How to Make Money With Amazon's Affiliate Program (Tutorial)

9 Ways to Catapult Your Affiliate Marketing Career

By Jason Gazaway  

Affiliate marketing involves the promotion of a website by a person known as the affiliate. He is the one who acts as the middleman between the merchant and the customer. The nature of an affiliate's job is to advertise and promote a merchant's website through his own.

As this particular website is visited by surfers and browsers, they get to see the links that are listed or displayed there. Customers who click on these links end up doing transactions with the merchant. The merchant then pays the affiliate a commission for leading the customer to his very own site and, ultimately, his merchandise.
The whole process involved in affiliate marketing may look really elementary, but like any other true-blue business venture, it abides by certain rules. One who wishes to get involved in the business should harbor an interest to learn all the tricks of the trade. However, the success affiliate marketers are bound to have in this type of business is ultimately up to them to work on.
What does it take for an affiliate marketer to succeed in a business such as this? Catapulting one's career in affiliate marketing is not an easy task considering all the competition involved in the business. In an industry where many are called but few are chosen, it pays to use strategies that work to project one's business forward. This task, in addition to a lot of diligence and perseverance, is the key to an affiliate marketing career that will surely run a mile.
The first way involved in catapulting an affiliate marketing career forward is for an affiliate to join affiliate programs that prove interesting to him. This is an important factor in being able to stick to a business long enough to be able to make a living out of it.
The second is by making sure that one is hands on in creating a unique and interesting website where one's business would take place. Using one's own domain name is also a good idea as the site would be provided every bit of originality. Having a unique site will prove beneficial to the affiliate marketer as it will attract enough attention and, consequently, enough patrons to promote one's products to.
The third is by starting a linking campaign that would encourage other website owners to supply links to an affiliate marketer's website provided that the owner return the favor. This way, one is able to furnish more links into his website - links that will ultimately provide him more chances of generating traffic, and consequently, sales.
The fourth is by starting a newsletter and submitting it to as many websites as possible. This would encourage recipients to go to the website the affiliate marketer owns because writing one's own article for the newsletter is one way of inviting people to come and visit the website. This is an ultimately rewarding task that would prove to be advantageous to the affiliate marketer concerned.
The fifth is by maintaining an e-mail list of people who have requested information about one's products. The e-mail list can be acquired by an affiliate marketer through buying e-mail addresses from companies that sell quality leads for such people to use.
The sixth is by employing an auto responder program that would help an affiliate marketer save a huge chunk of time in buying leads for his site. The use of this program means automatically saving leads in newsletters whenever they are bought.
The seventh is by making sure that one writes his own articles for a personal touch. There is no better way to convince people to view a site than by convincing them personally, and an article that comes from an affiliate marketer's heart is the best way to do it.
The eighth is by adding these articles to an affiliate marketer's own webpage. This task will help him in his page ranks, and relevant content is always appreciated by those who like to see information on a particular website rather than banners which tell them nothing at all.
The last is by joining an online forum so that the affiliate marketer is always knowledgeable about current products and marketing trends. Talking to people about the business is a great way to build relationships, and the exchange of ideas involved in such forums is a great way to keep one well-informed about the industry in particular.
There is no real secret to success in a business such as affiliate marketing. All affiliate marketers have to remember is that by taking time to know and understand everything about the business at hand, one is bound to develop strategies of his own that will serve him well in years to come.

Article Source: Ezine Articles expert=Jason Gazaway 

Clickbank Affiliate Marketing Training Video 3

Five Common Mistakes Affiliate Marketers Make

By  Jason Gazaway  

Affiliate Marketing is one of the most effective and powerful ways to earn a living online. Affiliate programs give everybody a chance to make a profit through the internet. Since these affiliate-marketing programs are relatively easyBy to join, implement and pays a commission on a regular basis, more and more people are now willing to join in this lucrative business.

However, there are also pitfalls in the Affiliate Marketing business. These common mistakes may cost affiliate marketers a large chunk of their profit everyday unless they are avoided or rectified. Here, we will enumerate the five most common mistakes that Affiliate Marketers make. We will also discuss how they can be avoided.
Mistake #1: Choosing the wrong affiliate products
Most people want to earn from affiliate marketing as soon as possible. In their haste to earn much in a short span of time, they tend to choose a bandwagon product; one that they think is a 'hot' item. They will choose a product that is in demand without considering if that product appeals to them. However, this is not a wise move.
Instead of jumping on the bandwagon, you should choose a product in which you are truly interested. For any venture to succeed, you should take the time to plan and map out your actions. Pick a product that appeals to you. Do some research about that product and determine if they are in demand. Choose a product that you will promote passionately.
Mistake #2: Joining too many affiliate programs
Since affiliate-marketing programs are so easy to join, you might find that you have nothing to lose if you join multiple affiliate programs. For many, this may seem a great option as it may provide you with multiple sources of income. However, joining multiple programs and attempting to promote them all at once may prevent you from giving the full attention that each of your programs deserve.
Thus, the maximum potential of your affiliate program will not be realized and the income produced will be disappointing. The best way to get excellent results is by joining one program that pays at least 40% commission. Then, give it your best effort by promoting it enthusiastically. As soon as it is making a reasonable profit then you can now join another program.
Mistake #3: Not buying the product or using the service
As an affiliate, your job is to promote a product or service effectively and convincingly and find customers. For you to effectively promote and recommend any product or service, you must be able to relay to the customers its benefits. One common mistake that affiliate marketers do is failing to try the product and service. Thus, they are not able to promote and recommend the product or service convincingly and fail to create a desire in the customer to buy or avail of the product or service.
Try the product or service personally, before you sign up as an affiliate and see if it delivers what it promises. If you are using the product or service personally then you can credibly promote its advantages and benefits. Your prospects will feel the sincerity in your copy and will likely purchase.
Mistake #4: Signing up for low-paying commissions
Although affiliate marketing is one of the easiest ways to make some profit online, not all affiliate programs pay high commissions. There are programs that can pay as low as 1-2%. You should not short change yourself. Avoid these low paying affiliate programs. Look for an affiliate program that have a 30% or higher commission payouts. Another way to create income in affiliate marketing is looking for programs that give residual payouts.
Mistake #4: Limiting your strategies to Non-viral marketing only
Viral marketing is one of the most effective ways to increase awareness for a product or service. It is very useful in rapidly relaying the message to a large number of people. Most affiliate marketers do not use viral marketing to the detriment of their sales results. If you want to promote a product then you should really make an effort in promoting it. Even though you are only an affiliate promoting the product of another, you should exploit all means to find customers as this will translate to more profit for you too. Use viral marketing to build a larger consumer base and bring in the profit.
Mistake #5: Disposable Customers
As an affiliate, you work hard to find prospects and convince them to purchase or avail of the product or service. However, what happens after that customer purchases the product? Should you dispose of that customer and find a new prospect?
That would be a critical error. The best thing to do is to keep that customer available for you to expose your other offers. Do not throw them away as soon as the make a purchase. Find a way to capture their email addresses so that you can promote you offers to them again. Building a good customer list is one of the effective strategies to increase your profit.
Affiliate marketers make these five common mistakes; and you should do everything to avoid making the same pitfalls. Take the time to analyze your affiliate marketing efforts and see if you are on the right track. With the right strategies and techniques, you can maximize the potential of your affiliate-marketing program and earn higher profit.

Article Source::Ezine Articles expert=Jason Gazaway 

Affiliate Marketing by the Numbers

Free Affiliate Marketing Page Pays $755 in Commissions From its First 100 Visitors

By David Thorne  

Affiliate marketing is an easy way to get started making money online. You just sign up to be an affiliate, and refer new customers to the sales site(s) with a special, coded affiliate link. When your referrals click the link and make a purchase, you get paid a sales commission on the sale. Many of these commissions are now paid instantly, at the time of the purchase, as in the system below.
But few new affiliate marketing sites are as successful as the new system reviewed here. It is a free-to-copy, self-duplicating affiliate referral system that pays growing, residual sales commissions, and actually MULTIPLIES an affiliate's income, from a low, ONE-TIME purchase of less than $30.
From fewer than its first 100 visitors, it produced $755 in INSTANT affiliate marketing sales commissions from a total startup cost of $30. So it produced 25 times as much as it cost, from fewer than 100 visitors. This is a phenomenal return for ANY web site.
As you will come to realize, this new, free affiliate page is very different from anything you have ever seen. This new affiliate marketing system is very powerful and unique, and anyone can use it for free. It has several very innovative features:
First, it combines three special, hand-picked affiliate marketing programs, all of a unique type, which pay the highest commissions possible. (One pays 100%, $100 sales commissions.)
Second, you sign up sequentially, making it pay for itself from that first $30 purchase.
Third, It produces continuing, RESIDUAL income, from just that ONE-TIME $30 purchase.
Fourth, the residual income from the system GROWS exponentially, due to those special affiliate programs. The residual income MULTIPLIES automatically, in the same way that a viral affiliate marketing plan multiplies a merchant's customer base.
Fifth, you can 'set it and forget it'. After you make a sufficient number of new referral customers, it takes on a life of its own, and the income keeps growing, whether you do anything more, or not. You do NOT have to keep referring more and more new customers, to keep generating more and more income. (But your affiliate page can continue to refer more and more new customers as more people find it - each referral customer can start another multiplying pile of those instant sales commissions for you.)
No other affiliate marketing referral system has ever before combined all of these features into such a simple, copy-and-paste free system. It is very simple to use, although the affiliate plans may appear difficult to understand at first.
The secret of its success lies hidden in the special, unique affiliate payment plans. All three programs are lifetime membership affiliate marketing sites, offering 'tons' of marketing expertise and tools for affiliate marketing and traffic generation, for a low, one-time cost.
They use payment processors like Paypal and Stormpay, so a referring affiliate's sales commissions are actually deposited INSTANTLY, directly into the referring affiliate's account, even before the site owner gets his payment for the lifetime membership.
The continual growth of an affiliate's income is assured when his referral customers begin generating affiliate income for themselves. The pay plans are very unique: Every new affiliate gives up his first two sales commissions; they are automatically passed up to a sponsor above. This causes your commissions to multiply, automatically.
They are not MLM plans, they are one-tier affiliate marketing plans with a special, multi-tiered pay provision. This pass-up provision causes the pay to YOU as the referring affiliate to DOUBLE with each successive tier that spreads below you, starting from EACH new customer you find for them, after you pass up those first two sales.
You purchase from the next plan in sequence as soon as you receive $20 instant sales commissions from the first $30 plan. Each successive affiliate plan pays a higher sales commission than the plan before it. Adding up the commissions passed up, you wind up being paid $300 for each successful new affiliate you refer to this affiliate system. Yet you started it with only a $30 outlay, for membership in the first affiliate marketing site.
And those $300 sets of affiliate commissions then start DOUBLING from each tier, automatically, from each new successful referral affiliate you sponsor. From the next tier, you get $600, then $1200, then $2400, etc. That's how it was possible for less than 100 visitors to this system page to pay over $750 in affiliate sales commissions. And that's just the BEGINNING of the income from it.
Most of my referrals have not even finished signing up for all three of the plans in sequence yet, so I have much more affiliate income to look forward to in the near future, with no more effort on my part.
Like me, my referrals start their own doubling sales commissions with their third referral sale, after passing up the first two. And the passing up of the doubling commissions goes on for as long as the viral marketing of the plan goes on below you. It's the most lucrative affiliate plan ever designed.
Making the simple, affiliate system referral page free to copy-and-paste, makes it easy for anyone to duplicate it and keep it growing virally below you. Copying and pasting it for free makes the system easily self-replicating, ensuring the continued growth of your residual income, from that one-time $30 purchase. The system has instructions for setting up your own copy of the page online for free, too.
As your referrals purchase memberships in the rest of the plans and start using them, it will just continue multiplying your own affiliate income from the system.
I put my system in a free blog page, just to keep costs down as I got it started. And free blogs are as easy to use as email - just copy and paste, click a button, and it's immediately online with its own URL. Then just paste in your own affiliate links as you get them, and make some referrals to your page. There's a list of 14 free blog hosts in the system instructions. If you don't want to use a web site, use a free blog like I did.
The multiplication of your commissions is explained more fully on my free system blog page, at [http://www.MoneyGrower.info]
Although the affiliate pay plans are not easy to understand the first time through, the system 'works like a charm', as the saying goes. As you can see, this free system is entirely different from any other affiliate marketing plan or system in the world. And it PAYS like nothing else in the world, too.

Article Source: Ezine Articles expert=David Thorne 

Affiliate Marketing 101: Getting Traffic to Your Offer

Why So Many People Crash In Affiliate Marketing

By Robin Costello  

More and more people are lured into affiliate marketing and you might be one of them. Indeed, affiliate marketing is one of the most effective means of generating a full-time income through the Internet. It's a fair deal between the merchandiser and his affiliates as both benefit from each sale materialized.
Like in other kinds of business, a great deal of the profits in affiliate marketing depends on the affiliates selling, advertising and promoting strategies. Every day, as affiliate marketing industry expands, competition heightens as well so an affiliate marketer must be creative enough to employ effective and unique ways to convince potential buyers to purchase or avail of the products and services offered.
Compared to traditional advertising practices, affiliate programs are more effective, risk-free and cost-efficient.
Reasons people fail in affiliate marketing
So why do many people still fail in affiliate marketing? There are a lot of reasons and a lot of areas in the program to look into.
The most critical aspect in the affiliate program is advertising. It is the most important thing all other kinds of business as well; many affiliate marketers fail in this aspect because they lack hard work. Although it pays to be lucky, you cannot merely rely on it. Affiliate marketing isn't as simple as directing customers to the business site.
You must invest in yourself
If you want to earn big, of course, you have to invest time and great amount of hard work in promoting the products. The competition is very high and customers nowadays are very wise, too, as earlier mentioned. After all, who doesn't want to get the best purchase? That is, to pay less and get more in terms of quality and quantity.
Being prepared is critical in affiliate marketing
Lack of preparation is also a reason why one fails in affiliate marketing, whether he is a merchandiser or an affiliate. Part of the preparation is researching. On the part of the merchant, he has to be highly selective in choosing the right affiliate websites for his affiliate program.
In order to be sure he has the best choices, he must have exhausted his means in looking for highly interested affiliates whose sites are sure fit to his products and services.
The affiliate site's visitors must match his targeted customers. On the other hand, the affiliate marketer must likewise research on the good-paying merchandisers before he signs up for an affiliate program.
He must ensure that the merchant's products and services match his interests so he can give his full dedication and attention to the program.
He can get valuable information by joining affiliate forums, comparing different affiliate programs and reading articles on affiliate marketing where he can get tips from experienced affiliate marketers on how to choose the best merchants and products with high conversion rate.
Your website is critical to the success of your affiliate business
The website is a very important tool in the whole affiliate program. You should plan how your site is going to be, from domain name to the design, the lay-out, the content, and ads, as a marketer.
Some users are particular about what they see at first glance and thus when they find your site ugly, they won't spend their time looking at your site. On the other hand, there are those who want information more than anything else. Marketers with "rich-content" web sites are usually the ones who prosper in this business because the content improves traffic to the site.
Websites with high quality contents and relevant keywords are the best optimized sites. Having the right information about the product and service and not just a bunch of empty hyped-up advertisements will allow you to earn big in affiliate marketing even when you're asleep.
If you're not able to sustain the interest of your site visitor, you won't be able to lead them to purchase. No click-through means no sale and thus, no income on your part.
Selecting a top level domain name is also crucial to the success of the affiliate program. Lots of affiliate sites don't appear in the search engine results because they are deemed by affiliate managers as personal sites.
Major search directories and engines would think of your site as a transient one and thus, they won't list it in the directory.
Know first what you are going to promote, before you decide on the domain name. Even if they feature the exact products the customer is looking for, the customer might think the site is not relevant and becomes weary of the site contents.
An educated affiliate is a successful affiliate
Above all, an affiliate marketer must be willing to learn more. Certainly, there are still a lot of things to learn so an affiliate marketer must continue to educate himself so he can improve his marketing strategies. Many fail because they don't grow in the business and they are merely concerned about earning big commissions quickly.
If you want long-term and highly satisfactory results, take time to learn the ins and outs of the business. Continue to improve your knowledge especially with the basics in marketing ranging from advertising to programming, web page development, and search engine optimization techniques.
Likewise, study the needs and wants of your site users and how different merchandisers compete with each other.
If your initial attempts are failures do not give up. Keep plugging away. Do not get disappointed. You see, thousands are attracted by the possibility of generating skyrocketing incomes through affiliate marketing and so they sign up in any affiliate program without carefully understanding every aspect of the business.
When they don't get instant results, they quit and sign up for another program and repeat the process of just copying links and referring them to others. When you sign up for an affiliate program, don't expect to get rich in an instant.
Work on your advertising strategies and be patient. Stay focused and become the best student you can be and you will not be one that crashes in affiliate marketing.

Article Source: Ezine Articles expert=Robin Costello 

How to Become an Affiliate Marketing Millionaire Step by Step

Affiliate Marketing 101 - What You Need to Know

By James Statom  

What would you like to promote? Affiliate marketing is no stranger to the Internet, and certainly no stranger to network marketers and article marketing is still a successful way to promote your online business or blog. Affiliate marketing offers a phenomenal opportunity for people who do not have a lot of start-up capital or a lot of time to put together a giant campaign. Affiliate marketing has some very good advantages which include no product of your own, no inventory, no shipping or overhead and no real sales force. For the merchant it can also be a cheap and effective marketing strategy.
What are Affiliate Programs?
Generally speaking affiliate programs are marketing programs offered by web advertisers or merchants that recruit website owners and bloggers. The merchants provide banner ads, links and buttons for website owners to place on their website to market the merchant's products. In turn, the website owner or blogger will receive a referral fee or commission when a customer purchases a product that is delivered via an affiliate link. One of the most common types of affiliate links are pay per click (PPC - Pay Per Click) however, increasingly now have been intertwined with email and content marketing.
The Product:
When you are looking for an affiliate program there are some things you need to consider before choosing which company you are going to take arms with. The product should be one of quality can also be a service. As long as it's a product viable service and it offers something of value to the customer.
There are several types of compensation plans built into affiliate marketing programs, and one of them can be a residual program. However, not all affiliate marketing programs have residual programs built into them. If you can find one with residual funds, then that would be the way to go. However, there are some that actually offer a significantly high commission rate that may make up for the loss of the residual income. There are also others that offer a multilevel marketing structure of compensation. Now if you're familiar with multilevel marketing than that may be an avenue that you would choose to examine.
But before jumping into any multilevel marketing program, you should read up on it and do a thorough analysis. The last thing you want to do is jump into an affiliate program that is going to be a serious waste of time.
Choosing an Affiliate Program:
Back in 1994 there weren't very many affiliate programs to choose from and most of them were revolved around offensive content websites. Today, affiliate programs have a higher standard and it is a new way of doing business. There are many companies that have affiliate marketing programs lime Amazon, web hosting companies, domain name registrars, and electronic websites, Apple iTunes, bit defender, panda security, PC health boost, Commission Junction, eBay Partner Network, Google AdSense, VistaPrint and the list goes on and on.
You can find an affiliate program for almost anything you want to sell. It is a good idea to sell something that is related to your website, providing you have one. Not everybody that signs up for an affiliate program has a website to run it through. There are some that actually write articles and direct the URLs to their affiliate program.
Becoming an Affiliate:
If you want to become an affiliate it's not that hard. You simply go to the website of choice and look for their affiliate link program. Usually what will happen is you will sign up and get a unique affiliate ID along with some banners and links. You then place these on your website so that your potential audience can click on those links which if they purchase, you will receive a commission. Just because you signed up for an affiliate program doesn't mean that you're actually going to drive traffic to your website. You still need to do something about driving traffic to your website or affiliate link like write compelling articles and become an expert in your field. These articles can be placed on article databases and are a sure way of driving traffic to your website or affiliate link.
What You Should Look For:
When you go shopping for an affiliate program, try to look for high affiliate commissions, long cookies and of course you would want to get a great conversion rate. Two-tier programs which have the same structure as a multilevel marketing organization and can be quite lucrative. Such organizations that earn billions in multilevel marketing and direct sales is companies like Amway which has been in business for 53 years, Nu Skin started in 1984 and Nature's Sunshine started in 1972 so multilevel marketing has been around for some time. Residual affiliate programs is definitely the way to go. You continue to make money on that visitor month after month. The advantage here is that eventually your sales start accumulating where you're making more and more money as opposed to the individual sale where you have to continuously make money to stay at the same level.
Where You Can Go:
There is services out there that have a database of a lot of companies that are doing affiliate program so you do not have to run around and seek out each individual program themselves. Companies like ClickBank where you sign up and select the affiliate program you wish to support.
Marketing Your Link:
Now let's talk about that affiliate link for a moment. Most affiliate links are extremely long, hideous and some of them have special characters in them like a "?" or "=" sign. These links will not rank on search engines like Google very well and definitely cannot be added to pay per click like Google AdSense. What I would suggest is getting yourself a domain name and rerouting it to your affiliate offer. Let's take for an example if I wanted to become an affiliate of a cell phone electronics company and I had a website I can actually write a review on a particular cell phone that I'm trying to market. If it's more than one, then I could just pick a product or two to write my articles on. Anyway, I would try to register a domain name that may have something in it like cheap cell phones or something along those lines to help the search engines determine what your product might be.
Increase Your Sales:
What if you don't have a website and you wish to increase your sales with affiliate marketing; what would you do? One way to market an affiliate program I briefly touched on is to write quality articles about the product that is being marketed. I truly suggest this strategy to increase traffic and sales. There are several article directories that you can post your articles to, but do not post the same article to multiple sites other than the article directory and your own site if you have one. Article directories can be a very good source of traffic because of their reputation and the amount of visitors they have each month reading your article. Of course, some of those readers will click on your affiliate link driving traffic to your affiliate program. I like Ezine Articles as an article directory, but there are others like; Goarticles, ehow, Examiner, Technorati, Thefreelibrary and much more, but that's a good start. Don't just read one article when doing your research and regurgitate the content from that one article. Try to do some in-depth study to get a complete understanding of what it is you're writing about. Once you have that understanding, try to simplify your article by using either bullet points or topic list. To get people to click on your link you need to be compelled to do so, but the only way to do that is to write compelling articles.
Making money on the net with affiliate programs can be a rewarding experience if you know where to go the fine the right affiliate program and how to do the research needed. Just locating an affiliate program is not all you need to do, you need to weigh the gravity of that affiliate program. First determine what it is you would like to sell and do your research. Hopefully, you will look for something that accents your website or if you don't have a website, something that you know a lot about so that you can write your reviews.

Article Source: Ezine Articles expert=James Statom 

How Affiliate Marketing Changed Our Lives featuring Pat Flynn

Professional Affiliate Marketing Primer

By Miranda Apacible  

If you're new to the professional affiliate marketing Internet business playground, then you're no doubt wondering what affiliate marketing is all about. In simplest terms, it is marketing and promoting some other company's products/services on the Internet. You, the pro affiliate marketer, promote through whatever means is available to you (your ezine, blog, email, online advertising, etc.), which then sends traffic and customers to another company's website, who then does all the work -- develop, sell and support the actual products and/or services; close the sale; process the orders, take payments and make delivery; etc. -- for the paying customer. You, as the marketer and source of that business, are then paid a commission for your work. That's it!
The whole business arrangement is essentially revenue sharing. The company that provides the product or service being sold is generally called the affiliate merchant, and he shares the revenue they generate with you, the affiliate marketer, for sending business their way. In most cases, the affiliate marketer drums up that business through various forms of legitimate advertising techniques on a wide variety of online avenues and platforms.
Note that generally, the affiliate merchant does not pay anything for the "marketing" and promotion until a sale has actually occurred. This way, the merchant can minimize both risk and expenditures. Theoretically, the affiliate can then be rewarded more handsomely for taking on that marketing risk and expenditure. However, since the affiliate marketer does not need to take on the risk, investment and expenditure of developing and supporting a product/service and administering a sale, the relationship is very much considered a win-win arrangement, with each party focusing on the part of the business they are good at and interested in.
Tracking, Calculating and Paying Affiliate Income
How the affiliate marketer essentially gets paid for his work depends entirely on the affiliate merchant. In practically all cases, the arrangement is wholly managed through an automated system, with the merchant using Internet server-based software that gives an affiliate marketer a unique link code or ID which the marketer must then use to identify all the traffic and customers he sends to the merchant. This is really the only way the merchant can properly identify, credit and compensate the right affiliate for any business generated.
In some cases, an affiliate merchant uses the resources of a much larger affiliate network service (such as Commission Junction, LinkShare, etc.) to administer its affiliate program. Some other merchants, on the other hand, choose to run their own in-house affiliate system, keeping their program independent from everybody else's. In practically all cases, however, the basics of how an affiliate program tracks and calculates affiliate commissions follow what is outlined above.
The merchant generally specifies the financial terms beforehand (pay periods, minimum payment thresholds, when money is paid and how, etc.), whether it uses the services of a 3rd party service or runs its own affiliate program in-house. How an affiliate is ultimately paid will depend on these predetermined specifics, and they can run the gamut from being paid online through services like Paypal, having funds wired directly to an affiliate's bank account, to having a physical check printed and mailed directly to the affiliate.
Although there is obviously a level of trust in the merchant involved in this arrangement, it works because not only is it to the affiliate merchant's benefit to maintain a good working relationship with its affiliates in order to grow its business and ensure its continued success, the community of professional affiliate marketers is fairly tight-knit with extensive communications channels that quickly reports any shadiness and negative business dealings. On top of that, affiliate programs that run on third party network services offer an extra layer of protection and trust to the affiliate, with the networks helping ensure that all transactions are properly tracked, calculated and compensated. This is one reason that many professional affiliate marketers often adopt a policy that they will only work with affiliate programs that are administered through these third party affiliate network services.
Affiliate Program Selection
You, as the professional affiliate marketer, are free to choose whatever affiliate program you wish to join and market. In other words, you essentially choose which products and/or services you'll be promoting (through your blog, web site, ezine, advertisements, etc.). It is not a light decision, since your income is very much affected by how well you match your total "offer" to your "audience" or "market." That, however, is essentially your job and is part of what you as the professional affiliate marketer is compensated richly for.
In many cases, what affiliate programs you do choose is usually determined by your preexisting markets and audiences, For example, if you already run a gardening blog, then obviously the programs you would seek out would be gardening related or ones that you've determined would be of interest to the audience demographic your gardening site attracts.
If you are approaching this affiliate marketing business as a pure marketer, however, where the decision on how to market a product or service would be highly dependent on what it is you actually select to promote, how you select an affiliate program can be based on many different factors.
Some professional affiliate marketers, for example, choose programs based on commission size (high payouts per sale) or market size. These are business decisions you have to make, again, part of what you're getting paid for. Here are some suggestions for beginners, however, that may help you get started.
Choose products/services you are personally interested in. If you are interested in gardening or golf, for example, then focus on products/services specifically for those markets. The plain simple truth of it is that it is much harder to promote a product or service that you really couldn't care less about.
Choose products/services that do not embarrass you and that you are comfortable having your friends and family associate with you. For example, even though it's quite lucrative, some professional affiliate marketers are unable to promote dating sites and services for reasons of embarrassment and discomfort.
Choose products/services you are already familiar with and fully understand. Even if you are not all that interested in automobiles or travel, for instance, you may already know more than enough about the products and services in those particular markets that you can actually sell in those market niches.
Select affiliate programs that provide you with the best sales support. This only comes up from prior research, of course, but it's something you must do anyway. The sales support referred to here are things like training, advertising material and resources, extensive product information, etc. Obviously, the more tools they give you to sell with, the better your chances.
Remember: Being a professional affiliate marketer means that you are in business. Your business. Your success is ultimately determined by your decisions and actions. Good luck.
Mir Apacible is a professional affiliate marketer and a publicist for Wordpreneur, the How to Make Money Writing blog,

Article Source: Ezine Articles expert = Miranda Apacible 

Making Affiliate Marketing a Career

Key Benefits Of Affiliate Marketing

By David Ansley  

Since I decided to take the plunge 5 years ago and start working for myself as an online marketer, affiliate marketing has been the best thing I ever got involved in and is now part of my daily schedule.
It is without doubt something that all people who are interested in starting an online business or those who already have an online business, should investigate and take up.
If you are undecided or have little knowledge about affiliate marketing then I hope that you find the below information helpful and that it will clear up any doubts that you have over what the key benefits of affiliate marketing are.
1. Commission basis
For the affiliate marketer this is a key advantage as every time that somebody makes a purchase, the affiliate receives a set commission of the profit.
For the affiliate merchant this is an advantage as they only pay the marketer when they make a sale, so no money is wasted on marketing spend.
2. Huge audience
For the affiliate marketer - having built up various marketing lists or websites, they can make use of their huge audience base and ensure that the traffic they send over to the merchant is qualified and that sales are made, making the affiliate more money.
For the affiliate merchant - they receive access to a wider audience base than they may have had before, creating more interest in their products, resulting in more sales and all without investing any more money or time.
3. Ease
For the affiliate marketer - once they have set up their additional sites and links across to the merchant, it is very simple to manage and often affiliates will continue to make money from sales without having done anything for months.
For the affiliate merchant - they do not have to invest time and money writing content or creating expensive images in order to promote their services/ products. Instead affiliates will apply to be a part of their programme and all the merchant need do is have many affiliates all working towards promoting their products/ services and wait for the sales to flood in.
4. Steady cost
For the affiliate marketer - building on the last point, an affiliate can keep receiving commission from sales of a product or service for years, despite not doing a lot of work to promote it. You do need to invest time at the start but then you have a regular source of income coming in for the market life of the service/ product.
For the affiliate merchant - they set up all the costs so the chance to make a huge profit on sales without having spent much on marketing, is very likely. They do not have to pay their affiliates much per sale to make the business relationship worthwhile, as it tends to work best on a quantity basis so everyone is happy with the set amounts.
5. Brand Visibility
For the affiliate - there is a lot to be gained reputation wise from working with a range of brands and you will find that you get a lot more work should you be able to prove that you have succeeded with others in the past.
For the affiliate merchant - they receive free brand exposure on a continual basis, which is never a bad thing. If you have many affiliates working on promoting your brand, you'll soon see a boost in search engine rankings and online sales; Amazon.com is an excellent example of where this has worked in the past.
6. Outsourced expertise
For the affiliate marketer - they get the continued experience to improve and work on their methods of online marketing, investing only their time, not money.
For the affiliate merchant - they will be able to utilise all kinds of affiliates who are experts in SEM (search engine marketing) and SEO (search engine optimisation) without investing a lot of money, yet still manage to get to the top of Google rankings.
7. Transparency
For the affiliate marketer - through the various affiliate programmes, it is possible to see exactly when sales are made and payment is automatic, so you do not have to worry about chasing merchants for payments.
For the affiliate merchant - they can see and manage their R.O.I (return on investment) extremely easily and do not have to worry about tracking the origin of each sale.
8. Online market
For the affiliate marketer - there are an endless number of affiliate programmes out there and the demand for online shopping is not going to decrease, so the earning potential for affiliates is huge. You can access any number of markets with your affiliate work, whether you choose jewellery, hygiene, pet insurance or food.
Use long tail pro to find targeted long tail keywords with low competition, ensuring maximum affiliate sale for you.
For the affiliate merchant - as previously mentioned, online demand is not going away any time soon, therefore merchants are able to continue to expand product ranges to meet a range of online markets with the knowledge that they have a number of affiliates on hand to promote quickly and at a low cost.
9. Home-based work (aimed at affiliate marketer)
If you become successful in the world of affiliate marketing then it is entirely possible to create a long term Passive Income from it and a huge bonus to this is that you can work cheaply from home and be your own boss. You don't have to pay to sign up to affiliate programmes and there are a huge number to choose from, all from the comfort of your own home.
10. Overcoming tradition (aimed at affiliate merchant)
Using affiliates to promote your products and services will guarantee that you receive a lot more exposure than you would by using more pricey traditional marketing methods. Having a number of affiliates promoting what you are selling and only being paid when a sale is made, is one of the most cost effective marketing methods ever as well as being incredibly successful.

Article Source: Ezine Articles expert=David Ansley 

Affiliate Marketing - Free Ebook Tutorial

Affiliate Marketing VS Product Creation

By Joshua Zamora  

This is a huge obstacle many people face when entering the online marketing world: Should I become an affiliate marketer or should I create and sell my own product..?
Before I get started let me quickly define the two business models so that we are clear as to how money is generated with each.

• Affiliate Marketing: In this business model you will be making income by referring customers to another person's product or service. So basically you will sign up with the vendor as an affiliate and for every sale you generate you get paid a commission.
• Product Creation: This business model is pretty self-explanatory; you will be creating a product and selling it in the marketplace for 100% of the profits. In this example we will be assuming your product is an information product of some sort.
There are a lot of marketers that will say the easiest way to start making money online is affiliate marketing. Just because of the simple fact that you can choose a vendor whose product you want to promote, sign up as an affiliate, start sending traffic to your affiliate sales page and BOOM! You make money. Sounds pretty easy. You don't have to deal with creating a product, setting up websites, dealing with customers, etc.
At the same time there are marketers that say creating your own product is easier and the more profitable of the two and allow you to be more in control of your business.
It really all depends on what your strengths and weaknesses are and what you're looking to accomplish in your business.
Let me get some of the pros and cons of each and put things into perspective so you can have a better idea of where you want to get started.
Affiliate Marketing
It is a strong argument that affiliate marketing is the easier of the two to start with which is why it is recommended as a starting point for beginners.
Here are a few of the pros of affiliate marketing:
• Most affiliate vendors/networks are free and very easy to join. Most of the time you will answer a few basic questions, set up a username and password and get instant access to the affiliate member's area within a few minutes.
• Marketing materials are provided. Once you set up your profile in the affiliate member's area you will have complete access to all marketing materials needed to get you going such as banners, pre-written emails, etc. In the members area you will also be provided a unique affiliate link which will take your prospects to a complete sales page which has already been created for you. Armed with these materials all you have to focus on is getting traffic to your affiliate site.
• All websites are already created for you. As an affiliate you do not have to deal with the headaches that can come with setting up a website. The vendor has done this for you and as long as you use your affiliate link your sales and commissions will be tracked through that link and paid into your account.
• Do not have to deal with customers. We all know how difficult it can be to deal with customers but as an affiliate you do not have to worry about this problem. Once you make a sale as an affiliate all you have to worry about is cashing your check and the customer is passed on to the vendor.
As you can see being an affiliate marketer definitely has its perks. It's quick and easy to join a vendor/network, all the marketing materials and sales pages are provided and you do not have to deal with customers. You can focus your time on generating traffic, making sales and cashing checks!
Now let's take a look at some of the cons of affiliate marketing and how you can overcome them.
• The competition. Even though it can argued that affiliate marketing is the easiest way to make money online it can be strongly argued that it's the most difficult due to the competition. There are hundreds of thousands of affiliate marketers you have to compete with to make a sale. At the same time many experienced marketers agree that most new affiliate marketers do not know what they're doing since it's such an easy business to get into.
- One of the best ways to overcome this obstacle is to educate yourself. Always be a step ahead of the competition by learning what the top affiliates are doing to give them that edge needed to make the sale.
• Profit Margins. As I mentioned before with affiliate marketing you are making a commission for referring a customer to a vendor as opposed to you being the creator of the product and earning 100% of the sale. So there can be a lot of profits you are leaving on the table by promoting someone else's product instead of your own.
- This obstacle is really not in your control when it comes to affiliate marketing but the best thing you can do is promote a product with a higher payout of 60-80% as opposed to 25-50%. This way you will be making more income with less sales.
• Building someone else's business. As an affiliate not only are you generating sales and profits for the vendor you are also helping them build their business instead of your own. Once you make a sale and are paid a commission that customer is now in the hands of the vendor which can continue to sell additional products and services to that customer for the lifetime of their relationship.
- The best way I know of building your own business through affiliate marketing while also sending customers to the vendor is to set up a landing page of your own that requires the prospect to input their name and email before they get access to the sales page. This way the prospect is on your customer list as well and you can now email them future offers and affiliate products directly. Now of course you will have to provide an incentive to the prospect for them to enter their email like giving away a free report, video training, audio file, etc. We will touch on this in a future report.
• Lack of control. With affiliate marketing you really don't have much control of anything but generating sales. Should the vendor/network decide to shut down or no longer sell the product you are promoting you are left back at square one. When it comes to product creation you have a lot more control of your business and can profits but we'll be touching on that in a few.
- Unfortunately this is a huge downside to affiliate marketing and something you really can't prepare for. Building your email list as mentioned before is the best way to ensure that you still have an ability to make sales with your current list of customers while you set up a new campaign with a new product.
There are just as many cons as pros with affiliate marketing but none of these reasons should stop you from getting started if it's a business you wish to pursue. One important thing that you want to keep in mind is to take time to invest in your education and skill sets to put yourself ahead of the curve. By doing this you set yourself apart from the competition and a step ahead to making the sale.
If you are interested in learning more about affiliate marketing and jump starting your way to success visit my author resource box.
Now, just for a second picture yourself being the product creator and having an army of affiliates promoting your products as we move into the pros and cons of Creating and selling your own product.
Product Creation
Product creation can be a scary subject for many because as a newbie you are most likely skeptical and completely in the dark as to how an online business operates, let alone creating a product from scratch. But to your surprise it can actually be one of the easiest ways to make money online.
Let's get into some of the pros of creating and selling your own product and see why it can be an avenue you consider:
• Control. When it comes to product creation you are in complete control of just about everything. You are in control of how you market your product, the price, its delivery, and you are in full control of every customer you bring into your business as well as any future purchases they make from you.
• Profits. Of course this is a huge reason why many people create and sell their own products. As a product creator you get to keep 100% of the profits from every sale you make. Now there is an exception to this when it comes to setting up your own affiliate program and having other affiliates promote your products but we'll touch on the power of this next.
• Affiliates. Once you create your unique product you can choose to leverage others to help build your business. Setting up an affiliate program can be a powerful way to explode your business on autopilot. You can offer your affiliates a commission of 30-50% and have them sell their butts off for you especially if your product brings high value to the marketplace. Also you can make money while you sleep as you know your affiliates are working hard to make you sales.
• Building a Brand. Being the product creator gives you the opportunity to build a brand for yourself in the marketplace of your chosen topic. Since your product is unique you are able to name the product whatever you like and build a brand around that topic. This is very big if you want to build your business through word-of-mouth advertising which we all know is the strongest form of advertising.
As you can see there are also some great advantages to creating and selling your own product. You are in full control of everything, you will earn more money, you can build an army of affiliates, and you can build a brand for yourself and your business. But as in everything there is a downside so let's get into that next.
Here are a few cons of product creation and how you can overcome them:
• Time. When it comes to your time, creating your own product will definitely take up more of your time then simply signing up as an affiliate. Not only will it take time to create your product, but you also have to create a website to sell your product from. And that can be a headache of its own which we will talk about next.
- The great thing about product creation is you can outsource just about every process involved in starting your business. You can literally pay a professional writer to write your information product for you and you take the credit for it. Of course you always want to proof read it and modify a bit to fit your personality and style.
• Websites. Once your product is completed you will not be able to make any profit unless you are able to get it published online. For some this can be your worst nightmare. This can cause you a lot of headaches especially if you are not tech savvy. This can easily cause you to quit or never begin to try to make money online, or it can cause you to have to hire a web designer to build a site for you which can be a few hundred to a few thousand dollars in cost. This leads me to my next topic.
- Again building a website can easily be outsourced to a web designer who can build you a clean professional website usually within 48-72 hours.
• Cost. When it comes to creating a product it can easily be said you will have more start up costs then an affiliate. When it comes to setting up your sales funnel you have certain costs like buying a domain, hosting your website, hiring a web designer to set up you site unless you're doing it yourself, paying for the graphics to brand your product, etc.
- A lot of you may be asking yourself how much are you going to expect to spend on your product creation business? Don't worry take a deep breath..a lot of the things you will be paying for are really inexpensive. You can buy a domain for about $10 and hosting is about $5 a month. Now I want to introduce you to a site that will dramatically change the way you do business it's called http://www.Fiverr.com. This is a community of people that are willing to just about anything for $5. Go ahead and visit the site and see for yourself. You can literally have an information product created on a topic of your choice, the graphics and ebook cover created, and a website build for $25-$30.
• Customer Support. As the product owner you will be responsible for your customer service and support and this alone can drive you insane and drain a lot of your time and energy. As in any business on or offline you will have your happy customers and your not so happy customers. Your customers will have questions, demands, concerns, etc and it is your responsibility to make sure they get the support they deserve.
- Customer support can also be outsourced but unfortunately this comes with the territory of any business and something you will have to deal with. Yes you can have someone take care of your customers service but you should definitely be as involved as possible to make sure they are getting the best support possible.
As you can see as a product owner, yes you will be in control, yes you will make more money, and yes you can build a brand, but with all this comes a lot more responsibility then an affiliate marketer.
Before wrapping things up lets touch on a few things that we can all agree on in both affiliate marketing and product creation.
• Work from home. Whether you are an affiliate marketer or promoting your own products both allow you to be in control of your time and work from home. For many this a highly sought after luxury to be able to spend more time with family, friends, spouse, etc.
• Your day job. Unless you are a super marketer and were born with super online business skills most of you will still be working your day job as you build your online business. With that said you can build your online business on a part-time or full-time basis around your current work schedule whether it is one hour a day or ten hours a day whatever it is that works for you make sure you keep it consistent. Make sure you schedule your online business time just as you would schedule any other activity and make this non-negotiable.
• You're the boss. No matter if you're marketing as an affiliate or your own product, you are your own boss in both situations and your income is directly influenced by your efforts. This also allows you to make money on demand. If you're looking to take a vacation or buy a new car and you need a few thousand dollars you can just jump on your computer and set up a new marketing campaign.
If you are leaning more towards creating your own products visit my author resource box.
In conclusion there really is no right or wrong, better or worse, that was not the point of this article. The point of this report was to shed some light on both business models so that you can be more aware of what you can expect in moving forward with your online business. In my opinion there shouldn't have to be a choice between affiliate marketing and creating your own product. You should integrate both into your business plan and become educated in both arenas. By doing that you will quickly see that many top affiliate marketers make a killing selling their own products and many people who sell their own products make a killing as affiliate marketers.
One thing I do want to stress is no matter what you do it is going to take time, effort and hard work. Don't fall into the trap that many newbie's do which is consistently searching for the next plug and play system that is going to make you the next overnight millionaire. And there are plenty of "Guru's" out there who prey on the newbie community and put out junk products promising overnight millions with pretty sales pages and you continue to fall for them. STOP!! Map out a business plan, decide what you want to accomplish, find one reputable mentor you want to follow and get to work! Focus on following that chosen mentor all the way through to your first online dollar. Lastly, make a promise to yourself that you will not

Article Source Ezine Articles expert=Joshua Zamora 

Affiliate Marketing - Overview for Beginners

Affiliate Marketing Tips For the Advertiser

By Eric Cherepany  

Many businesses miss out on the true benefits of affiliate marketing. As an advertiser (the business looking to obtain affiliates) you really need to understand the extremely delicate balance that needs to be achieved in order to hit that sweet spot of unbelievable business success.
So, What is This Sweet Spot Exactly?
First, this depends on the goal of your affiliate marketing campaign. For most companies there are 2 main targets that are zeroed in on:
1. Building Your Brand
2. Making a Ton of Profits
However, many businesses forget about old #3, Making a Ton of Profits for your Affiliates.
Hitting the sweet spot involves all three of these targets. I've seen a lot of companies start an affiliate program and generate a bunch of leads, and just dump their affiliates without even a care. If you do this you will miss out on a ton of money that could have been made.
You have to understand what affiliate marketing is really all about, and having been on both sides of the table (meaning I have ran affiliate programs for my business, and have also been a publisher selling affiliate products) I know exactly what needs to be achieved for both to have success.
You see, affiliate marketing is about much more than just you (the advertiser) making a great business decision to pay for only advertising that results in sales and therefore profits, it's also about building your company brand while building strategic partnerships with individuals who can literally make your business explode.
It's fine and dandy to use affiliate programs to have individuals throw up a few banner ads to make some extra money and generate leads for your business, but that's what most companies do, so why stop there? You don't want to be like everyone else, you want to be better than them. You do want to be better than them don't you? I sure hope your answer is yes, because if not you can stop reading now. You don't have to know these strategies if you don't want to, but for those who do, pay extremely close attention to the rest of this article.
Your goal with your affiliate program from this point on should be to aim for the 3 targets I mentioned earlier: Building your brand, Making a ton of profits for yourself, and Making a ton of profits for your affiliates. Helping your affiliates will help you, I can guarantee that, and this will come down to how you ultimately structure your affiliate program.
So How Do You Structure an Affiliate Program?
First, it's all about the commission. You have to give people a great incentive to advertise for you. Your goal is not just about making that quick sale (quick sales are good, but there is a lot more to this), it's about the lifetime value of the customer and building that strong brand image with them. If you don't know what the average lifetime value of your customer is, you're going to have to go through your records, do some research, and probably do a little math. You at the very least want to know how much they spend, and for how long they remain an active customer.
Typically a good commission to start with for physical products is 6-8%, and once an affiliate shows good sales volume you can increase the commission amount to 12% or even 15% if it is feasible. Keep in mind at this point, whatever commission you decide on, make sure you're still making a profit. I know that sounds like common sense to you, but later on after you've tested your campaign for a while you make actually find it more affordable to take a loss up front on the first sale. Don't worry, I'm going to cover this in a little bit, so just keep reading, but first I want to cover informational / digital product affiliate commissions.
For informational / digital download affiliate programs, you want to at least offer a 50% commission. Statistics show that programs that don't offer 50% or higher do pretty miserably. There have been a few exceptions with products I worked with that did well, but that was only because they had extremely high conversion rates. So use this as your baseline, test it, and see if you can afford to go higher. With downloadable products it's usually not the first sale that will make your business, but it's the backend products and the upsells that come later on. So just like with physical products, you want to know what the average lifetime value of a customer is, and from there, you can assess how much of a commission you can afford to give out.
Second, is cookie duration. This is very important to your affiliates because most sales do not occur on the first visit. Studies show customers on average come back between 4-7 times before a sale is actually made depending on the product that is being sold. I advise companies to use at least a 60 day cookie. Why 60? because everyone else uses 30, 30 days is the standard. Even though most sales do occur within that time period, you'll attract a ton of more affiliates with a 60 day (or greater) cookie duration.
Third, besides the cookie duration, something for you to consider is the attribution of the sale. Attribution basically means deciding on who to credit the sale to. If you have a customer who goes to one affiliate, and then doesn't buy, but a day or 2 later manages to land on a different site and then buys, who do you want to credit the sale to? Most companies prefer a last click attribute, meaning the last site to get the click that results in the sale gets the credit. This is the most common method, but there are other companies that prefer the opposite which is a first click attribute, which means even if someone bought from the second site in the above example, the site that got that first click will get the sale. Choose which rationale works for you, for me I tend to favor the last click attribute as well.
Fourth, pay your commissions on time. If you do not pay your affiliates on time they will venture somewhere else, even if it's for a lower %. Your affiliates are working hard for you and many times are paying to send traffic to their sites for the possibility of making commissions for advertising your products, and most of the time those advertising bills come in way before they get paid, and I know because I've been there. Nothing would get me more ticked off than the affiliate company not paying on time, and even worse than that, some will even wait till the next paying cycle. You need to feel your affiliates pain and know what they go through. There's nothing more agitating then spending a few hundred or thousand dollars on advertising and having to wait 2 months to get paid on it.
More Advanced Affiliate Marketing Tips For The Advertiser
So what's the point of making sure all this happens? Why is it important to make sure your affiliates are happy? Well here's some stuff that will really put you above the competition. I'm all about giving great content in my articles, so here's some juicy stuff for you.
Making Outstanding Affiliate Offers
Anyone can recruit a bunch of affiliate marketers, slap up a good offer following the basics that i listed above and you'll make a bunch of sales, but will they make your business explode overnight? Probably not. It's where you take it from here that will depend on how much success your affiliate program will be. After you (or your affiliate manager) has started generating affiliates, contact them. Send a message to your affiliates and ask them if any of them would want to take advantage of a special offer, and how you'd love to work with them personally. You see many companies will give their affiliates coupon codes for shopping discounts like 5, 10, 15% off, or offer free shipping for people that buy through affiliate links. Now these work pretty decent from time to time, they do help people to buy through affiliates, but there is always a way to take things one step above the competition, and that's what I'm going to teach you here.
Typical Multi-Product Website Affiliate Offers
You want to work closely with a few select individuals that responded to that email that you sent to them about working with them personally. Depending on your business structure, there are a few directions you can go from here. First I want to talk about your standard multi-product website. Let's say you sell furniture online and really want to get your business to explode. Instead of just giving coupons to your affiliates you want to try to get your affiliates to promote different categories or even a specific product in ways that aren't possible through your site.
Let me explain, a typical product website can only do so much. You have a product picture, a description, maybe a bit of ad copy, and a price. The only factors that you can really change to increase sales are Price, Free or Reduced Shipping, tweak the Copy, and Brand Image. This is pretty standard stuff, and there's nothing wrong with it, but there is a whole other level that you can hit with your affiliates, but will not be able to fly on your site. Since we're talking about furniture, let's say you have a product that you want to work with an affiliate to sell. The product is called the Super Deluxe Bed. With your chosen affiliate there are a lot more things you can work on to get this product sold. An affiliate (with your supervision) can create copy for the product that will be able to incorporate so many other sales triggers to get it sold.
Example: Your affiliate is promoting the Super Deluxe Bed. For his customers you allow him to have an exclusive offer (or allow him to say it's exclusive) for this bed, and that the only way they'll get this exclusive offer is if their customers buy through him. However, that's just the beginning. Allow your affiliate to inject some scarcity into his customers veins. Make it an "Extremely Limited" offer that's only available for a limited time, or that you're only allowing a certain # of these beds to be sold at this price. You can also allow your affiliate to offer a bonus to the customers that buy the Super Deluxe Bed. The bonus can either be a physical product like a "limited edition lamp", or a Free "How to Get an Amazing Nights Sleep" Special Report. Salesmanship like this will get a ton of more products sold for you.
Exploding Your Business With Affiliate Marketing
These are things that will get your business to literally explode but something you can't do alone. If you did this on your site for every product or category you would come off as too salesy, or too pushy. I mean think about it, if every product bought got the same special bonus it wouldn't be special any more, or if everything is listed as "limited quantities available" you'd seem more like a business that can't manage it's stock rather than one that's giving people an "exclusive limited offer".
Really take a few minutes to picture the 2 different sales processes I just described, and put yourself in the customers shoes to feel the experience they would have in each situation. Which do you think would be more likely to make the sale: Your site listing the product with free shipping, or an affiliate site listing the product with an "exclusive limited time free shipping offer", with a bonus (only for the next 10 orders) Free "How to Get an Amazing Nights Sleep" Special Report (a $37 value), along with some longer more compelling copy?
See you can't do that with every product on your own site, but with the power of affiliate marketing you can drive highly targeted traffic to amazing offers like this without tarnishing your brand. It's really just unbelievable with how doing this with multiple affiliates with several different products or categories can blow away the competition and make you and your affiliates a lot of money, and I'm just talking about visitors coming to your site via advertising, don't even let me get started with what this process can do for you in a product or business launch or relaunch sequence. Ever want to know what it's like to make a years worth of sales in a few days? You just try this in a launch or relaunch and the results will surely make your eyes plunge out of their sockets.
Information Product Website Affiliate Offers
For an Information / Digital Download type of site, you can use the same techniques as above. Work with your affiliates to allow them to offer something unique specifically for their customers. Either you can create it for them or let them do it with your supervision of course. The point is to make it so that your affiliate is giving them something exclusive for ordering through them. Also, just like with the physical products above, If you do a well coordinated product launch with your affiliates you can expect to make a lot of cash quickly.
Why You Need to Keep Your Affiliates For the Long Term
So why do you want your affiliates to succeed so badly? What do you need them for after the sale is made? I mean you got your money your leads, what else can they possibly be good for? Because your affiliates, if you work with them and help train them with the example techniques I mentioned in this report, they will always continue to bring you high quality leads. You always want to allow them to make available to their customers "highly exclusive" offers on a continuous basis. Don't forget, affiliates one way or another through using their time or cold hard cash, that they are covering your advertising expenses.
Making a Profit Selling at a Loss
Remember way up at the top of this article when I mentioned sometimes you can have an affiliate program where you can actually take a loss up front on the first sale? Well I want to get into that here a bit like I promised. You see, making that first sale is what is crucial to your affiliate marketers, it's what gets their motor going. If you can afford to take a loss up front then do it and you'll see more affiliates then you can handle sign up for your program, but only if you have an awesome backend to sell those customers, and this is something that requires testing. If you're not making a profit, don't do it. Your backend, whether digital download or physical product, has to make you a nice profit. I'm not talking nickles and dimes, I mean a hefty profit. I know the bulk of this article talks about being good to your affiliates, but you're in this to make money and they understand that. They may be taking on the bulk of your advertising expenses, but you're here to make a profit too. If you're going to go for a loss on the front end, you don't give your affiliates backend commissions unless you're making huge profits yourself, but if you structure it so that you can make some good money on the front end, there's no problem with thanking your affiliates with a nice commission on that as well.
Building Your Brand With Affiliate Marketing
Throughout this whole affiliate program process remember your targets. You now know how to make a ton of money for yourself and your affiliates, but don't you dare forget about that brand! You must build your companies brand in with the affiliate marketing process. Even though the link of the product will be redirecting to your site, your sites name needs to be on that page. Those customers need to know that those Super Deluxe Bed "exclusive offers" are going to Squiggly Doo's Furniture Store before the link sends them there. It really helps the credibility of the switch from one site to the next. Take note however, that you are not endorsing any bonuses (anything separate from your sites offers) that may be offered through your affiliates, you're just privately approving them. It's just a matter of protecting your brand, and guarding yourself legally. If you find yourself getting complaints about the bonuses being offered, look into the matter immediately and notify the affiliate to stop offering it because your brand is your #1 long term asset.
Your brand is what will keep those customers coming back to you for repeat business and continually buying your products. Another reason why you want to keep your affiliates for the long term is because if they know the right techniques (which you'll enlighten them with) they will build deep relationships with the people that just bought through their link. So you want to encourage your affiliates to build a list and stay in close contact with your shared customers so they can continually promote for you, and both make a lot of money. So for your benefit, reach out to your affiliates and make sure they can capture leads effectively. It's much easier to have individual affiliates build those relationships with you're customers as opposed to having it all on you. With you and your affiliate marketers working as a team you all will make lots of cash, and build a solid brand.
Ladies and Gentlemen, that's about all I have for you now. There's just a ton of information out there that I could write hundreds and even thousands of pages about it, but for now I'm going to have to stop here. I would like to thank you for allowing me to help you in you new affiliate marketing venture. I hope you found these tips helpful, and I'll be looking to post some more articles soon.
Eric Cherepany is a highly successful internet business and marketing consultant specializing in all different aspects of this field. He is currently building a website for readers, fans, and followers, so for now please enjoy other articles he has written as well, and check back soon for a link to his website which should be finished very soon.

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