There are numerous ways to make money on the internet, but for many people, it’s a challenge deciding how, and where to focus.
I believe that affiliate marketing provides the best opportunity.
The great thing about affiliate marketing is that you don’t need to have a product of your own.
But what is affiliate marketing, and what is an affiliate?
An affiliate is someone who enters into an agreement with a merchant who may be a product owner, or an online or offline shop or supplier, to promote their product or service in return for a commission for a specific action.
With affiliate marketing, the affiliate drives traffic to a merchant’s products and, depending on the agreement, gets paid a commission if a product is sold, or gets paid a fee if a lead is generated.
The commission paid varies greatly between products. Digital products often have high commissions – 65% to 70% for a sale is not unusual.
Physical products tend to have much lower commissions. Payment for a lead can be a little as a few cents, to as much as 35$. And the lead required could be as simple as an email address, or a completed credit form.
When you sign up as an affiliate with a merchant or an affiliate network, you receive links that include your personal referral code. You may also receive ‘creatives’, such as banners, emails or other text, you can use in promoting the product or service. Each product that you promote can have particular guidelines for acceptable methods of promotion.
Affiliates are generally website owners who send traffic, via links to a merchant site. This process is generally known as Cost Per Action (CPA).
The traffic is normally from a website, but it may also be from banner adverts placed on other people’s sites, emails sent out to Opt-in lists, links from pay-per-click adverts, links in articles, blogs, or forums, and will be subject to the restrictions placed on the affiliate by the agreement with the merchant.
The links you use contain special code that tracks how the client you have introduced, got to the merchant’s website and fulfilled the required action, so that you are recognised as the introducer and get paid.
The best thing is, as an affiliate you can make money online without a product of your own.
This is a perfect way for newbies to start an internet business, because:
- start up costs are very small
- you don’t need premises
- you can work from home
- there is no need to employ staff
- there is no need for stock inventory
- you can work when you like
and the best thing is
- you don’t have to have your own product
How do you find affiliate marketing programs?
Affiliate programs are everywhere. There are lots of well established affiliate networks such as ClickBank, Commission Junction, and Marketers Choice that represent digital product merchants where it’s free to register and browse through the products and merchants they represent. You can sign up and be making money immediately,
There are also lots of affiliate networks that represent physical big-name product retailers, such as Dobe, and Affiliate Window, and buy.at.
Frequently, websites will advertise with a small affiliate link at the bottom of their website inviting applications from publishers (as affiliates are referred to).
Most affiliate networks are free to join, but some are quite particular about who they let into the network, than others. It is also normally free to join as an affiliate, but sometimes there is a registration fee.
So setting up an online affiliate marketing business is very low cost. All you need is a website, domain hosting, and a little software to help you research your niche market.
All you need to do to make money online with affiliate programs, is to drive traffic to your merchant’s products, and if the potential client performs the required action, and you will earn your commission.
Affiliate marketing is a brilliant way to make money online; a real work from home business. You can download a helpful list of affiliate networks free, at the authors website, to get you started.
The author specialises in Affiliate Marketing.
