Should You Join an 'Affiliate' Program, and What to Look For

By Anne Ahira

There sure are a lot of Affiliate Programs out there for you to choose from, aren't there?! If you have a busy site or a large newsletter, you can start earning money right away! Sounds good! But....you're going to need lots of traffic to do the 'earning right away' thing.

So, if you have a new site, a low traffic site, or are starting from scratch, you've got a long way to go! Be aware of that and don't get discouraged right off.

If you are brand new to Internet marketing you might be better off if you develop your own product. That takes time and energy but when you sell your own product you get to keep ALL the profit!....sell someone else's product and you only keep a portion of those profits.

Don't get me wrong! I'm not saying that someone just starting off should not join an Affiliate Program. When you don't have a good product or service to sell online, being an affiliate can be a great option!

Just keep in mind that it may take awhile to see a profit since you have to promote the program and build traffic to it just as you would if you had your own website. Just be sure you find an Affiliate Program that offers something you love and would feel good about marketing.

The great thing about Affiliate Programs is that they are "no-brainers"! What do I mean by that?

Well, if you already have the aforementioned 'lot's of traffic to your site', all you have to do is post a text link to another site, the affiliate program site, and earn a percentage for every sale which you generate.

And...best of all, the company takes care of all the administrative problems, the credit card charges, the shipping, the inventory....you get the idea. You just refer people to them, they take care of all the rest and cut you a nice hearty check every month. Sounds pretty great, doesn't it?!

Yes, it can be! But be careful! Getting involved with the "right" affiliate program is your key to making money. (More about that later.)

Making money with an affiliate program is playing the old-fashioned numbers game! Meaning, that out of the people who visit your site you may get a 1% to 20% click-through ratio (this range is so wide because it depends on the product interest, your link to them and the power of their slogans or banners). ...that's the number of people who click through the text link you have provided and actually visit the site you are recommending.

And of those people, only 1% to 2% will really buy. So... "numbers game"! Generating a good income from affiliates programs, requires a large number of visitors to your site or subscribers to your newsletter.

Example. Say you're getting 1,000 visitors to your site a month and you post your affiliate text link. Just for fun, lets say you get a click through of 5%, which is WAY high.

That means out of your 1,000 visitors, 50 of them go to the affiliate site by clicking through and out of these 50 people probably only ONE will buy...IF THAT! Just because you get 1,000 visitors to your site (that's YOUR site not the affiliate site you are promoting) that doesn't mean you will get $500 a month from your affiliate program.

Here's some more numbers for you. A company with a good affiliate program will have about a 0.5% to 1% visitor to sale ratio. It can sometimes be better than that (and often many time worse, especially if you hook up with the wrong company!), but that is the average. So for every 100 to 200 visitors you send them, only one will purchase.

Whoa! Doesn't look quite so great now!

That's okay, this is the reality and you have to be realistic about your online endeavors. If you think everything is just going to fall into your lap, you'll be easily disappointed and end up quitting before you even get close to succeeding.

You'll want to look for these things in any Affiliate Program you join:

An Affiliate Program that is successful at what they do.
An Affiliate Program which offers great value, a great product or service, and more importantly, GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE!
Make sure the Affiliate Program has a great tracking mechanism so that you get credit for every sale.
Look for a Program, which tracks every sale in real time so you can see your results instantly.
Make sure the Affiliate Program has a good-looking website, which pleases customers, is easy to navigate, and offers great information to the visitor.
The Affiliate Site must be able to turn visitors into sales. You can send them all the visitors in the world, but if they don't convert visitors into sales, you don't make any money!

Before you decide to join any affiliate program, get the answers to the following questions:

How long has this Affiliate Program been in place?
What form of compensation is offered? In other words, are you getting actual cash , are you getting credits for your product, are you getting free AirMiles -- what are you actually getting?
Is there a set up fee? If so, how much?
What kind of associate tracking software is being used?
How are referrals tracked? Do you get credit for EVERY single sale you refer to them?
Do associates get credit for the sale after a visitor comes to the site and doesn't buy, then leaves and comes back to buy at a later date. How long is this in effect for?
Do you have to take special steps to get out of the agreement?
Does the legal agreement bind you to any other responsibilities?
Under what circumstances can the Program remove you as an associate?

If you take the time to gather all this information BEFORE you jump into an affiliate program, you'll find that GOOD Affiliate Programs are actually hard to find. Lucky for you! You don't have to go freaky every time a "new" affiliate comes online!

Chances are, once you look more deeply into the company, you'll find they can't pass your "test" and are not a company you would want to be "affiliated" with anyway.

By: Anne Ahira
Editor The BEST Affiliate Newsletter
http://www.thebestaffiliate.com

Choosing The Right Affiliate Program & The "Rules To Live By"

By Anne Ahira

Here's the 'Numero Uno' Rule!

Don't be cheap! Always go for quality! Hey, if you wouldn't buy it, why should anyone else?!

Take a good look at the product or service you're considering marketing and make sure it is top notch! Is is a good value for the price? If it's a ridiculous amount of money for something not worth a whole lot, then forget about it. How about the people that are recommending it? Have you done business with them in the past? Are they reliable? Can you talk to a few people who have bought the product? Are they happy with what they purchased?

You've really got to be certain you are recommending a good quality product, from a reputable company, which has great customer service.

This is definitely pretty darn important! As an affiliate, you're sticking your neck out there, every time you advertise or recommend the product or service you're linking to. You are in effect, endorsing them, so it's your reputation at risk! Be sure you're dealing with a company that deserves your trust and reflects well on you personally!

Be smart! Don't ever promote something that's going to harm your reputation!

The Second Most Important Rule

You better be earning a super dooper commission! If you're only being paid 5% or 10% per product sold...boy, are you ever getting the 'short end of the stick'! That's a low commission! You need to look for a company who's thinking about the life-time-value of a customer and is willing to give YOU a very high payout to keep you. You want to associate with a company who pays out around 60% of the net profit to their affiliates. You won't find an affiliate program like this on every website, you're going to have to really search for it! But that's allright. It'll be worth the effort!

With a good affiliate company, when someone joins under you, they get paid for every sale they make (just like you), and you get paid a percentage for every sale THEY make. Just think what would happen if you had a few really hot affiliates, who signed up underneath you and were making 10 sales a mont... you would be making a whole lot of money every month just on the work THEY did. As long as they keep selling, you keep getting paid!

Something else to think about...even if a company is paying out a high commission, if people don't buy from them, you're right back where you started! They've got to have a site which turns visitors into buyers; the site must have a good conversion rate! The site should have at least a 1% conversion ratio; meaning, that one out of every hundred customers you send to them, then turns into a sale.

Make sure you go with an affiliate program which has sales copy and website design that "makes you want to buy". After all, YOU are sending them the potential customers, but it's their job to turn those potential customers into buyers! More buyers, more money for you! Basically pretty simple.

Also, keep in mind your payout amount. If you are earning $50 a referral for one buying customer, you're doing okay.. but, if you are only earning a $10 referral fee for that one buying customer, you may want to rethink things.

Here Comes Rule Number Three, Short But Major Important!:

Match the product or service to the theme of your site. So if your site is about horses and horse products you don't want to be advertising music CD's or weight loss products (unless of course it is a weight loss product for horses!).

You need to target your clientele so that what you are selling or recommending, has something to do with what your visitors WANT. I can't stress this enough it's very important! Provide links, services and products, which are related to what YOUR visitors want!

I am continually astonished, that people build a site and then have products and affiliate programs that have nothing whatsoever to do with each other! DUH!!

The Number Four Rule:

You also need to be concerned with the tracking software the affiliate program is using. You want to see your statistics (stats) in real time and be able to check them at any time to see how you are doing.

Why?

So you can go and check to see how your promotional efforts are working Compare the difference in results between putting a button up and putting up a whole sales page. You need instant information on visitor and sales results. How many sales is your affiliate banner generating, same goes for a text link, or personal recommention....how many visitors are you sending to the affiliate site and then how many sales is it generating for you.

Does the software the company is using track ALL of your sales....some companies use "inferior" software which only tracks about 80% of the time (meaning YOU lose out on 20% of the commissions that are rightfully yours). Other companies will only pay you if the customer visits through your link and buys right then and there...if they come back and buy later, you may not get credit for that sale.

The Number Five Rule:

Don't allow affiliate programs to clutter up your main site. Don't go crazy and find 10 different programs and try to promote them all on your site at the same time!! It just clutters up your site and makes it worthless! Focus on one or two really good affiliate programs, that work for your business and client base. Only become involved with an affiliate program that has products or services that your target market wants.

"Wants" is the important word here. People buy things impulsively because they "want" them, not because they "need" them. When you come right down to it, there are not all that many products which people really "need".

More is not necessarily better! Put too many affiliate programs on your site and you just end up confusing your visitors. You won't make many sales with confused buyers! Stay targeted!

The Number Six Rule:

This is just common sense...deal with a reputable company. If you are ever unsure of a company, ask for references and do some checks on them. Are they professional? If you phone them, do they put you on hold FOREVER!? Be assured, they'll do the same to customers you recommend to them. They should respond promptly to your emails, within the same day if at all possible. If they don't respond to your emails at all....run in the other direction!

Customer response and service is EVERYTHING. If you ask questions about a company's affiliate program and get no answer (or a delayed answer)... whoa, watch out! If they can't be bothered to take care of you when you express an interest in becoming an associate, what's the odds they'll take care of you when you have a real problem!? It's a pretty good bet, that they won't take very good care of your customers either! So be very careful, the company you deal with should be very professional and willing to help you out when you're in need.

Take the bit about the importance of Customer Service to heart and make certain YOU respond swiftly to emails or phone messages you receive in your own business dealings. This IS CRITICAL.

Following are a few related odds and ends.

Affiliate Programs and bulk email do NOT go together.

There's this "myth" out there about affiliate programs, that you go join a few, put them all in an email message and then bulk email thousands of people who will eagerly respond making you tons of money! Oh, so WRONG! This is probably one of the worst things you can do online. It's called SPAM!

Most affiliate programs have a "bulk" email clause in their agreement that says... if you spam, you can get terminated from the program and not get paid for any commissions you've earned. Be aware that there's also a very good chance that you will lose your Internet connection, not to mention your reputation!

Sending unsolicited bulk email to millions of people who have NOT qualified themselves as being interested in your product is not very profitable (you won't get any response!) can end up costing you money and is just plain RUDE!

I even know of some companies who have billed the "spammer" for the time it's taken the company to deal with the complaints and administrative problems caused by the bulk emailing done using their affiliate program URL. You spam with an affiliate URL, and it looks like it was the company doing the spamming, since the recipient is being sent directly to the company website. Not good for the company's reputation! NOT going to make you a very popular affiliate member either!!

One last thing. Watch out for any "exclusivity clauses" in affiliate agreements. Some companies will state that "they can be the only retailer of a specific product on your site". If you signed up with a book selling program for example, with this clause in the contract, that would limit you to selling only their books on your site. This may not be a problem for you, maybe you only want to sell their books anyway! Just be careful not to restrict yourself unless you want to.

By: Anne Ahira
Editor The BEST Affiliate Newsletter
http://www.thebestaffiliate.com

Affiliate Marketing Vs Google Adsense Let the Battle Begin

By Scott Patterson

Lately there has been a lot of discussion on how to make tons of money with Google Adsense. In fact, many people are making the claim that Adsense sites can earn a higher revenue then an affiliate-marketing site.

So that brings us to an important question: Which is a better online business – Affiliate-Marketing sites or Google Adsense sites?

Let’s explore each one and then find out which online business is better option:

Google Adsense

How do you like the idea of earning m*ney without dealing with customers or answering emails. This is possible when you run a Google Adsense site. With Adsense sites, you can have a virtual passive-income that requires little maintaining. But is this the best option for an online business?

Here are the positives of Google Adsense sites:

• They are perfect for people who run information sites that have no related affiliate product

• You can set it and leave it. With Google Adsense, you can create a content page, and there is little need to update the content.

• Adsense sites are easy to scale. Since they require little upkeep, you can easily create multiple websites that each make a nice income.

Here are the negatives of Google Adsense sites:

• They are not a great long term solution. Instead of getting your visitors to subscribe to a mailing list, you are focusing on getting people to click on ads. Real online businesses concentrate on building assets that can use for long-term growth.

• These sites are dependent on search engines. Most Google Adsense sites make the mistake of depending on search engines for the majority of their traffic. If the SE algorithms change then your income might drop significantly.

Affiliate Marketing

Being an affiliate marketer is great for those who want build a theme site. With this type of business, you can easily create web pages around a topic and get people to buy products through your products. If done correctly, you can easily build a loyal following that will help you make money for years to come.

But can affiliate marketing make you more money then Google Adsense?

Here are the positives of affiliate marketing:

• A great advantage of affiliate-marketing is that you can build a long term business that will bring in a revenue stream for years.

• With affiliate-marketers you need to focus on building an email list. This list is a major asset of your business. Every time you have an offer, you can go to your list and increase your profits.

• Unlike Google Adsense sites, which only concentrates on high paying keywords, an affiliate marketing site can be centered on a topic that you have an interest in.

Here are the negatives of affiliate marketing:

• You have to learn how to write persuasively and get people to purchase the product that you are recommending. For many people this is a difficult skill to learn.

• Each affiliate marketing site requires a lot of effort. You must spend a lot of time writing product reviews, building your email list and creating web content.

So which is better: Affiliate marketing or Google Adsense?

The answer is that both are great solutions for an online business. Instead of choosing one over the other, you should create websites that can take advantage of both.

Here is how you can do this:

1) Create a content site on a topic that you are interest in, while paying a good amount per Adsense click.

2) Integrate your Adsense into the menu bars and the top of your web content.

3) Add web pages for affiliate-products and your opt-in email list. But, make sure that you leave out the Adsense blocks on these pages. This way you are ensuring that you are building your long-term assets.

4) Create optimized web page articles that focus on a specific keyword phrase. Place your Google Adsense in these blocks.

5) Provide your email list with good content and product recommendations. Once in awhile, email your list and provide a link to some of your web articles. That way, you can earn a little bit of m*ney from your subscribers while giving them good content.

By focusing on both affiliate products and Google Adsense, you will be building both short-term and long-term profits.

Scott Patterson is a self-proclaimed Dunce, yet last month he earned $12,124 from one of his online businesses. Find out how YOU can do the same, download his free ebook- http://www.duncemoney.com/affiliate-adsense.html A Guide to Online Businesses

A Few Avoidable Errors When Promoting Your Affiliate Program

By Clive Harman

In this article, I have listed a quick and easy bulleted list of does and do no’s when trying to promote your affiliate program.

* Many affiliate marketers make a huge mistake of posting their ads on forums. Forums can be used to promote your affiliate programs and your website but in a proper manner. Posting banners is very similar to spamming and may easily upset forum administrators.

* Always do your research before promoting your affiliate program to a potential customer. Do not offer affiliate programs to visitors who are not at all interested in the products associated with the program. This is a futile endeavour.

* If you promote affiliate programs offered by other merchants, ensure that you develop your own advertising copy. Many websites commit a common mistake of using the same advertising copy as used by the merchant themselves.

* Avoid Copyright infringement in all cases. Always use original content or ask permission to use graphic images or text found on other websites.

* Do not submit your programs to free websites. These may be free but your programs would hardly ever be noticed, especially by Search Engines. Moreover, your own ranking would get lowered if you submit your affiliate programs to such websites.

* Avoid using caps on your web page or email ad. Using caps is symbolic to shouting, which never goes well with potential customers. A few words may be written in capital text to give them additional emphasis. However, such practice should be limited.

* Always respond to all queries sent by visitors as soon as possible. A slight delay in your response could easily result in loss of a potential client.

* Do not use pop-up ads along with your webpage. Most surfers are likely to close their browser if they come across pop-ups.

* Do not host your website on a free server or use free email accounts. This gives a negative impression to visitors. Using free hosts and email accounts looks cheesy and loses sales.

* Many websites do not have an opt-in list. Create an opt-in and opt-out list for your visitors. Without these, there is no way of tracking potential customers. Visitors should be allowed to opt-in at any time as well as opt-out at any time.

* Most sites have a poor tracking mechanism. It is essential that you track all business activities. Accurate record keeping is crucial. There are many software tools, discussed earlier in this chapter, than can automate your record keeping process with minimal error.

* A 'mall' site is best used as a central hub to send visitors to your other domains. As a main or only site, unfocused mall sites don't get traffic from the engines, and they don't convert well to sales. Highly focused theme sites attract traffic and sales.

* Offline advertising may not be effective. A lot of money and effort should not be wasted on offline advertising. Most people rarely check websites that are advertised in local magazines or newspapers.

* Avoid focus on animated banner ads. These simply use up bandwidth, thus making web pages load slower.

* While advertising do not degrade other competitors. It is recommended that you highlight your products’ uniqueness and superiority but never mortify other products.

* Banners or text links that expire are guaranteed to eventually send your visitor to a broken link or show a broken graphic on your page. Time sensitive advertising is best used only in email advertising campaigns.

* Never put affiliate links on your homepage. This is similar to asking your visitors to leave immediately. Give them a chance to browse, sign up for your newsletter and decide that they'd like to come back to your place before introducing them to your affiliates.

* Technology changes with amazing speed. To keep up with this rapidly evolving industry, you must invest time and money in research. The investment is a tax write-off, and will pay you back many times over in additional revenue.

Hopefully this list has proven helpful to you and has shown you some red flags to avoid when it comes time to promote your own affiliate site.

Clive Harman is a professional trainer with 38 years experience and has just published a no-holds-barred, tell-all, never-revealed before training programme that will lead you Step-by-Step through the mine field of Internet Marketing but - Hurry there's only 250 openings! Plus save $100 on this training course! http://www.cliveharman.com/t/im.html

Do You Really Need Your Own Website To Promote Affiliate Products?

By Khemal Dole

One of the best ways to earn a substantial monthly income is to promote other people’s products and services for a portion of the profit from their sales. This is commonly referred to as affiliate marketing. Many product owners have their own affiliate programs and affiliates can simply promote a URL or website address that’s got their affiliate ID in it.

Is this the best method to promote affiliate sites? Or should an affiliate have his or her own website? Here are a few things to think about regarding having your own website.

1) Unique web presence

Having your own website means that you also have your own unique web presence. You can basically create your own identity and stand out from the rest. This lets you create a unique website that’s not one of millions of the same old template. People like change and it helps to be different. Create your own web identity and it will help you catch your prospect’s eye.

2) Can help build your own list

Simply sending visitors to your affiliate websites through your affiliate URL is not good marketing. At the least you simply MUST get the visitor’s name and email address and build your own list. Having your own list means that you get to contact them at regular intervals and promote your products to them on more than one occasion. Also this gives you a chance to create a repot between the visitor and yourself. This leads to increased credibility on your part and will help you close the sale in the end. You simply MUST have your own website to build your own list.

3) Can easily add and subtract products

You might start out by promoting 1 affiliate product at first. But eventually you’ll branch out and expand into multiple products. Many of them can be related. If you don’t have your own website you’ll end up having a bunch of affiliate URLs to promote. And guess what? You will be alienating one product promotion from the other. The smart thing to do is create a website with a common theme and promote multiple products along that same theme. This way any promotion or advertising you do will funnel prospective buyers to any of your affiliate products. This will greatly improve your chances of making a sale. Plus if you feel that some products aren’t working out, you can simply take them off your website easily.

4) Can pr-sell

Have you ever tried to bake a cake? If you haven’t, ask your mom or grand ma if she shoved the cake into a cold oven. She’ll tell you that you first have to pre-heat the oven before you bake the cake. Promoting affiliate products is similar. You have to first “pre-heat” or pre-sell the IDEA of the product and get the prospect into a buying mood before you send them to the main sites. Once you pre sell them, the main website can help close the sale. Writing you own product reviews is one way of pre selling. You can’t pre-sell without having your own website.

5) Easy URL makes for easy remembering.

Which of the following URLs will you remember is a month’s time?

http://www.KrazeCar4U.com/cgi-bin/?aff=123321&pid=53325&tk=ffsg

or

http://www.CoolCars.com

If you picked the first, then you need to get out more. Because 99% of the time, people will remember the second one. Why? Because it’s short and easy to remember. Many affiliate URLs take the form of the first one. Too complicated. Hard to remember. And this means that people will rather type in www.sKrazeCar4U.com rather than the whole URL. This means that YOU don’t get paid because they didn’t visit the website using the full URL.

Now consider the second URL to be your own website. The URL is simple and catchy and people will remember it. And you can promote many car related products from it. See the advantage of having your own website?

6) Get personal with them and introduce yourself

If you saw me on the street one day and have never met me before, what’s the first thing you’ll say?

“I can refinance your house with a low interest rate blah blah blah”

or

“Hello. How are you. I’m ( your name ) “

Now if you used the second method, which is what any sane person would do, and you turned out to be a banker, I just might have come to you for advice and maybe even hire you to be my personal banker some day.

If you used the first method I would have totally ignored you. And that means NO sale for you.

You simply must create a personal welcome “aura” around yourself before you can promote something to a total stranger. You first have to introduce yourself to them before you can pitch your offers to them. Having your own website will let you do this and in the end, help you close many more sales that would have been pitched to deaf ears.

7) Can do backend sales

The best money comes from backend sales. Backend sales means that you first sell a low cost product and then follow up with a more expensive yet related item later on. Many people will buy from you a second time, much more easily, than the first. So you can easily sell them more expensive items and increase your profits. You can’t do this unless you had your own website AND your own list. If you aren’t doing back end sales, you are missing out on 80% of the profits.

So the bottom line is YES in order to successfully become an affiliate marketer and promote affiliate products, you simply must have your own website. I hope you realize the importance of it by now and cash in on it right now.

Khemal Dole owns and operates
http://www.PaychecksDirect.com, a completely FREE
service that teaches many beginners and even
experts how to work at home.
Sign up for his FREE 14 day Work At Home Beginner's Course and learn how real people make money from the internet.

Reselling Products with Resale Rights: is this Trend Here to Stay?

By Fred Farah

Selling intangible and digital goods on the internet has brought a new e-commerce era in which resale products, resale rights and reprint rights have become an extension of the activity itself. Such intangible goods include software, e-books, manuals, articles, tutorials, certificates, forms, files, music, podcasts, movies, digital art, and many others that may be purchased through an electronic payment processor or with a charge to credit or debit cards.

Electronic payment processors are also called e-payments and are those made via a web browser for goods and services using credit or debit cards but processed by third party escrow agents or companies. Third party payment systems include Cli ckbank, Paypal, Stormpay, eGold, moneybookers, emo, worldpay, etc. Altogether, the number of resellers, also known as A ffiliate Marketers, is increasing every day making it possible to find whatever you look for on the internet.

All these facilities are to encourage the acquisition of products via internet, but behind the goods offered, there are many individual stories of innovation, hard work, and redrawing of marketing strategies. Established companies, solution providers, software developers and entrepreneurs, just to name a few, are moving from traditional marketing, telemarketing, printing, direct mail and emailing methods, to more effective efforts reselling products and products rights.

While many services stick to the model in which a reseller pays out from a few dollars to thousands of dollars in annual membership fees for reselling vendor programs, many vendors are moving to a scheme in which resellers pay for a product with resale rights. Ss the sale is final the buyer now owns the product, and then resells the product.

He may raise the price following the suggested price guidelines of the vendor, or determines the price at his sole discretion, keeping the total amount of the sale. This includes what would be the affiliate commission. So products sold this way are profitable for both the vendor and the reseller.

Resellers are found practically in every type of industry land-based and web-based, from housing to technology. Resellers perform one of the most important roles in the supply chain of digital products and intangible products worldwide, otherwise limited to one online and physical location; the vendor's location.

One of the first implementations of this marketing model was made by Independent Software Vendors (ISV) term applied to those companies specialized in making and selling software, a digital good usually for niche markets, such as health care professionals, real estate brokers, barcode scanning or factories' stock maintenance.

Today, software reselling has expanded not only to companies but to independent developers and amateur programmers who create small but fully functional and useful application software rather than system software such as operating systems and database management systems.

Under the new schema, software vendors sell their programs directly to resellers who are in charge of the product distributorship, being totally independent of the vendor and independent in their approach to working with their potential clients at their convenience. With this same behavior, other intangible and digital goods developers work with resellers to commercialize their products.

As a derivation of the reseller activity, some vendors offer resellers the opportunity to resell products to the end-user consumers keeping 100 percent of the earnings in a schema known as "resell rights". These can be limited rights, such as only reprint rights, or full rights, known as Master Resal e Rights.

These may include the commercialization of the software as the reseller wants, including printing, modification, distributorship, integration in CD bundles or even as give aways to encourage the participation in other activities, such as getting memberships.

p>With this panorama, we can confirm that resale products and resale rights are here to stay. If you want to become a reseller and earn an immediate commission on the sale. With affil iate marketing, the number of intangible products and digital goods you can resell are as big as your imagination can figure out. This includes all possible commerce branches as well as innovative digital business developed by entrepreneurs.

If you want to resell digital goods and intangible goods keeping 100% of the earnings, the possibilities are as large as the reselling of products, but depending on the goods in which you are interested, it is required to purchase the goods to get full master resell rights included. Or it might require getting a membership to a certain website.

Is reselling products with resale rights here to stay? You better believe it is! Get involved early, and you should profit from this current ctaze.

Fred Farah

copyright 2005

Best Affiliate Products

and Niche Market Strategies for Maximum Profits

Best Affiliate Products

For more information on Resale Rights, you can find it at
Resale Rights at Best Affiliate Products

Web Affiliate Programs - Experiences from the Frontline

By J. Morgan

After two years of relying on Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, organic search engine results, web directories and word of mouth, I finally decided to give web affiliate programs a try.

From my research, I knew that there are a lot of affiliate marketers (as affiliates like to refer to themselves) who are making a decent to good living steering customers to online stores. When I'd investigated adding our site to one of the programs, I always felt that the reputable sites were too expensive and that the cheaper sites were too risky.

Recently, I read some good feedback about Shareasale and took a look. Shareasale is less expensive to get into than Commission Junction or Clickbank, but has developed a reputation for having a well-run program.

I'd also heard that most of the many of the major affiliates that produce results are signed up at Shareasale, so I was eager to see what results I could expect. I handed over my $150 signup fee and $50 affiliate payout deposit and hoped for the best.

The site I wanted to promote is a designer and manufacturer of women's fitness wear. From ongoing research, I was already familiar with most of the high traffic sites with a readership that would be highly targeted to our store. I didn't expect to see many (if any) of them signing up as affiliate marketing is not a major source of their revenue models.

What I've found so far is that coupon websites are apparently all the rage right now in affiliate marketing. Within a day or two of joining the Shareasale program, a dozen or so coupon sites had signed up as affiliates. Coupon sites collect information about "good deals" on products available at online stores and then disseminate that information to their website viewers and newsletter readers.

Some of the larger and more popular sites in this space include FatWallet.com and SlickDeals.net. In addition to offering up coupons and discounts for shopping, some of the sites have gotten into the "cashback" game as well. If you order merchandise from vendors on their list, they promise to refund to you a small percentage of your purchase price.

All of this is fueled by affiliate marketing. From the perspective of an online store owner, it works out to be a pretty interesting channel. A certain percentage of your shoppers are going to be more price sensitive than others. Finding ways to sell products at low prices to those that demand it while getting top dollar from customers that aren't as concerned about cost is one of the major strategic challenges that a retailer faces.

The goods that our store carries are upscale. While our average customer does not want to overpay for their clothing, their primary consideration is value. Does the merchandise fit their style, fabric, and quality requirements. As a result, we very rarely run sales. But, even in our market there are customers who demand a bargain. My wife is like that. She just hates buying non-essentials unless she can get a discount. She's also the type of person that likes to feel like she got the best possible price on something and is willing to do whatever research is required.

If we can reach that type of customer via coupon sites without affecting non-price sensitive purchasers, that could very well be a win for us. There are two goals most stores try to accomplish with affiliate marketing. First, gain access to customers they would not likely have reached on their own. Second, find a way to bring customers to the store cheaper than they could do themselves. Coupon sites seemed to satisfy the first goal and so was something we were excited about.

One thing that you need to decide before signing up affiliates for your online store is whether you will allow them to use PPC to send customers to you. In the past, there was a thriving trade where affiliate marketers would bid on PPC keywords and send traffic directly to a webstore with their affiliate ID attached. Depending on the circumstances, may or may not be a good thing. Affiliates might do a better job of writing ads that appeal to target customers and may be able to convert traffic less expensively than you could yourself. On the flipside, its also possible that you would be paying more in affiliate commissions than you would have in PPC charges for the exact same customers.

The first sale credited to an affiliate for our program actually came in this way. The affiliate cleverly realized that they could bid just slightly higher on our company name than we were and capture customers who were specifically looking for our brand. By far the highest converting keywords we have in our PPC campaigns are based on our company name, so this could be a goldmine for the affiliate. However, for obvious reasons, paying 15% commission to the affiliate on the sale rather than 0.15/click to Google's Adwords just didn't make business sense for us, so we modified our affiliate rules such that affiliates are not allowed to send traffic directly to our website via PPC campaigns.

We're still early in the program and its yet to be seen whether affiliates will drive a significant part of our sales or not. We'll be certain to add new articles to the archives as we continue to learn from our experiences.

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(c) 2005 Ecommerce-Daily.com

J. Morgan is a serial entreprenuer who has been involved in the cutting edge of Internet ecommerce since its earliest days. He is presently the VP of Marketing for an upscale designer and manufacturer of women's fitness wear. In addition, Mr. Morgan runs several content websites including Ecommerce-Daily.com.

Criteria in Determining the Best Affiliate Program

By Abhilash Pillai

Joining an Affiliate Program is a great way to start earning a sizeable income on the Internet without many of the hassles that come with running your own business.

But the problem is… there are so much affiliate programs out there for you. In this article I will guide you to choose the most suitable and profitable Affiliate Program for you. I recommend you to follow this rule before choosing an Affiliate Program.

1. Find a great quality product or service

Remember that any recommendation you make will reflect directly on you. If you recommend a great quality product, the people you recommended will always trusted you and be interested in future recommendations that you make. If you recommend a bad quality product, and I’ll guarantee that they will likely hesitate to act on any offers you recommend.

Don’t get greedy. Only recommend products that you truly believe in.

2. Look for a program that offers top commissions.

I think it’s perfectly reasonable for you to expect to be paid 30% to 50% of the profits on each product sold. 5% to 10% is very low. You should look for companies who understand the “lifetime value” of new customers you refer and appreciate your efforts.

Only consider joining programs that show a similar level of respect for their affiliates.

3. Make sure they have a high sales conversion ratio

Make sure that the affiliate program is turning a reasonable number of visitors into sales. If not, then your efforts directing traffic to their website will be completely wasted. A 1% conversion ratio (1 out of every 100 visitors) is quite good, 2%+ is better.

4. Be sure you’ll be credited for every sales you make

You should find out what kind of tracking software the Affiliate Program that you’re interested in joining uses. You MUST look for a program that uses quality affiliate tracking software that is reliable and tracks ALL (online, by phone, fax, mail orders, etc), because there are many companies only track online orders, and this means that you will never get credit for anywhere from 5% - 10% of your affiliate sales!.

Make sure they have a high sales conversion ratio and a good tracking software.

5. They should allow you to access your sales statistics real time

What I mean is that the Affiliate Program you join should give you a special username and password that you can use to access your own personal affiliate sales information right on their website. Many affiliate programs have done this, you don’t have to worry about that, but incase they don’t, you should reconsider to join them.

6. Look for a program that teaches you to maximize your affiliate sales

A good affiliate program will provide you with everything you need to be successful. They’ll provide you with traffic-generating banners, text-links, and recommendation letter templates. They’ll tell you which techniques work well in which circumstances.

Find an affiliate program that is similarly dedicated to educating their affiliates.

7. Make sure they are reputable.

I still feel I should mention the importance of doing business with a reputable company. I know many people who have worked really hard, made a lot of sales for a company, but then they have never been paid or forced to wait months and months to get their money, I’ve been there too. If you have any concerns about a company that you are thinking of doing business with, ask for references and do some checks on them before you join them.

8. Be sure to read all contracts and agreements.

Before you join any affiliate program, just make sure that you read all contracts and agreements very carefully. Pay very close attention to exclusivity clauses in the agreement. Be careful that any affiliate agreement or contract you sign does not restrict you.

Abhilash Pillai is the owner of http://moneyonline.visitscounter.com/ His website offers an idea for home based businesses, feel free to check all the guide and articles.

Affiliate Marketing: The Road to Success

By J. E. Burke

Currently, thousands of online enthusiasts are taking the plunge and joining the vast community of affiliate marketers. With e-commerce returns booming, and the internet continuing to dominate the business world, becoming an affiliate marketer is a very wise choice. To be successful in this popular marketing trade, it is best to learn the basics of the affiliate marketing business, and realize the sacrifices that will have to be made for your goals to be accomplished.

Before joining any associate program, it is advisable to learn a bit more about the organization. It is actually rather easy to research individual companies, with search engines being one of the primary sources for information. You should be sure that the program has been operating legitimately for several years, and can be properly verified. If the company has just opened, be certain that the owner has good credibility. Becoming an affiliate marketer does not have to be a complex task, but, caution should be used.

A large number of individuals are under the impression that you can earn large sums of money in affiliate marketing without investing a dime. While a majority of these programs are free to join, at some point in your affiliate business career, you will have to invest money. Most likely, this money will be used for advertising and web site promotion. However, in most affiliate marketing scenarios, the amount of money spent will be earned back in time.

Becoming an affiliate marketer requires time, effort and tons of hard work. The more of these qualities you put into the business, the greater amount of success you will achieve. You must be ready to stick with the program to eventually build up your earnings. Affiliate marketing requires you to design a variety of different strategies and methods, ranging from web site creation to product promotion. You are also expected to advertise, as well as keep in close contact with other network affiliates. Be prepared to put in the most time the first few months of your marketing program; once your network is established, the work load will lighten.

While the affiliate marketing system may seem overwhelming initially, realize that you are surrounded by online support. Most individuals who join an affiliate program are new to the internet marketing business. A large majority of organizations have around the clock customer service and support forums for those affiliates in need of advice. Many web sites are also equipped with e-books, articles, tutorials, and tips that make becoming an affiliate marketer just a little bit easier.

With affiliate marketing controlling cyberspace, the marketer has full reign over the internet kingdom. And with this power comes complete success.

Dr. J. Elisha Burke, an educator and entrepreneur, has been involved in various business enterprises via Burke Publications. He is an educator, writer and motivational speaker on a variety of topics. Many resources to get your business from idea to profit can be found at Burke Publications websites: http://burkepublications.com or http://news.burkepublications.com

Becoming An Affiliate Marketer: You Can Do It

By J. E. Burke

Becoming an affiliate marketer is an interesting and exciting process. There are so many programs out there for you to promote. You should think seriously before you commit to any one program.

Choosing A Program

To become an affiliate marketer, you must choose the right affiliate program to market. This can be done by reviewing as much information as possible about the affiliate program you are interested in joining. You can start also by reviewing what other affiliates have to say about the program before you sign up.

When choosing to become an affiliate marketer, there are certain things you should be aware of. For example, you should know what percentage of the sale of the affiliate product you will receive. This can range from as low as 10% to 75% of the sales price. Generally, the higher the commission, the better for you.

After you have chosen a program you beileve will be profitable to you may elect tohave a website designed to showcase your product in a professional manner. But why, I ask, would you choose to spend the time, effort and money to re-invent the wheel? Many affiliates are now providing a professional sales letter for your use and/or provide a redirect to the sales site. This makes sense for both the seller and provider.

Using An Autoresponder

Once you have selected an affiliate program, you, yes you must promote your program,. It is a good idea to set up an opt-in list and autoresponder from the beginning. There are many, many autoresponders available. Do an online search and comparison to choose the one best for you and the products you promote.

Using your autoresponder you can generate of list of names and email addresses of people who have purchased the product from your web site, or a list of people interested in finding more information about the product. You can use this list to send them information about product updates or to send information about new products you are promoting. This is an easy way to advertise, but you must do so legally. SPAM is illegal.
Again, do the research and learn the legal way to do your e-mail marketing.

Track and Record

This is something most new affiliates fail to do when they first start out. It is the simple concept of keeping track of where your traffic is coming from and what areas that you promoted to are generating the most sales. In this way you can see where most of your business is coming from and turn up the heat in those areas to generate more sales. Keeping track of your traffic also will tell you what areas you have promoted to that is not generating any sales or low sales. You can then either abandon these areas if you have tried all promotion methods, or increase promoting there. Do your research - there are some excellent software resources to automate this process.

Network With Other Affiliates

As an affiliate, especially one who is getting started, it is a great idea to network with another affiliates. This is especially beneficial if the other affiliate is a seasoned veteran of sales. The amount of information that you will learn from them cannot be read within any book. Make us of the online forums, teleconferences, mp3's and provided by seasoned veterans of making money online.

With these tips in mind, now is the time to move forward and become the affiliate marketing success story.

Dr. J. Elisha Burke

Burke Publications

Copyright 2005 Burke Publications All Rights Reserved

Dr. J. Elisha Burke, an educator and entrepreneur, has been involved in various business enterprises via Burke Publications. He is an educator, writer and motivational speaker on a variety of topics. Many resources to get your business from idea to profit can be found at Burke Publications websites: http://burkepublications.com or http://news.burkepublications.com

How to Set Up an Affiliate Business

By Ruth Marquis

Thinking about starting your affiliate business? There are three phases that you go through.

1. Pick an affiliate.

You must find out which specific audience you’d like to target. Most people go with whatever program with the first one they check out. They never consider if their target market will purchase this product. As long as people will pay for it and you can give them a quality product, you will be able to make a lot of money.

Choosing the right affiliate program to start with is very important. Brand yourself as resourceful by having quality products that have lots of value. You need to know what commission rate they plan on paying you and the program’s refund policy. You need to know when you get paid. Most take 30 to 45 days to mail you a check based on your previous month.
Many affiliate programs cost nothing to join. However, some do require a start-up fee. It should be a discount for you to buy your own products. You must purchase whatever you plan to sell. If you don’t, why do you expect anyone else to?

2. Setup your mini-site.

Now, this is where most affiliates drop the ball. Affiliates promote their affiliate website but not there own. It takes seven visits for a prospective customer to turn into a paying customer. So what happens when they don’t buy from you the first time? How will you follow-up? They’ll visit someone else who probably will follow-up and get their business. You should be promoting your own email list. Highlight the benefits to your visitors of joining, then, set up a series of pitches, articles, etc. with your auto responder. The best formula to use is to promote for at least two whole weeks every other day before you introduce another product.
Now all you need to do is set your website up. Find a domain name and register it. Then, find a quality web hosting service that server has no down time because it’s bad for business. Now, design your site with two pages. One has a strong headline, bulleted benefits and a place to sign up. The other is a Thank You page, where you can confirm their order.

3. Build Your List.

The best way to get customers to visit you is through advertising. Free advertising includes adding your site to your signature when you send out emails. (Never spam.) Swapping links, starting an ezine, and submitting articles are also free and time-consuming. Paid advertising includes ezine ads. Solo ads work better than classified ads.

Finally, develop a marketing plan. Treat it like a business and not a hobby. And for others, treat it like a job.

Ruth Marquis is an experienced marketer in various industries including affiliate, network, and small business marketing. To find out more information like this, visit rumarketing.com.

Your Affiliate Marketing Website

By J. E. Burke

If you are serious about becoming an affiliate, you will need to have an affiliate marketing website. This website can be designed to showcase all of the products and services you are promoting. This website can either be designed by you or you can pay someone to design it for you.

Designing Your Own Website

If you choose to design your own website, hopefully you will have had experience with HTML. If you have to ask what it is, you probably need help setting up your website. Fortuately, there are many websites that provide information to someone who has never designed a website before.

Depending on what program you affiliate with, the program may or may not provide an affiliate marketing website for you. You may opt to learn web design by either taking a course online or taking a course at the local community college. Taking a web design course at the college is the better of the two options. You can gain experience in HTML, Dreamweaver, FrontPage, and other scripting software that can be used to design your website.

There are many places online that offer free websites. The steps to design these free websites require barely any knowledge of computer software. It is a simple point and click system whereby you select what you want your website to look like and you fill in the necessary data such as the website's name and what you would like written on the page.

These free websites are convenient for someone who cannot afford to hire a professional, but they can also look unprofessional, especially since you and a lot of other people will have the same web site designs.

Hiring Someone To Design A Website For You

If you choose not to design a website for yourself, you can hire someone to do this for you. There are many skilled people who have made a living designing websites. You can start your search by looking in the yellow pages to find a reputable website designer. If you are unable to find someone this way, you can start your search online.

Searching Online For A Web Designer

Looking online for a web design company is pretty simple. It is best to start by using a search engine to look for all the companies that web do web site designing. Once you have found a few that interests you, compare their prices and what is offered in their web design packages. Take the time to view the sample sites provided so you get and idea of the quality of work done by the designer.

It is possible, but not always best, to find a company that does both web design and web hosting as well. In addition topricing, compare other factors such as bandwidth, storage, or the number of email addresses that are provided with each company.

Remember, it is bet to take the necessary time in the beginning to do thorough research before making any purchase commitments or contractual obligations. You will realize it is all time well-spent when your website begins to produce the profits you desire.

Dr. J. Elisha Burke

Burke Publications

Copyright 2005 Burke Publications All Rights Reserved

Dr. J. Elisha Burke, an educator and entrepreneur, has been involved in various business enterprises via Burke Publications. He is an educator, writer and motivational speaker on a variety of topics. Many resources to get your business from idea to profit can be found at Burke Publications websites: http://burkepublications.com or http://news.burkepublications.com

The 7 Principles of a Successful Affiliate Marketer

By James Guinn

There are certain affiliate principles that are common to all extremely successful affiliates. These principles are not plainly stated by these successful affiliates; rather, they are found as characteristics in their work, writings and interviews.

I have synthesized these principles into a list I call The 7 Principles of the Successful Affiliate. It important to note that each successful affiliate closely and meticulously adheres to each one of these affiliate principles.

Some of these principles may seem ridiculously obvious, but you would be amazed at how many affiliate marketers either...

-don't know these principles (failure to read and study)

-skip or skimp on them (take the easy or cheap route)

-or, ignore them altogether ("I'm going to do it my way.")

...resulting in their own failure or greatly diminished profits. If you are involved in affiliate program marketing and want to greatly improve your results, you must learn and follow these affiliate principles.

1. Successful Affiliate Program Marketing requires work. You must treat it as a job. It is not a pastime. It is not a hobby. It is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It is not a "do nothing, make money" proposition. It requires hard work on your part. The harder you work, the more sales you will make.

2. Successful Affiliate Program Marketing requires financial investments. You must be willing to spend money to make money. You need to spend money on professional training resources, affiliate products for "first hand knowledge", a well-planned and executed website, and solid advertising and marketing strategies. If done properly, your investments will make you huge profits.

3. Successful Affiliate Program Marketing requires education and preparation. You must tap into professional training resources. You need to read and study the proven models. With knowledge of these, you can replicate the success of others and increase your sales.

4. Successful Affiliate Program Marketing requires knowledge of the best affiliate products and merchants. You must closely examine the pros and cons of each you consider. You need to determine which ones will benefit you the most. Quality increases quantity of your sales.

5. Successful Affiliate Program Marketing requires a well-planned and executed website. You must satisfy your viewers and the search engines. You need to gain high rankings and presell your viewers with content-rich information. If you do this properly sales will increase.

6. Successful Affiliate Program Marketing requires constant traffic interested in your message and effective tracking methods. You must attract huge numbers that stay on your website to read your message. You need to know what methods work well and which are wasting your advertising dollar. Happy viewers from reliable sources bring you more sales.

7. Successful Affiliate Program Marketing requires ongoing familiarity with the latest strategies and techniques. You must keep up to date on the cutting edge in the industry. You need to never rest in your quest to be the best. Knowledge is power; power brings you more money.

These are The 7 Principles of the Successful Affiliate. If you are not prepared to implement them to the best of your ability, you are wasting your time as an affiliate. Do something else! If you are ready to be successful, make a copy of these affiliate principles and affix it to the wall right next to your computer. It will serve as inspiration and a reminder of what you want to accomplish.

Jim Guinn is a Home Based Business Consultant and owner of Morpheus Marketing Associates, LLC. Jim has been helping home based business owners establish, maintain and grow since 2003 and has just recently launched a new site devoted solely to training affiliate program marketers. (http://www.TwoPercentClub.com). You can write to Jim at Admin@TwoPercentClub.com.

Copyright © 2005 – All rights reserved. You may reproduce this article on your website, newsletter or ezine as long as you include the brief byline with active links and this copyright statement.

Affiliate Internet Programs

By Donny Lowy

Affiliate Internet programs have been used by many online entrepreneurs to develop a secondary and some times main source of income.

Affiliate programs have increased in popularity because of the online marketing tools that are increasingly available to affiliates.

While in the past an affiliate had to resort to spending hundreds of dollars to bring visitors to his affiliate link, there are now plenty of tools that will enable him to bring these visitors for free.

For starters, an affiliate can build a content rich website. A content rich website can attain many natural, or free, search engine listings.

When surfers see the listing they can click on it and visit the affiliate’s site.

This is traffic is completely free, and therefore very lucrative to the affiliate.

Another tool is in the form of free advertising software. This software will allow an affiliate to place millions of ads for free with a click of a button.

Sites such as www.billionfreeads.com offer software that automates the process. An affiliate can now use this software to promote as many of his affiliate programs as he wants, and as often as he wants.

Other tools that affiliates can use are pay per click search engines such as Overture and Google.

While there is nothing new about these search engines, what is new is the lower minimum bidding introduced by Google.

An affiliate can now bid as low as .01 per click. This means that if an affiliate needs to attract 500 visitors to make a sale, as long as the commission is over $5 he will make money.

What if he only needs to attract 100 visitors to make money? His profits will be 500% higher.

Affiliate Internet programs can work for affiliates, provided that affiliates use the tools at their disposal to effective market their affiliate links.

Donny Lowy is the CEO of a new affiliate program resource,

http://www.affiliatebandit.com

How to Choose a Reliable and Profitable Affiliate Program

By Adel Awwad

There are literally thousands of affiliate programs on the Net. Here are eight important points that every affiliate webmaster should take into account when choosing a reliable and profitable affiliate program.
How to choose a reliable and profitable affiliate rogram

With literally thousands of different online affiliate programs, ranging across hundreds of different categories, it's not difficult to see how one may become discouraged when it comes to choosing the best and most profitable affiliate programs out there. After all, since one is going to be investing a considerable amount of time, money and resources to design, build and promote the site, then one would naturally want to ensure its success by joining and promoting the most reliable and profitable affiliate programs available.

When it comes to choosing a reliable and profitable affiliate program, keep in mind the following points:

(1) How long has the business been operating?

If the business/site has been operating for a considerable amount of time, then it's likely that it is fairly stable and profitable, otherwise it would not be in business. Be careful of sites and affiliate programs that spring up overnight. It is always a good idea to monitor such affiliate programs for a while before joining them, just incase they disappear as fast as they have appeared.

(2) Who else is promoting the affiliate program?

Try to find out who else is promoting the affiliate program. Visit the websites of your competition and see if they are promoting the affiliate program that you are thinking of joining. If you find a super affiliate promoting the affiliate program, then chances are that it is a profitable program to join, otherwise a super affiliate would not be promoting it at all.

(3) How much traffic is the website receiving?

Popular, successful and profitable websites receive a considerable amount of traffic. If the site you are thinking of promoting is not very popular, successful or profitable, then chances are that it will have low traffic and therefore may not be worth promoting. Check the alexa.com traffic rank of the site.

(4) What is the commission structure?

Does the program offer the affiliate webmaster a percentage of the sale, or a fixed amount per sale? Is the commission payment recurring? Is it a one tier or multi tier program? The most profitable programs offer a revenue share income. This means that the affiliate webmaster will receive a percentage of the money which the customer spends. For example, if the affiliate program offers a 50% revenue share commission, and the affiliate webmaster sells a product for $50, then the affiliate webmaster's payment should be $25. Profitable programs also offer recurring payments for the life of the customer's membership. In other words, if the customer continues to pay $50 per month for his/her membership, then the affiliate webmaster who referred that customer should receive $25 per week until the customer cancels his/her membership. Finally, a multi-tiered affiliate program is usually more profitable than a single tiered affiliate program because it enables an affiliate webmaster to generate income from the efforts of another webmaster whom he/she referred to the affiliate program.

(5) Read reviews about it.

Try to find as many reviews about the affiliate program as you can. The affiliate program may look and sound very attractive until you find a string of negative reviews from its former affiliates warning others not to join it for one reason or another.

(6) What is the support department like?

Do the support staff answer queries promptly? Are they fast, friendly and helpful? Test the affiliate program's support staff by asking them a few questions about the program.

(7) Do the statistical reports work?

Be weary of statistical reports that do not update. Find out how often the statistical reports are updated. Test your links by clicking on them yourself and seeing if they register in the statistical report.

(8) Minimum commission payment

Some affiliate programs require an affiliate webmaster to generate a minimum commission amount before receiving payment. This is fair enough since it would not make much sense to send an affiliate webmaster a check for a few cents when it would cost more to write, send and process the check. However, find out what the minimum commission payment is before you join.

There are a number of other things that one can look for when searching for the most reliable and profitable affiliate programs available, however, these are the main and most important points that every affiliate webmaster needs to pay attention to.

Adel Awwad is the webmaster of Free Casino Cash Guide

Copyright © 2005 http://www.casinoguide.ws - Free Casino Cash Guide, All Rights Reserved. This document may be freely redistributed in its unedited form and on the condition that all copyright references are kept intact along with the hyperlinked URLs.

Home Business Affiliate Marketing

By Donnie De Loney

How would you like to make money with a Home Business without ever having to sell anything? There are lots of people earning thousands of dollars doing just that. There are very few home businesses that are easier or cost less
than affiliate marketing. The plan is very simple. How would you like to make money with a Home Business without ever having to sell anything? There are lots of people earning thousands of dollars doing just that. There are very few home businesses that are easier or cost less than affiliate marketing. The plan is very simple. clients are already established online businesses selling a lot of different products and services. These people will pay you for bringing customers to them which is the website you are an affiliate for. They will pay you either a set fee or a percentage of what the customer purchases.

Here is how the affiliate business works. The affiliate places a banner or link advertisement on their website and the goal is to get the customer to click through from the affiliate website to the merchant site. When a purchase is made you earn a commission. The opportunities that this creates for the home marketer are enormous.

There are so many affiliate programs on the internet that it is not difficult to find one that will work for you. Don't settle for just any program. Spend some time and do your research before you choose your programs. It is important that you choose a program that you feel comfortable with. If you have another business, choose an affiliate program that will compliment your existing program and this will give you the best chance of your customers clicking through to the affiliate site.

One of the great things about affiliate home marketing is that you are not limited to just one program. You can sign up for as many programs as you would like as long as you have a place on your website to place their link or banner.

A word of wisdom: Read the affiliate contract carefully. Most of the businesses are legitimate but there are a few out there that are trying to rip your off while making a quick buck. Just be careful and review your affiliate agreement carefully. If you don't feel comfortable about a program don't join.

Here are some ways to look for a good affiliate program.

1. Do they pay only for the first purchase or do you get a

percentage of the future purchases by that customer.

2. How much do they pay and for how do they pay? Purchases?

Click throughs?

3. Will the program interest my customers?

4. Can you view your account on a regular basis to see how the

program is doing?

5. At what intervals are the commissions paid? Make sure this

is in the agreement.

There a lots of good affiliate programs out there for your home based business and if you will spend some time in research you can find the right programs for you. Soon you will be making good money in an affiliate marketing business.

I wish you the very best.

Donnie De Loney is editor and publisher of HomBzTips simple Step-by-Step plan for earning a great income. He created DY Marketing to assist those wishing to start a home internet business.

How to Grow Your Affiliate Marketing Business

By Jason Gazaway

Affiliate marketing is a large business in the internet today that involves a partnership between a merchant and one or more affiliates, in which the affiliates advertise or promote the merchant’s product and services free of charge until a customer is gained.

Then, a part of the profit received by the merchant from that customer will be given to the affiliate as commission. This is reason why the relationship between the merchant and the affiliate is aptly called revenue sharing partnership.

Affiliate marketing has also been recognized as the most ideal way for merchants to sell more products in the internet as well as for webmasters or affiliates to gain an income from their own website. Here, the affiliate usually gets a commission for passing on clicks, sales or leads to the merchant’s website. For merchants, affiliate marketing is one of the best internet marketing businesses. It is because in this business, you don’t have to take any risk; no payment is due to an affiliate until results are delivered.

But since it is already a widespread online business, you need to work hard to make yours stand out. Whether you are an affiliate, an affiliate network, or a merchant, you need to discover some secrets that will take you on the road to affiliate marketing success. And that’s exactly the reason why this page is created; to help you find out the big secret on how to grow your affiliate marketing business.

Of course, you need to work really hard to achieve your goal, which is to gain more profit out of your affiliate marketing business. If you’re a merchant, you need to pour much effort in order to catch the attention of professional affiliate marketers.

Likewise, if you’re an affiliate, you have to persevere in finding out some ways on how to increase your commissions. Also, to turn your marketing business into a success, you need to manage it the right way. Proper management will not only make your business grow but also make all the effort and time spent worth it.

For the affiliates:

So your goal is to make your affiliate marketing business grow and it exactly means making more money from your business and increasing your affiliate income, right? Well, there are a handful of ways to boost your money making experience online.

First, consider putting several merchants in the same niche; it will provide the guests in your site an array of destination to choose from. Through this, you can find out what your site visitors want and it can also help you discover the performance of different merchants when placed head to head.

If you’re not doing this before, try to do it now - involve yourself in chat rooms and message boards related to the product you are reselling. This is one of the smartest ways to boost your affiliate income. As you start a conversation, try not to sell first; do it later on if you already established a relationship. Bring up the product you are reselling and if necessary, mention the benefits that your new friend can get out of that product.

Indulging yourself in making a free ebook with advertisement and links to your affiliate website could also help. Make sure that the subject and the content of the free book are written to compel and encourage your target audience to download it. Also, consider submitting this free ebook to some of the numerous ebook directories. These directories can help you gain more customers as they are always in a hunt for fresh content for their readers.

Why not make your own affiliate program directory? This is also another helpful method in making your affiliate marketing business grow. It’s just like you’re having your own “search engine” within your website. You can participate in a large number of affiliate programs and have them all listed in a directory format on your site. After that, just advertise and promote your free affiliate program directory.

You definitely don’t have an edge over other competitors if you are using the same ads that all other affiliates are using. Make yours stand out by writing or making your own affiliate program ads. Using a unique and original ad will surely give you a big advantage over the other affiliates.

Then, try to advertise the product you are reselling using your own signature file. Have a catchy and attention-getting headline and give your readers a good reason why they should visit your affiliate site. Just make sure that your sig file doesn’t exceed 5 lines.

You know web ring, right? Join in to the one that draws the audiences that you think would be interested in purchasing the product or services that you are reselling. It will also allow you to trade links on your own with other related websites.

It is also advisable to participate on web discussion boards. Search in for those that are associated to your field and feel free to post your comments, answer questions thrown by other people and raise your own question. Under each message you post, don’t forget to incorporate your affiliate link text.

Make a free ezine or newsletter. You can use them to advertise the affiliate programs that you’ve joined. Don’t forget to promote your ezine on your own website, then ask your site guests to sign up for free. Submitting it to online Ezine directories will also work.

Starting your own private website can also be very helpful. You can use it as a free bonus for people who bought the product you resell. Here, you could allow your visitors to join for free and you could also advertise the affiliate program you’ve participated in.

These are just few ideas that other affiliates are using to make their affiliate business grow. Try it and see how it works!

About The Author:

Discover how you can create a turnkey internet marketing system that builds massive downline for you, attracts hungry prospects automatically, and generates income non-stop, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week!

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Visit How To Become Successful today!

5 Affiliate Marketing Facts of Life

By Marige OBrien

Affiliate Marketing (AM) is fast becoming a major trend in line business. With the internet still in its adolescent years, it has already established itself as an extremely viable career opportunity, bridging the advertising gap for companies, while providing much sought-after work at home revenue.

With the boom in affiliate marketing, however, there is a growing wave of new marketers that become easily discouraged when the initial hype wears off and they don't understand what to expect in the business. For those just entering the arena, here are a few Facts Of Life about Affiliate Marketing:

1) YOU WILL HAVE TO INVEST SOME MONEY

Affiliate marketing being a hybrid of the independent contractor & the self-employed small business owner, it is inevitable that some money be invested. While a contractor might earn a base pay + commission, they also have little or no control over product, promotion or price. And, while a self-employed owner controls all these, they also pay all the bills.

But an AM is neither. They don't control price nor, once they sign up, product. But they do control promotion. And, unlike a self-employed worker, they bear only a fraction of the costs. The advertising fraction.

So, the bad news is affiliate marketers do have to invest some money, at some point, even in the best programs or scenerios. But this has also become a growing trend in all sales positions, as well as positions in all industries. Many positions include a certain amount of investment. Any job that requires a uniform, for example, means investing in special clothes. Plus most realtors must pay for their own advertising.

The good news is that, unlike other sales positions (but similar to small business), the AM controls that cost because they decide on which advertisements to invest.

The best news is that many companies, like Plug-in-Profits (http://trackermo.com/pips.html), now offer great affiliate support and will guide the new AM until they understand the business and can stand on their own two feet.

2) YOU WILL HAVE TO INVEST SOME TIME

Affiliate marketing works on the slide-rule effect. That is, the more effort the AM invests, the richer the dividends. And, like a microcosm of a career, the AM works their tail off in the beginning-- then works less and less as their sales build. But this can be measured in months, rather than years (thus, the mirocosm).

Still, many enter the AM arena thinking all they have to do is sign up as an affiliate, then sit back and reap the rewards. And that's just when they should be getting busy. The rewards will come, but not until they've put in their time.

The bad news here is to expect to eat, drink and sleep marketing-- at first.

The good news is that, according to experts in the field, an affiliate can expect to see a return on their investment within the first 3-9 months, depending on how much time they spend at it.

3) YOU WILL GET BURNED ONCE OR TWICE

It's inevitable. Either by paying astronomical fees for hosting, for leads or for some other service (not to mention, the existence of scams), it happens. That's why "expert" and "experience" have the same root word. It takes experience to know what's going on, how to spot a scam, and to know a good opportunity when it arrives.

The good news is, experience is the best teacher of all. And a new AM will soon learn from their mistakes.

4) YOU WILL HAVE TO UPDATE YOURSELF

The internet has been called the most fluid industry ever. That's a poetic way of saying it changes faster and more often than a body of water. Engineers call it expotential growth, though it's more reminiscent of growth on a cellular level: Rather like a baby starting as two single cells and, in short nine months, becoming a fully formed infant. Or, like a pyramid scheme that really works!

Whatever the analogy, the point is the internet is constantly, incessantly, (sometimes annoyingly) changing. What was vital two years ago (SE placement, keywords, Pay-Per-Click), is now becoming passe, replaced by new types of more effective marketing techniques (PowerLinking, Opt-in lists, pay-per-buy).

All of which leads to--

5) YOU MUST BE PRO-ACTIVE

To keep the revenues up, AMs must find good resources to monitor the business. Newsletters, forums and affiliate resource pages all become vital to watching the latest trends. They are filled with the latest information, the latest ideas and the newest concepts in advertising.

Also, in the case of the AM with their own website, that must be updated occasionally, too while the affiliate landing page will be updated by the company. But when an AM opts for their own page, they must be aware that every few months or years, a new enhancement takes off. Right now, the latest is audio and or animated spokespeople.

Once an affiliate marketer arms themself with these facts of life, they have a very good chance of succeeding in this new arena.

About The Author
Marige O'Brien has worked as a writer, web designer and, most ecently, internet marketer. Her own website can be found at http://www.trackermo.com

10 Things WalMart Teaches About Affiliate Marketing

By David Hurlbert

We already know about wal mart because of their ads in local papers, on billboards, on the radio and TV. So finding a local Wal Mart is easy, and
so should it also be easy to find your web site. Although you may not need to use radio and TV advertisements, you should still use offline promotion such as business cards or direct mail. Naturally, you want other web sites to put your billboard ad onto theirs. So that's our first lesson on how Wal Mart can teach us effective affiliate marketing. Now let's visit a Wal Mart store.

Once we arrive at Wal Mart, we enter a huge parking lot. Your web site must also enable a lot of visitors. If your site is on a slow server, you may be losing customers. That's lesson #2.


As soon as we enter Wal Mart, we are welcomed by a Wal Mart greeter. This greeter not only welcomes us to the store, but also offers help in pointing out where to find what you're looking for. That's lesson 3a and 3b. Your site
should welcome visitors and provide navigation to all the products and services you offer. You can do this by simply including a graphic on your page that says "Welcome, Click Here to find what you're looking for" and have that link go to your site map.

Beyond the greeter is a wide path that branches out to different areas of the store with banners overhead that tell you what you can find in those areas. Your site map should consist of main links, as well as sub-links to
corresponding pages. Now we get to lesson 4, that each page of your site needs to have a topic, a main header, that defines what each page is about, as well as provide links, pathways to corresponding pages, because you'll notice that Wal-Mart arranges their store to group products that are similar. The hardware section is near the automotive center, housewares are near food items, lawn and garden items are near the hardware and pet supply areas, etc. But you can still get from one area to another.

As you browse the shelves, you see more than one type of item. If you're in the grocery section;for example, you'll see many different types of beans. Canned beans, dry beans, even beans from different companies. That's lesson #5. You should offer your site visitors more than one choice. If your site offers auto loans, for example, offer your visitors new auto loans, used auto loans, even auto refinancing loans. And, you may want to offer them more than one choice for
each type of auto loan. Afterall, visitors came to your site because they are shopping around...
so let them shop and choose from multiple options. Just remember not to stick
cheese products in your automotive section!

Another thing you'll notice as you browse the shelves, which leads us to lesson #6... although the shelves are stocked full, it's still easy to pick out your favorite can of beans. This is because
the shelves are stocked neatly and orderly. The ads you put onto your site should also be neat and orderly. Mixing in tall banners with short banners and having banners for totally different products and services can make shopping your site more difficult. For example, if you have a page about auto loans, you wouldn't want to put a tall auto loan banner right next to a short casino banner. Instead, put a tall auto insurance banner next to the tall auto loan banner.

As you roam the store, you frequently encounter employess who can help you find items. This goes back to lessons 3a and 3b. Each page of your site should have a help link to your site map, or you should have a site search.

Since Wal Mart makes it easy to find an employee to ask for assistance, that leads us to another lesson: Does you site offer customer service? Can visitors click on a button to ask you questions before they make a decision? Or do they simply exit your site?

Lesson #7: How many times have you heard announcements in Wal Mart? They frequently announce specials over their public address system. We are not suggesting that you force visitors to endure slow loading sound files. But you can make sound an option. To see how you can use this marketing option, go to www.geocities.com/pulsarmarketing

We have an example there on how you can offer your visitors the option to hear your audible promotion without forcing them to listen and making your pages load slow. All you have to do is create a wav sound file, and launch it by using a graphic or text link such as: "Click Here to listen to our promotion".

The personal touch of a person's voice on your site can help increase your conversions. But don't force the loading of sound files. Instead, use the method we recommend at the URL below:
www.geocities.com/pulsarmarketing

Another thing you can do to tell your site visitors about specials or new products and services your site offers, is to offer them a free subscription to your newsletter. Now that we've toured Wal Mart and we're ready to make our purchase, we know our way to the checkout counter because Wal Mart makes it easy for us. That's lesson #8. Your site needs to make
it easy for visitors to purchase. If you do not provide any of your own products or services and strictly use affiliate programs, you need to make sure your relevant banners and text links are at the top of the page,clearly and readily visible, to the people visiting that page.

When we arrive at the checkout counter, besides asking us if we want paper or plastic and if we will be purchasing with cash or credit, the cashier asks if we found everything we needed. That's lesson #9. Make sure you offer your site visitors more options when they checkout. And, once again, if you do not directly sell your own products or services and you strictly use affiliate programs, you can offer your site visitors two links to click on: One link that opens the offer into a new window so the person may continue browsing your site after they are done applying or buying from your sponsor, and another link that simply goes directly to the sponsor in the same window.

Think we're done learning from Wal Mart? No. After we make our purchase, and even after we go home,there's lesson #10... the return policy. If you sell your own products or services, you need to assure your visitors that you stand behind what you sell, and make your return policy very clear. If you do not sell your own products and services, does your site have a way for customers to resolve problems, or to ask pre-sale questions? If not, you may lose customers to sites that do provide online customer service.

10 things Wal Mart can teach about affiliate marketing was presented by Pulsar Marketing. For more marketing tips, you can listen to the podcasts at http://www.pulsarmarketing.com/newsletter

Basics of Affiliate Marketing

By Matt Bacak

Whether you realize it or not, if you've been on the Internet today, you have encountered affiliate marketing. If you have ever “clicked thru” one site to order something from another, the first site probably received a portion of the sale. For instance, independent booksellers have limited shelf space for books. But they can offer their customers an almost unlimited inventory of titles by affiliating with companies like Amazon or Powell's. The more orders, the bigger the affiliate percentage.

Visitors to your site are interested in lots of things that may or may not be related to your product. But when you know your customers well, it's simply a matter of affiliating yourself with sites that offer what they want. What you receive is just a small percentage of the sale, but it adds up, especially when you consider that all it costs you is a link on your web page. And usually, the more sales your affiliate makes from your “click thru” traffic, the bigger your percentage will be.

The key to success in affiliate marketing is being able to track referred customers. As an affiliate manager, you want a system that reliably tracks what you want, with minimal effort on your part, and without affecting the performance of your site or server. Over the last few years a variety of technologies and strategies have been developed in an attempt to improve accuracy, convenience, and flexibility.

There are at least half a dozen methods, but by far the most preferred method is Cookie Tracking. It's popular because it makes tracking affiliate-referred sales so convenient, without negatively impacting your site. This system writes a small text file, called a “cookie,” to a user's browser when they click on an affiliate link. When you are the referring affiliate, the cookie holds your ID, so that at the merchant's order page, you get credit for referring the sale. One drawback is that many computer users disable cookies, although most choose not to, since their favorite sites require them. One bonus is that the merchant can save the information, so that even if a customer buys long after clicking through your site, you still get credit for the sale.

Affiliate marketing, at its best, is a win-win scenario. It's an easy way to offer your customers more of what they want, while you benefit, both in terms of building goodwill and making money.

Matt Bacak became "#1 Best Selling Author" in just a few short hours.
Recent Entrepreneur Magazine’s e-Biz radio show host is
turning Authors, Speakers, and Experts into Overnight Success Stories.
Discover The Secrets http://promotingtips.com

Three Critical Affiliate Marketing Tips For Higher Commissions!

By Tim Bossie

Affiliate marketing is quickly becoming a very specialized form of online business. It seems that people all over the Internet are clamoring for more affiliate tips. And there are a ton of products, services, ebooks, ultra-high priced DVD sets, and a plethora of other "things" geared for affiliate marketing.

So, the question of the moment is how do you weed through this avalanche of "stuff" and find out what actually works. Because, after it's all said and done, the name of the game is making a living from affiliate marketing.

There are plenty of strategies and tips. There are plenty of people telling you which way is best and which way you absolutely should not do. Funny thing is, the things you should do don't work sometimes and the things you shouldn't do, work sometimes. It's really anyone's guess at what works and what doesn't.

However, there are three critical affiliate tips that you should take heed of and use on a consistent basis.

Affiliate marketing is built around content

Do you really want to make a name for yourself in affiliate marketing? Do you want a long lasting online business? Then you have to take very seriously this first critical tip.

Content is what drives affiliate sales. Period. You can advertise as much as you want, in as many different places that you want, but at the end of the day, it's the content on your site that will make the sale. Notice I said "your" site.

Affiliate marketing becomes a very lucrative form of business when you have your own website. A website that contains timely, relevant, and informative content. This content can be in the form of articles, product reviews, industry news, interviews with key people, or whatever people will want to keep coming back for.

Ken Evoy of Site Built It!(buildit.sitesell.com/glimmersales.html) says that content is the only way to Pre-sell your site visitors. I whole heartedly agree. Content will effectively pre-sell your visitors, that you work so hard to advertise to, into taking action... clicking through to the merchant and ka-ching... making you commission.

Affiliate marketing is made stronger through your list

Any type of online marketing depends heavily on a way to keep in frequent touch with previous website visitors. Having an ezine, newsletter, or other type of e-mailing list is a key component to affiliate marketing. A strong list of subscribers is a gold mine for savvy publishers.

The key to making an ezine work for you though is, again, strong, quality, and relevant content. Something that people will want to keep reading on a continuing basis. A weekly, or bi-weekly ezine can easily boost your affiliate commissions sky high by placing a few links within the content or as a product review or special recommendation.

Again, please note the use of "a few". Many ezine publishers just don't seem to get the idea of "a few". That means one to two affiliate links within the whole ezine. The key to publishing an ezine is to establish contact and grow a relationship with your subscriber. Not force affiliate links down their throat. When you can build a strong relationship with subscribers, they will be more likely to listen to your advice, your suggestions, and your recommendations.

An example of this would be Alan Gardyne of AssociatePrograms.com. His newsletter is crammed full of great tips and case studies of successful affiliates and what they are doing. He has grown a great list of over 22,000 subscribers who he can actually call a friend. Why? Because he has never crammed affiliate links down the throats of his subscribers. But, each and every issue of his ezine earns him thousands of dollars in affiliate commissions.

If you don't have an ezine, start one. If you do then take a hard look at it and see if you're using too many ads and not enough content.

Affiliate marketing depends on strategic linking partners

Search engines like Google, MSN, and Yahoo! are looking hard at sites and one of the criteria for high rankings is how many relevant links to your site there are. Meaning is there any other sites out there that are linking to you. This is very important for affiliate marketing websites.

And another reason why content is so important.

Every day I set aside one full hour of time in my day to research and email potential linking partners. Once I find someone who's site is comparable to mine I will email them, by name, and present my proposal. Keep in mind they do not have to link back to you. So, you must make it appealing. Either by reciprocating with a link to their site, a special comission for everyone they refer who buys from you, or some other way of enticing them to link to you.

Now, just any site will not do you any good. They must be relevant to your particular niche. For example, a fishing oriented website would not benefit, either by traffic or search engine rankings, by having a diet site link back to them.

Content, mailing list, link partners. Easy, right?

It is, but it takes time and dedication. You can create a very profitable affiliate program. Anyone can do it. But, it depends on you. Are you dedicated enough to do it?

Use these three critical affiliate marketing steps in your online business and you'll see an immediate increase in your bottom line.

Tim Bossie is the owner of Guaranteed-Ads.com and has released a brand new service for affiliate marketers. The Power Niche Package is a full package that contains everything you need to create, or improve, an affiliate marketing business and make it profitable for years to come. Check out the full details today at http://www.guaranteed-ads.com/nichepackage.html