Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Choosing the Best Affiliate Program - What You Absolutely Mu
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.* CommissionOf 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 ProductsAnother 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.* ExperienceExperience 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!
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Internet Affiliate Programs: The Fundamentals of Creating In
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!
… 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!
Affiliate Programs : Golden Opportunity or Waste of Time?
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.html1) EARNINGSSo 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) LOGISTICSHowever, 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 websiteb) 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 storee) Set up a merchant account or payment gatewayf) Set up a warehouse or storage space (if you are selling physical products)g) Have procedures and staff ready to fulfill ordersh) Set up an affiliate program to get others to market the products for youi) Monitor for fraudj) Monitor stock levelsAs 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) CONVERSIONWhether 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
About the Author
5 Mistakes To Avoid When Choosing An Affiliate Program
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, SupportToo 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 RewardAnother 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 AnyYou 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 SupportToo 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, CreativesMany 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!
Affiliate Programs
Everywhere you look you see affiliate program offers forevery product or service that you can think of. Some havefully automated systems that sell high volumes of hardproducts all over the world. In case you don't know, "hard"products are those that you can touch...unlike an ebook ordownloadable web template. Many affiliate programs haveseveral thousand affiliates and one or two of the biggercompanies have over one million affiliates.
What are the advantages of joining an affiliate program?
They provide a ready-made business. This is a very big plusfor those people who want to earn some kind of living offthe Internet but lack the knowledge or inclination to set upa business by themselves.
Commissions and rewards are generally good, and the moreestablished programs offer a real chance of advancement tohigher and better-paid levels.
Other affiliates are usually on hand to offer practicalsupport.
What are the limitations?
You are restricted in your promotional activities due to thefact that you do not actually own the affiliate site theygive you. You won't be able to put such things as banners,images, links, meta tags, etc. onto your page.The URL of your affiliate page is often either too long orcontains such awkward things as question marks, which manySearch Engines will not index.
Any promotional ads or articles have probably already beenused by thousands of other people and consequently may havelost its impact, making it more difficult to achieve salesor referrals.
If the program you have joined has not yet establisheditself (or in some cases even if it has), then you mayencounter problems with payments owed to you not beinghonored. You also run the risk of low quality products orsub-standard statistics that do not accurately record howmany referrals or sales you have made.
You may be required to purchase a minimum quantity of theproduct on a regular basis before you start to qualify forcommissions or even before you can become an affiliate.You may not get the technical or affiliate support you mightexpect from the company. This may be due to inadequatestaffing, or the company's negligence.
Other people in your downline do nothing to promote theprogram.
At least four of the above limitations can be overcome witha little time and effort. You could, for example, come upwith fresher ads to promote the program (provided this isallowed).
If the company supplies the email addresses of people inyour downline, then you could offer to help the less activemembers. Very often these people are passive not becausethey are lazy or apathetic but merely because they don'tknow HOW to promote effectively! your guidance could meanthe difference between no sales or referrals and healthydownlines and residual incomes.
As regards promoting your actual page, here are a couple oflittle tricks that should overcome a number ofrestrictions:
Cloak your Affiliate URL to stop hijackers Affiliate MaskerWhile this will not help you to get listed on the majorSearch Engines, it will make your web page easier forprospects to remember and type into their browser's addressbar.
Go to your affiliate page. Place your mouse pointer anywhereon the page and right click once. In the drop-down boxchoose "View Source". This will display the HTML for thepage. Save this to your hard drive as a HTML document usingthe "Save As" function. Upload the page to your web site.If you don't have a web site then get some free web spacefrom one of these:
http://www.tripod.com/http://www.fortunecity.com/http://www.hypermart.net/index.gsphttp://www.coolchat.com/http://www.crosswinds.net/http://www.htmlpublishing.com/http://www.freehomepages.com/http://www.pageproducer.com/
Submit your 'new' page to the Search Engines. You are alsonow able to place banner codes, links, images, testimonials,in fact anything you want onto these pages, because you arein control of the HTML. A word of caution, though. Don'tchange the actual HTML of your original affiliate page. Justput the other stuff, like banners etc, around it.
Making this "mirror page" of your affiliate page willdramatically improve your advertising options.
Contact Email Address: publisher@aboutaffiliates.comWord Count: 689Category: Affiliate MarketingCopyright Date: 8/16/04Internet Address: http://aboutaffiliates.com/news/viewarticle.php?id=11 Autoresponder Address: workingaff@aboutaffiliates.com Special Requirements For Reprint:
You have permission to publish this article in your ezine or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the byline is included and the article is included in it's entirety. I also ask that you activate any html links found in the article and in the byline.
You may not use this article in any publication that is not-optin (spam). A courtesy copy of the publication or link to the website you use my article on would be appreciated.
What are the advantages of joining an affiliate program?
They provide a ready-made business. This is a very big plusfor those people who want to earn some kind of living offthe Internet but lack the knowledge or inclination to set upa business by themselves.
Commissions and rewards are generally good, and the moreestablished programs offer a real chance of advancement tohigher and better-paid levels.
Other affiliates are usually on hand to offer practicalsupport.
What are the limitations?
You are restricted in your promotional activities due to thefact that you do not actually own the affiliate site theygive you. You won't be able to put such things as banners,images, links, meta tags, etc. onto your page.The URL of your affiliate page is often either too long orcontains such awkward things as question marks, which manySearch Engines will not index.
Any promotional ads or articles have probably already beenused by thousands of other people and consequently may havelost its impact, making it more difficult to achieve salesor referrals.
If the program you have joined has not yet establisheditself (or in some cases even if it has), then you mayencounter problems with payments owed to you not beinghonored. You also run the risk of low quality products orsub-standard statistics that do not accurately record howmany referrals or sales you have made.
You may be required to purchase a minimum quantity of theproduct on a regular basis before you start to qualify forcommissions or even before you can become an affiliate.You may not get the technical or affiliate support you mightexpect from the company. This may be due to inadequatestaffing, or the company's negligence.
Other people in your downline do nothing to promote theprogram.
At least four of the above limitations can be overcome witha little time and effort. You could, for example, come upwith fresher ads to promote the program (provided this isallowed).
If the company supplies the email addresses of people inyour downline, then you could offer to help the less activemembers. Very often these people are passive not becausethey are lazy or apathetic but merely because they don'tknow HOW to promote effectively! your guidance could meanthe difference between no sales or referrals and healthydownlines and residual incomes.
As regards promoting your actual page, here are a couple oflittle tricks that should overcome a number ofrestrictions:
Cloak your Affiliate URL to stop hijackers Affiliate MaskerWhile this will not help you to get listed on the majorSearch Engines, it will make your web page easier forprospects to remember and type into their browser's addressbar.
Go to your affiliate page. Place your mouse pointer anywhereon the page and right click once. In the drop-down boxchoose "View Source". This will display the HTML for thepage. Save this to your hard drive as a HTML document usingthe "Save As" function. Upload the page to your web site.If you don't have a web site then get some free web spacefrom one of these:
http://www.tripod.com/http://www.fortunecity.com/http://www.hypermart.net/index.gsphttp://www.coolchat.com/http://www.crosswinds.net/http://www.htmlpublishing.com/http://www.freehomepages.com/http://www.pageproducer.com/
Submit your 'new' page to the Search Engines. You are alsonow able to place banner codes, links, images, testimonials,in fact anything you want onto these pages, because you arein control of the HTML. A word of caution, though. Don'tchange the actual HTML of your original affiliate page. Justput the other stuff, like banners etc, around it.
Making this "mirror page" of your affiliate page willdramatically improve your advertising options.
Contact Email Address: publisher@aboutaffiliates.comWord Count: 689Category: Affiliate MarketingCopyright Date: 8/16/04Internet Address: http://aboutaffiliates.com/news/viewarticle.php?id=11 Autoresponder Address: workingaff@aboutaffiliates.com Special Requirements For Reprint:
You have permission to publish this article in your ezine or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the byline is included and the article is included in it's entirety. I also ask that you activate any html links found in the article and in the byline.
You may not use this article in any publication that is not-optin (spam). A courtesy copy of the publication or link to the website you use my article on would be appreciated.
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