Are Affiliate Programs Right for Me?
Q: What is affiliate marketing?
A: Simply put, affiliate marketing is a way
you can get paid for referring your own website visitors or email
correspondents to other websites that offer goods and services.
Q: Exactly how is this made possible?
A: Well, you can place a banner or text hyperlink
(usually referred to simply as a link) to another website on
your own, or you can place a text link in your emails. The merchants
to which you refer visitors are willing to pay you a commission
whenever someone clicks through to one of their websites from
your website or email link and either purchases or inquires about
a product or service. This concept is known as
pay-for-performance advertising.
Q: This sounds a little too good to be true.
What’s the catch?
A: Let’s think for a moment about how advertising
has traditionally been done. A merchant or business professional will
pay an advertiser — a newspaper, for example — to print an ad,
insert or brochure that the merchant hopes will be read by you and which
will encourage you to visit their store or place of business. You see ads
every day in newspapers and magazines, on TV and radio, on billboards and
buses. This form of advertising can be very expensive (Super Bowl
commercials are a great example.), and merchants have no way of knowing
for certain whether any ad they place will be effective. Fees charged for
traditional advertising are based upon criteria such as media circulation
and past performance — NOT on actual sales. You can begin to
see that, for merchants, pay-for-performance is a
much better way to go!
Q: But what about me? How do I benefit?
A: Affiliate marketing creates opportunities for
advertisers (merchants), webmasters and entrepreneurs
(Yes, if you are still reading, you are or may soon become an
entrepreneur!) in order to advertise and sell products and services
in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner. It’s a
“win-win” situation for all concerned. As an affiliate, you
can earn EXTRA INCOME!
Q: Wow, sounds interesting! How do I get
started?
A: There are hundreds of affiliate programs available on the
web; as of January 1, 2003, 70% of Fortune 500 companies
offered affiliate programs! Some of these programs require that you have a
website; many do not. Some affiliate sponsors will even provide you
with your own website! Finding the right ones — the best
affiliate programs — is a key to success. No matter what your
interest or level of expertise, there is an affiliate program suitable for
your career goals.
The best affiliate programs can begin earning income for you
rapidly. The amounts will be small at first, but with consistent
effort income will expand substantially. These are not “get rich
quick” programs but are bona fide companies you can grow with.
The Learn More
button will direct you to the BEST AFFILIATE PROGRAMS available!
Authored by Kenneth L. Anderson.
Original article published prior to 13 April 2003, updated
26 December 2006.
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