Affiliate marketing. Do a search for affiliate marketing and you will find a lot of sites listed. Many sellers, from big box stores to information marketers have affiliate programs. They benefit because when they have affiliates, they don't have to pay as much for advertising.
They only pay when a sale is referred to them. It is an additional revenue stream for them. That's why there are so many affiliate opportunities.
For the online marketer, it solves one of the biggest problems they face, especially when they are getting started and don't have anything to sell yet. By becoming an affiliate, you now have a way to offer products via your web pages, email messages, and any other sites where you can add your affiliate link.
Getting started is very easy. First, I want to point out that some sellers will let you sign up without any restrictions. Other sites only accept you if after reviewing your application you meet all of their requirements.
If you're new, you're still in luck, because you can find a lot of sites where you can sign up without any restrictions. One example is clickbank.com.
Before you go crazy and sign up for as many affiliate programs as possible, take some time to figure out what you are interested in selling. What products would be a fit for your web site or email list?
That's not a necessary step, because you could always set up each niche site around what you are going to be selling. Just something to keep in mind.
Another thing to consider before you select products is to find out how much you are going to make for each sale. The Amazon affiliate program is very popular, but keep in mind that they offer less than 10 percent commission. Digital products often offer commissions of 50 percent.
You are going to have to generate a lot of sales to make meaningful money using Amazon. If you're selling high priced items, that may not matter to you.
The reason to know what you're going to get paid per sale is because you are the one who has to generate the traffic to your affiliate pages so that your visitors can click on your affiliate link and buy the product.
If you can get enough traffic from your email list or landing pages, it won't matter as much. But if you are going to pay for ads, you want to make sure that you are making enough so that you can cover your ad costs.
You don't want to start paying for ads and making sales only to find out at the end of the month that you have lost money and time.
Having said all of that, affiliate marketing is a good way to get started. You don't have to pay for inventory. You don't have to deal with customer service or refunds. You don't have to ship or deliver the product.
You do have to learn how to get the product in front of your potential customers. It is an awesome way to learn how to market online without spending a lot of money.
There are a lot of articles, blog posts, and videos that will give you tips on how you can get started. So even if affiliate marketing is new for you, you will have a lot of resources to learn from. There are also a lot of low cost and even high cost training product you can access.
Before you buy any paid training, a good tip is to enter the product name followed by the word "reviews" after it and read a few of the sites to see what others have experience using the training.
Here's how affiliate products fit into my business:
What I like to do is to find a few products that are closely related that I can sell as an affiliate. I am looking for vendors that have tools for affiliates that I can use so I can save time. These assets can be graphics, email messages, and articles.
The next thing I do is set up a marketing calender. I will set up a series of email messages that run for about a week. Each message will give good content related to what I am going to be selling. The content will lead to the offer in each email.
To get some interest in the product, I will come up with a bonus that will add to the value of the product. The bonus will only be available for the week of the promotion. This makes it time sensitive to make it more likely that I will make a sale. After the promotion is over, I will still leave the sales page up, but without the bonus.
If you don't have a list:
I select a few products that are related to each other. For example, I my be interested in fitness. I would find 4 or 5 workout products. Then I would set up a web site and add a review page for each product.
Then I would write a few blog posts related to each product, and include a link to my review page where they can click on the link to buy the product.
I would also add an opt-in form to every page on my site to build an email list. If the affiliate resources include premade email message, I would add them to my email account and send them out.
Once I set the site up, I would get started on the next one. I haven't done paid ads, so I need to get a few sites up and running to get the money coming in.
Affiliate marketing is not a magic bullet. It won't give you easy money. It is a solid way to either get started or add to your product offerings so you can offer your visitors and subscribers more opportunities to buy from you. And that's always a good thing.
To your success...
