Thursday, December 15, 2005

Key To A Successful Marketing Affiliate Program


Affiliate marketing has been around for sometime, but only few know how to make some serious money online with them.

In fact, Affiliate Marketing is a great work from home business, for anyone with a computer and a desire to run their own affiliate business.

Now can someone really make money online with affiliate programs ?

There are obviously many ways to make money online: Some simple, some quite complicated. Basically, a good affiliate program reinforces your Online Home Business .

Affiliates struggling to earn $150 a month often find it hard to believe that other people could possibly earn as much as $8,000 or even $80,000 to 100,000 a month in commissions. Believe it. Such commissions do happen.

How do affiliate programs work? An affiliate program is where a company offers to pay you an " X " amount for business you sent from your site. Now, how do you get paid ? There are basically four ways to that affiliate programs are set up to reimburse you, as an affiliate:
  • Pay-per-click programs: You are paid for each person who clicks through your affiliate link to the affiliate program's web site
  • Pay-per-lead programs: You are paid for each "lead" that you send them.
  • Pay-per-impression programs: You are paid every time affiliate link or banner is displayed to some one visiting your web site
  • Pay-per-sale programs: You are paid a percentage of the profits on every sale made to some one you refer
Affiliate programs, most of which are free to join, can be an excellent way to make money online... But they, like anything else, require use of the proper tools and resources if you're to expect any kind of significant success.

So what is the solution ? Either decide to go through the grind, which will take quite some time to set up your home business or, hire someone else to do it for you. Now, if you chose the first option, I can't say your choice is bad, as no books nor any marketing courses can come anywhere close to pure practical experience. (James Martell and Rosalind Gardner) are two such examples of self-taught successful affiliate marketers.

But the problem is time.

By the time you start to make money online, a couple of months would have gone by. Moreover, you must also not get caught up in the trap of learning and not earning. It is VERY essential that you start to make some money online as early as possible, so as to fund your initial affiliate campaign and other minor expenses. Bottom line is that you can gather as much practical experience as you want, BUT also with a parallel income.

Now most people hope or even expect to make money online without any type of investment. Lets be candid to ourselves, if that is what you're expecting, you might as well call it quits before you even get started.

What you should expect is a modest investment of your time and (ideally) money. Though you can succeed without investing any money, it will likely take you significantly longer than if you are willing to set aside a small budget specifically for online advertising, proper tools and resources.

This also provides you with considerable room for trial and error. Another advantage is that you can set your own time frame. Most guys who have made it have invested heavily in their initial stages, only to realize later, that it was more of a waste.

Nonetheless, it is essential you set a shoestring budget, set a time-frame (say 3 months, if not 6 months maximum). If you don't see any form of income trickling in by then, it is better to let it take a back seat and give more impetus to your primary job. This does not mean to forget it completely, as there are holidays, nights and other free time. Because, the phases vary, the 1st phase (first 6 months) could be slow; the next could be slightly better etc.

Alternately, try your hand at surveys, data entry, transcription, surf traffic exchanges, write freelance articles (to name a few) that can meet your daily expenses. People generally tend to forget the value of time (calculate the average hourly wages you may get if you were employed, and multiply this sum by the time-frame you tend to dedicate to your new business - you will be surprised to note that it could be a tidy sum). Although you can consider this as your investment, it is extremely important that you set a fixed time frame - I am quoting this from personal experience.

Alternately, you can also try and set up an affiliate campaign and also get familiar with search engine marketing, affiliate networks, affiliate directories and traffic exchanges

As there is no telling when you would start to make money with the FREE page. However, if you market it well, the chances are within 3 months or so, you may see some income trickling in.

You can also sign up for a FREE web site, and sign up as an affiliate with good programs and get the feel of promoting their products and how this affiliate marketing thingy works

In order to make money online, you need to choose right affiliate programs. You can find various affiliate program directories (where you can browse through various affiliate programs) by doing a search for "affiliate program directory", "associate program directory" . etc., at your favorite search engine.

When choosing affiliate programs, below are some important keys to look for.. Look or choose an affiliate program that ;
  • promotes products or services you enjoy
  • offers residual weekly or monthly income
  • offers products you would purchase yourself.
  • offers a high commission, (25% or higher).
  • provides a good set of promotional tools and resources that you can use to promote the program.
  • has a good sales conversion rate.
  • offers real, viable products (beware of pyramid schemes)
  • targets a wide audience, not a small niche that could be saturated quickly.
  • that pays! .... as there are dishonest program operators out there, but fortunately it is a small percentage.
It could be a while before it sort of hits you. This is so because, like all other form of businesses, you have to get the 'IDEA' of how it works. It could be just a spark, and it could happen in a single day or even an hour then things will start falling in place. You'll never make it if you think that if it could for John Doe, it could work for me. No matter, how many books and courses you study. In short, trying to memorize algebra, physics formulas or organic chemistry will not get you anywhere - You achieve success in these areas only if you understand the concept.

Once you slowly get the hang of things, slowly register your own domain, set up a website, do your marketing research, identify niche and affiliate marketing opportunities.


The Internet Network Marketing Tips Course
This comprehensive course acts both as a tool for learning how to increase your affiliate sales, and, as an affiliate product to earn SIZEABLE commissions. It contains the exact information you need to start, promote, and grow a highly successful, extremely profitable Internet business. Besides, you get a generous $65 commission for every referral - plus another $20 commission for every sub-affiliates referral. There are people who earn an average 4 figure sum - monthly - just promoting this course. If used properly, it can show you how to start an Internet business in less than 24 hours -- and see profits by next weekend

33 Days To Online Profits - [Video]
The 33 Days To Online Profits also has a video based training system.
It is more than a simple Video-Based Training System on CD-ROM. Written by Yanik Silver And Jim Edwards, it is a powerful internet marketing strategy, tips and website promotion secrets for any product or service you sell. Within 33 days, you can be making real money online

33 Days To Online Profits
Perfect for anyone selling any product or service online. The step-by-step, day-by-day guide to finally making real money online in 33 days or less for almost any product or service you sell.
You can also make 45% for the reseller rights and 25% on the customized version.

For more information on affiliate guides and handbooks, CLICK HERE

This is relatively an easy way to make a parallel income during the early stages of your career in affiliate marketing.