If starting an internet home business with your computer sounds appealing but you don't have a product to sell yourself, you might want to consider affiliate marketing on the internet. Affiliate marketing is a very doable internet business model that doesn't require having your own product, there's no shipping or inventory involved and there is no customer services details to sort through. Becoming an affiliate marketer essentially means partnering with an online merchant whereby you promote their goods or services. If you make a sale -- you receive a commission.
But is affiliate marketing a real "honest
to goodness business" that you can actually make money at? ABSOLUTELY, I do it every day! And after having been involved with several internet marketing business models prior to affiliate marketing, this is the one I enjoy and love doing the most. But let's delve into this extremely profitable business model a bit more.
How affiliate Marketing on the Internet Works
Affiliate marketing is similar to a revenue sharing business whereby you promote a product of your choice and receive a commission for every product you sell.
You begin by finding a product or service you would like to promote, then find an affiliate merchant that sells the product.
You can find affiliate merchants through popular affiliate networks like Commission Junction, LinkShare or Clickbank. You can also find products through private sites that offer affiliate programs as well but I find that it's easier to start out with affiliate networks, payments are more on schedule and products are easier to find. Once you find an affiliate merchant you can sign up for their affiliate program which is typically free to join -- beware of merchants that charge money to join their affiliate programs, these are generally not affiliate programs. Once signed up, the affiliate merchant will assign you an affiliate link for you to promote.
How you promote that link is up to you, however I strongly suggest that you create a web site for promoting your affiliate product(s). There will be some costs to creating and hosting a website and the purchase of a domain name, but these costs are typically minimal.
How to Earn Money with Affiliate Marketing
There are three ways to earn money through affiliate marketing:
Pay Per Click — Any time a potential customer leaves your affiliate website by "clicking" on your affiliate link that leads them to the merchant's website. Money is then deposited in your affiliate account. The amount of money deposited depends on the what's in the affiliate agreement.
Pay Per Lead — Any time a potential customer leaves your affiliate website by "clicking" on a link that leads them to complete a registration form or register at the merchants website. Money is then deposited into your affiliate account. The amount of money deposited depends on the what's in the affiliate agreement.
Pay Per Sale — Any time a potential customer leaves your affiliate website by "clicking" on a link that leads them to the merchant's site where they make a purchase. A percentage, or commission, is deposited into the affiliate's account depending on what's in the affiliate agreement.
Look for Residual Income Programs
One of the things I encourage all affiliate marketers to be on the lookout for is affiliate programs that will provide you with residual income or income that is paid to you month after month.
Residual income comes from promoting products that sell things like monthly subscriptions or monthly services. For example I promote a hosting company called Thirdsphere hosting. Thirdsphere is a monthly hosting service and I get commission every month as long as the customer continues his/her subscription. Thirdsphere is just one of the residual income programs that I promote. There are many residual income affiliate programs that you can promote as well. Promoting residual income products or services is an excellent way of ensuring you keep a steady income arriving each month.
Benefits of Affiliate Marketing
When starting up any business there's a lot of time, work and risk involved. Developing a product requires research, marketing materials, getting established, branding and the list goes on.
With affiliate marketing the risk to you as an affiliate marketer is minimal. That's because you have the benefit of having all the business building work already done for you. All you need to do is find reputable, quality products to promote.
What's more, a good affiliate program will provide you with all the marketing tools and materials you need to promote it, things like banners, ads, email salescopy, branded materials, ecourses and many others, making your job that much easier.
But what makes affiliate marketing one of the best online businesses to start?
* No costs to make or purchase products.
* There's no inventory to stock or maintain.
* No payment processing for you to set up
* No shipping hassles. Your affiliate merchant takes the orders,
processes them and deals with customer service.
The products you can promote as an affiliate are endless. But don't make the mistake of trying to promote everything to everyone. Find a profitable niche which means finding a topic or theme that is tightly focused around the products or services you wish to promote.
For example, instead of developing a business around losing weight, focus on a more narrowed topic such as body building, dieting for women only or tighter abs. Once you find a focused topic then you can build a niche web site around that theme or product. Your next step will be to know and understand precisely who your audience is and what they are looking for. Once you know that, your marketing efforts will become tightly focused and your sales will be much greater.
Promoting Your Affiliate Marketing Products/Service
There's a little more than meets the eye when it comes to marketing or promoting affiliate products or services. Newbie affiliate marketers will often start out by getting their affiliate links, building their website and displaying their links hoping to make quick immediate sales. Be warned -- it rarely happens that easily. Why? Because I've done it and can tell you from experience that the search engines don't find favor with that type of promotion. Building a site that merely promotes affiliate links by sending viewers to the official site is not adding value to the viewer's experience, it actually makes your affiliate website nothing more than a third party advertiser.
Instead create a website that offers value and content, then support your content with affiliate products or services that will give your reader what they are looking for.
I love affiliate marketing and there's lots of money to be made in the business but first train yourself on how to effectively pre-sell by providing quality content, ideas and information, then learn how to find and promote affiliate products and services that are worthwhile, not only for your customers but for you as a promoter as well.
It makes a world of difference for those affiliate marketers that make an outstanding living at it and those that say it doesn't work.
Helpful Skills To Acquire : Copywriting, internet Marketing,
PPC (pay-per-click advertising)
Best Online Training : Affiliate Classroom
Best Ebook or Guide : Super Affiliate Handbook
Best Free Training : Affiliate Masters Course
Affiliate Networks : Listing of Affiliate Networks
Source: www.homenotion.com
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