Best Internet & Affiliate Marketing: Celebrate The Small Victories

Internet & Affiliate Marketing: Celebrate The Small Victories

Most internet marketing ventures start as one-man operations. When mistakes are made, you know who to blame. But don't just beat yourself up, remember that when progress is made, that was all you too. Celebrate the small victories.

When you are just starting in internet marketing, keeping a positive mindset can be a crucial ingredient of long term survival. On or off the web, most new businesses do not become profitable immediately. Sales can be mediocre as your marketing campaign gets going, and if you didn't plan ahead for this fallow period you may begrudge the out-of-pocket expenses that arise. It is easy to get discouraged.

Worse, many marketers lack basic support and encouragement. In a normal workplace there are other employees to share the load and help solve problems. Not so for most start-ups, and your personal support network may lack enthusiasm. Your friends may think you're a sucker involved with some newfangled scam. Your family may worry that your seemingly unprofitable internet career is interfering with your day job.

You must remember that you are your own manager, and good managers care about their employees' morale and motivation. Notice and enjoy the small milestones in your business as they pass by, whether it is finally getting your web design just right or suddenly nailing the top search position on a good keyword. Reward yourself with a day off or a good meal. Tell your friends about it even if their eyes glaze over; you listen to their stories about their dull jobs, right?

Verbalizing your success is for your own benefit, and it can help you assess your accomplishments and know when you've made real progress along your business plan. Don't commit the common mistake of neglecting the hardest working, most under-appreciated person in your employ - yourself.

Affiliate marketing is probably the most effective means today of conducting Internet marketing for an online business. The affiliates create a buzz for the online business, and the products are promoted to thousands of Internet users. This is why an online business should have an affiliate marketing program as part of its marketing strategy.

To establish an affiliate marketing program, the online businessman needs to accomplish two steps. First, he should recruit as many affiliates as possible. The more affiliates, the more promotion for the products. And the more promotion, the more sales. Second, the online businessman should prepare promotional materials that must be sent to the affiliates.

When both steps are done, the businessman will find that his online company will have an increase in sales. Then, perhaps, the online businessman will just go with the flow and focus on product quality and product delivery. Or perhaps the online businessman can still push his sales further upwards. How can this be possible?

All that an online businessman needs to do is to develop and provide incentives for his affiliates. Here are four recommendations for such incentives.

1. Incentives for selling X worth of products within a limited period of time – The online businessman can offer cash incentives for affiliates who are able to convert their referrals into sales that reach a certain amount, perhaps $1500, within a certain period of time, perhaps within one month. When affiliates are aware of such an incentive, they will likely double their efforts so that they can meet the quota sales within the specified time frame.

2. Incentives for selling seasonal products – The online businessman can also offer incentives to affiliates who are able to sell seasonal products or products that are offered only during certain periods of the year. The cash incentive will go to the affiliate who can sell the highest worth of seasonal products.

3. Incentives for selling the highest worth of products during slow months – All online companies experience slow months. These are the times of the year when the sales are alarmingly low. But this can be overcome when the online businessman can offer incentives to affiliates who are able to generate sales during these slow months.

4. Additional commissions or bonuses for selling X worth of products – The online businessman can offer higher commissions to affiliates who are able to generate a specified amount of sales. That is, if the sales of the affiliate reach a certain bracket, the percentage of commission in the pay-per-sale set-up will be increased. This will encourage the affiliates to go for more sales.

If you have selected a suitable affiliate program to join, and you are keen to start earning some affiliate commissions, you will need to know about the key factors to help you succeed.

So, what do you need to succeed with your internet marketing affiliate program?

• Dedication. The first thing you will need to succeed with your internet marketing affiliate program is commitment to work hard until you get the profits you want. For you to earn some commission, you will need to invest money, time and effort into the business.

• Patience. This is the hardest trait to have, yet it is the most important. You can not earn commissions overnight with your affiliate program, and you must be patient enough to keep on working consistently, even if you are not making any sales.

• Get your own website and domain name. Having your own website creates the perception that you are serious about your internet marketing affiliate program business, and you have long term commitment to it. A professional website and own domain name appear professional, and you will find it easy to make sales.

• Products, services or business opportunities that are of high quality and reputation. This is very important if you want to make some sales and earn some commission. Make sure that you choose an affiliate program that has products with high demand and easy to sell.

• A website that is well presented and will prompt any visitor to take action and buy! This is an obvious one, yet is sometimes neglected. For you to be successful with your internet marketing affiliate program, your website must clearly present what you are selling. You must make the presentation of your website such that you promote many sales, for example by placing complementary products close together. Use all the techniques you can think of to make help you make as many sales as possible.

• A ‘useful’ website that makes visitors want to visit again. Although the main goal of your site is to make sales; you will also want your site to offer a few other things that will make visitors stay longer and come back again. You could offer some free tips and ideas relating to the products you are selling. The idea is to make any visitor want to ‘bookmark’ your site. Or if they make a purchase the first time they visit; if they found some free helpful hints on your website, they will come back again for another purchase, creating good repeat business for you.

• Have a committed strategy for driving traffic to your web site. It is a very simple fact that more visitors to your site means more sales, which means more checks for you. Have a monthly budget or plan for driving traffic to your site, work on that consistently.

• Customer care and personal testimonials can significantly help you succeed with your internet marketing affiliate program. Have an email system that you check regularly to answer any questions from your potential customers. Instead of just placing your affiliate links, try to have some testimonials that highlight the benefits of the product, service or business opportunity. This will help you make more sales, thus increasing your checks.

• Offer a free e-zine or short course on your website. Some visitors to your website do not make a purchase the first time they visit your site. By offering a free e-zine for your visitors to subscribe to, you are able to keep in constant contact with your potential customers, and over time, they will become your committed clients. Internet marketing affiliate programs need a large customer base to succeed, so you need to capture every potential client.

By following the guideline presented above, you will succeed with your internet marketing affiliate program. You will need to use these strategies so that you increase your sales and earn more sales. Building a huge down-line is important in internet marketing, and having more visitors and more sales or sub-affiliates is important for your business.

Succeeding with your internet marketing affiliate program is easy if you follow the key recommendations that can guarantee your success, and avoid the common mistakes which affiliates make.

The Internet is clogged up with get rich quick schemes, some work, some fail spectacularly. For users who are looking to choose a system, a scheme or just to get ideas there so many to choose from. But the problem with all schemes is that there is always a catch, a small problem that makes them high maintenance or risky. One of the biggest failsafe schemes is as simple as adding an advert to a personal website. There are no catches, no expensive start-ups and best of all very little work to do. It may sound a little unlikely but affiliate schemes are a self-rewarding Internet money making business opportunity.

In an affiliate program no money is passed over until the affiliate has attracted someone to the secondary website. Therefore the affiliate gets paid on the delivery of the customer, meaning that both parties are satisfied, the website because they have a new customer who may encourage others to join and the affiliate because they get paid for simply housing an advert. It is not at all common in modern business practices for two parties to both to enter an agreement in which both are happy. But through affiliate sites there is an exception to this rule.

The success of the affiliate is dependent on two primary factors, the amount of visitors that they can attract to a personal site and the quality of the company that they advertise for. It seems that anyone with half an eye on the booming e-commerce industry also wants affiliates. The key is to find something that is successful, something that offers you the best services and bonus and if possible one that is relevant to your site. One of the biggest current online markets is the online poker industry. It benefits from a never-ending supply of new customers with almost insatiable love for the game. Because online poker is already one of the largest markets and also has the ability and the huge interest to expand further, it provides the perfect business for potential affiliates to become involved in.

Like all gambling and gaming sites, online poker has experienced huge and almost unparalleled growth since becoming a part of the new virtual world. It is a booming multi-billion dollar industry, which as a result allows it to be generous to those who supply new members through affiliate sites. Once players join they are far more likely to become hooked on the games and spend a lot of money generating incredible revenues. The more people that join, increases the likelihood of attracting further third party members, therefore creating even more cash for the site. As such the sites are more than willing to share large portions of their wealth with anyone who can bring in extra people. Affiliates can expect to earn 25 to 35% of the money a player produces for the site over the entire lifetime of their account. Therefore the amount that an affiliate can earn is only limited by the number of customers created and the subsequent amount of money with which said customers are willing to spend.

The online gaming industry has become the epitome of online success stories. Whilst gambling or gaming has always been a popular pursuit, its online incarnations of the popular industries have truly revolutionised the idea of gambling. Few online industries have developed so far and so quickly in terms of turnover and membership as that of online poker. Whilst the offline standard game of poker has always been played by players around the world, the increased opportunity afforded by the virtual realm has offered up a whole new array of options and opportunities. Online players have become accustomed to fast paced matches at any time of the day and against anybody from around the world. These new online poker players have the opportunity to play for any amount of money, and whilst some may miss the sportsmanship involved in face to face play, the new chat forums and message boards have opened up a new range of opportunities ready to be explored.

The explosion of online poker was not an accidental occurrence, it came in on the back of the success of the gaming industry in general. One of the primary reasons for this online success can be attributed to the marketing method that is unique to the online game. Affiliate marketing programs are a great way for any industry to reach a large audience without have to spend much money on expensive advertising campaigns. It works by creating a network of small sites, which host banners and links leading straight to the poker sites. The affiliate site owners are rewarded in turn when they produce a new customer. The affiliate can expect to receive a percentage of up to 35% of a player's total money generated, having forwarded them on to the relevant site.

Because the affiliates are rewarded so handsomely for their part in the business deal, they are encouraged to promote themselves and subsequently the sites that they represent. It is through this business ethic that the poker industry has been able to flourish. With the number of affiliates increasing each month, the poker sites can broaden their range of influence. So even if the visitors to sites fail to click on the links there and then they are getting across the brand name, and even sewing the seeds of temptation in peoples minds. The more affiliates the poker sites can attract the greater the number of people that they can potentially reach. In terms of the affiliate, the greater the number of members generated the higher the profits. So in effect the two industries are complementing each other perfectly and have no doubt increased the visibility and popularity of both. Without the affiliate program it is hard to think what the online poker industry would be like. The affiliate marketing industry is one of the most successful and risk-free forms of advertising, both on and offline.

Finally interested in affiliate programs i.e. affiliate marketing?
Well done!! Good decision.

What is Affiliate Marketing?
In a very simple term it is “salesman” with a new twist. You are doing Internet marketing of products for authors like e-books, products by manufacturers and wholesalers. This time you are doing it through the Internet and reaching out to the whole world of Internet.

How lucrative is the online affiliate marketing?
Without doubt, it is the best opportunity in the online network marketing business. It is easy to make money over the Internet, if you know how to do it.

Is it the right time to start?
Of course, it is absolute the best time. Internet marketing just left the stating block. The latest techniques and strategies the gurus have plotted out a sure way to success.

Is it challenging?
My god! What a question? The question should be “Are you ready to take on the challenges? The affiliate program” As your income grows with online affiliate marketing you will explore and discover newer and better ways to increase your income.

What selections of products do I have?
Right in front of you, click bank has a whole range of products. Well 11,000 over products. Is this enough for you? Not enough. Then look into Amozon.com there are more.

Do I need to invest a lot of money?
My dear friend, there are no free lunches. You have to invest some money initially. Like securing a website, hosting it. Of course, if you are prepared to invest more money, there are articles written by some gurus. You can to take advantages of their ideas. This will propel you to faster and greater heights. Ops, One more thing, you have to put in a lot of hard work. Nothing comes easy.

Talking about gurus, there is this GURU who not only made lots of money but also helped many through his guidance and classes to make lots of money and changed their life’s for the better.

Find out what are his secret weapons and the potential of affiliate marketing: http://www.affiliateandaffiliate.com/ewen/optinpage.html

To be a successful affiliate you should know some basic things about marketing. Considering the following points before becoming an affiliate can save a lot of time and money.

Has the Product Owner Done Good Product Research?

This is a very important point to know - whether the product owner has done a good amount of research on his or her product or not. If the owner of the product has spent some time testing their sales processes and they have a proper plan to sell their product, then it is almost sure there is money to be earned as an affiliate. The owner of the product should know the scope of his or her product and the targeted people interested in that product. If an affiliate provider himself has not done such research then it would be tough for an affiliate to get profits from the product. The sales letter on the owner’s web site should be attractive as people from your web site would be reading the same sales letter. To be sure, you should check the sales letter and see whether it has the power to attract people. If your answer is YES then it is usually a good decision to be an affiliate for such a product.

Is the Affiliate Program Free?

Another key point to know is whether the affiliate program is free or paid. If the affiliate program is paid then often you should not join it. Affiliate marketing programs should be free of cost since you are assisting the owner of the product to enhance their sales. Some people ask the affiliates to purchase their product before they can be an affiliate but this should not be promoted. Almost all affiliate programs should be free of cost. Occasionally affiliate programs will charge a nominal fee to weed-out not so serious promoters. In rare cases these programs can be worth a fee.

Your Web Site Should be Content Oriented

You should have a good content oriented web site that will link to the affiliate program. Since the sales letter designed by the original affiliate program site creators will do the selling part of the product, you should be more concerned in providing information likely prospects are searching for. Your web site should be impressive enough and address a variety of issues so that the moment the prospect navigates to the sales letter page of the product, he or she should is convinced that the product presented is exactly what he or she needs. Only if the content on your site is compelling and impressive to the prospect will he or she go to the promoted affiliate's web site. Without compelling and interesting content many web visitors will leave your web site to a search engine or another site. It is very important to have a good content oriented web site to impress and compel potential buyers.

Set a Minimum Amount as a Return

You should have some targeted amount in mind that should be the return on selling one product. Don’t go for products that return very little profit when sold. Since you may be investing a lot of time or money advertising the product, the returns should be good. If you are dealing with more than one product and track your returns on investments you can determine which products to promote most. Having a minimum return on investment will allow you to judge which products to promote, and which products to drop.

The key to becoming a successful poker affiliate is just a simple mathematical equation. The only way to create money as an affiliate is by persuading people to first visit and then join the poker sites they advertise. Therefore the more people that the affiliate that can attract to their own site the more chance they have of securing a paying customer. So it is in the affiliates and subsequently the poker sites best interest to attract as many people to the affiliate site as is possible.

Poker sites and the specialist affiliate directories recognise the need for affiliates to advertise their own whereabouts, to in turn advertise themselves. Therefore a number of sites offer affiliate marketing tools to help maximise both parties advertising scope, and hopefully increase the number of visitors attracted. One such tool is an e-mail system in which the site automatically creates e-mails to be sent out to recipients carrying advertisements. The affiliate is then recognised by his or her individual URL code, which is woven into the web address in the link. Meaning that if someone were to click on the e-mail link and join the site, the affiliate would be instantly credited with the new account.

Another more conventional advertisement is the common sight of online banners. Affiliates are given the choice of any number of banners, varying in style, size and color to suit any site. Most casual Internet browsers will have noticed that most sites carry advertising slogans and banners, which adorn even the smallest sites. These are a primary part of the affiliate scheme and are possibly the most successful method of attracting or enticing people to visit a site. To boost the chances of the affiliate programs success, a website owner may use a number of lexical devices to tempt the visitor and promote the site. Emotive and intriguing language may be a useful tool in itself in the uphill battle to persuade guests who have managed to discover the affiliate site, to then proceed to another poker site and sign up.

Of course the audience of an affiliate site is limited to those people who are likely to have an interest in online gaming and more particularly poker. Whilst the number of visitors may be restricted, fortunately due to the surging and continuing popularity in the online poker industry. Therefore despite being a niche market it still has the huge potential for visitors, hence why even those with only a fleeting interest in the poker industry can join an affiliate program. It is a hugely lucrative business and with its power to attract players has also become a hugely popular subject matter for affiliate marketing. With the power of a billion-dollar business behind your affiliate program, failure is almost an incomprehensible subject. With a little work and some persistence any website owner can become a successful affiliate marketer.

So you're asking, what are portal sites, and what is it that they can do for me? A portal site is a website that doesn't really sell anything, but there is tons of information, and links to other sites on them. There are usually ads all over these sites, as this is usually how these sites make their money.
         
   Portal sites can help you, because by determining how many portal sites there are in any given market, one can decide if it is indeed a good market to get into or not.
         
   You can see, that by checking out these portal sites' alexa ratings, that they are getting just tons of traffic. Which is always good, especially if you would like to place a banner or ad on one of their websites. As this will link others to your website. It is important to remember that these portal sites are not competitors, but really just portals, or doorways, if you will, allowing more traffic to come to your site. Portal sites are great at getting search engine traffic, and can potentially promote your site if you advertise with them. You will have to pay them to promote you, and there are many ways that this can be done. You can offer content for their site, you could let them join your affilliate program, or just pay them for a banner space. In any case, portal sites are ideal for boosting traffic to your own site.
         
   If, on the other hand, you are just looking for a good market to get into, you can do a search on any search engine for keywords in your market, and if a lot of portal sites come up, then you can be reasonably sure that it is a good market to get into.
         
   My new website, is a portal site. There are links to sites that offer not only website developement tools, but personal developement tools as well. Register, and you will receive an incredible report, along with other goodies from time to time, all for FREE! And this stuff is totally awesome. It is just PACKED with valuable information! Stuff that takes years and tons of money to learn, is all there for you, for FREE! Hopefully, my new website will soon have as much traffic as those other sites out there! May we all succeed at health, wealth, and happiness.

The humdrum existence of going to the office day after day doing the usual 9-5 shift is a trying task for those who have lived all their lives doing so.  This is why the convenience of doing work at home under amazingly flexible working hours is a dazzling prospect to them.  Doing work at home that is as fulfilling as having a career working for a computer on the 19th floor of a skyscraper is already a possibility in these modern times.  This is because the jungle-like network that is the internet has given birth to a business that has given some people practically new lives doing nothing but so.

This particular business allows people to work at home under flexible working hours.  There is no boss to scream around putting pressure on everyone about the deadline at hand.  There is no clutter of messy paperwork that needs to be completed the soonest possible time.  Conveniences such as these are experienced by those who are into affiliate marketing, the newest way to earn money without having to go through all sorts of routine found in regular employment.

Those who have been in the business long enough can attest to the fact that it is a lucrative business indeed, one that can actually give people things that they could not possibly possess or experience under ordinary circumstances.

The business called affiliate marketing involves an affiliate’s promotion of a merchant’s website.  Here the website owned by the affiliate is made to advertise and market the website of the merchant through the affiliate program that they run.  Whenever someone clicks on the merchant’s website promoted by the one owned by the affiliate, the affiliate is given a commission.  This is in recognition of his effort in helping the merchant make a sale.

The system involved in affiliate marketing seems easy, but it also takes a lot of diligence and perseverance for one to be able to penetrate it thoroughly.  Those who want to get into this type of business should possess the necessary skills to be able tread through the industry with confidence and self-assurance.  Still, other factors are needed by one to be able to really break in.  Knowledge about the business at hand is very important as it dictates the actions that are to be done by people who are into it.

The leading figure in affiliate marketing is the super affiliate.  He is basically an e-mail marketer who collects large databases of e-mail addresses through newsletters.  Super affiliates are also those who know the business even better than affiliate managers as a result of their knowledge about the affiliate marketing industry inside out.  Those who want to be super affiliates should know that becoming a super affiliate is not easy, because it takes a lot to be able to master the marketing craft.

Becoming a super affiliate means having one’s own website and autoresponder.  These tools will help a lot in one’s facilitation of the business.  Building one’s own list is another.  Creating a loyal customer base and taking care of it is one secret that successful super affiliates have.  Making good customer relations is also important if one wants to be a super affiliate to reckon with.

Continuing to market to the people on one’s list is another must if one wants to succeed as a super affiliate.  Sending out quality content in lieu of ads is an advantage as products are marketed better whenever enough information is given about them.

Building traffic to one’s own site is also one of the most essential points in the affiliate marketing business.  Making one’s affiliate links his own business will allow him to build a strong relationship with his customers, enabling him to market to them over and over again.

The most important thing one should remember if he wants to become a super affiliate is to treat affiliate marketing as a business first and foremost.  If he is capable of doing this, then he will never have to go back to the humdrum existence of working the 9-5 shift.A career as a super affiliate in the business which will change his life forever could possibly take that unexciting job’s place.

What if you could exceed your sales goals for a given month? Or a year? What if you could double, or treble...or quadruple...or more of your sales goals for a specific month? Impossible, you say?



Well, there is a way: The Way of The Affiliate. The possibility for potential growth through affiliates is virtually unlimited. The more affiliates you have in your program, the more money you can make. If Ray Croc had tried to run each and every McDonald's restaurant himself, he would not have been very successful. For maximum growth, you need others. Consider Avon Cosmetics: its phenomenal success is based on two things - a great product, and an excellent affiliate program.



<u><b>To Attract Affiliates: Make it worth their time</b></u>

<b>* Offer a high commission per sale:</b>
The higher the commission, the more affiliates will join your team/business/program.

<b>* Provide the tools required to successfully market your program:</b>
Example: articles, banner aids, and whatever else might make the program easier for the affiliates to operate and help increase sales.

<b>* Provide updated information:</b>
Newsletters, new promotional campaigns or other methods to inform and motivate your affiliates.



<u><b>Choice of Affiliate Program</b></u>

<b>* One-Tier Affiliate Program:</b>
Pays on one level and generally offers a larger commission. The affiliate receives a pre-determined amount per sale.

<b>* Two-Tier Affiliate Program:</b>
Affiliates are paid on two different levels in that they can recruit others to sell under them in the program. The Recruiting Affiliate receives a slightly larger commission than the Recruit/Second-Level Affiliate. For example, if the First Level/Recruiting Affiliate normally earns 20% of the sale, then she/he in the Two-Tier Program would make 15%, giving the Recruit/Second-Level Affiliate the difference of 5%.



<u><b>Setting up the Affiliate Program</b></u>

<b>* Do it yourself through an Affiliate Tracking Software.</b>
This software provides a method to track affiliate sales. It also allows affiliates to view their progress. There is, however, a disadvantage to this option: you are responsible for making the payments.

<b>* Hire an Affiliate Tracking Company to do all the work for you.</b>
This is a more sophisticated option as they use credit cards, which is important for internet sales. Such companies completely run the affiliate program from billing your customers, paying your affiliates, and paying you. This is a good option to use if you are a beginning business owner or are a busy person. It is a totally affordable option as most of such companies only charge a small one-time fee.



Whichever way you decide to run your affiliate program, it is sure to increase profits for your business.

"Cloak and dagger" sounds like a joke, but it's truer than you might like: if you don't cloak your affiliate links, you may get stabbed in the back. If I were to advertise this link: http://www.traffichoopla.com/cgi-bin/update.cgi/13196/ it would be very easy for you to just cut it off after http://www.traffichoopla.com

It wouldn't necessarily need to be a malicious act, maybe just laziness on your part, but if this were a program where I got paid per click on my affiliate link...I wouldn't get paid. If you slipped your own affiliate username in the link, you would get paid. If I earned a commission on a purchase, I wouldn't get it and you might.

There's another reason to cloak your links. If you're half the affiliate that you should be, you are promoting your link all over the internet. But as we all know, affiliate programs come and go, and so does our interest in any particular program. What happens when you drop a program? You have to scramble to find all the places online where your defunct url is residing, so you can change it or remove it. Chances are they won't all be found.

You can use one of two ways to cloak a link that involve creating html files, or you can use one of many services that cloak links for you. The advantages to creating html files on your own domain is that you only need to edit them when you drop an affiliate program, you get links back to your domain, and you get page views that improve your Alexa rank.

You can go here to find the two kinds of html code to choose from: http://www.selfseo.com/story-13929.php There is also a list there of cloaking services if you decide to go that route.

No matter how you do it, cloaking your affiliate links will protect your affiliate earnings and save you time and trouble in the long run.

This article is being written in hopes to express that it is extremely simple to find valuable links on websites that you are visiting.
 
   Just recently, I was checking out a self-help site, trying to learn how to "manifest" wealth, when I ran across a link to a site that provided all sorts of resources for building my own website. Now, personal developement is essential if you want to succeed in life, but website developement is crucial if you want to succeed at an online business.
 
   The self-help site provided me with the ambition, and the belief in myself to actually go out there in the world and start doing things that might actually create wealth, and I did.
 
    I followed through with their contacts, and let me tell you, that this stuff is awesome. It proves that one can have a successful online business, and there is no need to put out a fortune to do it. One does need to invest time, and effort, but very little to no money at all. It is virtually free to set up a profitable business online.
 
   I have since acquired a mentor, who is guiding me step by step, to creating my own online business. My mentor would be much better at explaining the details of how to build your own website, and starting your own business, so be sure to click on my links, and let me know what you think of it. I have been trying to update it everyday, working a little here and there. You will find a link to the self-help site there, as well as a link to my mentor. Hoping you and yours have much success!

Internet affiliate marketing is one of the most efficient, most inexpensive and fastest methods to promote merchandise. With millions of folks acquiring access to the Internet day-after-day, there is a large opportunity for a merchant to present his merchandises and services to a broader market, thereby, increasing his profit.

As well, affiliate marketing is an fantabulous way to generate full-time revenue as a home-based affiliate marketer. For somebody who's tired of going through with a laborious eight-hour work ordinary, affiliate marketing offers up a capital opportunity to earn big without exhausting himself dead—physically, mentally and emotionally.

In affiliate marketing, both companies are profited because as the merchant earns by each item sold, the marketer also takes in a commission.

If you're curious in affiliate marketing only are finding out them hard to search affiliate programs, affiliates or merchants, you will be able to begin by checking out sites of several affiliate networks. Numerous affiliate programs on the Internet are being extended by an affiliate program network, which acts for a link between the merchants and single affiliates.

Among the most popular is LinkShare, it is through with it that merchants and affiliates meet. LinkShare maintains and manages affiliate marketing programs for a great number of merchants with various kinds of businesses, products and services. It as well has over 6,000 affiliate site members in its network. It acquires profits from the set-up fees, monthly account maintenance fees and commissions.

Joining networks like LinkShare can be of great assistance in building your online marketing business. Whether you're a merchant or an affiliate marketer, you want to research considerably on your partners in order to decide the most beneficial for you.

LinkShare allows for the facility of acquiring access to a large network of advertisers (merchants) who offer their affiliate programs to publishers (affiliates) who are willing to promote their merchandises. In the equal fashion, it gives the merchants access to a large network of affiliates who are seeking for affiliate marketing opportunities.

LinkShare is particularly beneficial for an affiliate in deciding his partners because he can find his options all in one location. It would be more well-off for him to compare products, commission rates and other benefits given by the merchant. The merchant typically just waits for concerned affiliates to sign on in his affiliate marketing program but being in the network gains his chance to advertise his products to a greater market, therefore, increasing his potential to acquire large earnings.

To help you decide whether to use large affiliate networks such as LinkShare or not, let us try to look deeper into its positive and negative sides. The primary advantage of LinkShare to you as an affiliate is convenience.

As earlier mentioned, you find different pieces of information about your choices simultaneously all in a single location, so you save time and effort looking for affiliate programs or merchants.

It’s also easier to track your business partner’s performance through monthly reports and statements, as well as its sales and commission rates, so you know whether the affiliate program is still worth continuing. If you have signed up for several affiliate programs, you can check all your statistics for each merchandiser you are affiliated with by logging in just once.

LinkShare helps you manage and maintain all records of your visitors’ click-throughs and sales transaction. It takes care of your commissions and gives it to you monthly in lump sum. Especially when you have more than one merchant partner, it would be easier for you to manage your accounts and track your earnings when you are affiliated through a marketing program network.
Furthermore, every information you get is accurate and secured, so you are protected from all the risk you might encounter. Above all, you can enjoy LinkShare’s benefits for free. You just have to go to their site and register your website. Instantly, you get access to a great variety of affiliate programs available for you.

So, what’s on the negative side? Although, it is indeed helpful to join affiliate marketing networks such as LinkShare, there are some disadvantages, too.

For one, merchants offer lower commissions to affiliates who partner with them through the third party program network. This because they still have to pay for the use of service and the technology provided by LinkShare.

Direct partnership with the merchant cuts costs of advertising through the network and so the affiliate has bigger potential to earn more. Moreover, it is possible that your payment may be delayed for a month or more since program networks would pay you only after the advertiser or the merchant has paid them.

Do you require to use LinkShare or other networks? It depends, really. You'll be able to opt for direct partnership with the merchant, but these selection is not practical all the time. There are a deal of merchandisers who provide their affiliate program only through affiliate program networks and so, you have no alternative other than joining the network to get into the affiliate marketing program.

So you're confronted with “accept it or leave it” position. But LinkShare and additional program networks are not that negative. Subsequently , whether you join it or not, earning big would depend more on your promotional strategies and persistency.

Have you ever joined an affiliate program with a great product/service but still can’t make big money (if any)? Then where in the world all these affiliates with a big pay check came from? Can you still make money as an affiliate? The answer is YES.

Money can be made from affiliate program as many people still do everyday. Two major problems people fail to make big money from affiliate program:
• They only get a small percent of commission.
• Too many people joined the same affiliate program. Sometimes well over 100,000 affiliates for a single affiliate program.

Making money from affiliate program is not simple as put up a link in your website and expect lots of people to click on it. Even though, some people do make money this way but most of them are not big money. In order to make big money you need a strategy.

Your own opt in email list is probably the best way to make big money from an affiliate program. Building a list will take time but the reward at the end is well worth it. There is higher chance person in your own list will buy a similar product/service or it is complement with the one that you offer. The best of both worlds if you could capture the potential customer’s email before send them off to the affiliate’s website because you are now own that list and you can promote other products/services in the future. Don’t go crazy by offering anything and think people will buy it. Also, never make people in your opt in list feel you are just an advertiser. Give them some valuable information before recommend a product/service. Never recommend a product/service that you do not like it yourself.

The second way to make big money with affiliate is to find a super-affiliate. What is a super-affiliate? Super-affiliate is affiliate with his/her own opt in email list. If you asked a super-affiliate to join an affiliate program and if he/she does then that means he/she is under you whenever someone from his/her list purchases the product/service you will get a commission from it. It’s a win-win situation. Only a few super-affiliates you already build yourself an army of affiliates. An advantage of the second method is time saving. It’s won’t take as much time as build a list but it is a challenge to convince a super-affiliate to join the affiliate program that you are promoting.

There you have the two best ways to make big money with affiliate program. Making money as affiliate is not easy but at the same time is not impossible either.

Broadly speaking, affiliate program seems including everything, no matter as hot as pay per click advertising or as old as pay per impression or pay per sale or lead marketing. So, it is true that all businesses, no matter big or small, are making money online with affiliate programs. The doubt is only how to select suitable affiliate programs to make money.

What is a partner? What is an affiliate? A partner is an associate who works with others toward a common goal. An affiliate is a subsidiary or subordinate organization that is affiliated with another organization. It seems the difference is there but the basic meaning is the same – for sharing benefit.

For home base business, affiliate programs have huge advantages: 1. no hustle and be your own boss; 2. with low or even no cost to set up; 3. no hard task to deal with, such as customer service, shipping or inventory management; 4. high income potential and keep running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, no holiday no stop and sales everywhere.

Based on individual company’s policy, there are some rules that do not allow you to sign up all affiliate programs, such as PPC search engines or gambling affiliate programs may be not compatible. Meanwhile, you may know that every company has its minimum payout and commission rate is different.

In my personal experience, I strongly recommend you sign up third party for your affiliate programs. This will bring you two major advantages: one is save your time; the other is collecting your money together.

There is thousands of individual affiliate programs offered on the internet, many being through third party affiliate program networks such as Clickbank, Commission Junction Linkshare and so on. These companies connect a large number of advertisers and publishers together via their own network.

As a publisher, one registration gives you access to tens, even hundreds of advertisers simultaneously. Tracking partner performance is easy: there is only one technical support contact and easier to manage, like only using one user id and one password. The payment is received as your monthly revenue. Another is third party check affiliate programs’ credit and reputation.

Payment thresholds can often be fairly high – a $50 US minimum is common for international publishers. Finally, a payment delay of two months or more from the date of a sale/lead generation can occur often. Not mention some affiliate programs have been known for not fairly treat affiliate to track sales and leads properly as honestly as they could be. Not mention some affiliate programs announce they are not responsible for missing check. Can we ask whether they really send check?

For those big affiliate programs, like Google AdSense, Amazon, you may participate directly with their affiliate programs.

How should you choose an individual affiliate program? My suggestion is not to choose a affiliate program only according to the payment scheme, but rather according to the kind of people who are likely to visit your website, it means relevance. For example, if you are targeting home based business on your site, links to affiliate programs with school recruiting program, text-books sale and the like may generate less revenue than banners that link to paid survey companies. The most important rule of choosing an affiliate program is to know your target audience.

Another suggestion is not necessary to join every single affiliate program that comes your way. Some gurus suggest that sites that make the most money from affiliate programs are only sign up a small amount of affiliate programs.