Online Business

Affiliate marketing. A system that can bring you a great deal of money if used the right way. A winning strategy for your business. A program that…you know little about?

This article is designed to help people who aren’t very familiar with affiliate program learn to understand the essential business tool.

 

So, in very basic terms, affiliate marketing is a way to make extra money on your site with traffic. By advertising with click-through links on your site you can make money, and if you’re a seller or vendor, you can get more people to your site through other people’s links. This, in a nutshell, is affiliate marketing. Sounds complicated? Let’s explain.

Most websites are either content driven, with information, news, etc., or they’re sellers, meaning they sell information, products, services, etc. It’s quite easy to set up a website and even have advertisers.

 

But suppose that isn’t enough? Suppose you want to make extra money with your content or sell more products? Perhaps you know people are visiting your site, but just can’t seem to harness those visits into buying power? Or suppose your future customers have no idea how to find you?

Affiliate marketing is quite possibly your answer to this and more. If you really want to take your business and your money-making skills to the next step, you can use a great affiliate program to help you accomplish this goal.

Here’s a simple glossary:

 

Affiliate programs – Mutual arrangements in which sites pay affiliate (partner) sites a commission in return for sending them relevant traffic.

 

CPS – Cost Per Sale, or an agreement paid out once a site sends an affiliate a customer and actually makes a sale.

 

CPA – Cost Per Action, or an agreement paid out once a site sends an affiliate a customer, where every action results in payment.

 

CPC/CPM – Cost Per Click and Cost Per Mille (1,000), or an agreement paid out once a site gives a customer who clicks on the site at all.

 

So let’s say that you have a website and you’re looking to make a little extra money. You can pick which websites you want advertised on your site and you’ll be compensated in accordance with set plans. They’ll pay out on either a CPS, CPA, or CPC basis and you’ll get a portion of the sale in some cases! Even small percentages add up over time!

 

If you yourself are selling something off your own site, you simply need to make contact with relevant blogs, content sites, and information sites in order to advertise yourself. It’s a cheap way of advertising and you can pick how you pay. Some businesses find CPS to work, while others are more satisfied with CPA or CPC.

 

Still, the easiest way to earn is to host an affiliate service. They’re almost always free and you can choose only to put relevant offers and ads up on your site! Programs that don’t work can easily be canned, while those that do with just help you get a check in the mail!

 

So now, the question is what to look for in an affiliate program. What should you be aware of and on the lookout for?

 

How much money you earn depends on how much traffic the site gets, how and where the ads are on the site, and the quality/popularity of the affiliate program itself.

 

The quality is of utmost importance when it comes to joining an affiliate program. Some may try to sign over junk sites, while others are actually deserving of the work put into them.

Ask yourself this:

-Has the program been written up online? Are there positive reviews?

-For how long has the company existed?

-Do reviewers say they’re paid what they’re owed on time?

-Are the company’s products good or is there just a high commission offered to distract you from poor quality?

-Are the commission prices reasonable?

-What is the time investment you think will make it worth it to earn XX dollars? Is this beneficial to you in the long run?

 

Make sure that the programs you’re using have visible and proven track records so that you can see their business and sales. Make sure you can track often to make sure YOU aren’t getting screwed!

 

What are some actual examples of affiliate programs? That’s a great question.

 

There are the programs or “networks,” which can help you organize and figure out which programs you want. These umbrella companies are Commission Junction, ThinkHost, AffiliateBOT, Shareasale, and LinkShare, to name a few. These will sort of act as your free “broker.”

 

If you’re looking for the direct companies of sites that you’ll be advertising, www.Amazon.com is a great example of one of the most popular ones. You’ll see their ads all over, and if you have some on your site, you’ll often get 3-5% of the sale if one of your readers clicks on the link and makes a purchase. Other examples include www.AutoWeb.com, which has about 5,000 affiliate sites and pays $5 for every referred and ad-buying user, www.Overstock.com, the famous www.eBay.com, and many more small companies and huge corporations.

 

A simple Google search reveals plenty more options for finding affiliate programs. It’s really much easier than it sounds! When you do decide what you want to go with, make sure the business is relevant to your own line of business. If you’re talking about teaching all day and they’re selling car parts, well, it’s not going to be a match made in heaven. Consider your own reader audience and what they’ll be interested in. Chances are that if it’s your site and your interested in it, you’ll have the same feelings towards your ads as your audience base does.

 

All in all, you need to make sure that you’re investing wisely in a reliable company. You’ll be relying not only on your own effectiveness (how many visitors YOU bring in and where your ads are places), you’ll be relying heavily on their track record. As with everything, make sure they’re a reliable program before you invest yourself.