By: Courtesy of Affiliate Programs College Secrets
Know in your mind to that the most important task you can first do to make your online business experience positive is to know your product before you start a business. Virtually every successful partner in any site builder affiliate program knows their product inside out. The affiliate partner program is useless even if the business support is excellent without excellent products.
Amazingly many fast buck money making affiliate individuals, including myself at one time, join a program because they get revved up by the sales pitch. A very high percentage of these result in many drop outs for the discouraged affiliates who make little or no money at all in them. A small percentage of webmasters with big mailing list groups make good money for a short time until the fire of the empty shell product fizzles out.
There are ways to increase your chances of being an affiliate making money versus an affiliate losing money. One is by having a top notch affiliate hosting program by your partner who is a free builder of web sites for you. Some of these partners are good at building a web site of a very few pages for you and most are not.
Here are some expensive lessons I have learned over the years that will massively increase your odds of success. See how many of these will eliminate almost all affiliate programs out there and save you time and money.
The training of the master affiliate company should give you the potential to be so good that you will not need the help of your sponsor into it in the first place. This would enable you to learn your product well and be satisfied with the quality of it. You know you have a product worth buying.
You want a company that gives you a second tier of income to earn on. Others who do well through the affiliate hosting company will multiply your efforts a level down. If the company goes down too many levels with the pay plan they have to goose up the product price and that cuts its sales way down. Good bye profits.
Most free builder type host affiliate companies have no second tier in their program because their product is not good enough to be priced higher. You have to know your site builder affiliate program is very good to make a buck. There are sure signs of this you can judge by.
They will make claims of being quality programmers, marketers and web masters. They can demonstrate their excellence. If not, say bye, bye and move on to another program. Their web site will be more than one or two pages. They will of been in business for more than a couple years. Preferably five or even ten years.
They will have testimonials by the truck load from marketers who started with very low web marketing skills. Experienced marketers could sell snow cones to Eskimos in Arctic weather. They can make any awful program work! Please understand this very important point!
You want and need someone who has the capability of hand holding you through the learning process. Someone who has dramatic, professional and even funny videos to apply to many business cases. Quality referral web sites are a must. If these are not available save yourself the future grief and move on.
You want warm enthusiastic people to work with who will pull you to success. No one can do it all for you. That is a big lie we have all seen over the years in many business fields.
A very few companies do have the goods to show you the way. Please note I said a very few companies. If you stick with them and learn their techniques you have your best shot to make it.
James M. Lowe who believes in picking good affiliate programs through careful research.www.sitesell.com/james81074.html/">professional affiliate programs
To your affiliate success and profits
Stanley joshua kudolo
Wednesday, 9 January 2008
Sunday, 6 January 2008
Know the 3 Important Needs of Your Affiliate Marketing Business-Thien Kai Wei
By Courtesy of Affiliate Programs Marketing Secrets
One frequent question anyone new to affiliate marketing asks is what tools are needed. There will be different answers for different needs of any particular niche you are marketing in.
This article however, will cover why every affiliate marketer will need to own a domain name, a website with a host, and basic HTML to establish the solid foundation for you to build your online business on.
Your own domain name
When you are promoting an affiliate product, you will be given a link as a means for your merchant to record your commissions. Affiliate links however can be really long and hard for people to remember, as most make use of symbols such as @ or %.
Most article directories and forums do not allow affiliate links to be posted on their sites. This will be a problem if you are promoting through article submissions or posting in forums, both of which are free and very effective advertising mediums.
To avoid these problems, you need a domain name, and set it to auto-forward your visitors to your merchant's site with your affiliate links intact.
You can buy domain names at very low prices. Godaddy.com offers one for $8.95 for a year. It's a small investment which can reward you well later.
Your own website and hosting
You maybe thinking that you can just get your visitors directly over to your merchant's website and let their sales copy do their thing. But what if their sales copy is not effective at all? Your visitor will just leave and you will lose any chance of making a commission.
Having your own website will allow you to have more control. With your own website, you can post content to help recommend visitors to your merchant's site or collect their contact information for follow-ups. The latter is rather important as most sales are made only after multiple visits. Having their contacts will allow you to send them information they need, and so encourage them to take a second look.
To build your own website, a host is needed to upload your website data and publish it on the internet. Numerous solutions and various prices are available. You will have to do some research to determine which one the one suitable for your needs and budget.
An important tip you may want to take note is to look for packages which accept multiple domains in a single account. This way, when you want to open another website with another domain name, you do not have to purchase another account to host it, and waste the unused space in your first account.
Basic HTML skills
To have your own website, or to succeed in affiliate marketing for the matter, you will definitely need to learn some HTML skills. When building a website, you do not need to have a fancy design, but you will need HTML skills to put up your text, pictures and such.
Even if you do not wish to maintain a website of your own, you will still need to know the HTML skills to correctly post your own affiliate links when promoting on forums or any other advertising medium.
As you may heard from numerous sales pitches, you do not need to have any knowledge in HTML to start, but you will need to learn HTML to do well in Internet Marketing. That's the truth which unfortunately is not really emphasized well enough...
Conclusion
From this article I hope to have briefed you on what every successful affiliate marketer needs to have. You may have preconceived notions that you do not have to bother with building a website and still be able to earn money online.
That may be true, but you will not be giving your online business the chance and space to take off if you do not give it at least an identity on the Internet. What I have presented here is just the tip of the iceberg. It will be wise to research more to know what other options you have to achieve success in your business.
Kai Wei is sharing his online ventures and experiences through his blog at Internet Marketing 4 Noobs to let visitors to get a feel of what building an online business is like. Check out his blog and you may pick up some information you are looking for
To your affiliate success and profits
Stanley Joshua Kudolo
One frequent question anyone new to affiliate marketing asks is what tools are needed. There will be different answers for different needs of any particular niche you are marketing in.
This article however, will cover why every affiliate marketer will need to own a domain name, a website with a host, and basic HTML to establish the solid foundation for you to build your online business on.
Your own domain name
When you are promoting an affiliate product, you will be given a link as a means for your merchant to record your commissions. Affiliate links however can be really long and hard for people to remember, as most make use of symbols such as @ or %.
Most article directories and forums do not allow affiliate links to be posted on their sites. This will be a problem if you are promoting through article submissions or posting in forums, both of which are free and very effective advertising mediums.
To avoid these problems, you need a domain name, and set it to auto-forward your visitors to your merchant's site with your affiliate links intact.
You can buy domain names at very low prices. Godaddy.com offers one for $8.95 for a year. It's a small investment which can reward you well later.
Your own website and hosting
You maybe thinking that you can just get your visitors directly over to your merchant's website and let their sales copy do their thing. But what if their sales copy is not effective at all? Your visitor will just leave and you will lose any chance of making a commission.
Having your own website will allow you to have more control. With your own website, you can post content to help recommend visitors to your merchant's site or collect their contact information for follow-ups. The latter is rather important as most sales are made only after multiple visits. Having their contacts will allow you to send them information they need, and so encourage them to take a second look.
To build your own website, a host is needed to upload your website data and publish it on the internet. Numerous solutions and various prices are available. You will have to do some research to determine which one the one suitable for your needs and budget.
An important tip you may want to take note is to look for packages which accept multiple domains in a single account. This way, when you want to open another website with another domain name, you do not have to purchase another account to host it, and waste the unused space in your first account.
Basic HTML skills
To have your own website, or to succeed in affiliate marketing for the matter, you will definitely need to learn some HTML skills. When building a website, you do not need to have a fancy design, but you will need HTML skills to put up your text, pictures and such.
Even if you do not wish to maintain a website of your own, you will still need to know the HTML skills to correctly post your own affiliate links when promoting on forums or any other advertising medium.
As you may heard from numerous sales pitches, you do not need to have any knowledge in HTML to start, but you will need to learn HTML to do well in Internet Marketing. That's the truth which unfortunately is not really emphasized well enough...
Conclusion
From this article I hope to have briefed you on what every successful affiliate marketer needs to have. You may have preconceived notions that you do not have to bother with building a website and still be able to earn money online.
That may be true, but you will not be giving your online business the chance and space to take off if you do not give it at least an identity on the Internet. What I have presented here is just the tip of the iceberg. It will be wise to research more to know what other options you have to achieve success in your business.
Kai Wei is sharing his online ventures and experiences through his blog at Internet Marketing 4 Noobs to let visitors to get a feel of what building an online business is like. Check out his blog and you may pick up some information you are looking for
To your affiliate success and profits
Stanley Joshua Kudolo
Saturday, 5 January 2008
Getting Started in Internet Marketing - Don't Put it Off-By Carol Stack
By courtesy of Online Marketing Secrets
What do You Need?
What does it take to get started in Internet marketing? It really only takes a computer, an Internet connection, a blog, a lot of time, and a lot of effort. Steve Pavlina started with just these things and after 18 months he was making a good income that many people would be thrilled to have.
Depending on how much time and effort you put into it, you might be able to copy Steve's success. Or if you put in a little time it could take you years.
You will also need a niche to focus on and knowledge about this niche. It will be easier to fill a blog with content if you know something about the topic. It isn't impossible to develop a site about an unfamiliar topic, but it is more difficult.
Monetizing Your Blog
How can you monetize your site? To start out with there is AdSense. AdSense has no minimum requirements. Anyone can sign up for an account.
There is also Chitika and Kontera. Kontera usually requires that a member's site has at least 500,000 hits a month.
Getting 500,000 hits a month isn't that hard if you have chosen a niche that gets a lot of searches. If you are in a niche that gets 180 searches a month you might never get 500,000 hits each month. But if you are in a niche that gets 150,000 searches a month it won't be difficult to meet Kontera's requirement.
You can also sign up for affiliate programs that sell products your readers would be interested in purchasing. Visit Commission Junction and sign up for a few stores that offer affiliates a decent share of the sales.
ClickBank is another possibility for Web site monetization. They have thousands of e-books and software programs that you can promote on your site. They pay as much as 70% of the purchase price to the affiliate. Choose one or more that you feel good recommending.
Once your site starts getting more traffic and gets higher page rank there are other options for monetization as well. For instance, you can sell text links. There are people who will pay over $100 to get a text link on a site that has a page rank of 7 or higher.
You can of course also promote your own product. Find out what the people in your niche are looking for by asking the people on your opt-in list what they would like. Then, make the product or hire someone else to create it.
This product can be for any niche. It can be a software program that organizes coins for coin collectors, or an e-book that instructs antique collectors how to find rare antiques for bargain prices.
Get Started Now
The Internet is the new Wild West where anyone can stake a claim and make money. You only need to be willing to work hard, devote a lot of your time, and persevere. There are people who are making thousands of dollars by their second or third month, and there are people who start making a few dollars a month with AdSense and build slowly.
If you want to try to make some extra money on the Internet you have to start now. Don't put it off. Register a domain name, get a hosting account, set up a free Wordpress blog, and start posting.
Grab a bunch of free information about Internet marketing at Carol Stack's site www.selfpublishinghelper.com. Carol was once stuck working in a cubicle like millions of other people around the world but now enjoys working at home online
To your Affiliate Success and Profits
Stanley Joshua Kudolo
What do You Need?
What does it take to get started in Internet marketing? It really only takes a computer, an Internet connection, a blog, a lot of time, and a lot of effort. Steve Pavlina started with just these things and after 18 months he was making a good income that many people would be thrilled to have.
Depending on how much time and effort you put into it, you might be able to copy Steve's success. Or if you put in a little time it could take you years.
You will also need a niche to focus on and knowledge about this niche. It will be easier to fill a blog with content if you know something about the topic. It isn't impossible to develop a site about an unfamiliar topic, but it is more difficult.
Monetizing Your Blog
How can you monetize your site? To start out with there is AdSense. AdSense has no minimum requirements. Anyone can sign up for an account.
There is also Chitika and Kontera. Kontera usually requires that a member's site has at least 500,000 hits a month.
Getting 500,000 hits a month isn't that hard if you have chosen a niche that gets a lot of searches. If you are in a niche that gets 180 searches a month you might never get 500,000 hits each month. But if you are in a niche that gets 150,000 searches a month it won't be difficult to meet Kontera's requirement.
You can also sign up for affiliate programs that sell products your readers would be interested in purchasing. Visit Commission Junction and sign up for a few stores that offer affiliates a decent share of the sales.
ClickBank is another possibility for Web site monetization. They have thousands of e-books and software programs that you can promote on your site. They pay as much as 70% of the purchase price to the affiliate. Choose one or more that you feel good recommending.
Once your site starts getting more traffic and gets higher page rank there are other options for monetization as well. For instance, you can sell text links. There are people who will pay over $100 to get a text link on a site that has a page rank of 7 or higher.
You can of course also promote your own product. Find out what the people in your niche are looking for by asking the people on your opt-in list what they would like. Then, make the product or hire someone else to create it.
This product can be for any niche. It can be a software program that organizes coins for coin collectors, or an e-book that instructs antique collectors how to find rare antiques for bargain prices.
Get Started Now
The Internet is the new Wild West where anyone can stake a claim and make money. You only need to be willing to work hard, devote a lot of your time, and persevere. There are people who are making thousands of dollars by their second or third month, and there are people who start making a few dollars a month with AdSense and build slowly.
If you want to try to make some extra money on the Internet you have to start now. Don't put it off. Register a domain name, get a hosting account, set up a free Wordpress blog, and start posting.
Grab a bunch of free information about Internet marketing at Carol Stack's site www.selfpublishinghelper.com. Carol was once stuck working in a cubicle like millions of other people around the world but now enjoys working at home online
To your Affiliate Success and Profits
Stanley Joshua Kudolo
Saturday, 15 December 2007
Importance of Tools in Affiliate Marketing-By Jude Wright
Affiliate marketing is one of the most easy and gainful opportunities to do business through web. And just like any other work it also requires an organized plan and efficient tools.
The Tools You Need for Affiliate Marketing
Tool 1 - A Website
The first and most important tool required to begin with affiliate marketing is to have a website. A website not only provides you a platform but also helps in developing trust and confidence amongst your clients. If you find difficult to build your own website then you can take help of other companies who deal with it. They will also help you in developing sufficient content for your business. Also, your visitors are needed to be convinced time by time and this is possible only if you a website of your own.
Your website can have:
- Articles
- Reviews of the products
- Free tools
- Membership details
- Audio files
- Endorsements & testimonials
Tool 2 - An Auto-Responder
After you get a website, you need to have an auto-responder. Every website, affiliate, e-commerce or membership requires an auto-responder. Having an auto-responder is not enough. You also need to know how to use it properly. It is important to maintain a good relationship with your all of your clients.
Tool 3 - Article Submission Software
Article submission is made so much easier by using a software for submitting the articles. This necessary task could take hours without the use of software (or an article submission service).
Advantages of Submitting Many Articles
- It increases the amount of high quality "back links" to your website. More "back links" means more publicity to your brand.
- Other website owners will make use of your content and add it to their website. They will also give a back link for your website.
Tool 4 - A Link Cloaker
If you don't want to waste your time and efforts and you think that you have worked hard to:
- Establish your website
- Build your list
- Create your article submission and search engine optimization.
Then you must have a link cloaker. You might be aware about the increase in the link thefts and frauds. By cloaking the links you are preserving your money or income. Another benefit of having a link cloaker is that it persuades the visitors to click your site because these links appear neater and less confusing. At the same time it conceals unwanted and ugly links.
In order to increase link popularity you should submit your site's link to various websites, free newsletters and so on. The more you submit the more you are increasing your website's popularity.
Tool 5 - A Good Affiliate Mentor
The last tool needed in affiliate marketing is a good affiliate guide or mentor. You will surely need good some kind of roadmap or guidance in order to move ahead. Here you really don't need to re-establish the business but simply follow the suggestions given by an experienced person in the same field.
Jude Wright is the owner of AboutAffiliateMarketing.com. Subscribe to her newsletter, About Affiliates Ezine, and receive a valuable membership to her eBook Library
To Your Affiliate Success and Profits
Stanley Joshua Kudolo
The Tools You Need for Affiliate Marketing
Tool 1 - A Website
The first and most important tool required to begin with affiliate marketing is to have a website. A website not only provides you a platform but also helps in developing trust and confidence amongst your clients. If you find difficult to build your own website then you can take help of other companies who deal with it. They will also help you in developing sufficient content for your business. Also, your visitors are needed to be convinced time by time and this is possible only if you a website of your own.
Your website can have:
- Articles
- Reviews of the products
- Free tools
- Membership details
- Audio files
- Endorsements & testimonials
Tool 2 - An Auto-Responder
After you get a website, you need to have an auto-responder. Every website, affiliate, e-commerce or membership requires an auto-responder. Having an auto-responder is not enough. You also need to know how to use it properly. It is important to maintain a good relationship with your all of your clients.
Tool 3 - Article Submission Software
Article submission is made so much easier by using a software for submitting the articles. This necessary task could take hours without the use of software (or an article submission service).
Advantages of Submitting Many Articles
- It increases the amount of high quality "back links" to your website. More "back links" means more publicity to your brand.
- Other website owners will make use of your content and add it to their website. They will also give a back link for your website.
Tool 4 - A Link Cloaker
If you don't want to waste your time and efforts and you think that you have worked hard to:
- Establish your website
- Build your list
- Create your article submission and search engine optimization.
Then you must have a link cloaker. You might be aware about the increase in the link thefts and frauds. By cloaking the links you are preserving your money or income. Another benefit of having a link cloaker is that it persuades the visitors to click your site because these links appear neater and less confusing. At the same time it conceals unwanted and ugly links.
In order to increase link popularity you should submit your site's link to various websites, free newsletters and so on. The more you submit the more you are increasing your website's popularity.
Tool 5 - A Good Affiliate Mentor
The last tool needed in affiliate marketing is a good affiliate guide or mentor. You will surely need good some kind of roadmap or guidance in order to move ahead. Here you really don't need to re-establish the business but simply follow the suggestions given by an experienced person in the same field.
Jude Wright is the owner of AboutAffiliateMarketing.com. Subscribe to her newsletter, About Affiliates Ezine, and receive a valuable membership to her eBook Library
To Your Affiliate Success and Profits
Stanley Joshua Kudolo
Friday, 14 December 2007
Finding An Affiliate Program That Works For You-By Daniel Alan
By Courtesy of Affliate Programs College
Okay, so you're looking for an affiliate program that actually works for YOU? There are of course many ways to go about doing this, but I would say the most simple way would be by making a comparison chart.
You have the compare programs and decide which one will be the most profitable for you. Compare payouts, compare payment frequency, compare how trusted the network is with their payments, and probably the most important one to consider is CONVERSION RATIO.
If you send three hundred people to that page and it doesn't convert into any sales guess what? You need to switch to promoting something else. Some sites are able to convert 1/20 visitors into buyers (mine, as an example). These are the things you have to think about as a potential affiliate.
One thing that is, surprisingly, overlooked as well yet is HUGE in making money as an affiliate marketing. Your niche. The niche you are marketing to should be carefully selected. We talk about conversion ratios and this stems from the people that you deliver to the site actually being interested in the topic. Give me one visitor that's into my niche over twenty that aren't any day. These turn into sales, and in turn, money in your pocket.
So make a pros and cons list, or a comparison chart. Far too many people that I see just blindly go into whichever affiliate program they see without really thinking it through or comparing other programs. This step truly is a much bigger part of your success than you realize right now. If you don't pick the proper affiliate program for your needs then you will die like the rest of the failed affiliates. I cannot stress that point to you enough.
Your comparison chart should lay each program out something like this:
Conversion Ratio:
Payout per sale:
Niche:
Network:
Frequency of Payments/How long it takes:
In other words, by looking at the programs on paper you can easily pick out which one may be better for you and what you are trying to accomplish in the field of being an affiliate marketer. You can't take the decision of what affiliate program to promote lightly, because it will determine your success or demise in this business. And let's face it here and now, success breeds success. I guarantee at least fifty percent of all affiliate marketers who failed picked the wrong program for them, and it left them unmotivated and defeated.
You can succeed, I know it. You simply have to know what you want and create a plan that works in order to get it.
Best of luck to you!
Article Source: http://affiliatemarketingarticles.net
Daniel Alan is the creator of the Perfect Path To Wealth system and an expert at making money online.
To your Affiliate Success and Profits
Stanley Joshua Kudolo
Okay, so you're looking for an affiliate program that actually works for YOU? There are of course many ways to go about doing this, but I would say the most simple way would be by making a comparison chart.
You have the compare programs and decide which one will be the most profitable for you. Compare payouts, compare payment frequency, compare how trusted the network is with their payments, and probably the most important one to consider is CONVERSION RATIO.
If you send three hundred people to that page and it doesn't convert into any sales guess what? You need to switch to promoting something else. Some sites are able to convert 1/20 visitors into buyers (mine, as an example). These are the things you have to think about as a potential affiliate.
One thing that is, surprisingly, overlooked as well yet is HUGE in making money as an affiliate marketing. Your niche. The niche you are marketing to should be carefully selected. We talk about conversion ratios and this stems from the people that you deliver to the site actually being interested in the topic. Give me one visitor that's into my niche over twenty that aren't any day. These turn into sales, and in turn, money in your pocket.
So make a pros and cons list, or a comparison chart. Far too many people that I see just blindly go into whichever affiliate program they see without really thinking it through or comparing other programs. This step truly is a much bigger part of your success than you realize right now. If you don't pick the proper affiliate program for your needs then you will die like the rest of the failed affiliates. I cannot stress that point to you enough.
Your comparison chart should lay each program out something like this:
Conversion Ratio:
Payout per sale:
Niche:
Network:
Frequency of Payments/How long it takes:
In other words, by looking at the programs on paper you can easily pick out which one may be better for you and what you are trying to accomplish in the field of being an affiliate marketer. You can't take the decision of what affiliate program to promote lightly, because it will determine your success or demise in this business. And let's face it here and now, success breeds success. I guarantee at least fifty percent of all affiliate marketers who failed picked the wrong program for them, and it left them unmotivated and defeated.
You can succeed, I know it. You simply have to know what you want and create a plan that works in order to get it.
Best of luck to you!
Article Source: http://affiliatemarketingarticles.net
Daniel Alan is the creator of the Perfect Path To Wealth system and an expert at making money online.
To your Affiliate Success and Profits
Stanley Joshua Kudolo
Tuesday, 27 November 2007
How To Inprove Your Business With Affiliate Marketing
By courtesy of Affiliate Programs College
Well, what affiliate marketing is today started with Amazon in 1996...
When it comes to the web, Amazon.com really started the affiliate marketing method and scene. In July 1996, it launched its "associates" program and now counts over 450,000 sites in its network. They don't pay as well as many of their competitors, but most affiliate marketers I know have at least played with Amazon's program, because Amazon is such a force to be reckoned with online.
The basic model of affiliate marketing works something like this: A small website owner registers with Amazon (or any other affiliate program), she then puts various links, banners, and products on her web site. When her visitors click through, using these links, and purchase a book or other product, the small web site owner is paid a commission for generating the sale.
But since 1996, (and in the last seven years since the article was written in 2000), affiliate marketing has really grown.
While Amazon is remembered as the most visible pioneer, the concept really isn't new. In fact, one of the oldest practitioners of affiliate style marketing, Amway, took to the web using what they were calling affiliate marketing, using the brand Quixtar.
While Quixtar was still more of a network of distributors (Amway-style) for many years, some very large and successful companies have come up in the middle of the affiliate marketing space.
The model is that the affiliate is paid for their performance. In all cases, the goal is for marketers to only spend money when their particular performance objective is met. While Amazon only pays when a sale is made, merchants selling big ticket items like cars, or marketing services like credit cards, have modified the model paying instead for clicks or qualified leads.
(Adsense is the prime example in this space, but that will be reserved for another article as well.)
In fact, compensation schemes are as varied as the merchants themselves from a 15 percent commission on Amazon books, to 1 percent on Dell PCs. On the financial services side, lenders will offer affiliates up to $125 for a qualified application, many credit card companies will offer $20-$40 per enrolled cardholder, and many bigger ticket digital product items can result in commissions of 50% or more.
Consider a Third Party, otherwise known as an affiliate marketing network.
As merchants (people selling stuff) have rushed to build their own affiliate programs, and platforms using in-house software like Amazon, an entirely new category has been born: affiliate networks. Running your own group of affiliates is not rocket science, but it does require quite a bit of time and commitment.
And for that reason, many merchants are finding that outsourcing their affiliate program to a third-party providers (affiliate networks) is a compelling solution.
There are a huge variety of affiliate networks, with many springing up new every year. Many have disappeared or been consolidated within months of their launch, but two of the largest and longest running networks have been Linkshare and Commission Junction, otherwise known as CJ.
Most networks today, including Linkshare and Commission Junction, provide tracking, reporting, affiliate recruiting, cutting checks, sending out end-of-year tax forms, and responding to webmaster queries.
If you want to have an affiliate marketing program for stuff you sell, you can either build your own affiliate program using software like 1ShoppingCart, or you can approach a network like Linkshare, Commission Junction, or ShareASale. There are advantages of doing it yourself and also of outsourcing affiliate management to an affiliate network, which I'll cover in a different article.
In the 11 years since it's inception, affiliate marketing has become a significant force in how ecommerce happens. Hundreds of thousands of merchants now use affiliate marketing to make sales, track what's happening, and pay the affiliate marketers who are bringing them new customers.
And yet for all the jargon, hype, get-rich-quick stuff, and other affiliate marketing junk, in the end it's about is about connecting buyers and sellers and rewarding those that facilitate the connections. Affiliate marketing for the affiliate marketer (also known as a "publisher") is basically promoting/selling other people's products for a % of the sales price. Affiliate marketing for the company with the products (also known as a "merchant")
If you're going to spend your time as an affiliate marketer, the risk is low, and like most things in life, if you will take the time to study, understand, and apply the knowledge, there is a huge amount of potential to make money.
Sign up for Linkshare, Commission Junction, ShareASale, and ClickBank. Check out the products offered through the various merchants selling in these affiliate networks. To be successful however, you need to have a good grasp of Internet marketing and understand how to promote products, and more importantly, you should learn how to help both the people whose products you're selling, as well as the people you're selling to.
After all, the value isn't in the transaction, it's in the relationship...
Hopefully this has helped to answer the question, "What is Affiliate Marketing".
Posted by Jonathan on November 24, 2007 12:56 PM | Permalink
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Jonathan of www.affiliateadvice.us
To your affiliate success
Stanley Joshua Kudolo
Please do not forget to leave your most valued comments
and to pass on to others
Well, what affiliate marketing is today started with Amazon in 1996...
When it comes to the web, Amazon.com really started the affiliate marketing method and scene. In July 1996, it launched its "associates" program and now counts over 450,000 sites in its network. They don't pay as well as many of their competitors, but most affiliate marketers I know have at least played with Amazon's program, because Amazon is such a force to be reckoned with online.
The basic model of affiliate marketing works something like this: A small website owner registers with Amazon (or any other affiliate program), she then puts various links, banners, and products on her web site. When her visitors click through, using these links, and purchase a book or other product, the small web site owner is paid a commission for generating the sale.
But since 1996, (and in the last seven years since the article was written in 2000), affiliate marketing has really grown.
While Amazon is remembered as the most visible pioneer, the concept really isn't new. In fact, one of the oldest practitioners of affiliate style marketing, Amway, took to the web using what they were calling affiliate marketing, using the brand Quixtar.
While Quixtar was still more of a network of distributors (Amway-style) for many years, some very large and successful companies have come up in the middle of the affiliate marketing space.
The model is that the affiliate is paid for their performance. In all cases, the goal is for marketers to only spend money when their particular performance objective is met. While Amazon only pays when a sale is made, merchants selling big ticket items like cars, or marketing services like credit cards, have modified the model paying instead for clicks or qualified leads.
(Adsense is the prime example in this space, but that will be reserved for another article as well.)
In fact, compensation schemes are as varied as the merchants themselves from a 15 percent commission on Amazon books, to 1 percent on Dell PCs. On the financial services side, lenders will offer affiliates up to $125 for a qualified application, many credit card companies will offer $20-$40 per enrolled cardholder, and many bigger ticket digital product items can result in commissions of 50% or more.
Consider a Third Party, otherwise known as an affiliate marketing network.
As merchants (people selling stuff) have rushed to build their own affiliate programs, and platforms using in-house software like Amazon, an entirely new category has been born: affiliate networks. Running your own group of affiliates is not rocket science, but it does require quite a bit of time and commitment.
And for that reason, many merchants are finding that outsourcing their affiliate program to a third-party providers (affiliate networks) is a compelling solution.
There are a huge variety of affiliate networks, with many springing up new every year. Many have disappeared or been consolidated within months of their launch, but two of the largest and longest running networks have been Linkshare and Commission Junction, otherwise known as CJ.
Most networks today, including Linkshare and Commission Junction, provide tracking, reporting, affiliate recruiting, cutting checks, sending out end-of-year tax forms, and responding to webmaster queries.
If you want to have an affiliate marketing program for stuff you sell, you can either build your own affiliate program using software like 1ShoppingCart, or you can approach a network like Linkshare, Commission Junction, or ShareASale. There are advantages of doing it yourself and also of outsourcing affiliate management to an affiliate network, which I'll cover in a different article.
In the 11 years since it's inception, affiliate marketing has become a significant force in how ecommerce happens. Hundreds of thousands of merchants now use affiliate marketing to make sales, track what's happening, and pay the affiliate marketers who are bringing them new customers.
And yet for all the jargon, hype, get-rich-quick stuff, and other affiliate marketing junk, in the end it's about is about connecting buyers and sellers and rewarding those that facilitate the connections. Affiliate marketing for the affiliate marketer (also known as a "publisher") is basically promoting/selling other people's products for a % of the sales price. Affiliate marketing for the company with the products (also known as a "merchant")
If you're going to spend your time as an affiliate marketer, the risk is low, and like most things in life, if you will take the time to study, understand, and apply the knowledge, there is a huge amount of potential to make money.
Sign up for Linkshare, Commission Junction, ShareASale, and ClickBank. Check out the products offered through the various merchants selling in these affiliate networks. To be successful however, you need to have a good grasp of Internet marketing and understand how to promote products, and more importantly, you should learn how to help both the people whose products you're selling, as well as the people you're selling to.
After all, the value isn't in the transaction, it's in the relationship...
Hopefully this has helped to answer the question, "What is Affiliate Marketing".
Posted by Jonathan on November 24, 2007 12:56 PM | Permalink
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Stanley Joshua Kudolo
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Saturday, 24 November 2007
What to look for when choosing Affiliate Programs-By Jonathan Kraft
By courtesy of Affliate Marketing Secrets
So you've decided you want to become an Internet Marketer? Will you sell someone else's products or sell your own?
If you choose to sell someone else's products, how will you know what to look for? After all, this is a new venture for you.
Or maybe it's not. Maybe you have been trying out some affiliate programs which have not brought you any money, or, worse, have not paid you for the affiliate traffic you have sent them.
If you are the new person, or the person who is floundering in Internet Marketing, this article will offer you some simple tips for choosing an affiliate program.
This article doesn't cover getting traffic to your site, which is another huge piece of the puzzle, and is covered in thousands of articles on the Internet, so let's just start with choosing affiliate programs.
You should find affiliate programs that:
a) are relatively easy to set up (code is either created for you or easy to create)
b) will pay you well. This depends on your definition of what being paid well means, but generally, for most beginners, and some novices, if you can see yourself being able to make more than $250/month, the program is at least worth looking at
c) give you products which people actually use. There are lots of products in the market which will sell, but do you really want to be selling pet rocks? If you do, please don't take offense. Most legitimate affiliate advice sites won't feature affiliate programs that are exclusively selling something like 8-Track players and tapes. While there are probably collectors out there who would love an 8-track player and cassettes, the fact is that the market is done with 8-tracks. The point is, there should be a genuine need for, or interest in, what you are selling/reselling.
So you find a program which meets the above criteria. Now what? Do a Google search on the company. Find out what people are saying about them. You may have to dig a bit, but the combined experience of the professionals (and not-so-professionals) who develop and contribute to the Internet on a regular basis is, collectively, the best source of advice you will find on making money, or affiliate programs, anywhere.
If you want advice on some great affiliate programs, you can visit sites which have already reviewed the information about companies and present it to you in a straightforward way. If you are ready to find some great affiliate programs, then you will be able to find categories of affiliate programs on these sites, which will generally represent the type of products you would like to sell.
Search engines love content, and so do your site visitors. Content is one of the most important aspects of getting people to your web site, and helping them to see the value in what you're selling. You should strive to choose programs with products which are related to your web site.
In other words, if you have a site which features information about the Toyota Camry, you're going to be pretty hard pressed to be able to get your page content matched up so that you could sell, say... baby rattles.
Find affiliate programs which relate to what you already do, and then promote those products.
Finally, see if you can find someone to actually talk to (ok, email would be okay) who has received regular checks or payments from marketing products. We think that this is, perhaps, the most important part of any affiliate program, because the main reason you promote their products is to receive a check for your efforts.
So there you have it, some simple tips for choosing great affiliate programs! Hope this helps you to reach your income goals, and also helps you to develop a long-term plan for on and off-line financial and personal success.
Jonathan Kraft has been an online marketer for many years, and now helps others understand affiliate programs at http://www.affiliateadvice.us.
To your affiliate success
Stanley joshua kudolo
So you've decided you want to become an Internet Marketer? Will you sell someone else's products or sell your own?
If you choose to sell someone else's products, how will you know what to look for? After all, this is a new venture for you.
Or maybe it's not. Maybe you have been trying out some affiliate programs which have not brought you any money, or, worse, have not paid you for the affiliate traffic you have sent them.
If you are the new person, or the person who is floundering in Internet Marketing, this article will offer you some simple tips for choosing an affiliate program.
This article doesn't cover getting traffic to your site, which is another huge piece of the puzzle, and is covered in thousands of articles on the Internet, so let's just start with choosing affiliate programs.
You should find affiliate programs that:
a) are relatively easy to set up (code is either created for you or easy to create)
b) will pay you well. This depends on your definition of what being paid well means, but generally, for most beginners, and some novices, if you can see yourself being able to make more than $250/month, the program is at least worth looking at
c) give you products which people actually use. There are lots of products in the market which will sell, but do you really want to be selling pet rocks? If you do, please don't take offense. Most legitimate affiliate advice sites won't feature affiliate programs that are exclusively selling something like 8-Track players and tapes. While there are probably collectors out there who would love an 8-track player and cassettes, the fact is that the market is done with 8-tracks. The point is, there should be a genuine need for, or interest in, what you are selling/reselling.
So you find a program which meets the above criteria. Now what? Do a Google search on the company. Find out what people are saying about them. You may have to dig a bit, but the combined experience of the professionals (and not-so-professionals) who develop and contribute to the Internet on a regular basis is, collectively, the best source of advice you will find on making money, or affiliate programs, anywhere.
If you want advice on some great affiliate programs, you can visit sites which have already reviewed the information about companies and present it to you in a straightforward way. If you are ready to find some great affiliate programs, then you will be able to find categories of affiliate programs on these sites, which will generally represent the type of products you would like to sell.
Search engines love content, and so do your site visitors. Content is one of the most important aspects of getting people to your web site, and helping them to see the value in what you're selling. You should strive to choose programs with products which are related to your web site.
In other words, if you have a site which features information about the Toyota Camry, you're going to be pretty hard pressed to be able to get your page content matched up so that you could sell, say... baby rattles.
Find affiliate programs which relate to what you already do, and then promote those products.
Finally, see if you can find someone to actually talk to (ok, email would be okay) who has received regular checks or payments from marketing products. We think that this is, perhaps, the most important part of any affiliate program, because the main reason you promote their products is to receive a check for your efforts.
So there you have it, some simple tips for choosing great affiliate programs! Hope this helps you to reach your income goals, and also helps you to develop a long-term plan for on and off-line financial and personal success.
Jonathan Kraft has been an online marketer for many years, and now helps others understand affiliate programs at http://www.affiliateadvice.us.
To your affiliate success
Stanley joshua kudolo
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