Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Affiliate Marketing – Why And How To Start It?

Let me begin this article with a question: Are you be willing to share part of the revenue from sales that you would not get otherwise? For most cases, the answer would be yes. There are many methods to promote your business online: for example, pay-per-click campaigns such as Google Adword, CPM (= cost per thousand impressions) of your banner on high traffic sites, ads in newsletters etc etc. What is Common to these methods of marketing? Never PAY FOR PERFORMANCE campaign actually generated. Idea of affiliate marketing is Pay only for results. Do not spend money on ineffective advertising, build your own channels instead of advertising. Building partnerships - and the partners will work for you. That's why people refer to the affiliate marketing as a "profitable", "performance-oriented" or "no risk".

What type of business may be affiliated with the program of market?

Well, hard to find one that can not be. No matter if you sell hardware, mortgages, membership site or a service. You can even pay for the traffic: pay per click or pay-per CPM

Affiliate Program Structure

There are 2 basic types of rewards: a flat rate (= amount) or percentage of commission.

Their commissions to members can be based on:

Payment for the sale - most common, is paid commission (flat or percentage) of sales through its subsidiaries

Pay per lead - for example, suitable members or sites that offer paid content sites: similar to "sales model, but you pay the subscription of new members.

Pay Per CPM - you can even pay for every thousand impressions of your banner

Pay per click - if you want to reward a click reference: If you are considering this type of affiliate program, make a careful investigation on the characteristics of fraud protection solution you choose - otherwise you can cost a lot of money ..

Many of the programs are 2 levels (2 levels of membership) - that means members - parents may have subaffiliates members - father and get a commission on affiliate sales of its subaffiliate. Subaffiliates are those who have been invited to the AP by his father affiliate. 2-level structure has its advantages: what motivates members to engage their subaffiliates AP and perhaps even train and communicate with them - which saves time and generates its revenue.

How to start affiliate program?

There are 3 main possibilities:

Stand alone software

Hosted software

Affiliate Network

Stand-alone solution - requires software that is installed on your web page (also called "affiliate tracking software / script"). Affiliate program is under your total control and responsibility.

Hosted solution - is similar to a stand-alone solution, but the software is located on 3rd party server - usually offered as a service (= the monthly payments).

Affiliate network - the software is installed again on the server 3, in addition to the subsidiary tracking you get immediate access to a network of potential affiliates.

What solution should I choose?

With respect to prices

Stand-alone: a one-time fee for software

Hosted: monthly, sometimes even charging according to the progressive growth of your affiliate program

Networks will be charged a fee for each transaction of sale or the member will ask you to make the minimum monthly payment or a combination of these two. In addition, some fee to join might be included.

Technical skills:

Stand-alone: it requires some basic skills to install the software (usually installation wizard available) and for integration with other systems on your site (such as shopping carts / payment gateways / website yes).

Hosted almost no skills required

Networks: almost no skills required

Benefits of the solution independently.

Since Amazon started its affiliate program, affiliate marketing grew rapidly. Because of its advantages and profitability, this field became very competitive. And the competition is always good for customers: prices fall.

There are a lot of software sold on the Internet today - and not always the highest price means higher quality! Do not fall into success stories and not spend hundreds of dollars for products that are marketed well: you are probably not the "lucky".

Affiliate marketing is competitive - if you are new to this field you will not find a better way to promote your business at a time. This is of great benefit independent solution: while hosted or network solution that offers little chance of changing its program with the stand-alone solution that has full control of your program. You can find the best way to market their products. Trying to choose the best for you. ALWAYS want a software with many features. Some of them, at first, but after several months, will certainly use more - would you like to pay for them? Or even pay for the change to a solution with broad functionality? NO!

We already mentioned the price advantage of the stand-alone solution: you pay a fee - no need to discuss it more - if you pay monthly, thus paying more for even the most expensive independent software on the network . It is worth mentioning that solid software sells for $ 150 or less.

Another benefit is the positive effect of affiliate links on your search engine classification: since the software is installed on your domain, that can help improve the ranking of your site - not the domain hosted solution.

Unique solutions can usually be best for your business and customized to your specific needs.

Cons of a stand-alone solution

Everything has its pros and cons. I will explain the possible disadvantages of a stand-alone solution and what it takes to overcome them. If you think you can not deal with what follows does not choose a stand-alone solution.

1. Expertise - will help you during the installation and integration of software with your shopping cart / payment gateway / website. Usually, very little technical skill is needed, which also depends on the level of support provided by the supplier and how the software is sophisticated. Generally, if you can copy and paste some code fragments to specific locations on your site or a page template to your shopping cart, your skills are sufficient ...

2. Affiliate recruitment - this is the strong point of sale of the affiliate networks - the program is the immediate exposure to a network of affiliates, while for the autonomous software you need to recruit affiliates yourself. The fact is that should encourage members of the network and - if you do not, will have to stop promoting their products. The registration of your affiliate program to affiliate directories numerous (free) and creating appropriate multilevel structure helps to recruit members for your program. But it takes time and effort ...

3. Security - hosted solution with no need to support your database, the updates are applied by a team of people responsible for their maintenance. If your solution does not function to make backup copies of your database and history of this problem can be serious if there is a hacker attack or something goes wrong. "

tags: affiliate marketing, explosive traffic, fabian tan, affiliate marketing group pool, affiliate marketing handbook

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