How to do Affiliate Marketing Online

In this section you will learn about how to do Affiliate Marketing Online, and also the things you need to know for how to write affiliate product reviews that convert readers into buyers. 

Tips in here will include basic information about how to make money online with or without a product or a website of your own.

I'm pretty sure you will be surprised about how you can become an affiliate marketer and earn a good income without having to buy all the latest Guru courses and magic box of tricks that are promoted all over the internet.

Don't let yourself be distracted by shiny new objects every day when you open your emails to find a gazillion sales letters in your mail.

Just follow the steps and tips in this section and you will be well on your way, 

I have also published a very comprehensive book "Affiliate Marketing - Simple System" that is  all about how to do affiliate marketing online for very little cost and maximum profits.  Check the bottom of the page for that book content and buy link.

When looking to the Internet for ways to make money online, it doesn’t take too long before you realize what a vast array of choices there are. 

Blogging for profit, pay per click advertising, article marketing as an affiliate, and CPA offers are only just a few business models out there for you to choose from. 

How do you sort through it all?  Where do you begin?  It’s overwhelming - even for the most focused individual. 

Yet for those who are determined and have an entrepreneurial spirit, the Internet is wide open. 

All you really need is a product to promote in a niche with a demographic that’s willing to pay for their consumables. 

The great thing is that you don’t need to have your own product to make a very nice living online. 

You do this through affiliate marketing programs. 

With affiliate marketing, you can choose from a vast array of products to promote online - all with a sales page already set up for you. 

All you need to do is find a way to drive traffic to that site using a specific hyperlink that gives you credit for a commission. 

Affiliate Marketing - Explained

Affiliate marketing is when you generate targeted traffic to a particular website selling a product for which you get commission on each and every sale. 

You don’t own the product (although later we’ll discuss creating your own product or service and recruiting affiliates to sell for you), but you come up with creative ways to connect a prospective customer to the landing page.

Here’s an example of how affiliate marketing works:

Joe Marketer decides to sell a popular “how to get a girl” info product.  He heads to the Internet, goes to the ClickBank Marketplace and looks up the dating topic. 

There, he is presented with a choice of maybe a dozen different products to sell and decides on one whose sales page and statistics prove it converts well.

He clicks “get hop link,” which incorporates his own unique ClickBank ID into the URL. 

He can then take the new URL and includes it somewhere in his sales funnel. 

When someone reads his sales material (an article, a pay per click ad, a YouTube video which pre-sells the product), and they click through to the sales page and buys it, Joe gets the affiliate commission – usually 50-80% of the price of the product.

Of course, Joe wasn’t limited to selling products from ClickBank.  There are other affiliate marketing programs out there. 

Commission Junction, PayDotCom.com and Share-a-Sale are just three of the many other companies that have an affiliate marketplace. 

Large websites like Amazon.com and Wal-Mart and others have affiliate programs, too. 

Just about anything you can think of is available through an affiliate program, including:

·         Thousands of eBooks and e-courses on hundreds of different subjects

·         Software

·         Internet services like autoresponders, keyword tools and hosting companies

·         Membership sites

·         Video rental (think Netflix)

·         Tangible books, videos and music

·         Electronics and computers

·         Health and beauty items…and more

As you can see, affiliate sales offer an amazing opportunity for both the new and the seasoned Internet marketer alike.

Why Is Affiliate Marketing a Profitable Business?

Affiliate marketing has amazing profit potential. 

Think about it this way: everything is already set up for you – a great product with enormous profit potential. 

If you want to sell exercise equipment, you can earn a nice commission from Amazon.com or even Wal-Mart. 

That can add up very fast, depending on how you drive traffic to the main site.

There is plenty of opportunity to profit during the holiday time. 

You can take advantage of the shopper’s need to find toys and other gifts by promoting them through a website or small ad. 

The customer gets what they want – convenient shopping - and you get what you want – a commission for leading them to the sale.

As discussed earlier, info products have great profit potential, because most affiliate programs pay upwards of 50 to 80% on the total sale. 

The average ClickBank product, for example, pays more than $25 per sale. 

The beauty of info products is that they’re digital and are easily downloaded within minutes - which is something that’s very appealing to your potential customer - instant gratification. 

The sooner they can have the product, the more likely they are to spend money for the information.

Are you into the multi-billion dollar health niche? 

You can find just about any vitamin, supplement or tonic that fits. 

You know that the Internet Marketing niche is hot, but you’re wondering how to break into it and grab a piece of the pie. 

There are literally hundreds of top selling affiliate marketing programs on ClickBank. 

All you have to do is pick one and find a way to promote it.

You don’t have to be the guru people turn to in order to learn about Internet marketing – you can just provide links to solutions that would solve their problems.

What Does a Good Affiliate Program Offer You?

Affiliate marketing is ideal when you really want to get into a niche and start making profits sooner than it might take you to put together your own product and subsequently come up with sales copy. 

With affiliate marketing, the meaty part of the sales funnel is already mostly set up for you. 

By sales funnel, I mean this: Starting from the time your potential customer finds your site via the search engines or through browsing the ‘net - until he or she clicks the order button. 

It looks something like this:

The customer types in his search terms in search engine (or is browsing and sees an ad) and clicks through.

In the case of the search engine, this brings up a page of top ranking pages for the terms as well as paid for ads (PPC).

The customer clicks on one or more of the choices until they find what they need.

In the case of an ad, he clicks through and he lands on either your squeeze page and signs up on your email list - or he lands on one of the other online pages you’ve set up to facilitate a sale.

From here, he may choose to click on any one of several affiliate links leading to the sales page.

He decides to buy - you get a commission - he gets his product.

That is a rather general sales funnel. 

As you can see, with affiliate marketing, at the very least there is the sales page and product ready to fit into your plans. 

Those are two of the biggest hurdles for a marketer to face, and this part is done for you.

One of the most daunting tasks for an infopreneur is writing a cash-pulling sales letter. 

Creating a sales page is an art - and a well written one can make its owner thousands of dollars over its lifetime or in a single day. 

They can cost many hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars to have written for you by someone who is an expert copywriter. 

That can be intimidating at best for some.

That fact, plus the task of coming up with a desirable product, is a big mountain to face. 

Creating an infoproduct is both a simple process and a huge responsibility.  Writing may not be your first and best talent. 

You might know that a particular niche is a great source of income, but don’t want to take the time, right now, to put together a full blown report. 

A good info product with staying power in the marketplace has been well-researched and is thorough in its content.

With affiliate marketing, that issues is solved. 

Your only job is to complete the first part of the sales funnel (generating traffic) with one or more of the following steps:

·         Capture the traffic though PPC advertising

·         SEO optimized articles on ezine directories, Squidoo, Hub Pages, and other web 2.0 properties

·         Classified ads

·         Banner ads

·         Blog posts

·         Forum marketing

Then send the traffic to a squeeze page where you offer a nice 5-7 page report for free on the topic of your niche in exchange for their name and email address. 

This ensures you’ll be able to market to them after the initial sale.

Or, you can send them to your website or blog where they can learn more about what you’re selling if you feel they may need a more intense pre-sell regimen.

This is often the case if you find a great product to promote as an affiliate, but the product owner’s sales copy is weaker than expected.

As an affiliate marketer, your main focus is on getting the sales copy in front of the prospect’s eyes. 

You have to get inside your potential buyer’s mind and thinking process – what actually motivates them to seek your product in the first place? 

What words or phrases do they use in their search engine journey to find the information they need? 

A good affiliate program has the materials provided by the owner of the product or service to make your job easier. 

It will have many of the pieces ready to fit into a the marketing funnel – including pre-made banner ads, a list of suggested keywords, a short report to offer as a viral freebie, PLR articles and a pack of ready to use email messages.

What You Need to Know to Begin Affiliate Marketing

While affiliate marketing does offer a shorter sales process for you, there are still some things you need to know before you can just slap up some site, drive traffic and get decent conversions.

For one, you need to know how to pick products.  You’ll need to do some homework. 

That involves deciding on the niche you wish to pursue and then researching where to find the product or service that you want to promote within the niche. 

Some do it in reverse and will look for a hot selling product and then find ways to get a piece of the niche profits.

A good affiliate marketer knows his or her market - and part of the way they get to know them is through visiting the niche forums and paying attention to the questions that keep coming up. 

At some point, you’ll want to do some keyword research, too.

Get inside your prospect’s mind so that you know what terms to focus your campaign on.

A good affiliate program may have these listed for you to help make your job easier, but you can find words and phrases other affiliates aren’t using and rank very high for those in search engines like Google.

Then, once you’ve chosen your product, you need to be signed up in the affiliate program.

This is fairly simple for some companies like ClickBank or Amazon, but others have a more involved sign up process.

Next, you’ll want to grab your unique affiliate hyperlink for the product, which ensures that you get paid on any sales made through your referrals.

Now the fun part - getting targeted traffic to the affiliate sales page!

This involves writing articles to publish on ezine directories or Squidoo or having pay per click ads pointing people directly to the main sales site.

For products or services that lend themselves well to ongoing sales, like weight loss, dating, make money online, etc., you’ll certainly want to set up an email capture page (squeeze page) which will involve you getting an autoresponder service like Aweber set up.

There are so many ways to catch and drive traffic that are beyond the scope of this report, so do your homework.

With so many choices, you’re sure to find the perfect product to promote – and the best traffic tactic to use with your niche prospects. 

Would you like to be on the other side of the coin?

A product owner who has an army of affiliates working to funnel traffic to you in exchange for a percentage of the sale?

It’s easy, once you know how.

Affiliate Marketing and Your Own Product

There are two sides to affiliate marketing: being an affiliate marketer as we have just discussed and selling a product that others can promote as affiliates for you. 

You become the product creator. 

You come up with a sales page. 

You design an affiliate program that makes selling your product profitable to others.

But you don't have to create a special program yourself to pay commissions to your affiliates when they make sales.

You can create an ebook or product that sells on ClickBank and THEIR systems will pay your affiliates and manage commissions for you.

Or you can write a printed or Kindle book or recording and sell it on Amazon.  Then Amazon will process commission payment for you to their affiliates that sell your book or recording.

Aside from having a top quality info product that caters to a hungry market, you also need to invest time or money into creating a sales letter that makes it impossible for visitors to pass by.

There is a two-fold benefit to having your own product: you profit from initial sales, plus you profit on the commissions from affiliate links strategically placed inside your own product.

Create Marketing Tools for Your Affiliates to Use:

If you want to make your affiliate program really shine and make it enticing for affiliates, then you need to offer them following marketing tools and resources to use when they promote your product to their readers:

·         Review copy of the product

·         Sales letter that you’re testing, tracking and tweaking

·         Banner ads of various sizes and color schemes

·         Text link ads for them to embed on their blog or website

·         Free viral report they can use to attract prospects for you

·         A week’s worth or more of autoresponder messages they can use to email their list

·         Five or more articles that fit the niche and are ready to use in article directories and other hot spots online

·         PPC ads that are ready for them to go live with

·         Regular interaction and encouragement with affiliate marketers, including contests that offer prizes to top affiliates.

Also, when you price your product, make sure you set the commission so that it’s generous to affiliates.

Many affiliates are looking for at least a $20 affiliate commission. 

The higher the price point of the product, the lower the percentage you can offer to affiliates.

For instance, they would love 10% of a $1,000 product ($100) over 50% of a $100 product ($50).

Affiliate marketing is a great way for online entrepreneurs to make a great income without shouldering the full burden of a marketer. 

It may take a little homework to find the right niche and the right product, but add to that your own determination to make it work and affiliate marketing could be the answer to putting your day job to rest – once and for all.

How to Write Affiliate Marketing Product Reviews

How To Take Any Decent Product and Pitch It to a Target Audience Using a Review Formula That Tempts Consumers Into Buying.

It doesn’t matter HOW big your list is – if you don’t know how to write a good review, you can forget making any sales.

Your reader, prospective buyer will be asking: "Why should I trust you?"

They’re not.

That’s why you have to work at getting the reader's trust.

Even the biggest gurus can’t always be trusted – in fact, I know plenty who are total scam artists.

And even if you get them to trust you enough to fork over some cash for a product, they’re still going to have it in the back of their mind that a refund is available – and that’s okay.

There are a few things you can do to build trust in the long-term:

1.)  Recommend good products

Earn a  reputation for telling the truth and not promoting and recommending products that do not deliver what they promise in their sales letter.   

What you want is to grow a list of readers who will say stuff like, “I know that  if you say it’s good, then I believe you – I’ll buy.”

They’ve grown to trust your recommendations. They know youre not a “launch bandwagon jumper” like so many others who scurry for the big guns when they come calling.

2.)  Be on their side

I see so many crappy reviews that make the reviewer look like their nose is permanently attached to the backside of the product owner. 

As an affiliate marketer you should be looking out for the people who pay your bills – your customers.

You should always go after extra discounts or bonuses for them. For example – you can contact a   Product  owner and asked him for a discount coupon for your  list. Most will do just that if you simply A-S-K for it!

How do you ask? “Hey {Product Owner}, I’d like to promote your product to my list, but I want to give them a really great deal. Would you please develop a coupon code they can put in to give them a discount?”

3.)  Serve the bad with the good

If you’re not honest with your readers about what’s bad about the product, then it looks like you’re being a sneaky Pete. No product  is guaranteed to be 100% perfect. Someone’s bound to find holes or improvements that could be done somewhere.

]So find things that you can say in your review that aren’t perfect about the product – and try to have a way around that.

Here are a few examples:

·         The guide is missing any information about ________ so what I’ve done is create a separate bonus for you that fills in that gap in information for you.

·         The product owner recommends this paid keyword tool here ________ but I can recommend a free one that’s just as good and won’t cost you a cent here _________.

·         Some people would rather watch than read, so I’ve put together some video bonuses that walk you through his guide so you can follow along with me on video while you do it.

You have to truly be their advocate.

Believe that you’re looking out for their best interest.

If you can feel for the consumer, then you won’t rip them off just for a quick buck – and they’ll trust you with their livelihood. 

What Benefit Does The Customer Get From It?

Here’s the “blah blah blah” part that you think you already know.

But I’m going to tell it to you from a different prospective.

Don’t skip this section!

Consumers are selfish and many reviewers don’t seem to grasp that concept.

I see a lot of reviews saying, “This product did THIS for me (or the product owner).”

They   ... Don’t  ...   Care

All they care about is – “Yeah, it works great for guru  who has experience, but what’s it going to do for a nobody like me?”

Take this information 'product' for example – this very Affiliate marketing guide that you are reading right now.

Some consumer might say, “Yeah it worked great for her with her mailing list and her lens making abilities on Squidoo, but I don’t have a list and I don’t know how to build a lens.”

So you have to explain that it will show them how they can tap into a list OR the marketplace in general and make money offering reviews of ready-made products.

In fact, maybe that could be your “flaw” with this product – that it doesn’t tell you how to build a list or a lens.

So your bonus could be about list or lens building.

Obstacle removed.

Depending on the product you’re reviewing, you’ll want to use trigger words and phrases, to show them the benefits – like this:

…in the shortest time possible

Think of the acne cure info product “clear your face in just 3 days.”

…with ingredients in your pantry

Using the acne cure info product as an example again – no expensive doctor appointment. No pricey prescription (have you priced those OTC acne cures?

An “in your pantry” homemade remedy would be a big perk to the budget challenged).

…with the least amount of effort

This is a big review perk for me. I always try to review things for my list members that don’t require you to have a degree in technology to use them.

I want dummies guide, step by step, screen shot, hold my hand simplicity.

I let my readers know they will be at ease and I put myself on their level as a tech dummy.

…with no money required

How many times have you bought an info product only to discover that to make it work, you had to spend a lot more money on tools?

You start feeling ripped off.

…without anyone having to know

Think of the benefits people get when ordering “adult” products through whatever site – the “plain brown wrapped box.”

It offers complete anonymity. No walking into an adult store and facing the clerk.

No watching the postman snicker as he drops off a box with a return address that makes you blush.

So in your review, tell them what the possibilities are for them.

Paint a picture for them. Make them feel it with every bit of their senses

How to Create Your Review Format

What are the Features of the Product?

When you write  your review, you’re going to need to talk about what the product is.

·         Is it an eBook?

·         How many pages is it?

·         Is it easy to read?

·         Are there videos to show them how to do this?

·         How many videos?

·         How long are they?

·         What do they need to be able to use the product – anything special?

They need to know both the monetary investment they’re going to have once all is said and done as well as the time they’ll need to put aside to implement this – whether it’s making money online or smearing a homemade concoction over their face to get rid of acne.

Is Support Available to Them Once They Buy It?

A good product goes beyond the features of “1 eBook, 5 bonuses and a video.”

It’s about customer service – what kind of person are they buying from?

Do you even know or could you be leading the little lambs to slaughter?

I’ve seen a great product I wished I could promote but I knew the marketer was a complete tool – so I didn’t promote it. I didn’t want to expose my customers to him.

You want to test out the customer service firsthand by initiating an email to the product owner.

 If you’re unsure, or if you get a rude reply (or worse, no reply) from a product owner, then maybe they don’t deserve your business, right?

Include a "Call to Action" in your Review

Don’t hem and haw about it trying to find the perfect time to sneak in a call to action – tell them need to buy now – not later.

Stress the importance of it and make them fearful that they may miss out on something special if they delay.

If you’ve been able to secure a discount coupon, let them know that it won’t be there forever – you don’t even have to give them a specific timeframe that it will be in effect.

If it’s a short period, you can and should pass along that information, like this:

“I talked Mr. Product Owner into giving you a discount, but his coupon’s only going to last 48 hours, so if you miss out, it’s going to cost you full price!”

In your email, or lens, or blog or wherever you’re reviewing this product – make sure you use a call to action more than once.

Notice in all the guru emails they slap that link up right under the opening paragraph?

Then again in the middle and once more at the end.

Some even stick another PS (or three) in there to make SURE you got the point!

Who Else Thinks This Product Is Great?

Some people care what other people think. I’ve become cynical in my line of work – seeing the incestuous JV relationships behind the scenes.

BUT…many people who aren’t exposed to what I see can be impressed with testimonials.

If you know that others are promoting this product and you feel that could sway your readers, then by all means name drop!

Nothing wrong with name-dropping in my book.

So for example, you might say this, “Tiffany Dow’s Social Networking on Squidoo is the same one John Reese and Yanik Silver endorsed!”

If they know those two guys and respect them, then it may matter that they gave my product two thumbs up.

You might also, over time, get emails from your list members telling you thank you for sending them the link – about how much they appreciate the recommendation because it XY and Z for them, etc.

Save and use that glowing feedback in your reviews!

Offer a Bonus to Close the Deal!

Okay I’m not a fan of this strategy in MOST cases but I’m going to share it with you anyway because it IS viable and I HAVE used it before with much success.

I’m just not a fan of the way the big launches have become a total tug of war lately.

You know what I’m talking about?

The high dollar launches with huge bonuses that make you really confused about who to buy from.

Do you want a 7 week phone interview with guru A or a complete website set-up with training by guru B?

I guess I don’t mind the strategy itself – I’m just tired of seeing it on every big launch.

I’d like to see a cash back bonus LOL – Wouldn’t that be nice?

I love seeing gurus who say their bonus is worth “$1,997” – okay, so how about Fedexing me a cashier’s check back for that amount if I buy through your link?

Not gonna happen.

Here’s what not to do:

Don’t tell them you have a bonus for those who buy through your link and then give the bonus away to your list for free.

Don’t gather 25 PLR bonuses just to say you have a bonus.

Compare This Produce To Others on the Market

If you know the product has stiff competition, then tell your readers how it stacks up.

Do a chart in a PowerPoint if you want to.

Have a side-by-side comparison. Have you seen examples of this when you upgrade an account somewhere?

Continue to Research

A lot of times, failing to make money with affiliate marketing is the result of a lack of knowledge or understanding of how it works.

If this is the case, then you should take the time to begin researching the subject it is that you don’t know much about.

There is a lot of power and relief that comes from learning about various topics. You’ll be surprised about how much a little research can help you with affiliate marketing online.

More Resources

In the different sections on this site under "Internet" and "Business" you will see many more guide pages explaining how internet marketing and working at home can be done in a way that is profitable and worth your effort.

So learn what you can, grab my free reports online here, and make the investment in yourself to buy some of the very helpful ebooks I also offer here to teach you how to do affiliate marketing online as well as website and blog building, and internet marketing as a whole.

Begin with my very comprehensive book with step-by-step instructions for how to do affiliate marketing, that is a tiny investment in your future success!

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