Affiliate Marketing - How To Get Started In 6 Easy Steps

Affiliate marketing is probably the simplest business model you can choose to build a business. Of course the devil is in the details, as they say, but the overall model can really be broken down into six steps. Before we get to the steps, I want you to ask yourself a question. What do you hope to accomplish with affiliate marketing? This is an easier question to answer than it might seem. There are really only two basic choices here. The first is what I call the “quick buck” choice. In other words, you want to make a few dollars quickly, and you are not interested in building a business. If this is you, all you need to do is learn how to write exceptionally good ads, and then use them to promote your affiliate product. Many people will say I am wrong, but there is nothing wrong with doing this, as long as you are honestly not trying to build a long term business this way. On the other hand, if you are looking to build a business with income potential for the long term, then you will have a longer road ahead of you. It will take you longer before you see any profit from your efforts, but it will be worth it when you are able to take a day off, or even a week off, and still have sales in your absence. These steps should be followed in order. If you try to go out of sequence, you will not get the results you are after.

 1. Pick a Market

Why pick a market and not pick a product? Because you will eventually want to add additional products into your pipeline. You should pick a market that interests you, and maybe something you already know something about. Don't forget that you are building for the long term.  

2. Pick a Product

Once you have your market chosen, you should pick just one product to begin with. It will be very tempting to try to add all kinds of related products at first, but don't. Having just one product will help you focus on the important tasks. You will want to pick a product that converts well. What this means is that the product sells to a high percentage of visitors. This will help keep your cost per visitor down and increase your profits.  
3. Build a follow-up series

 Also called an autoresponder series, you should build one based on the topic and the contents of the product you are promoting. If it is a physical product you are promoting, you will have to create or locate content that is directly related to the product. As an example, if you are selling golf clubs, you could create a series about how to buy golf clubs that fit, or the benefits of custom clubs, or even something about the club preferences of famous professional golfers. Be as creative as you can, and do not stray off topic. It has been said that most sales are not made in the initial contact, they are made on the seventh. If you are not following up with your prospects, the bottom line is you are losing sales.

 4. Build an email capture page

 This is where you will capture information about your prospects so you can send your follow-up series. If you are building a business, having your own web site is a necessity, if only because you will control the content, and be able to capture email addresses for yourself. You might be able to get by for a while without this, but it just isn't worth it.  

5. Drive traffic to your squeeze page

Until you are finished with step four, you shouldn't even think about traffic techniques. If you don't have anywhere to send the traffic, why worry about how to generate it in the first place. Depending on the traffic generation techniques you choose, it may take some time for you to start seeing sales in your program. You should spend this time developing one or two streams of traffic, and refining these techniques to help you drive more traffic with less effort.  

6. Find additional related products

Once your business is making some money, it is time to start adding to your list of products. I don't mean you should go out and sign up for every affiliate program that is even remotely related. What I do mean is that you should carefully choose an additional product or two, and add them into your pipeline. Because you have been building a list of qualified prospects, you will be able to market these new products to them. This is the really long term money maker for your business. As long as you continue to recommend good products to your customer list, you can continue to make money off of them, even the ones who have already bought your last product recommendation. So these six steps are all you need to go from nothing to having a profitable business selling other peoples products. It can be easy to loose focus if you are not seeing immediate results, so keep your sights on the end goal of having a profitable business. You may also find it hard finding your initial market and product. Take your time and choose the best product you can. If the product you choose to promote is not good, your prospects will not continue to listen to your recommendations.

How To Best Select An Affiliate Program Online

Marketing products and services through the Internet is unquestionably easier and more rewarding compared to traditional marketing methods. With the millions of people worldwide getting online each day, there’s an enormous possibility for a merchant to sell his products and generate huge income.

However, merchandisers are not the only ones who can benefit from online marketing. A booming industry nowadays, provides great opportunity as well to individuals as affiliate marketers. In affiliate marketing, an affiliate marketer doesn’t need to have his own products and services to sell. All he needs to do is to refer people to the merchant’s business site for them to buy the products and thereby, earn a commission.

The key to an affiliate marketer’s success is to choose a good affiliate program and to employ excellent marketing techniques in promoting or selling the products to consumers. Why good and not the best affiliate program? There is no “best affiliate marketing program,” as one program might make one affiliate marketer a millionaire and the other a frustrated marketer. In other words, it can be a success to one and a failure to another. But there certainly is a good affiliate marketing program to start with. How to make it best would now depend on you.

But before you think how you are going to make it best and financially rewarding, first think about how you are going to land on a good affiliate program with the thousands of affiliate marketing opportunities abounding in the Internet today. Try to look into the following tips and suggestions on how to best select the affiliate program that’s right for you.

Information, that’s you need in order to make the right choice. It is helpful when you have already focused your search to a specific interest, which may be the theme of your website (if you already have one). In this way, you would be able to direct yourself towards a program that really matches your needs, wants and resources. It would be easier for you to eliminate options that are not suited to your own criteria for a good affiliate marketing program. You can join affiliate forums and learn some tips and get suggestions from experienced affiliate marketers. However, be wise enough to weigh their ideas before you buy them.

The Internet Affiliate marketing program networks are good places to look for choices. Here, merchants and affiliate marketers like you meet. The merchants advertise their affiliate programs to interested affiliates who sign up in the network for free. Third party affiliate program networks are helpful since they provide you with access to a large number of advertisers (merchandisers) simultaneously. You can easily track and compare their sales records, performances, benefits, products and services.

So now you have choices, the next question is which among those options is the right one. Here are some things to consider in deciding which to take and which to reject. First is the quality of the products and services. As an affiliate marketer your goal is not only to make visitors of your site click the link to the business site; but more importantly, to promote the product so they would buy it. If the customers are not convinced upon going to the business site, then you don’t earn. Make sure the products you are endorsing are worthwhile or in the business context, saleable. Ask yourself: if I were the customer, would I buy it? Would I recommend it to my family or good friend? If you can’t convince yourself or your family and friends to buy it, take a look at your next option.

Another is the affiliate program or the merchandiser’s history. Look into their previous and present sales data, their proven and tested affiliate marketing systems and their partners’ experiences with them.  Although, success of the program really depends on you, this one is still very important. The sales records don’t only show how good the affiliates are, but they speak about the products’ reliability, market availability and the company or the merchandisers’ reputation as well. Moreover, look into and carefully study the company’s compensation plan. Your purpose for joining the program is to earn, so make sure you’ll be paid for all your efforts fairly.

If you do not have much time to promote intensively the affiliate products by creating banners, graphics and articles, choose affiliate programs that help you create these for your web site. It would be great if the company provides training on how to effectively market products online. Remember that affiliate marketing is a partnership, so make sure your partner is able to support you as you help him promote his products and services.

Take down all the advantages and disadvantages of each program you are considering so you can clearly see the difference among your options; then later, compare the advantages of the programs with your own checklist. Take time to gather all the info you need to choose the right program. Remember an informed choice is the best choice.