Affiliate marketing for newbie’s

Affiliate marketing has exploded on the internet since Amazon launched its affiliate program in the mid nineties. Although Amazon was not the first to introduce affiliate programs, it certainly was the first to make it available to the larger internet public, and most affiliate programs are still based on the Amazon model. Today affiliate marketing has become an integral part of most online marketers’ portfolios, and affiliate sales amount to billions of dollars every year.

So what does affiliate marketing, or performance marketing as it is sometimes called, really mean. In summary it means that as an affiliate, you act as a marketer for someone else by marketing or promoting their products, mostly on your website, and getting rewarded for any sales or “leads” generated from your advertising.  Sounds simple, right! The concept is really simple, but to make a success in affiliate marketing is significantly more complex.

If you search for the term “affiliate marketing” in Google, you will get more than forty million possible sites related to your search. So where do you start if you are interested in becoming an affiliate marketer. With so much to choose from many would be affiliate marketers suffer from information overload, and never get off the ground. Pick a good affiliate program and get started.

How do I pick a good program?

Look at the pay structure. Many affiliate programs will only pay you only for the first time you refer a customer to their site and a purchase is made. The good programs will have an extended period cookie system. This means that you will get paid if the customer returns to the site, even if you did not refer him again, for any purchases made for the extended period. Some sites even offer lifetime cookies. Customers seldom make a purchase on the first visit and you will lose out if they return later.

Look at the products. When you refer a customer to a site, you must have a good chance that a sale is going to be made. A sales site with errors on the sales page, or a page that looks unprofessional will not get the deal done. When viewing the sales page simply decide for yourself, if you were interested in that product, will that page make you buy it. If not, then stay away.

It is always good to know more about the product, so if possible purchase the product. You do not want to advertise a product of poor quality. This will just lead to returns and you will not get your money, and your reputation will suffer in the long term.

Look at the affiliate support. As a bare minimum the supplier should supply you with material to market the product. Whether it is banners, or product information, or any other type of promotional material, you need material to advertise. A simple text link will not get you any business. The good affiliate programs will, in addition, supply you with training tools, FAQ’s and ways to track your sales and commissions. Good support leads to great results. At the end of the day, if you do well, they do well.

Almost any person can set up a website and advertise a few products, or an entire store full of products, but if no-one knows you exist, you will not sell anything. The main role of an affiliate is to expose a product to the market. To be able to expose your products to the market, you need to get traffic to your site. I do not plan to discuss SEO and site ranking or other marketing techniques here. That may be a future article. The point I would like to get across though, is that to be able to market your site and products, the site must be targeted to a specific audience. By having a diverse range of products you make it almost impossible to market your site, or to get a high ranking for search engines.

Your products must be related and target a specific market. You don’t want to confuse your customers with hundreds of products. They will leave your site without clicking on those all important links. Select your products well, and know who your customers are going to be.