2.1 What You Need Before Getting Started
While there is not a lot of expense in starting up as an affiliate marketer, there are a few things that you need to do if you really want to make money marketing other people’s products.
Here are some basic tips to help you line up all your things to do before you ever sign up for that first affiliate program.
One of the basic needs for any successful affiliate program is to have a web site of your own. While it is possible to purchase ad space on sites and to advertise through Google Adwords, this is short term strategy.
Setting up a basic web site that has a particular focus will make all the difference in the world to the success of your program. Keep in mind that your web site does not have to be complicated with a lot of flash media, animation or other fancy bells and whistles.
In fact, if you plan on focusing your attention on affiliate marketing strategies that target the home consumer, you are better off with a basic site that will load quickly on a dial up connection. After all, dial-up is still extremely popular in a number of locations.
While you could choose to go with a free web site, you will find it much easier to work with affiliate programs if you go with your own domain name. It is very easy and inexpensive to secure a domain name and space on a remote server these days. Some companies will provide you with both services for a low monthly charge.
Often, they may also have basic software to help you design and upload your pages to the server, even if you are not particularly savvy with the technology. One great place to check for this sort of thing is at http://www.soloadmarketplace.com/
Another important aspect is determining just what your contact information will be, regarding communication with your affiliate program. This would include an email address and physical mailing address. The email address should be one you have set aside specifically for your marketing business.
You may find it helpful to obtain a free email address, although you will certainly look more professional if the email address appears to be lead to a business of some sort. Often, you will have the option of having one email address when you secure a domain name. If that is the case, go this route and use that as your contact for any email correspondence.
As far as your physical mailing address, determine where you may want your affiliate checks to be mailed. If you are not secure having the checks come to your home for come reason, secure a post office box.
Online payments are a great way to easily receive your affiliate payments and keep track of your earnings. From this angel, you may want to look into opening an account with one of the more popular online services that send and receive funds.
PayPal is one example of such a service. Many people are familiar with PayPal, and just about everyone knows how to use it to send payments. Another popular option is ClickBank, which offers services that are almost identical to PayPal. Both these options are reliable, quick, and provide you with financial detail that will allow you to keep up with your earnings easily.
One last tool to set in place before you embark on your first affiliate marketing program is a promotion plan for the web site where the ads will reside. This will mean that you have a procedure in place to tie keywords and key phrases back to your site, publish the site on all the major search engines, and also have some content ready to add to the site periodically.
Additionally, you will have located at least a few online business sites where you can post your URL in business listings. Making sure people can find your site during searches is imperative; that is where a lot of your traffic will come from.
Also, you want the content to change slightly from time to time, so people have a reason to visit your site on a regular basis. All these methods will greatly increase the chances of clicks on the ads posted on the site.
2.2 How to Pick the Best Product with the Best Payout and Great Demand
Being successful at affiliate marketing takes more than just signing up for a program. It also means thinking through the process and making sure you sign up with a program that will provide you with the opportunity to make a lot of money.
Here are a few tips to help you determine which products would yield a high return in the way of generated revenue for you.
One of the first things to think in terms of when it comes to affiliate marketing is determining where your talents and expertise happen to reside. One of the keys to picking the best products for your particular situation have to do with what you know and how much you know about it.
As an example, a person that has worked in telecommunications for a number of years will probably know a great deal about telephony, related services, and technology that are used within that industry.
This would make it a natural fit to design a web site that would make a perfect showplace for ads that have to do with telecommunications providers, services, providers, and distributors.
Keep in mind that using your bank of knowledge will allow you to find creative ways to drive the right people to your site. They in turn will be the right market sector to be interested in the ads; great increases your chances of earning a steady and rewarding income.
Another aspect about setting up with the right products to promote has to do with where you see a niche to fill in. Finding a population or business sector that appears to be largely ignored in the marketing process can provide the inspiration you need to create a successful affiliate marketing program.
By promoting yourself and the affiliate ads to persons and businesses that do not receive a lot of attention, you very quickly build up a presence where the competition is less fierce, and enhance your potential for creating a secure revenue stream.
A third approach is simply taking a look at what is currently available in the way of products to promote. This can be accomplished by checking the types of promotions that are offered through the affiliate program.
If you have no special interest that you want to promote with your web site, then spend some time checking out the size and about of average revenue generated by the different industries represented in the product selections.
As an example, you decide that you may be interested in promoting legal services as part of your affiliate strategy. Get some figures on how much revenue mediation services and attorney firms are likely to generate in a year.
If this looks promising, you can develop a web site that is ideal for ads that track back to legal firms, arbitration services, and even office supplies for legal firms. This approach can lead to some excellent income opportunities.
It is important to remember that determining what direction to go in with your affiliate marketing plan may take some time to develop. While it is true that some people enter into affiliate programs with a very clear vision of what they want to do and why, there is nothing wrong with taking some time to investigate your options, doing some research, and even getting some outside opinions about the potential for success.
Do not allow yourself to get discouraged simply because everything is not crystal clear as you begin this part of the process. Practicing some patience and giving yourself time to find the right products to promote as part of the program will only serve to make you more dedicated to the success of the program.
In the end, you will find the products that will lead to a very successful affiliate marketing scheme and provide you with not only a handsome revenue stream, but also a lot of personal satisfaction.
2.3 Recommended Top Affiliate Networks on the Internet
When you decide to enter the world of affiliate marketing, there are a number of markets that are worthy of consideration. Here are three programs that have captured the attention of a lot of people, simply because of their stability and reliability.
Perhaps the best known of the three programs is ClickBank: http://www.clickbank.com. There are a number of reasons why people find ClickBank such an attractive option when it comes to affiliate programs.
One aspect is that the revenue generated by any purchase made through the ad portal is credited to your account within two minutes of the completion of the transaction.
Because ClickBank provides such a comprehensive tracking program, it is easy for affiliates to see how things are going, even if they run multiple sites as part of the program.
This handy software interface means that you do not have to set up a separate ClickBank account for every different program that you are working. Everything can be routed to a central ClickBank account, and the transaction detail will be plenty to help you sort the transactions into workable detail on how much you are making from each web site.
Along with the ads on your sites, you will also have a branded portal that will take visitors over to the ClickBank marketplace. Any items that are purchased at the marketplace through your portal will also be subject to a commission payment to you, and will reflect in your daily detail, just as any purchase from the affiliate ads would do.
This in effect allows you to maximize your earning potential using the resources that ClickBank provides. Payments are currently made by check, which are mailed out every two weeks.
Http://www.paydotcom.com is also an excellent choice as an affiliate network. Just as with ClickBank, PayDotCom provides an easy to use affiliate interface that allows you to view your numbers in real time. You can easily track such data as the number of clicks on the ads and the amount of commissions you have made by directing visitors over to the marketplace through the portal on your web site.
One of the advantages of PayDotCom is that this program will interface with your PayPal account, which means that vendors can send your monthly commission directly to your PayPal account. It is important to note that not all vendors will use PayPal as a payment method, so you may still receive payments by check as well.
Still, a number of the vendors do utilize PayPal, and that can often mean generated revenue without having to wait for a long time. Keep in mind that if you select PayPal as your preferred method of payment, you will be subject to any fees you normally incur when receiving funds.
In like manner, you will pay a small percentage of the payout on each purchase to PayDotCom as well. This program is easy to sign up with, and the staff does a great job of working with persons who are new to affiliate marketing.
Http://www.sharesale.con is a third option that is rapidly gaining recognition among affiliate marketers. As a program that is designed to match up to the content of your existing web site, Sharesale is free to join as an affiliate.
Basically, you can sign up for the program and then browse through a list of available merchant programs, selecting the ones that you believe will be of interest to the readers and visitors at your web site. The merchant list includes a wide variety of industry types and products, some of them digital, but many of them physical.
Earnings for the sale will vary. Some merchants prefer to use a flat rate for a sale, while others go with a percentage commission on the purchase amount. It is easy to determine which method is preferred while you are checking out the merchant listing.
Persons that want to take a look at the merchant list before signing up for the program can search by category, by method of compensation, and by the newest programs added in the last twenty days.
As with all the best affiliate programs, Sharesale makes it easy to view your traffic and earnings around the clock. The reports are all web based, so you do not need any special software to load the reports.
Payments on generated revenue can be received via a check mailed to you, or by direct deposit to a bank account. At present, you have to earn a minimum of $50.00 USD during the previous calendar month in order to receive a payment. Any amount under that will roll over into the next payment period.
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