Getting Started in Affiliate Marketing — What You Need To Know
Ask 10 Internet users what they know about affiliate marketing, and you’ll likely get 10 wildly different answers. Getting a handle on the nuts and bolts of affiliate marketing can be a challenge, to say the least. This article will help you understand the basics of affiliate marketing, and point you in the right direction. Before long you’ll be on your way to building a successful revenue stream as an affiliate marketer.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
So what does it mean to be an affiliate marketer? At its core, an affiliate helps to promote a business, product or service online. The affiliate makes referrals to the business, and receives payment for any sales resulting from those referrals. Sales are driven from the affiliate’s site to the business through the use of “creatives” (banners, copy and/or product feeds provided by the company).
This type of revenue sharing has become extremely popular with online vendors; so much so that it’s spawned an entirely new industry. One of the reasons for this huge popularity is the low risk to the affiliate; typically it doesn’t cost anything to become an affiliate, and the partnering company will supply the materials and support to get you going. All you need is a website.
What Makes A Good Program?
With the huge number of programs out there, many new affiliate marketers are overwhelmed trying to sort out the good programs from the less-than-stellar. Make sure that any program you’re considering offers the following:
1. Look for a program that offers a strong product and decent commissions. If nobody wants the product, you’ll be spinning your wheels. And even the best product won’t net you much revenue if the commissions are tiny.
2. Be sure that the program you’re considering has all the tools you need to effectively promote their product/service. Is there a dedicated program manager that will work with you? Do they offer banner ads, copy blocks, and other promotional tools to help you create a winning campaign?
3. You also want to be sure that the affiliate program gives its partners updated information on the latest promotions and takes the time to educate people on the program itself and the industry it’s in. You have to know what you’re selling, so look for a program with a strong training and support component.
4. You also want to take a look at the affiliate management team with any program you use to make sure that they are easy to reach and able to offer you creative tips and suggestions on increasing sales, SEO, PPC, website design and overall strategy. A good affiliate manager is part of your team and will be happy to build a good working partnership with you.
How To Find Affiliate Programs
There are many places to look for good affiliate programs. You can always check the networks such as CJ, Shareasale, and Linkshare to find strong programs. They can give you metrics and specific information that will help you make a more informed decision as to what programs to choose.
Another great source for good affiliate programs are the affiliate forums. Sites like ABestWeb, Affiliates4u.co.uk and the AffiliateManager forums are great places to look. You’ll be able to look at many programs and read affiliates’ thoughts on them based on their experiences selling their products and services. Make sure you look for programs that will complement your existing website if you already have one.
Once you’ve found a potential program, do a little research on it. Don’t be afraid to ask the program’s affiliate management questions. Find out how often they pay commissions. Make sure any program you are considering has a strong tracking and reporting system. Check in at the affiliate forums to get a feel for what other affiliate marketers think of specific programs. As with anything, though, don’t take one person’s experience as the gospel truth. Try to get an overall feel for the program and how successful affiliates have been with it.
Finally, make sure the company fits in with your own goals and interests. Try to market something that doesn’t fit in with your world view just won’t work. Good affiliate marketing results come from consistent efforts, and it’s important that you enjoy working with the company, and appreciate their products and services.
So do a little research, and get started on your new affiliate marketing career today!
millervfcorp Says:
how do you go about getting starting affiliate marketing?
I want to know where is a good site to go to learn about affiliate marketing for free,any start up costs, a good site to obtain the affiliate marketing software,and whatever else to expect or anything helpful. I will most certainly award 10 points for the best answer.
Posted on October 12th, 2008 at 3:27 am
Bethany RC Says:
I wouldn't pay "extra" to have someone walk you through the process. That is more or less a waste of your money. Invest your money in your business that you will be using in the affiliation with other companies.
The best way to start is to have your own website in which you can add and subtract anything you wish. This will be where any "start up costs" are needed, unless you are an experienced web developer. –it won't help you if no one is interested in visiting your site… lol
Then, you can go to company sites that you want to have an affiliate relationship with, e.g. American Express, click on their "affiliate program" link…or something to that effect, and go through the sign up process. They will usually send you via email a cut and paste link/logo that you can put on your website. Whenever someone clicks that link when visiting your site, they will be tracked by the affiliate company as "your" referral. You will then be rewarded accordingly.
References :
I've done this before. Feel free to ask me questions. Good luck!
Posted on October 12th, 2008 at 8:29 am
Jacques Strappe Says:
Start with your own website. I would recommend starting a site that is relevant to your interests or areas of expertise in order to be able to write great relevant content.
References :
http://directorix.net/articles.html
Posted on October 12th, 2008 at 8:31 am
comps Says:
Write articles about your website or ideas.
Submit your website for users to review, free!
Post Free Classifieds.
Go to Famous Pages
http://famouspages.info
References :
Posted on October 12th, 2008 at 8:33 am
tjclassic82 Says:
There are many directions you can take when you decide to dive into the affiliate marketing world.
First, you are going to want to pick your niche. Whether it is sports, business, money, flowers, gardening… You are going to want to decide on your niche first.
Second, you are going to find the products that will fit into the theme of your program. If you want to have a blog that has sporting news, you would want to consider joining affiliate programs that have products you can make money from that are sports related.
You can start off by looking at the different affiliate networks that list affiliate programs for you to choose from by category. Commission Junction and Pepperjam network are examples of these networks.
Or, you can find an affiliate program that is Independant, which usually have higher payouts for their commission because there is no middle man.
An example of this type of program would be America's Best Affiliate Program: http://www.americasbestcompanies.com/programs/affiliates/default.aspx
Hopefully this helps get you started! You should not be have to invest any money to become a successful affiliate marketer.
References :
Posted on October 12th, 2008 at 8:35 am
Unstoppable Dreams Says:
Research network marketing prior to getting involved. There are many factors in creating success. Do independent research on affiliate marketing. Many self proclaimed guru's are selling secrets. There are no secrets. You must simply learn about affiliate marketing if you expect to have a good outcome.
The web host that I use has free info that is independent from a specific affiliate program. http://aff-masters.sitesell.com/UnstoppableDreams.html
The web host that I use also has assistance for setting up an affiliate site around your own interests. They also provide the necessary software and building tools. You can see their web page built around this topic at http://affiliatemarketing.sitesell.com/UnstoppableDreams.html
BEST WISHES!
References :
Posted on October 12th, 2008 at 8:37 am
greentea Says:
There is TONS of free info out there if you're willing to look. My suggestion is visit a few of the popular blogs where people already have a level of success in affiliate marketing …
ive included some of the blogs I read below …
References :
http://www.ppcfool.com
http://www.googlelady.com
http://www.jonathanvolk.com
http://www.affiliateconfession.com
Posted on October 12th, 2008 at 8:39 am
sarasotaman Says:
I would agree with those who have suggested that you own a website to do affiliate marketing. This is much more effective than just sending people to your affiliate link directly.
The website you own is where you will be able to PREsell your visitor before they click on your affiliate link. This way they will have a favorable opinion of the product you are promoting before they arrive at the sales page. Using this technique will improve your conversion rate significantly.
The resource below has video tutorials, tips, & informative ebooks to learn about affiliate marketing for free. This will prepare you for building a website that gets traffic & converts them into customers before you spend any money.
References :
http://affiliate-revenue-information.com
Posted on October 12th, 2008 at 8:41 am
Jimmy_EMF Says:
I read the other posts as of today June 12, 2008…..let me share a few pointers about the other posts……1. They obviously are not successful affiliate marketers. 2. They don't hit the nail on the head.
Now let me advise I have been doing affiliate marketing for a few years….I own multiple monetized websites and continue doing the research to keep up with the Web Consortiums.
I am also a webmaster with my own webdesign and webhosting company. I love affiliate marketing.
The purpose of any affiliate marketer is to "pre-sell" an already existing product or service….it can be a digital or physical product too..but there are secrets to learning the skills to being a successful affiliate marketer.
If you are just looking into affiliate marketing as a hobby?……you're in for a big surprise….a long hard winding road of trials and tribulations with massive learning curves.
I'm into affiliate marketing for the cash….I don't give a krap if I promote purple rain or doggie doo-doo…I certainly don't try to "pre-sell" my interests or hobbies unless there is a tremendous demand for the information or products….
You must have a website, a autoresponder service, a lead capture system, web tools to find high demand high search es on the net…..you'll be looking for "What's Hot and What's Not"…then you need some other tools like tracking, analytics, split testing, merchant account and a few others too.
In addition, you must have the knowledge to drive massive traffic to your landing page or lead capture sales page and build your list of permission based double opt in leads.
You'll need the autoresponder system set up with a series of automated outgoing emails in a sequence building trust by providing unique quality content with the funnel process to end into a conversion sale.
You must give serious thought to your copywriting skills so you can not only move the free line, but also give perks along the way to educate your prospects. Give and you shall recieve.
The principle is a wash, rinse and repeat process no matter what hot market demand you do……but you must always include compelling offers and ethical bribes that force a timely return on your investment…..you do that with basic math on determining the time it takes you to package a campaign launch for the pre-sell and what you believe you are worth an hour.
A good clue to you is a lead captured through your permission based opt in is about $1 per lead a month
In other words, the more leads, as they grow in size and the longer you continue building a relationship with these prospects and clients….it's cummulative……it grows and if you crunch the numbers…..you build a list of quality relationships of 10,000 you can project a return on a product launch of your own design .like a digital delivery product on " how to do something"…..you broadcast a pre launch for building excitement and announcement with a lead sign up …you can expect by general rule of thumb about $10,000 ….
That dosn't include back end extras, upselling, or other monetized methods for affialiate marketing….
In Summary;
1. Determine a Hot Market
2. Search for a relative web domain name
3. Register that domain name
4. Find a web hosting company to repoint your DNS
5. Research competitors and websites in that market
6. Sketch out a website better than your competitors
7. Acquire a Web Building Software
8. Acquire an FTP uploader
9. Acquire an professional autoresponder service
10. Acquire your analytics and tracking programs
11. Build your 1st website with tables, HTML and Content
12. Sign up and submit releases for article submissions
13. Sign up for Search engine submission
14. Build, upload and test your website for function
15. Write, upload and test your responder sequencer
16. Learn and implement advance CSS coding
17. Register for adsense to monetize your website
18. Register for Alexa and W3C certification
19. Draft your Disclaimers, Terms of Service and Site map
20. Launch
These are just the baby steps….but you can get by using this same concept in any Hot market if you wish with the wash rinse repeat concept, however, you'll find this to be limiting your income…..so once you master the basics, and have proven conversions in sales generating….move on to other more advanced methods…..
One last point….the idea is to build multiple websites in many hot markets….like a series of different car dealerships or restaurants..catering to large variety of market demands
This will then become an empire and you can literally print cash at will in your jammies behind your computer and only doing it a few hours a week….once you're good at your job.
bigdogaffiliate [at] gmail.com
References :
Posted on October 12th, 2008 at 8:43 am