Learn What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Learn What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Learn What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Introduction
In this article we are going to take a look at a fascinating concept of marketing products and services on the internet known as Affiliate Marketing and determine just what is affiliate Marketing to see if it might be an income opportunity worth considering.
Internet Sales
The Internet has become a mega marketplace where $131.4 Billion dollars in retail sales took place in 2009. By 2013 that number is expected to rise to $198.3 Billion. All of this is happening during what is being described as a worldwide recession. A very large chunk of those sales are the result of Affiliate Marketing. Giant retailers including Walmart and Sears even offer affiliate programs.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate Marketing is the marketing of products and services offered for sale by certain businesses called merchants or Affiliate networks and are promoted by Affiliates known as Advertisers or Affiliate Marketers.
The Affiliate Marketer signs up or contracts with the merchant or affiliate network and is assigned a unique Affiliate Link which the marketer places in his/her own website. The affiliate marketer then promotes that product, group of products or service on his website with written content, videos and photos. If the visitor clicks on the unique affiliate link he/she is taken to the website or landing page of the merchant or affiliate network where the product/s are displayed, described, sometimes demonstrated, and priced. If the visitor chooses to purchase the product then a check out shopping cart type system is usually provided or a form for credit card purchases.
When the purchase is made the transaction tracked and is credited to the Affiliate Marketer who attracted the customer with his/her marketing efforts.
When a certain minimum threshold is met, usually $100, a commission payment is sent out usually monthly or bi monthly by check or electronic direct deposit to the Affiliate Marketer's checking account.
Advantage of Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate Marketing creates a win win situation for both the merchant and the affiliate marketer.
As you probably are aware the largest part of most retailers budget is advertising which might be spent on TV, Radio, Newspaper, Coupon type advertising. The retailers or merchants can recruit hundreds or even thousands of independent self-employed affiliates into its network to do their advertising for them and the only time they have to pay for their efforts is if they are sent a buying and paying customer.
There is an almost an unlimited variety of physical products and digital products. You can promote these products without owning them and you will receive a commission for your efforts if the customer you attracted with your marketing efforts goes on to purchase a product from the merchant's site.
This allows the affiliate marketer the latitude of choosing from thousands of niches to be able to promote products he or she is familiar with, and interested in.
Other very important advantages of Affiliate marketing are:
Very low start-up and operating cost. Assuming you already are familiar with the various marketing strategies and how to implement them typically the only costs involved are: Domain Hosting, Website Hosting, and Research Tools.
Work in the privacy of your own home.
No people contact or very little.
Tremendous income potential. Some affiliate marketers earn a five plus figure income PER MONTH. Some make upward of a million dollars or more per year.
Pleasant work. If you are the type of person who likes working on computers and online it can be an enjoyable adventure.
Helping people. To be successful you need to make your business about helping people instead of just how much money you can make. Make helping people your primary objective and the money will follow.
Pursue multiple niche markets. Many people have numerous interests and there is no reason why you can't be very successful promoting numerous niche market products.
Most Affiliate Networks or Affiliate Retailers provide valuable support.
How much money can I make as an Affiliate Marketer?
Depending on which niche or niches you choose and what products you sell you can make upward to five or even six figures per month. Yes, per month.
Affiliate networks generally pay anywhere from 5% to 75% of their product's selling price. So, as you can see the income potential is incredible.
How do you do Affiliate Marketing?
You will need your own website or blog site for each niche typically.
You will then use one or several methods to "Drive Traffic" to your website such as:
Article Marketing.
Social Media
Email Marketing
Pay Per Click advertising
Comparison marketing
Class Ad advertising on CraigsList or othere free online publications.
Each of these above methods can be extremely effective if implemented and executed correctly.
What do I need to know to start?
You will need to know how to research and choose a profitable Niche. You need to know how to research Keywords and implement them in your marketing content using the right density so the Search Engines will pick them up and not reject them as Spam.
You will need to learn how to write effective articles to market your niche and where is the best place to publish them to get read.
You will need to know how to establish an email list of ready, willing and able customers to market to.
This of course is a simplification of what you will need to know because assuming you are new to internet marketing you will need to get some specialized training to become successful.
Oh yes! No question about it, you can use the learn-as-you-go method by observing what others are doing and trying to copy them. Affiliate networks or Affiliate merchants can be quite helpful however they assume you have at least some level of affiliate marketing knowledge.
Usually in order for you to qualify to join an affiliate marketing program you will need to already have a website and obviously a domain.
Unfortunately you can waste a lot of time and money chasing rabbits down a dead end street if you are not sure how to go about Affiliate Marketing.
What is the best way to learn Affiliate Marketing?
Without a doubt the best way to learn Affiliate Marketing is to study a step by step, connect the dots training course designed by one or more successful marketers.
Unfortunately the many books and downloadable courses are generally obsolete by the time they reach the market because the internet is constantly changing and markets are changing.
So, it is best to have some kind of mentor or support group of successful internet marketers you can go to for help because there are literally hundreds of things that can present a roadblock for you and end up wasting your time and cause you to get discouraged even before you earn your first dime.
There are several companies on the internet that specialize in Affiliate Marketing training.
One company offersa FREE AffiliateMarketingCoursethatis actuallyvery detailed and will provide the trainingyou need to start and build your online business. There is no obligation to buy anything and very much worth your time to study.
Conclusion
In this article we have examined What Is Affiliate Marketing and taken a look of its tremendous potential for someone who seeks out some specialized training that focuses on affiliate marketing to create a substantial work at home income.
Best of luck with your affiliate marketing career,
K. Les Baker
Apex Web Marketing and Web Development Company How Online Shopping Cart Can Enhance Your Profit Web Marketing Tip - Getting Traffic to Your Offer Page Joel Marion and Arnel Ricafranca's 1000 Calorie Challenge Exposed - Is It A Scam? Learn The Truth The Lotto Black Ebook Exposed - Lotto Black E book Secrets - Tips on how to Select the Profitable Amounts in Lotto Amway Scam - Who Is To Blame? Direct Pay Profits Straight Forward Multi level marketing Adzzoo Evaluation Make Extra Income Leveraging Tested CPA Marketing Strategies Yamgo TV: It Is Expected that Mobile Marketing Will likely be Bigger Than Television Advertising By 2020 NuSkin Scam - Revealing The Secrets Breaking the Barriers of Marketing With SEO Hosting Find Out How these Article Marketing Tips Can Help