The internet is filled with schemes and systems to make money, and some of them are indeed legitimate. Affiliate marketing is one of those that have been proven to work.
With minimum set-up expense, and very little use of your day-to-day time, you can fast-track your moneymaking through the internet by becoming an affiliate marketer.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Think of it this way. A business or product owner (also called a merchant) will reward you for helping them sell their product. You, on the other hand, are the affiliate (or online sales agent) who promotes their products in exchange for a certain commission.
A business sets up a product that is delivered online and then sets out to get affiliates to increase their rate of sales. As an affiliate, you will be on the look-out for such opportunities; and thus, will be aware of lucrative businesses out there that are looking for affiliates.
What Kinds of Affiliate Marketing Exist?
Different kinds of affiliate marketing are defined by the way the affiliate makes income. There are 3 basic kinds; and an affiliate can use any one of, or a combination, of them:
1) Pay Per Click
In this set up, the affiliate puts the merchant’s promo details on his website. The merchant then pays the affiliate every time a visitor clicks on the merchant’s promo link on the affiliate’s website.
This kind of affiliate marketing is good for people who have the ability to drive large amounts of traffic, like if you have a huge database of people who are interested in a given product. This would be a good option because they would be most likely to click to see what’s new in the market; and of course, you will get paid for each click.
Think of it as a volume business � low profit margins but high volumes. The biggest pay per click affiliate marketing scheme is Google Ads.
2) Pay Per Lead
In this set up, you (as the affiliate) will have a link on your website that leads to the merchant site and gives more details on a certain offer. For every person who leaves their email address in exchange for a product or in response to an offer, you get paid a pre-agreed commission.
It will then be up to the merchant to convert the potential lead into an actual sale. This works best when the existing contact database or email list has a good buying history and the products are targeted.
3) Pay Per Sale
This is the most common and highly preferred option for most merchants and affiliates. The affiliate earns a commission for every actual sale they make out, regardless of how many clicks the offer gets.
It works for both parties � the affiliate finds a lead and converts it to a sale, and the merchant gives the affiliate a share of the earnings. Because of this, the commissions on this tend to be the highest, and an affiliate who is selling a product using this method is highly likely to make a good chunk of money for every sale.
If they are good at their game, they will find several products that they will push in the same manner.
So How Do I Become A Successful Affiliate?
It’s easy. One of the biggest advantages about it is that the initial cash outlays are very low.
Here a very simple system of affiliate marketing using the pay per sale model: Do some research on the demand and profit potential of a niche, get a product that you can sell to the people in this niche, build a squeeze page to build a list, and promote the affiliate products to that list (while building relationships with them).
Very briefly, let’s look at each step:
1) Find a Hungry Niche.
It is important to find a responsive market. What are people looking for right now? Remember to think outside yourself � it’s not about what you want but what the market wants. A profitable niche is one where there is competition, but not too much that it gets saturated.
Run keywords related to your topic of choice using the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Using this tool, you could discover keywords you might have previously missed out on. Not only will you know how many people are searching for certain keywords, you’ll also know the extent of the advertiser competition. The more people are advertising, the more likely they’re making money from it.
2) Find a Suitable Product for Your Niche.
Visit an affiliate directory or products marketplace � they are already set up on the internet; merchants go there and register their products for potential affiliates to promote.
Scout for a product that you think is interesting to your niche, and has value-adding features that you can promote.
Before signing up for any affiliate program, it is good advice to evaluate the quality of the product you’re promoting (use them yourself or at least get feedback from people who have used them). Find out the conversion rates to see if it’s worth your time to promote them and know how much they will reward you in terms of commissions.
A good affiliate will have a number of different products that they promote, so that they can have multiple streams of income and �backup earnings� in case one or more of the affiliate offers stops producing results.
A good place to start searching for affiliate products would be Clickbank.com.
3) Create a Squeeze Page.
This is a short sales-letter type site that usually offers one or more products for free in exchange for a visitor’s name and email address. Obviously, the higher the quality or perceived value of the product, the more people will be enticed to opt-in.
If you have no experience in this area, there are cheap services on offer all over the internet. Find someone who will do it for you quickly and well. They need to understand the full concept of what you are trying to do so that they can incorporate whatever helpful features they can into the site.
4) Build A List And Treat Them Well.
When people visit your squeeze page and leave their email addresses, you can email them as many times as you want to build relationships, gain their trust, and ultimately promote the affiliate products to them.
The follow-up process is done using an autoresponder. There are no hard and fast rules regarding the frequency of your emails. My suggestion is not to exceed 3 emails a week.
Keep giving them valuable content and gifts for them to stay as your subscribers. You may ask the merchant or product owner for any sample excerpts that may serve as pre-sellers in selling the affiliate product. Aside from the original affiliate product, you may also offer other related niche products to your list.
Affiliate marketing is one of the quickest and easiest ways to make money online, especially if you’re just starting out. Remember to give your prospects the VIP treatment and they will reciprocate by buying your recommendations.
