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Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs (also called reseller
programs) are an exciting way for website owners to earn cash.
These pay-per-sale programs are often amazingly easy
to join. After carefully reading the terms and conditions, which
vary from program to program, you provide a banner ad, small graphic
or ordinary link from your site or newsletter to the vendor. If
someone follows the link and buys a product or service from the
business, you receive a commission.
If you already have a busy site and the product is
attractive to your visitors, you should start earning money straight
away. If you have a new, low-traffic site, you need to promote your
site before you can make these programs work for you. Experienced
webmasters suggest that you need at least 500 unique visitors a
day to make reasonable money from a web site thru affiliate programs.
How Do Affiliate Programs Work?
THE REFERRAL SYSTEM - The concept is really quite simple.
Everything is based on a paid referral system. Visitors come to
your website, you introduce them to a product or service from a
third- party vendor through a banner or text link, and if your referral
decides to buy, you get paid a commission. While it sounds simple,
there are a few important details to know before you begin. Let's
look at an example.
CASE STUDY - Mary is interested in scrapbooking, so she
sets up a web site called Scraptips.com to share some of her ideas
with others who are interested in the same thing. She begins to
build up a loyal following of people who visit her site frequently
for weekly tips and ideas. She signs up as an affiliate with a merchant
called Scrapbook Supplies Online, and places their small banner
link on her site. For each of her site visitors who clicks on the
banner and visits the merchant, Mary receives $.10 per click (click-throughs)
for introducing that person to the merchant services. In addition
she might receive 10% of any purchases (sales/leads) that person
might make. Everyone wins.
COUNTING THE CLICKS - Right now you're probably wondering
who keeps track of all these clicks and how you eventually get paid.
That's where web services like Commission Junction and BeFree come
in. They make the whole process simple by doing all the tracking
through your personal affiliate i.d. and then send you one check
at the end of the month for all your commissions. That's how the
whole thing works. But at $.10 a click, can a small web site really
make any money? That depends on a few important factors. Read on
to learn more.
EVERY SITE CAN MAKE MONEY - Every web site, no matter how
small can make some money with affiliate programs. Slap on any affiliate
banner or text link and you're bound to get some clicks eventually.
But to really make money you have to have the right combination
of key elements.
CONTENT + TRAFFIC + THE RIGHT AFFILIATE PROGRAM = $
Without these three key elements you probably won't see much in
the way of income: (1) A website must be built and updated in such
a way that the content brings people back to the site over and over
again. (2) The affiliate programs must be related to the site content,
so that the site offers are of significant interest to the visitors.
(3) The referral fee must be substantial enough to make you want
to promote the offer. When all three elements are in place, you
are on your way.
The site owner's job is simply to market the product or service
of the advertiser.
First, choose a program that gets YOU excited. Your enthusiasm will
reflect in your writing and this will encourage customers to buy.
Most of the affiliate programs will not work on your site. The
ads may offer good services or products but are those advertisements
interesting for your visitors?
The smaller the gap between your services and the affiliate's offering
the better the results will be.
But there is a problem... How many Affiliate Programs today truly
treat you as a partner and not just a web site to slap on a banner?
Many Affiliates are now asking: "Why should I earn money for
a program that doesn't care about ME?" Unfortunately, the majority
of Affiliate Programs don't treat their Affiliates with much respect...
many program managers don't realize that Affiliates are the bread
and butter of a web business. In short terms if YOU succeed THEY
will succeed! Not the other way round! I suggest a simple test,
when you join an affiliate program, send an e-mail with some kind
of a simple question to their reseller support department and wait
to see how long it takes them to answer you (IF they answer your
question an all!). Take ROIBOT or Marketing Tips for instance, they
have probably the best affiliate support system, their level of
care for affiliates is absolutely amazing! Also, try to find out
how long they are tracking your referrals - IMPORTANT! There are
companies that track a referral for a year, some for months, there
are even some that track your referral for life! If you can't find
that type of information, there is something fishy about that company!
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