Guide to Affiliate Marketing

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Affiliate Marketing is a way for normal people like you and I to sell products for larger companies just as if they were our own in a way. For the sale of these products you get a commission which can be anywhere from 1%-90% depending on the product, company, and specific affiliate offer. Amazon.com was the main pioneer of online affiliate marketing. By Feb of 1998 Amazon, had attracted more than 25,000 webmasters as affiliates giving them amazing publicity in exchange for a small commission on sales. By 2004, 6 years later, they had amassed over 900,000 affiliates selling products for them. The great thing about affiliate marketing instead of marketing your own product, is that there are few worries. You don’t have to ship products out, and you have no customer support worries. You just sell the product and thats it. Now, it’s not as easy as it may seem. You can’t just slap a page together direct random traffic to it and expect to earn hundreds of dollars a week. There is plenty to learn in the industry to convert your products into sales.

Competition:

Since it is so easy to slap a web page together, add a few links to products and then try making sales, it seems like everyone and their mother are getting into affiliate marketing. This makes it quite difficult sometimes to outrank your competition on search engines and get people to buy the product from your page instead of the hundreds or thousands of other sites promoting the same exact product(s). Thats why search engine optimization as well as a good marketing strategy is needed for you to become a full time affiliate marketer. Check out our guides on Search engine optimization as they will really help you overcome a large portion of your competition.

Finding Products to sell:

There are literally over 50,000 companies on the web that offer some sort of affiliate program. There are companies such as Overstock and Amazon who have thousands of affiliates, and then companies like your local Mom & Pop market who may have one or 2. It is up to you to find the products, companies, and payout rates that fit into your plan. I will list just a few of the more popular websites to find these affiliate offers and explain what the advantages of each are:

- Commission Junction - A Global Leader in Affiliate Marketing, Online Advertising and Search Engine Marketing
Commission Junction is probably the oldest and most popular portal for affiliate programs. There are thousands and thousands of companies that you can find throu Cj.com. You basically just register an account, confirm the account, and start selecting companies you would liek to work with. CJ will tell you when you are approved and then give you the referral codes for each companies products. Its very simple and easy to use.

- LinkShare | Online Marketing Services, Search Marketing, Lead Generation, Affiliate Marketing
Linkshare is also one of the more popular affiliate portals out there. It works basically the same way as CJ.com does. Linkshare is known for having more direct product links ulike CJ which tends to have links to the store itself.

- Digital Products Retailer: Affiliate Program & Sell Online - ClickBank
If you are into selling information products, and products which are distributed online such as ebooks, memberships, guides, etc, then Clickbank is right for you. All you do is register an account with them, and then browse their thousands of products. Select the product you wish to sell, and they will give you your url. The great thing about Ebooks and information products is that since there are no manufacturing costs per item for the owners, they usually offer anywhere from 25-85% commission. That means that you will often get more money per sale then the person who created the product!

- Directly through the company
The above links are affiliate portals which mange affiliate programs for various vendors. There are, however, companies which offer their affiliate program directly to the affiliate. These companies often pay out a larger percentage since there is no middleman. These take a little more time to locate, but they are usually worth the effort. The best way to find such companies is to simply use Google, and search for the product or company you are looking for. Then simply look around on their page for the link saying “affiliates” or “partners”.

Some other great places to find affiliate products and companies are:

- Affiliate Marketing USA, Start Affiliate Program, Affiliate Network, Business Advertising And Online Marketing, Affiliates Earn Big Commission With CPA Programs.
- FineClicks.com - Fine Advertising For Your Website
- Affiliate Programs - Your guide to the best web affiliate programs.
- Webclients.net — Market. Monitor. Monetize.
- The clickXchange Affiliate Network
- Search Engine Marketing - Performics
- ShareASale
- Affiliate Fuel - CPA, CPC, Lead Generation, Performance Based Advertising Network
- DarkBlue Affiliate Network

2 Different Strategies:

Marketing towards a Unique Niche
The advantage of marketing and selling products in a rather unique and untapped niche is the fact that you will have very little competition. The disadvantages of course are that the demand for your product is not all that great. Different marketers have different philosophies towards these strategies. The best way to go about marketing a lesser known product in a well defined niche is to do market research, and jump on new products as soon as they are released for sale.

What I like to do is use the Google Product search main page located at: Google Product Search and look at the list of “A few of the items recently found with Google Product Search”. Often times new items pop up here. Just keep reloading for a new list. You then can search for common keywords associated with that product by going here: Free Keyword Suggestion Tool (Wordtracker Suggestion Tool & Overture Bid Tool Combined) & Keyword Generator . Use the top keywords to create articles or content for your site and then suggest the product at the end of the article or content, with of course your affiliate link. Also link to a sales page you create for this product on all your articles or content pages.

Another Unique tool I love, is the new Google Checkout Trends search located at: Checkout Trends The great thing about this tool is you can compare 2 products to see which is being purchased more via Google Checkout. If Crest and Colgate both sell a new type of toothpaste, and the Crest one is being bought more, according to Google Checkout Trends, it’s probably easier for you to sell the Crest product over the Colgate one.

Marketing towards a broad, very popular Niche
Other marketers seem to prefer the idea of selling products that are in extremely high demand. This is great, in that you will have a ton of people looking to buy what you are selling, however, this also means that you will encounter a huge amount of competition.

So what is it that are considered high demand products?

An Ernst & Young study found that the most popular products bought online are:
- Computer related products (40%)
- Books (20%)
- Travel (16%)
- Clothing (10%)
- Recorded Music and Subscriptions (6%)
- Gifts (4%)
- Investment (4%)

Also information products like those found at Clickbank.com are seemingly in high demand. After all thats what people use the internet for mainly, to find information.

Things To Consider When Choosing a Product/Service to Market/Promote as well as a General Niche

- Do you know a lot about this Product/Service?
In order to sell other people on a product or service, you must know everything you possibly can about it. You need to be informed about the company behind it, pricing history, demand, how it works, etc. If you are not informed, then your sales page will reflect this and likely turn people away. Knowing about the product/service you are selling allows you to be more creative, building a site that looks professional, and writing selling points that will be so tempting towards your visitors that they will have little choice other than to buy from your site.

- Do you have a Passion. and Truly Recommend the Product/Service to Friends?
Although it is entirely possible to sell products or services that you don’t believe in, it helps a great deal if you do. Being passionate about what you are selling will shine through to the sales page, and right to the potential buyers. A passion for what you are selling also makes it easier, and almost fun to set up a webpage to sell it. You are doing more then just trying to make money this way, you are also helping people find something you truly think will be a good purchase for them.

Does the Affiliate Have Cookies Enabled for Repeat Visitors?
What if someone clicks through to your affiliate link from your sales page, and is unsure if he/she wants to purchased the item? They don’t buy it right away, and instead bookmark it or just go back to the vendors site a week later to purchase the product. Will you get credited for the sale and earn commission? The answer to this question depends on the vendor you are selling for. Many affiliate programs today will credit you for the sale in the example above. What they do is add a cookie to the visitors computer, so that if they come back at a later date the affiliate who referred them last will get credited for the sale. Choosing an affiliate that does offer cookies (usually 15-45 days for most) can mean the difference between making 10 sales and making 15. A recent marketing study done by TeamEarners.com back in December 2007 showed that nearly 30% of all purchases were made a day or more after the person initially visited the sales site.

Source : Guide to Affiliate Marketing