Let Your Affiliates Become Your Recruiters b

Have you ever thought that your affiliates could drive even more business to you by having an affiliate program for your affiliate program?Before you have a nose bleed, this is simply achieved by offering your current affiliates a two tier payment mechanism. The first tier is the one they are on now; they get paid for referring business directly to you.The second tier is a payment to the affiliate for any business produced by someone else that they have recommended joins your affiliate program. This guy is what is known in the trade as a "sub-affiliate".For example, Joe sends you business each week and notices that you offer a two tier scheme, he then thinks, I know some people who'd be interested in promoting this too! So he gets Fred, Barney, Betty and Wilma to sign up to your affiliate program.In doing that, you give Joe a commission percentage of the sales they have generated. This could be a 5% on top of what you would pay normally. Do you see the benefit from Joe doing this? He may refer people that will sell much more product that he can yet he will still earn and income, and that can be great for doing very little work!It is a true Win, Win, Win! The affiliate is happy, the sub affiliate is happy as he has a new program to promote, and you are happy because without the Affiliate you'd have to try and find these affiliates. Trust me some of these super affiliates that can really turn around your business are real hard to find! This way is only going to cost you an extra 5% on sales.Now before I get you too carried away, you really need to think about adding a two tier structure at the get go or make sure you have the profit margins, reducing your affiliate's commissions just to introduce a two tier structure will not motivate anyone.You have to make sure any new commissions come out of your end not the affiliates.Having said that, a two tier affiliate program can launch you and your affiliate revenues into the stratosphere.How to I set up a Two Tier System?One of the drawbacks to the major affiliate networks is that not many offer a Two Tier System. With this in mind it might be best to use an "in house" affiliate solution to run along side any existing affiliate program you may have and invite affiliates to join. The best solution that I have used is AssocTrac by the Internet Marketing Center. It is a software solution that runs off your own web server and you have full control over everything. It is also relatively simple to setup and run.The other solution that works fantastically well is My Affiliate Program (MYAP) by Kowabunga Technologies. This is a hosted service, i.e. it sits on someone else's server. This has its advantages too. It is quick to implement, the learning curve is not as high as AssocTrac. The downside I suppose is the feeling of a lack of ownership. Click here to read more about My Affiliate Program (MYAP)How to I promote a Two Tier System?If you have an existing program with a large affiliate network that doesn't offer a two tier system then it may be an idea to create an in-house system such as AssocTrac or MYAP and then invite key Affiliates into a Two Tier Scheme. Make sure though that if this is what you do, you only offer the second tier. Let them continue to earn there income through your affiliate network partner.You don't want to be in breach of your terms and conditions.Secondly, tell your affiliate network what you are trying to do. They may not have an off the shelf solution but they may be able to find a way of managing within your existing affiliate management tool.If you don't have an affiliate program currently running then it may be easier to start with MYAP or AssocTrac. You can then use your Two Tier system as an incentive for affiliates to join and start recruiting other Affiliates.As you can see, there are good reasons why you should look at a two tier system; in fact I can't see a good reason not too! It will drive sales, motivate affiliates, and have your affiliates actively marketing your program for you!Good Luck!

Categories Of Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of the greatest internet-marketing sources that promotes the services and products of your company. Earlier, affiliate-marketing programs have never been as popular before as it is today. Is there any specific reason for that? There can be a number of reasons. The most probable reason, however, could be the fact that the benefits of affiliate marketing have become clearer to many people now than they were before.Today, as become have become internet savvy and they know the importance of the internet and affiliate marketing over the internet. Both merchants and affiliates can see the benefits of affiliate marketing for both of them. The merchant sees affiliate marketing today as the chance to advertise their products at a lower cost. The affiliates, on the other hand, sees affiliate marketing as an easy way of earning profits online by doing what they like most, and that is by creating websites. For merchants and affiliates alike, affiliate marketing is now considered as a main source of profits and revenues.There are actually different types or classes of affiliate marketing, and the number of types will depend on how one will classify them. The most basic affiliate marketing programs, however, falls under two categories: pay-per-click (PPC), and pay-per-performance (PPP).Pay Per Click (PPC)PPC is the most popular type of affiliate marketing for affiliates with small websites, and probably the easiest way for them to earn money. In this affiliate marketing type, the merchant pays his affiliate whenever a visitor is referred to his site, that is whenever someone clicks through the merchant's banner or text ads. The affiliate gets paid a certain amount even if the visitor he referred does not purchase anything from the merchant's site. However, typical fees for PPC affiliate programs are small, usually not exceeding a dollar for every click.Pay Per Performance (PPP)PPP affiliate marketing is the most popular among merchants and is the most lucrative type for the affiliates. In this type of affiliate program, the merchant only pays the affiliate whenever his referral translates into an action--that is whenever the visitor he has referred actually buys something from the merchant's site or when the visitor becomes a lead.
Pay-per-performance affiliate marketing can be further classified into two popular types: pay-per-sales (PPS) and pay-per-lead (PPL).Pay Per Sale (PPS)In a pay-per-sale type of affiliate marketing, the merchants pay the affiliates a certain fee whenever the visitors he has referred to the merchant's site actually buys something from the merchant's site. Affiliates are often paid on commission basis, although other merchants would opt to pay a fixed fee. But no matter what the basis of the fee is, it is generally higher than the fee paid to affiliates in a pay-per-click affiliate program.Pay Per Lead (PPL)The pay-per-lead type of affiliate marketing is a slight variation of the PPS type and is often used by insurance and finance companies and other companies who rely on leads for their company to grow. In this type of affiliate marketing, the affiliate is paid whenever the visitor he referred to the merchant's site fills up an application form or any similar form related to the business of the company.Aside from these three specific types of affiliate marketing, a lot of other affiliate marketing types exist. If the classification is based on the depth of the affiliate network, it can be classified as single-tier, two-tier, and multi-tier affiliate marketing.

Affiliate Project X Review - Affiliate Secrets Exposed?

I am sure you have heard about the latest addition to Affiliate Marketing guides to arrive on the scene, Affiliate Project X. If you have not I suspect you will soon.Now I am not a Super Affiliate, no where near it, yet. With skepticism I decided to give Affiliate Project X a look, here is my honest review:Part 1: the Basics (but let's be brief)The first chapter starts by making readers aware that Affiliate Project X is not an "exhaustive welcome to affiliate marketing manual...A large part of the manual is focused on actual methods needed to make money". Chapter 1 of Affiliate Project X primarily introduces and covers the basics of Affiliate Marketing. So if you do not yet know how to get a domain name or web hosting it's not covered here. The basics of Affiliate marketing and affiliate networks as well as the importance of product selection are covered. These are covered well for those that may be new to Affiliate Marketing. It's a good beginning but nothing really earth shaking. Kind of what I was expecting, nothing much really. The reader of Affiliate Project X is assumed to have at least the most basic of knowledge of Internet marketing.Chapter 2 Affiliate Project X MethodsIn chapter 2 of Affiliate Project X I found six money making affiliate marketing methods covered in startling detail. Each one with it's own unique twist. With names like The Leech, The Affiliate Diary, The Workhorse Method, Thief in the Night, Copy the best 2, and The Opportunist. The in-depth way Affiliate Project X is written sets it a part from any previous e-books on affiliate marketing I have read. With the techniques revealed in this chapter and the step by step way in which each method is presented. The author Chris states they are "written to be copied". Templates and live money making examples are also used to serve as examples.Chapter 3 Affiliate Project X Advanced MethodsChapter 3 of Affiliate Project X covers some advanced areas that many affiliate marketers overlook. Some of these techniques and methods the experienced affiliate marketer may already use others are totally unique to Affiliate Project X. Covered are Link cloaking, Tracking affiliate sales, Adding 30% to our sales, Backend Promotions, and Underrated promotion methods covered.Affiliate Project X revealed some new Affiliate Marketing methods and techniques that the so called Super Affiliates use. It appears the author of Affiliate Project X wrote this for affiliate marketers of all experience levels, from beginner to advanced.Affiliate Project X is a guide that I that is informative in learning the techniques and methods of the Super Affiliates. I found Affiliate Project X is truly a revealing sometimes ruthless guide on Affiliate Marketing. Whether I use all of these methods and techniques or not, Affiliate Project X is an eye-opener to recognizing what the competition is doing and how.

AFFILIATE MARKETING - Why and How to Start It?

I'll start this article with a question: Are you be willing to share part of revenue from sales that you would not get otherwise? For most cases, the answer would be YES. There are many methods to market your business online: e.g. pay-per-click campaigns such as Google's Adword, CPM (= cost per thousand impressions) of your banner on high-traffic sites, ads in newsletters etc. etc. What is common for these marketing methods? You never PAY FOR RESULTS that campaign actually generated. Idea of affiliate marketing is to PAY ONLY FOR RESULTS. Don't spend money on ineffective advertising; build your own advertising channels instead. Build partnerships - and partners will work for you. That's why people refer to affiliate marketing as "cost-effective", "performance-oriented" or "risk-free".What kind of business can I market with affiliate program?Well, hard to find one that you can not. It doesn't matter if you sell hardware, mortgages, site membership or a service. You can even pay for traffic: pay per click or pay per CPMStructure of affiliate programThere are 2 basic kinds of rewards: flat fee (=fixed amount) or percentage commission.Your commissions to affiliates can be based on:Pay per sale - most common, you pay commission (flat or percentage) for sales referred by your affiliatesPay per lead - suitable for e.g. membership sites or sites offering paid content: similar to "per sale" model, but you pay for new member subscription.Pay per CPM - you can pay even for thousand impressions of your bannerPay per click - if you want to reward each click referred: if you are considering this kind of affiliate program, make a careful research about fraud protection features of solution you choose - otherwise it can cost you a lot of money..A lot of programs are 2-tiered (2 levels of affiliates) - it means affiliates - parent affiliates can have subaffiliates - and parent affiliate get commission for their subaffiliate's sales. Subaffiliates are those, who have been invited to your AP by parent affiliate. 2-tiered structure has its advantages: it motivates affiliates to recruit subaffiliates to your AP and maybe even train and communicate with them - which saves your time and generates your revenue.How to start affiliate program?There are 3 main possibilities:Stand alone softwareHosted softwareAffiliate networkStand alone solution - requires software that is installed on your website (called also "affiliate tracking software/script"). Affiliate program is under your total control and responsibility.Hosted solution - is similar to stand-alone solution, but the software is hosted on 3rd party server - usually offered as service (=monthly payments).Affiliate network - software is again installed on 3rd party server, in addition to the affiliate tracking you gain immediate access to a network of potential affiliates.Which solution should I choose?As regards price:Stand-alone: one time fee for the softwareHosted: monthly fee, sometimes even progressive charging according to the growth of your affiliate programNetworks: will charge you a transaction fee on each affiliate sale or the will ask you to make minimum monthly payment or combination of those two. Also some fee to join might be included.Technical skills:Stand-alone: requires basic skills to install the software (usually installation wizard is available) and to integrate with other systems on your website (such as shopping carts/payment gateways/website itself).Hosted: almost no skills requiredNetworks: almost no skills requiredBenefits of stand-alone solution.Since Amazon started its affiliate program, affiliate marketing grew rapidly. Due to its cost effectiveness and undisputed advantages, this field became very competitive. And competition is always good for customers: prices go down.There is a lot of software sold on the internet today - and not always the highest price means the highest quality! Do not fall for success stories and don't spend hundreds of dollars for products that are just well marketed: you are probably not "the lucky guy".Affiliate marketing is competitive - if you are new to this field you will surely not find the best way to market your business at once. This is MAJOR benefit of stand alone solution: while hosted or network solution offer you few possibilities to change your program, with stand-alone solution you have total control over your program. You can find the best way to market your products. Try and choose the best for you. ALWAYS want software with a lot of features. You might use a few of them at the beginning, but after several months you will certainly use more and more - would you like to pay for them? Or even pay for switching to another solution with extensive features? NO!We already mentioned the PRICE advantage of stand-alone solution: you pay one time fee - no need to discuss this any more - if you pay monthly, consequently you pay more than even for the most expensive stand-alone software on the net. It is worth to mention that solid software is sold for $150 or even less.Another benefit is positive effect of affiliate links on your search engine ranking: because the software is installed on YOUR domain, they can help you to improve ranking of YOUR website - not domain of hosted solution.Also stand alone solutions can be usually better branded for your business and customized for your specific needs.Cons of stand-alone solutionEverything has its pros and cons. I'll explain possible cons of stand-alone solution and what it takes to overcome them. If you feel that you'll not be able to cope with what follows DO NOT choose stand-alone solution.1. Technical skills - will help you during installation and integration of the software with your shopping cart / payment gateway / website. Usually, very little technical skill is required, which depends also on the level of support provided by vendor and how sophisticated the software is. Generally, if you'll be able copy/paste some code snippets to certain places on your website or to a template page of your shopping cart, your skills are sufficient...2. Affiliate recruitment - this is strong selling point of affiliate networks - your program gets immediate exposure to a network of affiliates, while for stand-alone software you'll need to recruit affiliates yourself. The fact is that you must motivate affiliates of the network as well - if you don't, they'll stop promoting your products. Registering your affiliate program to numerous affiliate directories (for free) and setting up appropriate multi-tier structure helps you to recruit affiliates to your program. But it takes time and efforts...3. Security - with hosted solution you do not need to back-up your database, upgrades are applied by team of people in charge of maintenance. If your solution doesn't have feature to back-up your database / history this can be serious problem if some hacker attack occurs or something just "goes wrong".

Affiliate Marketing is One of The Best Ways to Make Money Online

So, what is the best home business to start? Depending on whom you ask, the answers will vary. But anyone who actually makes a living online will tell you that affiliate marketing is the way to go. People simply love the idea of affiliate marketing. In fact, many are taking it up full-time. You can make thousands a year advertising other peoples products online--you are paid every time you help generate a sale. But it is not that simple--you have to know exactly what to do if you are to make money.So lets quickly run over the some of basics of affiliate marketing...With affiliate marketing, you are promoting someone else's product, website, or service. When a visitor clicks on your affiliate link on your website (or through your ads) and makes a purchase from the merchant you are promoting, you get a commission. The commission amount you are paid is based on the commission % and the price of the product. In the end, both the merchant and affiliate win as they help grow each other's businesses.From a merchants perspective... Companies like the idea of using affiliates to grow their business, so they usually offer generous commission to lure potential affiliates in (up to 75%). Companies can then have thousands of affiliates promoting their products and only have to pay the affiliate if a sale is made.From an affiliates perspective...You can work with as many companies as you'd like when you're an affiliate. All you have to do after you get your affiliate link is get as much traffic as possible to the merchant website.Many companies can't do without affiliates-who usually do the boatload of advertising.The lifestyle you lead...Affiliate marketing allows you to work at your own pace and be your own boss. You choose the hours you want to work. The amount of money you can make with affiliate marketing is virtually limitless.With that being said, you can clearly see why affiliate marketing is the best way to make money online.Now lets run over some important rules...Rule #1: Know the products you are promotingTo me, familiarizing yourself with the product you are promoting is the key to affiliates writing a comprehensive review. When you actually own the product that you recommend, your visitors will be in awe of your in depth analysis (lets face it, you can't fake a good review).Your review should point out the good, as well as the bad, of a product/service; you must be unbiased at all cost. If you neglect writing a good review, then your customers won't believe you, and they will quickly exit your site in favor of a more reliable source. This is a rule that many affiliate marketers look past, but I guarantee if they would follow this first rule they would have sales going through the roof.When I first started using this technique a couple of years ago I simply couldn't believe how much it helped my sales conversions.So don't be lazy; know your product and then write the best review possible.Rule #2: If you bought it, you should use it.It shocks me when people purchase a book or guide but don't actually use it. You have got to put your plan in motion and use the products you purchase to your advantage. That means you must read and reread every chapter and implement every technique you learn. That is exactly what I do and I make a living online because of it.The bottom line is that most people don't want to read and follow simple instructions; they want an easier way out. What you want to do is read and implement. If you do that, you will have great success with affiliate marketing.While I know many people hate the idea of buying anything, it truly is an advantage when you know something that your competition doesn't. So rule# 2 is to pick up a quality affiliate marketing guide, read it, and put it in motion by applying all of the techniques that you learn. If you are serious about making money online, you have to learn as much as possible.Rule #3: Choosing the right productsIf you want any kind of success with affiliate marketing you are going to have to choose the right products. That means you must join a good affiliate program--the last thing you need is to be in business with a bad merchant who doesn't pay as promised and/or has a dismal affiliate program altogether.Most affiliate programs are free to join. You must spend time finding high quality affiliate programs if you are to make money. But if you want to save time and choose from quality merchants all in one place, you can just check out some affiliate networks. All you have to do is sign up once and you're introduced to thousands of products from many different companies.The main advantage of an affiliate network is that, unlike individual affiliate programs, they will pay you from their network as opposed to individual companies sending you separate paychecks. For example, if I join the affiliate programs of Citibank, Circuit City, and Best Buy, I would receive 3 separate commission paychecks. But if I were to sign up to these programs directly through a network I would receive one big fat paycheck instead of three separate checks.The other advantage of the networks is that affiliate programs are ranked so you know which ones are doing good and which ones you should stay away from.Bonus Tip # 1: Don't always go after the products with highest commission payouts, they tend to convert less--even though there are exceptions such as gambling and computer products that convert very well in spite of higher prices. For now, you should stick with lower priced ($50 or less) products until you are more experienced with affiliate marketing; they convert at incredible clips.When you apply this rule, you will have more customers that are willing to pay at your doorstep.Rule #4: Getting TrafficIt's not just the products; it is your marketing ability that will make you money. The marketing methods that you use will ultimately earn you the money, not the products alone. And one technique that you are going to have to master is getting as much traffic as possible. Lets face it, no matter how great your product is, you still need traffic.I will briefly cover the best ways to get traffic.Lets start with...Good ol' SEO...First, you should apply some white hat Search Engine Optimization: Link exchanges, writing high quality content, submitting your website to the major and second tier directories, writing articles, writing press releases etc.Use viral marketing to grow your business...Take advantage of viral marketing. Give away free reports, free ebooks, and free downloads. You should make it possible that your subscribers can give it away to there visitors and audience as well. This will quickly spread the name of your business and generate unprecedented traffic.Pay-per-click advertising...Last, but certainly not least, is pay-per-click advertising. The best PPC service is Google Adwords. Running a successful campaign can get a bit tricky, but if you get it right, you receive highly targeted traffic instantly.If you use these three techniques, you give yourself a much better chance of getting a high volume of quality traffic.Rule #5: You are going to need a websiteIn the last lesson I covered different ways you can get traffic. Now we are going to talk about the importance of a website. Yes, you can send traffic directly to you merchants by Direct Linking and see some success without a website, but to really take advantage of affiliate marketing you must a have good website. With a solid website, you can "wow" your visitors with great content, take advantage of email marketing, write reviews for different products, provide reliable information, sell ads (such as Google Adsense), and so much more.Rule #6: Using pop ups to your advantage...When someone visits your website, you only have about 5-10 seconds to grab the visitors attention. What happens if you do all that work to get traffic and the visitor leaves and never returns? You have wasted time and money advertising and implementing SEO techniques. A good way you can turn that traffic into loyal visitors is to have popups that advertise your newsletter or any other particular offers you may have. What happens is a customer likes your websites presentation and sees a pop-up window and decides to give you their email address for future references.I highly recommend you take advantage of using popovers; they are great attention grabbers and it is a must for any affiliate marketer looking to grow his or her opt-in list. Remember your opt-in list is where some of your most loyal customers will come from.Last Thoughts...Affiliate marketing is a dream come true for anyone looking to earn money from home. It has changed my life and I am now doing things that I never thought possible. If you work hard, it will happen for you as well.

How You Can Find The Best Affiliate Programs To Make You The Most Money Every Time!

As affiliate marketers finding affiliate programs can be difficult. By following a few rules, you can find a good affiliate program that pays well, and fits your business. Before you decide on your affiliate program, I have a few things you need to look at before you commit to any one program.The first thing you want to make sure of is that the affiliate program is reliable in paying you every time and on time. You can do research for yourself by searching the search engines for any information on the affiliate program, or by searching for affiliate program or affiliate marketing forums.Speaking of money and getting paid, another thing you want to look at is the affiliate programs payment structure and their commission rate. You want to start by looking for high commissions items. However, some of the best affiliate programs are high ticket items that you get a small commission from. You just have to be the judge, and decide how much you want to get paid.Another thing you want to look for before you decide on any one affiliate program is what kind of statistics that they offer you. Statistics show you how many clicks your link is getting, from where, and how many sales you have made. This is important because you want to know if you are making any money from promoting the affiliate program or not. These statistics can show you if you need to be promoting the product differently, or finding a new product all together.Probably the most important thing you need to look for when deciding on an affiliate program is the actual product and the site that is selling the product. You need to study both. Make sure the product is a good product. You can do this by either buying it and using it, or searching for reviews of the product. Visit the site where the product is being sold, and make sure that the site does a good job of selling visitors on buying the product. If you feel like you wouldn't buy the product, chances are that anyone you send wont buy it either.When choosing your affiliate program, and your new to affiliate marketing, finding ones that offer some kind of affiliate marketing training could be good for you. A site that gives tips and information on making money through affiliate marketing would be perfect for a newbie because they could learn as they promoted the product. Some of these sites will even tell you what their top affiliates are doing to make sales. You can learn from successful affiliate marketers, and do the things they do so that you also could become successful with affiliate marketing. Now this shouldn't be required, but it is a great benefit that some affiliate programs do offer.Now I haven't covered everything you should look at before joining an affiliate program, but these are some of the very important factors you should be looking for. You can't make money with a bad affiliate program. One that doesn't pay well, or doesn't sell the visitors that you send them is something you want to stay away from. There are many affiliate programs online, you just have to do the research to find them, and find the ones that best suit your site or newsletter. Once you can find good affiliate programs, you'll be on your way as a successful affiliate marketer.

Developing The Perfect Affiliate Program

Are you looking for an effective way to market new online customers? Don’t want to pay thousands of dollars for a marketing plan that doesn’t even work? Then an affiliate program could be right for your business. In this article we cover the definition of an affiliate program, what affiliates look for in a program, and how you can offer these features to increase your sales.So, to begin, what is an affiliate program? An affiliate program is a feature offered by tens of thousands of online stores. Companies offer money, usually a commission, to other businesses for help in promoting their companies’ product/s or service/s. It’s like paying for marketing only when you receive a sale. A successfully designed affiliate program puts hundreds or even thousands of affiliates to work for your company. If designed well enough, you will have to do very little marketing in order to sell your products.As stated earlier, there are thousands of affiliate programs. Unfortunately, many of these programs are more or less worthless. Affiliates have become educated, and rarely join these poorly developed affiliate programs. It is increasingly important to create an affiliate program that presents affiliates with something worth their time.According to Jim Gribble, founder of LinkProfits.com, affiliates look for many of the following qualities in an affiliate program:
First and foremost, payment is given for sales made
Payments are made at least monthly
There is a believable payment threshold
Quick customer service responses
Most affiliates research potential programs with great scrutiny. There is no room in the online community of affiliate programs for those who do not pay their dues. Businesses that run their affiliate programs with late or nonexistent payments do not last long. Also, affiliates researching your company do not easily trust programs that make their payments at increments longer than 1 month. It is best to pay weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. As affiliates research your program, they also look for a payment threshold that seems believable. A program that pays up to $1,000 per week is unlikely to be trusted by an affiliate. Too many companies have offered such high thresholds without the funds to back them up.Another important aspect of affiliate programs is customer service. Affiliates want responses and they want them quickly. According to Gribble, many potential affiliates send an email to affiliate programs that they are interested in joining. He says that they base their interest in the program upon the timeliness and usefulness of the response given. Although great care must be taken with affiliates, the work they can provide for you is well worth the effort.Now, let’s discuss the more important issue; developing your affiliate program.How do you effectively begin an affiliate program? Well, to begin, you should use the resources that you already have, your current customer list. If your business does business to business transactions, you have a wealth of resources. However, even business to consumer companies have potential to gain affiliates by speaking with their current customers. As long as they are not spamming, customers can tell their friends about your great product/s or service/s. And with money involved they may be much more interested in giving referrals.Once you have petitioned your current resources, you need to branch outward. There are many resources, paid and free to help you in this effort. As stated on the previous page, there are many online affiliate directories where affiliates can search for your program. A quick search on Google for "affiliate program directories" will bring up a handful of great companies that you can register with.Besides these often free directories, there are also paid affiliate consultants. These professionals help those managing affiliate programs to find affiliates. For those with the money to invest in one of these professionals, will more than likely find great success with little or no effort.As with becoming an affiliate, one of the most important aspects of managing an affiliate program is getting the word out. Let other businesses know the benefits of your program. Be open and honest with those researching your program. Place links in newsletters, on banners ad programs, in offline advertisements and in any other marketing you do for you business. If you are truly offering good benefits that you can actually provide, with the appropriate marketing, you are guaranteed potential affiliates.

Home Based Affiliate Programs

This article is intended to teach you step by step how to get started and more importantly, make money using affiliate marketing. We will teach you how to start a home based affiliate business.What is Affiliate Marketing? Affiliate Marketing is a popular method of promoting web businesses in which you (the affiliate) are rewarded for every visitor, subscriber and/or customer provided through your efforts, much like the practice of paying finder's-fees for the introduction of new clients to a business. Compensation may be made based on a certain value for each visit (Pay per click), registrant (Pay per lead), or a commission for each customer or sale (Pay per Sale), or any combination of the three.Affiliate Marketing is one of the best ways to make money online because there is little to no scamming or fraud. In fact, many home based affiliate business owners rely on affiliate marketing for their entire income.The Concept of Affiliate Marketing:First, let's take a look at the overall concept of Affiliate Marketing. The process starts when a company has a successful product to offer. The company will build a web site and offer that product to the consumer (or internet user). The next hurdle the company has to overcome is getting web traffic to their site. After all, they can have a kick-butt product but if nobody knows about it, they won't make a dime.
This is where you, the affiliate marketer, come into play. As an affiliate you will have or build a web site that generates traffic and then "refer" part of that traffic to a partner company. The program works well for both the company selling the product and the affiliate because both parties make money in the process. Each partner helps the other become more successful.
For the purpose of this article and the goal of assisting you to make money with Affiliate Programs, we will only be looking at the Cost per Lead (C.P.L.) commission structure. A C.P.L. program is advantageous because you simply need to convince your traffic to provide their information to your partner company.Cost Per Lead:A cost per lead affiliate program will pay for each person or "lead" that is referred to your partner's web site. A Lead is any personal information that a visitor submits to a company for the purpose of allowing the company to solicit their product or services.
Here is a rough example: Let's say that a company offering yellow sponges makes an average of $40.00 profit from each sale made on their web site. They know, based off of web site statistics and sales, that one in four customers will buy their product or "convert" as it is commonly referred to. They can then offer an affiliate a certain amount of money (we will use $16.00 for our example) for each person they refer to their web site that completes the lead form. So, if an affiliate gets 100 people each month to click on an ad and fill in their information on the company's web site, they would make $1600.00. The company would have made $4,000 from the referrals and it will have only cost them the $1600.00. Again, both the company and the affiliate succeed in with this method because the company has extra sales it would not have had without the affiliate and the affiliate gets paid for a product they do not manage or ownAffiliate Program:Before we get started with creating your affiliate web site, let's take a quick look at a live affiliate program. This will help us better understand what the visitors to your site will experience and provide you with a further foundation to build your affiliate business.
For our example I have chosen MyDollarShop.com because it is one of the more reliable affiliate programs, the affiliate network I use strongly supports the program and the web site relates to the content of this article, making money with your own home business. The MyDollarShop web site allows members to own their own dollar store online. The company even sends you traffic each month so that you are sure to make some money.
When you refer a visitor to MyDollarShop site, they are presented with an introduction sales pitch and a simple form. The form requires the visitor to enter: First Name, Last Name and e-mail address. By keeping the form short, they increase the conversion rate from their referrals. After completing the form, they are presented with a thank you page and sent a follow-up confirmation email. Once the visitor completes the process (often requiring confirmation of the e-mail) your job as an affiliate is done. You will be paid a commission for the visitor's actions and do not need to concern yourself the visitor.
Now that you understand the process that a visitor will go through when they click on an ad using one of your affiliate programs, you will be able to better design your web site to "pipe" your traffic through the ad. Next you will need to create your web siteCreate Your Web Site:Rather than go into to much detail (as the process can be very involved) we will give you a quick summary and ask that you review other articles when you are done with this article.Decide what content you want to have in your site and then create the site around that content. Keep in mind that 90% of all Internet users are simply looking for more information about a particular topic or product. For our example with the online dollar store, the visitor that will be drawn to your ad and will most likely complete the lead is a visitor that is interested in: dollar stores, home business, online businesses, making money online etc. Your site should be created to provide free information to people looking to make money online. It needs to provides three of the most critical components to make money with affiliate networking: 1 Free Information 2 Related Resources and Affiliate Programs and 3 a reason or a "pre sell" in your content that will encourage the visitor to complete the lead.Your web site can be as simple as one page with information about online dollar stores or a complex web site designed to provide as much information about the possible interested of your visitors.Sign up with an Affiliate Network:You must have your web site built at this stage as most any affiliate network will reject your application if you do not have a completed web site. When your site is built and you are ready to sign up with an affiliate network, simply search for "Affiliate Networks" using your favorite search engine. In our online dollar shop example, we signed up through Lead Flash (one of the highest paying networks).It's a very good idea to sign up with multiple affiliate networks so that you can pick and chose from a wider variety of programs you want to host on your site. One of the biggest misconceptions however, is choosing only affiliate programs that have the highest payout per lead. More often then not, you can earn more money from a lower paying commission structure as long as it has a higher conversion rate. Your affiliate contact will assist you with this once you sign up with the affiliate network.

The 5 Top Reasons Why Affiliates Join an Affiliate Network

An affiliate network is a meeting ground for advertisers and affiliates to "meet". There are possibly 100's of good reasons why both advertisers and affiliates can benefit from signing up to a network, but in this article we will focus solely on the 5 top reasons why affiliates benefit from being part of an affiliate network.1. Campaign Selection: An affiliate network gives affiliates access to 100's of niche merchant's products and services. The network uses its time and resources to find the clever publishers who have figured out new ways to drive converting traffic. It also provides a greater variety of top performing, reputable campaigns. In this way, affiliates will easily get exposed to upmarket products such as banner rotations. With a single affiliate network, affiliates can easily work with multiple advertisers, multiple offers and multiple payment style options such as pay per click, pay per lead, pay per impression, etc. all under one umbrella, the affiliate network.2. One Single Relationship: The relationship between the advertiser and the affiliate is of utmost importance. These relationships are necessary for structuring increased commissions (if the affiliates volume increases), in advertisers delivering affiliate-specific content, and in the advertiser and affiliate working together to assist the affiliate in maximizing the traffic to his site. The affiliate only deals with one advertiser, namely the affiliate network, rather than each of the merchants individually. This frees up a lot of space on the affiliates calendar since the affiliate does not have to use any time building relationships with anyone except their affiliate network manager. Affiliate marketing is about relationships, and that is then all taken care of by the affiliate network. The affiliate network will provide top quality support and a great training area for the affiliate to build up their skills, learn and grow.3. Real Time Tracking: Testing and comparing each and every change and idea is fundamental for taking an affiliate's business from strength to strength. The most important tool for testing is real time tracking. This allows the affiliate to know immediately how their new idea is translating and helps to guide the affiliate as to whether it is an idea worth pursuing. The software to track impressions, clicks, leads and sales for each campaign can be both pricey and require a lot of upkeep. The network will provide this service for free to their affiliates. The network will also provide affiliate with advanced reporting tools for checking their stats, graphs for analyzing trends, and even cookie testing capabilities for monitoring fraud.4. Risk of Payment: Every advertiser has an element of risk as to whether you will actually receive the payments from them. As many companies can be virtual or on the opposite side of the world from where the affiliate is based, it is often very difficult to avoid doing business with dishonest advertisers. This means that no matter how much revenue the affiliate generates, some advertisers will never pay the affiliates. Joining an affiliate network gives the affiliate much stronger protection. The network will have built strong relationships with a number of the advertisers it works with and thus there is minimal chance the affiliate will not get paid.5. Monthly, Correct Payments: Affiliate networks ensure all payments are checked and paid monthly (or as alternatively agreed). This means that the affiliate does not have to waste valuable time checking and reconciling the advertisers' figures.

How To Make More Affiliate Sales By Cloaking Your Affiliate Links With Your Own Domain Name

Do you know that by simply cloaking your affiliate links, you can make more affiliate sales?And the best part is that if you already own a domain name and have your own web host, you can do just that.The purpose of this article is to give a step-by-step procedure of how to cloak your affiliate links with your own domain name.WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING?First thing first...what exactly is Affiliate Marketing?Simply put, Affiliate Marketing is one of the many Internet Business models to earn a commission by marketing someone else's products.Usually, an experienced Internet marketer creates a product (for example, an e-Book explaining how to do something or solve a specific problem) to market on the Internet. Instead of doing all by himself, he can also allow affiliates to market it by paying out a certain commission, which can range from a measly few percent to a huge 75 or even 80+ percent!AFFILIATE LINKSThus, when an affiliate marketer joins the affiliate program, he or she will be given an affiliate link to promote the said product. The affiliate link usually contain an Affiliate ID that is either selected by the affiliate or generated by the system when signing up.The affiliate marketer can then promote the product via his website, emails, classified ads, etc by quoting this affiliate link.As long as someone else purchases the product via this affiliate link, the affiliate marketer will get paid the predetermined commission.WHY MUST YOU CLOAK YOUR AFFILIATE LINKS?There are at least two reasons why you must cloak your affiliate links.Firstly, there are reports that sales are "stolen" by other affiliates who simply replace the affiliate links when making purchases.For example, if I am an affiliate marketer with an online marketplace (such as "successgoldmine.com") and my Affiliate ID is "rogerloh", my affiliate link can be something like that:rogerloh.productname.successgoldmine.comSo, before making a purchase for himself, it is an easy matter for another affiliate with Affiliate ID "dishonest" to substitute mine as shown:dishonest.productname.successgoldmine.comSecondly, an affiliate link is usually not-so-nice-looking like this:http://www.successgoldmine.com/redirect.html?link=rogerlohCan you imagine if you get an even longer affiliate link than the one above and placing it into your own email and send out?Not only the affiliate link may wrap into two lines or more, it is most likely "unclickable". Thus, it will reduce the chance of a sale when the reader is genuinely interested in the product but does not know to copy and paste the affiliate link into a browser.HOW TO CLOAK YOUR AFFILIATE LINKS WITH YOUR OWN DOMAIN NAMENow, let's get down to the bolts and nuts of the how-to...For this to work, these are the requirements:1) You must have your own domain name, eg. http://www.RogerLoh.com2) You are able to create a HTML file eg. cloak.html3) You are able to upload your file to your website with your domain name.Here are the steps:1) Use your favorite HTML Editor (such as FrontPage or Nvu) and create a new HTML file.For example, I created a new file called "bk01_josh.html"2) Insert the following lines just before the /head HTML tag in your new file.(NOTE: For technical reasons, I have used square brackets "[" and "]" instead of the angle brackets in the HTML code below.Please replace the square bracket with the standard HTML angle brackets in the HTML code below.)[script language="JavaScript"][!--window.location="Your Affiliate Link URL";// --][/script]3) Upload your file to your website with your domain name.For example, I used one of my domains "FactsAboutDavinci.com"Now, all I have to do is to promote this link in my marketing, such as website, emails, etc:[http://www.FactsAboutDavinci.com/bk01_josh.html]Thus, when someone clicks the above link, it will redirect him or her to the company that markets this product. And now, the link looks much more presentable and professional.

How to Get Started in Affiliate Marketing Online

Millions of people have jumped on the latest way to make money online and it is called affiliate marketing. Many times, you can set up an affiliate marketing campaign for free online. However, to be truly successful, you will have to create your own website and that means using a reputable internet webhosting business instead of one of those cheap or free online webhosting companies.Before getting any further about how to start an affiliate marketing campaign, do you have any idea what it is? It is a method where established successful businesses online allows you to earn money on a commission basis through the sale of their products on your own website. You have to set up your website and advertise their merchandise through a variety of marketing efforts. In return, you can earn a percentage of each sale that spawned through your website link.It sounds like you are doing a lot of work for free and creating more revenue for an online business. While that is true, you are also reaping the rewards from that increased revenue. Remember, you are earning a commission on every sale instigated from your website. What is so great about affiliate marketing is that practically anyone who can turn on a computer and take an online internet cruise through the World Wide Web can do it.If you become an affiliate, you will not have to supply customer or technical support nor will you have to worry about shipping because no inventory is ever handled by you. This scenario sounds pretty good, doesn't it? The only thing you have to focus on is promoting your affiliate marketing website online.Perhaps one of the great things about your online affiliate marketing campaign is that is becomes automatic. Except for some routine network maintenance, you can expect to earn money free and clear. Twenty-four hours in a day, seven days a week and three hundred sixty five days of the year .... That is how often you could potentially earn money. And if you go on a little vacation? No problem! Once you set up your affiliate marketing website online, there is little to do, so you will be relatively footloose and fancy-free.Many affiliate marketing programs online are free to join and some will even train you in advertising and promotions. In addition, there are no rules that say you have to stick with one online affiliate marketing program. You can run several of these marketing campaigns simultaneously because they are low maintenance and you can earn multiple streams of income. You are not limited to only one kind of product either. You can choose from a variety of free online affiliate programs.Now that you have an idea of what affiliate marketing is and would like to try this free way of making money online, you have several items to consider and think through. First, what type of affiliate marketing programs will you participate in? There are thousands of options available to you. Think of some things you are interested in, whether it be cooking, reading or other stuff. Then find some free affiliate programs that cater to that particular interest. It doesn't hurt to enjoy the subject matter!Next in your quest to make money online is your website. If you are comfortable with the html language and can build your own web pages quite easily, then do so. Otherwise, there are a few terrific online affiliate marketing companies that will handle all that technological mumbo jumbo for you. Remember that saying that went something like, "The best things in life are not free?" Well, the saying goes for your website. Do not utilize one of those cheap or free webhosting services. It smacks of the "mom and pop" or unprofessional mentality.For your affiliate marketing website online, don't just post the referral links to the affiliate websites. You will not get any search engine hits that way. You want web traffic to your website. To achieve this goal, incorporate content articles that are appropriate to the theme of the affiliate marketing links. In addition, there are quite a few free website content sites which might have articles that are handy to your online affiliate website.The only way for your affiliate marketing campaign to work is to drive visitors to your website. There are a variety of ways to accomplish that goal. First, offering a free newsletter or free eBook or ezine and signing up people is one way you can target a certain clientele. With subscribers, you have a built-in mode of advertising. In addition, you can try a free link exchange or an advertising campaign using Google Adsense.Other ways to increase your website traffic and thus increase the possibility of revenue through affiliate marketing is writing reviews of the very products you are touting as an affiliate. Providing free unbiased opinions of the products not only helps consumers make their purchasing decisions, but it also boosts the likelihood that consumers will click on your affiliate links to make a purchase.Free is a favorite word for many people. Offering something for nothing is another common practice that works great with affiliate marketing programs. Think about it: you have a visitor who is already halfway vested in your website. After all, they found you! To keep them coming back for more and clicking your affiliate links, offer a free ezine or eBook download. Another idea is creating a free email course. Through this method, you and your affiliate marketing website are brought to their attention each and every time you show up in their inbox.Because affiliate programs are a dime a dozen these days, you have to really be selective in what you choose. Chances are that thousands of others have also signed up as an affiliate with the same business. That is why it is important to incorporate some of the helpful hints listed in the above paragraphs as well as sign on with more than one affiliate. This will increase your chances of earning revenue.There are more issues to deal with in regards to affiliate marketing. However, these are just a few of the basics to get you started on your road to revenue. Before jumping in with both feet, be sure and do your research. Due diligence is the key to a successful affiliate marketing campaign.

Affiliate Profit: Are You Losing Money?

Dear Affiliate,I have bad news for you: You are probably losing money and you didn't pay attention to it! Let me explain...When you joined affiliate programs you probably considered the following factors:- The commission- The conversion rateThe profit formula looks like a child play: Commission x Conversion Rate = Your ProfitIn fact there are three big pitfalls here and if you don't manage them properly, your profit is at risk. Let consider them:- Price: A high price means a higher affiliate commission for every sale but it may result also in a lower conversion rate... If the product is too expensive, nobody will buy. You shouldn't be blinded by the promise of a very high commission. You should keep in mind that the best price is not the one that gives you the highest commission but the one that makes the highest profit. An optimized pricing that makes satisfied customers and satisfied affiliates is what you should look for.- Refund Rate: Refunds can kill your marketing efforts! What are worth the sales you see in your account if customers request their money back? A lot of sales mean nothing unless you keep the money!
This is the whole responsibility of the merchant to keep refunds as low as possible. A site that sells well is good. A site that also keeps refunds very low is much better! There is only one way to keep refunds very low: To deliver very high quality services meeting customers' expectations or going beyond what they could expect!- Product Quality: Quality is king! Quality makes superior conversion rates! Quality enables higher prices and better commissions! Quality keeps refunds as low as possible! In a word: Quality should be your compass. Don't associate your business with low quality products or services. On the top of your list, promote only the very best. It will also keep your profit on top.How much money are you losing today?The money you earn and lose is significantly determined by the quality of the affiliate program you have selected as your top pick.The question is: How do you measure what is more qualitative and what is less?There is an objective criterion to use for answering this question and for optimizing your profit: The refund rate of your top affiliate program!A high refund rate express clearly that lots of customers are not satisfied with what they get and that affiliates lose money on their sales. On the contrary, a low refund rates indicates a high level of satisfaction among customers and safe earning for affiliates.If you get many refunds with your top affiliate program, you should understand that the quality of this program isn't sufficient for keeping these customers satisfied and it doesn't do the necessary job for securing your profit... You are losing money!What are good, medium and poor refund rates?Refunds can't be totally avoided. There will always be customers that are not satisfied even for the most qualitative product or service. So, expecting a zero refund rate on the long run is not realistic. You should wish a refund rate as low as possible in your industry. It's important to consider that there can be significant variations from one industry to another but as a rule of thumb you can use the following scale:2% or less: Excellent3% - 5%: Good6% - 10%: Medium11% - 15%: Poor16% - 20%: Very Poor21% or higher: Run away!With a 5% or less refund rate you can be happy. Your affiliate program is reliable and your profit is secured. With a 6%-10% refund rate, you should monitor closely your merchant performance to ensure it doesn't get worst. It would be advised to scan the market for a better alternative if you can find one. With an 11%-20% (or higher) refund rate you should be very concerned with your profit. Whatever your industry is, you are bleeding and there is probably a better affiliate program to promote.What is the refund rate of your top affiliate program?There are two ways to find the refund rate of an affiliate program:1) Look at the stats supplied by your affiliate programDo your math as following: Refunds / Sales = Refund RateLet say you make 1000 sales per month, you get a $23.50 commission per sale and about 160 customers request their money back every month. Your refund rate is 160 / 1000 = 16%. In that case it means that you should have earned $23,500 for your sales but you will get only $19,740 because of the refunds. You lost here 16% of your profit or $3,760!You can ask yourself: Is it only I or all affiliates for this program get similar numbers? If you use Clickbank to promote affiliate programs, you can get the big picture about the whole community of affiliates that promote an affiliate program.2) Using Clickbank payout stats to calculate the average refund rate of an affiliate programIn its marketplace, Clickbank publishes payout stats for affiliate programs. The $Earned/Sale factor gives us exactly what we need to calculate the average refund rate of a program.The $Earned/Sale is the average net amount earned per affiliate per referred sale. This number is mainly impacted by refunds and it reveals the real commission earned by affiliates. With this number, you can have an inner look at the real performance of affiliates programs.The average refund rate of an affiliate program is:
(Commission - $Earned)/Commission = Average Refund RateWhat is the refund rate of popular affiliate programs at Clickbank?As an example, we have looked at three affiliate programs selling paid surveys databases. We have found their refund rates very high! You will be surprised at discovering how much money affiliates can lose when promoting these programs:- SurveyScout: 16.2% refund rate!- Survey Platinum: 20.9% refund rate!- My Consumer Survey: 35.2% refund rate!To get into the details, on November 29th 2005 figures were as following:SurveyScoutAffiliate Commission: $23.50Average $Earned/Sale: $19.69Refund Rate: (23.50 - 19.69) / 23.50 = 16.2%Example: For 100 referred sales you should earn $2,350. In fact you will get only $1,969 because 16 customers out of 100 have requested their money back!Survey PlatinumAffiliate Commission: $23.50Average $Earned/Sale: $18.58Refund Rate: (23.50 - 18.58) / 23.50 = 20.9%Example: For 100 referred sales you should earn $2,350. In fact you will get only $1,858 because 21 customers out of 100 have requested their money back!My Consumer SurveyAffiliate Commission: $40.84Average $Earned/Sale: $26.43Refund Rate: (40.84 - 26.43) / 40.84 = 35.2%Example: For 100 referred sales you should earn $4,084. In fact you will get only $2,643 because 35 customers out of 100 have requested their money back!Remark: My Consumer Survey has a poorly designed site and a high price for buyers. We estimate its conversion rate to be significantly lower than other paid surveys programs. Despite its high commission, affiliates will lose the most money with this program.We learn three lessons about these paid surveys affiliate programs:- A lot of customers are dissatisfied.- Affiliates lose big money.- The quality of these programs is very questionable.What should you do to stop the bleeding?You have no influence on the quality of the affiliate programs you promote. Your only real influence is on the quality of your recommendation!Giving your top recommendation to a very professional affiliate program that delivers the utmost quality services to customers will keep your profit as high and as safe as possible.How to identify quality in affiliate programs?Defining quality is a difficult job. In general, people can't define clearly what quality is but they recognize it when they see it. So what should you look at in affiliate programs?The most qualitative affiliate programs find the right balance between the value they offer to customers and the value they generate to affiliates:1. Value to customers - It includes:- Rich content- Good looking website- State-of-the-art organization- Friendly functionality- Affordable Price for most visitors- Detailed documentation- Bonuses strengthening the main offer- Timely Customer Support2. Value to affiliates - It includes:- High conversion rate- High commission- Low refund rate- Commission paid on time- Good affiliate support

The Truth About Earning $1,000 or More Weekly From Affiliate Programs

Everyone is talking about them. Almost everyone is a member of at least a few of them. Affiliate programs are hot. You can usually sign up for free and be selling products within 5 minutes. The web sites, sales letters, and order shipping are all done for you. All you have to do is promote.But...Is anyone making money from these programs except for the affiliate program owner?It is a surprising statistic when you find out that only around 10% to 20% of affiliate members do enough to ever get a check. Then, only a small percentage of those go on to earn really good incomes from affiliate programs.It isn't the affiliate program either. Although some affiliate programs have pitifully small payouts (5% to 10%) and limit their members that way, the real problem comes with the fact that affiliates have no idea how to sell from their affiliate sites. The affiliate owners usually don't have any idea how to help them either.I own several affiliate programs myself, so I have spent a considerable amount of time studying my top affiliates and the top affiliates in programs all over the Internet.The principles below are true of almost everyone of the top affiliates in every program I have looked at. If you want to succeed and earn at least $5,000 or more per month from affiliate programs, then you will have to be following the five steps below. If you don't, it just isn't going to happen...and you have no one to blame but yourself.1. Create Your Own Web Site.Although almost every program gives you a web site to use to promote with, you really shouldn't be promoting with that site. The top affiliates always have their own web sites which they promote from. Then, they link to the affiliate program sites.I never drive traffic directly to any of the affiliate programs. I drive it to my site, get their name on my opt-in list, and then promote affiliate programs. If you are serious about earning profits online, then you will do the same.Having your own site and linking to your affiliate program gives you some additional advantages as well:* You can write up a short two to four paragraph endorsement and testimonial for the site yourself.* You can generate subscribers to your opt-in list first (this is the key to Internet profits).* If the affiliate program ever stops or changes your link, you still have all the traffic you worked for at YOUR site (this happens quite often).If you don't currently have a web site, but want to earn through affiliate programs, you need to get one today.2. Generate TrafficYou can't earn a single penny in any affiliate program without generating traffic to your site. No traffic equals no income. Combine the right ingredients of an opt-in list, good site design, and the right sales offer...and your income will be directly proportional to the targeted traffic you generate.An advantage that I didn't mention above in why you should own your own domain is getting listed with the search engines. The pages given to you by your affiliate program owner aren't going to receive virtually any traffic from the search engines. They won't have top rankings because there are at least 1,000 other pages just like them (from the other affiliate members) and many software programs create pages which can't even be indexed by the search engines.Having your own domain will give you the freedom to create web pages which achieve high rankings on the search engines. Each of the major search engines such as AltaVista, Infoseek, Hotbot, and the others have their own ranking algorithms which change virtually monthly.You can stay on top of them though by using a program such as Web Position which actually monitors the search engines for you and helps you prepare doorway pages which will achieve the top rankings you are seeking after...and the traffic which comes from having those top rankings.You can read more about Web Position and everything it can do for you at our site. You can also even download a trial version for the three of the major search engines which is good for 30 days to try it out free. Check it out and download the trial at: [http://www.bizpromo.com/webposition/]Search engines are not the only way to build traffic to your site. You can trade links with sites, place free and paid classifieds, and even use banner advertising. There are dozens of ways to generate traffic. If you want to make money from your affiliate programs, you will be using them.3. Start an Opt-In List.I checked my affiliate members' checks this month and noticed a very interesting trend. All top 10 affiliates have their own opt-in email lists and are pretty aggressive marketers to those lists. They all mail to their opt-in list at least weekly and the number one affiliate this month mails to his list every single day.That is where my income is coming from also. Over 90% of my income comes through using opt-in email in one way or another...either through my newsletters or through my autoresponders with follow-up. If you don't know how to use email, then your always going to be living on barely get by street in the online market.The web sites which I send the most traffic to have one purpose to them...and one purpose only...to sign them up on my newsletter lists. All of the content that I have on my site is for that one purpose.If you can't get a visitor to sign up for a free newsletter, then you aren't going to be able to get them to fill out your order forms and order. Get them on the list, and then start emailing them as often as you can put out good content (along with the ads).Although I prefer to personalize my newsletter using software you have to buy (I get mine from Postmaster Online). If you are just starting out and are on a budget, you can start your list using a free Listbot from http://www.listbot.com4. Develop a Unique Web Position.Here is a trick to increase your sales from ANY affiliate program, but people rarely ever mention it. Any successful web site finds a way to make their products and or services unique from their competition.When you are an affiliate though, you have thousands of competitors selling the exact same product at the exact same price. Every other affiliate in that company is your competition!You will have to become unique if you want to beat the other affiliates competing against you. You may think it would be difficult to do, but it isn't.All you have to do is add on some extra bonuses to those people who are purchasing from you. For example, if you're an affiliate for a video course, then add in a special free report on the same subject which is ONLY good for those who order from you. Your free report can be emailed to those who order so it won't cost you a penny of your commissions.If you own an opt-in list like you should, you could give a free ad to anyone who orders an affiliate product from you. For example, you could write that anyone who orders the ________ (you would list the product here) before midnight tonight will also get a free ad ($30 value) in your newsletter...or three free ads. Buy submission software and submit their site to 1,000 search engines if they order today.Do something like this and tell your opt-in email list subscribers and web site visitors about it. You will be setting yourself apart from the competition and be giving your purchasers an even better deal than buying from the affiliate owner!Special limited time offers work extremely effectively when combined with your own opt-in list.5. Generate Multiple Streams of Income.If you follow all four of the principles above, then you are going to be able to earn money from many different affiliates programs, and that is exactly what you should do. You should join several non-competing programs which sell products to the same targeted market.For example, if you have chosen to sell to Internet marketers, you may join:An Internet Training ProgramA Web Hosting ProgramAn Autoresponder programA Business OpportunityYou can find several programs which target any specific niche group.You can be earning 3 to 10 streams of income from the same visitors at your web site and subscribers to your newsletters. Having several streams of income helps every visitor to your site be worth more money to you!--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Terry Dean's Brand New Fr-e eBook, "10 Quick and Easy Ways to Increase Profits to ANY Web Site Overnight!" Reveals More Time Tested Proven Internet Marketing Secrets Than 99% of the Paid Products Available...Showing You Step-By-Step How to Increase Your Traffic, Drop Your Expenses, and Drive Your Profits Through the Roof:http://www.bizpromo.com
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Why work with an Affiliate Network?

The affiliate has a choice. They can either work with multiple merchants, or they can work with an affiliate network. So why should a marketer want to work with an Affiliate Network?The affiliate has a choice. They can either work with multiple merchants, or they can work with an affiliate network. So why should a marketer want to work with an Affiliate Network?I remember a friend told me a story awhile back. He had built a small website and had signed up to become an affiliate at a stack of different affiliate programs related to the topic of that site. A few weeks after he had set up the site including links and banners from multiple affiliate programs, he turned his attention to other business interests and lost interest in the site. A few months later, he noticed that a few checks had started arriving from the affiliate programs he had joined up with. Not large checks, but amounts for a few dollars here and there. That was his first problem - as he was living outside of the USA, lots of small amounts result in lots of bank charges. (Which makes me ask - Why can't all countries allow affiliates to bank checks at NO CHARGE?) Nevertheless, the checks continued to come in, and although some of them were posted on his wall as they were so small he couldn't bank them, he wasn't complaining as he was making money he hadn't expected. It turned out that his site had ranked high up on specific keywords in a major search engine, and he was receiving a fair amount of targeted traffic for free. A few months after that he decided to log into all the affiliate accounts he had registered with, and noticed that some of them had not paid him as the amounts were too small, some of them hadn't paid although they should have, and some even showed that they had sent him amounts that he didn't recall receiving checks or EFT or paypal or any other payments for!So how does working with an affiliate network prevent this from happening, and is this the only reason to work with an affiliate network?A good affiliate network has a number of different offers which the affiliates can promote, and nearly all the affiliate networks consolidate the amounts the affiliates earn from the various campaigns. This means that the affiliates receive a CONSOLIDATED payment rather than many smaller ones. It also makes reconciling the payments easier, as you simply log into one affiliate network, and can see a summary of each of the campaigns you have promoted, how much you have earned from them, a summary of how much you have earned overall, and how much the affiliate network has paid you to date.Also, once you work with one campaign in an affiliate network, the other campaigns work in a similar if not identical way - the tracking is the same method, the place you pull the creatives from is the same, the way you check your stats is the same - and nearly always, all of this can be achieved by logging into one backend site rather than many different sites.So now you are working with one log-in, where you can really get to understand the system.However, even with the best of affiliate networks, things go wrong - but with an affiliate network, you would be allocated an affiliate manager, who will help you sort out any issues you encounter. Not 50 different affiliate managers - one for each campaign you are running, as would be the case if each merchant was a standalone merchant with their own affiliate program - but one affiliate manager for all the campaigns. And by building up a relationship with your affiliate manager, when you do need answers, you have one person to turn to.Of course, once you become a professional super whaling affiliate (the type that lies on the beach while the money pours in - HAS ANYONE REALLY ACHIEVED THIS? Watch this space for a future story about the affiliate beach goers!), you'll need specific campaigns to promote, and that is why, even the best of affiliates belong to multiple affiliate programs and affiliate networks. But this presents even more problems.So my advice when starting out is to choose one or 2 affiliate networks, become familiar with their system, build up a relationship with the affiliate manager, test out the different campaigns they have, and let them help you achieve the success and results you want to achieve.

Affiliate Program, A Highly Lucrative Web Marketing

An affiliate program is a internet marketing, which repays the affiliates for fetching traffic to the advertiser website or for subsequent dealings. An affiliate program is a program demonstrated to attract more visitors to a website, and to increase sales. An affiliate program is also known as associate program or affiliate marketing.The affiliate marketing in simple words is a market through affiliates and the affiliates attract additional consumers. The affiliate programs have a vastly spread affiliate marketing network on Internet today.The affiliate programs allow affiliates to promote the merchant's website and products. The affiliates of a particular sales website helps to boost up the traffic to the web site and they get commission on every single sale. Thus the affiliate programs can double or triple the selling potential of a sales website.Let's have a dramatic representation of an affiliate program to get it properly. Suppose, a guy David is a sales website owner and in an affiliate program David will allow the other people to place his referral links on their sites. The referral links will definitely be aimed for David's sales website. The people who place David's referral links on their websites are known as affiliates. Now if a visitor on affiliate's site clicks on a referral link, he will enter David's website and if the visitor entered to David's website through the referral link buys a product on David's website, the affiliate will get a commission. Hence the affiliates will strive to drive maximum traffic to David's website to earn maximum commission, which will increase the sales on David's website. The affiliates do not get a commission unless a sale is made.The different affiliate programs follow different ways of paying commissions to the affiliates. Some pay a percentage of sales resulting from affiliate's referral. Some pay a specific amount per sale, or pay per click. Some programs track sales from particular referrals and some others pay the on purchases made by a referral for a limited time only.The affiliate programs are beneficial for both, the merchant's and their affiliates. They can increase the traffic on the merchant's sales websites and thus increase the selling potential of a sales website. The merchants pay commission only if a sale is made. The avidity of commission on sales make the affiliates do positive marketing for their merchant's sales website, which helps to generate traffic on merchant's website. The affiliate programs are beneficial even if the sales are not made. They gain popularity for the merchant's link and consequently help to get his website a higher ranking in the search engines. The high traffic and high ranking on search engines definitely increase the sales.The affiliate programs are beneficial for the affiliates in the sense that they get commission on every sale. These programs give the affiliates a large opportunity to make money by selling products of other people without actually storing and delivering the products themselves.

What Is Affiliate Marketing and Is It For Me?

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 typcially based on one of the following:Pay-Per-Click (PPC) - a specific amount is paid for each visiter the affiliate sendsPay-Per-Lead (PPL) - where the affiliate is paid for registrations or sign-upsPay-Per-Sale (PPS) - a specific commission per sale is paid to the affiliateIf 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.comLinkShare.comStaying 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.

Affiliate Marketing is Low Risk

There is absolutely no doubt that Affiliate Marketing is becoming more and more popular every day. On a daily basis more and more would be entrepreneurs are turning to affiliate marketing as a way of making an online income. There are obviously many compelling reasons for the popularity of affiliate marketing. Near the top of that list has to be the fact that affiliate marketing is considered a low-risk opportunity for many people looking to make money from the comfort of their home. Now many people believe that low-risk also means low-reward. I however, am not one of those people! In the case of Affiliate marketing, I believe it falls into the low-risk category because the potential losses are relatively small and the potential for earnings can be huge.Affiliate Marketing affords many ordinary people the opportunity to not only start an online business, but to also keep their financial losses to a minimum.As an affiliate marketer you are truly not involved in the hard selling of a product, service, or program. Your main responsibility is to promote quality products, services and programs. Compensation is earned when the prospect makes a purchase from the merchant's site after being directed by your affiliate link.I have included four very important reasons why affiliate marketing should be a low-risk business venture for you.1. Minimal or Low Set-Up CostUnlike brick and mortar businesses that need structures such as offices and showrooms, setting up an affiliate marketing business does not involve large expenses. There will be no offices to fill up with tables, chairs, and filing cabinets. There will be no showrooms to fill-up with products. A little corner of your den or small office above your garage will do the trick. Obviously you will need a computer and internet connection, but if you are reading this article you already have those items. Now, does this make affiliate marketing similar to any other online business?Unlike other online businesses, would-be affiliate marketers do not need to invest a lot of money to conduct affiliate marketing. Most affiliate programs are free to join and the online company or merchant that established the affiliate program may even provide you with the promotional materials and websites that the affiliate will need. Therefore, the set-up cost of affiliate marketing is truly negligible.I do recommend that you purchase your own web hosting, so that you may set up your own site. Why? It will be important for you to differentiate yourself from the many other affiliate marketers who are involved in promoting the same products, services, and programs that you are. With your own website you create a uniqueness that will help separate you from your competition. With your own website you will also have the opportunity to send any and all potential customers to your site first rather than the merchant site. This is a golden opportunity for you to get prospects to subscribe to your newsletter or other free offers you may have. List building is the life blood of any affiliate marketer, but that is an article for another time.2. No InventoryAs an affiliate marketer you do not own the products you are promoting on your website. Your main job as an affiliate is to give your visitors compelling reasons why they need to click on your affiliate link and go to the website of the merchant you are promoting the product for. As an affiliate for a product or service you are not responsible for taking orders from your visitors. The order process is done on the merchant's website. What does this mean for you? It means you don't have to worry or think about product inventories.In affiliate marketing, the affiliate does not handle the purchasing or delivery of the products. In a nutshell, as an affiliate marketer you do not have to worry about the costs or time involved in stocking, buying, delivering, or taking inventories of the products.3. No EmployeesIn affiliate marketing, there is no need for regular employees. Most affiliate marketers are a one man or woman operation. Many of the tasks that you must complete as an affiliate marketer can be done on your own. You might enlist the help of a spouse or other family member, but there really is no need to hire a staff. Without a staff or regular employees, the affiliate is no longer burdened by the financial pressure of providing wages.There may be times where you don't feel you have the expertise of handling certain aspects of the work you must do as an affiliate or you just don't have the time. You may need to outsource some of your work. What is outsourcing? Very simple, getting others to do the work for you...at a cost of course.4. Minimal Customer ServiceAs an affiliate marketer you are not involved in the manufacturing or delivery of products. The responsibility for maintaining quality products does not fall on your shoulders. This means that keeping the customers happy is also not your major responsibility. That responsibility falls on the merchant, who deals with the paying customers.Now, this does not mean that you totally remove yourself from the customer service aspect. What it does mean is that in order to avoid unhappy customers, it is very important that you stand behind the products and services you are promoting. Make sure you are recommending quality products, programs, and services that you use yourself. After all, many people are going to buy the product you are promoting based on your recommendations. How can you make an honest recommendation if you have never used the product yourself?Always remember, a customer that purchases from you one time is more likely to purchase from you again. If they have had a positive experience with the merchant and product you recommended you have gained a customer for life.

Creating Your Own Affiliate Business

An excellent and rather simple way to start a business or add income flow to your existing business is to start an affiliate business. An affiliate business offers an individual the opportunity to become an affiliate, or business sales partner. An affiliate is paid a certain amount of money for either a click through from the partnering web site; a fixed amount for a lead generated by an ad on the affiliate's web site; or a percentage of a purchase made by a visitor as a result of a click through created by the affiliate.There are two ways to successfully create your own affiliate business.1. Creating an Affiliate Business Promoting Other Businesses--------------------------------------------------------------If you have a web site with a decent amount of traffic, and you have time on your hands to search out some great affiliate programs and continue to increase your web site traffic, then you might consider starting an affiliate business promoting other merchants. While this is not a get-rich-quick scheme by any means, it can, over time, generate a fair amount of income.Promoting your chosen affiliate business partners can be a tedious process, and can become a bit tricky at times. While banner ads are often the preferred method of promotion by an affiliate business, choose an affiliate business that also works with you to provide text links and other forms of communications, such as enewsletters and email, to promote click throughs. Other promotion options that have proven successful for many affiliates include pop ups, which can work well, but are often blocked or closed even before they've loaded, as well as pop unders, which tend to show more success simply because when an internet user discovers them, they've already loaded and can be seen in detail before they're closed. This allows the viewer a short amount of time to consider clicking on the link to get more information.While it is certainly possible to search for each affiliate business individually, and sign up for each one individually, a streamlined way that can become very successful is to work with a company such as OffersQuest.com, an affiliate business that works with many different affiliate partners. Companies such as this offer dozens of programs covering everything from shoes to ecommerce solutions, and can offer a variety of affiliate business advertising options, including both banners and text links.Before signing on as an affiliate business partner, however, be sure to only consider links for products and services that promote and complement your current business and web site. For example, a site dedicated to home schooling information will not do well as a casino affiliate. On the other hand, a site dedicated to marketing and advertising may actually see improved web traffic and visitor stats from an affiliate business link related to an ecommerce merchant.Another thing to keep in mind is that many search engines, including Yahoo!, may not allow your site into their listings if your site consists mostly of affiliate links. Too many affiliate links will litter your site, making it difficult to focus on your site's content and the true nature of your site as well, so choose only a small amount of select affiliate business partners in which to work. Focus on the success of those select affiliate businesses rather than many different affiliate business links.2. Creating an Affiliate Business Promoting Your Own Business--------------------------------------------------------------If you're a web merchant and have a great product or service to promote, it's safe to consider implementing your own affiliate business by promoting affiliates to join on as your sales team. The steps involved in becoming an affiliate business will take time and even money, especially with choosing and installing affiliate tracking software, but can, in the long run, become a very profitable and viable business expansion. However, the most time consuming step in owning an affiliate business where you're promoting your own products or services is recruiting affiliates into your program.A good way to promote your affiliate business program is through increasing your own web traffic. Consider reciprocal linking strategies with sites that complement your business or the nature of your business. Links to your site from a popular site not only increases the rate of visitors from that site, but is also a factor used by many of the world's most popular search engines when calculating rankings. There are software packages that can choose links for you, but because they're expensive, if you have the time to look yourself, choose that route instead.Once you have an affiliate business team in place, be supportive of your team so that they can generate the sales that you need and desire. Offer a variety of web banners to choose for posting on their web sites, as well as text links and other advertising options that are easily accessible for your affiliates. Respond to their communications quickly. Pay them on time. Offer suggestions to help them increase their web site traffic, their click throughs, and ultimately, their commissions. By working closely with your affiliate business sales people, you'll bring them success in working with you - and in turn, will bring in increased sales for your business.A wise merchant knows that good sales affiliates are rare, and treats them with respect, assisting them with resources and providing prompt commission payments. A wise affiliate knows that an affiliate business merchant wants quality promotion and sales performance for a minimal cost. With these two statements in mind, the only successful merchant and affiliate partnerships are struck when both parties understand these points and work hard at working together, resulting in profits for both parties.

Creating a Top Affiliate Program

If you're a business owner with a fabulous product or service, creating a top affiliate program may be something to consider in order to help your business grow.A top affiliate program is undoubtedly a proven way to increase your business' sales and profits through your web site. The reasons for the success behind a top affiliate program are quite simple.1. A top affiliate program is an automated advertising campaign.While you'll need to purchase affiliate tracking software or write your own software for an affiliate program, a top affiliate program is an automated ad campaign that will promote your product or service continuously - 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Affiliate registrations and sales reports are processed automatically, as are visitors and sales. Your only job is to recruit affiliates, train them, and pay them at the end of the month for all sales generated.2. There is no expense to pay with a top affiliate program.After installing affiliate tracking software, there is actually no expense involved in maintaining a top affiliate program. You don't pay your affiliates until they make money for you. This is obviously the best benefit of having a top affiliate program. Your affiliate tracking software can be used to get hundreds, or even thousands, of affiliates to promote your product or service for free and dramatically increase your business' sales.3. A top affiliate program offers fringe benefits for future purchases.Even if visitors on your web site from affiliate links don't generate a purchase, you can still reap the rewards of a top affiliate program in other ways. For example, by offering a free enewsletter or ezine subscription, you'll generate names to work with for future purchases, and chances are good that those people will also bookmark your web site for future reference. Since you're only paying your affiliates for actual purchases, these leads are generated to you at no charge.4. With a top affiliate program in place, you will never buy advertising space that may not work.When you have a top affiliate program, you let your affiliates test the waters for you. You write text ads and provide banners for them to place in various locations on the internet, including their own web sites, and you use your software to measure the results. If your ads don't work, you're not out any money, which would be the case if you were purchasing advertising space. With this in mind, you can test the waters, so to speak, with your different ad types in order to determine what works best, and you can do this without fear of losing ad dollars.5. A top affiliate program is a viral marketing strategy.Viral marketing is a powerful tool in generating sales. Implement a two-tiered program, where you offer to pay affiliates for other affiliates that sign up under them. This encourages your "automatic sales reps" to recruit more affiliates to work for your business, bringing your business unlimited growth potential.6. Enjoy better search engine placement with a top affiliate program.Another one of the rewards of a top affiliate program is obtaining better search engine placement with the major search engines. Link popularity plays an absolutely huge role in the ranking of your site on most every search engine. The more sites that point to your domain, the higher your position with the search engines. By having hundreds of sites linking to yours through a top affiliate program, you'll be bringing more and more traffic to your site, thus increasing your search engine ranking.What may be the most difficult part of creating a top affiliate program is recruiting affiliates to represent your business. To make the recruiting process easier, consider a two-tiered program, as mentioned, which will allow affiliates to earn a commission when they refer another affiliate. This encourages webmasters to find other people to join your top affiliate program so your affiliate base quickly multiplies and continues to grow.To summarize, the beauty behind a top affiliate program is that it allows you to build a tremendously large sales team. The members of your top affiliate program sales team all have their own web sites, visitors, and opt-in lists. This team of sales reps, or affiliates, use their visitors and opt-in lists to advertise your product. You don't pay them a penny until they bring in a sale or a lead, according to your affiliate agreement. Other than your time, the only cost involved in a top affiliate program is to purchase tracking software, which can be very low in cost. Basically, you can't lose by choosing to develop a top affiliate program.