Affiliate Marketing
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by: DiasRodden
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Word Count: 762
Date: Sat, 19 Nov 2011 Time: 7:20 PM
Affiliate Marketing is a way of marketing products where you as the marketer, or affiliate, are paid a commission to introduce a product to the consumer. If you have a blog or website, you as the affiliate can get paid for using your blog or web site to introduce interested people to the sellers.
There are several ways that you can make money as an affiliate:
You can be paid a commission whenever the customer you refer purchases a product. This is referred to as pay-per-sale. The payment can either be a percentage of the sale, or a fixed amount.
Another way you can be paid is pay-per-click. With pay-per-click you are paid simply for getting someone to visit the company's site by clicking on a link from your site. It doesn't matter whether or not they actually buy anything.
A third method is called pay-per-lead. A company with a pay-per-lead program pays you based on how many people you refer sign up as leads. Usually there will be some sort of form which the visitor to their site fills out giving information such as name, email address, or phone number. This allows them to be used by the company as a sales lead.
There are a number of reasons you may want to use your blog to be a part of an affiliate program. It can be very profitable for both you and the company, and it is usually very easy to set up. As an affiliate marketer you won't have the hassles of having to create your own product, deal with customer support, and so on. Also, it's fairly unobtrusive and can be quite helpful to your blog's readers.
Finding products to sell is usually quite easy, and can be done through direct or third party managed affiliate programs.
With a direct affiliate program the program is managed directly by the advertiser. Some of the largest and most popular direct programs are Amazon Associates, eBay Partner Network, and AllPosters.com.
Amazon Associates is probably the original pioneer in affiliate programs. Amazon now sells a huge assortment of products besides books, including music, clothing, and electronics, and bloggers can easily find product which will be of interest to their viewers. The Amazon Associates program is free and easy to join. Also there is a certain trust factor which may help sales because Amazon is so well known.
Another large and very popular program is eBay Partners Network. Like Amazon, eBay is a well known brand which offers a huge assortment of products. Their payment model is more complicated, however. They use a combination of pay-per-click and pay-per-lead which they call Quality Click Pricing. According to their web site this will typically earn between $0.06 and $0.21 per click.
A third direct affiliate program is AllPosters.com which promotes products related to art and posters. Their program pays a generous 20% commission.
Third party managed affiliate programs don't promote their own products, but rather handle all of the money and affiliate payments for other companies. Three popular examples of third party managed programs include Clickbank, Commision Junction, and Linkshare.
Clickbank is an online marketplace that specializes in digital products such as e-books. Such products are often appealing to the viewers of the blog since they can be obtained immediately, and the affiliate benefits from impulse buying.
Commission Junction is another popular program, especially for well established blogs. Its advertisers consist of large and well-known companies such as Home Depot, Hewlett-Packard, and Yahoo. Like Amazon, these well known names introduce a certain trust factor which will benefit the affiliate.
Linkshare is a program whose partner advertisers also include big name companies such as Walmart, Macy's, and PetSmart. Linkshare tends to be more open to smaller blogs than some of the other programs such as Commission Junction.
Another way to find other affiliate marketing programs is through affiliate marketing directories. Many affiliate marketing directories can be easily found online.
In summary, affiliate marketing can be a great way to earn extra money from your blog. It's easy to implement, and requires very little effort once it's set up.
One last suggestion is to make sure you only affiliate with reputable companies and products that you believe will be of benefit to your readers. If you do so, not only will you make additional income, but you will enhance our blog's credibility.
About the Author
If you are serious about achieving success in internet marketing, you need to be aware all of the ways of making money online, including affiliate marketing
.
To learn more about how you can have dramatic success in your internet business click here
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