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An Action Plan For Marketing Your Web Site (Part 2)
ADD YOUR URL TO YOUR MARKETING MATERIALS A couple of months ago, I met with a client who launched their Web site in 1999. They were discouraged because their site was generating poor traffic. When I asked them if they had added their URL to their...
Evaulating Web Site Performance
Setting up a website is the very first step of an Internet
marketing campaign, and the success or failure of your site
depends greatly on how specifically you have defined your
website goals. If you don't know what you want your site...
Search Engine Spam: Useful Knowledge for the Web Site Promoter
Before getting started on using gateway pages and other HTML techniques to improve your search engine ranking, you need to know a little about spam and spamdexing. Spamming the search engines (or spamdexing) is the practice of using unethical or...
The Alchemist's Dream Discovered on the Web
Two hundred years ago, the alchemists dreamed about finding something that they could turn into gold. Today that something has been discovered on the Web. It's traffic. Every marketer knows that sales is a numbers game. The more eyes you...
What you can expect from Search Engine
Search engines will be a way for you to generate from as little as 20% to as much as 60% of your business online (depending on what other marketing techniques you use). Since there are over 130,000,000 webpages in existence (yes that is 130...
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Affiliate Marketing Basics
Affiliate marketing is one of the fastest growing ways to
make money on the Internet. You can become an affiliate
for any number of thousands of companies. Most of the
time it is quick, easy, and free to join.
To start with, you basically sign up as an affiliate and
agree to receive a commission on every sale that you refer
to the company. You can refer customers from a website,
newsletter, advertisements, or almost any other way that
you can think to promote a product.
Quick Setup
You can get started very quickly and cheaply compared to
almost any other business opportunity. Although it isn't
as easy as putting up some banners and waiting for the
checks to roll in, affiliate programs do avoid the
problems of inventory, shipping, customer service, or
variety of other issues that a business must address.
Second Stream Income
Affiliate programs make a great way to supplement you
income if you already have a product or service that you
are selling. Half the battle is getting people to visit
your website, so if you are already generating a good
amount of traffic, then adding related affiliate programs
and promoting them correctly can add a good sized stream
of income to your business.
Pick a Program
One of the most important steps in starting an affiliate
program is making sure that you sign up with the right
company. There are a number of factors to consider.
1. Commission - Some companies pay as low as 2% commission,
while others can reach upwards of 60-70%. Obviously you
aren't going to make any money promoting a product that
you receive a very small percentage of the sale. Your
best off making sure to get at least 20% of the sale.
2. Product Price - You also want to pay attention to how
much the product costs. You might make 50% commission,
but if the product only costs $6, then you are only going
to get $3 a referral. You can do much better, you should
be able to get at least $20 per referral for any good
paying affiliate program.
Find a product with both a decent commission and a decent
price. Your primary goal is making money, so make the
most of your time spent referring customers.
3. Two-Tier Programs - There are programs that pay you a
commission on direct referrals, and then they pay you a
smaller commission on all referrals from affiliates that
you signed up. This is a great perk,
although the
previous two factors are more important.
4. Referral Length - You should also check out how long
after you referred a customer that you still get credit.
With advanced tracking systems in place, companies can
keep track of customers for a long time after they first
were referred. Some companies promise that they will
still give you credit for a year after you first referred
a customer. Since many customers don't buy on the first
visit to a site, this can also be a great perk.
5. Lifetime/Residual Income - This is actually a very
important aspect to consider. Many companies that charge
a monthly fee for their services will pay you a
percentage every month as long as they keep the customer.
For example, the hosting company I use, Host4Profit,
charges $24.99/month for its hosting services. They pay
their affiliates an even $10/month for every referral.
This gradually builds up into a steady, sizeable income.
6. Reoccurring Commissions - You can also find programs
that will pay you a commission for every purchase that
a customer you referred makes. For example, if i refer
Joe Surfer to a site, they will pay me for every purchase
that he makes, not just the initial purchase. The length
of time varies, sometimes you can get reoccurring
commissions for a month, a year, or maybe forever.
Pick More Programs
If you can make a lot of money with a couple of products,
wouldn't it make sense to increase your income by just
joining more programs? It sounds good, but it has major
flaws. Your income depends heavily on the traffic that
your site receives, and you are only going to be able to
convert a certain percentage of visitors to buyers of any
of your affiliate programs. Too many programs dilute
your conversion rate of visitors to buyers, and actually
has other negative effects.
If you join too many programs, you won't have time to
promote any one or few of them effectively. To be a
successful affiliate, you do need to spend time marketing
your programs. Instead of picking every program on the
Internet, you are much better off picking a few good paying
programs, and spending a lot of time marketing them.
About the Author
JC's website, Redlionbooks.com, specializes in advice about Internet marketing and web site promotion. Free access to articles and ebooks, learn how to market your product or service online at Redlionbooks.com
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