Affiliate Programs


Basic Idea

Affiliate marketing is a type of marketing in which revenue sharing between online merchants and online salespeople (affiliates), whereby compensation is based on performance measures, typically in the form of sales (Pay Per Sale), clicks (Pay Per Click) and impressions (Pay Per Impressions).

Merchants run affiliate programs to generate leads and sales from other Web sites. They pay an affiliate to generate sales from a button, banner, or link placed on affiliate's website, newsletter, e-mail or pay per click ad. For example, if a site owner signs up for any merchant's affiliate program, he will receive banners or links from this merchant that he can place anywhere on his site. Then, if a visitor clicks on this banner or a link on his site and buys something, he will receive a commission.

The introduction of affiliate programs in the late 1990s brought Internet marketing to a new level. The first companies that offered these programs saw sales increase dramatically. These companies basically get free advertising and only pay their affiliates a percentage of the sales they generate. It's a win-win situation for the company that runs the affiliate program.

Now there are thousands of companies in hundreds of industries that will pay commissions to you for sales, leads or impressions.

How does it work?

1. First of all you are looking for products and services sold online and used an affiliate program.

2. Then you should sign up for free as a reseller (affiliate). How to become an affiliate you can find below.

3. After that you should advertise these products and services. How to promote them you can find below.

4. After all you'll receive commission checks.

How to become an affiliate?

There are two ways to become an affiliate:

1. Some merchants have their own affiliate programs. You can join them on their sites.

2. But the most typical is to use Affiliate Program Providers (APPs). There are several large APPs. They connect a lot of merchants and affiliates in different industries. APPs collect payments from merchants and consolidate affiliate reporting and payments. For example, the affiliate places links to the merchant on their website, email, newsletter, or Pay per Click ads. When a potential customer clicks through the link they are sent to a specified page of the merchant's site. If this potential customer buys something, fills out a form, or completes any action desired by the merchant the affiliate is gotten a commission. The APP tracks all elements of the transaction. Joining an APP is absolutely free. You should only fill out a form. The affiliate should usually wait a few days for approval, sometimes applying is automatic.

Advantages

Affiliate Programs are the ideal way to get money quickly and easily online:

You don't need to launch a new product;
You don't need to handle any products; v You don't need physical inventory;
You don't need a huge investment. You can start with $10 and 2 hours a week;
You don't need a website because you can use Pay per Click ads.

Disadvantages

The very important disadvantage is a low click-through to conversion rate. Only a few percent of your visitors will click on a banner or link; of that percentage, a few percent will actually buy something. It can be disheartening to see that there have been thousands of visits to your site, and only small percent of them have bought something you promote. Recommendation: If you focus on the affiliate programs to the theme of your site and the interests of your audience then the better the results you will achieve. Also text links, "odd" ads (i.e. advertising that doesn't immediately look like advertising) will generally give rise to much better results than banners or buttons.

You should be reliant on a merchant's ability to sell to the visitors the products that you're promoting. Of course you can improve the chance of a sale by effectively pre-selling the product or service, but it's still up to the merchant to close a sale. And if they don't sell anything to your visitors, you get nothing. Recommendation: Before promoting any product you should learn it and decide for yourself: "Would I buy it?" If the answer is "Yes" that's greate, but if "No" you should look for better products to promote.


More Resources

Two Quick Ways to Make Your Copy of Merchants Data Feed Different From All Other Affiliates
Product data feeds are really popular among affiliates because they can help produce thousands of product pages quickly and easily. Such pages can be used to drive highly targeted search engine traffic looking specifically for those products.
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Ebook Review: The Super Affiliate Handbook
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A Wake Up Call To Always Remember
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Your Affiliate Business and Taxes
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Internet Tip of the Week: Reality Check
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Finding the Perfect Affiliate Program
Finding a good affiliate program can be sometimes daunting and overwhelming task, but it doesn't have to be. Luckily the web is filled with excellent resources for identifying the best affiliate programs.
Instant Success - Yeh Right.
Join our affiliate-program and make your fortune overnight.Sound familiar ?How many times have you received email to say that by joining company X you will have instant success.
Affiliate Programs - The Fast Track to Wealth
Remember the day when you made the ultimate decision to change your life? Yes, it was the day when you decided to start your own home business. Gosh, I remember the anxiety when I uploaded my very first web site, waiting for something to happen.
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Affiliate Program is a ground floor opportunity. All you have to do is send visitors to your affiliate web site by placing a textlink or banner on your website and receive a commission on each sale, without the complication and expense of selling anything yourself.
How to Choose a Reliable and Profitable Affiliate Program
There are literally thousands of affiliate programs on the Net. Here are eight important points that every affiliate webmaster should take into account when choosing a reliable and profitable affiliate program.
Affiliate Programs
Basic IdeaAffiliate marketing is a type of marketing in which revenue sharing between online merchants and online salespeople (affiliates), whereby compensation is based on performance measures, typically in the form of sales (Pay Per Sale), clicks (Pay Per Click) and impressions (Pay Per Impressions).Merchants run affiliate programs to generate leads and sales from other Web sites.
10 Ways To Increase Your Affiliate Commissions
1. Participate in chat rooms related to the product you're reselling.
How To Earn Residual Income The Lazy Way
I've got a confession to make..
What Puts The Super In Super Affiliate?
To be super at anything means to excel beyond the scope of average or achieve superiority status.Super affiliates do just that.
Affiliate Marketing - How to Start Earning Money Today
If you're new to Affiliate Marketing and your finding everything that your learning is a little "mind blowing" but really want to start making money today then here is the quickest way to get results.First, I would begin with using ClickBank.
Choosing The Right Affiliate Program
Choosing the right affiliate program is vital for your success. We don't want to end up with lemons, right? It is not advisable to invest time and effort into something that will not yield the best return for the energy expended.
Why Building Affiliate Websites Are the Way to Go
It seems that everybody is into making money online these days. By far, the largest market place in the world is right there in front of you within the cyber world of the internet.
How To Make Affiliate Sales In 15 Minutes
If you are one of the 98.6% of affiliate members that never make one cent from affiliate sales or make small $5.
Build A High Profit Business With Affiliate Programs
QUESTION: I am considering starting an ebusiness using affiliate programs, but there is so much hype out there I can't figure out which programs would work best for me. Everybody claims their program is best.

More Affiliate Revenue Information:

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