First, you can reach just about anybody in the world who has Internet access if you market your products online. That means a wider market for you, which can translate to larger profits. Second, setting up an online business requires only a fraction of the cost required to set up an actual business establishment, which means a lot of savings for the business owner.
Another aspect that has attracted a lot of people towards online marketing is the fact that one doesn't have to have his own products to get started. In online marketing, one can start making a lot of money just by selling, or even by just trying to sell, other people's products. And getting started with this kind of marketing strategy is actually quite easy. All that one needs to do is to set up an agreement with an online retailer or merchant, and after everything is settled, one can immediately start making money by selling the merchant's or the retailer's products.
Incidentally, the most popular and the fastest growing method of selling other people's products online is affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing, in its simplest definition, is a relationship between an online merchant or retailer, who has products to sell, and his affiliates, who are willing to promote the merchant's product on their website.
In a typical affiliate marketing set up, the merchant provides his affiliates with banners and text ads that links to his site. The affiliates will then get these ads posted on their website and they get paid whenever traffic or sales is directed to the merchant's website. Affiliates are often paid on commission basis, although other online merchants would opt to pay a fixed fee for the affiliates compensation.
Starting to make money online with affiliate marketing is relatively quick and easy. All that one has to do is to sign up as an affiliate for an online company that offers affiliate programs. An alternative method, and usually an easier one, is to sign up as a member of an affiliate network, a network that hosts a variety of affiliate programs for different online merchants or retailers. Signing up is usually free, although other companies and networks may require you to pay a particular fee. Such fees, however, are made as payment for additional services that the company may render, like providing you with tools and assistance to jump start your online business.
When you sign up with an affiliate marketing program, you are usually required to fill out a form containing information about yourself. Some affiliate programs may also require you to present the URL of your website and describe its contents. This will allow the retailers to verify that you actually have a website with contents that are relevant to their products. Some affiliate programs, however, won't require you to have a website. After filling out the form and all, you are then allowed to choose the affiliate programs you want to promote.
After signing up with an affiliate program and being an actual affiliate, you are now ready to start making a lot of money by selling other people's product online. How do you make money? There are actually a number of ways for you to earn money as an affiliate, and most of these ways depends on the type of affiliate marketing program you've gotten into.
Many affiliate marketing programs compensate their affiliates in either of three ways. PPS and PPL affiliate marketing programs work rather differently:
1. Pay-Per-Click (PPC): In pay-per-click affiliate marketing, the affiliate is paid whenever he directs traffic to the merchant's site.
2. Pay-Per-Sale (PPS): In PPS, the affiliate only gets paid when his referral converts into an actual sale. In typical PPS affiliate programs, the affiliate would usually get 15% to 20% commission for each conversion.
3. Pay-Per-Lead (PPL): PPL affiliate programs work the same way, although affiliates are paid a fixed fee whenever his referral converts into a lead for the company.
Some affiliate marketing programs are two-tier programs:
1. Wherein the affiliate is also allowed to recommend other affiliates to the merchant. In such affiliate programs, the affiliate would not only be paid for the traffic or sales that he would direct to the merchant's site but also for the traffic.
2. Sales directed by the affiliates who signed up with the program through his recommendation.
3. Yet another way of earning more profits with affiliate marketing is through residual affiliate programs. Residual affiliate programs are affiliate programs where the affiliate gets paid a number of times for as long as the merchant keeps the customer the affiliate has referred to his site. One form of residual program gets the affiliate paid a commission every time the referred customer purchases something on the merchant's site. Another form of residual affiliate program gets the affiliate paid a percentage every month for as long as the company keeps the referred customer.
With a lot of options available and a lot of ways to earn money, affiliate marketing is undoubtedly the most popular and the easiest way to make money by selling other people's products online. As to how much money one can get from affiliate marketing actually depends on the affiliate. A dedicated and hardworking affiliate would certainly get more from the program compared to those affiliates who would simply sign up and forget about the program later.
Affiliate marketing has many descriptions, yet all have the same meaning. Affiliate marketing is a huge business on the Internet. It is a cooperative effort between merchants and an affiliates website. For many years now, affiliate marketing has proved to be a cost-efficient, measurable method of delivering long-tern results. It has become famous for Internet merchant's who are trying to make some extra or additional income for their site. Every day, people get interested in affiliate marketing and want to make money out of it. But in many cases, these new affiliates do not fully understand the affiliate world and make costly mistakes. In other words, affiliate marketing has often been misunderstood.
One of the common misconceptions that's being associated with affiliate marketing is "selling," though selling is an important activity of affiliate marketing and the central function of a business operation. Another is that affiliate marketing is commonly linked with "advertising." While the importance of advertising in marketing a certain product is not to be underestimated, the fact of the matter is, advertising like selling, is merely a part of the many functions of marketing.
In affiliate marketing, an affiliate is compensated for every visitor, subscriber and/or customer provided through his efforts. The said compensation may be made based on a certain value for each visit. The most attractive aspect of affiliate marketing from the merchant's viewpoint is that no payment is due to an affiliate until results are appreciated.
Affiliate marketing is typically being run by affiliate networks and the affiliate networks are composed of two functional bodies, the group affiliates and the group merchants. Each has their special function and role when it comes to affiliate marketing. The affiliate network acts as a third party between the merchant and the associated affiliates. The network provides the technology to deliver the merchant's campaigns and offers. The affiliate network also collects commission fees from the merchant and then pays the affiliates which are part of the program.
The merchant is any web site owner that wants or desires to take advantage of performance based marketing. The benefits to the merchant are many. First, the merchant maintains and operates the affiliate program. If it would be extracted, the merchant needs to do their part by researching interested affiliate website to ensure that they are a good fit for that particular website. Finding a fit for their merchandise would be the key to more generated income. The merchant has access to markets and customers without him spending valuable time searching out. Banner ads on affiliate sites are not distracting to the site user. It might produce interest for that product and drive the consumer to the merchant's website. It is also the merchant who decides how much he is willing to pay for each sale that results from a visitor sent from an affiliate.
The affiliate or the affiliate marketer also sees a lot of benefits. The affiliate is a web site owner that promotes one or more merchants and their affiliate programs. Affiliate marketing can generate a full-time income for the affiliate. But this is not an easy task to accomplish. The affiliate needs to have a better understanding with the merchant what the commission will be, expected payment method and time involved in the contract. The affiliate has also the responsibility to stand for the merchandise their user based would be most interested in. For example, if the site has a user base of mainly stay-at-home mothers, then on-line job openings such as surveys would be a good match for them. This group would also appreciate direct links to children's products and informational sites. Merchandise often provide targeted, best-seller items and personal support to their affiliate. They often offer sales promotions that will benefit the merchandiser as well as the affiliate.
Affiliate marketing is a great situation for both the marketer and the affiliate. If they would work together, they can be an advantage to both. Plus the fact that it seems to make sense, it is easy and an inexpensive way to start, and you can be up and running within a few days. But there is one thing to consider, it is how to get traffic and make your offer different than all others. Super Affiliates!
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By : Larry Washington
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