subject: Affiliate Marketing Made Easy: Four Simple Steps To Getting Affiliate Commissions Fast [print this page] Affiliate Marketing can be a great way to get started in internet marketing. You don't need your own product, your own sales page, or even your own website. Well, kind of... Follow these four steps and you're on your way.
They say all you need to do is send people to your affiliate link and rake in the cash. Well, not so fast...
While you really do not need your own product and sales page to get your start in affiliate marketing, you may want to take a few extra steps. If you don't do anything but send people to affiliate links, you'll leave a lot of money on the table, and your business may be very short-lived.
Here's a step-by-step guide for getting off on the right foot.
Step 1: Pick a good product
That's the most crucial step, and one all too often ignored by over-eager affiliate marketers. You need to know the product you promote, and you need to know that it's really good. Not only that, but you need to know exactly what it does and who would most benefit from it.
How would you know that? Generally by buying it first and checking it out thoroughly. If it involves some activities, take it through its paces. Impressed? Then go ahead and promote it in good conscience. Not so impressed? You may want to request a refund.
Step 2: Know your audience
When it comes to promoting your affiliate product, make sure you send it to the right audience. If you send a product about Forex to people looking for alternative health remedies, you won't get many sales. Instead, you'll find that you'll have a lot of disgruntled list members on your hands, and possibly a lot of unsubscribes.
Step 3: Build a list
Just because you can send people directly to the sales page through your affiliate link doesn't mean you should. There are two additional things you may want to do. One of them is to build a list.
This means that you'll create a related product that would be of great interest to the people who are also interested in the affiliate product you'd like to promote, and offer it to them for free, in exchange for their name and email address.
Only once they have opted in (and possibly confirmed, depending on your autoresponder service), should you send them on to the sales page.
Not only will this process help you build a list to which you'll be able to promote other products - and eventually sell your own, but you'll sell more of the affiliate products as well.
Step 4: Pre-sell
There's one more thing you should do to get the best results from your affiliate promotions: pre-sell.
Here's what this means: You basically get them all excited about their need for the product you're trying to sell, then present them that product as the perfect solution, so when they arrive on the sales page, they're so excited about the product they're much more likely to buy.
And there you have it. Pick a great product, build a list, and pre-sell your audience before you send them to the sales page, and your profits are going to soar.
