Easy Profits Using PPC In Your Affiliate Marketing Business

PPC is one of the four basic types of Search Engines. PPC is also one of the most cost-effective ways of targeted internet advertising. According to Forbes magazine, PPC or Pay Per Click, accounts to 2 billion dollars a year and is expected to increase to around 8 billion dollars by the year 2008.

Let us take a quick look at how PPC Search Engines work.

These engines create listings and rate them based on a bid amount the website owner is willing to pay for each click from that search engine. Advertisers bid against each other to receive higher ranking for a specific keyword or phrase.

The highest bidder for a certain keyword or phrase will then have the site ranked as number 1 in the PPC Search Engines followed by the second and third highest bidder, up to the last number that have placed a bid on the same keyword or phrase. Your ads then will appear prominently on the results pages based on the dollar amount bid you will agree to pay per click.

How do you make money by using PPC into your affiliate marketing business?

Most affiliate programs only pay when a sale is made or a lead delivered after a visitor has clickthrough your site. Your earnings will not always be the same as they will be dependent on the web site content and the traffic market.

The reason why you should incorporate PPC into your affiliate marketing program is that earnings are easier to make than in any other kind of affiliate program not using PPC. This way, you will be making profit based from the clickthroughs that your visitor will make on the advertiser’s site. Unlike some programs, you are not paid per sale or action.

PPC can be very resourceful of your website. With PPC Search Engines incorporated into your affiliate program, you will be able to profit from the visitor’s who are not interested in your products or services. The same ones who leave your site and never comes back.

You will not only get commissions not only from those who are just searching the web and finding the products and services that they wanted but you will be able to build your site’s recognition as a valuable resource. The visitors who have found what they needed from you site are likely to come back and review what you are offering more closely. Then they will eventually come back to search the web for other products.

This kind of affiliate program is also an easy way for you to generate some more additional revenues. For example, when a visitor on your site does a search in the PPC Search Engine and clicks on the advertiser bided listings, the advertisers’ account will then be deducted because of that click. With this, you will be compensated 30% to 80% of the advertisers’ bid amount.

PPC is not only a source of generating easy profits; it can also help you promote your own site. Most of the programs allow the commissions received to be spent for advertising with them instantly and with no minimum earning requirement. This is one of the more effective ways to exchange your raw visitors for targeted surfers who has more tendencies to purchase your products and services.

What will happen if you when you integrate PPC into your affiliate program?

PPC usually have ready-to-use affiliate tools that can be easily integrated into your website. The most common tools are search boxes, banners, text links and some 404-error pages. Most search engines utilize custom solutions and can provide you with a white-label affiliate program. This enables you, using only a few lines of code, to integrate remotely-hosted co-branded search engine into your website.

The key benefits? Not only more money generated but also some extra money on the side. Plus a lifetime commissions once you have referred some webmaster friends to the engine.

Think about it. Where can you get all these benefits while already generating some income for your site? Knowing some of the more useful tools you can use for your affiliate program is not a waste of time. They are rather a means of earning within an earning.

Best know more about how you can use PPC search engines into your affiliate program than miss out on a great opportunity to earn more profits.

Using Product Recommendations To Increase Your Bottom Line

I want to Share my Little info About Using Product
In affiliate marketing, there are many ways in which you can increase your earnings and maintain the account that you have worked so hard for already. Most of the techniques and tactics can be learned easily. No need to go anywhere and any further. They are available online, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.
One of the more important ways of increasing affiliate marketing bottom line and sale is through the use of product recommendations. Many marketers know that this is one of the most effective ways in promoting a certain product.
If the customers or visitors trust you enough, then they will definitely trust your recommendations. Be very careful in using this approach, though. If you start promoting everything by recommendation, your credibility will actually wear thin. This is seen especially when recommendations are seemingly exaggerated and without much merit.
Do not be afraid to mention things that you do not like about a given product or service. Rather than lose any points for you, this will make your recommendation more realistic and will tend to increase your credibility.
Furthermore, if your visitors are really interested in what you are offering, they will be more than delighted to learn what is good about the product, what is not so good, and how the product will benefit them.
When you are recommending a certain product, there are some things to remember on how to make it work effectively and for your advantage.
Sound like the true and leading expert in your field.
Remember this simple equation: Price resistance diminishes in direct proportion to trust. If your visitors feel and believe that you are an expert in your niche, they are more inclined to making that purchase. On the other hand, if you are not exuding any confidence and self-assurance in endorsing your products, they will probably feel that same way and will go in search of another product or service which is more believable.
How do you establish this aura of expertise? By offering unique and new solutions they would not get anywhere else. Show proof that what you are promoting works as promised. Display prominent testimonials and endorsements from respected and known personalities, in related fields of course.
Avoid hype at all costs. It is better to sound low key and confident, than to scream and seek attention. Besides, you would not want to sound unprofessional and have that thinking stick to your potential customers and clients, now would you? Best to appear cool and self-assured at the same time.
And remember; prospects are not stupid. They are actually turning to experts and may already know the things that you know. If you back up your claims with hard facts and data, they would gladly put down hundreds, or even thousands worth of money to your promotions. But if you don’t, they are smart enough to try and look at your competitors and what they are offering.
While recommending a product, it is also important that you give out promotional freebies. People are already familiar with the concept of offering freebies to promoting your won products. But very few people do this to promote affiliate products. Try to offer freebies that can promote or even have some information about your products or services.
Before you add recommendations to you product, it is given that you should try and test the product and support. Do not run the risk of promoting junk products and services. Just think how long it took you to build credibility and trust among your visitors. All that will take to destroy it is one big mistake on your part.
If possible, have recommendations of products that you have 100% confidence in. Test the product support before you begin to ensure that the people you are referring it to would not be left high and dry when a problem suddenly arouse.
Have a look at your affiliate market and look at the strategies you are using. You may not be focusing on the recommendations that your products need to have. You plan of action is sometimes not the only thing that is making your program works.
Try product recommendation and be among those few who have proven its worth.

Top 3 Ways To Boost Your Affiliate Commissions Overnight

The ideal world of affiliate marketing does not require having your won website, dealing with customers, refunds, product development and maintenance. This is one of the easiest ways of launching into an online business and earning more profits.

Assuming you are already into an affiliate program, what would be the next thing you would want to do? Double, or even triple, your commissions, right? How do you do that?

Here are some powerful tips on how to boost your affiliate program commissions overnight.

1. Know the best program and products to promote. Obviously, you would want to promote a program that will enable you to achieve the greatest profits in the shortest possible time.

There are several factors to consider in selecting such a program. Choose the ones that have a generous commission structure. Have products that fit in with your target audience. And that has a solid track record of paying their affiliate easily and on time. If you cannot seem to increase your investments, dump that program and keep looking for better ones.

There are thousands of affiliate programs online which gives you the reason to be picky. You may want to select the best to avoid losing your advertising dollars.

Write free reports or short ebooks to distribute from your site. There is a great possibility that you are competing with other affiliates that are promoting the same program. If you start writing short report related to the product you are promoting, you will be able to distinguish yourself from the other affiliates.

In the reports, provide some valuable information for free. If possible, add some recommendations about the products. With ebooks, you get credibility. Customers will see that in you and they will be enticed to try out what you are offering.

2. Collect and save the email addresses of those who download your free ebooks. It is a known fact that people do not make a purchase on the first solicitation. You may want to send out your message more than six times to make a sale.

This is the simple reason why you should collect the contact information of those who downloaded your reports and ebooks. You can make follow-ups on these contacts to remind them to make a purchase from you.

Get the contact information of a prospect before sending them to the vendor’s website. Keep in mind that you are providing free advertisement for the product owners. You get paid only when you make a sale. If you send prospects directly to the vendors, chances are they would be lost to you forever.

But when you get their names, you can always send other marketing messages to them to be able to earn an ongoing commission instead of a one-time sale only.

Publish an online newsletter or Ezine. It is always best to recommend a product to someone you know than to sell to a stranger. This is the purpose behind publishing your own newsletter. This also allows you to develop a relationship based on trust with your subscribers.

This strategy is a delicate balance between providing useful information with a sales pitch. If you continue to write informative editorials you will be able to build a sense of reciprocity in your readers that may lead them to support you by buying your products.

3. Ask for higher than normal commission from merchants. If you are already successful with a particular promotion, you should try and approach the merchant and negotiate a percentage commission for your sales.

If the merchant is smart, he or she will likely grant your request rather than lose a valuable asset in you. Keep in mind that you are a zero-risk investment to your merchant; so do not be shy about requesting for addition in your commissions. Just try to be reasonable about it.

Write strong pay Per Click ads. PPC search engine is the most effective means of advertising online. As an affiliate, you can make a small income just by managing PPC campaigns such as Google AdWords and Overture. Then you should try and monitor them to see which ads are more effective and which ones to dispose of.

Try out these strategies and see the difference it can make to your commission checks in the shortest of time.

Here's Why Using Camtasia Can Increase Your Affiliate Checks

Since there are already lots of people getting into affiliate marketing, it is no wonder that the competition is getting stiff. The challenge is to try and outdo other affiliates and think of ways to be able to attain this.

There are also many tips and techniques being taught to these affiliate in order to best plan their strategy for their program to work effectively so that more earnings will be achieved.

What better way to wow your prospects and customers than to record and publish top notch, full motion and streaming screen-captured videos. Nothing like feeling your hard work getting paid by having your customers jumping up excitedly in great anticipation to buy your product right there and then.

This is Camtasia in action. It is a proven fact; giving your customers something they can actually see can explode your online sales instantly.

You do not need to have trainings and education to be able to know how this system can work for your affiliate program. Anyone can create stunning videos, from multimedia tutorials and step-by-step presentations available online. The process is like having your customers seated next to you and looking at your desktop, as you show them the things they need to see and hear. All this done step by step.

For those who does not know it yet, how does Camtasia works?

1. It can record your desktop activity in a single click. No need to have to save and compile all your files because it is recorded right there and then.

2. Can easily convert your videos into web pages. Once converted you can have your customers visiting that certain page. Videos are easier to understand and take in unlike reading texts which oftentimes is a trying thing to do.

3. Upload your pages. Publish them through blogs, RSS feed and podcasts. You may want your Camtasis videos to get around and reach out to other people that may be potential customers in the future. Nothing like being visible in many sites and pages to advertise yourself and get your message through.

There are other things you can do with your affiliate program using Camtasia. You can…

Create stunning multimedia presentations that are proven to increase sales because all the senses are engaged. This also has the tendency to reduce skepticism among hard-to-please customers.

Reduce refunds and other customer issues by demonstrating visually how to use your product and how to do it properly. Complaints will also be minimized because all the facts and the presentation are there for the customers to just see and hear about.

Promote affiliate products and services using visual presentations. This is an effective way of redirecting your viewers straight to your affiliate website after they are finished with the video. Make the most of the presentation by putting your site location in the end and make them go there directly if they want more information.

Multiple your online auction bids exponentially when you give your readers a feel of what you have to offer. Based from reports, auctions that includes pictures increases bidding percentage by 400%. Imagine how much higher it will be if it were videos.

Publish valuable infoproducts that you can sell for a much higher price. It will be all worth the price because of the full colored graphics menu and templates that you will be using.

Minimize miscommunication with your customers. Instantly showing them what you want they wanted in the first place is making them understand clearly the essence of your affiliate program. The good thing about multimedia is, nothing much can go wrong. It is there already.

These are just some of the things you can do with Camtasia that can be very helpful in your chosen affiliate program.

Note that the main purpose of using Camtasia is to boost the income that is generated from your affiliate program. Although it can be used for entertainment and enjoyment purposes, which is not really a valid reason why you choose to get all through that trouble.

Try to focus on the goal that you have set upon yourself to and achieve that with the use of the things that may be quite a lot of help in increasing your earnings.

So Many Affiliate Programs! Which One Do I Choose?

Ask questions first before you join an affiliate program. Do a little research about the choices of program that you intend to join into. Get some answers because they will be the deciding point of what you will be achieving later on.

Will it cost you anything to join? Most affiliate programs being offered today are absolutely free of charge. So why settle for those that charge you some dollars before joining.

When do they issue the commission checks? Every program is different. Some issue their checks once a month, every quarter, etc. Select the one that is suited to your payment time choice. Many affiliate programs are setting a minimum earned commission amount that an affiliate must meet or exceed in order for their checks to be issued.

What is the hit per sale ratio? This is the average number of hits to a banner or text link it takes to generate a sale based on all affiliate statistics. This factor is extremely important because this will tell you how much traffic you must generate before you can earn a commission from the sale.

How are referrals from an affiliate’s site tracked and for how long do they remain in the system? You need to be confident on the program enough to track those people you refer from your site. This is the only way that you can credit for a sale. The period of time that those people stay in the system is also important. This is because some visitors do not buy initially but may want to return later to make the purchase. Know if you will still get credit for the sale if it is done some months from a certain day.

What are the kinds of affiliate stats available? Your choice of affiliate program should be capable of offering detailed stats. They should be available online anytime you decide to check them out. Constantly checking your individual stats is important to know how many impressions, hits and sales are already generated from your site. Impressions are the number of times the banner or text link was viewed by a visitor of your site. A hit is the one clicking on the banner or text links.

Does the affiliate program also pay for the hits and impressions besides the commissions on sales? It is important that impressions and hits are also paid, as this will add to the earnings you get from the sales commission. This is especially important if the program you are in offers low sales to be able to hit ratio.

Who is the online retailer? Find out whom you are doing business with to know if it is really a solid company. Know the products they are selling and the average amount they are achieving. The more you know about the retailer offering you the affiliate program, the easier it will be for you to know if that program is really for you and your site.

Is the affiliate a one tier or two tier program? A single tier program pays you only for the business you yourself have generated. A two tier program pays you for the business, plus it also pays you a commission on the on the sales generated by any affiliate you sponsor in your program. Some two-tier programs are even paying small fees on each new affiliate you sponsor. More like a recruitment fee.

Lastly, what is the amount of commission paid? 5% - 20% is the commission paid by most programs. .01% - .05% is the amount paid for each hit. If you find a program that also pays for impressions, the amount paid is not much at all. As you can see from the figures, you will now understand why the average sales amount and hit to sale ratio is important.

These are just some of the questions that needed answering first before you enter into an affiliate program. You should be familiar with the many important aspects that your chosen program should have before incorporating them into your website. Try to ask your affiliate program choices these questions. These can help you select the right program for you site from among the many available.

Affiliate Marketing Tool

Stop affliliate marketing the hard way! At Last! You Can Affiliate Market Seamlessly…Without Irritating Visitors to Your Sites!

With the Affiliate Marketers Toolkit, YOU Can Increase Click Rates by as Much as 900%!

Let’s face it, affiliate marketing sounds easy, but it’s actually pretty tough!

There’s no doubt, it’s probably the most difficult thing for any site owner to master. Frankly, affiliate marketing is the only thing about site-building you can’t fake—either the clicks are there, or they’re not. And when they’re not…the checks are small.

Of course, some people will tell you can do fine without using any special affiliate marketing tools. WRONG! Just ask them how much their last Google AdSense check was for, and watch them look down at the ground and mumble some lame excuse.

And maybe you’ve tried other affiliate marketing tools, but found that you practically had to be a brain surgeon to figure it out.

Sound at all familiar?

But now there’s good news!

And the good news starts with my own personal bad news. I was like you, struggling to try to make money from affiliate marketing. I spent hundreds of dollars on all sorts of fancy tools to try to spiff up my site so that visitors would click on the links. And then I spent weeks upon weeks of my time trying to use those tools…and none of it worked.

In desperation, I called my old roommate, who’s a computer science whiz. I told him my requirements:

* I wanted to be able to “cookie” my site visitors without them knowing about it. This would let me give them direct links to the sites I recommend, which are much more likely to get clicked. And I wanted to get paid for those clicks.

* I wanted click-friendly links, not ugly ones. Who’s going to click on something like: http://www.somewebsite.url/go/a.php?a=12345&p=98765 ??? What I wanted was to turn THAT into THIS: http://yourdomain.com/GreatDeal

* And since most people use pop-blockers these days, I wanted un-blockable pop-us. Preferably ones that use the visitor’s e-mail client, so I can collect e-mail addresses.

It took months, but my buddy finally delivered the goods. And WOW, did he ever! It wasn’t just a program. It was the most AWESOME, purely powerful affiliate marketing tool I’ve ever seen—everything I’d asked for and more!

It was so good, I decided to sell it to others. So now you can share the awesome power of… The Affiliate Marketers Toolkit.

This incredible tool is actually 3 tools in one, and they’re the quickest and easiest way to affiliate market. Inside this magnificent tool is absolutely everything you need to start increasing your click rate and raking in the big bucks!

So just what are the 3 awesome tools you get?


1. Covert Cookie Technology

* Secretly “cookie” visitors without them knowing about it
* Give them direct links to the programs YOU recommend
* These programs are much more likely to get clicked
* And YOU still get paid!


2. Link Cloaking Technology

* Creates click-friendly links
* No more ugly links that look like alpha-numerical garbage!
* Increases click rates by as much as 900%

3. Magic Pop-Up Creator

* Adds un-blockable pop-ups to your webpages
* Not typical JavaScript pop-ups like everyone else has
* Unique code opens the visitor’s e-mail client
* When visitor clicks “Send”, you’ve captured their e-mail!
* Collects e-mail addresses even if you’re marketing someone else’s products as an affiliate!

Free Download here

12 Tips On How To Selecting An Affiliate Program

People sign up with affiliate programs everyday, looking to expand their income and make a good living for their efforts. The unfortunate part of all this is that most people will sign up with a company without really knowing what the company is all about. In many cases, the majority of these people who sign up, never see the income they had hopes for. In too many situations they find themselves loosing interest and give up because they are greatly disappointed.

There are many factors that can play into this type of situation. The most common complaints are; lack of support and getting paid the proper commissions. With the many affiliate programs that are offered on the Internet, you need to be able to distinguish between a well-established affiliate program, verses one that is not.

Here are 12 tips on what to look for when selecting an affiliate program:

1.) Look for the length of time the company has been in business. Are they a legitimate company that is well established with a solid presence on the Internet?

2.) Do they offer a quality product or service? If they offer to pay you a high commission, but do not have a quality product or service, is it worth your time?

3.) Does the company stand behind their products or service offering a 100% guarantee?

4.) Do they offer all the promotional tools you will need, like banners, text links, ads, flyers, etc?

5.) Look for companies that provide you with training materials and marketing support to help you achieve success.

6.) Look for companies that will give you updates on new products or services, selling tips and training material.

7.) Does the company have a statistics/log page that you have access to? This page should show you your current sales, sign ups, commissions, etc. Look for programs that have real time tracking capabilities that you can access 24/7.

8.) Do they have an administrative page that you can make changes to your personal information?

9.) When a sale is made or an affiliate joins their program through your website, do they send you notification of this? What form of information do they send you? You should receive information on the type of sale, the name of the person, phone number and email address of your new sign-up. This is an important issue when you are in a two-tier affiliate program.

10.) Do they offer a fair commission structure? A reputable company will make it very clear what you are paid for your efforts. You should avoid any company that does not paint a clear picture of the commissions you receive. Most established companies offer 20% and up.

11.) Check on what form of tracking code they use. Are you paid only on the initial sale, or do you get paid on repeat business.

12.) Look for companies that are offering unique products or services that are relevant to your website. Choose merchants that offer products or services that you yourself believe in.

To summarize, signing up with a company that is well established can generate a stronger business partnership, which will increase your motivational interest as well as significantly increase your levels of success.

How To Make Niche Profits Without a Website

You don't need to buy any "amazing new ebook" or a bunch of fancy software. You don't need to write hundreds of pages of content or hire someone to.

You don't need to do a ton of research to find a topic You don't have to spend a dime and you can start doing it right now.

You don't even need a website.

Just follow the simple instructions below and you can make niche profits on autopilot.

1. First choose a topic-It doesn't matter if it's a more competitive topic, you won't be competing for search engine results.

Once you have chosen your topic go to overture.com and use their free keyword selector tool to get a list of commonly searched terms related to your topic.

Find a keyword that has a good number of searches and a relatively low number of quality results on yahoo. Quality results meaning pages with good content on that particular keyword.

2. Create a short informative ebook on your chosen keyword.

Use common sense here; this should be on a topic related to your keyword that people will want to read. It doesn't have to be incredibly long. A 5-10 page ebook can give someone all the information they need.

Once you have written the ebook, find some affiliate programs to join and include them in your book. Do your best to weave this affiliate links into the content of your ebook.

3. Make your ebook viral

Allow people to personalize your ebook with the website link and their name. An ebook creator like ebook paper will let you do this easily.

Another great idea is to add a tell a friend form to your ebook. If people enjoy your ebook they will probably be happy to share it with a friend.

Even better give them an incentive like a free gift and you'll have an incredibly powerful viral technique.

4. Find website owners in your niche to give your ebook away.

This is the most important part of this system. It's how you'll get your viral ebook started.

Search for website owners in your niche and ask them to give your ebook away. Offer to change the ebook in any way they want except your affiliate links.

You could offer to: Change the author's name to theirs. Add their autoresponder form to the ebook. Add links to any other websites or products they might have.

*Another way to get your ebook started is find a discussion forum related to your niche and start posting with your ebook advertised in your signature.

You may think that free ebooks have been done to death. Yes they have, in the internet marketing niche. There are literally thousands of niches where practically no one is using this technique.

Once your viral ebook gets picked up by a few websites you will have an automatic money machine on your hands.

Now imagine if you created 10 of them, or even 100.

Ten Ways Affiliates Sabotage Themselves

If affiliate marketing is so lucrative, then why do so few ever turn a profit? Read on, and I'll tell you why.

1. They don't consistently study the craft. By treating affiliate marketing like a hobby instead of a business, they squander time and money, spinning their wheels as other marketers pass them by.

2. They are a jack of all trades and a master of none. It is amazing what a little focus can do for someone trying to succeed online. By establishing a clearly defined set of goals, 20% of affiliates consistently continue to earn 80% of the commission.

3. They don't write special reports. Free special reports with giveaway rights can be powerful pre-sellers for products that offer generous commission. They're also easy to create with free PDF software available online, and can make the difference between a profitable and unprofitable marketing campaign.

4. They either rely too much, or too little on Google Adwords. By figuring out how to utilize Adwords to develop recurring revenue streams, a small percentage of affiliates are using Adwords to earn more and more income online month after month, year after year. How can you use Google Adwords creatively to move your business forward?

5. They don't capture e-mail addresses. Everyone says that the money is in your list. Then start building your list baby! It's much easier than you think. I'll cover this in greater detail in future articles.

6. They don't cloak their links. Up to 80%, or more, of affiliate commission is stolen, depending upon the product. Thus, quality link cloaking software is a must-have for anyone truly serious about succeeding with affiliate marketing.

7. They don't utilize viral marketing. Did you know that you can get a lot farther by leveraging 1% of the effort of 100 people than by expending 100% of your own efforts?

Managing a successful viral marketing campaign is as simple as filling a need that people have and giving Web surfers a huge incentive to share it with others. (If you don't get anything else out of this article, make sure you jot this point down).

8. They don't help other Internet marketers to succeed. What's that, you say? You only care about your own success? Then how will you develop loyalty among your website visitors? How will you keep them coming back?

People need a reason to choose your website over everyone else's. Do you your best to serve your visitors and you will generate customers for life.

9. They rely on the efforts of sub-affiliates to earn their commission. If you are recruiting sub-affiliates, take the time to give them the tools to make some sales. If you do, they'll appreciate your efforts and keep coming back to you again and again.

10. They don't think outside of the box. Some of the best Internet marketing breakthroughs haven't yet come into existence.

Become a visionary. Change the face of the Internet. Don't become one of the masses!

Your success in Internet marketing is completely up to you. Every day is a fresh start, and there's nothing you can't accomplish. How soon will you be earning a six-figure income online?

The Secret Success To Exploding Your Affiliate Profits

Are you concentrating too much on manually promoting your affiliate programs? Are you burning yourself and your profits out? Well, a few little adjustments will increase your profits and help you free up your time for other projects and endeavors.

Many marketers can make a small fortune simply by promoting one simple affiliate program. Too many times internet marketers choose to promote numerous affiliate programs and end up never getting the sales they desire because they promote too many affiliate programs manually and do not automate the process.

If you must promote more than one affiliate program then it would be best to automate the entire process leaving you with more time for other endeavors. Automation is the key! Every successful marketer uses automation and their profit margin is substantially increased because it leaves the door open for them to pursue other profitable ventures online. How can you do this?

For instance, choose a program/software that automates your internet marketing completely or a system that has been proven to get results. Always plug into a system that will do the work for you. Again, smart marketers use automation.

The first step to big profits is understanding the benefits of automating your business. Stop manually trying to make an online fortune and get started automating today!

Anthony Tomei

Anthony Tomei is a successful internet marketer and success coach. He is also a motivational speaker. Anthony is CEO of Tomei Enterprises Corp.

Affiliate Programs : Golden Opportunity or Waste of Time?

ow that the idea of doing business over the internet has been firmly established, many potential internet businessmen are searching for the best way to do business. Usually the choice comes down to whether you want to set up your own business and online store, or sign up for an affiliate program.

First of all, let's define what we mean by an affiliate program. An affiliate program is basically an internet business set up by someone else. They could be selling physical goods, education, information or any other products that can be sold online. By signing up as their affiliate, you are helping them promote their business or store. In return, they will pay you a commission for each sale you bring them. The amount of commission varies between different affiliate programs. Examples of affiliate programs include Amazon.com and Wordtracker.

1) EARNINGS

So how does an affiliate program differ from starting your own online store? Let's start by looking at the potential earnings. (After all, the main reason everyone wants to start an internet business is for the money). When you sign up for an affiliate program, you will be paid a commission for each sale you refer to the online store. This commission can range from 5% to 15% for physical products, and possibly up to 50% or more for virtual products such as subscriptions and ebooks.

On the other hand, if you start your own store, your profit can be much higher. For virtual products, your profit can be 100% of your selling price. After all, once the newsletter or ebook is created, you do not need to spend any more effort. When someone buys your ebook, they just download it from your website. If you are selling a physical product, your profit depends on whether you are manufacturing the product yourself, or buying from a wholesaler or dropshipping company. Your profit in this case could easily be more than 40% or 50%.

So, if you only consider the potential earnings, starting your own business is more lucrative than joining an affiliate program.

2) LOGISTICS

However, money isn't everything (Or so they say). When you are starting your own internet business, there are a number of logistic issues you need to look at. Here are a few things you would need to take care of:

a) Create your website

b) Design your product (if you are selling new products)

c) Create your product (if you are selling new physical products, or any virtual products)

d) Set up an online store

e) Set up a merchant account or payment gateway

f) Set up a warehouse or storage space (if you are selling physical products)

g) Have procedures and staff ready to fulfill orders

h) Set up an affiliate program to get others to market the products for you

i) Monitor for fraud

j) Monitor stock levels

As they say, "No pain, no gain". Having your own store pays very well, but requires a substantial time investment from you.

On the other hand, if you sign up for an affiliate program, all you need to do is set up a website to promote the program. All the ads, banners, marketing text etc will be provided to you by the affiliate program. Your only responsibilities would be to get people to visit your website, and hopefully click on the affiliate links to buy the products that you are promoting.

3) CONVERSION

Whether you have your own business or are promoting an affiliate program, the bottom line is the conversion rate, or the percentage of visitors that actually buy something from you. A number of factors influence this conversion rate. Factors as quality of the product, quality of the website, customer support are all important. However, I personally believe that the most important factor is trust.

When a potential customer arrives at your website, he will need to trust your site enough for him to be willing to buy from you. After all, on the internet you are just a faceless salesman. He doesn't know who is actually running the site and whether he will actually get the goods that he orders.

Having said that, one of the key methods of garnering trust is by recommendation and referral. If a store is being referred to or recommended by another website, the potential customer will feel that the store is trustworthy. After all, if the store is not trustworthy, why would the other website recommend it?

This is where affiliate programs shine. When you refer a potential customer to the store for which you are an affiliate, the customer will feel more relieved, since the store is being recommended by your site, a 3rd party. The customer will be more likely to buy from the store, benefiting both the store, and you as well.

There are both pros and cons to joining an affiliate program. You might earn less with an affiliate program compared to starting your own store, but I believe the benefits of not having to be responsible for the logistics makes affiliate programs are very viable "passive" source of income.

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.

How To Generate Targetted Traffic

Let's get started! First off, you must know how to drive targetted traffic to your website. What good is a
website without traffic? You may have the greatest internet sales machine on the planet but it will be
worthless without good targetted traffic.
NOTE: I will be referencing “lead capture pages.” This is the same thing as a “squeeze page.” All of
these traffic techniques are going to be driving traffic to the same place. A website that will capture the
visitors contact information and get them on your own mailing list. The specifics of these webpages
will be covered in step two later.
For now, let's focus on learning the absolute best ways to drive traffic to your site. There is no need to
learn every single traffic secret and tip on the planet. Let's focus on the 4 or 5 that will bring you the
biggest bang for your buck as soon as possible.

"5 Star Affiliate Programs"

Joe Bucks- High Profits on Health Supplements and Beauty Products
Pays out 50% PLUS 50% Commission on Re-Orders PLUS bi-monthly payments, NO chargebacks, 800# tracking and more. Over 50 sites to promote - free articles, stores & templates for affiliates

TheNerds.net - Top Commission on Electronics, Computer Hardware & Software
High payouts + free datafee + RSS feeds + 800# phone tracking + parasite-free + ShareaSale. All these essential elements add up to make this an affiliate-centered program you can't afford to pass up

TextLinkAds - Partner and Profit on Both Sides of the Advertising Revenue Equation
Many advertising related affiliate programs pay you commission for either ad buyers or new publisher referrals - TextLinkAds pays you generous commissions for both

Revenue Allies - BRAND NEW! DishNetwork and DIRECTV Affiliate Programs
Earn industry leading commission rates on Satellite TV sales benefit from 999 day cookie tracking. This new affiliate program knows how to treat partners right. Check out the $1,000 sales contest

$100 - $145 Commission on DIRECTV & DISH Network sales
$45 per approved activation on COMCAST High Speed Internet Service
2nd Tier commission - $20 Bonus for sales made by affiliates you refer
999 day cookies, so you get long term credit for customers you refer
800# phone tracking to ensure you get credit even if customers order by phone
Trusted 3rd party tracking, reporting and payments by MyAffiliateProgram and the Kolimbo Network
Parasite-free and committed to staying that way
Dedicated, pro-active affiliate management team lead by Gregory Santore

Wynn Las Vegas - Exciting New Entertainment, Tickets and Travel Affiliate Program
Profit from the Billion Dollar Las Vegas Travel Industry. The 1st Las Vegas luxury resort to combine two of the most successful online industries, travel & online entertainment tickets - into one program% Commission on Wynn Las Vegas Hotel bookings

5% Commission on the sale of Las Vegas Show Tickets
5% Commissions on Gift Certificates and Travel Packages
45 day cookies
3rd party tracking, reporting and payments by Commission Junction
Parasite-free and committed to staying that way
Dedicated, pro-active affiliate management team - Email partners AT wynnlasvegas DOT com

"7 Step to Affiliate Profit Plan"

1. Find A Hot Aprofitable Affiliate Market Product
this is one of the most important whent it comes to making money to with others people product for market there are rabid and aready profitable some market which fit the above bil include:
beauty,lifestyle,self improvement,sport,hobbies,business,home based business,marketing related,..etc
three basic ways about doing your reasearch:
#start your research simply by using keywoard tools.
#use qualifying keyword to drill down into the demand for the market to your target
#confirm your result to google adwords campaigns for that particular market

2. Find an Affiliate product in that market
The nect obvious thing to do isto find affiliates product you can promote it
looks this meeting criteria for affiliate program:
#over quality and value package product
#is easy for you to make you sell
#pays good commisions for your effort
#track correctly and pays ontime
#has a hot sale letters with agood conversion rate
#allow you to earn multiple affiliates income

3. Study And Get to Know the Product
this is something to affiliate marketers dont do,and frankly it impacts sales in my humble opinion.
we can never really promote something WELL this is so because
#having clear understanding of the product give you knowledge you need to endorseit eith authority
#if the product is good it will motivate you to promote much better
#studying the product to find"hooks"or marketing angles to base your campaign around

4.Create Your OWn Advertising Materials
Good affiliate program will profite you existing advertising material to useit always to create your own ads
Advantage to this such as:
#your own ads to bring the message across in your own voice and personality
#your own ads will stand out from the crowd as they are unique

"Some this ads types include"
1. Email advertisment
2. Graphical advertisment
3. Text advertisment

5. Capture Your Affiliate Leads
Its no secret "the money's in the list" of the main way to maximize your lifetime affiliate profits.sending traffic to the merchant site prevent you from leveraging on your advertising campaign

6. Set Up The Follow-Up Email Series
Follow-up emails series is very important for both your potential customer that you will be sending a new product and for your market new advertising program promotion

7. Start Your Advertising!!
The name of any profit game is to get the right people in front of your offer.
Some advertising and traffic generating method you can use include:
#Use forums by way of posts and with your signature tags
#Use of Free or fee base email advertisment placement in responsive ezines or newletters
#Use of free reprint articles thats show case your lead capture page

"CamStudio: Internet Marketers Version"

great addition to your affiliate arsenal as it helps you create affiliate review videos on demand...without having to pay up to $300 for Camtasia.

It's actually an early version of Camtasia and it has been modified to make the videos work with Firefox and Netscape browsers.

It also allows URL redirect to your affiliate link after your video finish playing. While it's not as good as Camtasia, it's good enough, especially when you get to save almost $300 :-)
Download it Here

Link Shrinker

Link Shrinker. This is a great script with MASTER RESALE RIGHTS that you can both use and You can:




- Redirect and cloak affiliate links or long URLs
- Change long URLs into short ones
- Have the URLs in your domain name.
- Keep track of your clicks
- Store information about affiliate sites
- Create search engine friendly URLs
- Run it on your own server
- Install it easily in just 6 simple steps

Download it Here

The Fastest And Easiest Way Ever To Make Money

One thing's for sure...

The fastest and easiest way to rake in real cash online is with the model of affiliate marketing.

This is a model where you can make huge commissions just by promoting other people's products.

With this leveraged model:

* You don't need to create your own products
* You don't need to write your own salescopy
* You don't need to do any customer service

In fact, you don't even need to create a website if you don't want to.

Affiliate marketing works perfectly for both newbies and experienced marketers.

For newbies: It's the fastest and easiest way to start making money using a 'learn as you earn' approach.

For experienced marketers: It adds in thousands of dollars in additional profits which you wouldn't have made otherwise.