|
SHOULD_YOU_JOIN_AN_AFFILIATE_PROGRAM
| SHOULD YOU JOIN AN AFFILIATE PROGRAM?
SHOULD YOU JOIN AN 'AFFILIATE' PROGRAM? And what to look for!
»§«·´¯`·.,¸¸,»» By Anne Ahira
There sure are a lot of Affiliate Programs out there for you to
choose from, aren't there?! If you have a busy site or a large
newsletter, you can start earning money right away! Sounds good!
But....you're going to need lots of traffic to do the 'earning
right away' thing. So, if you have a new site, a low traffic
site, or are starting from scratch, you've got a long way to go!
Be aware of that and don't get discouraged right off. If you are
brand new to Internet marketing you might be better off if you
develop your own product. That takes time and energy but when
you sell your own product you get to keep ALL the
profit!....sell someone else's product and you only keep a
portion of those profits. Don't get me wrong! I'm not saying
that someone just starting off should not join an Affiliate
Program. When you don't have a good product or service to sell
online, being an affiliate can be a great option! Just keep in
mind that it may take awhile to see a profit since you have to
promote the program and build traffic to it just as you would if
you had your own website. Just be sure you find an Affiliate
Program that offers something you love and would feel good about
marketing. The great thing about Affiliate Programs is that they
are "no-brainers"! What do I mean by that? Well, if you already
have the aforementioned 'lot's of traffic to your site', all you
have to do is post a text link to another site, the affiliate
program site, and earn a percentage for every sale which you
generate. And...best of all, the company takes care of all the
administrative problems, the credit card charges, the shipping,
the inventory....you get the idea. You just refer people to
them, they take care of all the rest and cut you a nice hearty
check every month. Sounds pretty great, doesn't it?! Yes, it can
be! But be careful! Getting involved with the "right" affiliate
program is your key to making money. (More about that later.)
Making money with an affiliate program is playing the
old-fashioned numbers game! Meaning, that out of the people who
visit your site you may get a 1% to 20% click-through ratio
(this range is so wide because it depends on the product
interest, your link to them and the power of their slogans or
banners). ...that's the number of people who click through the
text link you have provided and actually visit the site you are
recommending. And of those people, only 1% to 2% will really
buy. So... "numbers game"! Generating a good income from
affiliates programs, requires a large number of visitors to your
site or subscribers to your newsletter. Example. Say you're
getting 1,000 visitors to your site a month and you post your
affiliate text link. Just for fun, lets say you get a click
through of 5%, which is WAY high. That means out of your 1,000
visitors, 50 of them go to the affiliate site by clicking
through and out of these 50 people probably only ONE will
buy...IF THAT! Just because you get 1,000 visitors to your site
(that's YOUR site not the affiliate site you are promoting) that
doesn't mean you will get $500 a month from your affiliate
program. Here's some more numbers for you. A company with a good
affiliate program will have about a 0.5% to 1% visitor to sale
ratio. It can sometimes be better than that (and often many time
worse, especially if you hook up with the wrong company!), but
that is the average. So for every 100 to 200 visitors you send
them, only one will purchase. Whoa! Doesn't look quite so great
now! That's okay, this is the reality and you have to be
realistic about your online endeavors. If you think everything
is just going to fall into your lap, you'll be easily
disappointed and end up quitting before you even get close to
succeeding. You'll want to look for these things in any
Affiliate Program you join:
=> An Affiliate Program that is successful at what they do. =>
An Affiliate Program which offers great value, a great product
or service, and more importantly, GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE! =>
Make sure the Affiliate Program has a great tracking mechanism
so that you get credit for every sale. => Look for a Program,
which tracks every sale in real time so you can see your results
instantly. => Make sure the Affiliate Program has a good-looking
website, which pleases customers, is easy to navigate, and
offers great information to the visitor. => The Affiliate Site
must be able to turn visitors into sales. You can send them all
the visitors in the world, but if they don't convert visitors
into sales, you don't make any money!
Before you decide to join any affiliate program, get the answers
to the following questions:
=> How long has this Affiliate Program been in place? => What
form of compensation is offered? In other words, are you getting
actual cash , are you getting credits for your product, are you
getting free AirMiles -- what are you actually getting? => Is
there a set up fee? If so, how much? => What kind of associate
tracking software is being used? => How are referrals tracked?
Do you get credit for EVERY single sale you refer to them? => Do
associates get credit for the sale after a visitor comes to the
site and doesn't buy, then leaves and comes back to buy at a
later date. How long is this in effect for? => Do you have to
take special steps to get out of the agreement? => Does the
legal agreement bind you to any other responsibilities? => Under
what circumstances can the Program remove you as an associate?
If you take the time to gather all this information BEFORE you
jump into an affiliate program, you'll find that GOOD Affiliate
Programs are actually hard to find. Lucky for you! You don't
have to go freaky every time a "new" affiliate comes online!
Chances are, once you look more deeply into the company, you'll
find they can't pass your "test" and are not a company you would
want to be "affiliated" with anyway.
--------------------- Anne Ahira Editor The BEST Affiliate
Newsletter http://www.TheBestAffiliate.com
About the author:
Anne Ahira Editor The BEST Affiliate Newsletter
http://www.TheBestAffiliate.com
|
|
| |
| |
