subject: Why Some Affiliate Marketers Make A Ton Of Money And Others Don't Make Any At All [print this page] Affiliate marketing is most probably the key to survival of most internet businesses. And this is why affiliates are being sought everywhere by almost every online company. Having just one product or service, will not be sufficient for any online business to make enough money for expenses and profit. Especially as they will be competing with other online businesses, that are offering the same products and services. This makes, affiliate marketing the vital ingredient for survival.
Fortunately, many people with internet businesses, realize the important role of affiliate marketing in ecommerce. And conducting affiliate marketing seems like a relatively easy method that even a person without a masters degree in business can do. This is why there are many affiliates signing up everyday, to all types of programs.
These new affiliates are supposed to open the doors with new leads for the internet business. But nothing like that is happening. Many affiliates are not earning enough money and they find no significant activity going on at their websites. So, is affiliate marketing a mistake? The answer is No.
This practice is based on sound marketing concepts. And the major reason why most affiliates don't earn enough or any money at all, is that they have committed one or more of the following mistakes.
1. Hard Selling. As an affiliate you must not hard sell, which is basically shoving the product down the throat of the customer. An affiliate should leave the hard selling part to the website of the internet business you are promoting. The affiliate's own website should not contain anything that resembles a hard sell.
What an affiliate must do on his website is pre-sell. To pre-sell is to slowly convince the visitor of the importance of a service or a product by having excellent information, and authoritative content. Then, the affiliate will suggest an action for the visitor, which may be to check out the service or product, by clicking a link through to the affiliate website, hopefully instigating a sale, by which you will be paid a commission.
2. Flashy Websites. An affiliate is supposed to respond to the need of the visitor, which is to obtain information. This means that the affiliate's personal website should have information the visitor is seeking. Unfortunately, some affiliates are lured into making their websites into an electronic show, in which there are too many banners and too many blinking features that seek attention. If there are too many banners and too few content, the visitor will most probably roll his eyes and hit the back button.
3. Ignoring Search Engine Optimization. Activity at the affiliate's personal website can be increased if the websites URL ends up in the results page of search engines. You can't optimise an affiliate page although by having your own personal site pointing to the affiliate site you can do as you wish. Otherwise, the affiliate's website is doomed to silence. It simply becomes a lifeless stone in the ever increasing world of ecommerce.
If you intend to make extra money from affiliate marketing, to enhance the overall profits of your existing internet business, make sure you give plenty of reason for visitors to click the link from your website through to an affiliate site. You will be surprised how often an extra sale is made by using this simple method.
