How
to succeed as an Affiliate on the Net
Teacher:
Harvey Segal
What is
an Affiliate ?
When a company
has a product or a service that they wish to sell
they will often enlist 'affiliates' to do the job
of finding customers for them.
You may know an
affiliate by another name, for example: agent,
reseller, associate, communicator.
Once the
affiliate has managed to get the customer to make
an order his job ends. The whole process of
handling the order, the collection of payment, the
shipping of goods, is done by the company (or
distributor).
Who
benefits ?
This is a
tremendous arrangement for both sides.
The distributor
simply waits for orders to arrive and has no
involvement in the marketing phase. The affiliate
simply gets a customer, for example, to visit a web
site and takes no further part.
Commission is
paid to the affiliate on the value of orders
made.
It is the power
of the Internet with the possibility of cheap or
free advertising for a vast audience which makes
reselling such an outstanding business
opportunity.
And if you have
your own website, where you have the luxury of
posting your own ads for free, then you have an
effortless income-producing system.
Two things which
make reselling even more exciting
- If the
product can earn you residual income, for
example a monthly commission all the while that
the customer continues to renew it.
- If you can
recruit your own affiliates and collect
commission either for each affiliate or for the
products that they sell
What
should you look out for ?
Here are some
rules for checking out affiliate
opportunities:
#1
The company
First, there
would be no point in generating massive commission
on 'paper' only to find that the company are
unreliable, don't pay up on time, or eventually
fold.
Test out the
company first.
Make an inquiry
as if you were a potential customer. Study the
quality of their reply and of their literature or
website.
How quickly do
they respond ? If their customer service is poor
this does not give much hope for the way they will
handle their affiliates.
Are they an
ethical company, what guarantees do they provide
for refunds ?
#2
The product
Is the product an
item which is in good demand ?
What is the rate
of commission ?
These two factors
will determine your potential earnings.
As a guide
commission should range from 25 to 50%.
#3
Assistance with promotion
Does the company
provide advertising material for their affiliates
?
In particular do
they provide a personalised web site ?
#4
The cost
What is the cost
of becoming an affiliate ?
This can vary
from
- completely
free
- paying an
initial one off payment
- paying a
monthly subscription
You don't have to
be deterred by affiliate opportunities where
payment is involved. These may offer greater
benefits such as advanced promotion techniques and
commission which will quickly outweigh the
payments.
For example $30
per month may seem a high figure but if you regard
it as one dollar a day to have the company's
products displayed 24 hours a day to the whole
world on your own personalised web site it could be
viewed as the bargain of the century.
Can
anyone become an affiliate ?
Affiliate
opportunities are ideal for both experienced online
marketeers and for newcomers to the Internet.
Here's why:
#1
Experienced online marketeers
If you have an
established web site the minimum that you need to
do is post an ad on your own site.
And there's no
need to stop at one product.
Providing that
you don't overload your web site with ads you could
have many - and you can monitor how they perform so
that you can judge which ones to give prominence
to.
#2
Newcomers
One of the first
and most important skills you will need to use for
any online business is how to place
adverts.
Here are some of
the things that you start to learn when you submit
ads:
- The various
locations where you can place an ad such as
newsgroups, forums, ezines, web sites: and the
different rules and methods used for each one
such as frequency of posting and size of
ads.
- How to post
information to a mailing list or newsgroup for
free but using a signature file to promote your
products.
- How to code
your adverts so that you can identify where the
response originates.
- How to
organise your mail files to handle
responses.
- How to
simplify your own systems so that you have
standard replies to common
questions.
- How to set up
autoresponders if necessary to take away the
chore of responding manually.
- How to deal
with the unexpected (for example, even though
you may clearly spell out in your ad that a
reply should be made to an autoresponder many
people will still reply directly to
you).
By taking on an
affiliate operation you have an ideal opportunity
to practise these methods. This will provide the
experience for whatever online venture you plan as
well as an excellent source of additional
income.
About
the teacher:
Don't
miss Harvey's FREE book!
Guru Magic: the Internet marketing book with a
UNIQUE twist
And there's more great articles, ideas and tips at
the SuperTips
website
