Go To Affiliate

Affiliate Programs : Golden Opportunity or Waste of Time?

2008-06-19T10:09:00.000+08:00

Affiliate Programs : Golden Opportunity or Waste of Time?
by: Steven O. Ng

Now that the idea of doing business over the internet has been firmly established, many potential internet businessmen are searching for the best way to do business. Usually the choice comes down to whether you want to set up your own business and online store, or sign up for an affiliate program.

First of all, let's define what we mean by an affiliate program. An affiliate program is basically an internet business set up by someone else. They could be selling physical goods, education, information or any other products that can be sold online. By signing up as their affiliate, you are helping them promote their business or store. In return, they will pay you a commission for each sale you bring them. The amount of commission varies between different affiliate programs. Examples of affiliate programs include Amazon.com and Wordtracker, which you can visit at:

http://www.onlinebiz-help.com/links/wordtracker.html

1) EARNINGS

So how does an affiliate program differ from starting your own online store? Let's start by looking at the potential earnings. (After all, the main reason everyone wants to start an internet business is for the money). When you sign up for an affiliate program, you will be paid a commission for each sale you refer to the online store. This commission can range from 5% to 15% for physical products, and possibly up to 50% or more for virtual products such as subscriptions and ebooks.

On the other hand, if you start your own store, your profit can be much higher. For virtual products, your profit can be 100% of your selling price. After all, once the newsletter or ebook is created, you do not need to spend any more effort. When someone buys your ebook, they just download it from your website. If you are selling a physical product, your profit depends on whether you are manufacturing the product yourself, or buying from a wholesaler or dropshipping company. Your profit in this case could easily be more than 40% or 50%.

So, if you only consider the potential earnings, starting your own business is more lucrative than joining an affiliate program.

2) LOGISTICS

However, money isn't everything (Or so they say). When you are starting your own internet business, there are a number of logistic issues you need to look at. Here are a few things you would need to take care of:

a) Create your website
b) Design your product (if you are selling new products)
c) Create your product (if you are selling new physical products, or any virtual products)
d) Set up an online store
e) Set up a merchant account or payment gateway
f) Set up a warehouse or storage space (if you are selling physical products)
g) Have procedures and staff ready to fulfill orders
h) Set up an affiliate program to get others to market the products for you
i) Monitor for fraud
j) Monitor stock levels

As they say, "No pain, no gain". Having your own store pays very well, but requires a substantial time investment from you.

On the other hand, if you sign up for an affiliate program, all you need to do is set up a website to promote the program. All the ads, banners, marketing text etc will be provided to you by the affiliate program. Your only responsibilities would be to get people to visit your website, and hopefully click on the affiliate links to buy the products that you are promoting.

3) CONVERSION

Whether you have your own business or are promoting an affiliate program, the bottom line is the conversion rate, or the percentage of visitors that actually buy something from you. A number of factors influence this conversion rate. Factors as quality of the product, quality of the website, customer support are all important. However, I personally believe that the most important factor is trust.

When a potential customer arrives at your website, he will need to trust your site enough for him to be willing to buy from you. After all, on the internet you are just a faceless salesman. He doesn't know who is actually running the site and whether he will actually get the goods that he orders.

Having said that, one of the key methods of garnering trust is by recommendation and referral. If a store is being referred to or recommended by another website, the potential customer will feel that the store is trustworthy. After all, if the store is not trustworthy, why would the other website recommend it?

This is where affiliate programs shine. When you refer a potential customer to the store for which you are an affiliate, the customer will feel more relieved, since the store is being recommended by your site, a 3rd party. The customer will be more likely to buy from the store, benefiting both the store, and you as well.

There are both pros and cons to joining an affiliate program. You might earn less with an affiliate program compared to starting your own store, but I believe the benefits of not having to be responsible for the logistics makes affiliate programs are very viable "passive" source of income.

For more information on affiliate programs, do visit http://www.onlinebiz-help.com

About the Author

Steven is the webmaster of http://www.onlinebiz-help.com - Your Guide To Internet Business. His website contains various resources on affiliate programs and internet marketing advice to help you succeed in your internet business.

Affiliate Program Commissions

2008-05-15T10:46:00.000+08:00

Affiliate Program Commissions - The Higher the Better
by: David McKenzie

A good way to tell if the affiliate program you belong to is
serious about their affiliate program commissions is the
percentage they are paying you. If someone is offering you 10%
commission, and they are keeping the rest, then you need to ask
yourself "Should I really be in this affiliate program?".

An affiliate program I have recently joined called ‘E-Book
Marketing Explained’, pays out 45% commission to their
affiliates and another 10% to the 2nd tier. That’s 55%! They
only keep 45% and it’s from this that they take their costs.
Either they’ve gone completely mad or they are very smart!
I suspect they are very smart.

By paying such high affiliate program commissions they are
attracting many affiliates to their programs. This means they
can sell a higher volume. With a higher volume of sales they
can afford to give away such a high commission.

Because they are giving so much away to their affiliates with
high commissions it shows they are supremely confident in the
worth of their product or service and its ability to sell
itself. Their product or service is that good.

The affiliates are doing all the pre-selling, all the hard
work, getting the eyeballs at their web sites. You want to get
paid for it. Do not accept 10% commission rates. Set yourself a
standard of nothing less than 20% and make sure that the 20% is
more than just a couple of dollars.

It is with the big-percentage payers where you can make some
decent commissions. The 40%-plus hitters. These BIG affiliate
program commissions are the ones that will see your bank
balance explode each and every month.

About the Author

David McKenzie of http://www.brisney.com For great
ideas on promoting your web site or marketing your affiliate
programs subscribe to our Free twice monthly newsletter by
sending a blank email to mailto:brisney@brisney.com

12 Tips For A Successful Affiliate Program

2008-01-04T22:36:00.000+08:00

12 Tips For A Successful Affiliate Program
by: Ken Hill

1. Look around at other competing businesses that offer affiliate programs, and think of ways that you can make your
affiliate program more attractive.

2. Pay your affiliates well for their efforts.

If you're thinking about offering a 10% commission for sales of your product and a competing business is paying a 50%
commission for referrals, you'll lose affiliates to your competitor.

3. Make your affiliate program more lucrative by offering residual commissions.

This is an excellent choice if you offer a product that is paid for on a residual basis such as webhosting or access to your membership site.

4. Offer lifetime commissions.

Your affiliates will see the power of lifetime commissions, and work hard to promote your business and send you more
sales.

5. Make your affiliate program two-tier.

Reward your affiliates by giving them a commission on the sales of people they refer to your affiliate program.

6. Don't leave your affiliates out in the cold.

Provide your affiliates with lots of sales items that they can use to successfully promote your products.

Some items you could offer your affiliates:

- e-zine ads (sponsor ads, classified ads, 2 liners)
- signature file ads
- sales letters/solo ads
- brandable ebooks
- sample recommendations
- email courses
- your articles that they can reprint with their affiliate URLs in your resource box.

7. Be quick to respond to your affiliates' emails.

An easy way to lose your affiliates is to not respond to their questions in a timely manner, or to not respond to their e-mails at all.

It shows that you don't value them, and since their are tons of other affiliate programs, you would be losing potentially
very good affiliates to other businesses.

8. Provide your own tips and advice.

Follow up with your affiliates with tips and strategies that they can use to increase their commissions.

9. Reward your top affiliates with higher commissions and bonuses.

You'll be able to achieve more sales over the long term because your top affiliates won't jump to another affiliate program where their efforts are more appreciated.

10. Publish an affiliate's newsletter.

Your affiliate's newsletter will help you to share your tips with your affiliates, and keep them going in the right direction.

You could also use your newsletter to keep your top affiliates excited about your program.

Some effective ways to do this are:

- Share what your top affiliates do to earn big commission checks.
- Showcase their sites and tell why their sites sell.
- List your 5 or 10 highest earning affiliates for the month.

11. Track your affiliates' sales accurately.

Your affiliates will find out if they send you customers and you don't credit them with their commissions.

Your affiliate program will lose credibility and you'll end up losing your affiliates as word gets around.

12. Participate in affiliate marketing forums.

Share your valuable advice and expertise with the members of the forums you participate in.

Include your signature file that promotes your affiliate program, and always follow the rules of the forums you join.

About the author:

Article by Ken Hill. Want To Start Your Own Profit Driving Affiliate Program? Power packed solution has what you need. Includes affiliate program software, shopping cart, ad tracking and easy e-zine management. Automate your online business today at: http://www.scstats.com/r.cfm?i=5029

11 Tips for Joining Affiliate Programs

2007-12-23T21:52:00.001+08:00

11 Tips for Joining Affiliate Programs
by: David McKenzie

Here are some things that I look for before joining an affiliate
program. They are items I feel are imperative to being in a
successful affiliate program.

1. The affiliate program has a great payment structure. For me, a
high commission that is also a high percentage of the purchase price
is essential. Nothing under 25% commission.

2. Make sure the affiliate program you are joining has a good looking
site. You do not want to be sending visitors to a site that you do
not like yourself.

3. Make sure they offer a comprehensive affiliate statistics page
that lists the number of click throughs, number of sales and amount
earned. This should be broken down per month.

4. Also make sure that the affiliate statistics are updated
automatically and immediately. You do not want to find out today
about a sale you made a week ago.

5. Ensure they give a wide variety of text links, banners and
graphics to put on your web page. Although I prefer text links,
certain types of banners and graphics still work well.

6. Know how often you are going to be paid. If you are tossing up
between 2 programs and one pays monthly and the other pays quarterly,
the one that pays monthly is better. You do not want to wait months
before getting paid for your hard work!

7. See if the affiliate program gives examples of how the top
affiliates are doing. This can be a great pointer to whether it is
good or not. If some affiliates are earning many thousands per month,
it is a good affiliate program.

8. Along these lines, also see if they give examples of what
marketing methods these successful affiliates are using to get the
best results.

9. An affiliate program that offers a special monthly newsletter just
for the affiliates is great. Here you can get extra tips and
techniques that are working well.

10. See if they offer email notification when you make a sale or get
an affiliate signed up under you (if it is a 2-tier program). It is
good to see `You have made another sale' in your inbox.

11. Ensure top level support is given. If they cannot answer your
query straight away make sure they can respond within 48 hours.

There is tremendous demand for affiliate programs and choosing the
right one is no easy task. Make sure you do plenty of research before
joining one.

About the Author

David McKenzie of
http://www.brisney.com For great ideas on promoting your web site or
marketing your affiliate programs subscribe to our Free twice monthly
newsletter by sending a blank email to mailto:brisney@brisney.com

A Unique profitable Affiliate Program

2007-12-11T18:25:00.000+08:00

A Unique profitable Affiliate Program
by: Lakshmi

[Cashing in thru Recurring revenues Affiliate Programs
Participating in Affiliate programs where one can get Life-time Commissions]

We at Nimbustel have launched a unique Affiliate Program for webmasters FREE OF COST. It will provide an opportunity for webmasters to generate revenue through the sale of our online prepaid calling cards.

At Makemycall.com, we have a Premier online store for all prepaid calling card needs where we provide customers with virtual calling cards delivered instantly via email within minutes of placing an order.
Over 400 Global destinations to choose from, and big savings up to 50%, it is the ultimate ease of shopping for International calling cards to call from USA to around 400 International destinations.

Joining our Affiliate program, you get:
- 10% Commissions on ALL successful Sales for LIFE
- Get 2% commission on 2-tiered sales
As online prepaid calling cards are regularly being used by customers, hence you will be automatically entitled to get Recurring Revenues for the customers forwarded from your website via our Affiliate program!

With our Affiliate program we will provide you with a wide array of marketing tools like Search boxes, Banners and Text links to display in your website that will sell products for you and augment your sales.

Further you will have access to our user-friendly online reporting tool where you can check your online sales generated through your website and commission accrued to you.

For further information on our Affiliate program visit:
http://affiliate.nimbustel.com

Thanks & Regards,
Lakshmi

About the Author

Developed a Unique profitable Affiliate Program!
Cash in thru Recurring revenues Affiliate Programs by Participating in
Affiliate programs where one can get Life-time Commissions.

Joining our Affiliate program, you get:
- 10% Commissions on ALL successful Sales for LIFE
- Get 2% commission on 2-tiered sales

For further information on our Affiliate program visit:

http://affiliate.nimbustel.com

101 Affiliate Research Results: Affiliate Program that pays!

2007-11-19T08:20:00.000+08:00

101 Affiliate Research Results: Affiliate Program that pays!
by: Emmanuel.N. Uduezue.

Are you an online marketer or an ezine publisher and you interested in Affiliate program? Let's start from basics.
What is Affiliate Program?
Affiliate program is a program introduced by web business owners where opportunity is been created for other people to participate in selling their products and service on the internet without

necessarily buying the products or services and they are paid a percentage of the amount, paid for the products or service or a particular amount as comission made from sales of those products or service.

If you are a web business owner, my advice to you as an online marketing strategist is you invest having an affiliate progam in your website, because it helps you create markerters for product or services free, there by boosting sales for your products and services real fast. For more information, visit www.clickbank.com, www.assoctrace.com

Who is an Affiliate
An Affiliate is somebody who advertise the products and service of a web business owner for a comission of the product made from sales, all he does is register with the web master's Affiliate program and he is given an affiliate link which he will use to refer people to the website, write a good advertisement and advertise his link to draw customers to the website and when it results to a sale he is paid a part of the profit made from sales as comission.

What Makes a Good Affiliate Program
As i browsed through the internet and visit search engines to search for a good affiliate program to join, though I get to join, some affiliate programs but i found out something that i should let you, do you know some affiliate progams are not worth joining despite the fact, they promise to pay you a "fat" sum as comission. So carefully read the next few listed points and I suggest you stick by it and always read these points before you join any affiliate program because i have learn't my lessons so i dont want to hide it and allow you make the same mistakes because it could be a very ugly situation you might not forgive me for not telling you because this article was written to empower you on what makes a good affiliate program and how to make good use of your time advertising good programs you 've joined.

My Research Result
Althrough my research on how to make money on the internet, the concept of Affiliate program has proved to be the easiest way on how to make money on the internet because, you
(i) Don't need to have your products before you join an affiliate program, though some web marketers insist you buy their products and services before you can market them but it is very rare to find such programs online but they exist.
(ii) You don't need a website, but in most cases, when you want to really earn a living onlne through affiliate program, i suggest you need a website to advertise as many programs as possible, all you need to do if you want to go into this kind of affiliate advertising, just place the programs in categories, i tell you this is the secret of making $10,000 a month without owing a product, but if you just want to go into part time Affiliate advertising, you don't need a website, effective affiliate advertising will be discussed in my next article coming up soon.
(iii) You don't need to wait for long before you earn commissions except if you have not advertised your affiliate link or you did not write a good and catchy advert or promotion, there is every possibility you can earn a commission in the next six hours with a good advert.

BELOW ARE THE POINTS YOU SHOULD CONSIDER BEFORE JOINING ANY AFFILIATE PROGRAM.
(i) Products and Services of the Web marketer, whether it is a one-product or multiple products web business, they must be market moving products (i.e fast selling) information or "how to" products.
(ii) Is the website an interesting site that customers can really get in and dont want to go anymore they just keep reading the sales letter and eventually buy to know if the owner has put up a cachy salesletter, read it for your self does it entice you to buy or make you feel bored reading such letter tip. If it is a good and catchy salesletter, you can even catch some points in the letter and form a good advert for the program.
(iii) Did the site owner create a way of following up visitors by inviting visitors to signup for his ezine or newsletter on his site, because that is an excellent way to ensure your visitors buy from you and that's commission for you as his affiliate. for referring customers to his website.
(iv) Does (web marketer) after a two-tier affiliate program where people can sign with their affiliate program under you, thereby building a down line for your self and it is another way you can earn commission when members of your down line makes sales, you are paid a percentage commission (eg 6%)
(v) How is the sign up process, do you spend up one hour signing up or a few minutes people tend to ignore joining his (webmarketer) affiliate program if the sign up process is difficult to complete, you should be able to tell this fact since you signed up with his affiliate program.
You can get more of these facts on what makes a good affiliate program, if you sign up for newsletter. I advice you signup for my newsletter because there are still more to know on what makes a good Affiliate program if you know these things you still enjoy be earning fat residual income on monthly basis. So be empowered.
Learn the basics and stick to it.
It's worth knowing. To your success

About the Author

Emmanuel .N. Uduezue teaches what make good affiliate program and marketing offers free resources on starting and succeeding in an online business in his articles and newsletters, to subscribe to his article publication(E-BIZ INFORMANT),send an email to:emmanuel_nnamdiuduezue@yahoo.com

Top 5 Tips for Frustrated Affiliate Program Marketers

2007-10-31T17:48:00.000+08:00

Top 5 Tips for Frustrated Affiliate Program Marketers by: Isaiah Hull

Do you go through affiliate programs like most people go through pairs of socks? Many Internet marketers do. In fact, 97% of all Internet marketers never make a single cent advertising opportunities on the Internet. They jump from one opportunity to the next and never see results. If you want to break free from this cycle of failure-- if you want to earn a living off of your Internet ventures--continue reading. I will tell you exactly how you can earn money from any legitimate affiliate program.

In order to get the most information from what I am about to explain to you, you must accept that these methods are not intended to be "secrets." These are scientifically-proven, best-practice methods that all top marketers use. If you want results, you will have to do and continue to do the following five things:

1. Know your product. Do not advertise for a product or affiliate program that you are not currently using. I cannot even count the amount of affiliate programs and product offers I have rejected immediately from people who know very little about what they are actually promoting. If you want to make money selling a product or service, you have to use it, understand it, and be able to convince your prospects that they should own it. If you yourself do not believe in it-- because you have not even tried it--then you will have a hard time convincing anyone else it is worthwhile.

2. Know your field. You must continually become more knowledgeable about the market in which you are selling your product or service. For instance, I try to read at least 50 pages on Internet marketing each day to complement the marketing I do. This keeps me learning about my field. The best part about this is that you can do it without spending any money at all. The Internet is loaded with free content sites where you can find free ebooks and special reports on any subject. The Internet is also loaded with affiliate program promoters who are out-selling you. Use google to find these sites and then reverse engineer them--pick apart the source code, page setup, and content layout to find out how you can become more like your competition who is outselling you.

3. Focus your efforts and limit your innovation. As much as "limiting your innovation" may go against your business instincts, it is an absolute must with a limited marketing budget. Figure out what works for you scientifically by measuring your advertising results. When you find something that works, stick with it. If you are getting traffic from reciprocal links, continue to build them. If you are getting constant sign-ups from your newsletter, improve your newsletter and order more leads. Do not stray far from your original plan. Preset the amount of innovative ideas you want to try out each night, but center your marketing efforts around getting better results from methods that have already worked for you.

4. Spend money wisely. The Internet is loaded with scams and bad information. It is really easy to be tricked into blowing money on "get rich quick" schemes and information that you can find in free resources. I personally have spent thousands of dollars needlessly. But do not get me wrong; I am not saying there are no legitimate affiliate promotion services or information products out there: I am saying that the vast majority of them do not work as well as they say they do. So hold onto your cash. When you find a product that multiple people have personally recommended to you, then consider buying it. Otherwise, conserve your cash for purchasing services or products that will produce hard, definite results, such as email leads for your newsletter or phone leads you can contact personally to promote your program.

5. Remember that your success is dependent on your choices and your work alone. If you get upset about not becoming successful with a specific affiliate program, do not blame the program--blame yourself. Do a thorough analysis of what you could be doing better and how you could be making quantitative progress every single day. There are people who do not pay any money at all for promotional services and yet are still able to make a living just from using free tools on the Internet. If they can do it, there is no reason at all why you cannot. Joining a marketing group or forum in your field will help you realize this reality. Seeing and talking to people who are succeeding in your field will remind you that it is entirely possible to make money online without having a million dollars to begin with.

While there are some "secrets" to getting more sign-ups and site visitors, the bigger part of affiliate program marketing is following a sound business plan. If you keep the five concepts I have listed above central to your marketing campaign, you will not fail. But, if you continue to market sporadically--switching from product to product and method to method--you will never break out of that 97% who never make money.

About the author:
Isaiah Hull publishes Home Business Tips, a fresh and informative newsletter that focuses on building successful internet businesses and promoting affiliate programs. Stop by http://www.workathomerightnow.net or send a blank email to mailto:workathomerightnow.com to receive a year's subscription for free.

Opportunity Home Based Business

2007-09-02T15:19:00.000+08:00

Very Easy To Understand!

We have a program for you! We will pay you a 20%
commission for every sale you generate by sending
people to our Healthy Gano Coffee Website. Plus, if
you introduce others to this program we will pay you
a 10% commission on the sales they make!
(1) You: 20% of retail sale paid to you!
(2) People who join under you: 10% of sale paid to you!

Summary:
If you are currently involved in another marketing program
offering Gano Based Coffee Products, take the time to sit
down and add up what you have really made. Compare it
to what you have spent on shipping, advertising, web
hosting, etc. You may be shocked!

We believe you will see with our Unlimited Second Level
10% commission, and the 20% Retail Sale Commission
we pay, the potential for profit here is much greater! We
won't be placing any fancy pie carts or ridiculous stair-
step charts online here. You can plainly see the plan...
Build out your second level as large as you like. Quit
loosing money on having product shipped to you, just so
you can turn around and ship them to your customers.
Stop worrying about making it to the next level. Quit
wasting time on a downline that never produces. When
the program is free, it's a much softer sell to get other
people to join. Stop buying into a pipe dream that will
never happen.

Start being paid what you are worth! Take time out! We
will handle the shipping and customer service for you...
that's what we have done for the over 25 years! Now it's
your turn to relax. Build your customer base and go
take a vacation! You have absolutely nothing to lose!

Opportunity Home Based Business

$27,817 Monthly With Affiliate Programs

2007-08-18T16:12:00.000+08:00

$27,817 Monthly With Affiliate Programs
by: John McLaren

I still remember thinking that promoting Affiliate Programs was a waste of time. Until I started making a small fortune.

At the end of 2004, I started some time exploring the concept of promoting affiliate programs through pay-per-click search engines. I knew of some Internet Marketing gurus who were claiming you could make thousands of dollars every month. But I was skeptical. I remember thinking, “I know what these guys are about. They just want to sell more books.”

But I decided that at least it was worth a look. The concept is quite simple. Choose a product – and one that has an affiliate program, of course. Set up an advertising campaign at a PPC search engine like Google and choose how much you want to pay per click. Write a three line advertisement and add your affiliate link. Whenever anyone clicks through your ad and buys the product, you earn a commission.

So I looked. And thought about it. And looked some more. I was still very uncertain about the whole concept, but I finally decided to test for myself whether it could really work. And since I knew I’d be spending quite a bit of money on advertising clicks, I felt it was well worth investing in a book so I could learn from more experienced marketers how to maximize the profitability of my campaigns.

As my business grew over several weeks I purchased and read several ebooks. By far the best I read was Chris Carpenter’s Google Cash ( http://tinyurl.com/6gdaq ). His approach is genuine, down-to-earth, and he explains very clearly how to build your own affiliate marketing business. And importantly, he makes a fortune doing what he explains in the book.

I started by testing 20-30 campaigns on various products. Most of them were unsuccessful, but I expected that from what I had been reading. I would test a product, and if it didn’t work, I would drop it quickly. The key with this business is identifying the affiliate products and campaigns that are successful. Once you find one that works, the money starts rolling in.

By February of 2005 I had identified several campaigns that were turning a profit. With one of these I was spending $0.08 per click to promote an affiliate product that pays me $18 commission on each sale. Approximately 1 visitor in 100 buys the product, so I make around $10 profit for every 100 visitors that I send.

What a formula! For every 1,000 visitors, that’s $180 in commissions. That might not seem like all that much, but remember once you have a successful campaign it keeps going all day, every day. If you send just 1,000 visitors to a program like this every day, then by the end of the month you will have earned $5,400 in commissions, of which $3,000 is profit.

Does it seem too simple? Well, if it was so easy everyone from your Aunt Mabel to the mailman would be doing it. In fact, while the concept is simple, getting your campaigns to run profitably does take some work. Since I can't possibly teach you all you need to know in one article, I'll give you a few tips here and recommend Google Cash for a detailed explanation:

Choose Your Product Wisely. The program should pay a commission of $15 or more, otherwise it won’t be worth paying for your clicks. And if the commission is very high, be careful. Some products like web hosting and satellite dish installations may pay commissions of $100, but you face intense competition from other affiliates, so the price you need to pay to get ad exposure and clicks will probably also be very high. Sometimes it is better to identify a niche product with less competition from other affiliates.

Track Your Campaigns Carefully. If you’re paying around 7 or 8 cents per click for a program that pays close to $20 commission, you need to make at least one sale for every 250 visitors. If you send 300 to 400 visitors with no sale, consider dropping it.

Days Of The Week Do Matter. When testing campaigns keep in mind the day of the week and even the time of day. Some products sell better on Mondays through Fridays, during business hours. Others, like entertainment products, sell better in the evenings and on weekends.
Getting back to my own experience, after identifying several campaigns that ‘worked’, I spent some time fine-tuning them using techniques I read about in Google Cash. By the end of February I had earned $27,817 in commissions for the month, all on products I had never even heard of at the end of 2004. My profit was a neat $10,795.

It’s incredible really. I made this money without a web site. From home. Working an average of just an hour or two a day.

I’m finally making the amount of money online that I dreamed about.

How about you? Would you also like to build an affiliate marketing business? Could you use some additional income? I encourage you to proceed, but be smart about it. There are risks involved and you should be aware of them. You should read Chris Carpenter’s book. That way you’ll be on a fast track to more profitable campaigns. And his book will save you hundreds of dollars, easily, as you avoid some common mistakes and pitfalls.

Good Marketing!

About The Author

John McLaren has worked for many years selling IT consulting services. Now he works from home, just a few hours each day, building his highly successful affiliate marketing business. For more professional advice, he recommends the book, Google Cash, available at: http://tinyurl.com/6qdaq

Product Recommendations

2007-03-26T22:20:00.000+08:00

Using Product Recommendations To Increase Your Bottom Line

In affiliate marketing, there are many ways in which you can increase your earnings and maintain the account that you have worked so hard for already. Most of the techniques and tactics can be learned easily. No need to go anywhere and any further. They are available online, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

One of the more important ways of increasing affiliate marketing bottom line and sale is through the use of product recommendations. Many marketers know that this is one of the most effective ways in promoting a certain product.

If the customers or visitors trust you enough, then they will definitely trust your recommendations. Be very careful in using this approach, though. If you start promoting everything by recommendation, your credibility will actually wear thin. This is seen especially when recommendations are seemingly exaggerated and without much merit.

Do not be afraid to mention things that you do not like about a given product or service. Rather than lose any points for you, this will make your recommendation more realistic and will tend to increase your credibility.

Furthermore, if your visitors are really interested in what you are offering, they will be more than delighted to learn what is good about the product, what is not so good, and how the product will benefit them.

When you are recommending a certain product, there are some things to remember on how to make it work effectively and for your advantage.

Sound like the true and leading expert in your field.

Remember this simple equation: Price resistance diminishes in direct proportion to trust. If your visitors feel and believe that you are an expert in your niche, they are more inclined to making that purchase. On the other hand, if you are not exuding any confidence and self-assurance in endorsing your products, they will probably feel that same way and will go in search of another product or service which is more believable.

How do you establish this aura of expertise? By offering unique and new solutions they would not get anywhere else. Show proof that what you are promoting works as promised. Display prominent testimonials and endorsements from respected and known personalities, in related fields of course.

Avoid hype at all costs. It is better to sound low key and confident, than to scream and seek attention. Besides, you would not want to sound unprofessional and have that thinking stick to your potential customers and clients, now would you? Best to appear cool and self-assured at the same time.

And remember; prospects are not stupid. They are actually turning to experts and may already know the things that you know. If you back up your claims with hard facts and data, they would gladly put down hundreds, or even thousands worth of money to your promotions. But if you don’t, they are smart enough to try and look at your competitors and what they are offering.

While recommending a product, it is also important that you give out promotional freebies. People are already familiar with the concept of offering freebies to promoting your won products. But very few people do this to promote affiliate products. Try to offer freebies that can promote or even have some information about your products or services.

Before you add recommendations to you product, it is given that you should try and test the product and support. Do not run the risk of promoting junk products and services. Just think how long it took you to build credibility and trust among your visitors. All that will take to destroy it is one big mistake on your part.

If possible, have recommendations of products that you have 100% confidence in. Test the product support before you begin to ensure that the people you are referring it to would not be left high and dry when a problem suddenly arouse.

Have a look at your affiliate market and look at the strategies you are using. You may not be focusing on the recommendations that your products need to have. You plan of action is sometimes not the only thing that is making your program works.

Try product recommendation and be among those few who have proven its worth.

Go to Affiliate

Commissions

2007-03-26T22:14:00.000+08:00

Top 3 Ways To Boost Your Affiliate Commissions Overnight

The ideal world of affiliate marketing does not require having your won website, dealing with customers, refunds, product development and maintenance. This is one of the easiest ways of launching into an online business and earning more profits.

Assuming you are already into an affiliate program, what would be the next thing you would want to do? Double, or even triple, your commissions, right? How do you do that?

Here are some powerful tips on how to boost your affiliate program commissions overnight.

1. Know the best program and products to promote. Obviously, you would want to promote a program that will enable you to achieve the greatest profits in the shortest possible time.

There are several factors to consider in selecting such a program. Choose the ones that have a generous commission structure. Have products that fit in with your target audience. And that has a solid track record of paying their affiliate easily and on time. If you cannot seem to increase your investments, dump that program and keep looking for better ones.

There are thousands of affiliate programs online which gives you the reason to be picky. You may want to select the best to avoid losing your advertising dollars.

Write free reports or short ebooks to distribute from your site. There is a great possibility that you are competing with other affiliates that are promoting the same program. If you start writing short report related to the product you are promoting, you will be able to distinguish yourself from the other affiliates.

In the reports, provide some valuable information for free. If possible, add some recommendations about the products. With ebooks, you get credibility. Customers will see that in you and they will be enticed to try out what you are offering.

2. Collect and save the email addresses of those who download your free ebooks. It is a known fact that people do not make a purchase on the first solicitation. You may want to send out your message more than six times to make a sale.

This is the simple reason why you should collect the contact information of those who downloaded your reports and ebooks. You can make follow-ups on these contacts to remind them to make a purchase from you.

Get the contact information of a prospect before sending them to the vendor’s website. Keep in mind that you are providing free advertisement for the product owners. You get paid only when you make a sale. If you send prospects directly to the vendors, chances are they would be lost to you forever.

But when you get their names, you can always send other marketing messages to them to be able to earn an ongoing commission instead of a one-time sale only.

Publish an online newsletter or Ezine. It is always best to recommend a product to someone you know than to sell to a stranger. This is the purpose behind publishing your own newsletter. This also allows you to develop a relationship based on trust with your subscribers.

This strategy is a delicate balance between providing useful information with a sales pitch. If you continue to write informative editorials you will be able to build a sense of reciprocity in your readers that may lead them to support you by buying your products.

3. Ask for higher than normal commission from merchants. If you are already successful with a particular promotion, you should try and approach the merchant and negotiate a percentage commission for your sales.

If the merchant is smart, he or she will likely grant your request rather than lose a valuable asset in you. Keep in mind that you are a zero-risk investment to your merchant; so do not be shy about requesting for addition in your commissions. Just try to be reasonable about it.

Write strong pay Per Click ads. PPC search engine is the most effective means of advertising online. As an affiliate, you can make a small income just by managing PPC campaigns such as Google AdWords and Overture. Then you should try and monitor them to see which ads are more effective and which ones to dispose of.

Try out these strategies and see the difference it can make to your commission checks in the shortest of time.

Go to Affiliate

Survive Online:Online Marketing Opportunity

2007-03-26T21:43:00.000+08:00

3 Things All Affiliate Marketers Need To Survive Online

Every affiliate marketer is always looking for the successful market that gives the biggest paycheck. Sometimes they think it is a magic formula that is readily available for them. Actually, it is more complicated than that. It is just good marketing practices that have been proven over years of hard work and dedication.There are tactics that have worked before with online marketing and is continuing to work in the online affiliate marketing world of today. With these top three marketing tips, you will be able to able to increase your sales and survive in the affiliate marketing online.

What are these three tactics?

1. Using unique web pages to promote each separate product you are marketing. Do not lump all of it together just to save some money on web hosting. It is best to have a site focusing on each and every product and nothing more.

Always include product reviews on the website so visitors will have an initial understanding on what the product can do to those who buys them. Also include testimonials from users who have already tried the product. Be sure that these customers are more than willing to allow you to use their names and photos on the site of the specific product you are marketing.

You can also write articles highlighting the uses of the product and include them on the website as an additional page. Make the pages attractive compelling and include calls to act on the information. Each headline should attract the readers to try and read more, even contact you. Highlight your special points. This will help your readers to learn what the page is about and will want to find out more.

2. Offer free reports to your readers. If possible position them at the very top side of your page so it they simply cannot be missed. Try to create autoresponder messages that will be mailed to those who input their personal information into your sign up box. According to research, a sale is closed usually on the seventh contact with a prospect.

Only two things can possibly happen with the web page alone: closed sale or the prospect leaving the page and never return again. By placing useful information into their inboxes at certain specified period, you will remind them of the product they thought they want later and will find out that the sale is closed. Be sure that the content is directed toward specific reasons to buy the product. Do not make it sound like a sales pitch.

Focus on important points like how your product can make life and things easier and more enjoyable. Include compelling subject lines in the email. As much as possible, avoid using the word “free” because there are still older spam filters that dumps those kind of contents into the junk before even anyone reading them first. Convince those who signed up for your free reports that they will be missing something big if they do not avail of your products and services.

3. Get the kind of traffic that is targeted to your product. Just think, if the person who visited your website has no interest whatsoever in what you are offering, they will be among those who move on and never come back. Write articles for publication in e-zines and e-reports. This way you can locate publications that is focusing on your target customers and what you have put up might just grab their interest.

Try to write a minimum of 2 articles per week, with at least 300-600 words in length. By continuously writing and maintaining these articles you can generate as many as 100 targeted readers to your site in a day. Always remember that only 1 out of 100 people are likely to buy your product or get your services. If you can generate as much as 1,000 targeted hits for your website in a day, that means you can made 10 sales based on the average statistic.

The tactics given above does not really sound very difficult to do, if you think about it. It just requires a little time and an action plan on your part.
Try to use these tips for several affiliate marketing programs. You can end maintaining a good source of income and surviving in this business that not all marketers can do. Besides, think of the huge paychecks you will be receiving…

Go to Affiliate

Get to know what is affiliate program

2007-02-22T22:12:00.000+08:00

Affiliate Programs - What Are They
by Lois R. Thompson

In recent years Affiliate Program marketing has taken the Internet by storm. Many surveys have demonstrated that Affiliate Marketing can be the most cost effective method to promote your website and quickly generate additional streams of income. For example, Forrester Research has rated Affiliate Marketing as the most effective of all online marketing methods.

Jupiter Communications claims that, "By 2002, 25 percent of the expected $37.5 billion in Internet retail sales, not including autos, will have originated on Affiliate sites."

Some of the giants offering affiliate programs are: Amazon, Barnes and Nobles, Microsoft, The Mail.com, and many smaller but well-managed companies.

Affiliate Programs offer a wide range of products and services, many of which are needed by All Internet marketers. The wide range of products and services offered by Affiliate programs are software, web hosting, auto-responders, marketing, art, books, e-books, music, movies, etc... Almost any type of product or service can be packaged and sold using an affiliate program. You'll find that many of the products and/or services needed to support your MLM are Affiliate Programs.

What Is An Affiliate Program?

Affiliate programs are also known as associate, reseller, or referral programs. They are revenue sharing programs between companies (the merchant) and individuals (the affiliate). An Affiliate can be likened to an independent contractor. Affiliates are basically self-employed people who are marketing the products and or services of another company. They are then paid by the company they represent for referring customers to the company's website.

This strikes a wonderful partnership between the company and the affiliate, offering a Win-Win situation for both parties. The benefit to the company in soliciting an affiliate to promote their product or service is, that they save in the cost of advertising. The benefit to the affiliate is that they do not have to develop their own product, stock inventory or worry about e-commerce, the order processing or payroll for that matter. It allows them to take an already developed product or service directly to market and focus on marketing.

Affiliate programs are fairly simple to work and will allow you to operate your on-line business much more efficiently while increasing your income drastically.

The Best Affiliate programs, offer a Two-tier pay plan. First, you earn commissions for signing up associates on your first level, as well as earning additional commissions on their sales. However, if you find an Affiliate program which pays only on one level but allows you to earn residual income this is an excellent opportunity.

Developing Affiliate income is beneficial to you in that it builds a stable secondary income stream. For many people this could be the difference in income they need to maintain building their MLM into a profitable venture.

About 90% of people who try to make money from two-tier affiliate programs are missing it by simply signing up free, in hopes they will make money through others, who most likely also signed up free. This just does not work.

Why doesn't that work? Well, if everyone signs up to an Affiliate program free, no one is Actively Promoting it consequently no one makes any money. This is also true of MLM programs. If everyone has the option of a free sign-up, most will take it. If most people are signed up free and in turn promote that offer to others who also sign-up free, there is no revenue generated. Without revenue there are not profits. Remember, it's all Your business, You have to work it. You cannot depend upon the next person.

In Affiliate Marketing as well as any other type of business, You Must do the work yourself. Build your first level and invest a little time and training to teach them, so they can then build their first level, which then becomes your second level. In Affiliate Marketing, your second level commission should be considered a Bonus.

There are many supporting products and/or services needed to build any MLM, which offer an Affiliate program. For example, the use of an Auto-responder is a must in any online promotional effort. Since the use of an Auto-responder is necessary in building your MLM, becoming an Affiliate of a good Auto-responder program would be a wise choice.

As you focus on building your MLM begin to look closely at the products and services you are using and determine if they offer an Affiliate program or not. I believe you'll be much surprised.

If you don't have an existing business, that's not a problem. A combination of a solid group of Affiliate programs working in synergy offers a great income producing potential, when effectively promoted. This could actually help you to begin earning income as you research and seek out the MLM opportunity that's best for you.

To re-cap, we have learnt that Affiliate Programs are offered in a variety of products and services. By choosing the right group of Affiliat programs in support of your MLM, you can quickly begin earning additional income.

Affiliate Program-What are they

Introduction to Affiliate Marketing

2007-02-19T20:10:00.000+08:00

Introduction to Affiliate Marketing

by Maurice Bandcroft

What is Affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is also synonymous with the following terms: associate marketing, associate programs, bounty programs, revenue-sharing, referral and partnership programs.

Originating in the USA several years ago with Amazon.com, affiliate marketing has quickly gained acceptance in North America as a viable and effective method of obtaining online screened and targeted site traffic, ongoing revenue generation and building consumer credibility.

This explosive growth and acceptance of affiliate marketing is also rapidly expanding into the European and Asian business community, including being translated into numerous languages.

Associate marketing or associate programs are simply revenue sharing arrangements established by sponsor companies selling a variety of online products and services. Web site owners are financially rewarded for sending referrals or customers to the business in numerous ways.

Financial compensation results to the website owner when a referral goes directly to the sponsors site and completes the sponsors terms of acceptance.

Terms of acceptance could include that the referral do any of the following: visiting a site, completing an application or obtaining a quote, registering for a free newsletter, downloading and installing software or making a consumer purchase.

The subsequent payment for the lead or referral are defined by the sponsor, and can range from a simple one time click through payment or a fixed commission rate, to a multi-tiered payment scheme resembling a MLM matrix that includes potential revenue from future lifetime purchases made by referrals of referrals.

Regardless of the payment method chosen, an equitable affiliate program results is a Win Win Win financial situation for all parties involved. The Sponsor receives additional site traffic and potential revenue from a new member; the Webmaster(s) receives revenue for providing a qualified lead; and the site visitor finds what they were looking for, at an acceptable price.

There are currently hundreds of thousands of Affiliate programs available, ranging from corporate sites such as Wal-mart to individual entrepreneurs promoting a single publication, and new competition is arriving daily. To help find complimentary Affiliate programs for your website or general information purposes, several free directories such as Associate Programs at http://www.associateprograms.com/ and Refer-it at http://www.refer-it.com/ maintain ongoing catalogues of new, existing and deleted affiliate programs.

These directory sites also contain a wealth of affiliate information, proven marketing tips and techniques, consumer ratings of programs and links to supportive software. The Associate Programs directory has links to thousands of archived and informative articles and includes a popular bi-monthly newsletter that includes the latest affiliate news and global success stories.

The Refer-it site ranks thousands of listed affiliate programs with a four star rating, that is extremely accurate concerning the reliability and integrity of each affiliate program offered.

RECOMMENDED Reading: If you are serious about pursuing the power of affiliate programs, Register for a free 5 day email course by Ken Evoy on becoming an internet superstar.

His Affiliate Masters course shows you how to dramatically boost your income from affiliate programs by following simple, easy to follow instructions.

All the information is free, and the expert advice can be applied to any affiliate program.

To take the course, send a blank e-mail to tams@sitesell.net.

Maurice Bandcroft is a small business marketing and promotion specialist. Subscribe to his 123 Site Promotion Newsletter at http://123sitepromotion.com/newsletter.html and discover how to increase your monthly site traffic and revenue utilizing free resources, reciprocal linking, barter and other financial leverage alternatives. Discover thinking out of the box revenue generating methods that any webmaster can use.

Introduction to Affiliate Marketing

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

2007-02-19T10:05:00.000+08:00

Affiliate marketing has many descriptions, yet all have the same meaning. Affiliate marketing is a huge business piece on the Internet. It is a cooperative effort between merchants and an affiliate’s website. For many years now, affiliate marketing has proved to be a cost-efficient, measurable method of delivering long-tern results. It has become famous for Internet sites who are trying to make some extra or additional income for their site. Every day, people get interested to affiliate marketing and want to make money out of it. But in many cases, these new affiliates do not fully understand the affiliate world and make costly mistakes. In other words, affiliate marketing has often been misunderstood.

One of the common misconceptions that are being associated about affiliate marketing is “selling”, though selling is an important activity of affiliate marketing and the central function of a business operation. Another is that affiliate marketing is commonly linked with “advertising”. While the importance of advertising in marketing a certain product is not to be underestimated, the fact of the matter is, advertising like selling, is merely a part of the many functions of marketing.

In affiliate marketing, an affiliate is compensated for every visitor, subscriber and/or customer provided through his efforts. The said compensation may be made based on a certain value for each visit. The most attractive aspect of affiliate marketing from the merchant’s viewpoint is that no payment is due to an affiliate until results are appreciated.

Affiliate marketing is typically being run by affiliate networks and this affiliate networks are composed of two functional bodies, the group affiliates and the group merchants. Each has their special function and role when it comes to affiliate marketing. The affiliate network acts as a third party between the merchant and the associated affiliates. The network provides the technology to deliver the merchant’s campaigns and offers. The affiliate network also collects commission fees from the merchant and then pays the affiliates which are part of the program.

The merchant is any web site owner that wants or desires to take advantage of performance based marketing. The benefits to the merchant are many. First, the merchant maintains and operates the affiliate program. If it would be extracted, the merchant needs to do their part by researching interested affiliate websites to ensure that they are a good fit for that particular website. Finding a fit for their merchandise would be the key to more generated income. The merchant has access to markets and customers without him spending valuable time searching out. Banner ads on affiliate sites are not distracting to the site user. It might produce interest for that product and drive the consumer to the merchants’ website. It is also the merchant who decides how much he is willing to pay for each sale that results from a visitor sent from an affiliate.

The affiliate or the affiliate marketer also sees a lot of benefits. The affiliate is a web site owner that promotes one or more merchants and their affiliate programs. Affiliate marketing can generate a full-time income for the affiliate. But this is not an easy task to accomplish. The affiliate needs to have a better understanding with the merchant what the commission will be, expected payment method and time involved in the contract. The affiliate has also the responsibility to stand for the merchandise their user based would be most interested in. For example, if the site has a user base of mainly stay-at-home mothers, then on-line job openings such as surveys would be a good match for them. This group would also appreciate direct links to children’s products and informational sites. Merchandisers often provide targeted, best-seller items and personal support to their affiliate. They often offer sales promotions that will benefit the merchandiser as well as the affiliate.

Affiliate marketing is a great situation for both the marketer and the affiliate. If they would work together, they can be an advantage to both. Plus the fact that it seems to make sense, it is easy and inexpensive way to start, and you can be up and running within a few days. But there is one thing to consider, it is how to get traffic and make your offer different than all others.

Z.H. Dine

Go To Affiliate

2007-02-18T16:44:00.000+08:00

Go To Affiliate is your affiliate information and resources.

This is a very informative blog regarding affiliate marketing. The reason of this website is to educate and guide anyone that want to participate or venture into affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is one of the easiest way to earn money online. The market is still HUGE and ERNOMOUS. Anyone who is equipped with enough knowledge of affiliate marketing can EARN money easily online almost instantly.

Affiliate marketing programs are a great way to get income for your website, and a great introduction to e-commerce. The more people that drop by your website, the great your chance will be at creating an excellent income.

Affiliate marketing programs are where a company offers to pay you a set amount for either a click through from your website, or a set amount for visitors signing up, or even a percentage of a purchase made by visitors as a result of being referred from your website.

Affiliate marketing also gives you the chance to stand behind products you know and love, be offering links and banners to them on your personal website. You'll receive money for each product purchased that you represent, which is reason enough to participate.

If you've been looking for extra money, affiliate marketing is the way to go. You can stick with one merchant or go with as many as you need for your business. Affilate marketing on the internet is truly becoming more and more popular - making now the time for you to get your foot in the door...

Go To Affiliate