One of the critical things to do as an affiliate marketer is to protect your income potential.
By masking or cloaking your link you can protect your Affiliate ID and your affiliate commissions.
Here are a few places you can check into to help you mask your affiliate link and help you protect your affiliate commissions.
Tie.ly – http://Tie.ly (My personal favorite)
Power Link Generator (Mike Filsaime Product)
Cli.gs - http://www.cli.gs/
Uforgot.me - http://www.uforgot.me/
BudURL - http://budurl.com/
So Many Affiliate Programs! Which One Do I Choose?
When you start out looking for the ultimate affiliate program to join you will find that you will be faced with hundreds of possibilities everywhere you look.
Choosing the write Affiliate program can be a big part of the success you achieve as an Affiliate Marketer.
Here are some things you should be looking at to help you make the right decision.
Will it cost you anything to join? Out of the hundreds and thousands of Affiliate programs available to you to choose from my recommendation
is to steer clear of those asking you to pay. There are plenty of free programs for you to choose from which will give you good results.
When do they issue the commission checks? Knowing when you will receive your commissions is always a good thing to find out. Some will pay you right away after a sale and others will wait 30 days or after refund periods are over to pay your commissions. Knowing this information will help you plan your own financial budgets.
What are the conversion rates? Knowing the conversion rates for the products you are promoting will help you to see if your results from the efforts are in line with others you have promoted. It will help you decide if the product is worth promoting in the first place.
If you are getting lower conversion rates compared to other marketers it may mean you need to step up the promotional efforts on your end. Use the conversions as a guide line to follow for your own efforts.
If you are getting considerable lower than most other affiliates you may want to ask the product owner what has worked for others in promoting their products.
Does this program have plenty of tools and resources? Finding Affiliate programs which provide proper tools for promoting the product will be a big help to you in your promoting efforts.
Many times you may notice there are no tools available for you to use during your promotion. Do not be afraid to ask the product owner if they can provide these tools to help. Many times they just have been busy and forgot to get them loaded up to the tools pages. Many other times they just never thought of it but would be glad to at least provide you with some good swipe copy or banner ads to help you better promote their product.
How are referrals from an affiliate’s site tracked and for how long do they remain in the system?
What are the kinds of affiliate stats available? Many Affiliate programs will provide you with reports which you can track clicks on your links, sales you made and your conversion rate, etc. These are important to know so you can keep track of your promotional efforts and have a better understanding as to what is going on and make any changes needed to get better results.
Does the affiliate program pay for the hits and impressions, besides the commissions on sales?
Who are you doing business with? (Is it really a solid company?) By all means you should investigate any business you are about to become involved with as an Affiliate marketer. It is important to know who you are working with and what kind of reputation they have. Take the time to do your research ahead of time before you end up burnt by someone with a less than honorable reputation.
Is the affiliate a one-tier or two-tier program? The difference between the one and two tier program is the two tiers, you will get compensated for any commissions generated by other Affiliates you refer to the Affiliate program.
Is this a program you like and have interest in? If it does not excite and interest you how will you be at successfully promoting the product?
You need your target audience to feel your enthusiasm and interest over the product you promote in order for them to feel it is something of great importance to them as well.
Is a good fit for your targeted audience? You will not be successful at promoting products your target market is not interested in. I am sure this is a no-brainer for most reading this book
Lastly, what is the amount of commission paid? I think this one speaks for itself. Make sure you know what kind of commissions you are
working hard for. My recommendation is to not get involved with commissions less than 50% unless it is for high ticket items.
Using Product Recommendations to Increase Your Bottom Line Product recommendation is one of the most effective ways to promote an Affiliate product.
If customers trust you, they will trust your recommendations.
Recommend products you have confidence in. Those you are recommending products to will sense the confidence you have in any given product.
Give a good product review.
Do not be afraid to mention things you do not like about products during your review. You need to be careful to not make the product sound like it is really a bad product. If the product really does have too many bad things you will include in your review I would stay clear of it.
Also be careful if you are doing a review as in not recommending a product. Be careful not to tear a product a part in a way to diminish the credibility of the product owner. There are more effective ways to beat your competition than to try and tear them down.
I have said this many times and I will say t once again, “Only promote products which match your target audience and fulfill the needs and wants they have.”
KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS.
Promote products which position well in your product funnel. It must make sense to the customer before they purchase. You may need to go back and read creating and positioning your irresistible offer if you are not sure as to what I am talking about right now.
Getting Yourself Noticed on the Affiliate Marketing Radar
One of the greatest things you can accomplish as an Affiliate marketer is to get yourself and your efforts noticed by the marketers you are promoting for.
This opens up all sorts of opportunities to you which you may have had a hard time with before such as finding JV partners to help promote and grow your own business.
Below are the top 4 ways I feel you can go about getting noticed on the Affiliate radar.
1. Build your list. This is huge for you and your Affiliate growth in so many ways.
Not only does having a larger and more responsive list help you generate more sales as an Affiliate, but also once you have an established list which is working for you and growing you can leverage this list in getting others on your side to begin helping you. It does not remain a secret for very long who the marketers are with good responsive list.
2. Establish yourself as a Super-Affiliate. Go the extra mile in your Affiliate efforts to become noticed. Work hard a learning all you can to become one of the top Affiliates in your field.
Do not be afraid to put yourself out there to be seen. Make every effort to establish your presence in any way you can.
3. Create your own in-demand product. Creating your own in demand products give you the credibility you need to rise to the top of your Affiliate efforts.
Many people will get into Affiliate Marketing because they feel it keeps them away from having to create their own products.
I feel this is something which could not be further from the truth. If you are going to be recommending products it only stands to reason you have to have credibility and be seen as an expert in your Niche to gain the respect and trust from those you are recommending products to.
Creating your own products also gives you something to offer in return when the product owner of the Affiliate products you are promoting sees the great job you have been doing and asks you how he or she can help you.
Choose to not create your own products is nothing more than leaving piles of money on the table for other Affiliates and product owners to collect right out from under you.
4. Develop relationships with other marketers. Again this is putting your-self out there to be seen. Make every effort to build strong relationships and let others see you are looking to do a good job and willing to learn.
Show them you mean business and intend to stay for the long haul. It is hard to build relationships with someone only to have them drop off the planet after some time and not heard from again.