How to Make Money Online with Affiliate Programs

Making money with affiliate programs isn't rocket science. You don't need a marketing degree or a college degree to do it. In fact, affiliate programs are an excellent way to make money online and it can be easy to do if you go in knowing some key points.

First, to make money with an affiliate program, you need to understand how they work. An affiliate program works by signing up people to represent certain products or services and then paying those people a commission to sell the company's product or service. This is a great way for companies to expand their sales force and market share. Nowadays, with the Internet making the world your global marketplace, making money online through affiliate programs is more feasible than ever.

Hundreds of thousands of firms have launched affiliate programs that have continued to be a great success. Big names you know such as Ebay, Amazon, and Google have affiliate programs where it's possible for an individual to make a good amount of money online through their affiliate programs.

If you're not sure how to begin the process of making money online through an affiliate program, here is a brief outline to get you started.

First, find a company with a product or service you'd like to represent. Normally you will sign up at the company's website. If they don't manage their own affiliate programs you might be registering at an affiliate management site such as Commission Junction or ClickBank. You will be given your own unique i.d. as an affiliate of the company to sell its products online through its affiliate program.

Then, set up a blog or your own website and advertise your product with a link to the company's site that includes your affiliate i.d. so you can be given credit for each sale. When people hit your blog or website, they will see the advertisement for the product or service you're representing and when they click the link to go to the company website, you will be given credit if they buy the product or service. You probably won't have a problem finding products to sell in an online affiliate marketing program to make money. There are numerous products in categories such as art, automotive products, cards, computers, credit cards and finance, gambling and adult venues, home businesses, magazines, matchmaking sites, web hosting services and so much more. It's just a matter of deciding what you feel has mass public appeal and what type of products or services you'd be comfortable representing.

There are two key points to being a successful affiliate and making money online through affiliate programs. Number one, you must market yourself. The previously mentioned blog is an excellent way to market your affiliate program and make money online. With a blog you can write personal, newsy messages and you can go a step further and keyword enhance them to give your page more relevance in search engine return results. It's a great way to "soft sell" the public on your affiliate program items. If you don't want to use a blog, set up a website. Don't put a bunch of screaming graphics or huge letters. The most successful affiliate sites are not full of fluffy words and empty promises about products. The successful websites are low-key in design using low graphics and light colors. Another great way to market yourself is to write articles about your service or product you're selling. Use a product review style and post them on any of the free article databases out there with a link back to your site.

The second key point in making money online through affiliate programs is to be organized. You can use your computer and build a spreadsheet, make notes on a pad and keep it in your desk drawer. Whatever works for you so you can keep track of your programs. You just need to be consistent and diligent about keeping records of your clicks and sales to insure that you make money in your affiliate programs.

If people are clicking your links and you're not getting sales. Obviously you need to tweak out the wording for your products. People are turned off by phrases such as "It's the Best" or "You MUST have this product/service". Instead, tell people how they will benefit from the product or service with out using sales fluff and filler words, give them a few uses for it, show them why they should purchase from you, and they will. You in turn, will make money online for simply hosting an affiliate program.

When a sale is made, you will be given credit as long as your affiliate i.d. was associated with the sale. Most affiliate programs let you sign up for free and pay you a percentage of the sale. You don't do any shipping or direct sales. Usually, if you market hard and consistently, you stand to make a good deal of money online through affiliate programs. That's the sheer beauty of using online affiliate programs.

Now that you know the potential for making money online with affiliate programs, sign up for some affiliate programs to represent products or services you feel have a mass appeal. It's not too late to get in on one of the fastest and easiest moneymaking opportunities you can find to make money online.

How To Use Two Tier Affiliate Programs To Your Advantage

To those who are not familiar with affiliate marketing, two-tier could be a new term to you but to those who are involved in this kind of money-making experience; it could mean a stream of income. Two-tier is an enticing feature of a particular affiliate program wherein, affiliates are allowed to sign-up additional affiliates below them. So that when the sub-affiliates otherwise known as second tier affiliates, earns a commission, the affiliate above receives a commission too.

In two-tier system, the first tier of commission is just like in the usual affiliate program. The sole difference is that it has an additional tier/s or sub-affiliates, whereby marketers also gain a commission once the people that the additional tiers referred to the program generate sales. Theoretically, affiliate programs can have multi-tier program with infinite number of tiers, however, there are practical limitations. As tiers increase, the affiliate program draws more webmasters who are mostly interested in gaining profit from other's work and effort.

Two-Tier affiliate program is also recognized as Multi-Level Marketing. When you sign-up for an affiliate program, you are identified as the first tier and the person that you have recruited or encouraged to sign up is the second tier. If there are additional tiers, then the system can now be regarded as multi-level marketing (MLM). But today, MLM isn't as effective and successful as it was several years ago. It is because at present, affiliates can freely select from thousands of affiliate programs and they can quickly switch from one program to another.

You could probably go wrong if you're thinking that you can depend on your second tier to do the job for you. So if you want to use two-tier affiliate program to your advantage and generate more income by encouraging sub-affiliates to sign-up below you, make sure that you carefully choose your affiliate merchant. Pick those merchants who generate stable stream of high quality products, give high or just commissions, offers real time tracking, furnishes you with a proven and tested advertising arsenal and treat their affiliates very well. You can also sign-up for the merchant who gives high visitors-to-sales conversion rate.

It is also advisable if you engage yourself with a web merchant that has a user-friendly website which you can access anytime so that you can monitor your statistics including visits and sales. And if possible, choose the one with powerful marketing tools which you can use in promoting their products.

You're just wasting much of your time and effort and worse, damaging your integrity once you promote poor affiliate program because your visitor will surely presume that the product or service you are reselling must be dreadful too. That's the reason why it is important to pick first-rate affiliate programs. Through these, you can not only build up a good relationship with your visitor, but also, you can easily get more tiers to sign-up under you. You should also be cautious of some affiliate programs that give more importance on the profits to be earned in taking on other affiliates than on the income from sales, because you'll just eventually find out that someone has already close those sales without informing you. Usually, this kind of affiliate program offers a very low first-tier payment but a sky-scraping second-tier commission.

If you want to start an affiliate program of your own, you surely have to decide whether it will be a single tier or two-tier affiliate program. Who am I to say which of these two programs are better? But let me tell you the benefits you could get out of two-tier affiliate program.

First, your profit will increase due to increased sales from the customers that your second tier has referred. Second, you have a much broader customer base to which you can sell your products and services. Then, you gain more and stable income because the customers referred by your affiliate and sub-affiliates could probably develop a lifetime loyalty on your site and your products. Plus, you have an army of sub-affiliates who will promote and resell your products and services to their visitors and subscribers.

Two-tier program has been a proven winner and should be the number one choice for the budding affiliates as well as for the affiliate program managers. When you start gaining profits from your site as well as your tiers, this is now the right time to say that you have used two-tier affiliate program to your advantage.

How Many Affiliate Checks Do You Want To Receive?

Affiliate Marketing is by far, one of the easiest ways to make money online. It is a revenue sharing business relationship between the affiliate who agrees to promote the products or services, and the merchant who offers them.

The affiliate advertises the merchant's products and services and gets a commission for every successful referral. Every time a customer is referred to the merchant's site, through the affiliate's efforts, and makes a purchase, the affiliate gets a share of the profit. No payment is due to the affiliate until successful results are realized. Compensation is based on either number of visits (Pay-per-click), registrant (Pay-per-lead), or commission for each sale (Pay-per-sale).

Affiliate Marketers can earn a few bucks to thousands of dollars with affiliate programs. The opportunity to earn in affiliate marketing can only be limited by the affiliate's determination, creativity and strategy. It is a brilliant way to earn online, and you do not have to produce your own product or service to make a buck. By advertising your merchant's products passionately, you get more in return. Profits in affiliate marketing usually start small but can get larger as the campaign starts to build up steam.

There are many ways that an affiliate marketer can do to maximize their profits. If you ask any affiliate marketer how many affiliate checks they would want to receive, they will most likely want to get as many as possible. Some affiliate checks are small, amounting to nothing more than $25.

While others are large and can easily reach the thousands and even more. Over time, these affiliate checks may build up to a really impressive amount. However, making a fortune in affiliate marketing is not instant. You should put in enough work and effort as well. You have to use your imagination to find more ways to attract more web traffic that can convert to sales for the merchant and profit for you as well.

How many affiliate checks do you want to receive? Most affiliate marketers will enthusiastically reply that they want to receive as many affiliate checks as possible. However, is it as easy as it sounds? Does joining many affiliate marketers guarantee more affiliate checks that really amount to something? The answer is No. Most affiliate marketers assume that joining multiple affiliate programs is a wise option. Because, it is very easy to join affiliate programs and there is really nothing to lose, affiliate marketers are tempted to join as many programs they can get their hands on. Thus, they fail to give their affiliate programs enough attention and work that they ought to receive. The maximum potential of the affiliate programs are not realized and the resulting income from these programs will almost certainly be disappointing.

The best way to achieve multiple streams of income is to concentrate on one affiliate program first. Choose a product or service that you can promote passionately. Pick a product in which you have complete trust. The best products and services to promote are those that you use personally. Your prospects will be able to sense your sincerity whenever you promote a product that you have experienced. This will greatly enhance your credibility as well as your product's marketability and will really encourage your prospect to purchase or avail of the product or service.

As soon as your first affiliate program is making a reasonable profit then you can proceed to joining another affiliate program and repeat the process. "Too much, too soon" is a common pitfall in affiliate marketing. Joining too many affiliate programs simultaneously in the hopes of having multiple streams of income simply does not work.

Focus first on one affiliate program and work on it so that it makes a good profit. Then, go find another promising program and give it your best effort. The question should not be how many affiliate checks you want to receive, but how many "high-paying" affiliate checks can you receive. The answer lies in your determination to succeed and determination to maximize your earning potential. With the right tools, the right actions, and perseverance you can definitely make a good profit out of affiliate marketing. There is a program that helps you get off the ground faster than you possibly could by yourself; it is the only one of its kind it's like a classroom on affilate marketing.

Why So Many People Fail In Affiliate Marketing

More and More people are lured into affiliate marketing and you might be one of them. Indeed, affiliate marketing is one of the most effective means of generating a full-time income through the Internet. It's a fair deal between the merchandiser and his affiliates as both benefit from each sale materialized. Like in other kinds of business, a great deal of the profits in affiliate marketing depends on the affiliate's advertising, promoting and selling strategies. Everyday, as affiliate marketing industry expands, competition heightens as well so an affiliate marketer must be creative enough to employ unique and effective ways to convince potential buyers to purchase or avail of the products and services offered.

Compared to traditional advertising practices, affiliate programs are more effective, risk-free and cost-efficient. But why do many people still fail in affiliate marketing? There are a lot of reasons and a lot of areas in the program to look into. The most critical aspect in the affiliate program is advertising. Many affiliate marketers fail in this aspect because they lack hard work, which is the most important thing in affiliate marketing and in all other kinds of business as well. Although it pays to be lucky, you cannot merely rely on it. Affiliate marketing isn't as simple as directing customers to the business site. If you want to earn big, of course, you have to invest time and great amount of hard work in promoting the products. As earlier mentioned, the competition is very high and customers nowadays are very wise, too. After all, who doesn't want to get the best purchase--that is, to pay less and get more in terms of quantity and quality.

Lack of preparation is also a reason why one fails in affiliate marketing, whether he is a merchandiser or an affiliate. Part of the preparation is researching. On the part of the merchant, he has to be highly selective in choosing the right affiliate websites for his affiliate program. In order to be sure he has the best choices, he must have exhausted his means in looking for highly interested affiliates whose sites are sure fit to his products and services. The affiliate site's visitors must match his targeted customers. On the other hand, the affiliate marketer must likewise research on the good-paying merchandisers before he signs up for an affiliate program. He must ensure that the merchants' products and services match his interests so he can give his full attention and dedication to the program. He can get valuable information by joining affiliate forums, comparing different affiliate programs and reading articles on affiliate marketing where he can get tips from experienced affiliate marketers on how to choose the best merchants and products with high conversion rate.

The website is a very important tool in the whole affiliate program. As an affiliate marketer, you should plan how your site is going to be, from domain name to the design, the lay-out, the content, and ads. Some users are particular about what they see at first glance and thus when they find your site ugly, they won't read through the content even if your site has many things to say and offer. On the other hand, there those who want information more than anything else. Affiliate marketers with "rich-content" web sites are usually the ones who prosper in this business because the content improves traffic to the site. Websites with high quality contents--with relevant keywords and more importantly, right information about the product and not empty hyped-up advertisements--allow you to earn big in affiliate marketing even when you're asleep. If you won't be able to sustain the interest of your site visitor, you won't be able to lead him to the merchants' site. No click-through means no sale and thus, no income on your part.

Selecting a top level domain name is also crucial to the success of the affiliate program. Lots of affiliate sites don't appear in the search engine results because they are deemed by affiliate managers as personal sites. Major search engines and directories would think of your site as transient ones and thus, they won't list it in the directory. Before you decide on the domain name, know first what you are going to promote. Many fail because their sites are not appropriately named, so even when they feature the exact products the customer is looking for, the customer might think the site is not relevant and thus, won't enter the site.

Above all, an affiliate marketer must be willing to learn more. Certainly, there are still a lot of things to learn and so an affiliate marketer must continue to educate himself so he can improve his marketing strategies. Many fail because they don't grow in the business and they are merely concerned about earning big quickly. If you want long-term and highly satisfactory results, take time to learn the ins and outs of the business. Continue to improve your knowledge especially with the basics in affiliate marketing ranging from advertising to programming, web page development, and search engine optimization techniques. Likewise, study the needs and wants of your site users and how different merchandisers compete with each other.

Keep on trying; don't get disappointed if your first attempts did not pay off. Thousands are attracted by the possibility of generating skyrocketing incomes through affiliate marketing and so they sign up in any affiliate program without carefully understanding every aspect of the business. When they don't get instant results, they quit and sign up for another program and repeat the process of just copying links and referring them to others. When you sign up for an affiliate program, don't expect to get rich in an instant. Work on your advertising strategies and be patient. You'll never know how much you can get if you don't persevere. We will make sure you don't fail with are step by step help we will spoon feed you all the way to your first sale then teeth you to your own business but will always be here for you.

How to Run a Highly Profitable Affiliate Program

This article will focus on the running of an affiliate program instead of the initial software needed and the affiliate directories you should submit your program to. This article is for people that are past this stage. If you need that info, visit my site.

These are the basic steps any webmaster should take once their program is set up. If all you do is install some good affiliate software and submit your program to a few good affiliate directories you will begin to make sales with just about no other effort. That's pretty powerful and it's also a testament to the power of affiliate programs. However, if you want to make a lot of sales and serious profits, keep reading.

As with all marketing programs, you will need to put the time and energy in to building your affiliate program. But, as you'll find out, just about no other online marketing campaign can achieve the same substantial return for your time or money.

One of the great advantages to running an affiliate program is that, although it does take an effort, it takes very little money to successfully promote your affiliate program once it's set up. With some effort, it has the potential to be very profitable. By the very nature of the program, you do not pay for sales until they are made and then you do not pay the commissions until the cash for the sale is in your bank account. For this reason, it is the best way for new sites to begin competing.

The most basic activity in running an affiliate program is looking for new affiliates and continually growing the rank and file of affiliates. This is easy and can be done in an hour or two a day achieving good results. You simply search the web for sites that you think have relevant content to your site and are sites that your potential customers are likely to visit. Once you find a site, you should decide how much effort the site is worth. If it is a decent site, but not incredible, you can send them an email about how they can make money by displaying your banners and text ads. In your email, include a link to your affiliate program's sign up page. This way they can go and sign up without any further effort on your part. It's quick and easy so you can hit a lot of sites and send a lot of email.

When you find a dynamite site that is worth more of an effort than normal, then skip the initial email and try this... send the site owner a letter, follow that letter up with an email and if they do not sign up from those two communications then give them a phone call. You may find that it might take creating some custom advertisements, possibly a reciprocal link or simply personal attention to get them to sign up to your affiliate program and begin promoting your site. Great sites consistently get quite a few affiliate requests. So, to get them to pay attention to yours, and to get them to put the needed effort in, you might have to differentiate yourself. The letter and phone call will do this while telling them that you care and you are serious.

Without fail, if you put an hour or two a day in to recruiting affiliates you will see some results each and every month. The key is be consistent and not to get discouraged. You will probably only sign up one affiliate for every ten to twenty sites you visit and emails you send out. This may not seem worthwhile but as the affiliates you do sign up begin making sales you will realize that this efforts builds month by month. The effort may not seem worth it in the first month. You may only get a few sales. In the second month, again, you may only get a few sales but this month you will be adding a few sales generated from last month's affiliates to this months sales. By the third month you have some new sales from new affiliates and two months of past affiliates generating sales this month. You can see that this pattern will continue month by month. Within six months you will not only have a nice base of affiliates making sales each and every month you will also have learned a lot about recruiting affiliates and you will keep getting better and better and keep closing more and more new affiliates each month.

Once you have a base of affiliates, you should begin a weekly affiliate newsletter and blog. Both of these can have the same text about a new sales theme and/or new materials each week. Tell your affiliates how to sell your product and what they should promote. This will not only give them new materials but it also keeps your site on their mind.

The newsletter will go out to the email address that they used during sign up. This will usually be one they check consistently so they will see your name weekly even if they do not act on the offers you send. The blog is important because it allows affiliates to comment. You can choose whether to makes the comments public or not. Even if you keep them private, they will give you a lot of insight in to what your affiliates think.

So, for the basics, that's it. Keep a daily recruiting routine, begin a weekly newsletter and set up a blog. Nothing too difficult here. It only takes a few hours a day and it will have a better return than just about any other online marketing plan available to small businesses.

Being in the Holiday Season now, I am short on time and my blog will suffer. But, please keep an eye out for more affiliate building tips. I have had more interest in affiliate marketing lately than just about anything. So, I will try to keep a consistent push on writing for this subject. As I have said many times, affiliate marketing is great for the new and/or cash strapped entrepreneur. I have sold millions through affiliate programs. You can too.

- JD

Benefits of Being an Affiliate Marketer

Affiliate marketing has become one of the most effective ways to advertise online.

It is also one of the easiest ways for anyone with a website to make a profit online. Affiliate Marketing is an agreement between a merchant and a website owner.

The website owner, or the affiliate, allows the use of their site for the promotion of the merchant's products by linking to the merchant's website. In exchange, the merchant pays a commission to the affiliate on all sales generated by the affiliate. Every time someone clicks on the link on the affiliate website and proceeds to make a purchase, the affiliate gets a commission. The merchant will pay the affiliate only when a customer clicks on the product link and makes a purchase.

Affiliate marketing programs are described as a win-win situation for both the merchant and the affiliate because of the pay-for-performance scheme. Both the merchant and the affiliate enjoy some benefits in affiliate marketing.

There are many benefits on the merchant's side. It gives the merchant a wider market in which to advertise a product or service. Affiliate marketing will give the product or service the maximum exposure that it may not get with other traditional advertising techniques. The more affiliate sites a merchant has, the higher the traffic, which can convert to sales. Affiliate marketing is the equivalent of having an army of sales people who will do the advertising and will only get a commission if a customer purchases.

Meanwhile, since an affiliate marketing relationship is a win-win situation, the affiliate also enjoys many benefits.

Foremost among these is the easy way to make a profit. The affiliate can earn by having an ad or link to the merchant's website, which prospective customers will hopefully click and proceed to make a purchase. As soon as the customer clicks on the ad on the affiliate's site, is redirected to the merchant's website and goes on to buy that particular product, the affiliate earns a commission. The more referrals there are the more profit for the affiliate.

Affiliate marketing is an excellent way to earn money while at home.

There are virtually no production costs.

The product is already developed and proven by the merchant, and all you have to do to find, as many prospects as you can that will bring in the profit for both the merchant and the affiliate.

Affiliate programs are usually free to join, so affiliates do not have to worry about start-up costs. There are thousands of products and services you can choose from. You can find affiliate programs for every product under the sun. Surely, there is a product or service out there that is relevant to your website.

In addition, there is absolutely no sales experience necessary. Most affiliate programs offer excellent support when it comes to providing marketing material. The simplicity of affiliate marketing allows you to be an affiliate marketer at the least cost and the most comfort. You can even build a successful affiliate marketing business right in the convenience of your own home.

In affiliate marketing, your responsibility is simply to find prospects for the merchant; you do not have to worry about inventory, order processing, and product shipping. These, along with customer service support are the duties of the merchant.

Because of the global reach of the internet, you can easily find thousands of prospects. You can intensify your advertising campaign by exploiting more aggressive and productive strategies such as viral marketing. By attracting more prospects, you also maximize your potential to earn.

Another benefit of an affiliate marketer is the minimal risk involved. If the product you are advertising is not making money then you can dump it and choose another. There are no long-term binding contracts tying you to products that are not making enough money.

All the same, the best benefit of being an affiliate marketer is the opportunity to increase your income; and you can make a profit even if affiliate marketing is only a sideline business. With your own affiliate business, you can earn easily earn extra income, although you do have to exert effort and use your imagination to maximize your earning potential.

Indeed, affiliate marketing is one of the simplest and most effective business opportunities on the web today.

Copyright 2005 Patric Chan

Affiliate Marketing - A Basic Introduction For E-Merchants

One of the most popular methods of web site marketing is called Affiliate Marketing. Affiliate marketing is a method of paying "affiliates," who are basically online sales people earning commissions based on sales from their referrals. Commissions are usually a percentage of the referred sale, but may include pay per click or a set dollar amount per referral. Once an affiliate signs up, they place some form of advertisement on their site. An example of this process follows.

A music review site applies for the Apple iTunes affiliate program, which pays a 5% commission on referred sales. Once approved, Apple gives the new affiliate a special URL to use that includes their affiliate code. The music review site places some text, maybe some graphics and banners, in their site that links to the iTunes site with their URL. Apple site uses the special URL/affiliate code to track sales that are referred by the music review site, and sends monthly checks to the affiliate for 5% of those sales.

Examples of highly successful affiliate programs to look at and learn from are Amazon.com, eBay.com, and Tigerdirect.com.

Becoming an affiliate is easy. There are thousands of programs available. Beginning your own affiliate program at your site is more difficult. Done right, your affiliate program can boost sales many times over, or even become your sole source of sales. Done poorly, and you can waste a lot of time. It is worth studying, preparing and even hiring help to do it right.

Affiliate Marketing requires a serious commitment. Affiliates are basically an independent sales staff that uses their site to sell your products and services, and, most likely, other products and services as well. As sales people, they need ongoing sales management. This could be in the form of e-newsletters, personal e-mails, telephone contact, being available to answer questions, providing training and advice, creating incentives to keep them motivated, etc. What you do for your affiliates will determine how much they prioritize your program over other programs who are competing for their attention and efforts.

To set up an affiliate program, you must answer some questions:



How much are you able to pay in commissions? Keep in mind that you'll probably want to have occasional short term incentive programs with increased payouts.
Do you want a few strong, committed affiliates who have the ability to bring a lot of traffic, or many affiliates who may each bring only a few referrals?
Will you set up your own affiliate tracking system (postaffiliatepro.com, myaffiliateprogram.com, idevaffiliate.com), or will you contract with an affiliate tracking company (shareasale.com, clixgalore.com, directtrack.com, performics.com, kowabunga.com)?
Will you manage your affiliates yourself, or hire a third party affiliate management company (team-affiliate.com, partnercentric.com cj.com, linkshare.com)?


When setting up an affiliate program, keep in mind these items:



You need an affiliate agreement that protects your rights, especially your trademark rights, and provides affiliates with the confidence that they are protected, too. The affiliate agreement is highly important in attracting professional affiliates, so give it serious attention. Look at the agreements on other affiliate programs, and hire a professional and/or a lawyer to do it right the first time.
Affiliates will only promote high conversion sites that provide superior customer service. Is your site ready to respond to affiliate referrals? Some affiliates might send an e-mail to 50,000 people and your site could get hit hard and fast. Be prepared.
Affiliates expect fast and accurate payment and solid reporting of their results. Test your software for accuracy before beginning your program. With thousands of affiliate programs available, affiliates won't stick around if they believe they are not being properly paid.
You need to provide the proper tools for your affiliates to succeed. These might be sample text to put into their sites, product graphics, logos, banner ads, and even customization of your site for each affiliate.


Once you commit to an affiliate program, and you have your program set up, it's time to find and recruit affiliates. There are many methods:



Place a link, or even a banner ad, on your site promoting your affiliate program. Your best affiliates might be your customers.
Look for non-competitive, related sites, especially content sites, and invite them to join your affiliate program.
Public relations - press releases to news sites, content sites and blogs in your industry.
Go to abestweb.com and purchase an announcement for $75. Be sure to look through previous announcements, as well as the responses they've gotten, so your announcement gets the response you want.
Look for other announcement services, such as affiliate-announce.com.
Promote with Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing pay per click programs.


To learn more today about affiliate marketing, go to abestweb.com, revenuetoday.com and affiliatetip.com.

Affiliate Marketing Using Commission Junction

Affiliate Marketing is currently one of the most popular and lucrative business opportunities online. It is an agreement between the merchant, or the one with the product to sell, and the website owner or the affiliate, or the one who allows the use of his site to promote the merchant's product or service. Thus, affiliate marketing is a relationship between the merchant and the affiliate.

Meanwhile, an affiliate-marketing network is a program that involves a network of individuals and organizations with the purpose of helping each other through affiliate marketing. There are many affiliate-marketing programs where both merchants and affiliates can go to find what they need. In such affiliate marketing networks, affiliates can choose from thousands of products to advertise. Similarly, the merchants can proffer their products and look for affiliates who will advertise their products.

The Commission Junction Affiliate Program is, one of, if not the largest affiliate marketing networks in the internet today. It is a leader in performance based online marketing offering excellent opportunities for both merchants and affiliates. The company serves millions of clients making it one of the largest ad networks today.

It facilitates the relationship between advertisers and affiliates and leverages its expertise in the affiliate marketing business to ensure the best results for its clients. Commission Junction has affiliate programs mostly for physical goods. The company excels in niche markets, as most niche markets require physical goods as affiliate products.

As the market leader in affiliate marketing solutions, Commission Junction offers many advantages for both merchants and affiliates. The Commission Junction system is excellent and full of good features for both parties. As a Commission Junction merchant, you only need to sign up and have your affiliate program available to thousands of potential affiliates. New merchants are listed on the homepage of the Commission Junction Account Manager. Affiliates will be able to see this listing upon log in, ensuring maximum exposure for the merchant. In this manner, the merchant has the opportunity to attract the best affiliates to carry his product or service.

Another advantage that Commission Junction offers to merchants is the promotion to the Commission Junction affiliate network upon sign up via the Commission Junction email newsletter. Being in the Commission Junction affiliate network provides excellent opportunity for the merchant to find quality affiliates who can bring in more clients and more sales.

Since the key to affiliate marketing success for merchants is finding the right affiliates, Commission Junction offers the best way for merchants to succeed, by bringing merchants and affiliates together. The merchant's affiliate program will also be listed in the Commission Junction Account Manager for life giving you more exposure. You can also purchase special listing for higher affiliate exposure.

Commission Junction also has many advantages for affiliates. It has more merchants than any other affiliate marketing company today. An affiliate of Commission Junction has access to the largest directory of affiliate programs encompassing thousands of products and services. Affiliates have the luxury to choose what product they will advertise.

Commission Junction has an excellent record of accomplishment in the affiliate marketing business, so it makes sense for any affiliate to be a Commission Junction affiliate. The company offers a huge number of affiliate programs in every category of products and services. In addition, affiliates of Commission Junction receive notices via email whenever new affiliate programs are added. Commission Junction offers the best opportunities to make a profit for both merchants and affiliates. It combines resources to further the sales or profit of each party.

However, Commission Junction also has its downsides. For one, the commissions are relatively lower, being in the 7% to 20% bracket. Yet, despite of the lower income potential, Commission Junction is still one of the best options for affiliate marketers. Commission junction has also had its share of setbacks such as during the early part of 2002 when merchants dropped out because of the hike in prices.

All the same, Commission Junction remains as one of the best choices when it comes to affiliate marketing. It offers the best features and opportunities for merchants and affiliates. Its marketing solutions help marketers increase their profits. Indeed, there are many reasons why any affiliate or merchant who want to succeed should join Commission Junction.

The Secret Shady Practices of Affiliate Marketing

You've probably heard it a hundred times...affiliate marketing is a great way to make money online.

What if I told you affiliate marketing was basically unethical or that the field is dominated by shady practices?

You disagree?

Well let's explore affiliate marketing from the merchant, affiliate and customer viewpoints.

Affiliate marketing is a revenue sharing partnership between a web merchant and one or more affiliates, where the affiliate is paid a commission for referring clicks, leads or, most often, sales to the merchant.

The affiliate signs up to the affiliate program via an online application form, receives an affiliate link, and can then promote the products and services of the web merchant via his own website, ezine, pay per click search engines or other advertising means.

The affiliate's role, then, is to introduce the potential buyer to the seller acting as a kind of middleman.

In return he is paid a commission of any sales resulting from referrals.

But haven't we always been taught to cut out the middleman where possible?

Well, yes, but in affiliate marketing the customer pays the same price regardless of whether he arrives at the web merchant's site directly or via the affiliate's link.

Or at least that's how it should be.

How does the web merchant benefit from running an affiliate program?

The main advantage to the web merchant is that via his affiliate program he can recruit a large sales team of affiliates at zero cost and make many more sales in a way that his website alone could never hope to do.

How does the affiliate benefit?

The advantages to the affiliate are that he can make money in a business where he doesn't have the upfront costs of creating his own product, and doesn't have to worry about ecommerce, bookkeeping, or customer support because that's all handled by the merchant.

How does the customer benefit?

The customer gets a solution to his problem (provided the product or service does what it says it does) that he may not have found without the affiliate's help and does not have to pay extra.

So it's a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Or at least it is in principle.

However in the real world both affiliates and affiliate program owners can be involved in some shady practices.

Shady Practice #1

Unscrupulous merchants close down programs without warning and without paying commissions or tempt new affiliates with high commissions then drop those commission rates dramatically a week later.

Affiliates - protect yourselves from this situation by selecting the affiliate program carefully.

Ask yourself these questions.

Has the site existed for more than a year? Is it clear what the site is providing and are the terms and conditions of the affiliate program explained clearly and comprehensively in simple language? Are there good online reviews of the program in websites or discussion forums? Does the program provide realtime commission stats online? Are ready-to-use affiliate marketing tools available?

Shady Practice #2

Affiliates are sometimes guilty of misleading or false advertising - making claims or promises about the product or services which are totally untrue or greatly exaggerated.

Shady Practice #3

Illegal use of logos, trademarks or other branding. This includes infringement of intellectual property rights and violation of copyrights.

Shady Practice #4

Spamming.

While legitimate affiliates are jumping through hoops to comply with the can-spam laws, the shady characters continue to find their way around it.

Shady Practice #5

Affiliate link hijacking is the replacement of your affiliate id with the hijacker's in the affiliate link.

You don't get your rightful commission - the hijacker gets it instead by buying through his own affiliate link.

It's best if you can avoid displaying your affiliate link and affiliate ID in the browser address bar.

One technique uses a zero-frame or invisible frame to make it appear you are sending visitors to a page on your website when, in fact, you are really sending them to your affiliate link.

To prevent the hijacker from viewing the web page's source code to see that you've loaded an affiliate link, use javascript encryption to scramble the page code or software to prevent the source code from being viewed.

Make no mistake about it...

In any area of human activity, particularly where there is money to be made, there will always be people who try to cheat, exploit the gullible and do harm.

The proper way to engage in affiliate marketing is to act ethically, build a relationship of trust with your prospects and customers then provide value by consistently exceeding your customers expectations.

And this applies to any business either online or offline.

A Unique Opportunity For Affiliate Recruiters

If you're a webmaster, web publisher, or web merchant, chances are you have already come across the concept of affiliate marketing.

As online joint venture partnerships, affiliate programs allows both content publishers and web merchants to maximize their online profits by working with each other.

Content publishers, including webmasters, ezine writers and forum owners, are able to focus their energies and resources on what they know best...creating great content to attract web visitors.

Affiliate merchants on the other hand, are able to focus their efforts on creating great products, receiving online payments, and getting their products to customers.

The success of affiliate marketing has resulted in an unfortunate problem:

Because they are so popular, there are now so many affiliate merchants fighting for affiliates that it has become hard for them to differentiate themselves from each other and to attract good affiliates.

Put another way, while affiliates can help merchants solve the problem of finding customers, merchants are now facing the problem of having to first find good affiliates!

This has given rise to some innovative merchants setting up affiliate programs that pay affiliate commissions to multiple tiers of affiliates, the most popular being 2 tier affiliate programs.

What this does is to create a unique opportunity for "Affiliate Recruiters" who join multi tier affiliate programs to serve a slightly different function.

These affiliate recruiters, often owners of websites, ezines, and forums that attract other webmasters, focus their energies recruiting other webmasters to sign up as their "sub-affiliates" and to sell the affiliate products.

As a result, when affiliate products are sold by their sub-affiliates, these affiliate recruiters will also get paid a referral commission.

Two important points to understand are:

1) The affiliate programs must be free to join...no "sign-up" fees, "set-up" costs, nor "product-testing" fees are involved...otherwise they become traditional multi level marketing programs, and run the risk of affiliates trying to make money by "pushing products" to other affiliates.

2) While these programs create a new role for "affiliate recruiters" who can make money by specializing in recruiting affiliates, the products will still have to actually be sold to real customers for the merchant, affiliate recruiter, and affiliate to make any money.

If you are currently an affiliate merchant having problems recruiting good affiliates, why not consider using a multi tier affiliate program and let "affiliate recruiters" do this work for you?

If you happen to run a webmaster related site, or happen to know many webmasters or successful affiliates, why not consider being an "affiliate recruiter" by recommending multi tier affiliate programs?

Why Two-Tier Affiliate Programs are Best

When you join an affiliate program or start an affiliate program of your own, you have to decide whether it will be a single tier or two-tier affiliate program.

With a single tier program you earn a commission on any sales you make and that is it. If you are running your own affiliate program, you pay your affiliates a commission for any sales they refer and that is all.

However, with a two-tier program, affiliates are allowed to recruit sub-affiliates and are paid a small percentage of the sales these sub-affiliates generate. For example, the affiliates may earn a 30% commission for selling product X himself; and when one of the sub-affiliates makes a sale, the affiliate may get a 10% commission as well. This is very profitable for the affiliate as he can recruit an army of sub-affiliates, all earning commissions for him without any effort on his part except for the initial recruiting process.

If you are starting an affiliate program of your own should it be two-tier or single tier? Some might shy away from the seeming expense of a two-tier program. But is it really that expensive? Many affiliate program managers make the wrong decision on this.

Let's look at an example. You have an affiliate program up and running and an average affiliate joins your program. Mr.Average has a web site that receives average traffic. He also has an ezine with thousands of subscribers published monthly. Mr. Average posts your affiliate links to his web site and promotes your product to his ezine list.

Initially, he generates good sales. However, a point comes when he saturates his market with your product and his sales begin to drop. He begins to lose interest in your program and your sales remain small. What happens if you set up a two-tier program? Rather than trying to keep your commission pay outs small, you motivate your existing affiliates to recruit other people to your program. This will exponentially increase your affiliate sales. Would it not be worth paying the referring affiliate a percentage of their sub-affiliates' sales? Now when Mr.Average joins your affiliate program this is what would happen. When he has saturated his market with your product, he would now promote your affiliate program to his customers and ezine subscribers. Many of Mr.Average's customers and subscribers decide to join the affiliate program. This in turn will motivate Mr.Average to continue promoting your products and recruiting affiliates.

Now what is the situation?

1) Your income increases because of increased sales.

2) You have a much larger customer base to which you can sell 'backend' products.

3) An increase in your income because of the life time loyalty of the customers referred by your affiliate.

4) An army of sub-affiliates who will sell your products, and in turn promote your affiliate program to their customers and subscribers.

The little extra in affiliate sales commission pay outs will be more than compensated for by the exponential sales increase. This is why the two-tier affiliate program is a guaranteed winner and should be the automatic choice for potential affiliates and affiliate program managers.

© John Lynch

Affiliate Program Intro

What is an affiliate program? Everyone who surfs the web has come across affiliate programs. You may have seen a banner on a website that says, "click here", and once you do, you get access to whatever's being promoted. Or you could click on a link in an email you've received. You're using someone's affiliate program.

Basically, the company that sells the product sets up an automated way for people to be paid a set amount to help them promote their products or services. The links send you to the company's website where you can buy the product. The owner of the originating website or email gets a fee for taking you there.

The bookstore Amazon was the first company to heavily promote affiliate marketing on the internet. Although this type of marketing is ideal for businesses that only operate online, it's also become popular with businesses that have both an online and bricks and mortar presence.

Affiliate programs are an ideal way to make your web site profitable. With the huge range of affiliate programs now available, there's almost bound to be something to suit you and your website.

How it works

Perhaps you've created a website about the city where you live. People find your website while searching for information about your city. Once they've read your pages they check out your recommendations. They might click a link to book a flight there. You get paid a commission. Then they clink your link that points them to somewhere they can book a hotel room. Another commission for you. Then they might want to buy a guide-book or street map. Yet another commission.

Or perhaps you have a website connected with your hobby. Maybe you want to share your enthusiasm about the crafts you do. Your website could point people towards suppliers, books on the subject, magazine subscriptions...the list is endless. And all the time you're earning your commission.

The commission is paid in different ways according to the company you're affiliated to. You can be paid per impression, per click, per lead or per sale. The stronger the likelihood of a sale, the higher your commission will be.

The advantages for you

There's no need for you to develop the products - it's already been done. All you need to do is to pick the best out of those available. You don't need to spend money on making or storing the product. Sending people to your affiliate merchants means you don't need to take or process a single order, or worry about processing payments. You don't have to handle or mail the product - your merchants do that. You don't have to offer customer support. Affiliate programs are usually free to join. You can run your affiliate business part time for a little extra cash while making minimal effort.

Choosing your affiliates

It's worth spending some time making sure that you choose the right companies to affiliate with. Different companies have different requirements. Some require you to have a minimum number of visitors to your website, while others require you to have your own domain name.

The best way to choose an affliate program that will suit you is according to the type of people who visit your website. If your website is about guitars, you're unlikely to have much success with affiliating with a company that sells gardening products. The first thing you need to do is know your target audience.

You also might consider whether you want to join every single affliate program that comes your way. A lot of people find that they make the most money from using only a small number of programs. Also, concentrating your advertisements may allow you to be paid faster.

Sometimes, it can be hard to choose between two similar companies. What works well for someone else may not be the best choice for you. It's not just about how much money you can make -you'll want to feel confident in your recommendations.

You can maximize your income by thinking beyond the obvious. If your website is aimed at parents, obviously you might think of affiliating to a toy company. But what about books, clothes, videos, DVDs, child oriented software...

If you're thinking about affiliating with two similar websites, you might want to choose the one that easiest to use or offers the greater benefit to a visitor, even if it pays less in commissions. You'll do best with programs that represent a subject you're personally interested in. Your own interest in the subject will entice others.

To join an affiliate program, you simply go to the site and complete their online application form. Some programs approve you instantly, while others check out your application before it is approved. Once it's approved, you're given some HTML code that you can cut and paste onto your web page.

How do I make my money?

Before joining any program, you should probably be aware of the different payment programs available.

Pay Per Impression

Here you are paid according to the number of times the advertiser's banner is displayed on your site. The amount paid is usually small, but it is easy to earn as every time a visitor loads the page, you earn. The more vistors your site attracts, the more you earn.

Pay Per Click

With this method you're only paid when visitors click the advertiser's banner on your site. It generally pays higher than the pay per impression program. You'll get better results if your banners are carefully selected to suit your target audience.

Pay Per Sale or Lead

You only earn if your visitors click through the banner and buy the product or service.

Often, to avoid wasting resources in issuing checks for very small amounts, advertisers will accrue the amount owed to you until it reaches a certain amount before they pay you.

How do they keep track of referrals?

Every affiliate banner or link that a visitor clicks on has some type of coding added to the URL - this differentiates it from other affiliates' links. The most common means of tracking affiliate links is by "cookies" Cookies are tiny files stored on your computer by a web browser when you click on an advertising link.

Cookies are generated to track visitors to websites. This is how they can "remember" what you bought when you visit there again. For an affiliate company, the cookie records information on which affiliate referred the visitor to the company, and when. As some computer users block or delete cookies, there are other methods used to track referrals. For example, CGI-based scripts related to the individuals affiliate code attached to the URL links and database matching algorithms are used. Second tier programs

A two tier program allows you as an affiliate to sign up other affiliates under you. You earn a smaller commission on the referrals or sales that arise from their advertising efforts as well as your own.

This costs you far less time and money for each sale if some of them aren't yours. In effect, you have your own sales force and pay a commission to your sub-affiliates. Except that the commission comes out of the affiliate company's profits rather than yours.

The affiliate company benefits by a possible exponential growth of its sales force for no more effort on its part - you're providing that. It's not hard to recruit people under you in two tier programs.

A second level can be a great advantage to you as an affiliate. Even if you only spread the word amongst friends and family, you never know when someone who signs up under you will really take off. They could earn you a lot by their own efforts in spreading the word about a program. You might not get rich, but you'll get some welcome extra income.

A multi tier affiliate program builds on the concept of a two-tier program. Not only can you earn from sub-affiliates, but you can also earn from their sub-affiliates, and perhaps their sub-affiliates. With a two tier program, you have an incentive to sign up sub-affiliates. A multi-tier program gives you the incentive to help your sub affiliates sign up others.

Is it for me?

If you have a website then there's guaranteed to be an affiliate program to suit your needs and audience. For minimal effort you can make your website earn money, even while you're happily sleeping. Perhaps it won't make you a fortune overnight. And it's true that no-one hands you money for doing nothing. But with some careful thought and planning, choosing an affiliate program that fits in with YOUR website and sells products that YOU are confident in is a straightforward way of increasing YOUR income. And it costs you nothing.

Affiliate Communication

Communication is Key!

When building an affiliate network communicating with affiliates is important for merchants to maintain a good relationship. An affiliate's web site targets visitors, who may not necessarily view a merchant's web site, and therefore expands a merchants market. An affiliate may not be able to actively keep up with the merchants product, it is important for a merchant to keep affiliate's informed about new product information, sales, new releases, links, graphics, promotions and special offers.

Keep in mind, not all affiliates are going to produce a high volume of traffic, and importantly, visitors who want to purchase a merchant's products or services. The occasional gem makes the time taken well worth your effort. Talk with successful affiliates, find out what they are doing to effectively promote your software, and use that information to assist those affiliates who are not as successful.

Assist affiliates in understanding your product; no one knows your products like you do. For affiliates to drive traffic that will convert to sales, they need to understand the benefits of the product they are marketing. Once an affiliate knows the product, they will be better able to act as an extended sales force. In order for the affiliate to make the effort, you simply must support them!

Make Communication Easy

Many 3rd party affiliate-tracking programs notify both the affiliate and merchant of a sale. This can often be automated and will create positive communication between merchants and affiliates. Making an affiliate's role easier will help them increase earnings and further promote a merchants site.

Provide affiliates with great looking graphics and sample text. Graphics that work best are those that highlight your web site, yet fit the look of an affiliate's web site.

Newsletters are another great way to get information to affiliates. Include tips and specific for affiliates, along with general marketing advice that helps with site promotion. If you are looking for software to manage newsletters, I highly recommend Group Mail - http://tinyurl.com/23ljy

Affiliate Taboos

An affiliate generates a sale for a product and the merchant promptly decreases the commission. This sends a very negative message to the affiliate, in many cases they've taken a lot of time to place links, promote products and because they've driven effective traffic their commission is decreased. If its necessary to decrease a commission for whatever reason, be sure to include a personal note detailing the reason and letting the affiliate know that you still support their efforts.

A Cheat?

An affiliate sale occurs, you go to their website and don't find any links you decide they must be cheating you! This conclusion is simply a based on poor communication and reporting. Many, many affiliates have multiple sites, very few affiliate tracking programs allow affiliates to list multiple sites, and in many cases the number of sites listed do not accurately reflect the number of sites owned and managed by the affiliate. Additionally many affiliates manage opt-in newsletters that may result in sales, but links are not visible on a website. An example of a popular ezine often promoting affiliates is Lockergnome!

Links, Links, Links

Keep your links valid! If you update a section of the site or remove an offer provide a redirect or retain the link saying that such and such offer has expired and a new one has replaced it. It seems a waste to discard targeted traffic because a special has expired. Be sure to communicate with your affiliates, and if a link will only be good for a specified length of time tell them up front. When an offer expires notify affiliates a week prior to the expiration with a reminder. This will give them ample time to make any needed updates.

Added Incentives!

Affiliates love added bonuses for reaching goals or specified levels of sales. Many of the 3rd party affiliate vendors run contests and provide large incentives for their top performing ones. Reward and praise successful affiliates.

Affiliates tend to be experts in other areas, which relate to a merchants business; therefore, by communicating useful information, and helping affiliates increase their earnings, they will give added exposure and increase your sales. Communicating with affiliates will ultimately benefit visitors of both sites. A little effort in the beginning can mean big rewards in the long run.

Big Ticket Items - 6 More BIG Benefits To Selling As An Affiliate

Today, we're going to cover 6 More BIG Benefits to selling Big Ticket items as an AFFILIATE.

First, we had better define both Big Ticket Item and Affiliate.

A Big Ticket Item is any product or service that sells for more than $500 or $1000.

An Affiliate is someone who sells other people's products.

Or, at least, those are my definitions. I'm sure there are other possible definitions but for this article, let's stick with the simple descriptions I've given, ok?

Now, let's take a close look at benefits.



Benefit #1: Perks, Perks, Perks

You often get other types of perks or fringe benefits on Big Ticket items besides your percentage of the sale.

Let's take seminar or workshop seat sales as an example. As a seminar affiliate, your job is to "put butts in seats". So, if a seminar ticket costs $4997 and your affiliate fee is $1000 per seat, you sell 5 seats and you make $5000. Not bad!

But, in many cases, the seminar promoter also offers a deal where if you sell so many seats, you can go to the seminar for FREE! They might run a "Sell 3, Go for Free" campaign. So, not only do you make $5000 but you get to attend the $4997 seminar for free.

And sometimes the seminar promoter will offer an additional cut of the sales if you sell over a minimum number of seats to their event. So, if you sell over 10 seats, you might get an additional $500 for every seat over 10 you sell. Even if this isn't offered, you can often negotiate a deal like this with the promoter.

These are just a few examples. There are many other types of perks that are available or that you can negotiate.

Benefit #2: Super Affiliate Extras

Let's say you get really good at affiliate selling Big Ticket Items. You could become known as a super affiliate. A super affiliate is simply an affiliate who is capable of generating a significant percentage of the sales of any affiliate program.

In other words, you are "kicking butt" and producing more sales and revenue than many if not all of the other affiliates in a product owners affiliate program.

Now, most product owners, if they are smart, know that it is vital for them to recognize and reward these super affiliates. After all, they are selling more product then anybody else and they want to encourage them to continue to do so.

So many product owners will give a higher percentage of product sales to super affiliates. If normal affiliates receive 50% of each sale, super affiliates might get 65% to 75%.

Super affiliates may also be given advance opportunity to sell new products being introduced by a product marketer. This means they get to sell the new product before all the other affiliates are allowed access to it.

Plus, if you are the super affiliate, you can often negotiate other benefits, tailored specifically to what you want for selling these Big Ticket items.

Benefit #3: Multiple Streams of Income

As an affiliate, you can help market multiple Big Ticket Items. These items can come from the same or different product owners. And the products can be focused at the same or different target markets.

So even if one product has a slow down in sales, the other products may be doing fine.

Now, I am not telling you to go out and become an affiliate for a ton of different Big Ticket items. You still need to choose products you believe in and that are of high quality. In the long term, this will serve you much better than a "scatter-gun" approach to Big Ticket affiliate sales.

But, the ability to chose several high quality Big Ticket items to market as an affiliate, means that you can diversify your income streams so that you are not dependent on one stream alone should the market slow in that area. Robert Allen calls this Multiple Streams of Income.

It's just a sound business concept that you should follow, even as an affiliate!

Benefit #4: Differentiate or Die!

There are a ton of products and product owners out there running affiliate programs. Many of these programs are marketing or selling E-Books or other low profit items. How will you differentiate yourself from all the other affiliates flogging the same low ticket products?

I believe that the best way to set yourself apart from others is to sell Big Ticket items as an affiliate. Many existing affiliates are uncomfortable selling items with a big price tag because they have a hard time justifying the value of the product to themselves.

This is why it is so important to sell only items you believe in. Your belief in a product comes from you having carefully evaluated the product and ensuring its high quality, yourself.

But once you understand the benefits a product can provide, it's very easy to sell the product to others, even when it costs a lot more.

And selling Big Ticket items gains you the appreciation and respect of product providers much more quickly than selling their low ticket items will. That appreciation can translate into the perks and extras we've discussed on other sections of this article.

Big Ticket Affiliate Selling puts you in another class from those who only do affiliate sales of low ticket items!

Benefit #5: Continuous Residual Income

Another type of Big Ticket item is one where the price is not a fixed amount, one time sale. Instead, the customer purchases a product or service where they continue to make regular payments.

Examples of this type of Big Ticket item are Membership sites, Shopping Cart Service or Monthly Hosting Fees.

Many affiliate programs are setup such that you continue to receive a percentage or a fixed amount per period (e.g. monthly) as long as the person you sold the original membership remains a member of that service.

For example, the hosting service I use (where I keep my web pages) has an affiliate program similar to the one I just described. For each person I sign up for their service as an affiliate, I received $10. EVERY MONTH that the person continues to use their hosting services.

Now this doesn't sound like much. But consider this... I only pay around $25 per month for hosting myself. All I have to do is make 3 affiliate sales of the service and my hosting is FREE! (3 sales x $10/sale = $30 covering my hosting costs)

Anyway, I think you get the idea that selling as an affiliate for a service where you get an ongoing cut of the revenue stream is itself a Big Ticket Item over time. Especially if you sell a lot of them.

Benefit #6: Multiple Tiers Means More Profit For You With No More Work!

Some affiliate programs are also setup such that you can also make money from 2nd tier sales

2nd tier sales are simply any sales of a product that a customer buys from the same product owner or marketer after the first one that you sell that customer as an affiliate.

Let's look at an example.

Let's say you sell an internet market marketing home study system for $1499 as an affiliate to Customer X.

You get 50% of the sale or $749.50.

Customer X is very happy with the product and decides to buy the ADVANCED internet marketing home study system directly from the creator of the original home study system for $2499.

Now, you were not involved in the 2nd sale at all. But because the affiliate system you joined was of the 2 tier variety, your agreement with that affiliate program says that you get 25% of all future sales of any products in the affiliate program to the same customer you original brought in for the first sale.

So because Customer X is buying another product within the same affiliate program and he was originally sold his first product by you... You get 25% of that sale. In this case $624.75.

And you weren't even involved in the second sale! Nice!

And that wraps it up for 6 More Big Benefits To Selling Big Ticket Items As An Affiliate.

Copyright (C) 2005 Chuck Daniel, Like Magic Marketing, LLC - All Rights Reserved.

How to Evaluate Affiliate Programs

There are thousands of affiliate programs offering wide range of benefits to their affiliates. However, many of these programs and the claims they make are not to be trusted. Good affiliate programs provide tremendous earning opportunities, but they need to be evaluated to distinguish them from doubtful ones. There are several factors to consider before someone decides to join any affiliate program.

Products: Organizations which operate affiliate programs generally have some products to sell. These products can be in form of physical products, e-products or services. It is important to ascertain that the organization has some products to sell and that it recruits affiliates to help them in running their business. One should be very careful with any organization that has recruitment of affiliates as their main business. It is best to avoid such organizations because their affiliate structure is like a house of cards which can crumble at slightest impact.

The organizations which have products to sell and market them through affiliate programs cut down on the cost of advertising and distribution. This amounts to considerable savings which they share with their affiliates. If a new affiliate is already familiar with the products, this can be helpful but this is not a necessary pre-condition to join affiliate program. New affiliates can learn about the products quite fast.

Organization's Track Record : It is not difficult to find out about the organization before joining it affiliate program. Search engines are one of the sources which can be used for this purpose. Verifying the testimonials presented by the organization is another source of information. The organization should have proven track record of operating their programs for several years successfully. If the organization is new or just starting, the person starting the program should be well known with good credibility. This is precaution against joining organizations which promise get-rich-quick scheme and then disappear.

Support Available to Affiliates : Most of the new affiliates joining any affiliate program are new to the field of marketing on the internet. They need guidance and support for promoting their business and earning money for themselves. It is in the interest of the organization to help their affiliates to succeed. These organizations are in their business for considerable longer time than the affiliates, are more knowledgeable about their market and about the ways of promoting their products. They are in best position to provide their affiliates with proper guidance. Many organizations have excellent support system by way of trainings, tutorials, articles, books, marketing plans, marketing tools, forums just to name a few. These are generally available from websites accessible to the affiliates.

Apart form the promotional material and information available from the website, personal guidance can be vital. A new affiliate may not be familiar with all the resources available and will look for mentoring at least in initial stages. It should be remembered by the affiliate that her success will add to the success of the organization, the organization is obliged to help her.

Payment : Another factor to consider is the mode and frequency of payment to the affiliates. The affiliate should make sure that this suits her. Just to give an example - many organizations make payments through PayPal, but PayPal does not transmit money to all the countries. Such details should be checked before putting time and effort for any affiliate program.

Affiliate Structure : There are many different ways in which organizations build up their affiliate structure. Many organizations have single tier structure in which affiliate is only paid commission for sale. Other affiliate structures are 2-level or multi-level deep in which the affiliate earns also from the efforts of personally sponsored members. In turn, the affiliate is expected to help her sponsored members to earn for themselves. This is one great feature of multi-level marketing leading to leveraged earning. You can read my article on leveraged earning at this URL :

http://www.sanjay-j.com/artlever.html

There are still more variations in the structure. Some organizations allow a limited number of affiliates directly under each affiliate. There is no "ideal" affiliate structure. But it is important to have clarity in the structure and the affiliate should understand the structure.

Compensation Plan : There is lot of variation in compensation plans starting from simple commission to more elaborate plan in which affiliates additionally earn through the efforts of their sponsored downline members and also from a common pool. I personally favor plans which have provision for leveraged earnings where teamwork really counts. Residual earning is another attractive feature of affiliate marketing which can build into sizeable income over a period of time. I am not against any compensation plan so long as it is understandable and appears reasonable. You have perhaps noticed that I have put this factor as the last consideration. However it is an important consideration after all other considerations are found acceptable.

Persistence Pays - It takes time to build up business with any affiliate program, no matter how good the program appears. After joining any affiliate program after thorough evaluation, one needs to stay with the program giving it time to build the earning. Get-rich-quick scheme do work some times but they are rare exception rather than the rule and cannot be depended upon.

This small slogan should be ingrained in the thinking when someone joins an affiliate program:

PERSISTENCE PAYS.

Free Affiliate Marketing Page Pays $755 in Commissions From its First 100 Visitors

Affiliate marketing is an easy way to get started making money online. You just sign up to be an affiliate, and refer new customers to the sales site(s) with a special, coded affiliate link. When your referrals click the link and make a purchase, you get paid a sales commission on the sale. Many of these commissions are now paid instantly, at the time of the purchase, as in the system below.

But few new affiliate marketing sites are as successful as the new system reviewed here. It is a free-to-copy, self-duplicating affiliate referral system that pays growing, residual sales commissions, and actually MULTIPLIES an affiliate's income, from a low, ONE-TIME purchase of less than $30.

From fewer than its first 100 visitors, it produced $755 in INSTANT affiliate marketing sales commissions from a total startup cost of $30. So it produced 25 times as much as it cost, from fewer than 100 visitors. This is a phenomenal return for ANY web site.

As you will come to realize, this new, free affiliate page is very different from anything you have ever seen. This new affiliate marketing system is very powerful and unique, and anyone can use it for free. It has several very innovative features:

First, it combines three special, hand-picked affiliate marketing programs, all of a unique type, which pay the highest commissions possible. (One pays 100%, $100 sales commissions.)

Second, you sign up sequentially, making it pay for itself from that first $30 purchase.

Third, It produces continuing, RESIDUAL income, from just that ONE-TIME $30 purchase.

Fourth, the residual income from the system GROWS exponentially, due to those special affiliate programs. The residual income MULTIPLIES automatically, in the same way that a viral affiliate marketing plan multiplies a merchant's customer base.

Fifth, you can 'set it and forget it'. After you make a sufficient number of new referral customers, it takes on a life of its own, and the income keeps growing, whether you do anything more, or not. You do NOT have to keep referring more and more new customers, to keep generating more and more income. (But your affiliate page can continue to refer more and more new customers as more people find it - each referral customer can start another multiplying pile of those instant sales commissions for you.)

No other affiliate marketing referral system has ever before combined all of these features into such a simple, copy-and-paste free system. It is very simple to use, although the affiliate plans may appear difficult to understand at first.

The secret of its success lies hidden in the special, unique affiliate payment plans. All three programs are lifetime membership affiliate marketing sites, offering 'tons' of marketing expertise and tools for affiliate marketing and traffic generation, for a low, one-time cost.

They use payment processors like Paypal and Stormpay, so a referring affiliate's sales commissions are actually deposited INSTANTLY, directly into the referring affiliate's account, even before the site owner gets his payment for the lifetime membership.

The continual growth of an affiliate's income is assured when his referral customers begin generating affiliate income for themselves. The pay plans are very unique: Every new affiliate gives up his first two sales commissions; they are automatically passed up to a sponsor above. This causes your commissions to multiply, automatically.

They are not MLM plans, they are one-tier affiliate marketing plans with a special, multi-tiered pay provision. This pass-up provision causes the pay to YOU as the referring affiliate to DOUBLE with each successive tier that spreads below you, starting from EACH new customer you find for them, after you pass up those first two sales.

You purchase from the next plan in sequence as soon as you receive $20 instant sales commissions from the first $30 plan. Each successive affiliate plan pays a higher sales commission than the plan before it. Adding up the commissions passed up, you wind up being paid $300 for each successful new affiliate you refer to this affiliate system. Yet you started it with only a $30 outlay, for membership in the first affiliate marketing site.

And those $300 sets of affiliate commissions then start DOUBLING from each tier, automatically, from each new successful referral affiliate you sponsor. From the next tier, you get $600, then $1200, then $2400, etc. That's how it was possible for less than 100 visitors to this system page to pay over $750 in affiliate sales commissions. And that's just the BEGINNING of the income from it.

Most of my referrals have not even finished signing up for all three of the plans in sequence yet, so I have much more affiliate income to look forward to in the near future, with no more effort on my part.

Like me, my referrals start their own doubling sales commissions with their third referral sale, after passing up the first two. And the passing up of the doubling commissions goes on for as long as the viral marketing of the plan goes on below you. It's the most lucrative affiliate plan ever designed.

Making the simple, affiliate system referral page free to copy-and-paste, makes it easy for anyone to duplicate it and keep it growing virally below you. Copying and pasting it for free makes the system easily self-replicating, ensuring the continued growth of your residual income, from that one-time $30 purchase. The system has instructions for setting up your own copy of the page online for free, too.

As your referrals purchase memberships in the rest of the plans and start using them, it will just continue multiplying your own affiliate income from the system.

I put my system in a free blog page, just to keep costs down as I got it started. And free blogs are as easy to use as email - just copy and paste, click a button, and it's immediately online with its own URL. Then just paste in your own affiliate links as you get them, and make some referrals to your page. There's a list of 14 free blog hosts in the system instructions. If you don't want to use a web site, use a free blog like I did.

The multiplication of your commissions is explained more fully on my free system blog page, at [http://www.MoneyGrower.info]

Although the affiliate pay plans are not easy to understand the first time through, the system 'works like a charm', as the saying goes. As you can see, this free system is entirely different from any other affiliate marketing plan or system in the world. And it PAYS like nothing else in the world, too.

Copyright 2004 by David L. Thorne

7 Best Places to Find Affiliate Products

In today's economy, we are facing crisis. Livestock, grocery items, gasoline and other commodities necessary for the existence of mankind are becoming more and more expensive while wages remain the same and work benefits are becoming low. With that in mind, its unquestionable why many people are looking for other ways to gain income aside from the income they gain from their day job.

One easy way to gain income is through affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn money online especially if you have a computer and an internet connection.

There are 3 ways to earn money through affiliate marketing and these are pay per sale, pay per lead and pay per click. In affiliate marketing, you place an advertisement on your website to sell a merchant's product or send a person to the merchant's website and by doing that, you gain a share of the merchant's profits.

There are plenty of companies that operate in affiliate marketing industry and the 7 best places to find affiliate products are the following:

1. ClickBank - ClickBank is an affiliate directory that handles digital products such as software and e-books which makes it the most popular affiliate directory for downloadable products.

What makes ClickBank preferable than other affiliate programs is that products in ClickBank are listed by popularity so it is easier for you to find products to promote. You can also easily set up an account in ClickBank and promote products. In addition, you can get up to 75% commission on products or services you sell which is larger than other affiliate programs. The minimum payment can be as low as $10 and you can cash out weekly through domestic and international direct deposit.

2. Commission Junction - Commission Junction is one of the largest and best known affiliate programs on the internet. It works as a middleman between merchants and website owners or advertisers. It is an affiliate program for physical and downloadable products. It has many products for you to promote and each product differs in the percentage which you could earn from each sale. The merchants in Commission Junction are big and well-developed companies so the products and services you sell as an affiliate are more reliable and well-known. It also provides plenty of marketing materials for affiliates which make it easier for them to promote the products in Commission Junction. These marketing materials include banners, text links, product links and search boxes. When you sign up in Commission Junction as an affiliate, you will get paid through direct deposit or paycheck in your selected currency.

3. ClixGalore - ClixGalore has about 9,500 merchants listed within their directory and about 20,000 active affiliates. It has no cost to join in this affiliate program and like Commission Junction they also provide affiliates with marketing materials to incorporate into their web site. In ClixGalore, you get paid monthly and the payment threshold is $0. It also has an advance reporting tool for merchants and affiliates which allow them to easily measure their success in affiliate marketing. Moreover, ClixGalore gives great commissions for active affiliates and it provides many professional marketing tools which make it easier for affiliates to promote the merchant's products.

4. RegNow - RegNow is the world's leading software affiliate program which gives you a commission up to 75%. In RegNow, you sell software products not products that require shipment to clients so the products that you sell can be sold to anyone anytime and anywhere around the world. Aside from the base commission, RegNow also pays you up to 2.5% in additional commissions on every sale. Payment in RegNow is bi-weekly through PayPal, major credit cards and international wires and the minimum payout is $100. Like the affiliate programs mentioned above, RegNow also provides many different tools to help affiliates promote its merchants' products.

5. Amazon - Amazon is a popular shopping destination online. It also has an affiliate program that helps people earn additional income. Although the commission percentage is low, you will earn an additional income when the person you refer to them buys more than one item within 24 hours. They also pay their affiliates through PayPal and they give them the option to be paid in products instead of cash. Amazon also has different ways for affiliates to put links on their site and these include banners, product links and widgets that vary in forms. Moreover, Amazon has low return rate so you are guaranteed to earn money on your promotional efforts.

6. Google Affiliate Network - Google Affiliate Network has an interface that is easy to use and is well designed so it is wonderful for newbie affiliates. Although, you need an approved Google Adsense account so that you can successfully sign up on Google Affiliate Network, signing up to both programs are free so you will have no problem in getting an account here. Google Affiliate Network provides tools such as banners or text links to help affiliates promote the merchant's product or service. However, the disadvantage of using Google Affiliate Network is its cookie length which is mostly limited to 7 days so this means that when you refer a customer to a merchant and he buys a product or service after this period, you will no longer receive a commission for that sale.

7. LunarPage - LunarPage is one of the highest paying affiliate programs. It rewards affiliates with $65 base commission. It also offers $5 2nd tier commissions and by referring just 2 people to LunarPage, you will already earn $130. Moreover, LunarPage tracks cookies so when the person you refer to them signs up later, you will still get the commission from that referral. It also provides plenty of marketing resources such as banners, text links and coupons for its affiliates. Their payment threshold is currently $50 and given that the account you refer remains active for more than 30 days and after you send them your tax form, they will immediately send you a check on the next payment period (either 1st or 14th day of the month). Moreover, they pay commissions through US Check, PayPal or wire transfer.

There are plenty of affiliate programs that exist today aside from the 7 that I mentioned above. Because of this, I suggest that you research more on affiliate programs because you might see other affiliate programs that offer larger commissions and better benefits but whatever affiliate program you decided to sign up for, always remember to choose the products that are relevant to the content of your website and carefully check them from the merchant's website before you start promoting them to ensure that your affiliate marketing efforts will not go to waste.

The Diverse Benefits of Promoting Two Tier Affiliate Programmes

Each year literally hundreds of thousands of new members join the affiliate marketing community. These new affiliates are all desperately looking for that incredible niche market in which to make their riches - consequently the most popular niches are now hugely competitive and saturated with prospective affiliates. As a result it is increasingly difficult to find the elusive niche which you can dominate and which brings in monster profits.

Promoting Direct to Affiliates

One fantastic way around this is to tap directly into the affiliate niche itself - affiliates are highly driven by money, which, fortunately for us, also means they are willing to part with a little bit too. I use this very same approach of targeting affiliate marketers myself, with my own affiliate marketing website. I basically provide valuable advice to new affiliates, keeping them up to date with the latest affiliate news, and, in turn, hope to get a few commissions for the products I recommend in return. The problem with this approach is that so many people are doing it now that the niche has also become highly saturated. This has happened for a couple of relatively unsurprising reasons:

Firstly, affiliate marketing is the one niche all affiliates know about and are interested in - in-depth knowledge of your niche is one thing I really recommend when choosing a niche but the problem is that this has led to many affiliates taking the easy route out, and plumping for affiliate marketing based content. As a consequence affiliate products are now becoming the most popular for new affiliate marketers to promote.

The second reason is that the industry lends itself to the wealth of traditionally high converting, get-rich-quick style products we have all come across at some point or another. There are a large number of e-books and training courses which are relatively easy to sell and don't require a huge amount of research to understand - basically money driven affiliates will spend a small fortune if you can convince them it will make them rich in the long term. The buying power of potential customers is therefore a very important reason for the fierce competition we are now seeing.

Promoting the Affiliate Programs Themselves

An excellent, and still reasonably profitable, solution to penetrate the lucrative affiliate marketing niche, therefore, is to promote the affiliate programs themselves. In this way you are not battling for the eyes and ears of each and every customer but you income is more passive - think of yourself as a marketer rather than a salesman! If you think about what people need to be successful in affiliate marketing it will obviously include a good business model and marketing techniques, which you get from traditional affiliate products, but also a good affiliate program to promote. The good news is that many of the best affiliate programs have a second, largely ignored, tier, where you sign up new affiliates, rather than actual customers - if you become a second tier affiliate marketer you will hence be promoting one of the primary essential components of an affiliate marketing campaign, while avoiding the fierce completion in many niches.

How much money can you make?

This second tier marketing model can also be incredibly lucrative, as I have said above. For instance if you were using a standard gambling affiliate program here in the UK they will most likely offer a two tier, maybe three tier, system. In this way, on the first tier, if you sign up a new customer you will earn around 20% of the revenue they generate - if you can sign up 10 people who spend $100 each every month that is a nice easy $200 dollars straight in your pocket. The more people you sign up, the more money you make as with any standard affiliate program. Obviously this example is a strange one as the affiliate income is recurring however this is also one major benefit of second tier marketing - the income is always recurring.

How it all works

What happens is you receive a percentage of the revenue of anybody you sign up below you. The main issue with this is the notable lack of instant money coming into your account for your initial work. However the long term benefit can be staggering. For instance, if we return to the gambling affiliate example, you are likely to receive around 5% revenue share for all the affiliates you sign up. This means that for every affiliate you sign up who is making $200, the figure we already came to above, you will be making a figure of $50. If you think about the potential numbers you could sign up then you can really see the spiralling profit potential involved. Sign up 100 or more affiliates, and for their work you can receive thousands of dollars every month - this is the closest thing to automated income you'll find online and the major attraction of the second tier.

The risks involved

The problem with this is of course that most of the affiliates you sign up won't make you a penny. Unless the niche isn't highly saturated most will fail - in fact 98% of affiliates leave the business without making any money at all. This means you might sign up 100 new affiliates, taking you a great deal of time and effort, but only one or two of these actually make any revenue whatsoever. The flip side of this coin is however that the one sign up that makes money could make a million dollars that year - basically you might be lucky and they could be a so called super affiliate with the knowledge to dominate the niche. Imagine if you could make 10% of that person or company's revenue - you'd be making $100,000 of revenue without any effort, and on total autopilot. That initial investment starts to seem worth it now, doesn't it?

A totally different business model

I will point out here that the gambling example I've used above is not the usual - I have simply used it because it is an industry in which I have a lot of experience. There are however a number of other affiliate programs, across a whole range of niches, which offer two tiered systems as well. The commission may not be recurring for many of these, and so if your affiliate leaves the market you will cease to earn a percentage of their sales; however, your own income is at least recurring in that your sign-ups will send commissions your way on a regular basis - these won't be structured earnings but the advantage is they can pop up out of the blue, even when you least expect it - which is always nice! For traditional affiliate commissions you will need to be constantly pushing your links, but for this very different business model you can sit back, put your feet up and relax (well, if you've done the hard graft upfront that is!).

The rise of the two tiered affiliate programs

Yes, the number of this kind of two tiered scheme is also increasing. Affiliate merchants are recognising that if they can get affiliates to sign up other affiliates, then their online exposure will increase dramatically. Obviously the more customers in contact with their product the more sales, and hence money, they will make. They won't mind one bit having to pay more commissions because they are quickly becoming rich themselves. This greater accessibility to quality programmes, as well as the lucrative nature of the business model, is attracting a lot of affiliates into promoting affiliate programs, rather than the products themselves. As a result I'd recommend you get in quick before this too becomes a saturated niche.

And there are, as I say, a great many fantastic two tier affiliate programs out there. I recommend doing some useful research, making sure the product and scheme is right for you, and then just going for it. What's the worst that can happen?