The truth about affiliate programs and how to make money

by: Mac
The truth about affiliate programs and how to make money on the net!

Have you ever wondered how to make money sitting at home or even keeping your job while you build a residual income on the internet? You may be struggling to make a living and wanting to find a way of building a residual income for yourself on the internet.

I found the biggest challenge in joining the affiliate marketing scene on the web was the isolation I experienced. “Am I doing this correctly?” was the constant question I asked of myself.
Like you, maybe, when I was starting off, I wasn't sure if my affiliate links were properly set, I continually worried about whether the search engines would rank me high enough to get traffic. Waiting for indexing was agonizing at times!!!!!
Someone with a successful online business, who would have talked to me about their experience in establishing their affiliate networks would have been worth their weight in $$$$$. I would have appreciated a mentor!!!
You can talk to us, we have done the homework for you and sorted out the best affiliate programs on the web today.
You will have seen all the “hype” about how to earn enormous amounts of money on the Internet. Most of these people have never earned a dollar online!! All they are trying to do is sell you a gimmick that has no substance. It won’t earn you a dollar either.
If you are fed up and are ready to hear some truth about the internet and affiliate marketing read on.
Have you ever heard anyone say “there’s no money to be made by promoting affiliate programs”? NOT TRUE. They have either not tried it themselves, or are keeping the secret, not wanting you to share in the wealth.
The truth is you can make money online by promoting affiliate programs. A lot of people have been able to leave their jobs and make a fantastic living just by promoting other people’s products.
Look at this list, just a small sample of BIG brand name companies that use affiliate programs to promote their products online
•Amazon.com
•Barnes & Noble
•Dell
•Discover Card
•Dollar Rent-a-Car
•eBay
•Eddie Bauer
•Gateway
•Gap
•KMart
•New York Times
•NBC
•Old Navy
•Patagonia
•PayLess Shoes
•PetSmart
•SONY
•Sports Authority
•Staples
•TimeLife
•USA Today
•Verizon Wireless
•Weight Watchers

Read this and consider again the value of affiliate programs!!!

Commission Junction, Linkshare and BeFree have been built solely to administer online merchants' affiliate programs. We can tell you, form experience, that any company trying to do business on the web WITHOUT an affiliate program nowadays, is going to have a tough time..
The first step in making money online is to get your products! Making money online is not any different from making money anywhere. You need to have in demand, high quality products to sell and an effective method for marketing those products.
Finding top quality products to sell is easy. All you have to do is join a reputable affiliate program and resell other people’s products for profit. You can make money online as an affiliate every time someone visits your website and clicks on a link to learn more about one of the products
Here's how it works: When someone visits your website and clicks on a product link, they will be redirected to a new sales page and have the opportunity to purchase the product. Just for providing the link to the product from your site, you will earn a generous commission every time a sale is made.
In fact, all the actual selling, follow-up, product delivery and customer satisfaction issues will be handled for you automatically. Your ONLY job is to promote the website I setup for you (I'll show you how do that... In fact it's really easy!) and cash your checks each month. It really is that simple.
Many people earn a full-time income working from home as an affiliate and many can earn over $10000.00 per year in this business.
To make that happen, you absolutely must choose affiliate programs that pay generous commissions for top quality products that are in high demand!
You can have a professionally designed website 100 % ready to take orders right now! Your new website will be designed to sell products from 5 of the MOST respected, MOST reliable and HIGHEST PAYING affiliate programs in the world.
Empowerism
SFI
Internet Marketing Warriors
Traffic Swarm
Internet Marketing Center

These affiliate programs include international moneymaking ventures like Empowerism who provides a powerful and proven system to take a one-time $25 investment and turn it into $2,000.00 over and over again!
You can’t lose with all this support and expertise at your fingertips!!
Click here http://www.pluginforprofit.com/pips.html and get your new website today. Guaranteed residual income for the rest of your life!

About the Author

I am a small business owner in New Zealand

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How to Evaluate an Affiliate Program

by: Sanjay Johari

How to Evaluate an Affiliate Program
©2004-2005 Sanjay Johari
There are thousands of affiliate programs offering wide range of benefits to their affiliates. However, many of these programs and the claims they make are not to be trusted. Good affiliate programs provide tremendous earning opportunities, but they need to be evaluated to distinguish them from doubtful ones. There are several factors to consider before someone decides to join any affiliate program.

Products: Organizations which operate affiliate programs generally have some products to sell. These products can be in form of physical products, e-products or services. It is important to ascertain that the organization has some products to sell and that it recruits affiliates to help them in running their business. One should be very careful with any organization that has recruitment of affiliates as their main business. It is best to avoid such organizations because their affiliate structure is like a house of cards which can crumble at slightest impact.

The organizations which have products to sell and market them thru affiliate programs cut down on the cost of advertising and distribution. This amounts to considerable savings which they share with their affiliates. If a new affiliate is already familiar with the products, this can be helpful but this is not a necessary pre-condition to join affiliate program. New affiliates can learn about the products quite fast.

Organization's Track Record : It is not difficult to find out about the organization before joining it affiliate program. Search engines are one of the sources which can be used for this purpose. Verifying the testimonials presented by the organization is another source of information. The organization should have proven track record of operating their programs for several years successfully. If the organization is new or just starting, the person starting the program should be well known with good credibility. This is precaution against joining organizations which promise get-rich-quick scheme and then disappear.

Support Available to Affiliates : Most of the new affiliates joining any affiliate program are new to the field of marketing on the internet. They need guidance and support for promoting their business and earning money for themselves. It is in the interest of the organization to help their affiliates to succeed. These organizations are in their business for considerable longer time than the affiliates, are more knowledgeable about their market and about the ways of promoting their products. They are in best position to provide their affiliates with proper guidance. Many organizations have excellent support system by way of trainings, tutorials, articles, books, marketing plans, marketing tools, forums just to name a few. These are generally available from websites accessible to the affiliates.

Apart form the promotional material and information available from the website, personal guidance can be vital. A new affiliate may not be familiar with all the resources available and will look for mentoring at least in initial stages. It should be remembered by the affiliate that her success will add to the success of the organization, the organization is obliged to help her.

Payment : Another factor to consider is the mode and frequency of payment to the affiliates. The affiliate should make sure that this suits her. Just to give an example - many organizations make payments thru PayPal, but PayPal does not transmit money to all the countries. Such details should be checked before putting time and effort for any affiliate program.

Affiliate Structure : There are many different ways in which organizations build up their affiliate structure. Many organizations have single tier structure in which affiliate is only paid commission for sale. Other affiliate structures are 2-level or multi-level deep in which the affiliate earns also from the efforts of personally sponsored members. In turn, the affiliate is expected to help her sponsored members to earn for themselves. This is one great feature of multi-level marketing leading to leveraged earning. You can read my article on leveraged earning at this URL :

http://www.sanjay-j.com/artlever.html

There are still more variations in the structure. Some organizations allow a limited number of affiliates directly under each affiliate. There is no "ideal" affiliate structure. But it is important to have clarity in the structure and the affiliate should understand the structure.

Compensation Plan : There is lot of variation in compensation plans starting from simple commission to more elaborate plan in which affiliates additionally earn thru the efforts of their sponsored downline members and also from a common pool. I personally favor plans which have provision for leveraged earnings where teamwork really counts. Residual earning is another attractive feature of affiliate marketing which can build into sizeable income over a period of time. I am not against any compensation plan so long as it is understandable and appears reasonable. You have perhaps noticed that I have put this factor as the last consideration. However it is an important consideration after all other considerations are found acceptable.

Persistence Pays - It takes time to build up business with any affiliate program, no matter how good the program appears. After joining any affiliate program after thorough evaluation, one needs to stay with the program giving it time to build the earning. Get-rich-quick scheme do work some times but they are rare exception rather than the rule and cannot be depended upon.

This small slogan should be ingrained in the thinking when someone joins an affiliate program:

PERSISTENCE PAYS.
============================================
Sanjay Johari regularly contributes articles on small business to various ezines. Benefit from International Success Mentoring! Earn while you learn - join the longest running internet business opportunity, because it works.
http://www.sanjay-j.com/empowerism.html

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How To Maximize Your Profit Promoting Affiliate Programs

by: Ken Hill
Promoting affiliate programs can provide you with a good extra income or even a full time income online.

To help you maximize your profit promoting affiliate programs, I've provided the following tips to help you successfully market your affiliate programs more effectively to your site's visitors.

1. Publish an e-zine.

Running an e-zine will allow you to run prime position ads for your affiliate programs in every issue you publish, and is the #1 way for you to follow up with your site's visitors.

You can also easily increase your commissions by sending out special announcements to your subscriber base whenever one of the affiliate programs you promote is offering a special bonus or a special limited time offer.

Once you build up your circulation you can further increase your profits by charging for ad space in your publication.

2. Use a pop up on your site that promotes your e-zine.

Using a pop up as a well as a subscription e-mail or form on your site can substantially increase the number of your visitors that subscribe to your publication.

Your pop up will draw your visitors' attention right to your e-zine, and if you offer your visitors free bonuses for subscribing to your e-zine such as free ebooks or free ads you can further increase the number of visitors who subscribe to your publication.

3. Offer free e-mail workshops (e-mail courses) to your visitors.

Making e-mail workshops will enable you to effectively promote one or several affiliate programs that offer products that relate to the subject of your workshop.

Many affiliate programs provide their affiliates with articles to post on their sites or run in their e-zines which you can use to successfully form the different parts of your workshop.

If you already write articles, you can easily use your own articles to form the different parts of your workshop and transform your articles into yet another powerful marketing tool.

To get the most out of your e-mail workshops, offer your workshops both on your site and by using a pop up, and use your workshops to increase subscriptions to your e-zine as well as repeat visitors your website.

4. Publish your articles on your site.

Posting your articles on your site is a great way to continually add content to your site and draw more repeat visitors.

To successfully use your articles to promote affiliate programs offer a free e-mail workshop in your resource box or use your resource box to promote your e-zine.

This will provide you with an effective way to successfully follow up with your prospects when your articles get published as well as when your visitors read your articles.

5. Offer free ebooks on your site.

Many affiliate programs provide their affiliates with ebooks they can rebrand with their unique affiliate URL and these can be used as an effective marketing tool.

The best way to promote your affiliate programs with ebooks, however, is to make your own ebooks.

If you write your own articles, you can create a unique promotional item by making an ebook compilation of your articles with links to affiliate programs you promote.

You can also create a best of compilation of your e-zine's top issues to drive more subscriptions to your publication or if you make e-mail workshops you can transform these into your ebooks content.

To further increase your profits, offer your ebooks as a free bonus or part of a free bonus for subscribing to your e-zine, and/or allow your visitors to rebrand your ebook with a link to their own business, affiliate program or opportunity.


About the Author

Article © 2002 by writer, Ken Hill. Discover proven strategies to generating more profit promoting affiliate programs. Get your FREE 10 Part Guide To Success With Affiliate Programs marketing course now at mailto:affiliatecourse@zipresponse.com

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Choosing an Affiliate program

by: Kevin Sinclair
What should you consider when choosing an affiliate program? You need to think about two key things: what business are you in and what can the affiliate program provide to your customers.

No matter what business you are in, the largest investment you make will be customer acquisition. If you have your own product, and have acquired a base of satisfied customers, then single product affiliate programs could work very well for you.

However, if your business is acquiring customers for other businesses, that is, purely affiliate programs, then a better choice for you could be affiliate programs with multiple products or services. This will help you to capitalise on your investment in customer acquisition.

The key to choosing successfully is to ensure that the affiliate program offers products that meet the needs of your potential customers. Coupled with this is the need for the products to be high quality and for the supplier to provide excellent customer service. Remember, your credibility is on the line every time you refer someone to buy through your affiliate relationship.

Some of the other factors I consider when evaluating affiliate programs include:

+ Is the affiliate program a reputable business? You can check out a business you are considering a relationship with in variety of ways. Talk to the Better Business Bureau in your local area or a similar body. In addition, I find web sites that monitor affiliate programs to be worth looking at. The best I have found is Associate Programs http://www.AssociatePrograms.com. Allan Gardyne pulls no punches and tells it as it is.

+ Does the program enable you to share in the lifetime value of the customer? Great programs will give you commissions on all future purchases of the customers you introduce. This is where the real profits are. These types of programs, in effect, allow you to partner with the supplier.

+ Does the program reward you for introducing other affiliates? This type of program is commonly referred to as a two-tier program. Often your customer may become an affiliate also and you will be rewarded for this.

+ Is the supplier interested in your success as an affiliate? The top affiliate programs engage in a process of coaching or information sharing to help you succeed. Affiliates are provided with regular newsletters outlining what is working for successful affiliates and providing updates and details on new products.

+ Is the commission reasonable? Commission rates on commodity products such as books and CDs are low. This is because there is very little margin in the products due to competition. Look for products that have a commission rate of 15% or more that are not commodities - that way you will be better able to recoup your customer acquisition investment.

+ Are statistics provided? The higher the level of statistics provided, the better off you are. This will enable you to measure the success of your marketing efforts and to determine the best places to invest your marketing dollars. Insufficient statistics is a sign that the affiliate program is not sufficiently interested in your success.

+ Are new products being developed regularly? To get the full value from lifetime commissions, new products need to be introduced on a regular basis. Without this, lifetime commissions can be worthless. Also, look for consistent high quality in new products introduced.

+ How frequently are commissions paid? The more frequently commissions are paid, the better off you are. Good quality affiliate programs will pay you monthly. In some situations, commissions are not paid until a certain level is reached. If the program you are considering has this requirement, check how many sales need to be made before the level is reached.

+ Have you read the affiliate agreement? This is a key area that you should look at. Some affiliate agreements are totally in favour of the supplier. Others are more balanced. Some agreements restrict your ability to promote similar products from other suppliers. Most agreements have anti-spam provisions. Look for agreements that are fair and that do not stack everything against you as the affiliate.

While there are other factors that can be considered when choosing an affiliate program, following the suggestions above will help you to make superior business choices that will lead to long-term success.

About the author:

Article by Kevin Sinclair, CPA, of Be Successful! Business & Personal Success Resources ( http://www.ksinclair.com/ ). He is the author of 2 free ebooks: "Success Secrets" & "How To Choose A Home Based Business". Kevin is also the publisher of "Be Successful News" - a free ezine dedicated to your online business success - to subscribe, visit http://www.ksinclair.com/pbs_news.htm

www.ksinclair.com

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Affiliate Programs Are Wonderlands Of Opportunities

by: Mal Keenan
Copyright 2005 Mal Keenan

We have previously discussed affiliate programs in passing. But in this article, we’re going to get an overview of this subfield of Internet marketing and how it could help bring about some stable and generous earnings for you.

It has been said that affiliate programs are the easiest ways to online riches. There is a lot of truth in that statement, though it must be remembered that affiliate marketing is still a job, albeit one which you could do in the comforts of your own home, hence, you cannot make the most out of it without exerting some effort.

Even if you are not familiar with affiliate programs, I’m sure you have encountered some in your years on the Internet. For certain, you have visited a site that was suggesting a book from www.amazon.com to supplement the information its pages revealed. That site’s webmaster, my friend, is an affiliate. And if you decided to purchase the book he recommended, he would have earned a commission from the merchant site.

Amazon, indeed, is the first business model for affiliate programs. There are more, of course, usually asking the affiliate partner to sell web hosting, domain names, and tangible products. But it’s the affiliate programs which offer information products that often give the highest commissions.

But first, let’s discuss how affiliate programs work. There are three parties in affiliate programs:

* The affiliate merchant
* The affiliate
* The buyer

The affiliate merchant is the one who has products to sell. He would establish an affiliate program to invite affiliates to pre-sell his products. Once the affiliate finds a buyer, he would recommend the same to the affiliate merchant. The affiliate merchant would then sell his products to the buyer. If the buyer buys, the affiliate merchant would give the affiliate his corresponding commission.

Selling and pre-selling are two different things. Pre-selling usually involves referrals and an earnest attempt to convince the buyer to try the products being endorsed. When an affiliate enrolls in an affiliate program, he is given a code which is called an affiliate link. This affiliate link has his designation embedded on it, so whenever a sale is consummated by virtue of the said link, the affiliate program’s system would be able to determine that the commission due shall accrue for the affiliate.

Selling, on the other hand, is primarily the task of the affiliate merchant. This includes payment processing, delivery and shipment if applicable, and post-sales support.

Easy isn’t it? All you have to do is to enroll in an affiliate program, market the products with your affiliate link, and you could earn wonderful commissions! Plus, you have the option of automating everything through your site, or through some creative strategies that have worked for many people.

But this shouldn’t be taken to mean that affiliate marketing can only be carried out through your website. The fact of the matter is, you could be a very successful affiliate even without the benefit of having a website!

These matters we will reserve for another day, so again, I plead, bookmark this site and I promise that you will not regret it.

Affiliate programs can be fertile sources of plentiful earnings. All you have to do is to choose the right one. Here are some points to consider in deciding on an affiliate program:

* Quality of the products
* Salability of the products
* Commission rate dependent of salability of the products (a highly sellable product with an equally high commission is ideal, but a highly sellable product with modest commission is also good, as finding buyers would be easy)
* Credibility of affiliate merchant
* Support from affiliate merchant

Additionally, you could enroll in as many affiliate programs you want. But since you could only have 24 hours in a day to do the marketing, there are risks in diversifying. So proceed with prudence before engaging in many affiliate agreements.


About the author:
For An Affiliate Program You Can Believe In Click Below: http://www.workathomebiz.info/pluginprofitsite.html Discover the Secrets of Starting and Running a Successful Home Business and Receive Loads of Free Bonuses for Subscribing to Our Newsletter: http://www.home-business-tips-newsletter.com/

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