for you to place on your website. Any visitor to the affiliate's site that came via the link from your site that results in a sale, you receive a comission, anywhere from 15%-75%, depending on the affiliate program.
If you don't have a website on which to post a button or link, don't worry, you do not have to miss out. There are affiliate companies whose sole purpose is to advertise affiliate programs. Many of these companies, in addition to providing webmasters with buttons and links to particpiate in the affiliate program, also provide what are called hoplinks, for those who do not have a working website. A hoplink is a link that will direct the user to an affiliates website. Just like the button or link, the hoplink is tracked, giving the owner of the hoplink a commision on any visit that leads to a sale.
So you must be asking, where am I going to paste this affiliate hoplink? The answer is easy. If you want to keep it simple, you can simply join free online forums that deal with the subject matter of the affiliate program's website. For example, if your affiliate program is with an online petstore, join an online forum dealing with pets, and include your hoplink in your signature, to be seen by all you correspond with.
If you want to get a little more saavy, you can launch an all out advertising campaign to promote your affiliate. For a low cost, you can purchase a opt-in email list based on the subject matter of your affiliate program's website, and send mass advertising e-mails with a hoplink pasted in the content of the e-mail. Remember, opt-in email lists are not spam as the e-mails are given by the consumer voluntarily.
An other option is to use a pay per click search engine advertising program like Google Adwords to promote your affiliate hoplink. Pay per click advertising was originally set up to promote websites, but hoplink affiliates can use it just as easily. Once your campaign is set up, and you are prompted to enter your destination URL (the web address that the user is sent to if they click on your ad), rather than enter a website address, simply enter your hoplink.
If all this seems a bit confusing to you, do not worry. The article below spells out exactly how affiliate programs work. If you are interested in joining the big business of affiliate marketing, be sure to read it, then use our links to find the perfect affiliate network for you. In addition to this article, whichever affiliate network you choose to being you affiliate marketing career, will provide you with detialed instrictions on how to get started.
Make Money With Affiliate Programs
Get started today by selling products for other sites.
By Tim W. Knox
from www.entrepreneur.com
There are a number of reasons why affiliate programs can be an excellent way to start an e-business. Before we dive into the specifics of your question, however, let me explain how an affiliate program (and affiliate marketing in general) works.
An affiliate program is just another way for a company to sell its products. By signing up affiliates who will market the company's products for a commission, the company can effectively expand its sales force and market reach without adding employees or overhead. The more affiliates a company has, the more people selling its products and the more revenue the company makes. An affiliate is an individual (or a company) that signs up with an affiliate program with the intent of marketing the affiliate company's products on a commission basis. An affiliate is not an employee or a contractor. The affiliate receives no perks from the company other than the right to market or resell the company's products.
Thousands of companies have launched successful affiliate programs, from Internet giants like eBay and Amazon.com to traditional businesses like Hallmark and AT&T. The very fact that these kinds of companies have launched affiliate programs tells you that a well-managed affiliate program can do much for a company's bottom line.
If you're unfamiliar with how affiliate marketing works, here is the process:
First, you sign up with a company to market its products. Signing up usually involves registering at the company's Web site or through an affiliate management site like ClickBank or LinkShare. The company will typically assign you a unique affiliate ID or tracking URL that you will use when marketing the product online. Next, you market the product from your Web site or through other means of online advertising.
When someone clicks the link embedded with your affiliate ID, he or she is taken to the company's Web site to make the purchase. Using cookies or other digital tracking methods, the company notes your affiliate ID as the referring affiliate and pays you the commission if the customer buys.
There are several advantages to starting an affiliate marketing business:
Startup costs are minimal. Many affiliate programs let you sign on for free, which means your only costs to begin your business will be the money you spend on advertising the product. Some affiliate programs do charge a fee, but those affiliate programs are typically the ones that provide you with additional tools and assistance to help start your business. An example would be if the company provides you with a customized Web site from which to sell, you will probably be charged a fee, though the fee should be a fraction of what you would spend to build the site and develop products on your own.
You do not need your own product. Since you are marketing someone else's products, you don't have to create or manufacturer a product of your own, which is often a huge barrier to entry for new entrepreneurs.
You have no distribution or customer service costs. When an order is placed, the company handles delivery and customer service issues for you. This is especially nice if you are selling big-ticket items that require special shipping and handling or specialized products that lend themselves to customer hand-holding.
You do not need a Web site of your own. One nice thing about affiliate marketing is that you don't need a Web site from which to market products. Many affiliate marketers sell through Google and Overture's pay-per-click programs, which means that the customer comes directly from Google rather than the affiliate's Web site. It is my opinion that having a Web site will increase sales conversions since you can create a sales page that helps sell the product to the customer, but it is not mandatory.
You can quickly begin making money. One of the most appealing aspects of affiliate programs is how quickly you can begin making money. You can literally sign up as an affiliate and begin making money in minutes.
The bottom line is this: You can make a lot of money with affiliate programs if you pick a good product with mass appeal and do your part to promote it. As with any new business venture, it's all about marketing.
