Why Two-Tier Affiliate Programs are Best

by: John Lynch

When you join an affiliate program or start an affiliate program of your own, you have to decide whether it will be a single tier or two-tier affiliate program.

With a single tier program you earn a commission on any sales you make and that is it. If you are running your own affiliate program, you pay your affiliates a commission for any sales they refer and that is all.

However, with a two-tier program, affiliates are allowed to recruit sub-affiliates and are paid a small percentage of the sales these sub-affiliates generate. For example, the affiliates may earn a 30% commission for selling product X himself; and when one of the sub-affiliates makes a sale, the affiliate may get a 10% commission as well. This is very profitable for the affiliate as he can recruit an army of sub-affiliates, all earning commissions for him without any effort on his part except for the initial recruiting process.

If you are starting an affiliate program of your own should it be two-tier or single tier? Some might shy away from the seeming expense of a two-tier program. But is it really that expensive? Many affiliate program managers make the wrong decision on this.

Let’s look at an example. You have an affiliate program up and running and an average affiliate joins your program. Mr.Average has a web site that receives average traffic. He also has an ezine with thousands of subscribers published monthly. Mr. Average posts your affiliate links to his web site and promotes your product to his ezine list.

Initially, he generates good sales. However, a point comes when he saturates his market with your product and his sales begin to drop. He begins to lose interest in your program and your sales remain small. What happens if you set up a two-tier program? Rather than trying to keep your commission pay outs small, you motivate your existing affiliates to recruit other people to your program. This will exponentially increase your affiliate sales. Would it not be worth paying the referring affiliate a percentage of their sub-affiliates’ sales? Now when Mr.Average joins your affiliate program this is what would happen. When he has saturated his market with your product, he would now promote your affiliate program to his customers and ezine subscribers. Many of Mr.Average’s customers and subscribers decide to join the affiliate program. This in turn will motivate Mr.Average to continue promoting your products and recruiting affiliates.

Now what is the situation?

1) Your income increases because of increased sales.
2) You have a much larger customer base to which you can sell ‘backend’ products.
3) An increase in your income because of the life time loyalty of the customers referred by your affiliate.
4) An army of sub-affiliates who will sell your products, and in turn promote your affiliate program to their customers and subscribers.

The little extra in affiliate sales commission pay outs will be more than compensated for by the exponential sales increase. This is why the two-tier affiliate program is a guaranteed winner and should be the automatic choice for potential affiliates and affiliate program managers.


© John Lynch
( For details of two-tier Affiliate Programs go to: http://www.merchant-account-service.com/affiliate_programs.html )
Source: www.isnare.com

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What To Look For When Choosing Affiliate Programs

by: Jonathan Kraft

So you've decided you want to become an Internet Marketer, huh? Will you sell someone else's products or sell your own?

If you choose to sell someone else's products, how will you know what to look for? After all, this is a new venture for you.

Or maybe it's not. Maybe you have been trying out some affiliate programs which have not brought you any money, or, worse, have not paid you for the affiliate traffic you have sent them.

If you are the new person, or the person who is floundering in Internet Marketing, this article will offer you some simple tips for choosing an affiliate program.

This article doesn't cover getting traffic to your site, which is another huge piece of the puzzle, and will be covered in a later article, but let's just start with choosing affiliate programs.

#1. You should find affiliate programs that:

a) are relatively easy to set up (code is either created for you or easy to create)

b) will pay you well. This depends on your definition of what being paid well means, but generally, for most beginners, and some novices, if you can see yourself being able to make more than $250/month, the program is at least worth looking at

c) give you products which people actually use. There are lots of products in the market which will sell, but do you really want to be selling pet rocks? If you do, please don't take offense. Most legitimate affiliate advice sites won't feature affiliate programs that are exclusively selling something like 8-Track players and tapes. While there are probably collectors out there who would love an 8-track player and cassettes, the fact is that the market is done with 8-tracks. The point is, there should be a genuine need for, or interest in, what you are selling/reselling.

So you find a program which meets the above criteria. Now what? Do a Google search on the company. Find out what people are saying about them. You may have to dig a bit, but the combined experience of the professionals (and not-so-professionals) who develop and contribute to the Internet on a regular basis is, collectively, the best source of advice you will find on making money, or affiliate programs, anywhere.

If you want advice on some great affiliate programs, you can visit sites which have already reviewed the information about companies and present it to you in a straightforward way. If you are ready to find some great affiliate programs, then you will be able to find categories of affiliate programs on these sites, which will generally represent the type of products you would like to sell.

Search engines love content, and so do your site visitors. Content is one of the most important aspects of getting people to your web site, and helping them to see the value in what you're selling. You should strive to choose programs with products which are related to your web site.

In other words, if you have a site which features information about the Toyota Camry, you're going to be pretty hard pressed to be able to get your page content matched up so that you could sell, say... baby rattles.

Find affiliate programs which relate to what you already do, and then promote those products.

Finally, see if you can find someone to actually talk to (ok, email would be okay) who has received regular checks or payments from marketing products. We think that this is, perhaps, the most important part of any affiliate program, because the main reason you promote their products is to receive a check for your efforts.

So there you have it, some simple tips for choosing great affiliate programs! Hope this helps you to reach your income goals, and also helps you to develop a long-term plan for on and off-line financial and personal success.

Jonathan Kraft has been an online marketer for many years. He is a massage therapist, web designer, legal services broker, has been a high school teacher, and is an all around nice guy. He works with a team of people on www.affiliateadvice.us, where you can check out some great affiliate programs that meet all the above criteria.

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7 Tips to Choosing a Successful Affiliate Program

by: David McKenzie
When selecting an affiliate program to join you need to know how to choose a successful affiliate program.

Look in the wrong place and you might find a dud but look in the right place and you might be on to a winner.

Here are 7 tips to help you choose a successful affiliate program to join:

1. Look at associateprograms.com This is the ‘affiliate central' of affiliate programs. You can virtually guarantee to find a successful program here and you can choose from tons of subject areas.

2. Look at clickbank.com Nearly every product they have for sale has an affiliate program. Many of them are extremely good and most pay very high commissions. (some over 50%)

3. Affiliate resource sites usually offer their best affiliate programs. As affiliate resources sites are specialists in affiliate programs you can be pretty sure of choosing a
successful affiliate program from them.

4. Look for affiliate programs that are offered through any ezines you receive. Chances are the ezine owner has an
affiliate program and if they have a good ezine they probably will have a good affiliate program.

5. Think of things that ALWAYS sell. Like web site design, ebooks, music and travel. Stick to proven online sellers and the affiliate program will have a much greater chance of being successful.

6. Seek out articles on affiliate programs. There are many good writers out there who have been successful with affiliate programs. Try to find articles they have written to see what
has worked for them.

7. Take courses. Many sites offer free online email courses for affiliates. Take some of these courses to learn more about what it takes to be a successful affiliate.

Affiliate programs are a great way to make money but one of the secrets to affiliate success is to choose the right program in the first place. Use these 7 tips to help you succeed.

About the Author

David McKenzie is offering a Free Email Course
"5 Tips to Being Successful with Affiliate Programs"
==> http://www.1sthomebasedbusiness.com

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How to make money with Affiliate Programs - The Sensible Way

by: Xavier Nelson
Every day, thousands of would-be marketers scour the internet
looking for any and every affiliate program, sign up, sit back
and wait for the money to pour in and get frustrated just as
fast when the bank balance still shows a big, fat ZERO!

There are tons of guru's floating around and even more eBooks
and articles claiming to know the latest and greatest trick to
make tons of money with no effort at all (oh and of course,
unless you use their method then you will never, ever get
anywhere in your online business and stay broke the rest of
your life). We've all seen these before.

Let's get real for a moment.
If you don't put any effort into your marketing and don't
spread the word of whatever you are marketing, then you will
get exactly that much out of your effort.
Zero effort = Zero results!

I hope that's plain enough and now let's have a look at the
sensible way to market your affiliate programs, so you can
actually earn some of that Internet-Money-Pie (and it's yummy
too).

There are two types of affiliate programs generally. Those that
pay you (1-tier) and those that pay you, plus they pay you a
bonus for actions taken by visitors sent by other webmasters
you have referred (2-tier).

Let's think about that for a moment. What's the easier way to
make money? You sell a bunch of products and get paid on that
alone, or if you sell product and also introduce the affiliate
program to a bunch of webmasters who in turn also sell and they
earn a nice commission and you get a bonus every single time
they sell something, just for having referred them to the
affiliate program?

Ok, I know you probably just smacked your forhead and
said 'Duh' quite loudly and think I am stating the plain and
obvious.

If you can get others to do the same thing you are doing, by
keeping in touch with them and helping them and duplicating
your efforts, then of course it stands to reason that the bonus
you receive for referring the webmasters will generate
potentially a large team of people making you money.

So, your first task is to find good, well-paying 2-tier
affiliate programs. You can always use single tier programs as
a back end sale or on other projects, don't get me wrong, they
will still make you money, but right now, we want to get you
started off on the right foot to your own internet income.

So, you've gone out and found a well-paying affiliate program,
and you are ready to rumble and make money... Not So Fast!!!

How are you going to promote it? What is your plan of attack?
That's another problem many marketers run into, they just run
off and don't think before they act and that again results in a
lot less return for all of your efforts.

Here's what I have done in the past and always do each time.
Feel free to try this out and see the results for yourself.

After finding the affiliate program I want to promote, I check
the resource material provided by the program. Sometimes,
depending on how new the program is, I use their material to
get things rolling but almost every time, I start to write some
ads of my own, perhaps an article or even an ebook that I can
use to promote the product and the affiliate program with.
Some of those resources are available to readers of the
eBusinessCornerNews newsletter if you are interested.

Another thing I do, after putting together all the marketing
material I want to use is to check out the competion that's
already in the market. I don't really care if there is
competition, as a matter of fact, many times that is a good
indicator that there is a good demand for the type of product I
am promoting. You can do this pretty easily by just going to a
search engine and typing in keywords you associate with the
product for example (there are a lot of additional ways to do
this that we discuss in our newsletter).

There are a ton of places you can advertise your product, and
the marketing material you are using, such as article
directories, free advertising forums or websites, you can even
find a lot of ezines that allow you to place free classifieds
and websites you can post your ad on, at no cost.

Another thing that is handy to have is a website of my own,
where I can post my thoughts and comments (nothing sells better
than your own, plain english comments and reviews) along with
any other articles I can find that will help to draw visitors
in and make the search engines list my site better.

Most of the time, I will take a few of my articles and turn
them into a free ebook, or post the articles in article
directories where other webmasters are permitted to reprint
them in their own newsletter, provided they leave my resource
box (see the bottom of this article for an example) in place.
So now they are spreading the word for me, driving traffic on
my behalf and generating orders too.
But I like to help, as much as I like to earn money too, so
here's what I do most of the time.
When I find a good newsletter that I like then I touch base
with that publisher and offer him the article, but I also tell
him it's for a 2-tier affiliate program and if he would like,
then he could use my article, if he either leaves my box in
place or signs up under me and then I let him add his link into
my box, so he can earn the bigger piece of the pie and I get
the bonus commissions from his sales.

Now, why would I do that? Simple...

I do that, because there's a much better chance that he will
send out my article sooner, rather than later because now he
has the potential to earn money with it too.

Find a few publishers like that and you are well on your road
to getting a nice piece of the pie and the great thing is that
anytime you find a new affiliate program to promote and write a
new article, you already have made contacts that you can send
it to, so it gets easier every time and takes a lot less effort
on your part.

Well, there you have the sensible way of making money with
affiliate programs.
(Note: There are a lot of other methods available to market
your affiliate program and earn money, but this is one of the
best methods I have ever used.)

Here's to your success,
Xavier
P.s. Quit reading this article already and get out there and
find yourself a good affiliate program and start making money.
Now get moving...

(Note: You have permission to reprint this article in it's
entirety, provided you do not change the article in any way and
leave the Resource Box above intact. If you would like to earn
money with this article, please visit
http://www.makemoneymarketingonline.com today and sign up for
the generous 2-tier affiliate program that pays 50% for any
sales you make, plus an additional 20% for any sales generated
by webmasters you refer into the program)

About the Author

Xavier Nelson is the publisher of eBusinessCornerNews, a newsletter dedicated to bringing you the latest news, articles, reviews, free resources and tools along with an opinionated view on the world of 'Making Money Online'.
Check out his newest product and brandnew, 2-tier affiliate program at http://www.makemoneymarketingonline.com

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Choosing the Best Affiliate Program

by: Michael Turner
Choosing the best affiliate program means that you are aware of what affiliate programs are and what their ultimate benefits and drawbacks are. To choose the best affiliate program, you will want to decide on one that has the most benefits with the least drawbacks. There are many affiliate programs available online, many of them which are not worth even reading about. Because of this fact, you will need to do your research, talk to other affiliate members, and be 100% sure about the type of affiliate program you are looking for. There are some really good programs available, you just need to be persistent, patient, and ask a lot of questions. The following suggestions will help you choose the best possible affiliate program for you.

* Commission
Of course, if you are joining an affiliate program you are doing so for the commissions. There are affiliate programs available online that offer great commissions to their affiliates in order to keep them active and working hard. Then there are other programs that do not pay well, do not keep up with referrals, and basically cheat the affiliate out of hard earned money. Make sure you know exactly what kind of program you are getting involved with and that you will make good money for your time and effort.

* Good Products
Another important aspect of the affiliate programs you are looking at are the products. You might see an affiliate program that has the equivalent of a mall with links to thousands of products. The thought might enter your head that more links equals more business, but in this scenario it is not necessarily true. Generally, the affiliate programs that recognize the most success sell one quality product that a large percentage of the population can use, need, afford, and will actually want. This is the best type of affiliate program to associate yourself with and what you should be looking for.

* Experience
Experience is also important when it comes to affiliate programs. You want to work for an affiliate program that is settled in the market, that knows how to handle the business it is involved in as well as its employees, and is concerned with treating workers fairly and rewarding them for hard work. An experienced affiliate program knows what works and what doesn’t, so don’t be tempted to sign up for a brand new affiliate program just because you want to be one of the first people to join... this might not work to your advantage. It is very important to always do your research before jumping in!

About the Author

Michael Turner reveals his foolproof way to increase website traffic in his free 7 part mini-series. Grab it free right now at http://www.powertraffictactics.com/

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Internet Affiliate Programs: The Fundamentals of Creating In

by: Wei-Ni Chong

Affiliate programs uses a simple concept for you to create an income online: Earn commissions when you make a sale. You don't need to worry about the costs for setting up the business nor advertising. It costs zero! When we think of successful online businesses, websites such as: Amazon.com (biggest online bookstore), eBay.com (largest auction website), Yahoo.com (most well-known search engine) usually spring into mind. On the contrary, you probably have heard of dot-com companies turned dot-bombs. So you think, “How do I make money on the internet when I don’t have money to advertise like those big guys such as Amazon.com or Yahoo.com?”

… Well, you don’t need money to make money! There are several ways to make money through the internet, and one of them is through affiliate programs. Best of all, it costs nothing to sign up!

“What are affiliate programs? Isn’t it just another get-rich quick plot or some hocus-pocus that’s all a scam?”

Affiliate programs (also known as referral/associate programs) are legitimate and not get-rich-quick scams. It’s a simple concept: Earn commission for each sale you make. As a matter of fact, even big guys like Amazon.com launched affiliate programs to fuel their sales and to increase their brand, hence that further proves my point that affiliate programs aren’t scams.

How Affiliate Programs Work…

Using Amazon.com as an example, here’s an illustration on how affiliate programs work…

An affiliate (let’s call her ‘Lily’) owns a website about movie-making, so she chose a few books related to her website including the best-seller “How to Write a Hollywood Movie Script in 5 minutes!”

Lily then puts unique links to each of these books on her website that enables Amazon to identify the visitor she sends. One of Lily’s visitors was so impressed by Lily’s review on the book “How to Write a Hollywood Movie Script in 5 minutes!” that she wanted to buy it immediately, the visitor then saw “Buy it now on Amazon.com!”…. CLICK!

The visitor enters the Amazon site, Amazon identifies this visitor is from Lily. The visitor then checks out with the book and pays using credit card. Lily is paid a commission on that sale!

Affiliate Programs vs. Selling Your Own Products on the Web

Sure enough as a web merchant, you get 100% of the profits made. But you will have to fuss with start-up costs, advertising, marketing, shipping, credit-card processing, products/ services to maintain, customer services, customer complaints, web hosting, accounting, staff training…

Phew! That’s a lot work! But…

As an affiliate, you don’t need your own products to sell; you don’t need to incur the costs: Your start-up cost is zero; and you don’t have to deal with the customers’ orders or accounting or all the above because the merchant will handle all these for you. In some affiliate programs, you can also recruit and train sub-affiliates under you. Your training pays off when your sub-affiliate gets a sale, because you earn ‘training commission’ too. I’ll get more in-depth about this later in the article.

“But I’m not a computer or internet-savvy person! I don’t have a website too!”

Don’t worry! An effective affiliate finds thousands of ideas to sell online, or offline! You can advertise locally in newspapers, in articles you write, recommend it to friends, notice boards, etc… There are no limits.

“Great! How do I start?”

As easy as it sounds, I’m sad to say that it’s not a piece of cake if you plan to sit there and wait for the cash to come to you. In the affiliate business, it follows the 80-20 rule – 80% of the benefit is only achieved by 20% of the affiliates. So if you want to get rich quick, affiliate program isn’t for you… but if you want to be one of the 20% affiliates who get 80% of the benefit… read on.

First of all, ask yourself why you want to start an affiliate business on the internet…

“Um… to earn some cash and buy things I want”

No, I want you to be as specific as possible…

For example, “I want to increase my income so that I can afford a sports car and have the ultimate sense of pride when I drive into the yard of my friends who said that I will never succeed in making money on the internet! I want my friends to be envious; I want to prove them wrong!”

When you know what you want and the more specific you get, the stronger your commitment, determination and persistence to succeed will be.

I know it sounds really corny, but it is a simple rule that the 80% affiliates don’t follow!

Secondly, you must…

Choose a Good Affiliate Program

There are many affiliate programs out there but you need to focus on the ones that work for you. I suggest a few good criteria to look for in affiliate programs:

1) High-value products/services

When I said ‘value’, I don’t mean the price tag. Let’s say, you are an affiliate for 2 companies which are in similar industries, both offering 30% commission. One sells its product for $50 and the other for $150. So you think,

“Hmmm… When I make a sale, I get more commission from company no.2 ($45) than company no.1 ($15). Wow!”

Although it is simple logic, ask yourself this question first, “will I buy this $150 product when I know there are cheaper ones out there?”

Think like your customer, question yourself “Am I paying my money’s worth on this product?”, “Does the company offer great value for a dollar?”

If you answer ‘no’ for both these questions, you’ll know that the company will eventually die.

2) High Affiliate and Customer Support

One of the key areas to look for when choosing a good affiliate program is their support system. A company that values its customers and affiliates is a company that grows. The company must be able to provide as many resources for their affiliates to promote their products, e.g. training, newsletters, banners, free stuff, etc.

Furthermore, it should also listen to its customers’ suggestions, complaints and be able to keep their customers happy. Remember, happy customers mean long-lasting company as happy customers will spread the good word of the company and its products, which means there will be more business opportunities for you!

3) Team Sales

There are some affiliate programs that allow you to recruit sub-affiliates under you. When your sub-affiliates perform well, you are also rewarded with a ‘coaching’ commission for their sales because it is your duty as a team leader to coach your sub-affiliates. Although most affiliate programs on the internet doesn’t support team-building, it is preferable that you choose one that does. The reason is simply:

T.E.A.M = Together Everyone Achieves More

Sure enough, you can do the whole affiliate business by being a lone ranger, but you are limiting your own capacity to earn more. Moreover, the results are two-fold: you will enjoy a second stream of income (unless you plan to do it full-time) AND the satisfactions of helping others to earn another source of income too!

4) Repeat Sales Potential

Other than achieving one-time sales, it is recommended if the affiliate program entitles you to lifetime customers, which means ‘once your customer, always your customer!’

A company with a good sales structure will retain their customers and encourage repeat sales. Thus, you get commissions for repeat sales too.

5) Reputable and Reliable Company

Check the company’s history on the newsgroup or http://groups.google.com, and find out whether it’s well-established. Are their customers satisfied? Are the affiliates happy? Does the company keep changing the affiliate policy? I’m sure no one wants their affiliate business suddenly gone because the merchant company failed!

An Ideal Affiliate Program

A great example of a company that meets all the criteria listed above is:

Sitesell Company

http://www.sitesell.com/ff.html

Their affiliate program, 5 Pillar Club, was named ‘The best affiliate program on the net’ by affiliatesdirectory.com, a web directory that tracks thousands of affiliate programs on the net.

Furthermore the top affiliate guru, Allan Gardyne, ranked it as one of the top affiliate program in his website, associateprograms.com

Lastly, Open Your Mind to Creative Ideas

Read as many articles/books as possible on the subject of selling or marketing to expand your mind to accept more ideas and concepts on how to sell! There are a lot of information on the internet to help you in your affiliate business, it costs zero to invest in your greatest asset… you. (Note: It’s not ‘your brain’ because you need your arms and legs to put your thoughts into action! ;D )

To help you get started on the technical aspect, here’s a great starter pack: a free e-mail course on affiliate business-building.

Just send a blank e-mail to:

The Affiliate Masters Course by Ken Evoy: tamsff@sitesell.net

I hope you enjoy building your own affiliate business as much as I do. I wish you success in your journey!

About the Author

Wei-Ni Chong is a young entrepreneur and a webmaster of http://www.SetAFocus.com, a highly informative web community for young entrepreneurs.

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5 Mistakes To Avoid When Choosing An Affiliate Program

by: Michael Turner
When people decide to join an affiliate program to make extra money, or to have a full time job, they often do so with illusions and no idea of how the affiliate program actually works. Read the following top 5 mistakes people make when it comes to choosing an affiliate program and avoid these mistakes at all costs. Then, you will be able to be more effective and make more money for your time, so it is definitely worthwhile to read these warnings and avoid them.

#1 Don’t Compete, Support
Too many affiliate programs compete against their competitors which wastes money and puts affiliates out of business. However, if you are part of an affiliate program the more affiliates the better for getting more information and more money. One of the worst things to do is choose an affiliate program that believes in competing against other affiliates. Instead, choose an affiliate program that agrees with supporting and growing other affiliates to have a larger network and access to more affiliates.

#2 Little Reward
Another mistake people frequently make when choosing affiliate programs is choosing a program that offers little reward for the individual’s hard work. Too many affiliate programs pay too little and as a result affiliates find it difficult to make the money they should be making. Look for an affiliate program that has a good pay rate for your work.

#3 Old Statistics, if Any
You want an affiliate program that offers good, solid, real time statistics, not old statistics or ones that are no longer valid. There are not many affiliate programs out there that provide the kind of statistics an affiliate manager needs, but do your best to find an affiliate program that offers the most.

#4 No Support
Too often affiliates find themselves waiting days for an answer to an e-mail and an important question for their business. You want an affiliate program that guarantees you support round the clock if possible or at least within 24 hours. If not, keep looking for an affiliate program that wants to help you help yourself.

#5 Fresh Ideas, Creatives
Many affiliate programs provide few ideas or creatives to their affiliates and so thousands of web pages end up with the same advertising. However, affiliate programs would have a better success rate if many different ads were made available so affiliates could alternate ads and place different ads on different sites, depending on the products sold.

Commit these five mistakes to memory so you know exactly what you are looking for in an affiliate program, as well as what to avoid. You will be much more successful and happier as well if you do not get caught in these traps!

About the Author: Michael Turner reveals step-by-step how you can increase search engine traffic in his free 7 part mini-series. Grab it now at http://www.powertraffictactics.com/
Source: www.isnare.com

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Affiliate Programs : Golden Opportunity or Waste of Time?

by: Steven O. Ng
Now that the idea of doing business over the internet has been firmly established, many potential internet businessmen are searching for the best way to do business. Usually the choice comes down to whether you want to set up your own business and online store, or sign up for an affiliate program.

First of all, let's define what we mean by an affiliate program. An affiliate program is basically an internet business set up by someone else. They could be selling physical goods, education, information or any other products that can be sold online. By signing up as their affiliate, you are helping them promote their business or store. In return, they will pay you a commission for each sale you bring them. The amount of commission varies between different affiliate programs. Examples of affiliate programs include Amazon.com and Wordtracker, which you can visit at:

http://www.onlinebiz-help.com/links/wordtracker.html

1) EARNINGS

So how does an affiliate program differ from starting your own online store? Let's start by looking at the potential earnings. (After all, the main reason everyone wants to start an internet business is for the money). When you sign up for an affiliate program, you will be paid a commission for each sale you refer to the online store. This commission can range from 5% to 15% for physical products, and possibly up to 50% or more for virtual products such as subscriptions and ebooks.

On the other hand, if you start your own store, your profit can be much higher. For virtual products, your profit can be 100% of your selling price. After all, once the newsletter or ebook is created, you do not need to spend any more effort. When someone buys your ebook, they just download it from your website. If you are selling a physical product, your profit depends on whether you are manufacturing the product yourself, or buying from a wholesaler or dropshipping company. Your profit in this case could easily be more than 40% or 50%.

So, if you only consider the potential earnings, starting your own business is more lucrative than joining an affiliate program.

2) LOGISTICS

However, money isn't everything (Or so they say). When you are starting your own internet business, there are a number of logistic issues you need to look at. Here are a few things you would need to take care of:

a) Create your website
b) Design your product (if you are selling new products)
c) Create your product (if you are selling new physical products, or any virtual products)
d) Set up an online store
e) Set up a merchant account or payment gateway
f) Set up a warehouse or storage space (if you are selling physical products)
g) Have procedures and staff ready to fulfill orders
h) Set up an affiliate program to get others to market the products for you
i) Monitor for fraud
j) Monitor stock levels

As they say, "No pain, no gain". Having your own store pays very well, but requires a substantial time investment from you.

On the other hand, if you sign up for an affiliate program, all you need to do is set up a website to promote the program. All the ads, banners, marketing text etc will be provided to you by the affiliate program. Your only responsibilities would be to get people to visit your website, and hopefully click on the affiliate links to buy the products that you are promoting.

3) CONVERSION

Whether you have your own business or are promoting an affiliate program, the bottom line is the conversion rate, or the percentage of visitors that actually buy something from you. A number of factors influence this conversion rate. Factors as quality of the product, quality of the website, customer support are all important. However, I personally believe that the most important factor is trust.

When a potential customer arrives at your website, he will need to trust your site enough for him to be willing to buy from you. After all, on the internet you are just a faceless salesman. He doesn't know who is actually running the site and whether he will actually get the goods that he orders.

Having said that, one of the key methods of garnering trust is by recommendation and referral. If a store is being referred to or recommended by another website, the potential customer will feel that the store is trustworthy. After all, if the store is not trustworthy, why would the other website recommend it?

This is where affiliate programs shine. When you refer a potential customer to the store for which you are an affiliate, the customer will feel more relieved, since the store is being recommended by your site, a 3rd party. The customer will be more likely to buy from the store, benefiting both the store, and you as well.

There are both pros and cons to joining an affiliate program. You might earn less with an affiliate program compared to starting your own store, but I believe the benefits of not having to be responsible for the logistics makes affiliate programs are very viable "passive" source of income.

For more information on affiliate programs, do visit http://www.onlinebiz-help.com

About the Author

Steven is the webmaster of http://www.onlinebiz-help.com - Your Guide To Internet Business. His website contains various resources on affiliate programs and internet marketing advice to help you succeed in your internet business.

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5 Steps to Massive Profits - A Business Marketing Tip

by: Steve Majors

Here's a business marketing tip to gain maximum profit from any product or service in your business marketing lineup, and how you will gain extreme profits when you follow these 5 simple, LAZY steps;

1. Look not at what you are offering through your business marketing efforts - look at WHO WILL BUY your product/service. Make a picture of your 'typical buyer' -
who they are, their age, what they like to do, etc. This is often known as the 'target market prospect', yet, the more detailed you define this 'target' in your business
marketing, the better.

I've even gone to the point of giving this 'target market' person a name and put a picture up on my computer monitor (find a 'friendly face' on the Internet somewhere and 'tag'
it as your target market prospect) - get your business marketing centered around every aspect of your target - the more you know them, the easier it is to chat about what they
need.

2. Develop a list of your target market prospect's likes and dislikes as it would relate to a product/service similar to yours. (You'll get a 'third party' look at your competition,
as well as some inside looks at their business marketing efforts.)

Consider some questions they would have, or some typical objections to buying this similar product/service (this may come from your previous research, or you may have to simply do some).

One way to personalize the business marketing research of your 'target market prospect' is to 'role play' - think about your prospect as a good friend that you are having a
picnic with (or even a co-worker at the water cooler, etc.) and in passing, your friend brings up that 'similar' product/service.

What do they say about it?

What are their questions/concerns?

Is there a 'running joke' about the competition's product/service that defines a hole in their business marketing? (i.e., "Did you hear about the lady that used X?")

All these things need to be addressed, and documented.
Let your mind be creative and wander, but keep it to a time limit - about 15-20 minutes per business marketing 'play' session. Think of nothing but this 'conversation' during
this creative (often fun) time.

It might even be helpful for you to say everything that comes to mind out loud during these business marketing planning sessions(as silly as that sounds, it works...) and
record it, as some of the best business marketing ideas get overlooked when you are trying to write them down quickly.

Listening back for those 'nuggets' might even trigger other 'bits of business marketing gold' for you to work with.

3. Figure out how your product/service and business marketing plan is similar, yet different than the competition. Just how does your solution overcome all the
questions, concerns and yes, even 'jokes' from your target?

If you can't answer these questions for yourself, how would you expect to answer them from your prospect?

The beautiful part about this business marketing exercise is that, if you go through it with commitment, you will already know the answers to the prospect's questions BEFORE they ask them - which quickly eliminates any fears you might have about talking with them.

4. Continue this simple exercise - every couple days for a week or so. Giving 15-20 minutes of serious thought to your business marketing plan and role playing every couple days will stimulate your conscious mind, as well as keep your unconscious mind actively thinking about it.

You'll be surprised at the outcome of taking these steps seriously.

But be forewarned - you will very likely have a very different outlook about your prospect after one week of this simple, yet extremely effective business marketing, 'target
market' finding tool!

You will know them as well as you know yourself, so you will be able to talk with them about things quickly, simply and with the best, consistent results of your business marketing efforts.

5. Now, take a look at your product/service and business marketing plan - through the prospect's eyes (now that you can clearly see through them...)

Does it fit your prospect's needs?

Does it answer their questions and eliminate their fears?

Is it priced right for your target prospect?

Is there a market for your product/service other than your personalized target market prospect? (This step is vital as a 'reality check" - and one that many business marketing
planners miss)

When you follow these five steps faithfully, you will have credibility, knowledge and successful long-term relationships with your customers (who used to be simply
'target market prospects' before you understood the power of this business marketing tip!).

About the author:
Steve Majors - To-the-point training and coaching for business and wealth creation through creative Real Estate investing. Known as "The Lazy Investor", with courses and training sessions to slingshot your success. http://SteveMajors.com

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5 Reasons NOT To Have a Marketing Plan

by: Bobette Kyle
Imagine your perfect customers -- the ones that will eagerly buy your products or hire you for premium pay. Imagine being able to bring those perfect customers to you and having them buy your products or services not once, but again and again. That's what an effectively executed marketing plan does. It reaches the people who want what you are offering, convinces them to take action, and keeps them coming back.

Sounds nice, right? So why doesn't every business have a marketing plan? Let's take a look at some of the reasons you may not:

1. "We had a marketing plan once, but it didn't work. It isn't worth the time to put one together."

No marketing plan will work if you do not work the plan. The planning document is there for business managers to use as a strategic reference throughout the year, as programs in the plan are executed and as other opportunities come along. Any marketing plan that is filed away and forgotten as soon as it's written is useless.

2. "So-and-so had a marketing plan and it didn't help his business at all!"

Marketing is a process, not a singular event. A marketing plan is only the first step in that process. It points your business in the right direction by detailing marketing strategies and programs that will move you toward business objectives.

You must execute the programs in your plan so that you can evaluate program success. Rarely does a marketing program work best on the first try. It is up to you to analyze barriers to success, then tweak and tinker until you are getting positive results. If you ignore critical follow-up, most of your marketing programs -- whether you have a marketing plan or not -- will fail or fall short of their potential for success.

3. "Marketing planning is too hard."

Writing a marketing plan doesn't have to be complicated. There are different levels of planning. More intricate marketing planning processes will result in more refined strategies, with better potential for success. But, if you have limited resources, a top-line approach to planning is much better than none at all.

4. "We don't know how to write a marketing plan."

There are numerous books, software, "toolbox" resources, and articles that take you step-by-step through the process of creating a marketing plan. Frankly, not knowing how is an excuse, not a reason, to avoid marketing planning.

5. "My business is too small for a marketing plan."

Sound marketing strategy is critical to small business success, especially new businesses. Statistics vary widely depending on the source, but most reports cite failure rates for small business at 65% -- 90%. Knowing ahead of time how you will compete and how you will be successful in your marketplace can dramatically increase your chances of success.

Your marketing plan is a vital key to small business success. If you do not have a current plan, start one today. Your company's success depends on it.

About the author:
Bobette Kyle has been proprietor at
http://www.WebSiteMarketingPlan.comsince 2002. For tips on
how to make the marketing plan process go smoothly, visit
http://www.MarketingPlanArticles.comand read "Tips to Help
Calm ‘Marketing Plan Panic.'

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3 Powerful Concepts That Climb Marketing Mountains

by: Michael Nicholas


You have probably heard many times how you should offer
fr.ee reports. Like many of us, the idea of putting in work
to give something away may have gone through you
transparent. (Right in your mind's ear and out the other :>)

So, if you passed over this idea before, you are not alone.
However, I am here to tell you to reconsider it and for
good reason. Why? Because this is one idea that is doable
from any level. And, it still works and always will.

It can get your marketing off the ground without much if
any costs. It can literally be your marketing vehicle to
gain exposure, build a email list and even crank in
affiliate commissions along the way.

This is not just another gorilla marketing tactic for folks
who can't afford to advertise. Not at all. It's way more
than that. Top marketers still use fr.ee reports as a
legitimate marketing tool.

Why? Because they can penetrate a valuable message
almost instantly with the least amount of marketing friction.

In this article you will discover why Fr.ee, Branding and
Viral are 3 powerful concepts that hold a strong place in
online marketing. You can get in on it now and climb some
marketing mountains - here's how.

"Fr.ee" speaks for itself. It can cheapify or gratify
depending on how you present it. There are many ways to add
value to make people want what you will give them. Offer
useful information to a targeted group and they'll eat it
out of your hands.

"Viral Marketing" is a coined term in Internet marketing
which indicates a passing from one to another - like a
virus.

"Branding" is the key to viral marketing. This is a form of
personalization that can be passed along from marketer to
recipient. Then the recipient can also pass it along as a
marketer to his recipients, and so on.

This forms an ongoing cycle that carries with it an
incentive to keep the distribution in motion. Your
personalization can travel along by literally hundreds,
even thousands carrying links leading back to you and the products you represent.

Sound complicated? - It's not!

So, how does this viral marketing information get into so many hands? Again, it's the incentive that everyone involved can achieve something. This propels the viral distribution. And it's all possible because of branding!

Hot Tip: Think of it this way.

How many thousands of people do you think are interested in buying a popular ebook or piece of software that you already own?

What you should do then is create a fr.ee special report teaching something useful about the product. Show them a few of it's many benefits before they buy it and they may just
decide to buy it through your affiliate link.

That's the power of the 3 concepts and it works like a charm everyday on the Internet. Please don't over look this very important point.

So, what's in branding reports for you?

Great question - let's go over it.

For example:

* In return for joining your email list, you can use fr.ee branded reports offering them to your signups.

* You can let others a give them away adding useful content to their websites or even as an added bonus with products that you sell.

* You make affiliate commissions when someone buys from your branded links inside the report(s).

And, even if you are branding someone else's report, there's about zero work involved and you can still benefit as if it's your own.

By giving away fr.ee reports, you can dramatically build your email list and boost affiliate commissions. The more viral reports you use in your marketing, the more it
will increase your opportunities.

So, remember to offer several Fr.ee Branded Viral Reports and let the multiplicity of the Internet work for (c) Michael Nicholas -All Rights Reserved

About the author:
Michael Nicholas' 1st special report received an explosive
692 signups in just 48 hours adding 1600 new subscribers in
just 1 week! To find out how he did it, get his Free How To
Brand Report! http://www.orderbuttontriggers.com/pdf-report

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