying a 50%
commission for referrals, you'll lose affiliates to your competitor.
3. Make your affiliate program more lucrative by offering residual commissions.
This is an excellent choice if you offer a product that is paid for on a residual basis such as webhosting or access to your membership site.
4. Offer lifetime commissions.
Your affiliates will see the power of lifetime commissions, and work hard to promote your business and send you more
sales.
5. Make your affiliate program two-tier.
Reward your affiliates by giving them a commission on the sales of people they refer to your affiliate program.
6. Don't leave your affiliates out in the cold.
Provide your affiliates with lots of sales items that they can use to successfully promote your products.
Some items you could offer your affiliates:
- e-zine ads (sponsor ads, classified ads, 2 liners)
- signature file ads
- sales letters/solo ads
- brandable ebooks
- sample recommendations
- email courses
- your articles that they can reprint with their affiliate URLs in your resource box.
7. Be quick to respond to your affiliates' emails.
An easy way to lose your affiliates is to not respond to their questions in a timely manner, or to not respond to their e-mails at all.
It shows that you don't value them, and since their are tons of other affiliate programs, you would be losing potentially
very good affiliates to other businesses.
8. Provide your own tips and advice.
Follow up with your affiliates with tips and strategies that they can use to increase their commissions.
9. Reward your top affiliates with higher commissions and bonuses.
You'll be able to achieve more sales over the long term because your top affiliates won't jump to another affiliate program where their efforts are more appreciated.
10. Publish an affiliate's newsletter.
Your affiliate's newsletter will help you to share your tips with your affiliates, and keep them going in the right direction.
You could also use your newsletter to keep your top affiliates excited about your program.
Some effective ways to do this are:
- Share what your top affiliates do to earn big commission checks.
- Showcase their sites and tell why their sites sell.
- List your 5 or 10 highest earning affiliates for the month.
11. Track your affiliates' sales accurately.
Your affiliates will find out if they send you customers and you don't credit them with their commissions.
Your affiliate program will lose credibility and you'll end up losing your affiliates as word gets around.
12. Participate in affiliate marketing forums.
Share your valuable advice and expertise with the members of the forums you participate in.
Include your signature file that promotes your affiliate program, and always follow the rules of the forums you join.
7 Tips to Choosing a Successful Affiliate Program
Affiliate Revenue Information
When selecting an affiliate program to join you need to know how to choose a successful affiliate program.
Look in the wrong place and you might find a dud but look in the right place and you might be on to a winner.
Here are 7 tips to help you choose a successful affiliate program to join:
1. Look at associateprograms.com This is the ‘affiliate central' of affiliate programs. You can virtually guarantee to find a successful program here and you can choose from tons of subject areas.
2. Look at clickbank.com Nearly every product they have for sale has an affiliate program. Many of them are extremely good and most pay very high commissions. (some over 50%)
3. Affiliate resource sites usually offer their best affiliate programs. As affiliate resources sites are specialists in affiliate programs you can be pretty sure of choosing a
successful affiliate program from them.
4. Look for affiliate programs that are offered through any ezines you receive. Chances are the ezine owner has an
affiliate program and if they have a good ezine they probably will have a good affiliate program.
5. Think of things that ALWAYS sell. Like web site design, ebooks, music and travel. Stick to proven online sellers and the affiliate program will have a much greater chance of being successful.
6. Seek out articles on affiliate programs. There are many good writers out there who have been successful with affiliate programs. Try to find articles they have written to see what
has worked for them.
7. Take courses. Many sites offer free online email courses for affiliates. Take some of these courses to learn more about what it takes to be a successful affiliate.
Affiliate programs are a great way to make money but one of the secrets to affiliate success is to choose the right program in the first place. Use these 7 tips to help you succeed.
When selecting an affiliate program to join you need to know how to choose a successful affiliate program.
Look in the wrong place and you might find a dud but look in the right place and you might be on to a winner.
Here are 7 tips to help you choose a successful affiliate program to join:
1. Look at associateprograms.com This is the ‘affiliate central' of affiliate programs. You can virtually guarantee to find a successful program here and you can choose from tons of subject areas.
2. Look at clickbank.com Nearly every product they have for sale has an affiliate program. Many of them are extremely good and most pay very high commissions. (some over 50%)
3. Affiliate resource sites usually offer their best affiliate programs. As affiliate resources sites are specialists in affiliate programs you can be pretty sure of choosing a
successful affiliate program from them.
4. Look for affiliate programs that are offered through any ezines you receive. Chances are the ezine owner has an
affiliate program and if they have a good ezine they probably will have a good affiliate program.
5. Think of things that ALWAYS sell. Like web site design, ebooks, music and travel. Stick to proven online sellers and the affiliate program will have a much greater chance of being successful.
6. Seek out articles on affiliate programs. There are many good writers out there who have been successful with affiliate programs. Try to find articles they have written to see what
has worked for them.
7. Take courses. Many sites offer free online email courses for affiliates. Take some of these courses to learn more about what it takes to be a successful affiliate.
Affiliate programs are a great way to make money but one of the secrets to affiliate success is to choose the right program in the first place. Use these 7 tips to help you succeed.
How to make money with Affiliate Programs - The Sensible Way
Affiliate Revenue InformationEvery day, thousands of would-be marketers scour the internet
looking for any and every affiliate program, sign up, sit back
and wait for the money to pour in and get frustrated just as
fast when the bank balance still shows a big, fat ZERO!
There are tons of guru's floating around and even more eBooks
and articles claiming to know the latest and greatest trick to
make tons of money with no effort at all (oh and of course,
unless you use their method then you will never, ever get
anywhere in your online business and stay broke the rest of
your life). We've all seen these before.
Let's get real for a moment.
If you don't put any effort into your marketing and don't
spread the word of whatever you are marketing, then you will
get exactly that much out of your effort.
Zero effort = Zero results!
I hope that's plain enough and now let's have a look at the
sensible way to market your affiliate programs, so you can
actually earn some of that Internet-Money-Pie (and it's yummy
too).
There are two types of affiliate programs generally. Those that
pay you (1-tier) and those that pay you, plus they pay you a
bonus for actions taken by visitors sent by other webmasters
you have referred (2-tier).
Let's think about that for a moment. What's the easier way to
make money? You sell a bunch of products and get paid on that
alone, or if you sell product and also introduce the affiliate
program to a bunch of webmasters who in turn also sell and they
earn a nice commission and you get a bonus every single time
they sell something, just for having referred them to the
affiliate program?
Ok, I know you probably just smacked your forhead and
said 'Duh' quite loudly and think I am stating the plain and
obvious.
If you can get others to do the same thing you are doing, by
keeping in touch with them and helping them and duplicating
your efforts, then of course it stands to reason that the bonus
you receive for referring the webmasters will generate
potentially a large team of people making you money.
So, your first task is to find good, well-paying 2-tier
affiliate programs. You can always use single tier programs as
a back end sale or on other projects, don't get me wrong, they
will still make you money, but right now, we want to get you
started off on the right foot to your own internet income.
So, you've gone out and found a well-paying affiliate program,
and you are ready to rumble and make money... Not So Fast!!!
How are you going to promote it? What is your plan of attack?
That's another problem many marketers run into, they just run
off and don't think before they act and that again results in a
lot less return for all of your efforts.
Here's what I have done in the past and always do each time.
Feel free to try this out and see the results for yourself.
After finding the affiliate program I want to promote, I check
the resource material provided by the program. Sometimes,
depending on how new the program is, I use their material to
get things rolling but almost every time, I start to write some
ads of my own, perhaps an article or even an ebook that I can
use to promote the product and the affiliate program with.
Some of those resources are available to readers of the
eBusinessCornerNews newsletter if you are interested.
Another thing I do, after putting together all the marketing
material I want to use is to check out the competion that's
already in the market. I don't really care if there is
competition, as a matter of fact, many times that is a good
indicator that there is a good demand for the type of product I
am promoting. You can do this pretty easily by just going to a
search engine and typing in keywords you associate with the
product for example (there are a lot of additional ways to do
this that we discuss in our newsletter).
There are a ton of places you can advertise your product, and
the marketing material you are using, such as article
directories, free advertising forums or websites, you can even
find a lot of ezines that allow you to place free classifieds
and websites you can post your ad on, at no cost.
Another thing that is handy to have is a website of my own,
where I can post my thoughts and comments (nothing sells better
than your own, plain english comments and reviews) along with
any other articles I can find that will help to draw visitors
in and make the search engines list my site better.
Most of the time, I will take a few of my articles and turn
them into a free ebook, or post the articles in article
directories where other webmasters are permitted to reprint
them in their own newsletter, provided they leave my resource
box (see the bottom of this article for an example) in place.
So now they are spreading the word for me, driving traffic on
my behalf and generating orders too.
But I like to help, as much as I like to earn money too, so
here's what I do most of the time.
When I find a good newsletter that I like then I touch base
with that publisher and offer him the article, but I also tell
him it's for a 2-tier affiliate program and if he would like,
then he could use my article, if he either leaves my box in
place or signs up under me and then I let him add his link into
my box, so he can earn the bigger piece of the pie and I get
the bonus commissions from his sales.
Now, why would I do that? Simple...
I do that, because there's a much better chance that he will
send out my article sooner, rather than later because now he
has the potential to earn money with it too.
Find a few publishers like that and you are well on your road
to getting a nice piece of the pie and the great thing is that
anytime you find a new affiliate program to promote and write a
new article, you already have made contacts that you can send
it to, so it gets easier every time and takes a lot less effort
on your part.
Well, there you have the sensible way of making money with
affiliate programs.
(Note: There are a lot of other methods available to market
your affiliate program and earn money, but this is one of the
best methods I have ever used.)
Here's to your success,
Xavier
P.s. Quit reading this article already and get out there and
find yourself a good affiliate program and start making money.
Now get moving...
(Note: You have permission to reprint this article in it's
entirety, provided you do not change the article in any way and
leave the Resource Box above intact. If you would like to earn
money with this article, please visit
http://www.makemoneymarketingonline.com today and sign up for
the generous 2-tier affiliate program that pays 50% for any
sales you make, plus an additional 20% for any sales generated
by webmasters you refer into the program)
looking for any and every affiliate program, sign up, sit back
and wait for the money to pour in and get frustrated just as
fast when the bank balance still shows a big, fat ZERO!
There are tons of guru's floating around and even more eBooks
and articles claiming to know the latest and greatest trick to
make tons of money with no effort at all (oh and of course,
unless you use their method then you will never, ever get
anywhere in your online business and stay broke the rest of
your life). We've all seen these before.
Let's get real for a moment.
If you don't put any effort into your marketing and don't
spread the word of whatever you are marketing, then you will
get exactly that much out of your effort.
Zero effort = Zero results!
I hope that's plain enough and now let's have a look at the
sensible way to market your affiliate programs, so you can
actually earn some of that Internet-Money-Pie (and it's yummy
too).
There are two types of affiliate programs generally. Those that
pay you (1-tier) and those that pay you, plus they pay you a
bonus for actions taken by visitors sent by other webmasters
you have referred (2-tier).
Let's think about that for a moment. What's the easier way to
make money? You sell a bunch of products and get paid on that
alone, or if you sell product and also introduce the affiliate
program to a bunch of webmasters who in turn also sell and they
earn a nice commission and you get a bonus every single time
they sell something, just for having referred them to the
affiliate program?
Ok, I know you probably just smacked your forhead and
said 'Duh' quite loudly and think I am stating the plain and
obvious.
If you can get others to do the same thing you are doing, by
keeping in touch with them and helping them and duplicating
your efforts, then of course it stands to reason that the bonus
you receive for referring the webmasters will generate
potentially a large team of people making you money.
So, your first task is to find good, well-paying 2-tier
affiliate programs. You can always use single tier programs as
a back end sale or on other projects, don't get me wrong, they
will still make you money, but right now, we want to get you
started off on the right foot to your own internet income.
So, you've gone out and found a well-paying affiliate program,
and you are ready to rumble and make money... Not So Fast!!!
How are you going to promote it? What is your plan of attack?
That's another problem many marketers run into, they just run
off and don't think before they act and that again results in a
lot less return for all of your efforts.
Here's what I have done in the past and always do each time.
Feel free to try this out and see the results for yourself.
After finding the affiliate program I want to promote, I check
the resource material provided by the program. Sometimes,
depending on how new the program is, I use their material to
get things rolling but almost every time, I start to write some
ads of my own, perhaps an article or even an ebook that I can
use to promote the product and the affiliate program with.
Some of those resources are available to readers of the
eBusinessCornerNews newsletter if you are interested.
Another thing I do, after putting together all the marketing
material I want to use is to check out the competion that's
already in the market. I don't really care if there is
competition, as a matter of fact, many times that is a good
indicator that there is a good demand for the type of product I
am promoting. You can do this pretty easily by just going to a
search engine and typing in keywords you associate with the
product for example (there are a lot of additional ways to do
this that we discuss in our newsletter).
There are a ton of places you can advertise your product, and
the marketing material you are using, such as article
directories, free advertising forums or websites, you can even
find a lot of ezines that allow you to place free classifieds
and websites you can post your ad on, at no cost.
Another thing that is handy to have is a website of my own,
where I can post my thoughts and comments (nothing sells better
than your own, plain english comments and reviews) along with
any other articles I can find that will help to draw visitors
in and make the search engines list my site better.
Most of the time, I will take a few of my articles and turn
them into a free ebook, or post the articles in article
directories where other webmasters are permitted to reprint
them in their own newsletter, provided they leave my resource
box (see the bottom of this article for an example) in place.
So now they are spreading the word for me, driving traffic on
my behalf and generating orders too.
But I like to help, as much as I like to earn money too, so
here's what I do most of the time.
When I find a good newsletter that I like then I touch base
with that publisher and offer him the article, but I also tell
him it's for a 2-tier affiliate program and if he would like,
then he could use my article, if he either leaves my box in
place or signs up under me and then I let him add his link into
my box, so he can earn the bigger piece of the pie and I get
the bonus commissions from his sales.
Now, why would I do that? Simple...
I do that, because there's a much better chance that he will
send out my article sooner, rather than later because now he
has the potential to earn money with it too.
Find a few publishers like that and you are well on your road
to getting a nice piece of the pie and the great thing is that
anytime you find a new affiliate program to promote and write a
new article, you already have made contacts that you can send
it to, so it gets easier every time and takes a lot less effort
on your part.
Well, there you have the sensible way of making money with
affiliate programs.
(Note: There are a lot of other methods available to market
your affiliate program and earn money, but this is one of the
best methods I have ever used.)
Here's to your success,
Xavier
P.s. Quit reading this article already and get out there and
find yourself a good affiliate program and start making money.
Now get moving...
(Note: You have permission to reprint this article in it's
entirety, provided you do not change the article in any way and
leave the Resource Box above intact. If you would like to earn
money with this article, please visit
http://www.makemoneymarketingonline.com today and sign up for
the generous 2-tier affiliate program that pays 50% for any
sales you make, plus an additional 20% for any sales generated
by webmasters you refer into the program)
Affiliate Revenue Information
Affiliate Revenue InformationAffiliate programs uses a simple concept for you to create an income online: Earn commissions when you make a sale. You don't need to worry about the costs for setting up the business nor advertising. It costs zero! When we think of successful online businesses, websites such as: Amazon.com (biggest online bookstore), eBay.com (largest auction website), Yahoo.com (most well-known search engine) usually spring into mind. On the contrary, you probably have heard of dot-com companies turned dot-bombs. So you think, “How do I make money on the internet when I don’t have money to advertise like those big guys such as Amazon.com or Yahoo.com?”
… Well, you don’t need money to make money! There are several ways to make money through the internet, and one of them is through affiliate programs. Best of all, it costs nothing to sign up!
“What are affiliate programs? Isn’t it just another get-rich quick plot or some hocus-pocus that’s all a scam?”
Affiliate programs (also known as referral/associate programs) are legitimate and not get-rich-quick scams. It’s a simple concept: Earn commission for each sale you make. As a matter of fact, even big guys like Amazon.com launched affiliate programs to fuel their sales and to increase their brand, hence that further proves my point that affiliate programs aren’t scams.
How Affiliate Programs Work…
Using Amazon.com as an example, here’s an illustration on how affiliate programs work…
An affiliate (let’s call her ‘Lily’) owns a website about movie-making, so she chose a few books related to her website including the best-seller “How to Write a Hollywood Movie Script in 5 minutes!”
Lily then puts unique links to each of these books on her website that enables Amazon to identify the visitor she sends. One of Lily’s visitors was so impressed by Lily’s review on the book “How to Write a Hollywood Movie Script in 5 minutes!” that she wanted to buy it immediately, the visitor then saw “Buy it now on Amazon.com!”…. CLICK!
The visitor enters the Amazon site, Amazon identifies this visitor is from Lily. The visitor then checks out with the book and pays using credit card. Lily is paid a commission on that sale!
Affiliate Programs vs. Selling Your Own Products on the Web
Sure enough as a web merchant, you get 100% of the profits made. But you will have to fuss with start-up costs, advertising, marketing, shipping, credit-card processing, products/ services to maintain, customer services, customer complaints, web hosting, accounting, staff training…
Phew! That’s a lot work! But…
As an affiliate, you don’t need your own products to sell; you don’t need to incur the costs: Your start-up cost is zero; and you don’t have to deal with the customers’ orders or accounting or all the above because the merchant will handle all these for you. In some affiliate programs, you can also recruit and train sub-affiliates under you. Your training pays off when your sub-affiliate gets a sale, because you earn ‘training commission’ too. I’ll get more in-depth about this later in the article.
“But I’m not a computer or internet-savvy person! I don’t have a website too!”
Don’t worry! An effective affiliate finds thousands of ideas to sell online, or offline! You can advertise locally in newspapers, in articles you write, recommend it to friends, notice boards, etc… There are no limits.
“Great! How do I start?”
As easy as it sounds, I’m sad to say that it’s not a piece of cake if you plan to sit there and wait for the cash to come to you. In the affiliate business, it follows the 80-20 rule – 80% of the benefit is only achieved by 20% of the affiliates. So if you want to get rich quick, affiliate program isn’t for you… but if you want to be one of the 20% affiliates who get 80% of the benefit… read on.
First of all, ask yourself why you want to start an affiliate business on the internet…
“Um… to earn some cash and buy things I want”
No, I want you to be as specific as possible…
For example, “I want to increase my income so that I can afford a sports car and have the ultimate sense of pride when I drive into the yard of my friends who said that I will never succeed in making money on the internet! I want my friends to be envious; I want to prove them wrong!”
When you know what you want and the more specific you get, the stronger your commitment, determination and persistence to succeed will be.
I know it sounds really corny, but it is a simple rule that the 80% affiliates don’t follow!
Secondly, you must…
Choose a Good Affiliate Program
There are many affiliate programs out there but you need to focus on the ones that work for you. I suggest a few good criteria to look for in affiliate programs:
1) High-value products/services
When I said ‘value’, I don’t mean the price tag. Let’s say, you are an affiliate for 2 companies which are in similar industries, both offering 30% commission. One sells its product for $50 and the other for $150. So you think,
“Hmmm… When I make a sale, I get more commission from company no.2 ($45) than company no.1 ($15). Wow!”
Although it is simple logic, ask yourself this question first, “will I buy this $150 product when I know there are cheaper ones out there?”
Think like your customer, question yourself “Am I paying my money’s worth on this product?”, “Does the company offer great value for a dollar?”
If you answer ‘no’ for both these questions, you’ll know that the company will eventually die.
2) High Affiliate and Customer Support
One of the key areas to look for when choosing a good affiliate program is their support system. A company that values its customers and affiliates is a company that grows. The company must be able to provide as many resources for their affiliates to promote their products, e.g. training, newsletters, banners, free stuff, etc.
Furthermore, it should also listen to its customers’ suggestions, complaints and be able to keep their customers happy. Remember, happy customers mean long-lasting company as happy customers will spread the good word of the company and its products, which means there will be more business opportunities for you!
3) Team Sales
There are some affiliate programs that allow you to recruit sub-affiliates under you. When your sub-affiliates perform well, you are also rewarded with a ‘coaching’ commission for their sales because it is your duty as a team leader to coach your sub-affiliates. Although most affiliate programs on the internet doesn’t support team-building, it is preferable that you choose one that does. The reason is simply:
T.E.A.M = Together Everyone Achieves More
Sure enough, you can do the whole affiliate business by being a lone ranger, but you are limiting your own capacity to earn more. Moreover, the results are two-fold: you will enjoy a second stream of income (unless you plan to do it full-time) AND the satisfactions of helping others to earn another source of income too!
4) Repeat Sales Potential
Other than achieving one-time sales, it is recommended if the affiliate program entitles you to lifetime customers, which means ‘once your customer, always your customer!’
A company with a good sales structure will retain their customers and encourage repeat sales. Thus, you get commissions for repeat sales too.
5) Reputable and Reliable Company
Check the company’s history on the newsgroup or http://groups.google.com, and find out whether it’s well-established. Are their customers satisfied? Are the affiliates happy? Does the company keep changing the affiliate policy? I’m sure no one wants their affiliate business suddenly gone because the merchant company failed!
An Ideal Affiliate Program
A great example of a company that meets all the criteria listed above is:
Sitesell Company
http://www.sitesell.com/ff.html
Their affiliate program, 5 Pillar Club, was named ‘The best affiliate program on the net’ by affiliatesdirectory.com, a web directory that tracks thousands of affiliate programs on the net.
Furthermore the top affiliate guru, Allan Gardyne, ranked it as one of the top affiliate program in his website, associateprograms.com
Lastly, Open Your Mind to Creative Ideas
Read as many articles/books as possible on the subject of selling or marketing to expand your mind to accept more ideas and concepts on how to sell! There are a lot of information on the internet to help you in your affiliate business, it costs zero to invest in your greatest asset… you. (Note: It’s not ‘your brain’ because you need your arms and legs to put your thoughts into action! ;D )
To help you get started on the technical aspect, here’s a great starter pack: a free e-mail course on affiliate business-building.
… Well, you don’t need money to make money! There are several ways to make money through the internet, and one of them is through affiliate programs. Best of all, it costs nothing to sign up!
“What are affiliate programs? Isn’t it just another get-rich quick plot or some hocus-pocus that’s all a scam?”
Affiliate programs (also known as referral/associate programs) are legitimate and not get-rich-quick scams. It’s a simple concept: Earn commission for each sale you make. As a matter of fact, even big guys like Amazon.com launched affiliate programs to fuel their sales and to increase their brand, hence that further proves my point that affiliate programs aren’t scams.
How Affiliate Programs Work…
Using Amazon.com as an example, here’s an illustration on how affiliate programs work…
An affiliate (let’s call her ‘Lily’) owns a website about movie-making, so she chose a few books related to her website including the best-seller “How to Write a Hollywood Movie Script in 5 minutes!”
Lily then puts unique links to each of these books on her website that enables Amazon to identify the visitor she sends. One of Lily’s visitors was so impressed by Lily’s review on the book “How to Write a Hollywood Movie Script in 5 minutes!” that she wanted to buy it immediately, the visitor then saw “Buy it now on Amazon.com!”…. CLICK!
The visitor enters the Amazon site, Amazon identifies this visitor is from Lily. The visitor then checks out with the book and pays using credit card. Lily is paid a commission on that sale!
Affiliate Programs vs. Selling Your Own Products on the Web
Sure enough as a web merchant, you get 100% of the profits made. But you will have to fuss with start-up costs, advertising, marketing, shipping, credit-card processing, products/ services to maintain, customer services, customer complaints, web hosting, accounting, staff training…
Phew! That’s a lot work! But…
As an affiliate, you don’t need your own products to sell; you don’t need to incur the costs: Your start-up cost is zero; and you don’t have to deal with the customers’ orders or accounting or all the above because the merchant will handle all these for you. In some affiliate programs, you can also recruit and train sub-affiliates under you. Your training pays off when your sub-affiliate gets a sale, because you earn ‘training commission’ too. I’ll get more in-depth about this later in the article.
“But I’m not a computer or internet-savvy person! I don’t have a website too!”
Don’t worry! An effective affiliate finds thousands of ideas to sell online, or offline! You can advertise locally in newspapers, in articles you write, recommend it to friends, notice boards, etc… There are no limits.
“Great! How do I start?”
As easy as it sounds, I’m sad to say that it’s not a piece of cake if you plan to sit there and wait for the cash to come to you. In the affiliate business, it follows the 80-20 rule – 80% of the benefit is only achieved by 20% of the affiliates. So if you want to get rich quick, affiliate program isn’t for you… but if you want to be one of the 20% affiliates who get 80% of the benefit… read on.
First of all, ask yourself why you want to start an affiliate business on the internet…
“Um… to earn some cash and buy things I want”
No, I want you to be as specific as possible…
For example, “I want to increase my income so that I can afford a sports car and have the ultimate sense of pride when I drive into the yard of my friends who said that I will never succeed in making money on the internet! I want my friends to be envious; I want to prove them wrong!”
When you know what you want and the more specific you get, the stronger your commitment, determination and persistence to succeed will be.
I know it sounds really corny, but it is a simple rule that the 80% affiliates don’t follow!
Secondly, you must…
Choose a Good Affiliate Program
There are many affiliate programs out there but you need to focus on the ones that work for you. I suggest a few good criteria to look for in affiliate programs:
1) High-value products/services
When I said ‘value’, I don’t mean the price tag. Let’s say, you are an affiliate for 2 companies which are in similar industries, both offering 30% commission. One sells its product for $50 and the other for $150. So you think,
“Hmmm… When I make a sale, I get more commission from company no.2 ($45) than company no.1 ($15). Wow!”
Although it is simple logic, ask yourself this question first, “will I buy this $150 product when I know there are cheaper ones out there?”
Think like your customer, question yourself “Am I paying my money’s worth on this product?”, “Does the company offer great value for a dollar?”
If you answer ‘no’ for both these questions, you’ll know that the company will eventually die.
2) High Affiliate and Customer Support
One of the key areas to look for when choosing a good affiliate program is their support system. A company that values its customers and affiliates is a company that grows. The company must be able to provide as many resources for their affiliates to promote their products, e.g. training, newsletters, banners, free stuff, etc.
Furthermore, it should also listen to its customers’ suggestions, complaints and be able to keep their customers happy. Remember, happy customers mean long-lasting company as happy customers will spread the good word of the company and its products, which means there will be more business opportunities for you!
3) Team Sales
There are some affiliate programs that allow you to recruit sub-affiliates under you. When your sub-affiliates perform well, you are also rewarded with a ‘coaching’ commission for their sales because it is your duty as a team leader to coach your sub-affiliates. Although most affiliate programs on the internet doesn’t support team-building, it is preferable that you choose one that does. The reason is simply:
T.E.A.M = Together Everyone Achieves More
Sure enough, you can do the whole affiliate business by being a lone ranger, but you are limiting your own capacity to earn more. Moreover, the results are two-fold: you will enjoy a second stream of income (unless you plan to do it full-time) AND the satisfactions of helping others to earn another source of income too!
4) Repeat Sales Potential
Other than achieving one-time sales, it is recommended if the affiliate program entitles you to lifetime customers, which means ‘once your customer, always your customer!’
A company with a good sales structure will retain their customers and encourage repeat sales. Thus, you get commissions for repeat sales too.
5) Reputable and Reliable Company
Check the company’s history on the newsgroup or http://groups.google.com, and find out whether it’s well-established. Are their customers satisfied? Are the affiliates happy? Does the company keep changing the affiliate policy? I’m sure no one wants their affiliate business suddenly gone because the merchant company failed!
An Ideal Affiliate Program
A great example of a company that meets all the criteria listed above is:
Sitesell Company
http://www.sitesell.com/ff.html
Their affiliate program, 5 Pillar Club, was named ‘The best affiliate program on the net’ by affiliatesdirectory.com, a web directory that tracks thousands of affiliate programs on the net.
Furthermore the top affiliate guru, Allan Gardyne, ranked it as one of the top affiliate program in his website, associateprograms.com
Lastly, Open Your Mind to Creative Ideas
Read as many articles/books as possible on the subject of selling or marketing to expand your mind to accept more ideas and concepts on how to sell! There are a lot of information on the internet to help you in your affiliate business, it costs zero to invest in your greatest asset… you. (Note: It’s not ‘your brain’ because you need your arms and legs to put your thoughts into action! ;D )
To help you get started on the technical aspect, here’s a great starter pack: a free e-mail course on affiliate business-building.
Affiliate Revenue Information
Affiliate Revenue InformationNow 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, which you can visit at:
http://www.onlinebiz-help.com/links/wordtracker.html
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.
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, which you can visit at:
http://www.onlinebiz-help.com/links/wordtracker.html
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.
Affiliate Revenue Information
Affiliate Revenue InformationWhen people decide to join an affiliate program to make extra money, or to have a full time job, they often do so with illusions and no idea of how the affiliate program actually works. Read the following top 5 mistakes people make when it comes to choosing an affiliate program and avoid these mistakes at all costs. Then, you will be able to be more effective and make more money for your time, so it is definitely worthwhile to read these warnings and avoid them.
#1 Don’t Compete, Support
Too many affiliate programs compete against their competitors which wastes money and puts affiliates out of business. However, if you are part of an affiliate program the more affiliates the better for getting more information and more money. One of the worst things to do is choose an affiliate program that believes in competing against other affiliates. Instead, choose an affiliate program that agrees with supporting and growing other affiliates to have a larger network and access to more affiliates.
#2 Little Reward
Another mistake people frequently make when choosing affiliate programs is choosing a program that offers little reward for the individual’s hard work. Too many affiliate programs pay too little and as a result affiliates find it difficult to make the money they should be making. Look for an affiliate program that has a good pay rate for your work.
#3 Old Statistics, if Any
You want an affiliate program that offers good, solid, real time statistics, not old statistics or ones that are no longer valid. There are not many affiliate programs out there that provide the kind of statistics an affiliate manager needs, but do your best to find an affiliate program that offers the most.
#4 No Support
Too often affiliates find themselves waiting days for an answer to an e-mail and an important question for their business. You want an affiliate program that guarantees you support round the clock if possible or at least within 24 hours. If not, keep looking for an affiliate program that wants to help you help yourself.
#5 Fresh Ideas, Creatives
Many affiliate programs provide few ideas or creatives to their affiliates and so thousands of web pages end up with the same advertising. However, affiliate programs would have a better success rate if many different ads were made available so affiliates could alternate ads and place different ads on different sites, depending on the products sold.
Commit these five mistakes to memory so you know exactly what you are looking for in an affiliate program, as well as what to avoid. You will be much more successful and happier as well if you do not get caught in these traps!
#1 Don’t Compete, Support
Too many affiliate programs compete against their competitors which wastes money and puts affiliates out of business. However, if you are part of an affiliate program the more affiliates the better for getting more information and more money. One of the worst things to do is choose an affiliate program that believes in competing against other affiliates. Instead, choose an affiliate program that agrees with supporting and growing other affiliates to have a larger network and access to more affiliates.
#2 Little Reward
Another mistake people frequently make when choosing affiliate programs is choosing a program that offers little reward for the individual’s hard work. Too many affiliate programs pay too little and as a result affiliates find it difficult to make the money they should be making. Look for an affiliate program that has a good pay rate for your work.
#3 Old Statistics, if Any
You want an affiliate program that offers good, solid, real time statistics, not old statistics or ones that are no longer valid. There are not many affiliate programs out there that provide the kind of statistics an affiliate manager needs, but do your best to find an affiliate program that offers the most.
#4 No Support
Too often affiliates find themselves waiting days for an answer to an e-mail and an important question for their business. You want an affiliate program that guarantees you support round the clock if possible or at least within 24 hours. If not, keep looking for an affiliate program that wants to help you help yourself.
#5 Fresh Ideas, Creatives
Many affiliate programs provide few ideas or creatives to their affiliates and so thousands of web pages end up with the same advertising. However, affiliate programs would have a better success rate if many different ads were made available so affiliates could alternate ads and place different ads on different sites, depending on the products sold.
Commit these five mistakes to memory so you know exactly what you are looking for in an affiliate program, as well as what to avoid. You will be much more successful and happier as well if you do not get caught in these traps!
Affiliate Revenue Information
Affiliate Revenue InformationEverywhere you look you see affiliate program offers for
every product or service that you can think of. Some have
fully automated systems that sell high volumes of hard
products all over the world. In case you don't know, "hard"
products are those that you can touch...unlike an ebook or
downloadable web template. Many affiliate programs have
several thousand affiliates and one or two of the bigger
companies have over one million affiliates.
What are the advantages of joining an affiliate program?
They provide a ready-made business. This is a very big plus
for those people who want to earn some kind of living off
the Internet but lack the knowledge or inclination to set up
a business by themselves.
Commissions and rewards are generally good, and the more
established programs offer a real chance of advancement to
higher and better-paid levels.
Other affiliates are usually on hand to offer practical
support.
What are the limitations?
You are restricted in your promotional activities due to the
fact that you do not actually own the affiliate site they
give you. You won't be able to put such things as banners,
images, links, meta tags, etc. onto your page.
The URL of your affiliate page is often either too long or
contains such awkward things as question marks, which many
Search Engines will not index.
Any promotional ads or articles have probably already been
used by thousands of other people and consequently may have
lost its impact, making it more difficult to achieve sales
or referrals.
If the program you have joined has not yet established
itself (or in some cases even if it has), then you may
encounter problems with payments owed to you not being
honored. You also run the risk of low quality products or
sub-standard statistics that do not accurately record how
many referrals or sales you have made.
You may be required to purchase a minimum quantity of the
product on a regular basis before you start to qualify for
commissions or even before you can become an affiliate.
You may not get the technical or affiliate support you might
expect from the company. This may be due to inadequate
staffing, or the company's negligence.
Other people in your downline do nothing to promote the
program.
At least four of the above limitations can be overcome with
a little time and effort. You could, for example, come up
with fresher ads to promote the program (provided this is
allowed).
If the company supplies the email addresses of people in
your downline, then you could offer to help the less active
members. Very often these people are passive not because
they are lazy or apathetic but merely because they don't
know HOW to promote effectively! your guidance could mean
the difference between no sales or referrals and healthy
downlines and residual incomes.
As regards promoting your actual page, here are a couple of
little tricks that should overcome a number of
restrictions:
Cloak your Affiliate URL to stop hijackers Affiliate Masker
While this will not help you to get listed on the major
Search Engines, it will make your web page easier for
prospects to remember and type into their browser's address
bar.
Go to your affiliate page. Place your mouse pointer anywhere
on the page and right click once. In the drop-down box
choose "View Source". This will display the HTML for the
page. Save this to your hard drive as a HTML document using
the "Save As" function. Upload the page to your web site.
If you don't have a web site then get some free web space
from one of these:
http://www.tripod.com/
http://www.fortunecity.com/
http://www.hypermart.net/index.gsp
http://www.coolchat.com/
http://www.crosswinds.net/
http://www.htmlpublishing.com/
http://www.freehomepages.com/
http://www.pageproducer.com/
Submit your 'new' page to the Search Engines. You are also
now able to place banner codes, links, images, testimonials,
in fact anything you want onto these pages, because you are
in control of the HTML. A word of caution, though. Don't
change the actual HTML of your original affiliate page. Just
put the other stuff, like banners etc, around it.
Making this "mirror page" of your affiliate page will
dramatically improve your advertising options.
every product or service that you can think of. Some have
fully automated systems that sell high volumes of hard
products all over the world. In case you don't know, "hard"
products are those that you can touch...unlike an ebook or
downloadable web template. Many affiliate programs have
several thousand affiliates and one or two of the bigger
companies have over one million affiliates.
What are the advantages of joining an affiliate program?
They provide a ready-made business. This is a very big plus
for those people who want to earn some kind of living off
the Internet but lack the knowledge or inclination to set up
a business by themselves.
Commissions and rewards are generally good, and the more
established programs offer a real chance of advancement to
higher and better-paid levels.
Other affiliates are usually on hand to offer practical
support.
What are the limitations?
You are restricted in your promotional activities due to the
fact that you do not actually own the affiliate site they
give you. You won't be able to put such things as banners,
images, links, meta tags, etc. onto your page.
The URL of your affiliate page is often either too long or
contains such awkward things as question marks, which many
Search Engines will not index.
Any promotional ads or articles have probably already been
used by thousands of other people and consequently may have
lost its impact, making it more difficult to achieve sales
or referrals.
If the program you have joined has not yet established
itself (or in some cases even if it has), then you may
encounter problems with payments owed to you not being
honored. You also run the risk of low quality products or
sub-standard statistics that do not accurately record how
many referrals or sales you have made.
You may be required to purchase a minimum quantity of the
product on a regular basis before you start to qualify for
commissions or even before you can become an affiliate.
You may not get the technical or affiliate support you might
expect from the company. This may be due to inadequate
staffing, or the company's negligence.
Other people in your downline do nothing to promote the
program.
At least four of the above limitations can be overcome with
a little time and effort. You could, for example, come up
with fresher ads to promote the program (provided this is
allowed).
If the company supplies the email addresses of people in
your downline, then you could offer to help the less active
members. Very often these people are passive not because
they are lazy or apathetic but merely because they don't
know HOW to promote effectively! your guidance could mean
the difference between no sales or referrals and healthy
downlines and residual incomes.
As regards promoting your actual page, here are a couple of
little tricks that should overcome a number of
restrictions:
Cloak your Affiliate URL to stop hijackers Affiliate Masker
While this will not help you to get listed on the major
Search Engines, it will make your web page easier for
prospects to remember and type into their browser's address
bar.
Go to your affiliate page. Place your mouse pointer anywhere
on the page and right click once. In the drop-down box
choose "View Source". This will display the HTML for the
page. Save this to your hard drive as a HTML document using
the "Save As" function. Upload the page to your web site.
If you don't have a web site then get some free web space
from one of these:
http://www.tripod.com/
http://www.fortunecity.com/
http://www.hypermart.net/index.gsp
http://www.coolchat.com/
http://www.crosswinds.net/
http://www.htmlpublishing.com/
http://www.freehomepages.com/
http://www.pageproducer.com/
Submit your 'new' page to the Search Engines. You are also
now able to place banner codes, links, images, testimonials,
in fact anything you want onto these pages, because you are
in control of the HTML. A word of caution, though. Don't
change the actual HTML of your original affiliate page. Just
put the other stuff, like banners etc, around it.
Making this "mirror page" of your affiliate page will
dramatically improve your advertising options.
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