Finding the right Affiliate Program - Getting Started

[sangiovesse]

Note from Catalyst (your friendly mod). I decided to make this topic a sticky as it has so much good advice for newbies. Thanks to all that contributed.

Here's where the post starts

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Hello all ive been trying at affiliate marketing for a couple months now and havent really found anything that works. I first signed up with commission juntion but didnt make any commissions. After doing this for about 3 months i got discouraged and went to mlm and learnt how to build a mediocre website and took a crack at the "send $5 to these 5 people on the list" thing which was a total waste of time and energy. Im back to square one basically with Affiliate Marketing but i want to learn how to do it right instead of just jumping in. If anybody out there can make any suggestions to what programs are legit and have good payment plans please let me know. I am soooo willing to learn this industry and invest alot of my time into this. If i could eat, sleep, and breath this stuff i would but it gets discouraging when you try something and it doesnt work no matter how hard you work at it. So if anyone can tell me how they first got started i would be happy. Im not looking for hand-outs, i expect to pay my dues.
V/R
Chris

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Chris,

It's partly about finding the right programs but also about taking the right action.

Follow Cedric's advice in the 2nd post plus read the rest of this thread for starters.

http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=17938

To find good programs that pay one of the best ways is to go to Abestweb and join programs that fit the niche you are interested - with merchants that have forums there. Most are honest and pay well.

Pick an area that you know about or are passionate about. It will help you stay motivated until the money comes in.

Learning SEO and driving traffic is the key so you will need to get really good at that. Also keep in mind that just putting some banners on a site won't do much for you. Datafeeds is the way to go to generate more income. That takes some tech expertise and a program like WebMerge.

If you don't know anything about datafeeds I wrote a beginners primer, let me know if you would like the link to it.

If you don't want to learn datafeeds but want to get a ton of product pages up without programming CHECK THIS OUT! http://www.afftools.com/psc/directory.html

Most of the merchants on this page are good and the tool will save you TONS of time and help you build sites quick and easy. It will still take lots of work on the traffic building side to make any income though.

[sangiovesse]

Catalyst,
thank you for your response and much needed info. I would very much appreciate linking to your primer. I want to do this right so any training i can get is welcome.

[Linda Buquet]

Here you go!

http://www.5staraffiliateprograms.com/datafeed1.html

Also an article I wrote for WebProNews
Double Affiliate Conversion Rates With A Datafeed
http://www.webpronews.com/ebusiness/...aDatafeed.html

[sangiovesse]

Domo Arigato (japanese for thank you very much)

[mlewi]

Affilite programs are only one half of the equation. The other part is you. yes there are things such as bad affiliate programs that are poorly designed, don't have adequate sales tools, etc BUT I would argue the FAR mor important aspect is YOU being able to sell. Don't get me wrong, there are bad affilite programs but there isn't a magical affilite program that will make a bad salesperson into a good one.

You have to know how to get traffic, qualify and filter it, and be able to really market the product you are selling.

[rybo]

Sangiovesse,

Welcome the wonderful world of affiliate marketing!

The points already provided should prove very useful to you, but adding to mlewi's point I too believe that more important than anything is for you to be marketing a product or service that you feel comfortable with.

For example, you may come across a company offering $1000 for every OAK dining table you sell, however how many of these are you realistically going to sell? The same applies to anything you check out.

I also personally dislike but am curious to learn how much commission is made by the websites which are made up solely of 100's or 1000's of links?

I always think that a persons skills are best used in areas that suit their personalities and abilities. Hence if you are into beauty products learn about these further and find a product (s) and affiliate program (s) that you believe in to promote. If not beauty products (as I don't wish to appear sexist), it may be software solutions, travel, fashion etc.

There are affiliate programs connected to every service/product - think about your interests, explore some companies and see how you feel promotng them?

Hope this helps,

Anthony

[sangiovesse]

thank you all for your advice. I totally agree about marketing a product i feel comfortable and believe in. Thats one of the things that i was having problems with was finding a product that i could convince people needed. I started out with a financial service that might have been overpriced in certain area's. That might have been due to lack of business this company does without an affiliate marketing program. I had high click thru but NO sales whatsoever so i did cry "foul, affiliate marketing doenst work!" But ive learnt a valuable lesson in everything i've endeavored so far. Thats "you can't play the game and expect to win or play good if you dont know the rule's, and also dont expect to get rich over night. Ive been fortunate enough to find this forum and find experienced marketers So far all the advice ive gotten has been better than any e-book ive purchase
Once again thank all.

[Linda Buquet]

sangiovesse,

Thank you and you are very welcome. That's what this forum is here for. So keep asking questions and we'll keep trying to point you in the right directions.

[sangiovesse]

Search engine optimization, where is a good resource to learn how to do this? Would this be used to advertise whatever product i find? Are there any ebooks out there on the market that could help me learn affiliate marketing?
If one was serious about becoming an affiliate marketer how long do you think it would take to get a routine down and make enough money to quit a job?
I apologize for the bombarment of questions,
Chris

[c1sissy]

sangiovesse, thank you for posting your questions. I am also just starting to learn about this area as well. And your questions are excellent ones that cover good areas.

I am self teaching myself web design, and finding that there are other areas within this that interest me that I would love to learn about, and others that I need to learn about, Like seo.

[Kevin Thompson]

Hi guys.

Obviously, to make money online, you
have to have something to sell. So how do you find things to sell that people want to buy?

Unless you already have a large and thriving business (which most newcomers don't), here are your 3 best bets:


1. Affiliate Programs
2. Network Marketing Programs
3. Create your own product or service

Most of the top Internet marketers - the people you may think of as 'gurus' - make their money from 1 or all 3 of these areas. They are terrific for the newcomer, since they don't require hundreds or thousands of dollars of startup capital. And they don't require you to already be an expert.

But that doesn't mean you can just join a program and start selling without any kind of training! That's exactly why there are so many internet 'failures' - they thought this business was easy, required no training, and didn't take much time. But we already know those things aren't true.

I also went through the whole "affiliate marketing thing" at the beginning. Thinking I could slap up a site,promote some clickbank products and make money.It's tougher than it looks! Since then, I have finally settled on a couple of program and am doing quite well.

Please feel free to contact me if you need some help finding turn-key, beginner friendly options.

Good luck!

Kevin Thompson

[Linda Buquet]

Chris,

90% of affiliates make under 100 a month (I think that's the stat anyway). So I would not count on making a full-time income unless you can really learn and get super good at the following.

1) How to build a good site that converts

2) SEO - you need TONS of traffic since only maybe 1 out of 200 will buy and your commission per sale may only be around $10. SEO help your site get top ranking in the search engines so more people can find you. There may be over 1 million pages competing for a search term relating to a product you are trying to sell so you have to be really good.
Thousands of people already know how to do this, so you have lots of catch up to do.

3) Then there is lots of trial and error in picking the right merchants and learning the best ways to promote them.

I'm not trying to be negative, just realistic. Too many people think AM is get rich quick. They throw up a couple banners and wonder why they never make a single sale.

HOW LONG? Depends partly on how much money you need to make. My best guess (trying to be realistic not pessimistic) is that if you were EXTREMLY fast at learning this and EXTRMELY good and EXTREMLY lucky you may hit 2000 in 2 years. That's based on the fact that you are starting at 0 and based on the fact that if you have another full time job you won't be able to devote much time to working AM.

If you decide to try - the biggest challenge will be the 1st few months - checking your stats and seeing 0 or $5 here and $5 there and wondering if all the work was worth it. But once you get some sales rolling, if you stay committed and work hard the commissions should very gradually continue to grow.

[sangiovesse]

c1sissy , thank you for your post. If you wanna learn about AM this is the perfect place to do just that. Ive tried on my own with what i thought Affiliate marketing was about for 3 months and i decided to try something else Because i thought that i did everything well enough and with all the hard work i done should pay off. Im talking i spent my 2 hour lunch and dinner breaks on the puter working at this but no sales. I am also self taught and seen that i wanted to learn other area's of ecommerce. There is SO much though that you can easily become distracted from what you set out to do in the first place.
If you want to learn SEO there are some great ebooks out there. Im not endorsing any products but that might be a good place to start if your just beginning in that area. If you like i can forward some books that i got in my personal library.

Mr. Thompson,
I appreciate your post and 411. Do you have any suggestions to hunting for products? Ive heard that googling a niche that you are interested in is a good way to start and then going to overture and using a free tool there to see what words are going cheap on search engines when it comes to the advertising? Of course i tried this with some products and found words not bidded on but they werent bidded on because they were not relevant to what i was marketing. In the end i was left confused and not knowing if i was doing the right thing.

Question: Is Google adsense a economical and effective way to advertise a product?

Catalyst,
once again thank you very much for your wisdom. We need more people like you who will tell it how it really is. That way all the people that arent ambitous will know if they even want to take a crack at something like this. (trying to not offend anyone) I understand alot of people try at this and dont succeed because they expect success overnight. Alot are under the impression that you CAN just throw up some banners , make a mediocre website and maybe pay for a service to advertise for them and they cross their fingers. I know i did that at the beginning. It was fun but i know i was fully committed at that point. I knew that i was fooling myself and got discouraged to soon try my luck in MLM(lol) thinking that i would have a more positive experience with that.
I dont regret spending all the money i did to try a crack at my dreams, it was worth it and the lesson was valuable. I wanted to give up at times and think that people who work from home, investors, business owners,self employed were all myths or a secret club hidden somewhere. I almost gave up. Dreams were just dreams at that time. Making a buck online seemed to elusive. But now that i became a member at this forum there Is hope! There ARE real people doing this and i would like to learn from them and i would like to teach others what i learn. So even if i make only $10 a sale here and there its better than nothing right? lol
In 7 months i'll be getting out of the Navy and hopefully doing awesome in AM.
Just have to keep doing and learning.
Have you ever created a product?
Out of the 3 topics that Mr. Thompson wrote about which do you think would be the best?

[c1sissy]

sangiovesse
thank you in regards to the ebooks, pm me and I'll send you my address, I would love to see those books that you are talking about.

I also know about getting lost in what you set out to learn. I was learning html, xhtml, web graphics, and decided to give asp a whirl. lol, I wasted time on that venture for now. So I'm back at the xhtml and now css with web graphics.

I notice you are in the Navy. Are you in country right now? I have a son in the marines stationed in the suni triangle right now. And thank you for your service to our country.

[Paid 2 Lotto]

Hi Chris,

one more important thing you hould consider when lokking for your affiliate program:

It is far better to have program where you promote some product or service which is recurring..so you get paid month after month for something you did once.

This way you can get easier to the point you are shooting for..to quit your job.

Marian

[sangiovesse]

can i have an example of a reacuring product?

[Paid 2 Lotto]

It is something that people buy month after month.

For example, in my affiliate biz I refer people to one company which sells lottery syndicate memberships...people play lottery in a syndicate and their subscription is monthly.

For me that means: I sponsor a new syndicate member once, but I get paid for him for many months..as long as he is a member of that syndicate.

This way you actualy get your work done once, but you profit longer...this is the advantage of the residual monthly income.

Second important thing is to look for multi tier programs..so you can profit from efforts of people you sponsor to program.

So if you build a large group of people..you can profit for many years..even if you stop promoting that program actively yourself.

Hope this helps

Marian

[Cedric]

Multi-tier and residual income programs seem to be limited to a select list of industries.

If you are not comfortable promoting the industries where you find these merchants (or not comfortable with the merchants themselves), I'd just like to offer that it also possible to be extremely successful without touching any multi-tier or residual income programs. ;)

[kenadams143]

There is a small secret as well to earn additional income that I have found to be most helpful, which ever affiliate program you join and put up on your site make sure that you do the following for the following reasons:
Have great SEO work done on your site, this will help boost you’re ranking in the natural searches and most recent studies show that 60% of traffic comes from natural search (see, www.webpronews.com) for reference.
Add Google AdSense to your site, this will help you get crawled that much faster (that part of course is arguable, but it worked for me, after adding it to my site I had double my pages indexed in less then a week). And because if the product you are offering does not appeal to you visitor one of the words in your AdSense program might, and you get paid when they click on it so it wasn’t a total waste of a visitor, plus you gave them another reference to help them find what they need, which is always a plus. You may even want to add a search bar to your site from another affiliate that pays you when searches are done through your site. There are many ways to make a program work for you, make sure you do all your research and have designed your site for maximum performance for your end users and of course for your revenue.

[sangiovesse]

Wow! alot of informative posts. Its sooo much to go over and learn about. I just recently learned about getting paid for searches conducted in search boxes you post on your site.
Two tier sounds like something to look into, although im still trying to master SEO. For the past couple days ive been trying to learn as much as possible. I also started looking at free sites to start making my site but im not sure if thats the way to go. Since i am inexperienced in web design im trying to stick to templates and such. So this leads to a question. What is a good way to get a site up and running if your not savvy with web design.
Also for reaccuring customers to come back would something like offering downloadable mp3 works?

[Linda Buquet]

sangiovesse,

I would not waste time on free sites, if I were you.
I have heard some good things about SiteBuildIt. If you go the template route, remember UNIQUE content is king and search engines can only read plain text, not images, so be sure to incorporate everything you learn about SEO into the text content of the page. Sites built from scratch some say are best and Microsoft FrontPage is fairly easy for a newbie to learn.

Thank you Garrett for the sweet compliment on PageOne. I try to help whenever I can. :-)

[ianwa]

sangiovesse,
I know this may be a little late but maybe I can help explain reoccuring sales. You are competing with every other affiliate, merchants, and other merchants affiliates, its definetly a tough job. But finding the right programs will not only help, but will put you at the top.

I manage a program that uses this type of revenue (reoccuring, or subsequent sales) for attracting, and making affiliates tons of money. I recently pulled some statistics and posted them on another board. Here is my explanation.

Affiliates develop their sites, to attract visitors and convert the traffic into sales. This is the hardest part of affiliate marketing. For every $1 that our affiliates are making through referred sales, (not including the lead commission of $0.15), they are earning an additional $1.35 in subsequent (reoccuring)sales in future months.

What this means, is that your hard work to get people to buy the product, is backed by our hard work to get customers to purchase more, which you get paid for, for the life of the customer!

One other tip,

Listen to Linda, she knows what she is talking about!

Good luck, give it a year, learn all you can.

[trogar]

Hello To All,

One of the biggest deciding factors in affiliate marketing is going to be the traffic through your site. Many of the posts so far are great advice, and are part of the affiliate marketing mix, but without having TARGETED visitors to your pages, you will not have prequalified visitors that will click on your affiliate programs.

The key to this part of the affiliate mix is knowing your visitors, and then being able to determine what affiliate programs you can offer that will meet their needs. Beyond that is the concept of presell, which is the ability to put your visitors into the required open and receptive mind set required for them to click on your programs.

Without trusting visitors that accept your advice and offerings, and without knowing what interests and needs you can fullfill for these visitors, you will have a rough time at the affiliate marketing game. Yes, you can have tons of traffic coming through your site and offer a wide variety of programs for them to click on, bit it lacks a targeted direction that will not leverage your visitor traffic, and the results will fall short of what you could actually be realizing in affiliate marketing income.

If you would like to read more in depth information, we invite you to drop by the following links:

http://www.sanders-consultation-grou...tegy-index.htm - Affiliate Marketing Strategy

http://www.sanders-consultation-grou...ting-index.htm - Emotional Marketing

http://www.sanders-consultation-grou...cept-index.htm - The Concept of PRESell

I would also agree with Catalyst on the avoiding free sites comment.

Hope that this information and these links help you with your affiliate program.

[Florena]

I would like to thank everyone for such a fascinating discussion. I also would say avoid the free sites. I created (hand coded) a community directory for a midwest city of around 175,000 with links to 1100 local business websites. The free site changed it's programming and now my site is very badly damaged. I plan to completely rewrite it this summer and database it with php and MySql and css the tables, get it it's own url and host.

I originally created it, as I work in workforce development, as a tool for job seekers to find business websites, and thus the jobs posted. Oh, did I mention I work for the City? The site, however is a personal project.It has since been linked to by the City, the Chamber, the local University and several important websites. All the webmasters involved have been nothing but kind to me. I have always kept everything free, and thus incomeless. I have not been very good to it as I have a life, and I wasn't making any money.

Now I would like to change that. My goal is small. If I only made $8,000 in a year and never made another dime, I would accomplish my most important financial goals. (I am getting a Masters degree and planning on moving on within the next 3 years.)That is sounding like a difficult task. I would not mind selling it to a local isp or something, but not sure what I could make from it if I go that route.

I have been reading all the internet marketers, and considering some ebooks within reason to market, and possibly some affiliates. I am also considering trying to set up some ads for local companies along the left and right sides. Maybe try and sell hosting service, although I know very little about that at this time. I also plan to put a program on it to track usage etc., and do some advertising in the local business journal to get more traffic.

Anyone got any ideas on what I could do with this? I absolutely love this site for it's kindness to newbies like me. Thanks everyone for the love. Florena

[net500.cg]

Originally Posted by Catalyst

sangiovesse,


I would not waste time on free sites, if I were you.


[net500cg] Good advice. The old adage, 'you get what you pay for', holds extremely true here. There are NO FREE LUNCHES in the world of entrepreneurism. You earn what you get: good, bad or ugly.


I have heard some good things about SiteBuildIt.


[net500cg] I know Ken Evoy, owner and founder of SiteSell Inc., personally (since 1998) and the SiteSell family of programs and products intimately. Both are professional, reputable and grounded in integrity.

They also WORK! There is no better program in existance today than that offered by SiteBuildIt to produce a professional, working and effective eCommerce site for the novice or professional alike. It just works.

Their 5-Pillar Affiliate program is the Cadillac of affilate programs. Many, if not most who are successful online today, either are rooted-in or copies-of, the 5-Pillar Program and SiteSell products.

{NOTE: Commment here on Affiliate programs. Most AP's are nothing more than MLM's in disguise. So, beware. A true affiliate program allows you - just like any other 'true business', to make money on YOUR OWN EFFORTS - not just for the efforts of the 'entity'. The 5 Pillar Program is a true affiliate program; possibly the best on the Internet today.}

If you're NOT already, a professional site-builder, graphic designer and marketer - or you're only looking to 'get your site up and running for optimum opportuntity for success' .. the best bet for your $$ is the SiteBuildIt program. The numbers prove it. Head to their site and check it out: www.sitesell.com

{NOTE: One more comment here about SiteSell, Inc. When you signup for the program, the resources you have access to and the products you can purchase are among the absolute best resources for marketing ANYWHERE! I've seen what 'the rest offer': from online trainers of marketing to University-based marketing .. and NONE OF THEM .. are better: most are not even close to as good. Time is too short and money too easily lost to spend either in the wrong places. So, if you're serious about eCommerce - in a BIG WAY, or just to 'get your feet wet' by earning a few extra dollars a year - you owe it to yourself to check out SiteSell.

{NOTE: To avoid any conflict-of-interest in my comments - that URL IS the SiteSell entry .. NOT MySiteSell 'doorway'. So, I gain nothing financially in this advice.


If you go the template route, remember UNIQUE content is king and search engines can only read plain text, not images, so be sure to incorporate everything you learn about SEO into the text content of the page.


[net500cg] Again, good advice. Your site must be -> YOUR SITE<- Your content, character and service must be want shines through. Just as if it was a street-vendor; door-to-door; or brick-n-morter business, your sustainability comes from 'client reorders and promotion' .. NOT the ONE TIME SALE. So, you must ALWAYS be selling YOU. Therefore, your site, must be YOU. Don't ever forget - regardless of the product or service you sell, it IS YOU your clientel are really buying.


Sites built from scratch some say are best and Microsoft FrontPage is fairly easy for a newbie to learn.


[net500cg] Not here. I must respectfully, disagree - VERY STRONGLY - with this comment. 30 years of marketing and design in the 'analog world' and 15 years in eMarketing and 11 years in site design in the 'digital world' cause me to say this:

1) Sites built from scatch - by PROFESSIONALS - are best: this includes Templated sites. Professionally designed templates, filled with original content (good, bad or indifferent) are BY FAR BETTER than poorly designed sites with great content.

Why? Because people (you and me) are visceral by nature. 47% of all who will ever visit your site are 'visually motivated' -positive or negative- to act upon your site. 35% want the information fast and easy. That means, 7-out-of-10 people who will ever visit your site will determine the 'value' of your site by its design, 100% of the time. Your content will NEVER get the chance to compete with poor design at the front door.

Good design will bring clients back .. affording you -at least- the opportunity to improve your content. Poor design only affords you a painful (costly) lesson and the opportunity to start all over again.

2) No one .. and I DO MEAN - NO ONE - who is a Professional site designer, uses Microsoft Front Page: not even the folks at Microsoft!

The Professional designer's choice of a WYSIWYG design program IS Macromedia's Dreamweaver: on the PC, Mac and Linux. Hand-coding on the PC is done with everything from Notepad to HomeSite (the engine on which Dreamweaver is based). The Mac's handcoding environment is a bit more ecclectic - but most use either TextEdit or BBEdit.

I've been using HomeSite since Nick Bradbury first developed it in 1995 and it is the choice of Dyanamic Developers worldwide. And I've been using Dreamweaver since it first hit the market in 1997.

I've had to learn and try nearly everything available for website development on the PC, Mac and Linux platforms. Because of this .. not despite it .. I rely on Dreamweaver and Homesite for my site development.

So, if you are NOT interested in producing Professional Quality site design and in doing what is required to do so -- put in your Time, Blood, Sweat & Tears -- to become good at it AND using the best tools possible, then either 'buy' your design from a reputable Professional .. or seek out a source, like SiteSell, that offers proven, professional - WORKING - site design; information; support and promotion. You will be $$ and years ahead of the rest of us who have squandered thousands of dollars (and more!) in attempts that were basically useless.

Again... Time is too short and money too easily lost to spend either in the wrong places. Don't waste either. You WILL be glad you didn't!!



Thank you Garrett for the sweet compliment on PageOne. I try to help whenever I can. :-)

[net500.cg] By and large, good advice. You deserve the compliment.

[AffiliateGoddess]

Hello All -

I don't post often, but I think I can offer some good advice. I've been consulting and managing affiliate programs for years (I'm the Affiliate Goddess - smile) and have looked at millions of affiliate sites over the years. Here's some thoughts:

1. I agree about SiteSell - worth every penny and you'll be learning from a master. They don't just sell you some templates, they guide you through every step you need to take.

2. You must be passionate about the site or sites you are developing. You're going to spend alot of time with the subject - better like it. :)

3. If you just don't have any ideas what to design a site around, use Wordtracker.com and Wordspot.com to see what people are searching for online. You'll get an idea of what's popular and then find something in that list that interests you.

4. This isn't about "selling" people something. There are 2 kinds of sites online, "Commerce" sites that have something to sell, and "Content" sites that have information. Content sites need to make money from their labors of love and so make great affiliates. They have developed a site with great content about a niche topic and then they have learned how to get traffic and a following about this topic (build a subscriber base - get ConstantContact - cheap and good). Then, AFTER that happens, you can begin to recommend products or place relevant ads that your trafic is interested in from COmmerce sites that run affiliate programs and will compensate you for sending them traffic that THEY sell to.

The ability of the Commerce site to "convert" the traffic you send is your #1 priority. If they cannot turn the interested people you send to them into buyers at a reasonable rate (2-5% of more) drop em and find a site that can. Conversion isn't your job, it's theirs. Traffic is YOUR job. Learn search, ppc, developing newsletter lists, link pop, and stickiness.

Lastly, work with companies that have actively involved Affiliate Managers. You can find many of this fine breed at ABestWeb and AffiliateBoards.com.

Good luck - imagine the day when you can earn $$$ while you sleep! It DOES work. Trust me. :)

Linda Woods
President, PartnerCentric, Inc.
Affiliate Marketing Consulting & Outsourced Program Management

Pro-actively managed programs: http://www.partnercentric.com/programs.shtml

[spronger]

Originally Posted by sangiovesse

Hello all ive been trying at affiliate marketing for a couple months now and havent really found anything that works.
V/R
Chris

Hello All,

Affiliate programs started out as a sideline for my web design business but they now account for more income than my primary business. If I can just offer a few suggestions from my own experience:

ALWAYS buy the product you are affiliated with. It's the only way to feel the benefits and really know "what's in it" for your visitors.

Forget about trying to sell - it's actually counter-productive. Selling is the job of your merchant - your job is to RECOMMEND products and services based on YOUR experience with the product.

Build a content-based website that will attract visitors who NEED the products you represent.

Get this book - Affiliate Mistakes by Chuck McCullough. It's the best I've read (and I've read a lot) for actually producing results.
http://www.stevepronger.com/affiliate_mistakes.htm

Everything you've read about Site Build It is true. I review it here:
http://www.stevepronger.com/website_builder.htm

Cheers

Steve

[boudie]

Forget about trying to sell - it's actually counter-productive. Selling is the job of your merchant - your job is to RECOMMEND products and services based on YOUR experience with the product.

Spronger, you got it. That is exactly what affiliate marketing is about. That is why it is so important that prospective affiliates should get the product, they want to recommend, themselves. That is the only way to do it. I have seen so many affiliates just signing up for the sake of it and stuffing their website with all sort of affiliate programs that it becomes chaotic, and sometimes even contradicting. e.g. promoting one software to generate pop-ups and on the same page promoting software to stop pop-ups.

Just my 2 bob.

[TrafficProducer]

commission juntion but didnt make any commissions

Remember that CJ and others may take two months to accept that an item has been purchased and may take three month to pay commission on those sales.

CJ wait longer for new publisers, I think an extra month or so, before payouts.

Guides:

a) don't panic.
b) It may take 500+ clicks before an item is purchased.
c) you will not become a millionaire, not overnight anyway.
d) Commission may help pay towards bandwidth, hosting, etc.
e) maintaining links or price of Data Feeds could outweigh any benefits, for anything more complex than the basic links.

[Cedric]

That is why it is so important that prospective affiliates should get the product, they want to recommend, themselves.

Which is fine if you're just marketing e-books and the like, but if you're marketing everything from plasma screen televisions to Elvis bedspreads, it's just not feasible.

I'm more than happy to point people to the best Black Velvet Clown paintings, but I'm a far cry from buying one.

[amberstar702]

Hi Sailor:
First of all, thanks for the time you are spending in the military for your country! It is much appreciated here.

Second, I started out with a niche that felt comfortable which is dating website affiliate programs. Initially, I hooked up with some scammers and got done out of some of my commissions and was discouraged for a while. Then I finally found an honest program.

If that interests you, I highly recommend Friendfinder.com which has something for everyone. This company is scrupulous about their competitive commission payments and has been around for a long time.

Since I am not a technological person but very good with marketing and promotions, I have my webmaster build an entire site for each niche. I use content and link with appropriate websites and have managed, thru a great deal of hard work and long hours by both my husband and myself, to achieve #1 positions in Google and Yahoo and many other search engines for our targeted keywords.

Our websites do not provide enough money to live on and I keep wondering who is making the astronomical sums I hear about third-hand. We are retired, very much enjoy making extra money at home and will keep plugging away.

Best of luck to you in whatever you choose to do.

Regards,

[sangiovesse]

Thank you everyone for your post. Sorry i have not part-taken in the discussion lately but my internet connection has been screwy on the ship.
There is alot of good info on these 2 pages i feel i should print them out and study it offline. Is that allowed? I think im going to check out Sitesell and see what they have to offer. Before my last post i was seriously considering about taking a crack at microsoft frontpage to build the site but now that ive gotten alot of positive feedback about Sitesell from the pro's i guess there is no better way.
Lately since my internet conn. wasnt so good i was talking with the IT's onboard and trying to learn whatever i can from them but they never actually did anything with marketing so it was kinda a lost cause.
Amberstar,
just doing my job. It makes me feel good that my fellow Americans appreciate it. Sometimes it feels hopeless and that what we go through doesnt make a difference but i know if i wasnt here or any of my navy or marine brothers and sister werent here we wouldnt have an America like what we know of now. Once again thank you for the recognition. Good luck to you too on your business.

Ok so free sites are out of the questions. I think with every reply thats been posted that i have the essential tools to try getting a site and finding a program.
One more question, What do you guys think about Robert G. Allen and what he has to say about affiliate marketing in some of his books. Would you guys follow anything that he says?
I heard of Ken Evoy, i actually have an ebook from him that i never read. I guess ill have to sit down and go through it.
Catalyst, Thank you so much for all your wisdom. If you ever want anything from Japan let me know.
spronger, thank you for the links.
net500,
Very much appreciated for your knowledge. It is very informative and got me all about this marketing stuff.
AffiliateGoddess,
Im honored that for your advice as well. You have also got me giddy about this. I cant wait for the day i make money while i sleep. Ill jump with glee and scream. lol
Another question: how can i determine if a program has a Active manager?
Well all your knowledge is most helpful, if you know of anything else that will help please let me know.
Hey what do you guys think about a Commerce site with products from all the coutries i go to. I could do promotions for new items everytime i go to a new country. Like sands from the volcano at Iwojima or discontinued lines of noritake china? Let me know what you guys think?

[svpong]

Hello All,

I finally got around to reading the discussion on affiliate programs and have a few suggestions:

Try the link below for loads of help on starting an
affiliate business. The Affiliate Business BluePrint covers mistakes to avoid, how and where to get targeted traffic, website presentation, what tools are helpful and on and on.

I have done a lot of research on affiliates. If any one is
interested in more help, please contact me directly by
email and I'll share more of my sources and information.
svpong@sbcglobal.net.

<edited: affiliate links removed by Catalyst>

Sharon

[frank3]

All of the info in the preceding posts is very, very good. I can attest to the feelings of joy when the first check comes in.

AffiliateGoddess said:
"Lastly, work with companies that have actively involved Affiliate Managers. You can find many of this fine breed at ABestWeb and AffiliateBoards.com."

This is good advice, but should go just one step farther. 'involved Affiliate Managers' should be expanded to say...

'involved Affiliate Managers that will work with a newcomer, will answer questions, will respond to an email plea for help, and want to help.'

There are several of them on this forum. Linda (our Mod here) fills the bill on all of these and more. She is far to modest to toot her own horn, but she helped me get started. By telephone-on my timetable.

My final thought is this: When you are first starting out in this business, send and email to the Affiliate Manager of the program you are interested in.

If they don't respond within two days, go to another program cause they probably don't have time for you (they may be on vacation and get back to you later though). Batteries not included ;-o.

[Linda Buquet]

There are several of them on this forum. Linda (our Mod here) fills the bill on all of these and more. She is far to modest to toot her own horn, but she helped me get started. By telephone-on my timetable.

Thank you so much Frank - I am always happy to help! Thanks also for visiting, joining and being a great contributor to this forum. Glad you found us!

[richwebmedia]

Hi Chris,

I'm new in this too and we've just launched our affiliate program. You can go take a look at it and maybe we can discuss more about it. the site is http://www.richwebmedia.com

My main target market is the music business in which we promote 3 sites, we also have movie sites, anti-spyware and adware sites and anti-virus sites. We give out great commission and you can advertise it anyway you want.

we have great conversion rate on these sites mainly because we have been running them for a while now on big search engines like Google, Overture, MSN, Yahoo,...

If you are interested in learning more, just let me know.

Thanks,
Ian

[I am Nick]

I am not in AM business yet, but can see that what I am doing now is taking me there (SEO, Webdesign, etc). This thread has been excellent, and I am sure it will help me from going the looong way :)

To Sangiovesse I must say, to be able to add something to the already competitive market, you must be able to search and find information by yourself. Nothing wrong in asking questions, but, most of the answers are out there already. Your way of interpreting the information you come a cross will be your competitive advantage.

You have definitely added to this thread, thanks :)

Nick

[chris399]

Florena,
Building a site that big is with links to all those businesses is quite the accomplishment. I had a link directory that got completely screwed up when hosting services changed with the company I had, and I admit, I have not found the time to fix it either. It can be a daunting process to fix them all. Did you have a working copy of the site before they changed? Copy and paste is great!
Depending on the traffic your site is getting, Google Ads might be an easy way to generate some income from your site. Of course, sellng ad space to your local audience would be more time consuming but better in the long run for both you and your market.
Selling your creation would be easier and more profitable if it was generating income.
I too am hunting for a great affiliate program to build. I have been looking for something in the internet arena, because, if it helps me, it will help others. I have read Robert Alan's books Multiple Streams of Income and Internet income and gotten a lot out of them. One thing he says, and is repeated in a lot of other information I have gathered, is building the email list, any way you can. I think my greatest failure to this point is not understanding that with my coffee business.
Is there any way of building a list for your community site? Have you asked job seekers for emails and update them when new jobs are posted? Can you develop a "6 steps to getting a new job" to give away in exchange for emails? Can you JV some way with all those webmasters that have helped you? Can you develop something they might want to pass along to their email list?

Sangiovesse,
I would like to add a little note to our moderator, Linda's, great advice about free sites. Some sites also have "build your own site" using their tools (it was not a "SiteBuildIt" website). I found in a friend's site I recently edited tons of extra coding that was not necessary. Extra code = extra load times = lost visitors. I am not a great website builder, but learning to code gives me the freedom to make instant changes. Start with a professional and get some training. I never thought I could ever code, but I did not want to pay someone else $50 to make a few little changes (and wait upon their schedule), so I took an online class through my local community college. Probably the best money I have spent!

[chris399]

I was in Network Marketing years ago and am now investigating Affiliate programs. I don't see any difference except the label. In theory I got paid to promote/sell products from a company. If I got lucky and convinced you to do the same I got an extra reward on your sales.
In affiliate marketing I am getting paid to promote someones product or information and in a "tiered" affiliate program I get an extra reward if I convince you to sell the same product.
I love this label a whole lot more!
I am excited to find a forum with two of the top people in the business contributing. And I am sure your willingness to contribute is one of the main reasons you have become successful. Thank you.

[handry]

Yes, I heard most of affliates program doesn'nt need to build complicated web sites.

You just need 1-5 pages. And you can get your commisions earnings for product sales.
But the most important things that the index or landing pages of the web was created very carefully with depending on SEO and you content.

[sangiovesse]

Hello once again,
i sincerely apologize for not partaking once again in the discussion.
He's and update, for the past half year almost (cant say exactly) ive been deployed to Iraq. My ships intranet does not allow us to download software to the computers onboard. They make it really hard for us to start a business while being onboard a naval vessel. Right before I left on this deployment i bought a wireless laptop and purchased a affiliate's package from Sitesell. I was very pleased when i finally got to download the software to my new laptop and start reading the action guide that came along with the software. It took me by the hand and led me step by step on how to get started.
I read almost the whole thing. There came a point in the guide where you have to get online to start researching a niche. Since ive been in Iraq and on this ship, using the tools from sitesell has come to a halt.
The good news is i get out of the military on the 23rd of this month. At that time i am looking at becoming a full time marketer. I have about 2 months paid for vacation time to work on this.

If anyone else has tried sitesell please email me. I am real interested in this topic.
Cheers.
Chris , your local newbie. hehe

[Karen Hudgins]

Dear Chris,
Bless you for serving your country. I hope you have a safe and speedy trip home.

I realize I'm late in my involvement with this thread. Of what I've scanned over, a few points stood out.

1. Stay away from Free Sites- generally true unless the free site distributor such as SiteSell has a great reputation.

2. Conversion- There is no more definitive truth in this thread than that one small word. If you're sending traffic off your site to another site where the purchase, info request, signup, etc occurs, make sure that the site has a conversion rate of at least 2%. If the conversion is to take place on your site through a form you use for the merchant or through a product ad, watch your conversions closely. If they are not at least 1.5% move on.

3. Don't give up Quickly- Nothing comes easily. Hard work will bring you results. It may take some time to reach that point, but with dedication to your site and marketing, you'll get there.

4. Chat with other affiliates and AMs- Great advice. Other affiliates have been in your shoes and can offer great unbiased advice. AM's although sometimes might be biased if they are talking about their own program, have experience offering advice to all sorts of affiliates so you might find some useful info there.

5. Lastly, Read & Research- You can never read too much. There's a lot to learn and absorb. Take time to research your product/offer and successful marketing methods, SEO, PPC, email etc. Knowledge is power, the more you know the higher your chances of success.

Well that's about it. I hope this post finds you home or close to home. I wish you much continued success..

[drummin]

Hi all,
So many times in this business, a person needs to buy something to qualify to receive commissions for referrals. So if it costs a member 100% an they are paid 5% it takes 20 signups to break even. So I'm developing a program that will let you market your business before you join. Once you have twenty people assigned to you (That are also working to build your business), then you join the "parent company". There is an affiliate program for just the referral aspect of the program as well commissions from the parent company, so everyone can break even after three referrals.

It's really a smart program if I do say so myself.
Launch time should be around April.

My best to all of you.
Drummin

[handry]

Maybe one more important things to involved with affliation.

Thats what I mean CRM based marketing systems for long term relationship and commission for you.

I would rather to create a good customer centric program for long term business. Affliation programs are still now in the war of competitors. Other peoples can simply duplicate it.

But if you got your customer's Trust. Chances for long term partnership and commissions is good.

[robotomator]

Originally Posted by Catalyst

Chris,
2) SEO - you need TONS of traffic since only maybe 1 out of 200 will buy and your commission per sale may only be around $10. SEO help your site get top ranking in the search engines so more people can find you. There may be over 1 million pages competing for a search term relating to a product you are trying to sell so you have to be really good.
Thousands of people already know how to do this, so you have lots of catch up to do.

That's the reason why it generally is disheartening promoting programs that only pay a few dollars. If you spend 5c a click on a paid search engine link that will only get you 5$ commission, you'll need at least one in 100 to just get break even.
Better to promote the *big money earners* ;) !

[skinny]

Just wanted to thank you folks for the great, beginner oriented advice presented in this thread.

Im new to the whole affiliate scene (and web design) and are trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible. There's plenty of reading to do :)

Ive lurked here on and off for a while but have always entered from the newsletter directly to the topic at hand and now see I've been missing so much!

[danay]

Hi all, great posts all around, this is why I love the net, the sense of community and helping each other by sharing info.

Free programs are definitely not the way to go. You do get what you paid for. Here is a list of tools that you can use (you'll have to make an investment, but it's worth it in the long run).

WHAT TO SELL:
Figure out what Affiliate products you would like to sell. You have to learn the product and learn about your target audience, all things you can research on the net.


WEB DESIGN:
If you want ease-of-use, try software like FrontPage by Microsoft, which allows you to create web pages almost as if you were using MicrosoftWord. It is easy to learn, and if you're in a hurry, you can always take a 2-day class to learn it well enough to design your own site and work with the SEO.

HOSTING:
For an easy affiliate site, you can probably purchase hosting for a year for like $30 to $100. Try GoDaddy. This way you have total control over what shows up on your site.

SEO:
Purchase WebPosition Gold, and read up basic SEO on the forums. You'll know what you're diong when you can describe how to do SEO to someone who has never done it.

AFFILIATE PROGRAMS:
I totally agree with the Affiliate Manager contact rule. Search for programs, and contact the affiliate managers. If they are prompt returning your emails, then they are someone you know you can reach rather easily. I use IM with my affiliates to make me easy to reach, as do many other affiliate managers.

TEST, TEST, TEST:
Test your marketing, and make sure you have a way of analyzing what brings you a return on investment. You DO NOT want to pay for 1,000 clicks at 5 cents each, when you don't even know which product brought you sales. Look for an affiliate program that offers you strong tracking and reporting and ask your affiliate manager how best to interpret your reports. Having a strong understanding of what works by analyzing your numbers is a BIG advantage as an internet marketer. I mean, essentially, you will be marketing products on the internet for a commission as an affiliate, so you want to know what strategies bring you the most money. When you test and learn, and apply the winning formula, that's when the cash will start to roll in.

The hard part is getting the right tools, learning everything you need to know and testing until you get it right.

Feel free to ask more detailed questions, we're all here to help, it's the Internet!

Good luck to all the newbies.

Danay
www.filinet.com
The Complete Affiliate Marketing Solution

[cmac100]

Hello People,
First I'd like to say excellent forum!!! I am brand new to affiliate marketing, unless you count the BS ebooks, and ClinkBank stuff that didn't work for me. There is so much great information here, I kinda don't know where to start. Heres my situation:

--Stay-at-home-dad, work part-time on weekends.(Don't want to put the lil' sweetie in daycare just yet.) I want to earn some extra cash to help with bills. I don't have a lot of disposable money for a big advertising campaign. My wife is very skeptical of any online money making opp. So here's the question, Where is the best place to start? I know I need to find a niche, get a domain, an hosting, and put together a website. But after that, how do I use ezines, searches engines, link share, and any other means to get traffic. There are so many SEO programs, and ezines. How do you tell the good from the bad. If I can make $300-$500 a month, I will be estatic, and my wife can rest a little easier too. Thank in advance for any, and all your help and suggestions.
Sincerely,

-Charles(cmac100)

[mystic]

hello cmac100 and welcome to the webproworld!

From my experiences theres no real e-book out there that will actually help you and make you money.

Also if you want to start making money online the best advice i can give you is first you have to have a product to sell? if you don't have any products make some sort of resourcefull site. maybe a directory or just a site about a certain music group etc. Then you can use affiliate programs out there like amazon.com or ebay's or google adsense etc. theres millions out there.

to gain traffic to your site the best thing is seo. to do that you need to get as many links as you can to your site. you may start with adding your site to as many free directories as you can find and here's a list, save this if you don't have a website yet and once you do add your site to all these directories : http://www.geocities.com/site_vortex...s_Portals.html

Don't expect to make money right away, because you won't. It will take about 3-6 months untill google and other search engines rank you high, and then you will start getting traffic and sales.

Also if you don't have products to sell you may use dropshippers for products. If you would like to do this you may search for some in my new wholesale directory in the dropshipping category, just go to www.wholesalespotter.com

I hope this helps you and if theres any more questions please ask