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Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably already heard someone talking about affiliate advertising or affiliate marketing. But did you know that a large percentage of the people who've gotten wealthy by working online have done so primarily by marketing other people's products?
It's true! Joining affiliate programs is by far one of the most reliable methods of generating a good income from home there is - and there are literally thousands of companies out there that are eager to build an affiliate relationship with you right now!
But what exactly is affiliate marketing? And how can you use it to your advantage, and start making some real money? The answer is simple! Affiliate marketing exists when an individual or company that owns a product shares a part of their profits with the individual or company that referred the customer to them. So in other words, if you were to put an affiliate link on your website or blog, you would earn money every time that link generated a sale!
You might be wondering: what makes affiliate marketing so popular? Let me explain that from a business perspective. Imagine you own your own company, and you have something to sell. In order to attract customers, you need to tell them about your product! However, advertising can be very expensive and will quite often chew a rather large hole into any profits you may make. By having affiliate partners, the company is drastically cutting back on their advertising expenses while simultaneously increasing their overall reach. As more customers are exposed to the product, they also become inclined to spread the word in hope of generating a sale and making some cash. This form of advertising acts almost like a virus, spreading from person to person. Only instead of making people sick- it makes them rich!
Affiliate advertising is also very low-risk. Often, companies can spend hundreds of thousands of dollars marketing a product, only to discover that their attempts have fallen flat and they have drawn little interest and few sales. By having affiliates, the company only pays for successful advertising- a certain percentage of every sale made. Everybody is happy- and everyone's made some money!
So how can you get started? First of all, you will want to join up with at least one (if not more) affiliate programs. ClickBank is a good place to start, but you may also want to try any of the below companies:
Once you've signed up with affiliate accounts, you will be provided with your own affiliate links. What do you do next? Promote, promote, promote! You want to tell as many people as you can about your affiliated products, in order to convince them to make a purchase. This is why it's so important to only support products you've already used before- you have credibility when recommending them. Not only that, people can usually tell if you have no experience with the product you're trying to sell.
Signing up is really the easy part of making money through affiliate marketing. The difficult part is promoting your links. I've put together a list of handy ways to promote your affiliate links at little or no cost to you:
Use your Blog. If you already have a blog, post your affiliate links there. Your blog is the perfect forum for telling people about your positive experiences with the company you're promoting. If you regale your readers with tales about a terrific product, exceptional customer service and an incredible website, they're going to want to learn more, guaranteed. Additionally, your typical blog viewer is someone who's already grown to trust and respect you based on your previous posts. Why not use this trust to your advantage? Link from your Website. If you have a personal or business website, include affiliate links whenever possible. It's usually best to try to keep your affiliate links relevant, according to the content of your website. So if, for example, your website is about videogames, you may not see many results by promoting pregnancy tests. Word of Mouth. Talk the products up to your friends! If they want more information, you can always provide them with your affiliate link. Discussion Boards. Discussion boards are the perfect place to spread the word about new products that you would like people to try. My only word of caution is to make sure that you're not just randomly spamming the threads with your links- this tends to irritate and annoy people (and can get you banned from the discussion boards). However, if you're involved in a thread that is discussing how to generate an income with eBooks, and you just happen to have an affiliate link to a program that will teach people all about eBook sales, then feel free to share it. Signatures. Whether it's your email, discussion board, personals account or instant messenger signature- toss in a link or two. The more people are exposed to it, the more likely it is that they will eventually want to learn more about what you're promoting. Articles. Have a product you're passionate about? Write an article about it and submit it to any of the popular article submission services out there. Include your link during the article if you'd like- but, again, make sure that the link is relevant to the content of the article itself. Some article submission sites to try out:
- Emails. Never underestimate the power of a good, convincing email. If you have a mailing list, you might want to let everybody know about your products. Include it at the end of the emails that you would normally send out, so that people don't feel like they're getting spammed. Email your friends and family- and suggest that they forward the link onto their friends if they like the product.
- eBooks. If you're writing your own eBook, pop a few affiliate links in there. By doing that- everybody who purchases your eBook will be exposed to your link. Even better- offer Master Resell rights with your eBook! Then, everyone who purchases the eBook from you will turn around and sell it to THEIR customers (who are then exposed to the links), who will then sell it to their own customers- and so on and so forth. Before you know it, thousands of people have seen your link!
As you can see, there are plenty of ways to promote your affiliate links at no cost. So why don't you give it a shot? There's big money to be made if you can convert your efforts into a few sales.
Lynne Whiteley
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