Finding the right Affiliate Program - Getting Started

sangiovesse · #1 (**permalink**) 05-10-2004, 07:28 PM

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 · #2 (**permalink**) 05-11-2004, 10:20 AM

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 · #3 (**permalink**) 05-11-2004, 01:28 PM

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 · #4 (**permalink**) 05-11-2004, 01:32 PM

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 · #5 (**permalink**) 05-11-2004, 06:10 PM

Domo Arigato (japanese for thank you very much)

mlewi · #6 (**permalink**) 05-11-2004, 10:30 PM

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 · #7 (**permalink**) 05-12-2004, 08:37 AM

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 · #8 (**permalink**) 05-12-2004, 01:30 PM

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 · #9 (**permalink**) 05-12-2004, 05:13 PM

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 · #10 (**permalink**) 05-13-2004, 07:20 PM

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 · #11 (**permalink**) 05-14-2004, 08:51 AM

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 · #12 (**permalink**) 05-14-2004, 10:53 AM

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 · #13 (**permalink**) 05-14-2004, 11:00 AM

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 · #14 (**permalink**) 05-14-2004, 02:12 PM

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 · #15 (**permalink**) 05-14-2004, 03:39 PM

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 · #16 (**permalink**) 05-14-2004, 03:47 PM

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 · #17 (**permalink**) 05-15-2004, 12:08 PM

can i have an example of a reacuring product?

Paid 2 Lotto · #18 (**permalink**) 05-16-2004, 10:19 AM

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 · #19 (**permalink**) 05-17-2004, 11:48 AM

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. ;)