A lot of people have been drawn to affiliate marketing by the idea that they can make massive incomes while doing very little work – but is this really how affiliate marketing works? All that is absolutely necessary to be an affiliate is to place a link to the merchant on your website. Following this, you can just wait and hope people click through and make purchases. Approaching an affiliate program this way; by doing nothing will lead to comparable profits; almost nothing. Keep in mind that affiliate marketing is a business and if you treat it like one, it will reward you like a real business.
Those who have found success in affiliate marketing do things differently. There is really no money to be made by just waiting. To be a success in this business, you will have to put in some effort – this will help you continually grow your affiliate checks. You need to be active in marketing the merchant’s products and services. After all, this is how you will increase your commissions!
If you are a newcomer to affiliate marketing, then steer clear of the “sit and wait” approach which all too many new affiliate marketers take; the approach which leads to many dropping out due to making little or no money. Instead, take action to make your affiliate marketing venture grow and make bigger commissions for you. Keep reading to learn more about these elements of affiliate marketing success.
* Become an expert on your affiliate product. You can do a much better job of promoting a product which you know a lot about. One of the ways to educate yourself is to try the product for yourself – this will allow you to make a recommendation based on personal experience. If you cannot try the product for yourself, at the very least you should research it thoroughly.
* Host your own website. You need to have your own website or at the very least, a domain name which is easy for people to remember. This means more traffic and more commissions for you.
You should also create a private website, with access restricted to those who click on your affiliate links. Visitors typically like the idea of getting access to private sites. These sites also give you an opportunity to promote other affiliate programs.
* Write your own affiliate ads. Merchants are usually fine with the idea of you writing your own affiliate ads – as long as you get their approval before posting them on your site. This will give you a leg up on all of the other affiliates promoting the same products using the same ads.
* Participate in chat rooms, discussion boards, and forums related to your product. Even if you have always passed these resources by before, you should begin using them to promote your product – don’t come off too strong, but subtly promote your product as you chat and offer advice to other users. Do this I chat rooms, message boards and forums which are relevant to your product or service.
* Create a free ezine or newsletter. These are periodicals which you can use to keep current and potential customers about your niche topic; don’t use it to make sales pitch after sales pitch to people; they will likely stop reading it if you do this. Instead, you can insert affiliate ads and links here and there in the newsletter or e-zine. You should promote this publication on your website and provide visitor a way to subscribe.
These are just a few tips on continually growing your affiliate checks and building success for your affiliate marketing business. There are many other things you can do to increase your sales and you should be all means use these methods as well. The important thing is finding ways to bring in more traffic to your website, convince visitors to click those affiliate links and of course, find ways outside of the confines of your own website to promote the merchant’s products and services. If you can do these things, you can certainly make a success of your affiliate marketing efforts.
44 Comments
Bruno Auger
October 26, 2008Reed
Your posts are always so informative. I really like how in detail but yet in simple terms explain how to go about afiliate marketing.
Bruno Augers last blog post..Suspended by Twitter
Bill Masson
October 26, 2008Hi Reed,
Yes a lot of great tips to succeed, I find that a lot of marketing is very tedious and boring but has to be done if you want to bring more options to your table. JVs for instance can bring you a lot of benefits but you have to graft for it. I prefer passive methods and building on the long term, it’s no overnighter that’s’ for sure. Building your online real estate is important along with social networking. The main key is to be as active as you can.
Bill Massons last blog post..Work For The Tech Savvy
Mohamed Akram
October 26, 2008Reed..
What you have been saying is totally right because I am tired of people who just say do something only and leave it for the rest of your life and when you buy you find them telling you to get a site then write some content and make some stupid traffic tactics and then leave it!!!
OMG! I think when I am beginning a new site or business I use my notebook and start writing my goals and writing in details the marketing plans and content plans with every aspect of it and make a schedule with list of thing I have to do like on Sun 14:00 PM I will put new content on my blog and so on
Sorry Reed for that long comment but I just hate people who make products saying “Make it and Leave it” or “Get Rich Overnight”
Thanks
Mohamed Akrams last blog post..How to Build a Blogging Following For FREE!
Kenny Ritchie
October 26, 2008Simple and true “Become an expert on your affiliate product. You can do a much better job of promoting a product which you know a lot about. One of the ways to educate yourself is to try the product for yourself – this will allow you to make a recommendation based on personal experience. If you cannot try the product for yourself, at the very least you should research it thoroughly.”
They are the best recommendations you can make to any marketer.
A potential customer can sense your understanding and belief it the product if your individual input is stamped upon it.
Rivers Corbett
October 26, 2008I like it…why? Because it again reinforces that all the “get Rich Quick” BS is just that….lazy does not get anyone anywhere.
Cheers to Your Success!
Rivers
http://myrewardsbiz.com
Anna Kindler
October 26, 2008Hello Reed, Thank you for all the good info that you share with all us newbies. I have a lot ot learn about affiliate marketing. But I do have to tell you that your are certainly helping me to understand more about how the programs work. I have a book almost finished and will be setting up another site to sell my book. I need to first learn how to get my other site working first. Never fear this granne newbie will make it work. Keep ut the good work, Reed. Thanks again. granne newbie
Brian Carelse
October 26, 2008Hi Reed,
Big cheques come from selling high priced items or items with recuring payment eg monthly amount.
Let’s see some real affiliate pay cheques for selling small items. One would think that with the large e-mail lists the guru’s have they would make money like water.
Why do you struggle to get them to work with you? They are only attached to their inner circle who are playing the same game, let’s pretend to be making money like water. A sucker is born every second. Real affiliate’s hardly make any money, because they can’t pay $10 000 for advertising to generate $35 000.
Only when a super affiliate joins forces with you will you make large sums of money.
Maybe the answer is to answer all your e-mails automatically to promote your affiliate program – now that’s an idea.
get a copy of The Revolutionary Internet Marketing System TODAY it is available for a small fee! http://www.e-marketingsolutions.info/thenewtrims.html
Thanks
brian
http://www.e-marketingsolutions.info
Jaye Pause
October 26, 2008Wow,
Great most Reed.. Very informative and straight to the point. I love internet marketing, it can sometimes be boring, but you just have to find new and innovative ways to stay ahead of the curve. Writing your own ads and ezines are among the best ways to attract like minded souls that are interested in what you have to offer.
Thanks,
Jaye
http://www.lightningfastads.com
Noreen MacKinnon
October 26, 2008Reed:
I am involved with Affiliate marketing and I promote daily. It is a struggle to be successful with this.
There are times when you wish you can just set it and forget it and then hope for the best. Nothing like giving my honest opionion.
But in all seriousness,the key to success is hard work-basically good work ethics.
With this combination, success is eminent. You must keep up your momentum, which is very important.
People who are successful, as I have observed, are very much Computer savvy and do basically what you stated in your post.
Thanks again,
PV Reymond
October 26, 2008Hi Reed,
Good point.
Most people think that writing a couple of articles and running a couple of ads is all they need to make money. Then when they see that there is no money coming in the feel frustrated.
The reality is that in order to make a good amount of money as an affiliate you have to work hard and you have to make some sacrifice.
You have to learn marketing and apply what you learn if you really want to make money
Thanks,
^PV Reymond
http://www.pvreymond.com
Peter
October 26, 2008Hallo Reed,
I will give you and your readers some arguments and also a hint to visit some sites for doing really wealthy business. My testing and reading now this year gave a box full of advices which I want to present to you.
This post has also some pros and some cons. As you have mentioned people should treat the to be working as AFFILIATE like a clockworker and build reliable content to act as expert. First of all when starting you should accompany your biz by writing ezines according the AIDA principles and support each of the paragraphs by naming experts not gurus or bla bla writers. People should hire experts as ghost writers and not trying to foul their readers as if an expert has written the content. I recommend valuable content. You have nothing to fear when your content is proven.
Please make sure to mention always the affiliate is the lengthening or the transmitter of the ideas of the producer of the supported product even when it is a text or a product like Chinese hemp trousers.
sincerely peter
John Bandy
October 26, 2008Hi Reed,
You sure are right about having to advertise, advertise, and advertise. I am a newbie so I haven’t seen the end results yet. I am working hard trying to make something out of being an affiliate.Thanks for the tips and good advice.
John
John
October 26, 2008Great advice Reed. Many people believe making money online doesn’t involve work when in fact there IS a learning curve, and effort is also required to market products.
Often marketers themselves are responsible for the idea of “easy money” by what I call “hit and run” marketing. We see huge sums of money made (sometimes almost overnight) in product launches, but we never see the tremendous amount of work and knowledge that went into making it before the launch. And we also do not realize that most marketers (especially affiliate marketers) don’t make huge sums overnight.. they work for it and create steady streams from multiple sources.
Internet Marketing isn’t rocket science. All we have to do is learn the basics of selling, know our products, and spend time marketing them and we WILL succeed.
The best,
John Michael Christian
Brian
October 26, 2008GoHoster.com is a great way for affiliate marketers to promote products and services … IMHO
http://www.gohoster.com
Brians last blog post..Week One Bug Fix
Timothy Millar
October 26, 2008Hey Reed, Nice post, I believe in the content rule you mentioned,just putting the ad that the
marketer gives you will only make people click
to the next ad. You must put your own 2 cents in
and show you trust the product. Using a blog to do this is an idea I try to use along with ezine
articles. Being one of the first to promote a product is also very affective but you have to get a jump on everyone else, one way to do that is by the forums especially Warrior forum. knowledge is King. Timothy Millar
Timothy Millars last blog post..Getting your Traffic from Ad Exchanges?
Noreen MacKinnon
October 26, 2008Reed:
Excellent post. Keep the information coming.
Very helpful.
Thanks,
Noreen
http://web2members.com/cp/?cp=891
Dale Kydd
October 27, 2008Thanks reed your information is always helpful and quite often reminds those that think they are doing all they can that they have missed a point or two.
There are so many teaching aids on the net that you can get over inthusiastick or overwelmed and basics like this brings one back to earth in a nice way.
Many times I have heard the saying,
“KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID”,
This remains the best lesson one can learn on the net and you always have the nack of reminding us.
Thank you.
Paul Livingston
October 27, 2008Some great tips there, thanks. But finding the time to DO all those things and become proficient at it can be a tad difficult.
I wish I had an answer to that one.
Paul Livingstons last blog post..Discover How People are Using Traffic Exchanges to Explode Their Incomes
Max
October 27, 2008Great Post!
I have just recently started with forums and can attest they are a great resource for marketers.
Also the “Sit And Wait” approach is no good.I think to many new affiliate marketers take this approach and give up when they don’t start making any money immediately.
Ari Lestariono
October 27, 2008Reed, one of the reasons I like your post is so practical and direct no fuss about that, and if anyone is on real deal on affiliates market they know the hassle and difficulty getting traffic, but Reed has demonstrate it can be succeed by doing different methods and approach
Ari Lestarionos last blog post..Onions: Different Taste for Each Season
Michael
October 27, 2008Reed,
All good points and will work well if done together. I post articles at Ezine but am now seriously considering the newsletter feature. I am deriving great benefit from your free information.
Thanks,
Michael
Wayne Bell
October 27, 2008Great advise Reed. Using some of the tips and advise from your previous articles along with reasearch, one of our newest websites: http://autopilotprofits.synthasite.comJust Google: legitimate autopilot profit system
Regards And Thanks For Your Posts
Rob P, Cruisin
October 27, 2008Never had the time to follow blogs now you have given me a reason. Informative and essential knowledge is getting harder to find amongst all the BS out there. I ended up here after joining one of your programmes and researching you. Keep up the good work I will now go and put into action my newly acquired knowledge.
Regards
Rob P. Cruisin 🙂
Wayne Bell
October 27, 2008OOPS! The bwebsite link in my last post should be:> http://autopilotprofits.synthasite.com
Just google:> legitimate autopilot profit system
Regards – Wayne
normz2
October 27, 2008Being an affiliate is like having your own business. You do have to promote it to make it work. It is much easier if the clients give you the appropiate tools to work with. It is bad enough spending a fair amount of money, but you have to spend the effort. When you see results it is easier to do the work.
Luca
October 27, 2008Hey Reed,
I’ve learned that it takes time and focus. You can get easily distracted and go in a totally different direction. Apply all the points you bring up in a focused and planned way and don’t give up.
Jorge EZ Affiliate
October 27, 2008Great article. Many people expect to build a website and become rich…
IM is not like that; it is constant work and dedication.
Jorge
Jorge EZ Affiliates last blog post..Automate the Content for Your EZAWB Affiliate Sites
Geoff Dodd
October 27, 2008Hi Reed,
Thanks for the ideas expressed in your latest article. I think we can learn from the Ezines used by pros in this business, like Michael Campbell who’s been around since 1990s, like Mark Joyner, Ken Evoy, etc. Copy their tactics.
Also, build up a large Authority presence online such as this very blog. It is certainly becoming a treasure trove of ideas for getting more success with Internet affiliate programs.
Finally, do a blog article with a different angle on ‘How To.. ‘ which leads into your particular affiliate program or network marketing program; e.g.
http://loseweightloss.blogspot.com/
Focus it around a ‘problem question’ such as ‘How Can I ____ ‘ or maybe ‘Where can I ___’
– if your research finds that potential customers actively search using these terms.
Geoff Dodd
Australia
Rob P. Cruisin
October 27, 2008G’day again Reed,
You have bought a side of me out that I did not know I had. This will be two posts here now and you got a comment out of me at wildfire giveaway
http://wildfiregiveaway.com/go/323
I have always been the quiet one just going about my business without bothering anybody.
Now this an old Dog has been taught new tricks as they say your never to old to learn.
I am sure you are going all the way to the top of the heap in internet marketing. Great to see young fresh faces and idea’s getting on.
Keep up the good positve stuff. I am now off to find a few more of those blogs people have been pestering me to post on now I know it’s not that hard or time consuming. Yer I know just never got blog savvy and always thought it was for the young and when I find the time I will have to look at the marketing on a blog which I know is becoming very popular.
Regards
Rob P. Cruisin 😎
@The-Cruisin-Along-Network
P.S. Anyone reading this check out the following link it’s Free and a great thing for Newbies & seasoned Pro’s.
http://www.netmarketingrevealed.com/r/Cruisin
The Beast
October 27, 2008Hi Reed when I read it ,it hit me !Its me he wants to say something to and he (you reed) know I have it difficult to read and answer email´s.
But then i see all comments ,something hits me again ,are we so many golddiggers who buy all crap (I am one of them who think idont wanna learn and go the long way,nono, But I must its true what reed says Iam a living proof on that)
We are many golddiggers and think if we only pay and wait we get payed.Iam still Waiting
Srinivasan
October 27, 2008Hello Reed,
I do agree that it requires a lot of hard and full time work. What happens to people like me who puts in a couple of hours daily within which time we have to catch with all the exploding knowledge, write blog posts or articles, work on your website and umpteen other things that needs to be done to be a success in internet marketing.
Though I work part time I have had no big success.
I doubt about the usefulness of chats and forums as my personal experience is not much success.
Srinivasan
admin
October 27, 2008@Bruno thanks
@Bill yes be active or outsource and have them be active
@Mohomed agreed there are very few things in life that are set it and forget it. However we should automate as much as possible
@Kenny & @Rivers thanks
@Anne thanks
@Brian for instance when I sell the $7 products to my list I usually make $300-$1000 which is usually what other products will do for me as well. Some will be less of course but others will be a lot more (for instance a big ticket) that’s not a ton of money but considering I’ll I do is cut and paste and click send and it’s all profit I’m not complaining 😉
@Jaye for the creative types there’s a lot for them as in writing the ads
@Noreen I know a lot of the “gurus” and I can say that a ton of them have no clue when it comes to the computer. They’ve outsource a lot of the technical stuff
@PV agreed or outsource
@Peter yes AIDA is a great principle
@John are you building your list?
@John Agreed that’s one of the things that really bugs me about this niche. All these guys talk about oh I made $100K or $1million in a day… and in reality they spent a ton of time (maybe a year or more on the product) they built up a ton of connections, odds are it wasn’t their first launch and they had the expenses such as copywriting, graphic design, customer support, technical stuff, perhaps other things and then you factor in the prizes they give the JV’s and the affiliate commissions and they are really lucky if they made minimum wage… But with that being said their are other benefits such as they will have more exposure, trust, experience and a much bigger list then they had before and that’s where the money will come in.
@Brian I’ll take a look thanks.
@Timothy yes when you are one of the “early birds” you do get the worm in internet marketing
@Noreen, @Dale thanks
@Paul outsource
@Max, @Ari thanks
@Michael I highly recommend having a newsletter
@Wayne congrats on your success
@Rob thank you
@normz2 agreed once you start seeing some results it’s very inspiring
@Jorge agreed
@Geoff great tips thanks
@Rob glad to help
@The beast yes you need to take action in order for this to work
@Srinivasan chats and forums can be used to achieve success but you have to do it the right way… by having signatures at the bottom of your posts and starting VERY popular topics.
James and Helen
October 27, 2008Reed we keep learning, learning, and learning and the information is helping us to make more money. Thank YOU and all of this information is much appreciated.
James and Helen
Dale Kydd
October 28, 2008Hi Reed,
In reply or back up of Geoff Dodd’s post I would agree with bells on.
I still have trouble with placing links to the wright place and do not use html as I do not understand it; I have tried to use it but fail badly.
I can produse great web site and can link the pages OK but to place a product that I have purchased into the web site !@#$$^*%^*&)&.
If you had a section for these it would be great for all of us. Newbies, old hats, young and us oldies who have mastered a lot of the PC but not all.
You could even do an eBook on this subject or a vidio showing how. (More Money I’m giving away) To a good cause though.
How about it Reed?
Thanks Geoff.
Dale
Australia to.
If you do not try then you are a failure, If you try and fail then you are not, you are a learner.
Chris Imamshah
October 29, 2008Great ideas no doubt. When I first got started I felt so overwhelmed with all the different options available for an affiliate to use to promote the merchant’s products.
I do not fear work at all and was not expecting a get rich quick program as they are all usually scams anyway. My problem was the constant distractions that would pull me in all different directions.
Now I am finding, after selecting a handful of marketing techniques that I enjoy and are effective that I am enjoying the business more and seeing better results.
Just my 2 cents.
Chris
http://www.christineimamshah.com
Jussi Koiranen
October 29, 2008Points one and two are crucial, if you want to be in business, act like you are. Third point is something everyone should do immediately if they haven’t done already! Fourht is something I haven’t yet done, but I can see the benefits in it and hopefully I will have an ezine of my own soon…
Julia Earle
October 30, 2008Reed –
Am enjoying this series very much. It is very helpful – especially this posting. Thanks so much!
Julia 🙂
Julia Earles last blog post..Tuesday Evening with iNetGlobal, AdPacs and Steve Renner
admin
October 30, 2008@James & Helen you’re welcome
@Dale so a video on how to edit web pages?
@Chris awesome sounds like you are really making a lot of productive progress keep us posted
@Jussi keep us posted on your success
@Julia you’re welcome
delords
October 31, 2008That’s a great write up and newbies should take note of it cause that’s the problems most newbies have,
Most have read from many junks out there that once you set your affiliate programs you just forget it and cash keeps rolling while it will take more than that.
Affiliate marketing is actually a business and not just a get rich quick program.
even if one don’t have a personal website you can create a nice blog and use for your promotions like this is one of my many blogs i just started this
http://startyouraffiliatebusiness.blogspot.com/
its a free blogger blog and can work in pulling traffic to my affiliate programs.
delordss last blog post..
admin
November 2, 2008@delords agreed thank you.
Pat Gunning
December 29, 2008Many people discover that affiliate marketing is more than just writing ads. It encompasses a whole business plan developed for the purpose of not only promoting a product but promoting and branding you.
Your ultimate goal should be to build your own list and market directly to your list of proven buyers. This is the start of making real money online.
personal checks
June 8, 2009That’s a great work. You must be a good expert in affliate marketing. But I still dont know how to create a free ezine or newsletter. Can you give me some more info about it? Thanks in advance.^^
personal checkss last blog post..Spotted a Trend
Game Copy Wizard
October 11, 2010Very informative and straight to the point. I love web marketing. It can sometimes be boring, but you just have to find new and innovative ways to stay ahead of the curve.
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