Making Money with Affiliate Programs

There are many ways to make money on the web. However, one of the quickest and easiest ways to start a web business is by working what are called Affiliate or Reseller Programs.

An Affiliate is essentially a commissioned agent for a product or service. What happens is that as a commissioned agent, you (the Affiliate) get a percentage of sales after you (the Affiliate) have made those sales.

Affiliates are also called Resellers, so you may come across this term as well. You can easily find Affiliate programs by going to the numerous Affiliate Directories that are on the web. You'll find these directories by going to any Search Engine and typing in the phrase "Affiliate Directory." Alternatively, if you're surfing the web and come across a site that you like with a product or service you believe is valuable or useful then take a closer look at the site for links to their "Affiliate or Reseller Program."

Affiliate programs are usually free to join, and good affiliate programs will always have all the necessary tools for you to sell the site's products or services.

Tips for Joining Affiliate Programs

Before you merrily join any affiliate program it pays to consider which affiliate programs are the best to join. These are the crucial program features that I consider necessary inclusions in any affiliate program.

oThe affiliate program must have a generous payment structure. For me, this means a high commission payment, which is a high percentage of the purchase price - nothing under a 25% commission.

oMake sure the affiliate program you're about to join has a professional looking site. You don't want to send visitors to a site that looks unprofessional.

oMake sure that the affiliate program has a comprehensive affiliate statistics page, which lists the number of click-throughs, the number of sales, and the amount you've earned to date. This should be broken down by month.

oMake sure that these affiliate statistics are "real time". This means statistics which are updated automatically and immediately. You do not want to find out today about a sale you made a week ago.

oEnsure that the affiliate program provides you with a wide variety of text links, banners and graphics to put on your web page. Personally I prefer to use text links. However, certain other types of banners and graphics still work well.

oKnow how often you are going to be paid. If you're tossing up between 2 programs and one pays monthly and the other pays quarterly, the one which pays monthly is a better arrangement. You don't want to wait months before you get paid for your hard work.

oSee if the affiliate program gives $ examples of how their top affiliates are doing. This can be a great indicator as to whether or not it is a good affiliate program. If some affiliates are earning many thousands per month, then it is a good affiliate program.

oIf the affiliate program has examples of which marketing methods these successful affiliates are using to get their results, then this information is also most beneficial.

oAn affiliate program, which offers a special monthly newsletter just for its affiliates is also great. Here, you'll also get extra tips and information on techniques that are working well.

oSee if the program notifies you by email when you make a sale, or you have an affiliate sign up under you (if it is a 2-tier program). It motivates you when you see 'You've made another sale, or another Affiliate has signed up' in your email inbox.

oEnsure that the program provides top-level support for its affiliates. If they cannot answer your query immediately make sure they respond within 48 hours. Good, timely support is critical to your success.

Commissions - The Higher the Better

A good way to identify if the management of an affiliate program you're thinking of joining is serious about their affiliate program is by the commissions (percentage of sales) they're willing to pay you for your effort.

If someone is offering you 10% commission and they are keeping the rest, then you need to ask yourself this... "Should I really be in this affiliate program?" An affiliate program I recently joined called 'E-Book Marketing Explained' pays out 45% commission to their affiliates and another 10% on the 2nd tier. That's 55% of the sale price!

Affiliate Marketing Techniques That Get Results

These are techniques that (when used consistently) bring good results.

oSpend time trying to get a higher ranking in the various search engines for your web sites. Learn as much as you can about search engines and make it a weekly task to try to improve your rankings in them.

oThe word "free" and especially when written "FREE" is over used. Use it only occasionally on your site. For example you could use it to give away a free Ebook or free article you have written.

oSpend 75% of your time marketing your web site and affiliate programs and 25% of your time working on them. Most people spend about 10% to 20% marketing their web site and affiliate programs. Then again, most people online do not make any money.

oUse text links rather than banners for your affiliate programs. Text links have a much higher click through ratio. People have trained themselves to ignore banners.

oWrite you own articles and post them on a separate page on your site. Then submit them to the article resource site

oCheck your clicks and sales regularly at your affiliate web site. If you see a slowdown in clicks and/or sales then alter your marketing tactics. Try something different. Do not continue using the same techniques if they're are not working.

oUse Newsgroups, but do this in a clever way. Stand out from the crowd. Use Newsgroups to announce new articles that you've written. However, make sure that you read the rules of each newsgroup before you post to it, and never, ever spam.

oDo not use graphics that will slow down the loading of your web page. If your selling or pre-selling information is predominantly text, your site will load much faster. My site has one graphic on it. That's right, just ONE.

oSubscribe to a number of newsletters, which are related to the theme of your web site. You can always get a lot of valuable affiliate tips from good newsletters.

oPost articles that other webmasters have written on your site, but ask them first. You can even do your own review of other people's articles.

oFind out whether any affiliate programs you belong to have articles on their site, and find out if you can post them on your site. Then include your affiliate link back to the affiliate site at the end of the each article.