Effective Use of Affiliate Marketing to Advertise Your Business

By Deb Atkins

Affiliate programs seem to be everywhere on the internet. The internet newbie or novice business seeker may only think of affiliate programs in terms of making money. However, they are forms of Internet advertising. The advertiser pays the affiliate to place a link on their website, and the affiliate sends traffic to the advertiser in return. So the commissions paid are rewarded to the affiliates for driving traffic (more sales) to the advertiser. With that said, the process is simple, but the execution is not always easy.

Affiliate marketing has its ups and downs. It could be draining if you are not armed with updated information and the technical know-how. The objective of this article is to give you a basic understanding of the purpose and benefits of affiliate marketing. Hopefully you will desire to be both an affiliate and eventually an advertiser, when you create your own unique product.

The Affiliate:

Many people looking to start a business face fears of the business start-up costs. However, with affiliate marketing, you don't have to spend much at all to create unlimited income. Conventional businesses often require inventory or monthly product purchases to qualify for the specified compensation plans. With affiliate marketing, the merchant or product developer handles and required maintenance. As an affiliate, you then must learn the best methods to advertise your affiliate products. These include such things as:

• buying traffic for your site

• email marketing

• pay-per-click advertising, and

• newsgroups or forums

The Advertiser:

When introducing a new product to market, advertising costs can be high. However, on the internet you generally have established joint venture (JV) partners. Hence, your only cost is the time you spend sharing the new concept and is the earnings percentage you share with your affiliates.

When you have a job (i.e., are paid for your time), your income is dependent on your ability to work. With affiliate marketing, you can leverage your time. Your affiliates team with you to lead traffic to your website when all you have done is to provide your ad copy and their affiliate links. Although not every internet marketer realizes unlimited earnings, the arrangement remains beneficial for both parties.

Mutual Benefits: Both the Internet marketer and the advertiser are on the internet to achieve successful transactions. The affiliate marketer must choose quality items worthy of being purchased by consumers. This will prevent charge backs or returns. You, as an affiliate marketer, will also find it more fulfilling by choosing a niche area or niche products of relevance and interest both to you and the traffic you desire to lead to your site. The Advertiser must provide a quality item and appropriate updates for the satisfaction of the customer. Both parties realize the following benefits:

• Worldwide customer base

• Low risk

• 24-Hour Operation

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So both parties have a global reach through the technology of the internet. This enables endless affiliates and JV partners. As previously mentioned, the low start-up cost for the affiliate in starting a business and low advertising cost for the product originator are very attractive factors. Once the product pages or websites are in place, they have the potential to generate income 24-hours a day.

With all of that said, keys to realizing the benefits of affiliate marketing and advertising lie in the right products and customers. This is the KEY for the success in advertising and sales. Choosing the right niche and niche products are key. You must do market research before beginning ANY business on identify what the demand is for your product. But once you have the right product, people still need to find you.

Now, as an affiliate, you can purchase traffic, and place ads with great success or failure. The way most people use the internet is to either go to sites with which they are familiar or by entering a search string. The search engine traffic is FREE traffic. So the ultimate goal of any affiliate marketing campaign is to have a website that can be found by the right people with the lowest cost. This is where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in. The affiliate marketer must eventually either learn SEO or purchase a tool (or set of tools) that allow optimization of the niche product website.

Now that you have the big picture you need to identify the steps to master the concepts. Your next steps should be to identify where in the process you are and identify the resources you need. The resources may take the form of a mentor, a training course, an e-book, an all inclusive research site, etc. The sooner you do that the more quickly you can identify a plan or strategy for your own success - not only in affiliate marketing, but in creating your own original product!

Deb Atkins is an artist and writer who uses her creativity to encourage and promote a balanced life vision.

Article Source: EzineArticles expert: Deb Atkins