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Affiliate Marketing Introduction

January 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment
This entry is part 1 of 10 in the series Affiliate Marketing

Many looking for a way to work from home and run their own business turn to the Internet for answers.  It’s only natural that people turn to the World Wide Web to find information on the topic, since television commercials seem to abound now with claims of people who are making money running their own at home business.  Maybe you even know someone personally who runs an online business.  It’s not as uncommon as many think.  The Internet is full of opportunities to turn your dream of working from home, being your own boss, and having control of your financial future into a reality.

With its vast amount of information on almost any subject you could imagine, people in households around the world are jumping online and Googling “ways to make money online” every day.

One of the more frequent terms that pop up when searching for ways to make money on the Internet is Affiliate Marketing.  But, what exactly is affiliate marketing and how can it help you create a thriving and profitable business?

In this series you’ll find some of the most frequently asked questions on the topic of Affiliate Marketing along with the answers to each of them.  You’ll learn what affiliate marketing is, the basics of how it works and by the end of the report you’ll have a better understanding of what everybody online is talking about.

Who knows, you just might decide that affiliate marketing is something you’d like to try for yourself.  If so, I wish you success!  Just remember any business worthwhile does take time and work.  It won’t happen overnight (although it is possible to do some work before you go to sleep at night and wake up to money in your pocket the next morning with affiliate marketing).

When done correctly an Affiliate Marketing business can produce the income, security, and longevity anyone looking to create a successful business could ever need or want.

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Defining Affiliate Marketing

January 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment
This entry is part 2 of 10 in the series Affiliate Marketing

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing as defined by Wikipedia.com:

Affiliate Marketing is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts.

I don’t know about you, but when I first read that definition, it wasn’t exactly jumping out at me, making me go “Oh yeah, I get it. Now I know what I want to do to make a living!”

Of course you can read more about the practice of affiliate marketing at the Wikipedia website, but let me save you the trouble, because although it isn’t hard to understand, it is a bit overwhelming and really doesn’t tell you in easy to understand terms what affiliate marketing is.

Affiliate marketing is the process of referring others to a product or service and being paid for your efforts.

A great example that I’ve found most people can easily understand is that of a car salesman. When you go to a dealership to purchase a new car, you’re normally greeted by a salesperson. He or she will do their best to answer your questions, show you the car including its features, engine, warranty, and even let you test drive it. Once you decide the vehicle is the one you want to buy, they will then walk you through all the paperwork, getting financing, taking your down payment, trade-in and everything else involved in the process from start to finish.
Once the deal has been made and you’ve driven off the lot with your new car, the dealership receives the sticker price of the car.

But, what about the sales person who worked with you all afternoon? He listened to your needs, recommended the car that you fell in love with and are now sporting around town in. What does he get out of the deal? After all, he did all the work – he should get something for making the sale. And, he does. He will receive a percentage of the sales price of the car you just bought. This is known as a commission.

Affiliate marketing is the same thing, only in this particular case you are doing the referring and “selling” on the Internet.

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Making Money with Affiliate Marketing

January 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment
This entry is part 3 of 10 in the series Affiliate Marketing

How exactly do you make money from Affiliate Marketing?

We touched on the answer to this question in the previous question. When you (the affiliate) refer someone to a product (or service) and that person makes a purchase, you receive a commission on the sale.

However, there is more to it than that. After all, how can a company know for sure that you are the one who sent this person to their website since you’re not there to tell them and the person buying may not even know your name?

When you sign up to become an affiliate with a company or individual, you’ll receive a special link (your affiliate link) that is embedded with a tracking code to let the affiliate program owner identify you among other affiliates and their own marketing methods.

Whenever you use this special affiliate link to refer someone to the company’s website the person’s visit is tracked to you via that special code. There are various software programs that make this possible and the process is beyond the scope of this particular report. Just remember that visitors to the website are tracked back to you from this special code within your affiliate link.

Whenever someone who uses your link purchases something from the company’s website you are credited for the sale and receive some sort of payment.

Common types of affiliate payments:

  • Sales Percentage – This method is the most common form of payment to affiliates. Example: For every sale you refer as an affiliate, you’ll earn 50% of the total sales price. You refer $50 worth of sales and we’ll pay you $25. Percentages vary and are set by the company or individual who runs the affiliate program. They can vary from 5% all the way to 100%.
  • Pre-set dollar amount – This type of commission is not extremely common, but it is out there, specific dollar amounts could include things such as: For every $5 worth of product sales you refer to us, we’ll pay you $1 or a flat $20/sale.
  • Credits – Some sites pay their affiliates in credits that can be used for future purchases of their products. An example of this would be receiving 1 credit for every dollar’s worth of product sales you refer.

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Is Internet Marketing for Real?

January 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment
This entry is part 4 of 10 in the series Affiliate Marketing

There are a ton of get rich quick schemes and just plain scams online.  Is Affiliate Marketing a legitimate way to make money from home or is it just another get rich scheme or scam?

Yes, it is absolutely legitimate!  Affiliate Marketing is a valid and legal way to earn money (and when done right, earn a nice living) on the Internet.

Of course that’s the short and easy answer, I know.  I realize you are more than likely sitting at your computer reading this report and thinking something along the lines of:

“That’s what they all say.  Prove it to me.”

Wait!  Don’t click that little X in the top right corner of this document without reading further.  I’m going to tell you WHY Affiliate Marketing is legit!

Let me first assure you; there probably is not one successful affiliate marketer out there who wasn’t taken by some kind of rotten scammer when they first started looking for a way to work from home.  I made that mistake plenty of times.   We’ve all been there, done that.   It’s those who are ready to get serious about making a living online and continue to work hard that will succeed.

There are many differences with Affiliate Marketing that make it a proven way to make money without being scammed.   Here are just 5 of those differences:

  1. There is no cost to start. – Find products that you like that have affiliate programs, sign up and begin promoting.  Simple.
  2. You control the decision of what products you choose to promote.  I promote products I have bought or would buy.
  3. If the program is legit, you can easily find others promoting the same products and services on their websites.  Do some research.
  4. It takes work on your part! – No promises of making a 6 figure income without doing any work.
  5. With affiliate networks such as Clickbank, Pepperjam Networks, PayDotCom, LinkShare, and others, it’s easy to get started with well known, reputable companies who have been around long enough and have a reputation of paying their affiliates on time every time.

If that isn’t enough reason, I encourage you to research further. Visit sites like Clickbank, Pepperjam Networks, PayDotCom, LinkShare, Commision Junction and others.  Do all the investigating it takes so that you feel comfortable with the fact that Affiliate Marketing is a REAL way to make money.  Read the income reports produced by some of the more successful bloggers and Internet marketers out there.  You’ll see that Affiliate Marketing is real and actually works.

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Affiliate Marketing Training

January 4, 2009 By 1 Comment
This entry is part 5 of 10 in the series Affiliate Marketing

Do I need special training to become an affiliate marketer?

In short, no you do not need any special training to become an affiliate marketer.  However, understanding how Affiliate Marketing works in order to get started and be successful at it is a plus.  We’ve already covered what Affiliate Marketing is in this series so you’ve got that part of the equation covered.

A few things you will need to get started are:

  1. A website or blog to promote your affiliate products on. – There are ways to be an affiliate marketer without a website however. Keep reading to find out how you can promote affiliate products and services without a website.
  2. A PayPal account. – The most popular form of payment for affiliate program owners is Paypal, but some do offer to send your commissions via regular mail in the form of a check. If you don’t have a Paypal account you can sign up for one for free at http://www.paypal.com.
  3. An understanding of those whom you will be promoting the products and services to.

There are many resources available online that can help you succeed as an affiliate marketer by giving you a more in depth look at the process.  Here are just a few that I recommend.

AffiliateTips.com – This site showcases the top affiliate programs and provides extensive resources on affiliate marketing.  It is a great resource.

EarnersBlog.com – This is a blog with lots of content on affiliate marketing as well as making money online.

Blog.AffiliateTip.com – This is a blog by Shawn Collins who has been involved with affiliate marketing since the late 90’s.  He is also a co-founder of Affiliate Summit, a leading industry conference for affiliate marketing. 

AffiliateElite – This is a software package that helps manage the  process of finding affiliate products, viewing trends in the market/niches you want to promote and much, much more.  It’s from one of the Callen brothers (Brad & Matt), the same guys who are responsible for KeywordElite, SEOElite, DirectorySubmitter and many other awesome tools for getting the most from your website.  These guys are very successful Internet marketing gurus. 

MomAffiliateNetwork.com – This site not only lists some great affiliate programs for those who market to moms, Internet marketing niches, and more, but you can also sign up to receive free tips to learn more about Affiliate Marketing.

Affiliate Classroom – Get a free copy of the most recent Affiliate Classroom Magazine as well as a plethora of information on Affiliate Marketing here.

Super Affiliate Handbook – This is THE guide to help you with your Affiliate Marketing efforts.

Free Affiliate Masters Course – Excellent report available for download on this page.

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Does Affiliate Marketing Require The Sales Type?

January 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment
This entry is part 6 of 10 in the series Affiliate Marketing

I couldn’t sell water in a desert and forget about a life jacket to a drowning man too!  Can I still be a successful affiliate?

If you can’t sell a life jacket to a drowning man…well the he is just plain dumb!   

Seriously though, if you can talk to people then you can promote affiliate products.  You don’t need to have that sales mentality or anything like that.  The key isn’t in pushing a product or service down people’s throats.  Tall to them just like you would a friend or family member.  If you can do that, you can definitely be a successful affiliate.

It is easy to recommend affiliate products to your audience as they are usually interested in the information you have to share.  This is why people visit your site and read your articles.  They want your information so why not recommend things to them and make some extra money?  Sometimes its harder to recommend things to people that are close to you because they may not be interested in this information. 

This is the great thing about affiliate marketing.  Affiliate marketers already have an audience.  The people they are promoting to have already expressed an interest in what they have to say and information they have to share, which includes recommendations for products or services they have a need for.

What makes it even easier to be an affiliate marketer versus an regular salesperson selling to every body they come in contact is that you have help.  As a member of a good affiliate program, you’ll be given plenty of tools and resources to help make sales easier for you to achieve.  You’ll receive graphics, pre-written sales copy and more to help you.  Many times they even provide pre-written reviews and email templates.  They need you to get your visitors to their site so they can attempt to close the deal.  Take advantage of the tools they offer. 

I recommend promoting products you have either purchased, would purchase, or are directly related to your niche.  This makes it easy to write your own reviews and add content around the affiliate product.  I believe this builds credibility with your visitors and gives your site additional content.  It’s a win-win. 

So, yes, you can be successful promoting affiliate products even if you don’t think you could sell a life saving device to that man drowning in the ocean.  Think outside the box on this one…instead of selling the life saving device, point the man to where he can get a life saving device from an affiliate!  Let them handle the selling…you just need to recommend them.

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Affiliate Marketing Costs

January 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment
This entry is part 7 of 10 in the series Affiliate Marketing

Does it cost anything to become an affiliate marketer?

Generally speaking, there are no startup costs required with affiliate marketing.  There may be costs depending on how you decide to promote the affiliate products such as advertising costs, or additional web hosting costs.  Advertising is optional and if you already have a web hosting plan or plan to promote from an existing website, there should be no other costs.  In reality, you don’t even need a website but we’ll talk about that in the next article in the Article Marketing series. 

Once you figure out how you will promote products, then you simply find products you’d like to promote and sign up for their affiliate program by filling out a short form.  Each affiliate asks for different information, but generally speaking all affiliate programs will ask for the following information.

  • First Name
  • Last Name
  • Email Address
  • Login Information including login name and password (if they aren’t automatically generated)
  • You PayPal email address (so they can send your commissions)
  • Your Mailing Address (especially important if you are receiving your commission payments via check)
  • Social Security Number or Tax ID Number

Don’t be scared because they ask for your social security number.  If you live in the United States and make over $600 in any given year in commissions, the affiliate program is required by the IRS to send you a Form 1099 for tax reporting purposes.  This is why they need your social security number or tax ID. 

I have found that if a company needs to send you a Form 1099 and you don’t provide your Tax ID or Social Security number at sign up; they get it from you when the time comes.  Many times this is a required field so there may not be a way around it.  They can alternatively ask you to fill out a form W9, which is an IRS form and is completely legal. That being said it is up to you whether you feel comfortable giving them your information at sign up or waiting until the IRS requires it.

Just remember, affiliate income is taxable income so be sure you are reporting it to the IRS.  I believe you even need to do it if the amount is under $600.  Tax advice is definitely out of the scope for this article so I suggest you consult a tax person or you can visit the IRS website and research information regarding self employment income for more information.

At the beginning of this answer I talked about some of the additional costs that may be associated with affiliate marketing depending on how you choose to promote the offers.  While the details of these types of promotions are also out of the scope of this article, I just wanted to provide a list of the some of the items that may incur costs.

  • Purchasing a website specifically for promotion of a program
  • Buying the actual product or service in order to get a better idea of how it works, what the customer service is like, etc.
  • Paying for options such as taking out newspaper ads, Google Ads, or other forms of advertising for the product beyond things you may already possess

Again, these are extra costs that you choose whether or not to incur.  They are not required to be an affiliate marketer by any means.  There are plenty of free ways to promote products.  You can write reviews and submit them to article directories or post comments in forums or blogs with a link to the product (don’t spam though) to name a couple.  Be very careful when posting comments to forums or blogs.  Make sure the product you are promoting is relevant and that the topic calls for a product recommendation.

I’ll talk more about how to promote products in a future article in the Affiliate Marketing series.

Good Luck!

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Affiliate Marketing Does Not Require A Website

January 10, 2009 By Leave a Comment
This entry is part 8 of 10 in the series Affiliate Marketing

Do I need a website to be an affiliate marketer?

While most affiliate marketers do have a website, you don’t really need one to promote products in an affiliate program. 

Affiliate marketing has been around a long time, although up until recently, people were simply calling it recommendations and referrals.  People have recommended products and services of businesses long before the Internet made it possible and long before there were “Affiliate Programs”.

As I mentioned in the previous article in this series, there are plenty of ways to promote an affiliate product without the use of a website.  With that being said, I would highly recommend the use of a website for promoting affiliate products.  Web hosting is cheap these days.  Check out HostMonster or BlueHost for web hosting.

Here are a just a few ways you can promote an affiliate product without having a website or email list.

  • Print Products – You can have business cards, brochures, and more printed up that direct people to the affiliate program’s website via your affiliate link.
  • Newspaper & Magazine Ads – Place an ad in a magazine or your local newspaper using your affiliate link as the point of contact for those reading.
  • Online Search Engine Listings – Google, Yahoo, and MSN are all great ways to advertise using your affiliate link without owning a website.
  • Car Decals – Have window stickers, bumper stickers, door signs, etc. advertising your affiliate link on them.
  • Radio & Television Commercials – Create a commercial or have one done by a professional that you can submit and have played on air.
  • Forums & Message Boards – Most message boards allow you to place a link in the signature area of your posts. Check with the rules of the site before posting your affiliate link here because some do not allow advertisements in your posts.
  • Twitter.com, Squidoo.com, and other Social Media sites. – These sites are growing in popularity and are free to use for business purposes.

The possibilities are endless when it comes to being able to market your affiliate links without owning a website or mailing list.  These are just a few of the ways you can do it. There are many more out there and a bit of creativity is all you need to come up with your own ideas as well.  Search Google for ways to promote offline.  I’m sure you’ll find way more than what I specified above. 

Stay tuned for the next article in this series where I talk about finding companies and products to promote. 

Happy Hunting!

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Finding Affiliate Companies Products To Promote

January 11, 2009 By 2 Comments
This entry is part 9 of 10 in the series Affiliate Marketing

What types of companies pay to promote their products and services?

This is another area with endless possibilities when it comes to affiliate marketing.  Every day more and more companies are realizing the benefits of having affiliates promote their products and services.  If they don’t have affiliate programs, they now implementing them into their marketing arsenals.

Some of the biggest companies in the world use affiliates to increase sales for them.  Here are just a few well known companies that know just how smart it is to recruit others to promote them and pay them good money to do so.  Heard of any of these companies?

  • Nike
  • Microsoft
  • Progressive Insurance
  • Walmart
  • Amazon

That’s just the tip of the iceberg.  There are companies everywhere from small online only businesses all the way up to Fortune 500 companies and bigger who will gladly pay a commission (and good ones too) to promote their products and refer sales to them.  I work daily with affiliate programs and I can’t really say I know of any fields that do not have tons of companies willing to pay someone in some form or another to promote their products for them.

Where can I find products to promote?

Affiliate programs are not hard to find, especially online.  Here are some ways you can find programs to promote with very little effort required.

  1. Website Searches – You can easily do a search on the Internet for companies in a specific market that have an affiliate program.  For instance if your market is dieting, simply do a search with words like “dieting sites with affiliate programs” or “dieting affiliate programs.”
  2. Visiting Sites You Already Know and Shop At – Do you have a particular website or company that you love to shop with? If so, head to their site and check to see if they have an affiliate program. Chances are they do.
  3. Affiliate Networks – This is probably the most popular.  There are a ton of sites which specialize in nothing but affiliate programs and those who wish to sell their products through them.  Some of the more common affiliate networks include:

Clickbank – This site makes it simple to promote tons of products in hundreds of fields. Simply sign up and receive an ID that you can then use to promote products listed in their Marketplace. New companies are adding their products to Clickbank’s affiliate marketplace on a daily basis.

Clickbank also allows companies and individuals to sell their own products through them. They will manage the affiliate programs for these companies and individuals. This is great for the company, but it’s even nicer for the affiliate. No need to sign up for hundreds of programs and receive separate checks for each one. Instead, Clickbank pays affiliates their commissions on a regular basis. (At the time of this report writing they had recently implemented the option of weekly direct deposits of commissions.) You also have the option of getting paid bi-weekly, semi-monthly and more.

Other popular affiliate networks include:

Finding affiliate programs to enroll in and promote is not difficult at all.  As a matter of fact, it’s probably the easiest part of the whole process.

How do I know which products are the best to promote?

I’ll make this very easy for you and just get straight to the point.  The following one thing is the biggest determiner of whether or not you’ll convert clicks into sales in an affiliate program – YOUR MARKET!

You have to have a market that is interested in the types of products you are promoting. For instance, you will do no good promoting chocolates to a dieting market or engagement rings to married couples.  You must do your research and know your market before determining which types of products will appeal to them.

Let me make this clear because it could mean the difference between success and failure as an affiliate marketer if you get it wrong. Don’t forget this basic but crucial fact:

You MUST know your target customer in order to successfully promote products and services they will actually buy!

Would you recommend a dating service to your spouse?  I know I wouldn’t.  That would probably not go over very well!  The same goes with affiliate marketing.  Suggesting products your market has no use for will get you no where and fast.  It’s just not a good idea.  Stick with what is relevant and carefully choose what you promote.

Now, that being said you could have an eager market and find the perfect product that could make their dreams come true, only to find the product stinks.  So, how can you tell if the product really lives up to its name?

Some programs, especially those listed in Clickbank, will actually give you statistics of how well their program converts lookers into buyers.  If you have access to these stats use them to help determine if it’s worth signing up to promote the product.

Another thing you can do is purchase the product for yourself.  If it is what it says it is, you’re good to go.  If it isn’t or you find it’s not worth the investment for whatever reason, you know you probably shouldn’t promote it.

Lastly, read reviews on the product or ask others who promote it how it does.  There aren’t many products out there that you can’t find a review for online.  Take the time to search for reviews of products from various sources and take the writer’s thoughts into consideration before jumping into an affiliate program you’re unsure of.

You can use a tool like AffiliateElite to see how well others are doing with a particular affiliate product and help you decide which products to promote.

See how I promoted that product?  Very relevant…you’re obviously here reading about affiliate marketing so it makes sense.

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Getting Paid With Affiliate Marketing

January 11, 2009 By 2 Comments
This entry is part 10 of 10 in the series Affiliate Marketing

When do affiliate marketers get paid?

Generally speaking, you’ll get paid the month after sales have been made as many affiliate programs do monthly payment cycles.  Let’s say you referred 5 visitors to a site that converted into sales for that company in the month of January.  You would receive your commissions for those five sales sometime in February.

Each affiliate program payment cycles may be a little different.  I’ve seen some affiliate programs that will pay you more frequently, like every two weeks when your sales are consistently over a certain amount.  There are even affiliate programs that will pay a couple times a week for marketers that bring in very large amounts.  Basically, check with your affiliate program to find out what their payment cycle.

How do affiliate marketers get paid?

There are a few different ways that affiliate marketers get paid.  Most of the time, when you sign up for the affiliate program, you state how you want to get paid.  The most common methods are:

  • Paper Check – Received in the mail, or sometimes via FedEx/UPS depending on the amount/affiliate program.
  • Direct Deposit – The money gets directly deposited into your checking/savings account.
  • PayPal – This one is becoming one of the more common and widely used.  It makes it very easy as all you need to do is provide your email address for payment.

Once again, you’ll need to verify payment options with your affiliate program.

Affiliate Marketing Wrap Up

This is the last article in my Affiliate Marketing Series.  I hope you now have a better understanding of what affiliate marketing is and how it works.  I also hope I have answered your most common questions about affiliate marketing and what you need to get started.

Remember to refer back to the other articles in this series for valuable sites and affiliate programs to look at.  One of my favorite sites for affiliate marketing information is AffiliateTips.  Read the reviews and find the program that best suites your niche.

Thanks for reading!  Please check back soon for other articles and series on affiliate marketing, article marketing, blogging, and other resources to help you make money online.

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