Affiliate Marketing

 Affiliate marketing, (also known as associate marketing and revenue-sharing) is an online marketing model whereby customers (traffic) are driven to the merchants' website by an affiliate through a hyperlink placed by the affiliate.  The affiliate is then rewarded in the form of commission when an action comes about or a product is sold (conversion).  Commissions are between 15% and 75% and are earned when a product or service is purchased.  Affiliate marketing is an extremely lucrative business and it is growing at a phenomenal pace.   There are many easy ways to earn online with affiliate marketing. Is affiliate marketing a scam though; read on..  There are many marketing techniques and practices and advertisers often prefer to market their products using affiliate marketing methods because the advertising costs only become effective on conversion.  Is affiliate marketing a scam?  No, it is not.  Simply because you are guiding targeted traffic to the desired product;  you are not bombarding the audience with a mass of sales literature or pressuring the audience to purchase a product.   And there  is no cold-calling. 

Affiliate marketing can be traced back to the mid nineties and the USA, when Amazon first launched on the internet with their associates program.  The market is by no means saturated and it is still growing, and even more so during the recession.   This is because it requires minimal financial outlay and the entrepreneurial costs are virtually non-existent.  There are many affiliate programs.  The most important benefit to affiliate marketing is that the affiliate does not need to own products in order to sell them, so there are no costs associated with purchasing stock, storage and delivery, etc.   The costs associated with setting up your business are also minimal as you will be harnessing the power of the internet to market the product and there are many free online applications to get you started.    The affiliate training program should provide you with training, resources and the tools you require to set up successful campaigns.  You will also benefit from having a mentor to spur you on and a structured plan to lead you to success.

So, how does it work?  The affiliate conducts research, finds niche markets and then utilises the internet marketing techniques (as taught by Wealthy Affiliate University) to drive business and increase sales potential for the merchant.  It is not a get rich quick scheme and it requires dedication and hard work.  Success is not gained overnight and Wealthy Affiliate will not make pie-in-the-sky promises.  What they will do is arm you with all the training, resources, marketing know how and a structured action plan to get you on the road to success.  You are in control at all times.
 

If you want to find how to make money as an affiliate then you must find the best niche markets so make sure that you use an effective keyword research tool to help you unearth the most lucrative markets and products.  You can opt to use the Google Keyword Research Tool and Wealthy Affiliate has a bespoke Keyword Research Tool as well as a Google research tool to help you find the most relevant keywords.

You will be more likely to succeed using your own website or webspace. This is because, instead of directing an audience to one product, advertised and promoted by someone else, in their style, you will be able to change the advertising and promotion of that product via your own website to suit different audiences, and apply your style,  thus gaining relevancy and obtaining the best 'shelf life' from the product. Setting up a website is not all that tricky these days, and there are many free website builders and editors for use on the internet. Building a landing page (the page the audience lands upon by clicking a link) can be built within a few minutes.  Another free type of marketing is article marketing.  Writing articles about your product or service is an ideal way to market your offer. It is not as difficult as it seems and there are many copy editors to use to prepare good content, most of which are free.  Some good affiliate programs offer all the tools and resources you need to write.

Simply post them on the free article diirectories, such as Ezinearticles or Squidoo. Reviews are also a free way to advertise your products, and reviews prove to be very successful forms of promotion, particularly if you are able to provide an easy to use review including a ranking for various products and reasons for your ranking the products as you do.  It is also worthwhile you joining DMOZ, the Open Directory Project, which is a free open directory, content is provided by users.  You will also be able to increase your search engine optimisation as another free form of obtaining advertising through maximising your potential with the giant search engines such as Google, Yahoo and MSN.  Search Engine Optimisation is an art-form so it is worthwhile researching and testing this concept, and there are many resources providing useful information.

Types of Affiliate Marketing

Pay Per Click (PPC)
This is probably the easiest way for affiliates to earn and it is the most popular form of marketing.  Affiliates place banners or text ads and each time the consumer clicks on the ad, the affiliate earns a commission.  The affiliates gets paid even if the consumer does not purchase the product although commissions as usually minimal.

Pay Per Performance (PPP)
This is the most popular type among merchants because the merchant only pays the commission fee to the affiliate on conversion, such as when an action takes place, or a product is sold.  This type is also beneficial to those affiliates who are committed to obtaining conversions and commission rates are usually 15% - 20% of the sale value. 

Pay Per Lead (PPL)
This is part of the PPP concept; it is often used by insurance and finance businesses whose business is grown from lead conversions.  Commission fees paid are usually fixed.

Pay Per Sale (PPS)
This type of marketing pays the affiliate a commission flat fee or a percentage when the consumer driven to the site actually makes a purchase.  Rates tend to be higher than those paid in the PPC concept.

Residual Income
This type of marketing pays the affiliate for each customer referred to the merchant's site as well as if a  conversion takes place.  Commissions paid are usually based on a percentage or fixed fee rate.

Single/Two/Multi-Tier Marketing
This type of marketing is based on the differing levels of the marketing tier.  So, within a single tier, the affiliate will be paid for the conversion, ie, the direct sale or traffic referred to the merchant site.  PPC, PPL and PPS are all single tier levels of marketing.

Two-tier marketing is where the affiliate is paid for referrals as well as sales forthcoming from traffic referred by other affiliates who have joined the tier recommended by the initial affiliate.

Multi-tier marketing works exactly the same way as two-tier, but the affiliate is paid extra commission for other affiliates referred within the other tiers of the concept.  This is referred to as multi-level marketing or network marketing and it is a more complex marketing technique, and it requires careful management by the affiliate.

There are many other affiliate marketing types but those listed above tend to be the most popular or widely-used .

If you want to know how to make money as an affiliate, you will need to do a bit of research.  You can never do enough research and you will learn all there is to know about affiliate marketing.  Hopefully, you are suitably encouraged to try your hand at affiliate marketing.  You have nothing to lose and much to gain.  Good luck.