With affiliate marketing, you choose products to promote on your site, relevant to your content, which have what is known as an ‘affiliate programme’. This simply means that the company, or ‘merchant’, is prepared to pay you for any sales they get, when someone clicks through from your site and buys.
Some merchants will pay you for leads only, or hits only, or impressions only, or a mix of all three.
This means that if someone comes to their site through your site and clicks through to their site and they purchase that person’s product, you do not get a commission on that sale. You only get paid when they do actually buy the product and visitor takes some form of action after landing on their site. This can be as simple as a name and email address, or it can be more complicated, such as applying for a credit card, or signing up for an email newsletter.
How to start earning with affiliate marketing
This is why so many of the affiliate programs on the internet are also free to join. Because the merchant does not want to spend any money advertising their site unless they get some leads or make some sales first.
So what do you do? Well, what you do is sign up to an affiliate program for free, and choose sites on the internet that you think are relevant to your site. For example, if your site was about property, you might sign up to a program that is the property newsletter, or a program that tells you about estate auctions, or something to do with property.
Then, you point your visitors to these sites. Most of the time, your content is relevant to these websites, and your job is to get people to these sites, by writing content that will get people to these sites.
Making money with affiliate marketing
Why do people visit your site? Well, the reason they visit your site is because they are interested in the topic of your website. Your content must chime with these websites, and be relevant to the particular page on your site that they end up on. If it is not relevant, you will not get a lot of visitors.
Spending a couple of hours every day on your website, and adding a couple of banners to your site, should be a plan. You can also add content to your site, and make the site more dynamic and interesting. But if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Planning will make it so much easier for you to implement the strategy of getting people to your website.
Affiliate marketing strategies
There are various strategies of this kind. For instance, you could post to directories, write articles for publishing on your site, and respond to some of the emails that get sent to you.
Choose the affiliate programs for your site which are going to pay you a decent commission. How do you figure out how much that is? Take a look at how much other affiliates are making and how their commissions stack up against each other. If other affiliates on the same site are selling the same product, you should expect to be paid a fair amount for each sale.
If it helps, put yourself in the shoes of the buyer. Think about what they are looking for and what they want to buy. Put yourself in the shoes of a buyer and determine which one of the Affiliate Programs you have selected will be the best choice for your customers.
Invest in affiliate marketing
So, if you are just starting out and you are using a budget, you may want to be more selective with the Affiliate Programs you use. As you become more proficient at marketing, you will be able to tell when an Affiliate Program is good for the customer and what you can do to retain the customer.
So, what are you waiting for? If you want a great return, buy your own products, in small lots, and take advantage of all the FREE advertising you can get. This will enable you to see exactly how the process works. Go to Affiliate Marketing Forums, and read up on the pro’s and con’s of affiliate marketing.
If you are unclear about something and feel that you are receiving the wrong information, seek out someone who has experience in the field that you are seeking information about. Remember, that the information you receive is unbiased, and based on experience which you have either gained or know someone else who has gained from using that product. Don’t let that overwhelm you with the decision of whether to use the product or not.
Affiliate marketing, summary
Remember, if the product is really awful, and you have experienced it or have witnessed it, it is far easier to imagine that persons who have used it9 WILL be also having the same experience. But, if you have personally experienced it, or even if you have witnessed it, it will be that much easier to write a believable account of what you have personally experienced.
Are you motivated to make money online? I don’t know if all the story has left you cynical, but I am certainly falling prey to those who would have me believe that there is little chance of making a successful online business, given the current economic circumstances. But, there are plenty of other alternatives apart from affiliate marketing. There are lots of people and places to turn to for answers.