Online Affiliate Marketing

Online Affiliate Marketing is a revenue sharing venture between a website owner and an online merchant. The website owner will place advertisements

on his websites to either help sell the merchant's products or to send potential customers to the merchant's website, all in exchange for a share of the profits.

Affiliate marketing can be done on a part-time basis, and many are so successful that they've made it their full-time job. Equally exciting, you can get in the game in just a few hours. But how successful you are is based on the amount of time and effort you devote.

Affiliate Marketing Program An affiliate marketing program is sometimes called an affiliate program, but also may be referred to as a pay-for-performance program or an associate program. An affiliate program is a marketing tool for the e-business that operates it, called merchant or advertiser and a source of revenue for the e-business that participates in it, called an affiliate or associate or publisher.

Listed below are ways to earn money through affiliate marketing:

Create A Website Or Blog

To start as an affiliate marketer, you must have a site on which to place links to the products or services you recommend. There are many inexpensive website services such as Hostgator and GoDaddy. It's also easy to set up a free blog through services such as Google's Blogger blog network. I also use Namecheap for domains and Hostnine (get a reseller account) for hosting.

Decide Your Product/Service Niche

Affiliate marketers help companies and entrepreneurs sell everything from jewelry and cell phones to website services and how-to e-books. Choose an area you're familiar with or one you're enthusiastic about learning. You'll be more likely to do the work and less likely to get bored before the money starts rolling in.

Find Products And Services To Promote

Many affiliate networks exist to connect merchants with affiliate site publishers who can help sell their goods. Companies such as:

ClickBank, E-junkie, and PayDotCom lead the pack in connecting the creators of e-books and software with affiliates to help sell their digital download products.

Commission Junction is popular for those who want to sell more traditional wares ranging from travel services to janitorial franchises.

Google AdSense, which doesn't require your involvement to result in a sale. Your income is realized on a pay-per-click basis, just for leading your traffic to click to a merchant's site. PPC affiliate programs pay a lot less than programs where your referral must result in a sale. Keep in mind that a site peppered with ads and no authority or trust can look and feel like spam, and you won't get good results.

Affiliate Site Content

There are two main approaches or business models to choose from when setting up an affiliate marketing site:

Resource Sites These sites are focused on offering lots of how-to articles and posts, and then provide affiliate links or banner ads to click for more details. Frequently adding fresh related content is vital because it gives people a reason to return to your site--and click some of your money-making links.

Review Sites You've tried the products in your niche, now you write them up and rate them to help your site visitors decide what to buy. For each product you review, you provide a link or banner ad that clicks through for sales on your merchant partner's site. Less frequent content updates are necessary--just tweak your site about once a week to let the search engines know your site's still alive, and always try to build links.

Affiliate Sites Must Attract Lots Of Targeted Traffic To Succeed

Most people visiting your website or blog won't click your affiliate links. That's why it's crucial to employ a mix of marketing tactics to increase traffic--highly targeted traffic--to your site.

There are four main ways to get more site exposure and attract more potential customers:

Paid Advertising This is most effective when your ad copy headline, call-to-action message, and graphics come together just right to compel people to click through and buy.

Free Advertising Sites like Craigslist and US Free Ads are but two of many popular places that accept links and banner ads for free. These tend to be affiliate marketing sites themselves, earning the owner money whenever you click their ads.

Article Marketing This popular marketing method offers several benefits. You're building credibility as a reliable source in your niche, gaining a higher search engine ranking by increasing the number of links leading to your site and pulling traffic to your site. Work in an organic manner and don't spam using software engines

E-mail Marketing Every visitor to your site is valuable, so capturing their names and e-mail addresses to stay in touch is important. Many people might not buy your affiliate products until the third or fourth time they hear from you. So it's crucial to place an opt-in subscription box on your site for people to start receiving a weekly or monthly newsletter from you.

Learn The Ropes In Forums

These are online communities of likeminded people who exchange insights and ideas. Join at least one of these free affiliate marketing forums to benefit from advice shared by other newbies, intermediates, and gurus alike:

Digital Point Huge, with about 25,000 active members. An excellent place to learn affiliate marketing tips, plus other techniques that impact your success such as link building and SEO.

aBestWeb One of the largest affiliate marketing forums, with nearly 100 sub-forums. Covers the broadest range of affiliate marketing-specific subjects, with heavy participation by numerous go-getter merchants and serious affiliates.

Warrior Forum A killer networking forum for beginners and advanced alike. Set up a profile, start participating, ask questions and promote as well.

Top 10 Tips For Choosing The Affiliate Program That Is Right For You

• You have to identify a product or service for which there is a need. The product should be such that you would love and enjoy promoting it. You could start by searching for "Affiliate Programs" in the Search Engines.

• The product or service should be relevant to your website.

• It is always wise to join an affiliate program that is long standing, safe and secure and has a good reputation in the Internet world. This can be easily verified from the Better Business Bureau or other similar organizations. Visits to Forums and Discussion Groups will also provide you with a lot of useful information.

• Most affiliate program providers provide a commission of 5% to 50%. The commission you earn for the sale of a product is your main income. So while choosing an affiliate program you should study the commission paid out and decide on a program that pays at least 35% for you to run your business successfully.

• There should be a proper tracking system in place to record all the clicks and sales made through the text links and banners placed on your website, e-mails, and other advertisements.

• One important factor that is often overlooked is the "hits per sale ratio". This indicates the number of hits that have to be made to a Text Link or Banner to generate a sale. This will give you an idea as to how much traffic is needed before a sale is made.

• How often are commissions paid? This is another important matter that should be considered. Most reputed organizations pay their affiliates monthly or when they accumulate a minimum commission of $50 to $ 100 or as indicated by you. You should avoid any program that requires too many sales to reach the minimum amount.

• Affiliate Programs are generally single tier or two tiers. A single tier program pays you for whatever business you have generated. On the other hand, a two tier program pays you for the business you have generated and also a commission for the sales generated by a sub- affiliate, you have sponsored. A two-tier program is always advantageous.

• Long standing reputed organizations provide a whole range of tools and resources such as Banners, Text Links, Brochures, Websites and training for their affiliates. When choosing look out for such organizations because they certainly make life much easier and helps you grow your home based business.

• Finally, you must read and understand the agreement before you join as an affiliate even if it happens to be the best organization in the world.

Understanding The Affiliate Agreement The affiliate agreement created by the merchant and agreed by the affiliate defines all aspects of the affiliate program and typically includes:

• Types of Web sites merchant will accept into the affiliate program

• Types of links allowed and guidelines regarding their use.

• Schedule and payments terms of fees and commissions

• Terms of usage of merchant logo, name and web content

• A technical specification that your website must meet.

• if any Restrictions on types of content that may appear on affiliate sites

• Requirements for compliance with all government laws, ordinances, rules, and regulations.

Affiliate Tracking Systems

• Allow merchant to control how it credits click-throughs

• Monitor window of time in which affiliate can get credit for a click-through

• Record and store affiliate information

• Provide commission/fee reports

Affiliate Management Networks

An affiliate management network is a third-party entity that recruits affiliates, manages the registration process, tracks and properly credits all of the fee and commissions and arranges for payment. In return for these services, the affiliate management network collects from the merchant a percentage of each referral transaction's fee or commission-perhaps as much 30 percent.

Well-established affiliate management networks: Example: Commission Junction, LinkShare [2]

Affiliate Tracking Technologies

To achieve this we develop a strategic online relationship with advertisers to improve the creation, management, and analysis of online marketing and sales activities. These activities are supported by a scalable and reliable tracking technology. Keeping track of the click-throughs and properly crediting the affiliates is a complex programming task. Companies such as BeFree and ClickTrade sell software that automatically monitors and credits all followed links resulting in a sale. Note that ClickTrade was acquired by Microsoft and is now co-branded as part of Microsoft bCentral.

Some Tracking Technologies Are Following:

• Custom links containing affiliate information or affiliate and merchant information

• Tracking cookies

• Third-party tracking software

• Application service provider tracking service

• Sub Domain tracking

• Database record matching.

Why Affiliate Marketing Is Profitable for E-Business

If you have been considering an affiliate marketing venture, there are some very good reasons why you should go with this method of generating recurring revenue. Here are some of the ways that affiliate marketing can be a lucrative means of creating income that will be stable and allow you to grow exposure over time.

One of the first advantages of affiliate marketing for the new entrepreneur is that the startup cost is very low. Most companies that offer affiliate marketing programs do not require any type of monetary investment on the part of the affiliate.

The second expenses are limited to what you have to pay to connect to the

Internet, the software you may need to load on your computer, and a website where the ads associated with the affiliate marketing program can be placed. With website hosting such an inexpensive service these days, setting up your own website for the affiliate ads will be a breeze.

Another reason that affiliate marketing is such a moneymaker is the fact that there are so many different types of ways to set up the program. You can go with the pay per click option, which works out great when it comes to promoting special offers. Ads that lead to product review sites often are a way to allow product users to go through your portal and leave comments on the items they purchase.

First Thing's First-Avoid These Silly Affiliate Marketing Mistakes!

While affiliate marketing is a great way to earn a living, the fact is that many people become discouraged and drop out of programs. In many instances, the failure to be successful with affiliate marketing has to do with making a few simple mistakes. Here are some examples of those mistakes and why they should be avoided.

low-quality website with no original content and tossing in some affiliate links. While it is certainly true that you need to have a website up and running in order to participate in an affiliate program, there is also the need to apply some effort to get the word out about your site. Otherwise, the chances of people visiting your website and clicking on one of the links are pretty slim.

Another mistake many affiliate partners make is not choosing products that have some relevance to the content of your website.

Keeping your site content and the ads more or less relevant to one another will make it easier to generate revenue, and not fail as an affiliate marketer. Now, this may seem intuitive - but many make this mistake in subtle ways (i.e. they mismatch their customers with products).

One final mistake that many affiliate marketers make is not sprucing up their websites from time to time. Keeping the content fresh is one way of building and keeping a loyal reading audience because keeping the same old look and the same old text with nothing new to entice people back is a sure way to limit your chances at being a successful affiliate marketer. The fact is that you do have to proactively promote your site, keep the content fresh, and make sure the ads have some connection to the subject matter of your site.

What You Need Before Getting Started and Affiliated Marketing

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 website 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 website that has a particular focus will make all the difference in the world to the success of your program. Keep in mind that your website 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.

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. i.g PayPal

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.

How to Pick the Best Product with the Best Payout and Great Demand

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 has 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.

Another aspect of 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.

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.

The Super Affiliate Marketing Tactics

So what is it that allows a super affiliate to make hundreds or even thousands of sales when you struggle to make 5 sales of the same product? Why is that super affiliates rake in the cash while you struggle to get by? Think about this carefully: you are both selling the exact same product. The only possible difference is the tactics you use to market it. Below, we have included a couple tactics that we should use to sell more like super affiliates. Try to incorporate them into your strategy.

Play The Long Game: Whenever some new launch is coming up, they will throw together a promotional website; and try to direct traffic to it using pay per click search engine advertisements or solo ads. But there is a major flaw with this approach: almost without exception, people will purchase a "big launch" product from an Internet marketer they already know this is why you have to play the long game, rather than focusing on each individual launch, prepare an approach that will work consistently for years to make more sales.

Learn From Super Affiliates: Many super affiliates are also big name Internet marketers. They have public personas that we can follow quite easily. We can find their user id's, blogs, mailing lists and their websites. Through this approach, we can learn from each of them.

Ignore Talk Look For Revealed Preference: Talk is just that: talk. Many Internet marketers will talk about all sorts of different methods you can use to make money. They will tell you to advertise using Google AdWords or to build a list or to create viral reports. While some of this information may be useful and legitimate, we should ignore what they say and watch what they do. This is called "revealed preference.

Make Friends With The Seller: Believe it or not, the seller wants you to be successful, too. So contact him ahead of time, make friends with him; and see if he has any particular advice for you on selling the product. Keep in mind that he talks to a lot of affiliates on a regular basis (especially around big launches) and has the best understanding of the tactics they actually use.

You may conclude that choosing an Affiliate Program that is right for you might be time-consuming but a worth while process. Going through the above whole process will also be a learning curve for new entrepreneurs who are serious about starting a successful home based business. So there is an opportunity for business students and young entrepreneur to develop a simple website with a limited budget that can be arranged easily through their own personal savings. This website can be developed with only $100 to $200 (Approximately). You can increase your business growth through adopting the approach where you can affiliate your business with different websites having relevancy with your business and internet heavy traffic as well.

Finally, there's no single path to affiliate marketing riches - and that's a good thing. Instead, there are many pathways through which you can make your millions. So scout carefully, look for functional methods you can use and implement them in your own efforts. You may be surprised with the results. But whatever you do – always try most of our Strategies that have worked in the past. Always think like super affiliates because they use a range of tactics and adopt different ways in order to consistently outperform other affiliates. But one thing you should always play the long game and build lists, create forums, and secure a captive audience in advance of product releases.