Is
Anyone Earning a Living from Affiliate Programs?
With
the increasing popularity of affiliate programs it is not
surprising to find everyone is jumping on the band wagon and
joining one or several affiliate programs, with the hopes of
earning enough money to quit their day job, or at the very
least provide them with a nice supplemental income.
Now this is good news for the affiliate program owners.
Affiliate program owners see a continuous increase in revenues
generated by their affiliate sales force who are spending
their own time and money touting the affiliate program owners
products and services all over the Internet. Best of all, with
the exception of what they paid for their affiliate software,
the affiliate program owners do not have to spend one extra
cent on their affiliates/sales reps, or in many cases not even
have to give up a good deal on the commission pay outs for all
this new business.
But what's really in it for the affiliate? Well affiliate
program owners will tell you only 5% - 10% of the affiliates
are making $1,000 to $5,000+ a month working their affiliate
programs.
What makes it work for so few and not the other 90%- 95% is
that they have incorporated most if not all of the following
strategies into their marketing plan. These strategies will
work just as well for one affiliate program as they will for
several.
1. Choose Wisely.
Select
affiliate programs from well known established companies that
have a reputation for delivering quality products and/or
services. Ask for references and testimonials before joining
if you are unsure. Any reputable affiliate program owner will
be happy to give out names of people to contact if they have
nothing to hide.
Choose a program that pays you 25% or more on your personal
sales, and one that pays residual or recurring commissions.
Those that pay on your additional tiers are even more
attractive, as this becomes a way to build residual income
over time.
2. Create a Website.
It
is a very good idea to create your own web page on your domain
which links to the self replicating web site the affiliate
provided for you when you joined their program. Prospects are
more likely to buy from a web site they know and trust, rather
than the obvious reseller URL. Bringing the prospect to you
web site will give you the opportunity to offer a further
endorsement of the product or service before sending the
prospect on to the affiliate's website. This strategy also
serves a few other purposes as well;
-you will have the opportunity to request the prospects e-mail
address for your opt-in list,
-introduce the prospect to any other affiliate programs you
may be promoting,
-give you a more professional appearance.
For an example of this type of front-end approach, take a look
at the web page I have set up for this purpose, http://wealthinmind.com/marketing.html
3. Get the list, the list, the list.
No
other promotion will serve you better than obtaining our own
opt-in e-mail list. This can be done by creating your own
newsletter or ezine. For those of you that just bristled when
reading this, I can tell you as a publisher of a newsletter,
you can do it. If the thought of publishing a full blown
newsletter overwhelms you, then think about creating and
maintaining an email broadcast instead to obtain opt-in
subscribers. Everyone has either a special interest, skill, or
talent that can be put into a tips email daily or weekly
e-mail broadcast. This is all you need to get your opt-in list
started.
4. Generate Traffic to your Website.
I
want to emphasize "Your Website" not the affiliate's
website. Having your own website will give you more
opportunities to influence the prospect into becoming a Buyer.
Most buyers do not buy on the first message. Having buyers
come to your website from an Ad (first message) you placed
instead of linking directly to the affiliate's website, is
providing you with one more opportunity to sell the product or
service using endorsement before sending them onto your
affiliate website for the close.
5. Add Value.
With
all the competition you have from other affiliates selling the
same product and services that you are, it is a good idea to
differentiate yourself from the fray. This can be done by
offering something free with the purchase of the product or
service. Generally a free subscription to a newsletter, a free
report, or an ebook can generate enough interest for the
prospect to take the extra step and click on your link.
6. Say it in a different way.
Almost
every affiliate program offers their affiliates Ad copy to use
when advertising. Generally there are no more than 3 choices.
In this highly competitive market you cannot expect to draw
the interest of many "would be" prospects by serving
up the same Ad copy they are seeing day in and day out from
Ads placed by your fellow affiliates. A good affiliate knows
their product and all the features and benefits associated
with it. It is the salesperson who takes the time to learn
everything there is to know about the product or service they
are selling who has no trouble coming up with original
compelling Ad copy which expounds upon the features and
benefits of what they are selling and entices the prospect to
look more closely.
( Virtualis is a highly respected web hosting company where I
have my website hosted, they offer an excellent affiliate
program, and specifies the following to each affiliate in
their welcome letter;
"To ensure that you as a VR (Virtualis Rep) have the
correct information necessary to effectively sell services for
Virtualis, we have the VR Test. Although this test is not
(yet) mandatory, if you do not take this test, you will not be
able to partake in much of the VR community such as posting to
the Board, chatting in the chat rooms, viewing your
commissions, voting, and more. The test is not hard and will
enhance your Web knowledge (if needed) and Virtualis knowledge
tremendously".
This drives home the point, that top salespeople know how
important it is to know their product or service inside out.
In summary, do your homework about any affiliate program
before joining, advertise a unique message for the product or
service, present it on you own personal web domain, and add
value.
Lastly, give it TIME and be PERSISTENT.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
© 2000 Diane Leonte - All Rights Reserved
Diane
Leonte is a Business and Personal Coach, Webmaster of
"Wealth In Mind" http://wealthinmind.com
and Publisher of the "Achieving Success &
Wealth" newsletter mailto:subscribe@wealthinmind.com
"Are You Are Ready To Get What Matters Most To You?, If
Not Now....When?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Resources:
Make
Your Words Sell
Make
Your Site Sell
Make
Your Knowledge Sell
Make
Your Price Sell
Free
Courses:
Affiliate
Masters
- FREE Intensive
5-Day Email Course from the creators of Make
Your Site Sell. Learn how to maximize your affiliate
profits!
InfoProduct
Masters
- FREE Intensive
5-Day e-mail course on creating, producing and selling your
very own Infoproduct.
Affiliate
Programs:
LinkShare.com
- 500+ programs
represented
CommissionJunction.com
- 1000+ programs
represented
OnResponse.com
- 100+ programs
represented
Read
Other Free Articles about Online Success........
~
30 ~
