What is Affiliate Marketing and is it for Me?
by Trent Brownrigg
Published on this site: April 27th, 2006 - See
more articles from this month
Affiliate marketing can be defined as a widespread method
of promotion in which an affiliate is rewarded for every view,
sale, and/or registration produced through the affiliate's
efforts (depending on the type of affiliate program).
It's similar to collecting commissions as a typical salesperson
would. The more the affiliate sells... the more the affiliate
gets paid. It's as simple as that!
Compensation calculations vary but are typically based
on one of the following:
- Pay-Per-Click (PPC) - a specific amount is paid
for each visitor the affiliate sends
- Pay-Per-Lead (PPL) - where the affiliate is paid
for registrations or sign-ups
- Pay-Per-Sale (PPS) - a specific commission per
sale is paid to the affiliate
If your goal is to generate your entire income online you
can drive traffic from your subscriber lists, your websites,
and from other marketing methods to affiliate links.
What About Product Sales and Marketing?
You'll want to watch for great products and services with
the potential to benefit your niche market and your mailing
lists. To build trust and income, it's best to recommend only
those products that will be of specific interest to them.
It's a win-win situation for everyone that way.
When an affiliate is marketing any product, the cost of marketing
the product is absorbed by the affiliate, so it's important
to keep that cost in mind when promoting products. Typically
the higher the percentage of affiliate commissions possible from any quality product, the more that product is
worth promoting.
When a product is sold through the affiliate's personal link,
depending on the service used, the total sale is divided up
among the vendor, the affiliate, the taxing authority, the
shipper (if any), and the payment processor.
It is common and expected that all affiliate details be spelled
out in the affiliate sign-up process. However, you shouldn't
be afraid to contact any vendor to clarify their affiliate
program if you have questions. Often you can telephone or
email for a fast reply. If they are not willing to answer
your questions then you should stay away from them. There
are plenty of other quality affiliates programs that would
love to have you!
Is a Digital Lifestyle for Me?
Many standard retailers offer very small commissions for
affiliate sales while most internet marketers offer around
50%-75% of the sale for being an affiliate of their digitial
product. This is why being an affiliate of digital products
can be very lucrative in a relatively short period of time.
Although the number of affiliate programs for tangible goods
and off-line services is rising, a completely digital lifestyle
can be developed solely from digital or downloadable affiliate products that may never take physical
form.
Of course it's important to note that as an affiliate of any
tangible product, you generally never do more than promote
a link to the product online. So in that sense it's basically
the same as a digital product.
One of the best places to find digital products to affiliate
with is ClickBank.com. They have an automatic affiliate program
built into their payment processing service so that affiliate
payments are not left up to the product owner to process.
Three other good affiliate programs to check into are:
- CJ.com (Commission Junction)
- Amazon.com
- LinkShare.com
Staying with reputable, well-known internet vendors makes
a great deal of sense because you know you will get paid,
you know when to expect a check or bank deposit, and you can
see your account details online at any time. Plus, if you
do have a problem they are more than willing to take care of
it.
How Do I Get Started?
There are many ways to start with affiliate marketing,
but a basic starting point is to have a web site with text
or image affiliate links to products you want to promote.
Generally you want to stay focused within a niche or interest
group to increase your sales potential. In other words, you
don't want to have many different affiliate links to variety
of completely different markets on your website. Stick to a similar theme.
If you have used the products, your promotional efforts could
include a product review based on your own experience along
with images and other supporting information.
Developing an email opt-in list is helpful in affiliate marketing
because it gives you the opportunity to find the products
and information with the most potential benefit for a group
of like-minded individuals (your subscribers) and tell them
about it. A targeted list of subscribers, that you have built
a good relationship with could be worth thousands of dollars
over time.
By promoting affiliate products to several targeted niche
markets, it is possible to create a substantial income over
time. Especially when the affiliate marketer is only promoting
quality products with a real potential to benefit customers
within the niche.
In conclusion, affiliate marketing is a great way to build
an income without having a product of your own, and without
having to do much more than get interested people to view
product information through your affiliate links. It's very
easy to get started and can eventually put a lot of money
in your pocket. But be prepared to put in a lot of time and
effort. Making money online through affiliate programs is not easy. If it was everyone would be rich.
Trent Brownrigg is a successful affiliate marketer
and home business consultant. Find the best home based business
at
http://www.work-at-home-jobs-iowa.com and he will personally
help you succeed. Find the top ten best affiliate programs
at
http://www.work-at-home-jobs-iowa.com/top_10.html
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