Affiliate Programs
There are many ways to make money on the web. However, one of the
quickest and easiest ways to start a web business is by working what
are called Affiliate or Reseller Programs. An Affiliate is essentially
a commissioned agent for a product or service. What happens is that as
a commissioned agent, you (the Affiliate) get a percentage of sales
after you (the Affiliate) have made those sales. Affiliates are also
called Resellers, so you may come across this term as well. You can
easily find Affiliate programs by going to the numerous Affiliate
Directories that are on the web. You’ll find these directories by going
to any Search Engine and typing in the phrase “Affiliate Directory.”
Alternatively, if you’re surfing the web and come across a site that
you like with a product or service you believe is valuable or useful
then take a closer look at the site for links to their “Affiliate or
Reseller Program.” Affiliate programs are usually free to join, and
good affiliate programs will always have all the necessary tools for
you to sell the site’s products or services.
Tips for Joining Affiliate Programs
Before you merrily join any affiliate program it pays to consider which
affiliate programs are the best to join. These are the crucial program
features that I consider necessary inclusions in any affiliate program.
•The affiliate program must have a generous payment structure. For me,
this means a high commission payment, which is a high percentage of the
purchase price - nothing under a 25% commission.
•Make sure the affiliate program you’re about to join has a
professional looking site. You don’t want to send visitors to a site
that looks unprofessional.
•Make sure that the affiliate program has a comprehensive affiliate
statistics page, which lists the number of click-throughs, the number
of sales, and the amount you’ve earned to date. This should be broken
down by month.
•Make sure that these affiliate statistics are “real time”. This means
statistics which are updated automatically and immediately. You do not
want to find out today about a sale you made a week ago.
•Ensure that the affiliate program provides you with a wide variety of
text links, banners and graphics to put on your web page. Personally I
prefer to use text links. However, certain other types of banners and
graphics still work well.
•Know how often you are going to be paid. If you’re tossing up between
2 programs and one pays monthly and the other pays quarterly, the one
which pays monthly is a better arrangement. You don’t want to wait
months before you get paid for your hard work.
•See if the affiliate program gives $ examples of how their top
affiliates are doing. This can be a great indicator as to whether or
not it is a good affiliate program. If some affiliates are earning many
thousands per month, then it is a good affiliate program.
•If the affiliate program has examples of which marketing methods these
successful affiliates are using to get their results, then this
information is also most beneficial.
•An affiliate program, which offers a special monthly newsletter just
for its affiliates is also great. Here, you’ll also get extra tips and
information on techniques that are working well.
•See if the program notifies you by email when you make a sale, or you
have an affiliate sign up under you (if it is a 2-tier program). It
motivates you when you see ‘You’ve made another sale, or another
Affiliate has signed up’ in your email inbox.
•Ensure that the program provides top-level support for its affiliates.
If they cannot answer your query immediately make sure they respond
within 48 hours. Good, timely support is critical to your success.
Commissions - The Higher the Better
A good way to identify if the management of an affiliate program you’re
thinking of joining is serious about their affiliate program is by the
commissions (percentage of sales) they’re willing to pay you for your
effort. If someone is offering you 10% commission and they are keeping
the rest, then you need to ask yourself this… "Should I really be in
this affiliate program?” An affiliate program I recently joined called
‘E-Book Marketing Explained’ pays out 45% commission to their
affiliates and another 10% on the 2nd tier. That’s 55% of the sale
price!
Affiliate Marketing Techniques That Get Results
These are techniques that (when used consistently) bring good results.
•Spend time trying to get a higher ranking in the various search
engines for your web sites. Learn as much as you can about search
engines and make it a weekly task to try to improve your rankings in
them.
•The word "free" and especially when written "FREE" is over used. Use
it only occasionally on your site. For example you could use it to give
away a free Ebook or free article you have written.
•Spend 75% of your time marketing your web site and affiliate programs
and 25% of your time working on them. Most people spend about 10% to
20% marketing their web site and affiliate programs. Then again, most
people online do not make any money.
•Use text links rather than banners for your affiliate programs. Text
links have a much higher click through ratio. People have trained
themselves to ignore banners.
•Write you own articles and post them on a separate page on your site.
Then submit them to the article resource site.
•Check your clicks and sales regularly at your affiliate web site. If
you see a slowdown in clicks and/or sales then alter your marketing
tactics. Try something different. Do not continue using the same
techniques if they’re are not working.
•Use newsgroups, but do this in a clever way. Stand out from the crowd.
Use newsgroups to announce new articles that you’ve written. However,
make sure that you read the rules of each newsgroup before you post to
it, and never, ever spam.
•Do not use graphics that will slow down the loading of your web page.
If your selling or pre-selling information is predominantly text, your
site will load much faster. My site has one graphic on it. That’s
right, just ONE.
•Subscribe to a number of newsletters, which are related to the theme
of your web site. You can always get a lot of valuable affiliate tips
from good newsletters.
•Post articles that other webmasters have written on your site, but ask
them first. You can even do your own review of other people’s articles.
•Find out whether any affiliate programs you belong to have articles on
their site, and find out if you can post them on your site. Then
include your affiliate link back to the affiliate site at the end of
the each article.
To get more information about Affiliate Marketing Strategies and
Affiliate Marketing Techniques please go to
http://www.visionones.com/salespages/sp_making.htm
Article Source:
http://www.articlesbase.com/affiliate-programs-articles/
become-a-successful-webmaster-with-affiliate-programs-131416.html
About the Author
Linda Jap is a Singaporean and 34 years old. She
is the founder of www.visionones.com and www.getonebook.com. Her vision
is to bring better life and future to other people.
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