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Saturday, August 12, 2006

AdSensical : : Make Money Online: Referrals / Affiliate Income

AdSensical : : Make Money Online: Referrals / Affiliate Income

4 Common Mistakes New Affiliate Marketers Make

4 Common Mistakes New Affiliate Marketers Make
By Alden Smith
I am sure everyone has heard the pros and cons of affiliate marketing. On the one hand, you need no product to sale, the affiliate manager provides you with promotional tools, and sometimes even a website to promote. Likewise, when you market a product through an affiliate marketer, then the customer, along with his contact information, belongs to the affiliate manager, and you have no way to make contact and add the person to your mailing list. We have all heard of the great success of people like Rosalind Gardner and others who have made small fortunes affiliate marketing, and want to repeat that success in our own businesses. Affiliate marketing should only be one of the tools in an internet marketer's arsenal, and if handled properly, can be extremely lucrative.

It is very true that affiliate marketing can be financially rewarding. Affiliate marketers who have stuck to their promotions, optimized for the best success, and market their wares in a forward thinking manner are making great rewards for their efforts. Lifestyles have changed, and people are able to get some of the things that they want and need through affiliate marketing. Although affiliate marketing can be very lucrative, there is no easy way to do it and be successful.

What makes on affiliate marketer stand out head and shoulders from the rest, while so many struggle day to day for pennies? The answer probably lies in the fact that so many make mistakes from lack of knowledge than anything else. Affiliate marketing is not just about promoting a marketer's product through his website, and sitting back and watching the money flow in. First and foremost, the new affiliate marketer must know the market, and be aware of his potential customers.

Discovering the most common mistakes new affiliate marketers make is the first step in the process of being successful in affiliate marketing. Certainly, there are do's and don't involved in a successful business approach. The most common mistake in this business of affiliate marketing concerns the principles involved in your business. And one must also be well aware of search engine optimization in particular. Here are 4 ways to learn what is needed to be successful in affiliate marketing.

1. The best way to promote an affiliate product is through advertising. That is why it is so important to carefully study the search engines, and how they work. Learning and using knowledge of search engines is probably the most important feature of affiliate marketing. the engines find the relevant content, and that content must be yours.

2. Don't overdo it on your affiliate site with banners, flashy graphics and content that is not relevant to the product. If you must use banners, then provide plenty of relevant content along with it. Your job here is to inform. do not confuse your customer that is looking for a solution with irrelevant content and distracting graphics. Instead, give him the information he has come to look for.

3. Give the customer options. Having only one solution on a well constructed page leaves money on the table. Offer more than one solution to the problem. Just be sure that you keep the content relevant. In other words, do not put affiliate information about spyware and how you can cure the customer's problems on a page with a product for acne!

4. There is also the problem of beginning affiliates trying to promote too many products at once. Your object is to give the customer what he has come for, in possibly several tightly associated products, but not give him so much choice that he leaves the page confused or overwhelmed with your presentation. Ultimately,. the customer must make the choice of what he will buy.

Ultimately, the new affiliate marketers who fail will be the ones who do not exert enough effort into the marketing strategy. Be sure to have a step by step plan in place before ever beginning the process of affiliate marketing. There is really no other way to be successful in this competitive market.

Alden Smith is an award winning author who has been marketing on the internet for over 7 years. His site, http://www.for-the-record.biz, is loaded with articles and information for the beginning blogger and internet marketer.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Alden_Smith

Developing The Perfect Affiliate Program

Developing The Perfect Affiliate Program
By Jeffrey Wall

Are you looking for an effective way to market new online customers? Don’t want to pay thousands of dollars for a marketing plan that doesn’t even work? Then an affiliate program could be right for your business. In this article we cover the definition of an affiliate program, what affiliates look for in a program, and how you can offer these features to increase your sales.

So, to begin, what is an affiliate program? An affiliate program is a feature offered by tens of thousands of online stores. Companies offer money, usually a commission, to other businesses for help in promoting their companies’ product/s or service/s. It’s like paying for marketing only when you receive a sale. A successfully designed affiliate program puts hundreds or even thousands of affiliates to work for your company. If designed well enough, you will have to do very little marketing in order to sell your products.

As stated earlier, there are thousands of affiliate programs. Unfortunately, many of these programs are more or less worthless. Affiliates have become educated, and rarely join these poorly developed affiliate programs. It is increasingly important to create an affiliate program that presents affiliates with something worth their time.

According to Jim Gribble, founder of LinkProfits.com, affiliates look for many of the following qualities in an affiliate program:

+ First and foremost, payment is given for sales made
+ Payments are made at least monthly
+ There is a believable payment threshold
+ Quick customer service responses

Most affiliates research potential programs with great scrutiny. There is no room in the online community of affiliate programs for those who do not pay their dues. Businesses that run their affiliate programs with late or nonexistent payments do not last long. Also, affiliates researching your company do not easily trust programs that make their payments at increments longer than 1 month. It is best to pay weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly.

As affiliates research your program, they also look for a payment threshold that seems believable. A program that pays up to $1,000 per week is unlikely to be trusted by an affiliate. Too many companies have offered such high thresholds without the funds to back them up.

Another important aspect of affiliate programs is customer service. Affiliates want responses and they want them quickly. According to Gribble, many potential affiliates send an email to affiliate programs that they are interested in joining. He says that they base their interest in the program upon the timeliness and usefulness of the response given. Although great care must be taken with affiliates, the work they can provide for you is well worth the effort.

Now, let’s discuss the more important issue; developing your affiliate program.

How do you effectively begin an affiliate program? Well, to begin, you should use the resources that you already have, your current customer list. If your business does business to business transactions, you have a wealth of resources. However, even business to consumer companies have potential to gain affiliates by speaking with their current customers. As long as they are not spamming, customers can tell their friends about your great product/s or service/s. And with money involved they may be much more interested in giving referrals.

Once you have petitioned your current resources, you need to branch outward. There are many resources, paid and free to help you in this effort. As stated on the previous page, there are many online affiliate directories where affiliates can search for your program. A quick search on Google for "affiliate program directories" will bring up a handful of great companies that you can register with.

Besides these often free directories, there are also paid affiliate consultants. These professionals help those managing affiliate programs to find affiliates. For those with the money to invest in one of these professionals, will more than likely find great success with little or no effort.

As with becoming an affiliate, one of the most important aspects of managing an affiliate program is getting the word out. Let other businesses know the benefits of your program. Be open and honest with those researching your program. Place links in newsletters, on banners ad programs, in offline advertisements and in any other marketing you do for you business. If you are truly offering good benefits that you can actually provide, with the appropriate marketing, you are guaranteed potential affiliates.

About the Author

Jeffrey Wall is a seasoned ecommerce professional. He has studied website design and ecommerce since High School. He is the sole owner of JMSB Web Solutions. After working for a web site design company, he decided that it was time for a change. He soon thereafter started his own web site at http://www.jmsbwebsolutions.com, which he currently runs to this day.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeffrey_Wall
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