WHAT
IS AFFILIATE MARKETING?
WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING?
Affiliate marketing refers to the promotion of products or services
through affiliates. Affiliates are usually other webmasters and
ezine editors who choose to act as sales people on behalf of their
principals for a commission on every sale.
There are mainly two types of affiliate marketing programs: the
one-tier program and the two-tier programs. In one-tier programs
the affiliate earns on a per referral basis and cannot recruit sub-affiliates
to assist. In two tier programs not only the affiliate earns from
his/her direct referrals but also gets a percentage commission from
referrals by co-affiliates who join the program through him/her.
It is also possible to have multi-tier affiliate programs but these
are not yet prevalent.
If you are an online entrepreneur or marketer and you have your
own website then you can also promote your business and increase
your sales through affiliate marketing. You will need an attractive
and genuine product plus credible sales copy plus the appropriate
software to set up an affiliate marketing program. Set out the program's
terms and conditions,frequently asked questions and online registration
form and post them on your site and let prospects read and be able
to join if they are satisfied with your affiliate program.
Apart from providing details about your affiliate marketing program
on your website you need to send out the word out there that you
have a lucrative and working program. Of course you could advertise
in ezines or through ezine ad networks and high traffic websites.
You will also need to register your program with affiliate program
directories and networks such as www.associateprograms.com and www.comissionjunction.com
so that prospects searching for new opportunities can find yours.
You could also write reviews and articles and post them in free
articles databases and request editors to publish them in your ezine.
If you have no products of your own and no website but want to
earn money marketing affiliate programs you can set yourself up
and succeed as an affiliate marketing. You would have to learn the
ropes of online marketing and invest time, money and efforts to
earn legitimate income from promoting other people's products.
You can look for a product(s) in high demand, register as an affiliate
and start promoting the products using various marketing strategies.
How do you know what is in high demand and what can be a successful
product to market could be found mainly through considered research.
It is generally accepted that information products such as ebooks,
special reports, etc sell well on the internet. To discover what
particular infoproducts are suitable for you, conduct some research
at online marketing forums such as www.warriorforum.com and www.ablake.com.
You can read existing messages already posted there and ask questions
to find out more. You can also search at affiliate program network
sites such as www.commissionjunction, www.associateprograms.com,
www.clicbank.com and www.google.com.
To assist you select the most appropriate affiliate program here
are further tips:
The product must be genuine and legal so that you do not encounter
legal problems.
The minimum payout should not be too high to make you wait for
too long for the paycheck or to struggle too much to send referrals.
The product should not be too new as to make prospects tarry in
making the buying decision or too old that almost everyone has bought
it.
The price should not be too high as to make people unable to afford
thus making you not get any or very few referrals or the product
is too cheap that your commission is too little such that you would
have to make many referrals to earn a decent income.
Does the affiliate program have one -tier or several tiers? The
more tiers the program has and ability to earn residual income the
better.
Do you have to pay or purchase anything to join the program? Purchasing
may be fine for you to know the product but paying to join isn't.
Ideally you should have your own website where you would post
reviews and links to your affiliate programs. Use your own domain
name when setting up the website to look professional. Since many
of the visitors to your website will be there for a few seconds
and may never return again, it is advisable that you capture their
names and addresses so that you can further enlighten them on your
programs and offers. This could be mainly through a regular ezine
or an automated autoresponder ecourse.
Provide a means for prospects to contact you in case of any queries
and reply promptly and courteously. Promote your website constantly
and track your affiliate statistics regularly to gauge your performance.
Ensure your links and banners are working and your affiliate ID
is correct in all your links. Use text links more than banners as
the latter are less effective nowadays due to their proliferation
and distractive nature.
About the Author Dhiraj Bhikoo is a successful
internet marketer.He helps people retire faster by building a free
search engine friendly website for top search engine rankings http://www.workathomeopportunityformoms.com
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