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A Few People Make
Money with
Affiliate Programs ....
Make Sure You're One of
Them...
In dictionary terms, the word
"affiliate" means
"... to adopt, attach or
connect to as member or branch...."
In Internet terms,
"affiliate" is another word for a
"seller", however, there are other words that
are also used such as "Partner" and
"Associate" - these, in the true sense of the
words, are NOT the same as an affiliate. (See our Associate
Members section)
When you sign up with a company
as an "affiliate" - you
make an
agreement to promote their company
by
selling their product(s) and/or
getting people to sign up to their company as affiliates. In return, you
may get paid a commission.
Why do Companies use
affiliates?
Companies realize that affiliate
programs are well worth the effort to set up. The reason
is that this is a fail-safe and cost effective way to
selling more products with minimal overheads.
Companies with established
affiliate programs will have in place some powerful back
end software that is capable of managing the entire
process between their affiliates and their company.
If the company did not use
affiliates, their market place would be much condensed as
they could not possibly reach the vast number of
potential customers that use the web on their own. Their
potential for expansion would be inhibited by the hours
in a day and the number of staff they employed.
But that's not the main reason -
the main reason is RISK SHARING - or RISK SHIFTING as I
prefer to call it!
How does this affect You - the
new affiliate....
Well, affiliate programs
effectively shift that RISK SHARING onto you (and other
affiliates like you) - hence I call it "risk
shifting"!
How?....
well, you remember I mentioned that these companies will
have in place some powerful back end software that is
capable of managing the entire process between their
affiliates and their company?
OK ... this software will include an
automated system that will give you (the newly signed up
affiliate) a username, password, and some sample
advertising.
This advertising could be in the form of "your own web site"
(really a mirror image of the companies site), copy text, emails, classifieds, solo ads, HTML links,
audio links,
button or banner impressions - or sometimes all of these.
These copy, or sample, links will
all contain a code which will be unique to you (the new
affiliate).
BE CAREFUL HERE -
Sometimes, the "unique code" has to be inserted
by
you - so make
sure you read what they send you or tell you to do
otherwise you could be advertising someone else's
"code" which you
will not be given credit for!
That's it - you're on your own -
all you'll have to do is advertise "your own web site" (the companies) site,
service or product using the marketing material
containing your code - follow up any enquiry with a few
emails - make a sale - and BINGO - you get
a percentage of the sale price!
But hold on a minute .....
Advertising is a risky business isn't it?
Yes, you're right - your small
business, coupled with an infinite number of other small
businesses, will all be advertising these companies sites
or products, quite often using one of the pre-written
forms of advertising mentioned above - or at least a
variation of the theme.
No-one ever really knows what is
going to work in the advertising game - you've got to try
it and track your response rate to find
out..... and by then it could be too late! (you'll find more about
tracking in Website
Automation Madezi )
Whatever you do, do not spend huge
sums of money on advertising until you know the product
has a market - it could spell instant disaster before
you've got off the ground. (check out our Internet
Marketing Section)
Be aware that some peoples
advertising of affiliate programs will be effective and successful - a
lot will not!
Does the company care? .... course
not! ..... It cost them next to nothing to set up each
individual affiliate, so if some of them flop then what
the heck?...they've got others that are succeeding ....
and their advertising (their company name and product) is
being consistently seen even if half of it doesn't
produce a sale - it's still free advertising for them
..... and the risk of failing has been shifted from their
company to their affiliates!
Are affiliate programs worth it?
After all I've said - yes, they
certainly can be, providing you exercise caution.
Affiliate programs can be a great
way to get started, providing you pick the right
companies, and by this I mean avoid
the scams - the ones that sign you
up, get you to promote them, then wriggle out of paying
you even a measly dime!
Now - it's NOT as
black out there as it seems ....
....
all it means is
that you have to
Be Careful and Be
Selective....
I personally feel that if you make sure that you check
out the affiliate program(s) well before you join, run
them from your own website and manage to generate a
significant amount of traffic to your site, then you stand a good
chance of gaining from affiliate programs.
Find out more about assessing programs in
our ebook Web
Site Creation Madezi
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