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What New and
Inexperienced Affiliates Should Know About Affiliate Programs
A lot of different claims have been made about affiliate marketing,
some suggesting you just choose your programs, upload your site,
register it with search engines, then wait for dozens of checks to
pile through your letterbox or money to find its way into your bank
account, month after month, year after year.
Most of the time all that is lies or exaggeration. The highest
rewards invariably go to affiliates working hard to promote their
products and sometimes paying for traffic to their sites. Yet people
do exist who are making good money from affiliate programs from very
little effort and zero financial outlay. However, by far the biggest
profits go to people spending a few hours a day promoting their
sites, targeting markets, giving visitors a reason to continue
calling and, more than anything, giving regular customers good
service in the hope they return time and time again, to discover new
offers, and ultimately to buy!
A few points will ensure you earn handsomely from your efforts.
* Making money is rarely as easy as choosing programs, uploading
your site and waiting for commission checks to appear in your
mailbox. Work on the principle that anything worth doing is worth
doing well and spend time marketing your site both on and off the
Internet, registering with search engines, adding product and
contact details to business stationery, joining online discussion
groups to talk about your business, and so on.
* Most importantly, you may have heard about ‘content’ sites which
search engines tend to rank high based on the number of pages and
quality of information available to search engine browsers. So if
someone keys ‘magic trick’ into Google, for example, Google will
search for sites containing the most valuable information about
magic as long as that information is also relevant and not just
sales patter. The best part is, anyone can create a content-rich
site by simply adding relevant pages as often as possible,
containing articles or tips alongside affiliate links. Lots of
relevant content allows sites to rank high with most major search
engines who are, after all, only trying to provide quality results
for their users, not just a mass of sales links. Remember always:
CONTENT IS KING!
* Some programs set conditions. For example, you may have to
purchase a product before being allowed to market it, as for many
electronic books and marketing courses available online. Usually
cost is small and buying and studying the product is a great way to
familiarise yourself with questions potential customers might ask
before deciding to buy.
* Some programs pay a fixed price per sale or introduction,
regardless of how much income is generated for them. Others pay a
percentage commission of sales on a one-off or continuing basis. In
all cases, work out potential earnings for you before joining and
always work on earning as much as possible for every ounce of
energy, every minute of your time, every penny you spend on
promoting other people’s products.
* Some affiliate programs work one tier only, where affiliates
receive commissions for products sold. Others offer multiple tiers
where participants earn commissions from sales to customers as well
as for introducing new affiliates. To complicate things just a
little further, some programs also offer commissions on sales
generated by affiliates introduced by you. Thankfully all will
become clear as you start joining and promoting programs and
ultimately adding more programs and products to your portfolio.
* Though most suppliers pay in cash, a minority offer discounts
against their own goods and services. The difference is largely
immaterial if you are a regular user of goods offered at discount
prices but as a serious affiliate you might prefer cash payments
over discounts. BIG TIP: Check with the income tax authorities as
payment in kind is usually taxable.
Avril Harper is the author of
A COMPLETE
NEWBIES’ GUIDE TO MAKING MONEY WITH CLICKBANK which you can
learn more about at:
http://www.avrilharper.com/clickbank.html
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