What is Affiliate Marketing?
Simply put, Affiliate Marketing is a method of promoting
products or services through an independent agent (affiliate or associate).
As an affiliate, you are rewarded for every view, sale and/or registration
produced on behalf of another company or indivdual through your own advertising
efforts.
It's similar to collecting a finder's-fee or the commissions typical of
retail store clerks - the more you sell, the more you get paid.
Compensation calculations vary and could be based on any of the following:
- PPC (pay-per-click) a specific amount is paid for each click on your
ad;
- PPL (pay-per-lead) where registration or sign-up counts;
- PPS (pay-per-sale) a specific commission per sale is paid.
If your goal is to generate your total income online, you can drive traffic
from your subscriber lists to affiliate links just as easily as to your
own product links.
What About Product Sales and Marketing?
You'll want to watch for great products and services with the potential
to benefit your niche and your mailing lists. To build trust and, consequently,
income, it's best to recommend only those products that will be of specific
interest to your audience. It's a win-win situation for everyone that
way.
When an affiliate markets a product, the cost of advertising that product
is absorbed totally by the affiliate. It's important to keep this cost
in mind when promoting products - the higher the percentage of affiliate
income possible from any quality product, the more that product is worth
promoting.
When a product is sold through the affiliate's link, depending on the
service used, the total sale is divided up among the vendor or service,
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, if you have questions, you needn't
be afraid to contact the vendor to clarify their affiliate program. Often
you can telephone or email for a fast response.
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Is a Digital Lifestyle for Me?
Many standard retailers offer very small rewards for affiliate sales whilst
Internet marketers can offer up to 50%. This is why being an affiliate
of digital products can be very lucrative and can create a lief-changing
income 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 (eg, ebooks).
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 very much the same as a digital product.
Two of the best places to find digital products to become affiliated with
is ClickBank.com
and dgmPro.com.
Other good affiliate programs to check into are:
Amazon.com
LinkShare.com
CommissionJunction.com
Tradedoubler.co.uk
How Do I Get Started?
There are many ways to approach affiliate marketing, but a basic starting
point is to create 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.
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 adviseable as it gives you an opportunity
to find the products with the most potential benefit for a group of like-minded
individuals.
When many products are promoted to several targeted niche markets, it's
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 a niche. See Affiliate
marketing for newbies
In summary...
Affiliate marketing is a great way to start build an online 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 put a lot of money into your pocket.
