How to make money with Affiliate Programs - The Sensible Way
Xavier Nelson
Every day, thousands of would-be marketers scour the internet
looking for any and every affiliate program, sign up, sit back
and wait for the money to pour in and get frustrated just as
fast when the bank balance still shows a big, fat ZERO!
There are tons of guru's floating around and even more eBooks
and articles claiming to know the latest and greatest trick to
make tons of money with no effort at all (oh and of course,
unless you use their method then you will never, ever get
anywhere in your online business and stay broke the rest of
your life). We've all seen these before.
Let's get real for a moment.
If you don't put any effort into your marketing and don't
spread the word of whatever you are marketing, then you will
get exactly that much out of your effort.
Zero effort = Zero results!
I hope that's plain enough and now let's have a look at the
sensible way to market your affiliate programs, so you can
actually earn some of that Internet-Money-Pie (and it's yummy
too).
There are two types of affiliate programs generally. Those that
pay you (1-tier) and those that pay you, plus they pay you a
bonus for actions taken by visitors sent by other webmasters
you have referred (2-tier).
Let's think about that for a moment. What's the easier way to
make money? You sell a bunch of products and get paid on that
alone, or if you sell product and also introduce the affiliate
program to a bunch of webmasters who in turn also sell and they
earn a nice commission and you get a bonus every single time
they sell something, just for having referred them to the
affiliate program?
Ok, I know you probably just smacked your forhead and
said 'Duh' quite loudly and think I am stating the plain and
obvious.
If you can get others to do the same thing you are doing, by
keeping in touch with them and helping them and duplicating
your efforts, then of course it stands to reason that the bonus
you receive for referring the webmasters will generate
potentially a large team of people making you money.
So, your first task is to find good, well-paying 2-tier
affiliate programs. You can always use single tier programs as
a back end sale or on other projects, don't get me wrong, they
will still make you money, but right now, we want to get you
started off on the right foot to your own internet income.
So, you've gone out and found a well-paying affiliate program,
and you are ready to rumble and make money... Not So Fast!!!
How are you going to promote it? What is your plan of attack?
That's another problem many marketers run into, they just run
off and don't think before they act and that again results in a
lot less return for all of your efforts.
Here's what I have done in the past and always do each time.
Feel free to try this out and see the results for yourself.
After finding the affiliate program I want to promote, I check
the resource material provided by the program. Sometimes,
depending on how new the program is, I use their material to
get things rolling but almost every time, I start to write some
ads of my own, perhaps an article or even an ebook that I can
use to promote the product and the affiliate program with.
Some of those resources are available to readers of the
eBusinessCornerNews newsletter if you are interested.
Another thing I do, after putting together all the marketing
material I want to use is to check out the competion that's
already in the market. I don't really care if there is
competition, as a matter of fact, many times that is a good
indicator that there is a good demand for the type of product I
am promoting. You can do this pretty easily by just going to a
search engine and typing in keywords you associate with the
product for example (there are a lot of additional ways to do
this that we discuss in our newsletter).
There are a ton of places you can advertise your product, and
the marketing material you are using, such as article
directories, free advertising forums or websites, you can even
find a lot of ezines that allow you to place free classifieds
and websites you can post your ad on, at no cost.
Another thing that is handy to have is a website of my own,
where I can post my thoughts and comments (nothing sells better
than your own, plain english comments and reviews) along with
any other articles I can find that will help to draw visitors
in and make the search engines list my site better.
Most of the time, I will take a few of my articles and turn
them into a free ebook, or post the articles in article
directories where other webmasters are permitted to reprint
them in their own newsletter, provided they leave my resource
box (see the bottom of this article for an example) in place.
So now they are spreading the word for me, driving traffic on
my behalf and generating orders too.
But I like to help, as much as I like to earn money too, so
here's what I do most of the time.
When I find a good newsletter that I like then I touch base
with that publisher and offer him the article, but I also tell
him it's for a 2-tier affiliate program and if he would like,
then he could use my article, if he either leaves my box in
place or signs up under me and then I let him add his link into
my box, so he can earn the bigger piece of the pie and I get
the bonus commissions from his sales.
Now, why would I do that? Simple...
I do that, because there's a much better chance that he will
send out my article sooner, rather than later because now he
has the potential to earn money with it too.
Find a few publishers like that and you are well on your road
to getting a nice piece of the pie and the great thing is that
anytime you find a new affiliate program to promote and write a
new article, you already have made contacts that you can send
it to, so it gets easier every time and takes a lot less effort
on your part.
Well, there you have the sensible way of making money with
affiliate programs.
(Note: There are a lot of other methods available to market
your affiliate program and earn money, but this is one of the
best methods I have ever used.)
Here's to your success,
Xavier
P.s. Quit reading this article already and get out there and
find yourself a good affiliate program and start making money.
Now get moving...
(Note: You have permission to reprint this article in it's
entirety, provided you do not change the article in any way and
leave the Resource Box above intact. If you would like to earn
money with this article, please visit
http://www.makemoneymarketingonline.com today and sign up for
the generous 2-tier affiliate program that pays 50% for any
sales you make, plus an additional 20% for any sales generated
by webmasters you refer into the program)
About the Author
Xavier Nelson is the publisher of eBusinessCornerNews, a newsletter dedicated to bringing you the latest news, articles, reviews, free resources and tools along with an opinionated view on the world of 'Making Money Online'.
Check out his newest product and brandnew, 2-tier affiliate program at http://www.makemoneymarketingonline.com