affiliate,making money with affiliate programs

Here are some things that I look for before joining an affiliate
program. They are items I feel are imperative to being in a
successful affiliate program.

1. The affiliate program has a great payment structure. For me, a
high commission that is also a high percentage of the purchase price
is essential. Nothing under 25% commission.

2. Make sure the affiliate program you are joining has a good looking
site. You do not want to be sending visitors to a site that you do
not like yourself.

3. Make sure they offer a comprehensive affiliate statistics page
that lists the number of click throughs, number of sales and amount
earned. This should be broken down per month.

4. Also make sure that the affiliate statistics are updated
automatically and immediately. You do not want to find out today
about a sale you made a week ago.

5. Ensure they give a wide variety of text links, banners and
graphics to put on your web page. Although I prefer text links,
certain types of banners and graphics still work well.

6. Know how often you are going to be paid. If you are tossing up
between 2 programs and one pays monthly and the other pays quarterly,
the one that pays monthly is better. You do not want to wait months
before getting paid for your hard work!

7. See if the affiliate program gives examples of how the top
affiliates are doing. This can be a great pointer to whether it is
good or not. If some affiliates are earning many thousands per month,
it is a good affiliate program.

8. Along these lines, also see if they give examples of what
marketing methods these successful affiliates are using to get the
best results.

9. An affiliate program that offers a special monthly newsletter just
for the affiliates is great. Here you can get extra tips and
techniques that are working well.

10. See if they offer email notification when you make a sale or get
an affiliate signed up under you (if it is a 2-tier program). It is
good to see `You have made another sale' in your inbox.

11. Ensure top level support is given. If they cannot answer your
query straight away make sure they can respond within 48 hours.

There is tremendous demand for affiliate programs and choosing the
right one is no easy task. Make sure you do plenty of research before
joining one.

Free ways to promote them
After learning of the success many online businesses have had increasing their sales with an affiliate program, you decided to follow suit. You hammered out a compensation plan both encouraging to affiliates and profitable to your business. You’ve got tracking software in place. You’ve turned the key in the ignition of your marketing machine… and nothing’s happening.

Your army of affiliates can be viewed metaphorically as a tree. Full grown, it will thrive in rain and sunshine. Strong changing winds can shake its branches, but the tree will continue to grow. In the early seed stage, however, special care is needed if you want your tree to break through the surface.

You spent a great deal of time, energy, and likely at least a little money creating your affiliate program. You need to attract strong affiliates that can rapidly build your customer base and return your investment. How can you bring these powerful marketing dynamos into your camp, ideally without drawing on your already diminished cash reserves?

1.) Submit to Online Directories
The method that will show the most immediate increase in new affiliates is listing your program in online affiliate directories. These reference sites are the first stop for hungry potential affiliates looking for the income opportunity that is going to allow them to quit their 9 to 5 jobs. Many such directories exist, and obviously some will bring you better results than others. Since submitting to almost all of these directories is free, though, get listed on as many as you can. Here are a few links to submission pages to get you started, but by no means should you stop with just these few:

http://www.becomeanaffiliate.com/cgi-bin/add.cgi
http://www.affiliatesoftware.info/joinaffiliatedirectory.php
http://www.affiliatescreen.com/suggest_program.php
http://www.affiliatematch.com/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi
http://www.2-tier.com/cgi-bin/add_url.cgi
http://www.affiliatesdirectory.com/links/add.cgi
http://www.earnfind.com/addprogram-howto.php

2.) Advertise in Your Own Newsletter
Hopefully you’ve been collecting email addresses from your website and sending a regular newsletter to your visitors. (If not, read this article: http://www.zeromillion.com/ebiz/creating-an-email-newsletter.html) Your newsletter subscribers are a precious handful of people that have expressed direct interest in keeping abreast of the latest developments with your product/service and company. Give them what they want! You can kick off your affiliate program with an article in your newsletter explaining the benefits and encouraging your subscribers to participate. Your future newsletters can contain short blurbs about the affiliate program and how it’s progressing to inform new subscribers and remind your original readers.

3.) Post to Affiliate Forums and Newsgroups
Approach this method with caution. No one will be impressed if you post a blatant advertisement or a plea to join your affiliate program. If you find a forum that contains such messages, don’t even bother making a post there. The forum probably isn’t moderated, and almost certainly isn’t read by many people. The place to include information about your website and program is in your profile (and in your signature line if other posters do so). A serious forum, read by the type of people you want to have as affiliates, will only contain posts with relevant and useful content instead of advertising fluff messages.

How can you add relevant and useful content? The first step is to read some of the existing posts and get a feel for the general personality of the forum. At best, reading old posts will spark questions that can be turned into relevant posts and generate interested responses. At worst, you’ll see what’s been talked about recently, so you don’t make the awkward mistake of asking a question that was answered a few days ago.

If no topics come to mind after reading old posts, a possible strategy is to ask for the advice of some experienced affiliates in how you could improve your program. You’ll find different ideas on what constitutes a solid compensation plan, tracking system, or incentive program. Beyond getting attention for your program, this is a great opportunity to improve your program by picking the brains of people who’ve been in the game longer than you.

This list is obviously not comprehensive, but it contains a few forums worth investigating:

http://www.ablake.net/forum/
http://iwiz2.richdad.com/jive/application2/forum.jsp?forum=33
http://www.affiliatesdirectory.com/forum/gforum.cgi?forum=7

Are affiliate prgrams sensible?

Are Affiliate Programs Sensible?

By Denise Hall (c) 2003


Have you ever wondered how "the big guys" earn so much
money on the internet? Sure, some of them have huge
advertising budgets, which puts small business owners at a
disadvantage.

But some of the biggest names today started out just like
you and me. They had low advertising budgets and fumbled
their way around the internet trying to get visitors to
their websites and sell their products.

Even though they had terrific products, they couldn't sell
them if no one knew about them. They put on their thinking
caps to find the easiest and least expensive way to get
visitors and make sales.

They finally came up with a plan that would benefit not
only them, but others as well. If they could get other
people to promote their products and websites, they could
earn more money.

And so, Affiliate Programs were born! What a concept! A
better way to get visitors to a website and sell more
products!

They offer their visitors the opportunity to "partner" with
them, often for free, to help sell their products. And many
of them offer two-tier affiliate programs.

So if I sign up as an affiliate I can get others to sign up
under me as my sub-affiliates. I earn a commission for
sales I make directly to my customers. But I also earn a
smaller commission for sales that my sub-affiliates make.

It's a winning situation for everyone! The "big guy" made
money because he sold his product. However, he might not
have made that sale if it wasn't for my advertisement. And I
made money because I advertised his products.

The concept of affiliate programs is really not so new. It's
similar to selling cosmetics or other products for many
well-known companies.

For instance, I have no idea how to invent a new cologne,
but I know how to sell it. Therefore, I could sign up as a
representative for a cosmetics company. They, in turn,
would pay me a commission for selling their products.

Why would they do that? Because they can't possibly reach
all the potential customers by themselves.

By becoming an affiliate for someone who knows much more
about computers and digital products than I do, I have the
advantage of selling quality products that I can't create
myself.

And they have the advantage of their affiliates doing some
of the "leg work" for them because they can't possibly reach
all the potential customers in this vast internet world.

The next time you visit a website offering products you
like, check to see if they offer an affiliate program. Even
if you don't wish to place an order for a product at that
time, you can sign up as an affiliate.

In the future when you do order you may be able to use your
own affiliate URL and give yourself the commission. Most
companies allow this procedure.

In the meantime you can let your customers know that you
have new products available, as well as affiliate programs
for them to join. It's a great way to get backend sales.

So there you have it! The reasons for affiliate programs and
why it makes sense for people to sign up. By offering
well-known products on your website or in your ezine you
are in a win-win situation and can potentially earn big
money like the "internet gurus."

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Denise Hall is the owner of Home Business on a Budget which
specializes in tools and resources for your home business
needs. Visit http://www.home-business-on-a-budget.com today.
Get weekly articles, tips, information and resources here:
http://tinyurl.com/4f9k8

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mailto:DHall_Articles-SUBSCRIBE@isoresponder.com
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