Affiliate Marketing: An Introduction
Affiliate marketing can be defined as the advertising of products
, opportunities, and services, using the web as the communication (or delivery)mechanism. If you want to learn more about Affiliate marketing, what it involves, and how to increase your likelihood of success as an online business person, I think you'll find the following article educational.
One error that some entrepreneurs make is that they think the internet itself is a business, or a marketing model. That's not necessarily true. The Web is a communication channel, not a stand-alone business model.
This is a great realization, because it means that there are a number of business models that can succeed through the net. Let's imagine that you have a brick-and-mortar business. Let's say...a massage parlor.
Of course, the Web isn't your business model-you can't offer a massage via the net. But, you can reach (communicate) to your local prospects via the net, using a variety of Affiliate marketing methods.
The same Affiliate marketing methods can apply to event organizing, non-profits, and educational institutions.
On the other hand, there are businesses that rely on the internet as a crucial component of their business model.
Amazon is one such example. eBay relies on it's shoppers to find it through the net. YouTube,which makes money from monetization of banner ads, delivers it's millions of videos through the 'Net.
Keep in mind that those are only the major brands people recognize. There are also a number of medium businesses that require the use of the Web as their primary communication channel.Those who want to make money online have an opportunity here.
One opportunity for you to earn an income is affiliate marketing.
The core concept behind affiliate marketing is that if you send your site's traffic to the site of a seller or a business that sells a product or service, and your referrals buy, you earn an affiliate commission. Affiliate marketing is a viable online business model, has been around for over a decade, and has been the vehicle of many successful entrepreneurs.
Are you an expert at something that people value? People may want to learn what you have to share, and even be willing to pay for it. There's an online business model that's built upon information marketing model isn't restricted to to books: people are willing to invest in video courses, DIY instruction, webinars, and even online seminars.
These can all be delivered via the Affiliate. There are many entrepreneurs who either turned what they knew into a source of income, or packaged certain knowledge into an informational product, and offered it and made a fortune.
Regardless of which one you choose, you should have a business model.
One other thing you need to have, which can even tell you which business model you use, is knowledge of your ideal prospect. Business can be boiled down to a simple sentence: Discover what your prospects want or need, are willing to pay for, and deliver it to them.
That's the foundation of Affiliate marketing.
Once you find out who your target market is, what they want, and what they're willing to pay for it, you have to do a few more things. First, you should either produce what they want, or find someone who's offering it, and ask if you can also offer it and earn commissions as an affiliated business or reseller.
At this point, you know what your ideal visitor wants, you know how much that prospect is going to pay, and you have it (or know who has it), and can deliver that product or service to them.
Obviously, at some point, you need a site. Having a professional presence is crucial for your Affiliate marketing success.
Next, your business needs to bring people (drive traffic) to your website. There are essentially two ways to do this: free and paid. The key benefit to paid traffic is that paid traffic generation is fast (if you can first get your site approved). Perhaps the major disadvantages to paid traffic is that, depending on the market, it can be costly, and if you don't watch your budget, it can be exceeded very quickly.
Even though free traffic from the search engines takes time to establish, once you get things rolling, it can be a perpetual source of free traffic, conversions, and sales.
One thing we should tell you about is that of competition. If there are too many other marketers promoting what you have to sell, you may find it to be may be tougher to find a profitable share of visitors and prospects. One of the tricks to good Affiliate marketing is to find a market of buyers, where there aren't a lot of other affiliates offering them a solution.
The points we mentioned above are some of the key ingredients of a successful Affiliate business.
Find out how much your prospects are willing to pay to get what they want or need. Then, you should create or find what it as they want.
Then, put up a website that promotes it to them. After that, you need to attract them to your affiliate site.
by: Dave Mathews.
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