Everything You Need To Know About Affiliate Marketing Before You Start

By Hakan Akbas 

If you are curious about starting an internet marketing business or are looking at ways to make money online, you may have come across the concept of affiliate marketing. In this article, I will share with you, what affiliate marketing is all about, along with the in's and out's of affiliate marketing, so that you make an informed decision on whether it is right for you.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing, is simply a performance based relationship between a product creator and promoter, commonly known as the affiliate. The affiliate's role is to use their own means to promote and attract customers to the product creators website or sales page, in the event of a sale the affiliate will receive an agreed commission.

Product creators tend to go down the route of using an affiliate networks to run their affiliate program, or they may choose to run their affiliate program in-house. Most product creators tend to vet people who want to be an affiliate for them and they will outline their terms on how, when and how much commission you'll be paid. Once you're accepted you'll be provided with a unique link, which will contain a cookie and when a potential customer clicks it and buys, you'll get a commission.

How do you find products to promote?

1 - You can join an affiliate marketing network, such as Jvzoo or ClickBank, which list products you can promote as an affiliate.

2 - You can do a Google search, type affiliate + your niche or product name, in the search box.

3 - You can join the mailing list of several marketers in your niche and see what they are promoting.

Are there any advantages and disadvantages of being an affiliate?

Advantages

1 - You don't need to invest time and money in creating a product

2 - You don't need to create a sales page

3 - You don't to deal with customer service issues

Disadvantages

1 - If the quality of the product is either of low quality or doesn't deliver what is promised on the salespage, it could damage your reputation

2 - The merchants after sales or customer service, is either poor or bad, which could damage your reputation, through guilt of association

3 - The merchant could go bust while you wait for your commission

How to be a successful as an affiliate

In order to be successful as an affiliate, you really should focus on creating a list of potential customers. Focusing on creating and building a relationship with your subscribers, so that you can identify what their wants and needs are. This can be achieved through either creating a lead magnet squeeze page or have an email opt in, on your website or blog.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com expert: Hakan Akbas