Absolute Beginner's Guide to Affiliate Marketing

By Robert Deveau  

Affiliate marketing will take far more than a single article to learn to do well. While I can't hope to cover the full range of questions one might have in that area, I hope to provide you with a strong base upon which to begin.

1. What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a source of online income that allows you to earn money from selling other people's products or services in exchange for a commission. For example, you could visit the Amazon website and sign up for their "affiliate program". If accepted, they would then send you a personalized code. You would send prospects to the amazon site using your affiliate code. That way, they know that the prospect came from you and they could send any commissions to you.

2. How much are affiliate commissions?

Commissions vary depending on the type of product sold and can literally cover the full range between 1% to 100%. Typically, a physical product such as something you would find on Amazon would be between 5% to 10%. Information products, such as those found on ClickBank will more likely be between 50% to 75%.

Some hosts of information products allow a full 100% commission. It is worth noting however, that these 100% affiliate products are known as lead generators. The product vendor will give you 100% of the purchase price but he or she intends to continue to sell to that prospect on the "back-end"

3. How can I get started in Affiliate Marketing?

First, you need to select a "niche". This is the area that you will be working in, for example, dog training. It is useful, though not necessary, for you to already know your topic. You can always research what you don't already know. What is most important is that there are eager buyers for the product you are selling.

4. How do I know if people are going to buy?

The sad truth is that, you don't know. In my personal business, I've always used one simple mantra that has worked well for me: Ease People's Pain.

People in pain, whether physical or emotional or otherwise, are very motivated to get themselves out of pain. For example, the migraine niche. It is very easy to find a product that eases migraine pain in the ClickBank marketplace and grab your affiliate link.

Then you simply find people with migraines and put your link in front of them. There is a lot of information on how to find people with the pain or niche that you have chosen to work in.

Good luck and I sincerely hope that this basic guide was useful.

Article Source: EzineArticles expert Robert Deveau 172271