Things You'll Need:
- Computer
- Internet Connection
- Time
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Step 1
First! let me quickly explain how affiliate marketing works for those who do not know what it is:
- A merchant, lets say Viagra, decides that it needs a more efficient way to drive traffic to their online stores in order to generate more sales (obviously).
- A way they can do this is through hiring independant affiliates, like you, to post Viagra's product links onto your personal site.
- The affiliates job is to drive traffic to their sites and help promote those links that Viagra has provided them.
- Now, when a prospective buyer clicks on one of those affiliate links found on the website, he/she will be re-directed to Viagra's online store.
- If the prospect purchases something from Viagra, the merchant pays the affiliate a commission of the sale and BANG, you make money!
So that is basically what affiliate marketing is and how it works. Now of course there is a little more too that in terms of driving targeted traffic to your affiliate site, but I will write about that a little later.
But now that you know what affiliate marketing is, lets focus on fnding the most profitable program for you to choose from. Here are some guidlines to keep in mind when tring to find a good program: -
Step 2
1. The Product
Will people even think about buying the products your promoting? A good way to find out is by testing them out yourself, but if not, you should at least ask yourself this: Would YOU buy the product?
Having faith in the product makes selling it a lot easier. Also is the price of the product fair? or is it too over priced compared to the competition? If if it is, it might not be worth promoting it. -
Step 3
2. Competition:
Can the product compete with the other similar leading products in terms of popularity and value? If not, maybe you should switch to the competition. ; ) -
Step 4
3. Compensation:
This will determine wether you should join the program or not, depending on what your trying to promote, you should generally look for 15%-30%+ commissions so that you will be well payed for each sale.
Also, if the program offers a multiple tier option were you can earn additional commission from sales that other people make for you, you should definately take advantage of it! Nothing feels better than recieving checks from sales that other people made for you!! -
Step 5
4. Support:
This is very important especially for newbies. Does the company that your working for offer support to new affiliates? Do they have the links setup and ready to go? or do you have to create them yourself? do they have banners, codes, backlinks, and other advertising tools ready for you to use? or do you have to design and create them?
This can sometimes determine wether the newer affiliate becomes successful or outright fails. Besides, a good and established program knows that in order for them to make money, they need you to succeed!
