A vast majority of successful online entrepreneurs are affiliates of successful websites on the net. This is what has continuously attracted many people into joining the ranks of affiliates.
Still most of the folks involved in affiliate programs are unsuccessful and hardly earning anything from it. Here are some common mistakes made by most people joining affiliate programs. Anybody who can try and avoid them will have a higher chance of being successful as an online affiliate.
a) Expecting to do no work and still make money
This has to be the number one reason for failure amongst new affiliates. And the blame for his has to be shared by hype peddlers on the net who make wild claims to attract interest. This seems to be rather infectious because even promoters of some respected affiliate programs end up giving this impression to folks in their promotion material. Matters are made worse by the fact that really successful affiliates seem like they hardly get any work done, which may be true to a certain extent.
Let's out the record straight. There is a lot of very hard work at the beginning if you want to be a successful affiliate. However, once you've gotten your business going, things become a lot easier and the amount of work you have to put in decreases dramatically.
It is like putting up a block of apartments. The initial work is killing but once the building is complete and you get tenants in, the work reduces substantially to just getting the rent collected.
b) Always looking for the better deal
Some affiliates spend most of their time looking for a better deal when it would be better spent promoting their current program. We all tend to procrastinate things as much as possible and there may be a tendency to do anything but not get on with the work. Resist it, stop looking for a better deal and get down to promoting you current program.
c) Joining a program where you do not earn money from affiliates you introduce
It is important that you ensure your program pays you for affiliates you introduce and not just for the business that you bring in yourself. This will impact on your future earnings and is a way of maximizing on all your efforts.
d) Joining programs where you do not have any interest or expertise.
It makes a lot of sense to start with what you know before you move to the unknown and unfamiliar territory. This is why the first affiliate programs that you join are very important, choose them carefully. Later when you start making something, you can get adventurous.
e) Not having your own independent website
Most good affiliate programs will provide you with your own site to help you promote the program. However successful affiliates usually have their own site which they use to promote their affiliate programs. There are several advantages of doing this. The most important is that you are able to build an opt-in email list from some of the visitors you will attract to your site. This list can be used again and again to promote your current affiliate program and others that you may join in the future.
Showing posts with label Affiliate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Affiliate. Show all posts
Sunday, 2 August 2009
3 Ways To STOP Affiliate Link "Hijackers"
Let's face the facts!
Almost everyone online today is looking to make or save a buck any way they can. In the past, most of the people who clicked on your affiliate links used to purchase without a second thought... but, as times get tougher online, it seems a growing number won't!
As money gets tighter and product prices rise, people who know how to manipulate the system will sometimes replace your affiliate ID with theirs and "hijack" your commissions.
Here's an example:
Let's say your affiliate link is www.ebookaboutcats.com/?live-well.
Say the highjacker uses the affiliate ID of captain-hook. What he would do is replace your ID with his, and buy from the URL www.ebookaboutcats.com/?captain-hook.
The bottom line: the hijacker puts your money in his pocket.
In other cases, they can't stand the thought of you "making money off them" so they bypass you by simply chopping off the end of your affiliate link that contains your ID.
Instead of buying from www.ebookaboutcats.com/?live-well, the bypasser will simply "chop off" the affiliate ID at the end and simply buy from the plain URL www.ebookaboutcats.com --without your affiliate ID attached!
Either way, you get cheated out of your rightful commission.
To help you fight these affiliate link hijackers I offer a couple of my best (proven and battle tested) tips, which will at least confuse these "hijackers" and, in many cases, often defeat and disarm them completely.
Side Note: If someone really, really wants to steal your affiliate commission, they will find a way; however, most hijackers are just opportunists who will only act if they see an easy buck.
The first and cheapest way to hide your affiliate links is using a javascript redirect page. This is where you hide your affiliate link in a page on your site using a simple javascript that redirects people to your affiliate link.
It works great not to expose your "naked" affiliate link in your actual email messages and ezine ads, but, once people get redirected to the true affiliate link, many affiliate programs expose the affiliate link along with your ID in the browser address bar.
Here's an example of a redirect script in action. Click => http://www.ebookfire.com/esejs.html
Notice how the link takes you to a page where you can see my affiliate ID, ebookfire, in your web browser's address bar.
Like it or not, someone can replace my ID with theirs and "hijack" the commission... but at least the redirect script keeps them from immediately seeing my "naked" affiliate link (http://hop.clickbank.net/?ebookfire/ebksecrets) when I publish it in my newsletter, email, or on my website.
You can get free redirect scripts just about anywhere you find free javascripts. Here is the script I use http://www.ebookfire.com/jrs.shtml.
A better way to hide your affiliate links is using a zero-frame or "invisible" frame that masks the affiliate link by making it appear you are sending people to a page on your website. In reality, you are actually sending them to your affiliate link.
This is the technique used by those "sub-domain" redirect services that provide you with urls like http://ese.ebookfire.net.
While giving someone a link like that is much better than using a "naked" affiliate link such as http://hop.clickbank.net/?ebookfire/ebksecrets, there is a problem. As soon as someone does a "view >> source" in their web browser they'll see your naked affiliate link plain as day... which instantly blows your cover!
Currently the best way to protect your affiliate commissions from ruthless hijackers is to use a combination of a zero- frame page along with URL encryption. This involves sending someone to URL that looks like a page on your site, but actually pulls in your affiliate link like those "sub- domain" services. However, there's one critical difference...
If someone does a "view >> source" in their browser, you have added protection in that all they will see is a jumble of computer code instead of your naked affiliate link.
Check out this example of a zero-frame with URL encryption in action. Click => http://www.ebookfire.com/ese.html
Side Note: Beware of cloaking scripts that use javascript to mask your affiliate link because they could malfunction in some web browsers.
Here's the bottom line: if you are going to sell through other people's affiliate programs, never send a "naked" affiliate link... you're just asking for people to hijack or bypass you if you do.
If you want to get paid more often through your affiliate links, make sure it's not obvious you're referring people to an affiliate link. If they can't easily see how to hijack or bypass your link, a lot more people who would have taken the money out of your pocket will just go ahead and buy through your link - which is, after all, the whole point! :-)
Almost everyone online today is looking to make or save a buck any way they can. In the past, most of the people who clicked on your affiliate links used to purchase without a second thought... but, as times get tougher online, it seems a growing number won't!
As money gets tighter and product prices rise, people who know how to manipulate the system will sometimes replace your affiliate ID with theirs and "hijack" your commissions.
Here's an example:
Let's say your affiliate link is www.ebookaboutcats.com/?live-well.
Say the highjacker uses the affiliate ID of captain-hook. What he would do is replace your ID with his, and buy from the URL www.ebookaboutcats.com/?captain-hook.
The bottom line: the hijacker puts your money in his pocket.
In other cases, they can't stand the thought of you "making money off them" so they bypass you by simply chopping off the end of your affiliate link that contains your ID.
Instead of buying from www.ebookaboutcats.com/?live-well, the bypasser will simply "chop off" the affiliate ID at the end and simply buy from the plain URL www.ebookaboutcats.com --without your affiliate ID attached!
Either way, you get cheated out of your rightful commission.
To help you fight these affiliate link hijackers I offer a couple of my best (proven and battle tested) tips, which will at least confuse these "hijackers" and, in many cases, often defeat and disarm them completely.
Side Note: If someone really, really wants to steal your affiliate commission, they will find a way; however, most hijackers are just opportunists who will only act if they see an easy buck.
The first and cheapest way to hide your affiliate links is using a javascript redirect page. This is where you hide your affiliate link in a page on your site using a simple javascript that redirects people to your affiliate link.
It works great not to expose your "naked" affiliate link in your actual email messages and ezine ads, but, once people get redirected to the true affiliate link, many affiliate programs expose the affiliate link along with your ID in the browser address bar.
Here's an example of a redirect script in action. Click => http://www.ebookfire.com/esejs.html
Notice how the link takes you to a page where you can see my affiliate ID, ebookfire, in your web browser's address bar.
Like it or not, someone can replace my ID with theirs and "hijack" the commission... but at least the redirect script keeps them from immediately seeing my "naked" affiliate link (http://hop.clickbank.net/?ebookfire/ebksecrets) when I publish it in my newsletter, email, or on my website.
You can get free redirect scripts just about anywhere you find free javascripts. Here is the script I use http://www.ebookfire.com/jrs.shtml.
A better way to hide your affiliate links is using a zero-frame or "invisible" frame that masks the affiliate link by making it appear you are sending people to a page on your website. In reality, you are actually sending them to your affiliate link.
This is the technique used by those "sub-domain" redirect services that provide you with urls like http://ese.ebookfire.net.
While giving someone a link like that is much better than using a "naked" affiliate link such as http://hop.clickbank.net/?ebookfire/ebksecrets, there is a problem. As soon as someone does a "view >> source" in their web browser they'll see your naked affiliate link plain as day... which instantly blows your cover!
Currently the best way to protect your affiliate commissions from ruthless hijackers is to use a combination of a zero- frame page along with URL encryption. This involves sending someone to URL that looks like a page on your site, but actually pulls in your affiliate link like those "sub- domain" services. However, there's one critical difference...
If someone does a "view >> source" in their browser, you have added protection in that all they will see is a jumble of computer code instead of your naked affiliate link.
Check out this example of a zero-frame with URL encryption in action. Click => http://www.ebookfire.com/ese.html
Side Note: Beware of cloaking scripts that use javascript to mask your affiliate link because they could malfunction in some web browsers.
Here's the bottom line: if you are going to sell through other people's affiliate programs, never send a "naked" affiliate link... you're just asking for people to hijack or bypass you if you do.
If you want to get paid more often through your affiliate links, make sure it's not obvious you're referring people to an affiliate link. If they can't easily see how to hijack or bypass your link, a lot more people who would have taken the money out of your pocket will just go ahead and buy through your link - which is, after all, the whole point! :-)
The Secret of Her Success
Despite all the "dot-com" busts a few years ago, the
Internet still represents the ultimate opportunity for some
people to turn their initiative, a good idea, and a few
bucks into a legitimate, profitable business.
One such person, Rosalind Gardner, took her interest in
online dating services and turned it into a business that
generated almost half a million dollars in revenue last year
and should do even better this year.
The fact that she created this business without spending one
dime on product development makes her story even more
amazing.
Rosalind Gardner used to make her living as an air traffic
controller, a job most people consider quite stressful.
After getting tired of swing-shift work, and though she had
no product of her own to sell and needed to make money
relatively quickly, Gardner decided to try her hand at
selling on the Internet.
What she did next might seem simple, but it started an
online venture that would make every dot-com refugee from
1999 drool with envy.
Gardner logged on to OneAndOnly.com, an online dating
service, and signed up as an associate or "affiliate". She
said they were paying "healthy" commissions to any webmaster
who wanted to refer paying customers to them.
Commonly called "affiliate programs," this setup enables
entrepreneurs to create a business promoting other people's
businesses and bypass the entire product development and
product testing phases.
In short, by selling through other people's affiliate
programs, virtually anyone can set up a business online
promoting almost any type of product or service.
Gardner created a website (101date.com), her storefront on
the Internet.
Though she created her own website pages, she suggests that
an effective way to get started even faster is to go to
dollartemplates.com or 4templates.com, buy a website
template for between $10-$30, and modify it to meet your
needs.
"Instead of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on
website design," Gardner advises, "purchase an inexpensive
website template for much less than the cost of dinner and a
movie!"
Gardner also kept the content for her website simple, direct
and effective. Though she wanted to appeal to the widest
possible audience, she kept focused on her narrow "niche" of
online dating.
She wrote a review of the dating service so her visitors
could quickly understand the main benefits, pitfalls,
special features, and other information to see if the
service met their needs. If it did, and they clicked through
her affiliate link to sign up, Gardner made a commission.
To drive traffic to her site, Gardner buys targeted,
keyword-specific ads from google.com and overture.com which
get displayed on the Web's most popular sites, including
Yahoo!, AOL, and MSN.
This type of advertising means she only spends money when
interested people actively searching for dating information
go to her website.
Gardner also offers a newsletter from her dating website
in order to update her visitors when new dating services and
products come available.
The side benefits of publishing the newsletter are many,
including the fact that she can build trust with her
subscribers by sending them valuable articles and
information on a regular basis.
Instead of just referring them over to the merchant's site
and losing them forever, Gardner captures them and makes
them her customer first... and then hands them off to the
merchant.
So what's the secret of her success?
Gardner's system works because:
~ she keeps it simple;
~ she doesn't get slowed down by creating the product
herself;
~ she adds her own unique value to the process with her
reviews and newsletter;
~ she only invests in performance-based advertising.
Further, her added step of going the extra mile to offer
free updates, articles and tips to her growing list helps
her business grow MUCH faster than affiliates who just hand-
off to the merchant website.
By building her list, she can bring visitors back to her
site or send them to other sites through her affiliate link
without having to pay for them again.
So if the system is so simple, why don't more people do it
this way?
My only guess is that maybe it's too simple! Often people
want something complicated in order to feel like a "system"
will work, but often the opposite proves true.
Simple = Powerful = It keeps working!
Internet still represents the ultimate opportunity for some
people to turn their initiative, a good idea, and a few
bucks into a legitimate, profitable business.
One such person, Rosalind Gardner, took her interest in
online dating services and turned it into a business that
generated almost half a million dollars in revenue last year
and should do even better this year.
The fact that she created this business without spending one
dime on product development makes her story even more
amazing.
Rosalind Gardner used to make her living as an air traffic
controller, a job most people consider quite stressful.
After getting tired of swing-shift work, and though she had
no product of her own to sell and needed to make money
relatively quickly, Gardner decided to try her hand at
selling on the Internet.
What she did next might seem simple, but it started an
online venture that would make every dot-com refugee from
1999 drool with envy.
Gardner logged on to OneAndOnly.com, an online dating
service, and signed up as an associate or "affiliate". She
said they were paying "healthy" commissions to any webmaster
who wanted to refer paying customers to them.
Commonly called "affiliate programs," this setup enables
entrepreneurs to create a business promoting other people's
businesses and bypass the entire product development and
product testing phases.
In short, by selling through other people's affiliate
programs, virtually anyone can set up a business online
promoting almost any type of product or service.
Gardner created a website (101date.com), her storefront on
the Internet.
Though she created her own website pages, she suggests that
an effective way to get started even faster is to go to
dollartemplates.com or 4templates.com, buy a website
template for between $10-$30, and modify it to meet your
needs.
"Instead of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on
website design," Gardner advises, "purchase an inexpensive
website template for much less than the cost of dinner and a
movie!"
Gardner also kept the content for her website simple, direct
and effective. Though she wanted to appeal to the widest
possible audience, she kept focused on her narrow "niche" of
online dating.
She wrote a review of the dating service so her visitors
could quickly understand the main benefits, pitfalls,
special features, and other information to see if the
service met their needs. If it did, and they clicked through
her affiliate link to sign up, Gardner made a commission.
To drive traffic to her site, Gardner buys targeted,
keyword-specific ads from google.com and overture.com which
get displayed on the Web's most popular sites, including
Yahoo!, AOL, and MSN.
This type of advertising means she only spends money when
interested people actively searching for dating information
go to her website.
Gardner also offers a newsletter from her dating website
in order to update her visitors when new dating services and
products come available.
The side benefits of publishing the newsletter are many,
including the fact that she can build trust with her
subscribers by sending them valuable articles and
information on a regular basis.
Instead of just referring them over to the merchant's site
and losing them forever, Gardner captures them and makes
them her customer first... and then hands them off to the
merchant.
So what's the secret of her success?
Gardner's system works because:
~ she keeps it simple;
~ she doesn't get slowed down by creating the product
herself;
~ she adds her own unique value to the process with her
reviews and newsletter;
~ she only invests in performance-based advertising.
Further, her added step of going the extra mile to offer
free updates, articles and tips to her growing list helps
her business grow MUCH faster than affiliates who just hand-
off to the merchant website.
By building her list, she can bring visitors back to her
site or send them to other sites through her affiliate link
without having to pay for them again.
So if the system is so simple, why don't more people do it
this way?
My only guess is that maybe it's too simple! Often people
want something complicated in order to feel like a "system"
will work, but often the opposite proves true.
Simple = Powerful = It keeps working!
Keywords, How to find them Effectively
To be a successful affiliate marketer takes a ton of work. You probably know this by now. Really! I hear some of you say. You thought it was a piece of cake, mostly because you don't have to worry about having your own product.
Ok, so no product costs, no shipping costs, no payment processor costs, and so on. So what is so hard about being a successful affiliate.
Glad you asked! Your first step should be to make a marketing plan, or as I call it, a 'decision plan'. How many of us really make a complete marketing plan. (Not me!) I know we sh ould, but mine never completed. This is where you decide what niche, or specialtiy you want to 'major' in.
Why don't I just be in 'affiliate marketing'? you ask. Wow, talk about shooting yourself in the foot before you get off the ground. It's TOO competitive, don't you know! Also too general, maybe too vague, all over the map so to speak.
So how come it's good enough for Best Affiliate Products but too much for you? Firstly, I must mention that I do have other niche markets, and some in both the planning and preparation stages. I do heed my own advise. Secondly, someone has to protect you and lead you down the best path to success. I don't want you to experience all the pain I went through.
This is why it's important to associate Affiliate Marketing with Niche Markets. By focusing on one topic, you magnify your chance of success many times over. Doesn't matter if the niche is small or large, but you must align your thinking in this direction.
The niche can be huge, such as Auctions or EBay, and you will find a good market there. The EBay sales may be huge, but the competion for affiliate products is not excessive at all.
Take another huge Niche (specialty) such as Health. Now this competition is ferocious. Personally, I would not touch it, even though a lot of people do well with it. Why fight an uphill battle just to get started, when you can surely find ot her prospective niches.
The solution is to find smaller niches of "in demand" products. Here we go again, you say. More speeches on what to do, but HOW do we do this? And how do we do this successfully, when everyone else is also looking for the answer.
An awful lot of people feel just like you, and as a result, they never find niches, because they never look for them. There goes much of your potential competition. Good for us, OK.
The search for good, usable 'keywords' is the answer to locating a potentially profitable business. Using the right tools makes the task a lot easier, a lot faster, and less stressful from a decision making point of view.
I was just starting to prepare the list of tools to use, when I remembered that they are all listed in the gratis course I offer. The Niche Madness eCourse is 7 days of power packed info on Affiliate Marketing for Niche Markets. Go to
http://www.bestaffiliateproducts.com/nichecourse.html and sign up for the eCourse. Learn all there is to know, over a 12 day period, as the course is sent out every 2nd day.
But I also have to tell about a new tool I discovered. Every once in a while, a really great tool is created, and I believe that this is the case here.
It's called Adwords Equalizer. It is so loaded with features that it is too much to list here.
This is a Product and a Half, as the saying goes. You may no longer need expensive services like Wordtracker, where you never stop paying. But the only way to see if it fits your needs, is to visit the site at the site above.
We are finding some good keywords to work with, so what comes next.
The answer is right there.
Happy Keyword hunting, and have fun with it.
Ok, so no product costs, no shipping costs, no payment processor costs, and so on. So what is so hard about being a successful affiliate.
Glad you asked! Your first step should be to make a marketing plan, or as I call it, a 'decision plan'. How many of us really make a complete marketing plan. (Not me!) I know we sh ould, but mine never completed. This is where you decide what niche, or specialtiy you want to 'major' in.
Why don't I just be in 'affiliate marketing'? you ask. Wow, talk about shooting yourself in the foot before you get off the ground. It's TOO competitive, don't you know! Also too general, maybe too vague, all over the map so to speak.
So how come it's good enough for Best Affiliate Products but too much for you? Firstly, I must mention that I do have other niche markets, and some in both the planning and preparation stages. I do heed my own advise. Secondly, someone has to protect you and lead you down the best path to success. I don't want you to experience all the pain I went through.
This is why it's important to associate Affiliate Marketing with Niche Markets. By focusing on one topic, you magnify your chance of success many times over. Doesn't matter if the niche is small or large, but you must align your thinking in this direction.
The niche can be huge, such as Auctions or EBay, and you will find a good market there. The EBay sales may be huge, but the competion for affiliate products is not excessive at all.
Take another huge Niche (specialty) such as Health. Now this competition is ferocious. Personally, I would not touch it, even though a lot of people do well with it. Why fight an uphill battle just to get started, when you can surely find ot her prospective niches.
The solution is to find smaller niches of "in demand" products. Here we go again, you say. More speeches on what to do, but HOW do we do this? And how do we do this successfully, when everyone else is also looking for the answer.
An awful lot of people feel just like you, and as a result, they never find niches, because they never look for them. There goes much of your potential competition. Good for us, OK.
The search for good, usable 'keywords' is the answer to locating a potentially profitable business. Using the right tools makes the task a lot easier, a lot faster, and less stressful from a decision making point of view.
I was just starting to prepare the list of tools to use, when I remembered that they are all listed in the gratis course I offer. The Niche Madness eCourse is 7 days of power packed info on Affiliate Marketing for Niche Markets. Go to
http://www.bestaffiliateproducts.com/nichecourse.html and sign up for the eCourse. Learn all there is to know, over a 12 day period, as the course is sent out every 2nd day.
But I also have to tell about a new tool I discovered. Every once in a while, a really great tool is created, and I believe that this is the case here.
It's called Adwords Equalizer. It is so loaded with features that it is too much to list here.
This is a Product and a Half, as the saying goes. You may no longer need expensive services like Wordtracker, where you never stop paying. But the only way to see if it fits your needs, is to visit the site at the site above.
We are finding some good keywords to work with, so what comes next.
The answer is right there.
Happy Keyword hunting, and have fun with it.
Affiliate Marketing: The Easiest Business
There are many ways to make a living. Some people work many long hours a week slaving in a hot factory. Some people go to work for long days in a cubicle, meeting someone else's quota and achieving someone else's goals. Some people have decided these ideas of work do not work for them. These people have realized the freedom and financial gains to be made in Internet businesses. There are many types of Internet businesses, but one stands above the rest as easy and efficient. This business is affiliate marketing, and anyone can be a success.
Affiliate marketing is a simple principle. You provide a link to your Affiliate program owner on your website. Many major websites offer affiliate programs, including Ebay. These companies will, in turn, provide you with very effective and creative tools to better your web site and keep track of your earnings. This software, expensive when purchased alone, is free to affiliate participants. You do not pay for the programs that will make your website sharper and more inviting. On the contrary, you get paid.
Affiliate programs such as those with Ebay can be the source for entire incomes. People with high traffic websites can bring in entire second incomes from simply providing a link to another website on their page. This method of business continues to make you money all day long. Every
minute your page is up is a minute you could be making money from your affiliate program. Every time a person hits on your affiliate's symbol, you make money. This money is free to you and comes at no overhead cost. Actually, affiliate programs can decrease the overhead costs of running your own business because they provide both software and technical support to help your website be the best it can be.
Affiliate programs can also offer an attraction to your website. When you participate in affiliate marketing, you give your readers another reason to visit your page and continue to return. They will come to associate you with the bigger affiliate names you are working with, increasing your credibility and esteem among people who surf the web. These companies want you to succeed because your success means continued success for them so they will offer you all of the tools and support you need to succeed in the industry. You will benefit from years of experience as they continually refine programs and tools for your use to make them increasingly user friendly and effective. The affiliate marketing program concept is especially effective when you pair it with your own online business. Your affiliate banner or logo will not take much room or detract from your page, and will make you money while your page also appeals to other readers interests. This truly is the way to go to ensure your success in the online industry. Affiliate programs offer quick money and ensure that, even when your page has a slow day and does not make you much money, your site will continue to grow and be effective overall.
Affiliate marketing is a simple principle. You provide a link to your Affiliate program owner on your website. Many major websites offer affiliate programs, including Ebay. These companies will, in turn, provide you with very effective and creative tools to better your web site and keep track of your earnings. This software, expensive when purchased alone, is free to affiliate participants. You do not pay for the programs that will make your website sharper and more inviting. On the contrary, you get paid.
Affiliate programs such as those with Ebay can be the source for entire incomes. People with high traffic websites can bring in entire second incomes from simply providing a link to another website on their page. This method of business continues to make you money all day long. Every
minute your page is up is a minute you could be making money from your affiliate program. Every time a person hits on your affiliate's symbol, you make money. This money is free to you and comes at no overhead cost. Actually, affiliate programs can decrease the overhead costs of running your own business because they provide both software and technical support to help your website be the best it can be.
Affiliate programs can also offer an attraction to your website. When you participate in affiliate marketing, you give your readers another reason to visit your page and continue to return. They will come to associate you with the bigger affiliate names you are working with, increasing your credibility and esteem among people who surf the web. These companies want you to succeed because your success means continued success for them so they will offer you all of the tools and support you need to succeed in the industry. You will benefit from years of experience as they continually refine programs and tools for your use to make them increasingly user friendly and effective. The affiliate marketing program concept is especially effective when you pair it with your own online business. Your affiliate banner or logo will not take much room or detract from your page, and will make you money while your page also appeals to other readers interests. This truly is the way to go to ensure your success in the online industry. Affiliate programs offer quick money and ensure that, even when your page has a slow day and does not make you much money, your site will continue to grow and be effective overall.
Five Knockout Affiliate Tips
Here are five hook em in the jaw affiliate tips that really
work. Implement them and see how well they work for you.
(1) Develop a positive and realistic mindset. Do you believe that
you can get rich quick or that your business will take time to
grow? Those who believe in the online hype are the ones who
normally lose. Think positive and know in your heart you can earn
an income from your efforts.
(2) Too much information or the lack of it can be dangerous. Not
using the knowledge that you have gain can stop your business
from getting off the ground and not having the right information
can have the same effect.
(3) Market your programs with Google Adwords. This is a powerful
strategy you can use and as long as you earn more in commissions
than your PPC costs, then you are getting something for nothing.
(4) Write your own ads, articles and reviews instead of the
pre-formatted ones offered by affiliate programs. This will set
you apart from all the other affiliates in the same program.
(5) Make sure your affiliate program matches the content of your
website or newsletter. If you have marketing content then you
should promote marketing products on that page. Think of it like
matching ads to the page content like the way Adsense does. There
may a few exceptions to the rule though, even Adsense does it
some time.
There you go. A few tips to help you with your affiliate programs
whether you are looking for your first check or to boost your
current earnings. Try them all or even a couple and test and
track your results. I am sure Lennox Lewis would be proud of your
hooks and jabs
work. Implement them and see how well they work for you.
(1) Develop a positive and realistic mindset. Do you believe that
you can get rich quick or that your business will take time to
grow? Those who believe in the online hype are the ones who
normally lose. Think positive and know in your heart you can earn
an income from your efforts.
(2) Too much information or the lack of it can be dangerous. Not
using the knowledge that you have gain can stop your business
from getting off the ground and not having the right information
can have the same effect.
(3) Market your programs with Google Adwords. This is a powerful
strategy you can use and as long as you earn more in commissions
than your PPC costs, then you are getting something for nothing.
(4) Write your own ads, articles and reviews instead of the
pre-formatted ones offered by affiliate programs. This will set
you apart from all the other affiliates in the same program.
(5) Make sure your affiliate program matches the content of your
website or newsletter. If you have marketing content then you
should promote marketing products on that page. Think of it like
matching ads to the page content like the way Adsense does. There
may a few exceptions to the rule though, even Adsense does it
some time.
There you go. A few tips to help you with your affiliate programs
whether you are looking for your first check or to boost your
current earnings. Try them all or even a couple and test and
track your results. I am sure Lennox Lewis would be proud of your
hooks and jabs
How to Make a living as an affiliate
95% of all affiliates make $0 - $100 a year. I don't know about you, but in my books, this is not a living. In this quick “How To” guide, we'll take a look at how you can become part of the 5% who ARE making their living online. This guide does not guarantee that you'll make a fortune, but it will point you in the right direction if you're interested in making a living as an affiliate.
1. Mindset: Get in touch with your grey matter. Program your mind with positive, committed thoughts. If you can believe it,you can achieve it. It sounds a bit like a sales seminar, but bottom line is, if you don't believe you can make a living online, you won't. You have to be committed. Commit to yourself that you will develop an income online – no matter what it takes. Think of your business as a bacon and eggs breakfast. The chicken was involved, the pig was committed!
2. Viewpoint: This is your business. Once you've accomplished your first hurdle and committed yourself to making this work, you have to look at your business from the proper viewpoint. No rose coloured glasses here. This is your business. You are the CEO of your own marketing company. You can choose to offer your services to one or several companies. Bottom line, you are responsible for every action in your company. Every decision you make affects your bottom line.
3. Learning Curve: Expect it. Becoming an affiliate is like going to college or university. You start at the beginning, learn the basics and build on what you learn. Take it step-by-step and you'll build a much stronger business. Think of it like becoming a doctor. One doesn't decide to become a doctor with the expectation of opening a successful practice one week from now. It takes time to learn the products or services you're marketing and it takes time to learn to run your business.
4. Budget: Time and money. Set a general budget for both. As a business owner, you'll use plenty of time developing and promoting your affiliate business. Budget as much time as you can each day and make sure you use your time wisely. Set up a budget for your monetary expenses too. You can run a business online with a shoestring budget, just don't expect a mammoth income in the beginning. The more you can invest in your business, the better. This doesn't mean that simply throwing money at your business will make it grow. Every dollar that goes out your door, needs to come back in and bring another dollar with it.
5. Goals: s/he shoots - s/he scores! Your goals will get you through the tough times. There'll be lots of days when you feel like quitting. If you make your goals tangible, you'll make it through the tough days. Money isn't a motivator, but what money can buy, is. Set your goals for a family vacation, a new car, boat, or home. It's much easier to get excited about a shiny red corvette in your driveway than $100,000 sitting in your bank account. Money is only numbers on a pieceof paper or a computer screen, but it can bring you a luxurious lifestyle, and that's where the fun is.
6. Nuts and Bolts: Once you've got your house in order, with the proper mindset, you're looking at your business from a realistic viewpoint, you've got an open mind and you're ready to learn, you've set aside some time and money and you've got pictures of your dream house, car and vacation plastered on your wall, you're ready to go hunting. The next step is to find a business that interests you and offers an affiliate program with a reasonable commission. For information products, one of the most popular and profitable online, you can and should expect a commission of 25% or more.
Pick a product that interests you. Buy it and use it. Your business is based on your recommendations of a product or service. If you haven't used it, how can you recommend it? Avoid running around in circles after the newest, hottest selling product of the day, it only leaves you dizzy and broke.
Choose a product you're interested in. If you like astronomy, becoming an affiliate of a star chart company may be a good fit. Selling women's pantyhose may not.
7. Look before you leap: Finding a company to represent as an affiliate is one thing, finding a company that respects its affiliates is another. Do a bit of research before you jump on the bandwagon. Send an email to the company as if you're a potential customer. 24 – 48 hours is a good response time. This shows that someone is actually running the company. It also gives you an idea of their commitment. Generally, the faster the response, the more committed the company is to doing business. The quality of the response is also important.Did the response answer your question? Was it written in a friendly, professional manor? Did they answer your question directly or simply send you to a FAQ sheet?
8. Flip the switch: If everything checks out up to this point,then your next step is to take action. Fill out the affiliate application form and get your affiliate URL. Now the ball is in your court. It's time to get down to brass tacks. If you freeze now, you make no money and flush your goals down the toilet. If you take action, you make it one step closer to your goals.
9. If you build it – they will come: OK not really, but you do have to build it. If you want to maximize your income and be taken seriously, you need to own a website. Just like a brick and mortar business, you need a professional location to offer your products. Yes, you get an affiliate URL when you sign up as an affiliate, but promoting an affiliate link looks amateur and will help you LOSE 98% of your sales. We'll cover this in point 10.
10. Follow-up = Sales: Only 2% of your prospects will sign up or buy what you're offering, on their first visit. 98% of yoursales will be made from your follow up. There's a very simple method for following up and making sales automatically.
i. Check your favourite search engine to locate a free ebook, software program or report that relates to your offer. If you're promoting a website that sells peanut butter, a free peanut butter recipe book would be a good match. Your give-away must always relate to the product you're promoting to maximize the results of this system.
ii. Build a page on your website to give away your free peanutbutter recipe book. Design the page as if you were designing a sales page. Make people's mouths water until they want the recipes so bad they'd gladly pay for them, but then give it to them free. All they have to do is fill in their name and email address in the simple form and you'll send their recipe book to them instantly via email.
iii. As soon as your peanut butter prospect fills out the formon your site and clicks the send button, they are taken to your affiliate URL where they can buy peanut butter. At the same time, the peanut butter recipe book is sent to their email address.
iv. Now your peanut butter prospect receives an email from you each week with new tips and useful peanut butter information. This information positions you as a peanut butterexpert and gives you the opportunity to promote your peanut butter affiliate website once a week, to hot prospects. This is where you'll make 98% of your sales.
Although this may seem like an overwhelming amount of work for the beginner, it's all very simple. The whole process is run from an autoresponder, a simple piece of email software that automatically sends your prewritten email messages on a predetermined schedule.
Your success as an affiliate is determined by you. 95% of the people that read this simple How To guide will do nothing withit. 5% of the people that read this guide will put all the pieces in place and start making a living as an affiliate. You have to decide which side of the coin you want to be on.
1. Mindset: Get in touch with your grey matter. Program your mind with positive, committed thoughts. If you can believe it,you can achieve it. It sounds a bit like a sales seminar, but bottom line is, if you don't believe you can make a living online, you won't. You have to be committed. Commit to yourself that you will develop an income online – no matter what it takes. Think of your business as a bacon and eggs breakfast. The chicken was involved, the pig was committed!
2. Viewpoint: This is your business. Once you've accomplished your first hurdle and committed yourself to making this work, you have to look at your business from the proper viewpoint. No rose coloured glasses here. This is your business. You are the CEO of your own marketing company. You can choose to offer your services to one or several companies. Bottom line, you are responsible for every action in your company. Every decision you make affects your bottom line.
3. Learning Curve: Expect it. Becoming an affiliate is like going to college or university. You start at the beginning, learn the basics and build on what you learn. Take it step-by-step and you'll build a much stronger business. Think of it like becoming a doctor. One doesn't decide to become a doctor with the expectation of opening a successful practice one week from now. It takes time to learn the products or services you're marketing and it takes time to learn to run your business.
4. Budget: Time and money. Set a general budget for both. As a business owner, you'll use plenty of time developing and promoting your affiliate business. Budget as much time as you can each day and make sure you use your time wisely. Set up a budget for your monetary expenses too. You can run a business online with a shoestring budget, just don't expect a mammoth income in the beginning. The more you can invest in your business, the better. This doesn't mean that simply throwing money at your business will make it grow. Every dollar that goes out your door, needs to come back in and bring another dollar with it.
5. Goals: s/he shoots - s/he scores! Your goals will get you through the tough times. There'll be lots of days when you feel like quitting. If you make your goals tangible, you'll make it through the tough days. Money isn't a motivator, but what money can buy, is. Set your goals for a family vacation, a new car, boat, or home. It's much easier to get excited about a shiny red corvette in your driveway than $100,000 sitting in your bank account. Money is only numbers on a pieceof paper or a computer screen, but it can bring you a luxurious lifestyle, and that's where the fun is.
6. Nuts and Bolts: Once you've got your house in order, with the proper mindset, you're looking at your business from a realistic viewpoint, you've got an open mind and you're ready to learn, you've set aside some time and money and you've got pictures of your dream house, car and vacation plastered on your wall, you're ready to go hunting. The next step is to find a business that interests you and offers an affiliate program with a reasonable commission. For information products, one of the most popular and profitable online, you can and should expect a commission of 25% or more.
Pick a product that interests you. Buy it and use it. Your business is based on your recommendations of a product or service. If you haven't used it, how can you recommend it? Avoid running around in circles after the newest, hottest selling product of the day, it only leaves you dizzy and broke.
Choose a product you're interested in. If you like astronomy, becoming an affiliate of a star chart company may be a good fit. Selling women's pantyhose may not.
7. Look before you leap: Finding a company to represent as an affiliate is one thing, finding a company that respects its affiliates is another. Do a bit of research before you jump on the bandwagon. Send an email to the company as if you're a potential customer. 24 – 48 hours is a good response time. This shows that someone is actually running the company. It also gives you an idea of their commitment. Generally, the faster the response, the more committed the company is to doing business. The quality of the response is also important.Did the response answer your question? Was it written in a friendly, professional manor? Did they answer your question directly or simply send you to a FAQ sheet?
8. Flip the switch: If everything checks out up to this point,then your next step is to take action. Fill out the affiliate application form and get your affiliate URL. Now the ball is in your court. It's time to get down to brass tacks. If you freeze now, you make no money and flush your goals down the toilet. If you take action, you make it one step closer to your goals.
9. If you build it – they will come: OK not really, but you do have to build it. If you want to maximize your income and be taken seriously, you need to own a website. Just like a brick and mortar business, you need a professional location to offer your products. Yes, you get an affiliate URL when you sign up as an affiliate, but promoting an affiliate link looks amateur and will help you LOSE 98% of your sales. We'll cover this in point 10.
10. Follow-up = Sales: Only 2% of your prospects will sign up or buy what you're offering, on their first visit. 98% of yoursales will be made from your follow up. There's a very simple method for following up and making sales automatically.
i. Check your favourite search engine to locate a free ebook, software program or report that relates to your offer. If you're promoting a website that sells peanut butter, a free peanut butter recipe book would be a good match. Your give-away must always relate to the product you're promoting to maximize the results of this system.
ii. Build a page on your website to give away your free peanutbutter recipe book. Design the page as if you were designing a sales page. Make people's mouths water until they want the recipes so bad they'd gladly pay for them, but then give it to them free. All they have to do is fill in their name and email address in the simple form and you'll send their recipe book to them instantly via email.
iii. As soon as your peanut butter prospect fills out the formon your site and clicks the send button, they are taken to your affiliate URL where they can buy peanut butter. At the same time, the peanut butter recipe book is sent to their email address.
iv. Now your peanut butter prospect receives an email from you each week with new tips and useful peanut butter information. This information positions you as a peanut butterexpert and gives you the opportunity to promote your peanut butter affiliate website once a week, to hot prospects. This is where you'll make 98% of your sales.
Although this may seem like an overwhelming amount of work for the beginner, it's all very simple. The whole process is run from an autoresponder, a simple piece of email software that automatically sends your prewritten email messages on a predetermined schedule.
Your success as an affiliate is determined by you. 95% of the people that read this simple How To guide will do nothing withit. 5% of the people that read this guide will put all the pieces in place and start making a living as an affiliate. You have to decide which side of the coin you want to be on.
Top 3 Things All Affiliate Marketers Need To Use
Every affiliate marketer is looking for exactly what allows those truly successful markets to make the big affiliate paychecks. It seems at times to be almost a magic formula! It is not. It's just good marketing practices that have been proven over years and year.
These tactics worked before the advent of online marketing and continue to work in today's online affiliate marketing world. With these top three affiliate marketing tips, you should be able to increase your sales within seven days after implementing all three tips!
1. Use unique web pages to promote each separate product you are marketing. Don't try to lump a bunch of products together to save a bit of money on web hosting. Have a site dedicated to each product and to nothing else. Include affiliate product reviews on the website to spell out exactly what the product will do for the purchaser. Include testimonials from users who have enjoyed the product and are willing to allow you to use their names and photos on your website for that product.
Write articles highlighting uses for the product and include them on the website as additional pages. Make the web pages compelling, and include calls to act on the information. Every headline must attract the reader to read more. Bullets and highlights of special points will help the reader who is scanning to learn what the page is about find that they have to know more!
2. At the very top or top side of your web page, where it simply can't be missed, offer free reports to your readers. Then create autoresponder messages that will be emailed to those who input their personal information into the sign-up box. Research has proven that it is usually on the seventh contact with a prospect that a sale is closed.
With a web page alone, one of two things will happen: the sale is closed or the prospect will leave the page and never return. By placing useful information at no cost into their inbox at periods specified by your, you will remind them of the product they thought they might want later, and often will find the sale is closed. Be sure your content is directed toward the specific reasons to buy the product, but doesn't come across as "sales pitch".
Fact filled uses for a product and ways that the product will make life better and more enjoyable; these are the points on which to focus. Be sure you include a compelling subject line in the email and don't use the word "free" because some of the older spam filters will cause your mail to be dumped into the junk mail box before anyone reads it. Convince the reader who signed up for your free reports that they simply can't live without your product!
3. Get traffic to your website that is targeted to your product. After all, if the person who finds your website has no interest at all in what you are selling, they will be one of the 99 out of 100 who move on and never come back without further encouragement. By writing articles for publication in e-zines and e-reports, you can locate publications which focus on your target consumer base and grab their interest.
By writing as few as 2 articles per week, each only 350-600 words in length, you can generate as many as 100 targeted readers to your site in a single day. The more articles you get out to people, the greater your chances of closing sales within your targeted audience.
This doesn't sound very difficult, does it? It really isn't difficult at all. It just requires you to take a little time and create a plan of action. Use each of these tips in the order given and you will be prepared when that flood of targeted traffic hits your website.
Keep in mind, only 1 out of 100 people are likely to buy your product. If you generate 1,000 targeted hits to your website per day, that means that you will have made 10 sales based on statistical average! If you use these tips for several different affiliate marketing programs, you can end up having those huge affiliate paychecks everyone dreams about!
These tactics worked before the advent of online marketing and continue to work in today's online affiliate marketing world. With these top three affiliate marketing tips, you should be able to increase your sales within seven days after implementing all three tips!
1. Use unique web pages to promote each separate product you are marketing. Don't try to lump a bunch of products together to save a bit of money on web hosting. Have a site dedicated to each product and to nothing else. Include affiliate product reviews on the website to spell out exactly what the product will do for the purchaser. Include testimonials from users who have enjoyed the product and are willing to allow you to use their names and photos on your website for that product.
Write articles highlighting uses for the product and include them on the website as additional pages. Make the web pages compelling, and include calls to act on the information. Every headline must attract the reader to read more. Bullets and highlights of special points will help the reader who is scanning to learn what the page is about find that they have to know more!
2. At the very top or top side of your web page, where it simply can't be missed, offer free reports to your readers. Then create autoresponder messages that will be emailed to those who input their personal information into the sign-up box. Research has proven that it is usually on the seventh contact with a prospect that a sale is closed.
With a web page alone, one of two things will happen: the sale is closed or the prospect will leave the page and never return. By placing useful information at no cost into their inbox at periods specified by your, you will remind them of the product they thought they might want later, and often will find the sale is closed. Be sure your content is directed toward the specific reasons to buy the product, but doesn't come across as "sales pitch".
Fact filled uses for a product and ways that the product will make life better and more enjoyable; these are the points on which to focus. Be sure you include a compelling subject line in the email and don't use the word "free" because some of the older spam filters will cause your mail to be dumped into the junk mail box before anyone reads it. Convince the reader who signed up for your free reports that they simply can't live without your product!
3. Get traffic to your website that is targeted to your product. After all, if the person who finds your website has no interest at all in what you are selling, they will be one of the 99 out of 100 who move on and never come back without further encouragement. By writing articles for publication in e-zines and e-reports, you can locate publications which focus on your target consumer base and grab their interest.
By writing as few as 2 articles per week, each only 350-600 words in length, you can generate as many as 100 targeted readers to your site in a single day. The more articles you get out to people, the greater your chances of closing sales within your targeted audience.
This doesn't sound very difficult, does it? It really isn't difficult at all. It just requires you to take a little time and create a plan of action. Use each of these tips in the order given and you will be prepared when that flood of targeted traffic hits your website.
Keep in mind, only 1 out of 100 people are likely to buy your product. If you generate 1,000 targeted hits to your website per day, that means that you will have made 10 sales based on statistical average! If you use these tips for several different affiliate marketing programs, you can end up having those huge affiliate paychecks everyone dreams about!
Combine Email Marketing with Your Affiliate Programs The Right Way!
Affiliate Programs are huge today and rightly so. They provide
people with the opportunity to make a residual income with very
little cash output, and of course everything is already done for
you. All you have to do is promote.
Now, this article isn't focusing on Affiliate Marketing, but it
does suggest a few effective ways for maximizing YOUR LIST
building potential.
You already know that in order to be successful online, you
need a list...and when I say list, I am referring to YOUR LIST.
(You will see why I highlight YOUR in a sec).
Makes sense...right? I mean which would you rather have, a nice
warm, accepting list of individuals with whom you have built a
good relationship with and who are receptive to your
recommendations?
or....
Having to continually go out and drive new traffic to your site
in order to make that sale?
Think about the process you go through for a second. You
join an affiliate program, use their ads and place classifieds
in newsletters. The link you use is sending prospects to your
affiliate "page."
From there, your affiliate program gathers into the "system"
only those who; buy or sign up. You are only able to build a
list based on those two criteria and because of that, you are
missing out. You are missing out on those "others" who have
been to your page and maybe aren't ready to buy, but would
be if ONLY they had some additional follow up contact with
you.
Even if you wanted to contact these "others," you aren't able
to because your affiliate program doesn't allow you to make
any changes to your (or rather their) web page. Which means
that you are not able to maximize on your list building potential.
So, how do you fix this problem?
There are actually a few things you can do. First of all, let's
start with your mindset. This is the key. What I want you to
do from here on out is always ask yourself this one key question...
"How/what must I do to add on to "MY List."
If you are using classifieds to market your affiliate program,
then ask yourself that question and instead of sending prospects
to your affiliate page, send them to a Report/eCourse instead.
See what just happened? You have now added a name to YOUR
list, instead of sending them to your page and risk the chance of
losing them altogether.
There is another way to help you build your list and market your
programs at the same time. Create a theme-based web site of your
own.
I hear the groans. I know one of the reasons affiliate programs
are so big is because they have a page for you. But let me explain
why you really need a site of your own.
How many of you have been playing a little leap frog...jumping
from program to program because nothing is making you money?
It's ok to admit it because you aren't alone, there are 1000s of
people in the same boat.
Stop and think for a second the effect all this jumping is having
on you and your chances of making a residual income:
1. You are not focused, and
2. You are ALWAYS starting over from scratch.
Aren't you tired of that?
That is the whole intent of having a site of your own. One that
is based on a theme and loaded with good, quality content. One
that allows you to build a list that is YOURS.
You don't have that full capability with an Affiliate Program.
If you quit the program or "knock on wood" they bite the dust,
and trust me it does happen. Then all that hard work you put into
marketing that program has been lost. You don't own the page, you
don't own the list, so as a result you are always starting over...each
and every time.
But...
If you had your own way to build your list and added your own
web site, then you have COMPLETE OWNERSHIP. Your list is
YOURS so if you quit a program not a problem, the bottom line
is that list (your baby) is going with you.
Now, don't go into panic mode and think that I am saying Affiliate
Programs are useless...That is NOT what I am saying. What I am
trying to get across to you is...YES participate in them, but work
smarter...not harder.
Doesn't that make sense to you?
Excellent, now about YOUR site...
Visitor's are looking for CONTENT...NOT a hard sales effort
being thrown at them. What are YOU more receptive to, someone
who provides you with good information so that you are better
able to make an informed decision. Or, someone who is trying to
hard sell you. If you go for the good information choice, then
what makes you think the rest of us are any different?
So, you have a site of your own. A site that is not an exact
replica of your affiliate page but one that is theme-based
with content that relates to your program(s). One that has
the opt in tools like a Report/eCourse or Subscription that
is building a good list for you.
Let me give you an example of what I mean.
Let's look at an Affiliate Program that sells leads. You make
a commission off of the lead packages you sell.
On YOUR SITE (not your affiliate page) you could have a
theme built around "leads." Your focus could cover:
1. How to generate your own leads,
2. What to look for when purchasing leads,
3. How to follow up with leads,
4. What to follow up with,
5. Teach someone the proper way to follow up...
Through your content you have taught your prospect everything
they need to know about leads. You have developed a trust with
them and by sharing this information you have become the "lead
expert" in their minds.
Wrapped within the content of your various information, of
course, your Reports/eCourses and maybe even a Subscription
to your newsletter... these are your tools for building your list.
Also built within your content you mention your affiliate program
in a non-threatening or hard sell way. In doing so, you now have
a prospect that is open to clicking to your affiliate page and
buying what you have to offer.
You even have the potential to add income streams. Looking at
the list above you could sign up for an autoresponder program,
because a prospect is going to need that…and who better to get
it than through you, right?
The main thing is, what started as one income stream (your
original Leads Program) has now developed into 2-3 income
streams.
And of course, let's not forget about YOUR LIST that follows
you wherever you go.
Does that make sense now???
By all means participate in Affiliate Programs, they are an
excellent source of commissions for you. But, market them
the right way, through your own site, where you can plug-in
opt in tools to build a list and build a relationship with ALL
your visitors and prospects.
people with the opportunity to make a residual income with very
little cash output, and of course everything is already done for
you. All you have to do is promote.
Now, this article isn't focusing on Affiliate Marketing, but it
does suggest a few effective ways for maximizing YOUR LIST
building potential.
You already know that in order to be successful online, you
need a list...and when I say list, I am referring to YOUR LIST.
(You will see why I highlight YOUR in a sec).
Makes sense...right? I mean which would you rather have, a nice
warm, accepting list of individuals with whom you have built a
good relationship with and who are receptive to your
recommendations?
or....
Having to continually go out and drive new traffic to your site
in order to make that sale?
Think about the process you go through for a second. You
join an affiliate program, use their ads and place classifieds
in newsletters. The link you use is sending prospects to your
affiliate "page."
From there, your affiliate program gathers into the "system"
only those who; buy or sign up. You are only able to build a
list based on those two criteria and because of that, you are
missing out. You are missing out on those "others" who have
been to your page and maybe aren't ready to buy, but would
be if ONLY they had some additional follow up contact with
you.
Even if you wanted to contact these "others," you aren't able
to because your affiliate program doesn't allow you to make
any changes to your (or rather their) web page. Which means
that you are not able to maximize on your list building potential.
So, how do you fix this problem?
There are actually a few things you can do. First of all, let's
start with your mindset. This is the key. What I want you to
do from here on out is always ask yourself this one key question...
"How/what must I do to add on to "MY List."
If you are using classifieds to market your affiliate program,
then ask yourself that question and instead of sending prospects
to your affiliate page, send them to a Report/eCourse instead.
See what just happened? You have now added a name to YOUR
list, instead of sending them to your page and risk the chance of
losing them altogether.
There is another way to help you build your list and market your
programs at the same time. Create a theme-based web site of your
own.
I hear the groans. I know one of the reasons affiliate programs
are so big is because they have a page for you. But let me explain
why you really need a site of your own.
How many of you have been playing a little leap frog...jumping
from program to program because nothing is making you money?
It's ok to admit it because you aren't alone, there are 1000s of
people in the same boat.
Stop and think for a second the effect all this jumping is having
on you and your chances of making a residual income:
1. You are not focused, and
2. You are ALWAYS starting over from scratch.
Aren't you tired of that?
That is the whole intent of having a site of your own. One that
is based on a theme and loaded with good, quality content. One
that allows you to build a list that is YOURS.
You don't have that full capability with an Affiliate Program.
If you quit the program or "knock on wood" they bite the dust,
and trust me it does happen. Then all that hard work you put into
marketing that program has been lost. You don't own the page, you
don't own the list, so as a result you are always starting over...each
and every time.
But...
If you had your own way to build your list and added your own
web site, then you have COMPLETE OWNERSHIP. Your list is
YOURS so if you quit a program not a problem, the bottom line
is that list (your baby) is going with you.
Now, don't go into panic mode and think that I am saying Affiliate
Programs are useless...That is NOT what I am saying. What I am
trying to get across to you is...YES participate in them, but work
smarter...not harder.
Doesn't that make sense to you?
Excellent, now about YOUR site...
Visitor's are looking for CONTENT...NOT a hard sales effort
being thrown at them. What are YOU more receptive to, someone
who provides you with good information so that you are better
able to make an informed decision. Or, someone who is trying to
hard sell you. If you go for the good information choice, then
what makes you think the rest of us are any different?
So, you have a site of your own. A site that is not an exact
replica of your affiliate page but one that is theme-based
with content that relates to your program(s). One that has
the opt in tools like a Report/eCourse or Subscription that
is building a good list for you.
Let me give you an example of what I mean.
Let's look at an Affiliate Program that sells leads. You make
a commission off of the lead packages you sell.
On YOUR SITE (not your affiliate page) you could have a
theme built around "leads." Your focus could cover:
1. How to generate your own leads,
2. What to look for when purchasing leads,
3. How to follow up with leads,
4. What to follow up with,
5. Teach someone the proper way to follow up...
Through your content you have taught your prospect everything
they need to know about leads. You have developed a trust with
them and by sharing this information you have become the "lead
expert" in their minds.
Wrapped within the content of your various information, of
course, your Reports/eCourses and maybe even a Subscription
to your newsletter... these are your tools for building your list.
Also built within your content you mention your affiliate program
in a non-threatening or hard sell way. In doing so, you now have
a prospect that is open to clicking to your affiliate page and
buying what you have to offer.
You even have the potential to add income streams. Looking at
the list above you could sign up for an autoresponder program,
because a prospect is going to need that…and who better to get
it than through you, right?
The main thing is, what started as one income stream (your
original Leads Program) has now developed into 2-3 income
streams.
And of course, let's not forget about YOUR LIST that follows
you wherever you go.
Does that make sense now???
By all means participate in Affiliate Programs, they are an
excellent source of commissions for you. But, market them
the right way, through your own site, where you can plug-in
opt in tools to build a list and build a relationship with ALL
your visitors and prospects.
How To Setup The Ultimate Affiliate Programme
Using this method you will be able to setup a great affiliate programme,no affiliate link theft and provide affiliate with all the stats and resources they need
To make good money, you will need to get high traffic to your site. This isn't easy to achieve but with an affiliate programme you can increase your traffic considerably. An affiliate programme works by providing a unique code for each affiliate that is linked to your sales site. When a visitor sent by an affiliate buys a copy of your ebook, you give them commission.
So what our affiliate page needs to do is, convince as many people as possible to sign up and become an affiliate. You have got to let your potential affiliate know, how the product sells, the commission you will give them and the training you will give them to help them sell your ebook. Therefore your affiliate's page is like your sales page, it really needs to sell.
Now the big problem with affiliates is that very few that sign-up actually make a sale for you. I'd say roughly 15% and that's doing well. The reason affiliate programmes falter, is the inexperienced people need support. Remember if you can increase the chances of the inexperienced 85% selling your products, it will lead to considerable extra profits.
So what we need to do is educate the non-experienced affiliates. The best way we can do this is an affiliate course. This will allow your affiliate to educate themselves. Having an affiliate course also allows you to stay in regular contact with your affiliate after they have signed up for your affiliate programme. You are “in their face” more.
Now I am sure you are saying to yourself how do I set up an affiliate course to educate my potential customers? It's simple you already know how to. It's the exact same as setting up a newsletter. Remember I spoke about getting Getresponse as an auto responder. Well you can also use this to take care of your affiliate course.
In a few minutes I am going to tell you about a piece of software that will automatically set up an affiliate sign-up page for you. It's the same as the opt-in form we produced for the newsletter earlier. All you need do then is get your sign-ups to be forwarded to your autoresponder. With getresponse you can programme it to send out an email every three, seven or fourteen days (this is at your own discretion). So you can write a 6 part affiliate course on your autoresponder and send one part out every week.
You are probably saying too yourself, where am I going to get an affiliate training course, well this is simple! All you have to do is sign up to my affiliate programme. You will be automatically subscribed for the six part affiliate course. Save the course in your inbox and you have full rights from me to use this course for your own affiliate programme. So basically your copying and pasting my affiliate course into your own autoresponder when you set up your programme
Ok, how to set up your own affiliate programme. I mentioned earlier that if you sign up for clickbank, they will also take care of your affiliate programme. What I love about clickbank managing your affiliate programme is that they provide the accounts, the sales reports and they pay your affiliates every two weeks.
Earlier we setup an affiliate sign up template page. It's easy to get affiliates to sign up to your programme. All you do is get the potential affiliate to sign up for a clickbank account of their own. Now the link you use to get them to sign up to their own clickbank account is as follows.
http://AFFILIATE.reseller.hop.clickbank.net
All you need to do is replace the “affiliate word”, with your own clickbank nickname. What this does is it activates clickbanks affiliate link. So if someone signs up using the previous link with your nickname, you will receive commission for clickbank if the person signs up for the full account. So if your refer someone and they activate their account fully (activation fee $50), you will receive $10. Also you will receive a commission from clickbank for every sale they make with their own product in the future. Roughly this will work out around .10c for every 10 sales they make.
Now the code an affiliate will provide to link to your site will look like the following
http://(yournickname).(their nickname) .hop.clickbank.net
In order to let your affiliates generate the code they need to link to your site and earn credit for any sales they generate, Clickbank will create an automated affiliate link generator form just like they generated an automatic order form for your product. Below is the interface needed to create your affiliate link
http://www.clickbank.com/build.html
By then creating a link on your affiliate signup page to this form, your affiliates will be able to receive their own unique affiliate linking code for your website
Once a potential affiliate enters his/her clickbank nickname and clicks submit, the system then generates their own linking code. This links from their site to yours, showing that the visitor was sent by them.
Now you can use this affiliate programme if your budget is tight but I personally use a different programme and here is why I don't use the programme outlined above
Firstly anyone can become an affiliate of yours. That means that if one of your hard working affiliates is promoting you and an interested individual sees his unique affiliate link to your website, he can just substitute your first affiliates link with his own, then buy your product. Your affiliate loses money which was rightly theirs. Not a good start.
What about someone who you get to your site? Well they can just buy through their own affiliate link and cut you out of some profits that were rightly yours as you got them there in the first place.
Thirdly, you don.t actually know who any of your affiliates are because they don.t have to register with you to become an affiliate. Its easy to work out the affiliate code they.ll need so they go off promoting you.
Also your affiliate can't actually see how many visitors they are sending to your site. All they know is the commission their making.
It is for the above reasons I use a programme called easyclickmate . This programme solves the above problems and obviously works in conjunction with clickbank, to maximise the potential of your clickbank account. It will also turn your affiliate programme into a very powerful money making machine!!
The way this software works is simple and very effective:
Affiliate will actually sign up to your programme. They will provide their name, email, website address and country.
What I love about this software is that it includes its own control panel. This powerful system gives you comprehensive marketing statistics such as click-throughs, sales and conversion ratio (hits/sales) of your affiliates. It will display your top performing affiliates, top referral urls, top product(s) performance summary.
Your affiliates can login to the affiliate center to check his/her stats, and retrieve their custom affiliate links which are automatically generated each time you add new products. The affiliate codes cannot be switched so the affiliate wont lose commissions he rightfully earned.
They will also receive an automatic email notification from easyClickMate when they've made a sale. Details of the email includes the merchant's name (i.e. you) and how much profit they've made. You will also receive an email regarding the affiliate sale. This is a value-added feature as Clickbank has decided stop sale notification to affiliates.
The reason this software is worth it and why you will actually save money when you purchase the product for $70 is as follows. The system works in conjunction with clickbank. You can sell a number of products using the one clickbank account.
So why don't you consider this
This software will cost you $70. If you are going to write more than one ebook product, you will need a second clickbank account which will cost you another $49.95. Therefore if you are going to write more than two ebooks you will be saving money and this isn't even including the other wonderful features easyclickmate has.
Remember if you have more than one product, you can check your affiliate stats to see which product is selling the best or the one you need to improve. You will be able to see which website is converting the most browsers into buyers.
With this programme, you will be able to entice more potential affiliates because your programme is so professional looking. Also add that I've supplied you with a full affiliate course. So your affiliate programme will be very powerful indeed.
I mentioned earlier about setting up an affiliate info(sign up) page and also an affiliate log-in page. Well the good news is easyclickmate will install these pages for you and upload them to your website.
Installation is simple and is covered completely by the top quality guide Adrian Ling(programmer) will provide you with as soon as you buy his software. This script is written in a language called PHP.
Adrian ling provides a very good manual for installing the software on your hosting account, and he also provides one on how to setup and use the software once it's installed. The manuals are very detailed, and much like this book, break down the whole process into little east to follow steps.
To make good money, you will need to get high traffic to your site. This isn't easy to achieve but with an affiliate programme you can increase your traffic considerably. An affiliate programme works by providing a unique code for each affiliate that is linked to your sales site. When a visitor sent by an affiliate buys a copy of your ebook, you give them commission.
So what our affiliate page needs to do is, convince as many people as possible to sign up and become an affiliate. You have got to let your potential affiliate know, how the product sells, the commission you will give them and the training you will give them to help them sell your ebook. Therefore your affiliate's page is like your sales page, it really needs to sell.
Now the big problem with affiliates is that very few that sign-up actually make a sale for you. I'd say roughly 15% and that's doing well. The reason affiliate programmes falter, is the inexperienced people need support. Remember if you can increase the chances of the inexperienced 85% selling your products, it will lead to considerable extra profits.
So what we need to do is educate the non-experienced affiliates. The best way we can do this is an affiliate course. This will allow your affiliate to educate themselves. Having an affiliate course also allows you to stay in regular contact with your affiliate after they have signed up for your affiliate programme. You are “in their face” more.
Now I am sure you are saying to yourself how do I set up an affiliate course to educate my potential customers? It's simple you already know how to. It's the exact same as setting up a newsletter. Remember I spoke about getting Getresponse as an auto responder. Well you can also use this to take care of your affiliate course.
In a few minutes I am going to tell you about a piece of software that will automatically set up an affiliate sign-up page for you. It's the same as the opt-in form we produced for the newsletter earlier. All you need do then is get your sign-ups to be forwarded to your autoresponder. With getresponse you can programme it to send out an email every three, seven or fourteen days (this is at your own discretion). So you can write a 6 part affiliate course on your autoresponder and send one part out every week.
You are probably saying too yourself, where am I going to get an affiliate training course, well this is simple! All you have to do is sign up to my affiliate programme. You will be automatically subscribed for the six part affiliate course. Save the course in your inbox and you have full rights from me to use this course for your own affiliate programme. So basically your copying and pasting my affiliate course into your own autoresponder when you set up your programme
Ok, how to set up your own affiliate programme. I mentioned earlier that if you sign up for clickbank, they will also take care of your affiliate programme. What I love about clickbank managing your affiliate programme is that they provide the accounts, the sales reports and they pay your affiliates every two weeks.
Earlier we setup an affiliate sign up template page. It's easy to get affiliates to sign up to your programme. All you do is get the potential affiliate to sign up for a clickbank account of their own. Now the link you use to get them to sign up to their own clickbank account is as follows.
http://AFFILIATE.reseller.hop.clickbank.net
All you need to do is replace the “affiliate word”, with your own clickbank nickname. What this does is it activates clickbanks affiliate link. So if someone signs up using the previous link with your nickname, you will receive commission for clickbank if the person signs up for the full account. So if your refer someone and they activate their account fully (activation fee $50), you will receive $10. Also you will receive a commission from clickbank for every sale they make with their own product in the future. Roughly this will work out around .10c for every 10 sales they make.
Now the code an affiliate will provide to link to your site will look like the following
http://(yournickname).(their nickname) .hop.clickbank.net
In order to let your affiliates generate the code they need to link to your site and earn credit for any sales they generate, Clickbank will create an automated affiliate link generator form just like they generated an automatic order form for your product. Below is the interface needed to create your affiliate link
http://www.clickbank.com/build.html
By then creating a link on your affiliate signup page to this form, your affiliates will be able to receive their own unique affiliate linking code for your website
Once a potential affiliate enters his/her clickbank nickname and clicks submit, the system then generates their own linking code. This links from their site to yours, showing that the visitor was sent by them.
Now you can use this affiliate programme if your budget is tight but I personally use a different programme and here is why I don't use the programme outlined above
Firstly anyone can become an affiliate of yours. That means that if one of your hard working affiliates is promoting you and an interested individual sees his unique affiliate link to your website, he can just substitute your first affiliates link with his own, then buy your product. Your affiliate loses money which was rightly theirs. Not a good start.
What about someone who you get to your site? Well they can just buy through their own affiliate link and cut you out of some profits that were rightly yours as you got them there in the first place.
Thirdly, you don.t actually know who any of your affiliates are because they don.t have to register with you to become an affiliate. Its easy to work out the affiliate code they.ll need so they go off promoting you.
Also your affiliate can't actually see how many visitors they are sending to your site. All they know is the commission their making.
It is for the above reasons I use a programme called easyclickmate . This programme solves the above problems and obviously works in conjunction with clickbank, to maximise the potential of your clickbank account. It will also turn your affiliate programme into a very powerful money making machine!!
The way this software works is simple and very effective:
Affiliate will actually sign up to your programme. They will provide their name, email, website address and country.
What I love about this software is that it includes its own control panel. This powerful system gives you comprehensive marketing statistics such as click-throughs, sales and conversion ratio (hits/sales) of your affiliates. It will display your top performing affiliates, top referral urls, top product(s) performance summary.
Your affiliates can login to the affiliate center to check his/her stats, and retrieve their custom affiliate links which are automatically generated each time you add new products. The affiliate codes cannot be switched so the affiliate wont lose commissions he rightfully earned.
They will also receive an automatic email notification from easyClickMate when they've made a sale. Details of the email includes the merchant's name (i.e. you) and how much profit they've made. You will also receive an email regarding the affiliate sale. This is a value-added feature as Clickbank has decided stop sale notification to affiliates.
The reason this software is worth it and why you will actually save money when you purchase the product for $70 is as follows. The system works in conjunction with clickbank. You can sell a number of products using the one clickbank account.
So why don't you consider this
This software will cost you $70. If you are going to write more than one ebook product, you will need a second clickbank account which will cost you another $49.95. Therefore if you are going to write more than two ebooks you will be saving money and this isn't even including the other wonderful features easyclickmate has.
Remember if you have more than one product, you can check your affiliate stats to see which product is selling the best or the one you need to improve. You will be able to see which website is converting the most browsers into buyers.
With this programme, you will be able to entice more potential affiliates because your programme is so professional looking. Also add that I've supplied you with a full affiliate course. So your affiliate programme will be very powerful indeed.
I mentioned earlier about setting up an affiliate info(sign up) page and also an affiliate log-in page. Well the good news is easyclickmate will install these pages for you and upload them to your website.
Installation is simple and is covered completely by the top quality guide Adrian Ling(programmer) will provide you with as soon as you buy his software. This script is written in a language called PHP.
Adrian ling provides a very good manual for installing the software on your hosting account, and he also provides one on how to setup and use the software once it's installed. The manuals are very detailed, and much like this book, break down the whole process into little east to follow steps.
Do you have a long-term partner yet?
By now most people have realized that the Internet is not just about trying to make a quick buck.
Most scams and get-rich-quick schemes have quickly faded and couldn't produce results if their life depended on it.
So you are now left with coming up with strategies that will keep your business around for the long-term.
If you are planning on having affiliate revenue be part, or all of your income, you need to find programs that you can hope will be around for a long time.
It can be quite painful when a company you've promoted for many months decides to close their affiliate program, or they decrease commissions so far down that it isn't worth your efforts to promote anymore.
When this happens you are left with starting over trying to find someone else that you can hope to earn a decent income from.
When searching for an affiliate program that you hope to make your long-term partner, here are some things to look for:
High-quality products or services - You can quickly destroy your reputation online by promoting shady companies with poor products. ALWAYS try to associate with companies that have great products.
Companies that have YOUR interests in mind - Unfortunately there are many companies out there that simply view their affiliate programs as a cheap advertising and branding vehicle. Seek companies that view their affiliates as partners. You can tell when you have found one by looking at how the program is structured and what they offer in the way of support for affiliates.
Programs paying commissions on multiple products - You will find that sometimes your visitors will purchase items that you had not recommended. Your income can build much faster when you get paid a commission for those sales as well as sales of products directly promoted by you.
Lifetime commission structure - It takes time, effort, and money to send visitors that actually become customers of the affiliate program. Lifetime commissions allow you to get rewarded for future purchases of your customers. This model is great and you should really consider promoting at least one program that offers it.
Some great programs that I highly recommend looking at, and ones that fit most, if not all, of the above qualities:
Marlon Sander's affiliate program:
http://www.affmatch.com/marlon
(High commission structure on many different products that sell EXTREMELY well.)
Ken Evoy's SiteSell affiliate program:
http://www.affmatch.com/sitesell
(One of the top affiliate programs offering great products that over-deliver on their promise of value.)
Yanik Silver's affiliate program:
http://www.affmatch.com/instant
(Great products that sell well and offer high commissions.)
You can also do quite well promoting programs that offer recurring revenue. This is where you promote services that require a monthly fee.
With this type of program you get paid a percentage of those monthly fees for as long as the customer remains with the company.
Some great companies with recurring commissions are:
Aweber Autoresponders:
http://www.affmatch.com/aweber
(Autoresponders have caught on like wildfire and are very easy to sell.)
Hosting.com:
http://www.affmatch.com/hosting
(Selling website hosting is one of the top ways to make money on the Internet, and most programs offer to pay you from each month's payments from customers you send them.)
Match.com Personals:
http://www.affmatch.com/match
(Personals ranks up there on the top as well, offering you a percentage of the fees paid by customers that want to meet others online.)
The most important thing to take from this article is that you must start looking for long-term partners and not waste any time trying to get rich over night.
Most scams and get-rich-quick schemes have quickly faded and couldn't produce results if their life depended on it.
So you are now left with coming up with strategies that will keep your business around for the long-term.
If you are planning on having affiliate revenue be part, or all of your income, you need to find programs that you can hope will be around for a long time.
It can be quite painful when a company you've promoted for many months decides to close their affiliate program, or they decrease commissions so far down that it isn't worth your efforts to promote anymore.
When this happens you are left with starting over trying to find someone else that you can hope to earn a decent income from.
When searching for an affiliate program that you hope to make your long-term partner, here are some things to look for:
High-quality products or services - You can quickly destroy your reputation online by promoting shady companies with poor products. ALWAYS try to associate with companies that have great products.
Companies that have YOUR interests in mind - Unfortunately there are many companies out there that simply view their affiliate programs as a cheap advertising and branding vehicle. Seek companies that view their affiliates as partners. You can tell when you have found one by looking at how the program is structured and what they offer in the way of support for affiliates.
Programs paying commissions on multiple products - You will find that sometimes your visitors will purchase items that you had not recommended. Your income can build much faster when you get paid a commission for those sales as well as sales of products directly promoted by you.
Lifetime commission structure - It takes time, effort, and money to send visitors that actually become customers of the affiliate program. Lifetime commissions allow you to get rewarded for future purchases of your customers. This model is great and you should really consider promoting at least one program that offers it.
Some great programs that I highly recommend looking at, and ones that fit most, if not all, of the above qualities:
Marlon Sander's affiliate program:
http://www.affmatch.com/marlon
(High commission structure on many different products that sell EXTREMELY well.)
Ken Evoy's SiteSell affiliate program:
http://www.affmatch.com/sitesell
(One of the top affiliate programs offering great products that over-deliver on their promise of value.)
Yanik Silver's affiliate program:
http://www.affmatch.com/instant
(Great products that sell well and offer high commissions.)
You can also do quite well promoting programs that offer recurring revenue. This is where you promote services that require a monthly fee.
With this type of program you get paid a percentage of those monthly fees for as long as the customer remains with the company.
Some great companies with recurring commissions are:
Aweber Autoresponders:
http://www.affmatch.com/aweber
(Autoresponders have caught on like wildfire and are very easy to sell.)
Hosting.com:
http://www.affmatch.com/hosting
(Selling website hosting is one of the top ways to make money on the Internet, and most programs offer to pay you from each month's payments from customers you send them.)
Match.com Personals:
http://www.affmatch.com/match
(Personals ranks up there on the top as well, offering you a percentage of the fees paid by customers that want to meet others online.)
The most important thing to take from this article is that you must start looking for long-term partners and not waste any time trying to get rich over night.
Ten Ways To Make Your Affiliate Site More Profitable
Is your affiliate website ready for business? You may have your content written and your affiliate products in place, but there are more things you can do to make your site more profitable.
1. Have a specific theme for your site and make sure your content, logo and other graphics are relevant to that theme. Don't add kitty graphics to a website about gaming.
2. Have as much original content - content that you have written yourself - on your site as you can. Your visitors don't want to read the same articles on a website that they have just seen on the one they were just at.
3. Create "printer friendly" pages for your important content. People are looking for information. Let them print it out. When they go back to read it later, they'll see your site's url at the bottom of the page.
4. Put your web pages into a logical order. Think like your visitors and group like content pages together. Make your site as "user friendly" as possible.
5. All links should be "clickable." Check and recheck the links to other pages and to your affiliate products.
6. Create a Frequently Asked Questions page - especially if you sell your own products. When someone asks a question, publish that question, with your answer, in your FAQs.
7. Have contact information available on each of your web pages. Create a link to a Contact Me form instead of using an email addres. This will cut down on the amount of spam that you receive.
8. Offer Freebies. Free reports, ebooks, autoresponder courses and newsletters give your visitors a reason to come back. Set up an autoresponder for each freebie to help build your subscriber list.
9. Continue to add more valuable content to your site. One way to do this is to add an article directory to your site. Allowing your website visitors to add their articles will create good content for other visitors and it will help get their article noticed. It's a win-win situation for all.
10. Add links to other sites. Make sure those links are to websites' themes are compatible to yours. This will ad interest as well as increasing your search engine ranking.
Using the above methods will increase visitors to your site. By adding fresh, valuable content regularly those visitors will return. The more people that come to your site (and return to it), the more profitable you website will be.
1. Have a specific theme for your site and make sure your content, logo and other graphics are relevant to that theme. Don't add kitty graphics to a website about gaming.
2. Have as much original content - content that you have written yourself - on your site as you can. Your visitors don't want to read the same articles on a website that they have just seen on the one they were just at.
3. Create "printer friendly" pages for your important content. People are looking for information. Let them print it out. When they go back to read it later, they'll see your site's url at the bottom of the page.
4. Put your web pages into a logical order. Think like your visitors and group like content pages together. Make your site as "user friendly" as possible.
5. All links should be "clickable." Check and recheck the links to other pages and to your affiliate products.
6. Create a Frequently Asked Questions page - especially if you sell your own products. When someone asks a question, publish that question, with your answer, in your FAQs.
7. Have contact information available on each of your web pages. Create a link to a Contact Me form instead of using an email addres. This will cut down on the amount of spam that you receive.
8. Offer Freebies. Free reports, ebooks, autoresponder courses and newsletters give your visitors a reason to come back. Set up an autoresponder for each freebie to help build your subscriber list.
9. Continue to add more valuable content to your site. One way to do this is to add an article directory to your site. Allowing your website visitors to add their articles will create good content for other visitors and it will help get their article noticed. It's a win-win situation for all.
10. Add links to other sites. Make sure those links are to websites' themes are compatible to yours. This will ad interest as well as increasing your search engine ranking.
Using the above methods will increase visitors to your site. By adding fresh, valuable content regularly those visitors will return. The more people that come to your site (and return to it), the more profitable you website will be.
Becoming An Affiliate Marketer
is an interesting and exciting process. There are so many programs out there for you to promote. You should think seriously before you commit to any one program.
Choosing A Program
To become an affiliate marketer, you must choose the right affiliate program to market. This can be done by reviewing as much information as possible about the affiliate program you are interested in joining. You can start also by reviewing what other affiliates have to say about the program before you sign up.
When choosing to become an affiliate marketer, there are certain things you should be aware of. For example, you should know what percentage of the sale of the affiliate
product you will receive. This can range from as low as 10% to 75% of the sales price. Generally, the higher the commission, the better for you.
After you have chosen a program you beileve will be profitable to you may elect tohave a website designed to showcase your product in a professional manner. But why, I ask, would you choose to spend the time, effort and money to re-invent the wheel?
Many affiliates are now providing a professional sales letter for your use and/or provide a redirect to the sales site. This makes sense for both the seller and provider.
Using An Autoresponder
Once you have selected an affiliate program, you, yes you must promote your program. It is a good idea to set up an opt-in list and autoresponder from the beginning. There
are many, many autoresponders available. Do an online search and comparison to choose the one best for you and the products you promote.
Using your autoresponder you can generate of list of names and email addresses of people who have purchased the product from your web site, or a list of people interested in finding more information about the product. You can use this list to send them information about product updates or to send information about new products you are promoting. This is an easy way to advertise, but you must do so legally. SPAM is illegal. Again, do the research and learn the legal way to do your e-mail marketing.
Track and Record
This is something most new affiliates fail to do when they first start out. It is the simple concept of keeping track of where your traffic is coming from and what areas that you
promoted to are generating the most sales. In this way you can see where most of your business is coming from and turn up the heat in those areas to generate more sales.
Keeping track of your traffic also will tell you what areas you have promoted to that is not generating any sales or low sales. You can then either abandon these areas if you have tried all promotion methods, or increase promoting there. Do your research - there are some excellent software resources to automate this process.
Network With Other Affiliates
As an affiliate, especially one who is getting started, it is a great idea to network with another affiliates. This is especially beneficial if the other affiliate is a seasoned veteran of sales. The amount of information that you will learn from them cannot be read within any book. Make us of the online forums, teleconferences, mp3's and provided by seasoned veterans of making money online.
With these tips in mind, now is the time to move forward and become the affiliate marketing success story.
Choosing A Program
To become an affiliate marketer, you must choose the right affiliate program to market. This can be done by reviewing as much information as possible about the affiliate program you are interested in joining. You can start also by reviewing what other affiliates have to say about the program before you sign up.
When choosing to become an affiliate marketer, there are certain things you should be aware of. For example, you should know what percentage of the sale of the affiliate
product you will receive. This can range from as low as 10% to 75% of the sales price. Generally, the higher the commission, the better for you.
After you have chosen a program you beileve will be profitable to you may elect tohave a website designed to showcase your product in a professional manner. But why, I ask, would you choose to spend the time, effort and money to re-invent the wheel?
Many affiliates are now providing a professional sales letter for your use and/or provide a redirect to the sales site. This makes sense for both the seller and provider.
Using An Autoresponder
Once you have selected an affiliate program, you, yes you must promote your program. It is a good idea to set up an opt-in list and autoresponder from the beginning. There
are many, many autoresponders available. Do an online search and comparison to choose the one best for you and the products you promote.
Using your autoresponder you can generate of list of names and email addresses of people who have purchased the product from your web site, or a list of people interested in finding more information about the product. You can use this list to send them information about product updates or to send information about new products you are promoting. This is an easy way to advertise, but you must do so legally. SPAM is illegal. Again, do the research and learn the legal way to do your e-mail marketing.
Track and Record
This is something most new affiliates fail to do when they first start out. It is the simple concept of keeping track of where your traffic is coming from and what areas that you
promoted to are generating the most sales. In this way you can see where most of your business is coming from and turn up the heat in those areas to generate more sales.
Keeping track of your traffic also will tell you what areas you have promoted to that is not generating any sales or low sales. You can then either abandon these areas if you have tried all promotion methods, or increase promoting there. Do your research - there are some excellent software resources to automate this process.
Network With Other Affiliates
As an affiliate, especially one who is getting started, it is a great idea to network with another affiliates. This is especially beneficial if the other affiliate is a seasoned veteran of sales. The amount of information that you will learn from them cannot be read within any book. Make us of the online forums, teleconferences, mp3's and provided by seasoned veterans of making money online.
With these tips in mind, now is the time to move forward and become the affiliate marketing success story.
8 Reasons Why Affiliate Marketing Is the Holy Grail Of E-Commerce
For too long affiliate marketing has been seen as the
"poor brother" of other popular online businesses such as
online auctions, ebooks, software or membership sites.
But to someone who earns a large percentage of my online
income as an affiliate, I'm constantly amazed at what a
great business this is.
Here, then, are just eight of the reasons why I believe
affiliate marketing is the *best* way to start off online;
indeed why in my eyes it's the Holy Grail of e-commerce.
1) No Need To Create A Product To Sell
Most people start off in e-commerce by creating their own
product. However, this route can involve investing a lot of
time and money.
On the other hand, I have set up affiliate sites in a matter
of weeks for under $100 that now greatly exceed that
initial set-up cost every single month - on autopilot. So
it's a quick, easy, and cost effective market to get into.
2) Create Money Out Of Thin Air
As it's possible to set up an affiliate site with a tiny sum
($50-100) and let this multiply numerous times, you can
then go on and invest in bigger projects in the future.
3) No Customer Service
Depending on how you set up your affiliate business it
*is* possible to completely dispense with customer service
enquiries.
Indeed, I am now setting up simple minisites with *no*
email address and no contact details at all. This saves me
a huge amount of time each day answering questions and so
allows me to concentrate on building more sites for greater
profits.
4) Automatic Money - And Free Time!
Using the right model, you can simply set up an affiliate
site and move onto your next project.
I sincerely believe that it is possible as you gain
experience to launch a site per month and, since you're not
selling anything yourself or answering customer's enquiries,
your site can run virtually on autopilot.
An occasional check is all that is necessary and
my minisites take me less than 30 minutes a month to run.
It's like automatic money each month!
More impressively, the sites you built months, even years
ago, continue to bring in sales meaning you're having to
work less and less to achieve the results you desire. You
control your day - and you do what you like with it.
5) Thinking Outside The Box
So many e-commerce businesses depend hugely on their own
affiliate network to drive traffic and sales. It's a
reasonably easy and hassle-free way to make profits.
Unfortunately as an affiliate marketer you don't have that
luxury.
But it's actually to your advantage.
You see without that fallback you are forced to think
outside the box to generate traffic.
Instead you need to find, test and develop other
techniques which stand you in good stead for the future.
Not only does it make you more creative and resourceful in
general, but if and when you eventually launch a non-
affiliate marketing site you'll already know how to
generate an avalanche of traffic *ontop* of what your
affiliates bring you.
And more traffic equals more sales.
6) He Who Has The Traffic Has The Power
Once you develop your traffic streams and your subscriber
list you become a very sought after commodity.
Other businesses seek you out, eager to sign you up as an
affiliate of theirs.
And as your success grows, you develop the ability to
cherry pick only the most profitable deals for yourself -
and often command higher commission rates than others get.
Do *not* underestimate what it can be like to be in this
situation. An example is that one of my merchant partners
sent me an extra $250 last Christmas just to say thanks for
sending them so many sales that year!
7) You're The Perfect Affiliate Manager
If and when you decide to create your own product and set
up your own affiliate program as part of your marketing
strategy you have a distinct advantage over your
competitors - you'll already know the best affiliate
marketing techniques.
And this knowledge will prove priceless in terms of
helping your own affiliates promote you effectively.
8) Great Community
By becoming an affiliate marketer you will be joining a
great community of like-minded individuals from around the
world.
A combination of quality newsletters and discussion forums
run by real pros means it's a great community to be a part
of.
So there you have it - my eight reasons to become an
affiliate marketer today - so what are you waiting for?!
"poor brother" of other popular online businesses such as
online auctions, ebooks, software or membership sites.
But to someone who earns a large percentage of my online
income as an affiliate, I'm constantly amazed at what a
great business this is.
Here, then, are just eight of the reasons why I believe
affiliate marketing is the *best* way to start off online;
indeed why in my eyes it's the Holy Grail of e-commerce.
1) No Need To Create A Product To Sell
Most people start off in e-commerce by creating their own
product. However, this route can involve investing a lot of
time and money.
On the other hand, I have set up affiliate sites in a matter
of weeks for under $100 that now greatly exceed that
initial set-up cost every single month - on autopilot. So
it's a quick, easy, and cost effective market to get into.
2) Create Money Out Of Thin Air
As it's possible to set up an affiliate site with a tiny sum
($50-100) and let this multiply numerous times, you can
then go on and invest in bigger projects in the future.
3) No Customer Service
Depending on how you set up your affiliate business it
*is* possible to completely dispense with customer service
enquiries.
Indeed, I am now setting up simple minisites with *no*
email address and no contact details at all. This saves me
a huge amount of time each day answering questions and so
allows me to concentrate on building more sites for greater
profits.
4) Automatic Money - And Free Time!
Using the right model, you can simply set up an affiliate
site and move onto your next project.
I sincerely believe that it is possible as you gain
experience to launch a site per month and, since you're not
selling anything yourself or answering customer's enquiries,
your site can run virtually on autopilot.
An occasional check is all that is necessary and
my minisites take me less than 30 minutes a month to run.
It's like automatic money each month!
More impressively, the sites you built months, even years
ago, continue to bring in sales meaning you're having to
work less and less to achieve the results you desire. You
control your day - and you do what you like with it.
5) Thinking Outside The Box
So many e-commerce businesses depend hugely on their own
affiliate network to drive traffic and sales. It's a
reasonably easy and hassle-free way to make profits.
Unfortunately as an affiliate marketer you don't have that
luxury.
But it's actually to your advantage.
You see without that fallback you are forced to think
outside the box to generate traffic.
Instead you need to find, test and develop other
techniques which stand you in good stead for the future.
Not only does it make you more creative and resourceful in
general, but if and when you eventually launch a non-
affiliate marketing site you'll already know how to
generate an avalanche of traffic *ontop* of what your
affiliates bring you.
And more traffic equals more sales.
6) He Who Has The Traffic Has The Power
Once you develop your traffic streams and your subscriber
list you become a very sought after commodity.
Other businesses seek you out, eager to sign you up as an
affiliate of theirs.
And as your success grows, you develop the ability to
cherry pick only the most profitable deals for yourself -
and often command higher commission rates than others get.
Do *not* underestimate what it can be like to be in this
situation. An example is that one of my merchant partners
sent me an extra $250 last Christmas just to say thanks for
sending them so many sales that year!
7) You're The Perfect Affiliate Manager
If and when you decide to create your own product and set
up your own affiliate program as part of your marketing
strategy you have a distinct advantage over your
competitors - you'll already know the best affiliate
marketing techniques.
And this knowledge will prove priceless in terms of
helping your own affiliates promote you effectively.
8) Great Community
By becoming an affiliate marketer you will be joining a
great community of like-minded individuals from around the
world.
A combination of quality newsletters and discussion forums
run by real pros means it's a great community to be a part
of.
So there you have it - my eight reasons to become an
affiliate marketer today - so what are you waiting for?!
The Prosperous Affiliate Merry-Go-Round
In the affiliate world, just as in the rest of the world,
what goes around comes around.
Here's where I'm coming from . . .
I just finished reading one article too many where the
author proclaims that people don't like to click on what
appears to be an affiliate link.
Why not? Well, here is how the reasoning of the potential
buyer supposedly goes:
• I'll bet the price is jacked up.
• Maybe the guarantee won't be honored.
• What if they don't give me all the bonuses?
• Why should some middleman make a buck off me?
So this guy takes his paranoia and stinginess and trudges
off to find the original link. End of story.
Do you see anything wrong with this?
I see everything wrong with it. Or at least now I do, once
I stopped to ponder why I was doing the same thing! I
believe this situation is on the verge of changing and very
quickly. Here's why…
For one thing, as more and more people are earning money by
promoting other people's products, affiliate marketing is
becoming more widely regarded as a legitimate business form.
This is in large measure thanks to Rosalind Gardner, creator
of the Super Affiliate Handbook.
http://www.Calling-All-Entrepreneurs.com/SAH.html
(Notice how proudly I displayed my affiliate link?)
Now, as increasing numbers of people engage in this type of
promotion, it is rapidly becoming common knowledge that if
you buy from an affiliate, you are in actuality buying
directly from the owner or creator of the product. Hence,
the following holds true:
• The price to you, the potential buyer, is the same,
regardless of how you got there.
• The guarantee, which is being issued from the product
owner, is still valid.
• You are set up to receive all bonuses, advertised and
unadvertised, that the owner offers. (In fact, buying from
an affiliate might even net you some extra bonuses!)
And so now, that leaves only the final objection, “Why
should some middleman make a buck off me?”
On the Threshold of a New Paradigm
Living as we are, on the eve of a new level of expanded
consciousness, here are some notions that are quickly
gaining wider acceptance:
• We attract what we focus on.
• We create our own reality.
• We attract to ourselves the same kind of energy that we
send out.
This Law of Attraction is no longer regarded as some
paranormal fluke. Thought power is gaining acceptance as
true and verifiable by quantum physics and our own empirical
evidence.
So what does that have to do with our potential buyer's
final objection?
Well, when I stopped to examine why I was guilty of
automatically avoiding using an affiliate link, I discovered
that there was no valid reason for doing so. I mean, being
that the bottom line to me is all the same, why should I
want to deny someone his or her fair commission?
I had to admit that such unwarranted stinginess could only
be due to an insidious belief in scarcity. I felt a little
ashamed of myself, but not one to flog myself, I immediately
changed my focus to how to alter my beliefs to something
more desirable.
And what I found is a win-win-win situation.
If a marketer brings a product to my attention or convinces
me of its value or presents it to me at the time I am
willing to buy it, this affiliate has clearly earned his or
her commission. And it's a pretty sweet deal all the way
around:
• The owner is happy because he has just earned money
for a sale he would probably not have otherwise made.
• The affiliate is happy because his marketing efforts are
paying off.
• I get my product AND I put money into the pockets of
at least two people.
And that makes me happy, because sending money into
circulation sets me up for being on the receiving end. And
giving a figurative pat on the back to the affiliate marketer
raises my vibration to attract the same type of rewards in
my life. And you know what else? It just FEELS so much
better to do it this way.
I think people are unaware of the many ways that poisonous
thinking can still lurk menacingly in their brains, stuffed
away in odd little pockets of stingy behavior like this.
When you stop to consider that so many of us were raised
by parents or grandparents who lived through the Great
Depression, it's easy to understand how we may have
inherited more from our families than what meets the eye.
But I digress. Let's just all be part of a prosperity
movement that has no interest in denying anyone their fair
due. After all, there is plenty to go around for everybody.
Just like a carnival carousel, what goes around comes around.
May your affiliate coffers swell!
what goes around comes around.
Here's where I'm coming from . . .
I just finished reading one article too many where the
author proclaims that people don't like to click on what
appears to be an affiliate link.
Why not? Well, here is how the reasoning of the potential
buyer supposedly goes:
• I'll bet the price is jacked up.
• Maybe the guarantee won't be honored.
• What if they don't give me all the bonuses?
• Why should some middleman make a buck off me?
So this guy takes his paranoia and stinginess and trudges
off to find the original link. End of story.
Do you see anything wrong with this?
I see everything wrong with it. Or at least now I do, once
I stopped to ponder why I was doing the same thing! I
believe this situation is on the verge of changing and very
quickly. Here's why…
For one thing, as more and more people are earning money by
promoting other people's products, affiliate marketing is
becoming more widely regarded as a legitimate business form.
This is in large measure thanks to Rosalind Gardner, creator
of the Super Affiliate Handbook.
http://www.Calling-All-Entrepreneurs.com/SAH.html
(Notice how proudly I displayed my affiliate link?)
Now, as increasing numbers of people engage in this type of
promotion, it is rapidly becoming common knowledge that if
you buy from an affiliate, you are in actuality buying
directly from the owner or creator of the product. Hence,
the following holds true:
• The price to you, the potential buyer, is the same,
regardless of how you got there.
• The guarantee, which is being issued from the product
owner, is still valid.
• You are set up to receive all bonuses, advertised and
unadvertised, that the owner offers. (In fact, buying from
an affiliate might even net you some extra bonuses!)
And so now, that leaves only the final objection, “Why
should some middleman make a buck off me?”
On the Threshold of a New Paradigm
Living as we are, on the eve of a new level of expanded
consciousness, here are some notions that are quickly
gaining wider acceptance:
• We attract what we focus on.
• We create our own reality.
• We attract to ourselves the same kind of energy that we
send out.
This Law of Attraction is no longer regarded as some
paranormal fluke. Thought power is gaining acceptance as
true and verifiable by quantum physics and our own empirical
evidence.
So what does that have to do with our potential buyer's
final objection?
Well, when I stopped to examine why I was guilty of
automatically avoiding using an affiliate link, I discovered
that there was no valid reason for doing so. I mean, being
that the bottom line to me is all the same, why should I
want to deny someone his or her fair commission?
I had to admit that such unwarranted stinginess could only
be due to an insidious belief in scarcity. I felt a little
ashamed of myself, but not one to flog myself, I immediately
changed my focus to how to alter my beliefs to something
more desirable.
And what I found is a win-win-win situation.
If a marketer brings a product to my attention or convinces
me of its value or presents it to me at the time I am
willing to buy it, this affiliate has clearly earned his or
her commission. And it's a pretty sweet deal all the way
around:
• The owner is happy because he has just earned money
for a sale he would probably not have otherwise made.
• The affiliate is happy because his marketing efforts are
paying off.
• I get my product AND I put money into the pockets of
at least two people.
And that makes me happy, because sending money into
circulation sets me up for being on the receiving end. And
giving a figurative pat on the back to the affiliate marketer
raises my vibration to attract the same type of rewards in
my life. And you know what else? It just FEELS so much
better to do it this way.
I think people are unaware of the many ways that poisonous
thinking can still lurk menacingly in their brains, stuffed
away in odd little pockets of stingy behavior like this.
When you stop to consider that so many of us were raised
by parents or grandparents who lived through the Great
Depression, it's easy to understand how we may have
inherited more from our families than what meets the eye.
But I digress. Let's just all be part of a prosperity
movement that has no interest in denying anyone their fair
due. After all, there is plenty to go around for everybody.
Just like a carnival carousel, what goes around comes around.
May your affiliate coffers swell!
Selecting Affiliate systems that Work
There are thousands upon thousands of different affiliate programs available to you across the world wide web, so getting started with an affiliate program can sometimes seem a bit daunting. However, when you know what youre looking for, youll feel much more prepared to tackle this first major step.
Though many affiliate sites will give you the impression that all that is required to enjoy affiliate program success is plugging a link or a banner onto your website, and the money will begin rolling in on its own, this is not always the case. Usually, this is only the case if your website already experiences massive amounts of daily visitors.
For that reason, youll want to make certain to hook up with affiliate program that offers products, services, and bargains that hold real attraction to the type of website visitor you will be experiencing.
Once you have that set, its up to you to get the word out, and draw as many people to your site as possible, using a number of different marketing techniques. Variety is the key, both with the products youll offer, and the advertising youll perform.
Furthermore, once your audience has reached your site, you need to encourage them to click through your affiliate links. Remember, your visitors need a very good reason to click on a link or banner on your site. Otherwise, they wont use it.
How do you do this? Use a wide variety of the different banners and links offered to you from the affiliate program so that you have the highest chance of attracting peoples attention no matter what draws them. Moreover, if you use simple straightforward links and banners you will experience much more success than highly colorful and picture-filled banners.
Remember, a 2% is considered doing pretty well, so you will need to do everything you can to get at least 2 out of every 100 of your visitors to use your links.
There simply isnt any easier way to earn money online that is, as long as you know what youre doing. By using the techniques you learn through How to Become a Master Affiliate, youll be left with only one question: how do you want to spend all that extra money? A new car? Paying off your mortgage? A dream vacation? The options are limited only by your own imagination!
Remember, the sooner you begin, the sooner youll achieve your dreams; theyre only one click away.
Convert Your ClickBank Affiliate Links to Enhanced Hoplinks
The hoplink system has been a familiar feature of the affiliate marketing landscape since the earliest days of ClickBank. But it suffers from a few shortcomings that have been the focus of frequent discontent among ClickBank members.
The enhanced hoplink system, announced in October 2003, represents ClickBank's vision of a more robust and flexible referral architecture that will meet the increasingly sophisticated expectations of a growing membership. This article discusses the benefits of the new system and explains the practical issues that merchants and affiliates will face when migrating to it.
The simplicity of the original hoplink system (now dubbed the regular hoplink system) has been a major contributor to the popularity of ClickBank's affiliate network. To refer a prospect to a ClickBank merchant, you simply create a hyperlink to ClickBank's hoplink server, using a URL format that incorporates your ClickBank affiliate nickname and that of the merchant:
http://hop.clickbank.net/?AFFILIATE/VENDOR
The hoplink server redirects your prospect to the merchant's website, simultaneously creating the essential affiliate tracking cookie in his browser.
Affiliates with established businesses that use regular hoplinks in this manner are free to continue without modifying their existing configurations. But to exploit the richer functionality resulting from ClickBank's ongoing system development, it might be worth considering an upgrade to the enhanced hoplink format.
Enhanced hoplinks use a basic URL format that can be extended with optional parameters to provide greater control over the referral process. The optional parameters are denoted by their surrounding square braces [ and ].
http://AFFILIATE.cb.kount.com/hop/TIMESTAMP/MERCHANT/[PAGE/[PROMO/]][?QUERYSTRING]
Although the enhanced hoplink URL format is very different to its predecessor, it performs largely the same function, albeit with much greater flexibility.
For example, the new format allows affiliates to specify a destination page number. This is interpreted by the hoplink server to direct the prospect to a specific product page on the merchant's site. This feature alone (known as deep linking) justifies the change of format, allowing merchants who sell multiple products to establish the most efficient referral relationships with their affiliates. Multi-product merchants who implement deep linking for the first time will likely see a major improvement in their sales conversion rate, which is welcome news for them and for their affiliates.
Another optional component of the enhanced hoplink URL is its promotional code - an identifier that affiliates can use to track the effectiveness of their traffic campaigns. This code may be up to 4 alphanumeric characters and it identifies the source of the referral, enabling affiliates to monitor the performance of individual promotional tactics. Future enhancements to the ClickBank stats reporting system will provide affiliates with the tools necessary to exploit this feature, enabling detailed numerical analysis of referrals, aggregated by their assigned promotional codes.
Unfortunately, despite its attractions, there is an obstacle in migrating to the enhanced hoplink URL format; its timestamp component. This feature was introduced as a security measure and as part of ClickBank's efforts to combat affiliate spam, but it has the unwelcome side-effect of complicating the lives of legitimate affiliates.
The timestamp element of the URL is a representation of the current date and time in a standardized format, known as Epoch time. Epoch time is the number of seconds elapsed since 00:00:00 GMT on 01 January 1970, expressed as a 10-digit integer. If the timestamp in an affiliate referral is not accurate (to within about 30 minutes) the hoplink server will rejected it. Since Epoch time uses a common time zone (GMT), the Epoch time calculation for a given instant always produces the same result, regardless of where in the world it takes place. This overcomes the complications that would otherwise arise when affiliate referrals are made by web servers located in time zones other than that of ClickBank's server.
The problem with time-stamping is that the current time is constantly changing, so the timestamp value must be programmatically generated every time a referral takes place. The simplest and most reliable way to do this is by including a rudimentary server-side script in the page that hosts the referral link. Although this is very simple to implement, it relies on the page being delivered by a web server. In other words, it specifically excludes referral links in static media, such as ebooks and newsletters.
Affiliates who rely heavily on non-web media may be disgruntled by this apparently discriminatory policy. However, the problem is relatively easily remedied. By routing all static affiliate referrals via an intermediate redirection page, hosted on a web server, the timestamp element can be dynamically generated on demand. Admittedly, this means that affiliates who wish to use enhanced hoplinks must have their own web presence, which is far from the norm among ClickBank affiliates. But this was, after all, ClickBank's intention in introducing the feature - it forces all affiliates to be more visible and more accountable for the traffic they generate. And, in the longer term, as the enhanced hoplink gains popularity, it is likely that 3rd party services will spring up, offering affiliates a simple and low-cost solution to this problem.
At the time of writing, ClickBank has activated the enhanced hoplink system but has not yet completed the database and control panel changes necessary to exploit its optional features. So, although we are free to implement our affiliate referrals using enhanced hoplinks, it may be some time before the benefits of doing so become visible.
The Multi Level Affiliate Program (MLAP) FAQ
What is a Multi Level Affiliate Program(MLAP)?
A MLAP is an affiliate program that is free to join, and pays affiliates a commission when they make a sale, as well as when subaffiliates under them make sales.
How is a MLAP better than basic affiliate programs for webmasters, ezine publishers, and forum owners?
When affiliates promote products using their affiliate links on their sites,only a small percentage of visitors/members/subscribers will end up buying the products.The other "impressions" are wasted. Because MLAPs are free to join, a proportion of these "wasted" visitors will sign up as subaffiliates to sell products to their freinds and contacts. As a result, when they subsequently make sales (or recruit further subaffiliates), the original affiliate member gets paid a leveraged, passive income through no further effort on his part. Depending on the number of levels the MLAP incorporates, the potential for profit could be HUGE, at no risk!
How is a MLAP better for merchants than traditional affiliate programs?
While basic affiliate programs are a wonderful no risk, cost per action way for merchants to make sales, their popularity has resulted in a huge abundance of different programs, each competing for the same, limited number of affiliates to promote their products.In fact, recruiting affiliates has become almost as hard as making sales for many merchants. MLAPs offer merchants a way to make their programs and products stand out from the crowd, to recruit new affiliates much more quickly and effectively, thereby boosting their "sales force" and eventual sales and profits.
How is a MLAP better than MLM for affiliates?
While MLAPs have the huge income potential of MLM programs due to the use of the leveraged downline concept, because they are free to join, they present a zero risk alternative to people wary of losing money in poorly executed MLM programs.
How is a MLAP better than MLM for merchants?
MLMs, while a very effective and profitable means of product distribution, have been getting a bad reputation because of the poor execution by some companies. The need to first buy a product or pay a joining fee has drawn some criticism, as well as hampered many would be "salesmen" from joining these programs. MLAPs allow merchants to much more effectively win affiliates, without the risk of being labelled a "MLM company".
Where is the best place to find MLAPs to join?
As MLAPs are still relatively uncommon, it is very hard and time consuming to find them online. An effective way would be to go to a specialised MLAP directory, like Hugeaffiliate.com , which continuously combs the web for such programs to list in an organised manner.
Where can I get affiliates for my MLAP?
While it is possible to sign up affiliates by listing your MLAP in normal affiliate program directories, it is also very useful to list your MLAPs in specialised directories like Hugeaffiliates.com . This is because this is where most affiliates interested in MLAPs go to locate new programs to join.
Where can I learn more about MLAPs?
Go to our extensive resource bank and discussion forum designed specially to help both affiliates interested in learining how to make money using MLAPs, as well merchants thinking of setting up their own MLAPs.
How popular are MLAPs?
While still relatively new, these programs are quickly gaining popularity because of the distinct benefits they offer to both affiliates and merchants.
Affiliate Marketing – And the Learning Curve
When you put up your first website – you have to admit that you are pretty green to the ways of the Internet World. You think that once your website is up, and you have put your links in place, you will be in the money. I, and I am sure many, would love that to be true. Just think how many Super Affiliates we would have. I will give you a small sampling of what to truly expect.
The Begin of the Begin
You will be excited at first, and you will have a sense of pride in your accomplishment. Granted, it is no small feat to getting a website up and online. But this is just the beginning of your Internet Marketing experience.
Once you have your website up, you should be asking yourself -- where do I begin, or, what do I do now? If you are short of cash, which, in most cases people in the beginning are -- you can begin by:
1. Writing articles
2. Optimizing your site for the search engines
3. Putting Adsense on your site
All this takes time and work. But, when you first begin, you do have time to optimize, to write articles, and to put adsense ads on your site. Why? It has been said that for the next six months or nine months, Google, and possibly, the other search engines, may put you in the Sandbox. Some say the Sandbox exists, some says it does not. Whatever it is called, you will see a degree of dormancy in your site.
My own thinking is that there may be a pre-set time of six months before you see a rise in your unique clicks – I know I did. I feel that there may be several reasons for this:
1. It's a great way to protect the Internet community against unscrupulous sites – I figure that these sites have a lifespan of six months before people give them the boot. It only takes one person to feel the blunt of a scam, before talk in the online forums begins.
2. Websites go up and go down daily. The search engines are looking at saving themselves time and money. If you are still on line after six months or nine months, you're paying your dues, and they may figure you are serious about maintaining a business online.
What Do I Do During That Six or Nine Month Period
First, and foremost – since I have supplied you with this information – do not get frustrated and throw in the towel. Granted, at first the only clicks you may see is your own, but that will change.
Second, start positioning yourself, so when your dormancy with the search engines ends, you have the quality content, and the quality products to begin to fly. That means, writing articles, getting your name out to the masses, and learning to utilize Adsense.
And when you have spare change, try your hand at advertising on Adwords.
In the beginning your learning curve is just out of the starting gate – take this time to read, buy appropriate ebooks, experiment and research. All are important to moving your learning curve to the expert level.
To conclude, a website is just a small part, but an important part, of becoming an Affiliate Marketer. The other important elements, is persistence, hard work, and marketing. And finally, if you still have the passion after the initial exhilaration of becoming an online entrepreneur wanes – then you'll make it.
The Begin of the Begin
You will be excited at first, and you will have a sense of pride in your accomplishment. Granted, it is no small feat to getting a website up and online. But this is just the beginning of your Internet Marketing experience.
Once you have your website up, you should be asking yourself -- where do I begin, or, what do I do now? If you are short of cash, which, in most cases people in the beginning are -- you can begin by:
1. Writing articles
2. Optimizing your site for the search engines
3. Putting Adsense on your site
All this takes time and work. But, when you first begin, you do have time to optimize, to write articles, and to put adsense ads on your site. Why? It has been said that for the next six months or nine months, Google, and possibly, the other search engines, may put you in the Sandbox. Some say the Sandbox exists, some says it does not. Whatever it is called, you will see a degree of dormancy in your site.
My own thinking is that there may be a pre-set time of six months before you see a rise in your unique clicks – I know I did. I feel that there may be several reasons for this:
1. It's a great way to protect the Internet community against unscrupulous sites – I figure that these sites have a lifespan of six months before people give them the boot. It only takes one person to feel the blunt of a scam, before talk in the online forums begins.
2. Websites go up and go down daily. The search engines are looking at saving themselves time and money. If you are still on line after six months or nine months, you're paying your dues, and they may figure you are serious about maintaining a business online.
What Do I Do During That Six or Nine Month Period
First, and foremost – since I have supplied you with this information – do not get frustrated and throw in the towel. Granted, at first the only clicks you may see is your own, but that will change.
Second, start positioning yourself, so when your dormancy with the search engines ends, you have the quality content, and the quality products to begin to fly. That means, writing articles, getting your name out to the masses, and learning to utilize Adsense.
And when you have spare change, try your hand at advertising on Adwords.
In the beginning your learning curve is just out of the starting gate – take this time to read, buy appropriate ebooks, experiment and research. All are important to moving your learning curve to the expert level.
To conclude, a website is just a small part, but an important part, of becoming an Affiliate Marketer. The other important elements, is persistence, hard work, and marketing. And finally, if you still have the passion after the initial exhilaration of becoming an online entrepreneur wanes – then you'll make it.
How to Succeed with Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are the first choice of most newcomers to net earnings because they have many advantages:
1. All you have to do is to join a merchant program as an affiliate and send visitors to the merchant site
2. All other work such as making a sale, delivering the product or service, receiving payment, attending to the complaints or making a refund, is handled by the merchant site.
3. The merchant site also sees to it that you are paid commission when a sale is made through your efforts.
4. You are also rewarded when a sale is made through the efforts of an affiliate referred by you to the merchant site.
All easy and simple. But most affiliates soon find that in spite of their best efforts they are not making any money.
This is because the affiliate earnings depend not on how many visitors they send to the merchant site, but how many of them buy the product or service of the merchant.
So just sending visitors to the merchant site is not enough.
You can do this easily by joining traffic exchange or autosurf programs. Your merchant site will be seen hundreds of times but it will not make a sale. This is because these visitors are not interested in your site. They are looking at it to earn credits so they can show their site to others.
This is not to say that traffic programs have no use at all.
I have used them successfully to build my downline in free-to-join programs, but have never made a sale through them. Most members of such programs are promoting their own programs. They could get interested in joining other opportunities, but would rarely go for a product themselves.
So if you want to earn from affiliate programs, the thing to do is to send interested visitors to your merchant site.
Who is an interested visitor?
This is the visitor who reached your site by himself. He is looking for the product you are promoting. This is why he took the trouble of finding it from a search engine or from the particular kind of ads or forums.
This visitor is red hot for a sale. He is already interested in your product. If he finds what he wants on your merchant site, he is very much likely to look at the product's features, mentally compare it with other similar products, ask for more information by giving his email address. All this can lead to a sale and a commission for you.
How to target interested visitors
The best way to reach interested visitors is promoting your products through search engines submissions, placing catchy ads, posting in forums or through your own website.
This may sound daunting to newcomers at first but all these are do-able with a little effort. You can get help for mastering all these skills from the resources freely available on the internet.
Joining right affiliate programs can also help a good deal to gain affiliate mastery. While great many affiliate programs give you a few text ads and banners and be done with you, there are some programs that give valuable training to succeed.
Be positive
Most newcomers to internet earning fail because they expect to be rich in a week, if not overnight. When this doesn't happen as it rarely does in real life, they get discouraged. They are also influenced by others who like them tried but failed to earn with affiliate programs. The result -- they give up, frustrated.
The reality is that nobody becomes rich overnight in internet marketing. You have to work at it consistently. Most important of all, banish negative thinking from your life and believe that if others have succeeded, you, too, can and will.
That perhaps is the most important ingredient for your success.
1. All you have to do is to join a merchant program as an affiliate and send visitors to the merchant site
2. All other work such as making a sale, delivering the product or service, receiving payment, attending to the complaints or making a refund, is handled by the merchant site.
3. The merchant site also sees to it that you are paid commission when a sale is made through your efforts.
4. You are also rewarded when a sale is made through the efforts of an affiliate referred by you to the merchant site.
All easy and simple. But most affiliates soon find that in spite of their best efforts they are not making any money.
This is because the affiliate earnings depend not on how many visitors they send to the merchant site, but how many of them buy the product or service of the merchant.
So just sending visitors to the merchant site is not enough.
You can do this easily by joining traffic exchange or autosurf programs. Your merchant site will be seen hundreds of times but it will not make a sale. This is because these visitors are not interested in your site. They are looking at it to earn credits so they can show their site to others.
This is not to say that traffic programs have no use at all.
I have used them successfully to build my downline in free-to-join programs, but have never made a sale through them. Most members of such programs are promoting their own programs. They could get interested in joining other opportunities, but would rarely go for a product themselves.
So if you want to earn from affiliate programs, the thing to do is to send interested visitors to your merchant site.
Who is an interested visitor?
This is the visitor who reached your site by himself. He is looking for the product you are promoting. This is why he took the trouble of finding it from a search engine or from the particular kind of ads or forums.
This visitor is red hot for a sale. He is already interested in your product. If he finds what he wants on your merchant site, he is very much likely to look at the product's features, mentally compare it with other similar products, ask for more information by giving his email address. All this can lead to a sale and a commission for you.
How to target interested visitors
The best way to reach interested visitors is promoting your products through search engines submissions, placing catchy ads, posting in forums or through your own website.
This may sound daunting to newcomers at first but all these are do-able with a little effort. You can get help for mastering all these skills from the resources freely available on the internet.
Joining right affiliate programs can also help a good deal to gain affiliate mastery. While great many affiliate programs give you a few text ads and banners and be done with you, there are some programs that give valuable training to succeed.
Be positive
Most newcomers to internet earning fail because they expect to be rich in a week, if not overnight. When this doesn't happen as it rarely does in real life, they get discouraged. They are also influenced by others who like them tried but failed to earn with affiliate programs. The result -- they give up, frustrated.
The reality is that nobody becomes rich overnight in internet marketing. You have to work at it consistently. Most important of all, banish negative thinking from your life and believe that if others have succeeded, you, too, can and will.
That perhaps is the most important ingredient for your success.
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