Do I Need A Website to Sell Affiliate Products Online?

Posted 28 June, 2007 in Articles

Yes and No.

Both methods work, they just work differently for different people.

If you have a website, can design your own, or are comfortable with the idea of paying someone to develop a website for you, AND, if you know how to generate traffic to your website, then you will probably enjoy having your own website to promote from.

If you feel that creating a website is too expensive, time consuming or not worth the bother, you can find ways to advertise the product you are promoting and let the merchant’s website do the selling.

So let’s look at both methods in more detail, and explore a few of the pros and cons of each.

Let’s start with promoting products WITHOUT a website, because that is the quickest way to start promoting affiliate products.

This can often be the fastest way to start making money with affiliate programs, but it requires a bit of skill, persistance, patience, and money.

Generally, someone who makes money by promoting affiliate products without having their own website is paying for advertising. They use a pay per click service, such as Google AdWords, and they create ads which promote a specific affiliate product.

They place their affiliate link in the ad and anytime someone clicks, the affiliate is credited for sending the visitor. The person who clicked the ad ends up on the merchant’s website. If they choose to buy the product, the affiliate who paid for the ad will be credited with the sale, and they’ll earn commissions as usual.

Affiliates who use these direct promotional methods to earn money from affiliate products spend their time researching keywords to place their ads under, and writing or refining their advertisements. Some affiliates spend a lot of money on this method, and many make a lot of money with this method as well. Usually in the beginning though, you spend much more money than you make.

Most affiliates who use these methods also tend to have multiple campaigns going at once. And some of those might make great money while others fail miserably. With time, attention, patience, experience and adequate funds, this often turns out to be a very lucrative way to make money with affiliate programs. And it doesn’t take much time or effort once you’ve gotten a bit of experience under your belt.

Promoting Affiliate Products With a Website

Some people (myself included) prefer to create websites of their own, and use those as the primary vehicle for driving traffic to the preferred affiliate partners.

This method can be just as lucrative as the other, but it can take just as much time, effort, learning, patience and money. In fact, I’d say it usually more, and the process is longer because bottom line is, it takes time to get potential customers to your site, and even more time for them to find something of interest, click your link, and subsequently, make a purchase.

When building a website for Affiliate Marketing purposes, you must first build the website. This alone takes time, money and effort. Then you must add content to that website. Often you have to add content on a regular, frequent basis while it’s becoming established. A static website with no new content quickly becomes stale, and visitors quickly lose interest in what you have to say or the products you are promoting.

Once your website is created and you have a plan in place for adding quality content, you must also ensure your website is both visitor and search engine friendly. One of the main reasons affiliates decide to create their own websites in fact, is because they hope to eventually get lots of free traffic from organic search engine results. So SEO (Search Engine Optimizing) optimizing the website is another important step to success with this method. If you don’t know how to do this you can take the time to research the process online, or you can hire someone to do this. But do this you must, because without traffic your website is already dead in the water!

So once you have your website design, content, and optimization done, or at least started, you still have to generate traffic to the site. And once the traffic has arrived, you still have to convert that traffic into affiliate product sales. And yes, this can be a lot of work.

Over time however, if you’ve done a good job with your website and traffic generation, you should be able to do less work while seeing an increase in affiliate income. Some people can see things improving within a month or two, while others are still struggling to make their affiliate website work six months to a year later.

And that’s why I say it can cost about the same as using direct advertising methods. When you build a website and do all the work yourself, it feels like it’s all free. You don’t have to actually fork over cash other than the initial domain name payment or website hosting, and those are cheap these days. You do however, have to spend hours, days, weeks and months - doing a lot of really hard work - to start seeing results.

If you think of that time spent in terms of hourly pay, you might find you’ve been working for something like $1 an hour. You’re investing time into the chance that you’ll receive a big payoff in the future. And you might, if you invest enough time and effort.

If you use direct advertising methods you’re investing more cash than you are time. And you can start seeing returns much sooner as well. Of course you can become bankrupt much sooner too, and this is why different people choose to approach affiliate marketing in different ways.

If you have a good solid source of extra funds, you might choose to become an expert in direct advertising methods so that you can see the returns faster. If on the other hand, you’re short on funds but you have plenty of extra time on your hands, it might be better for you to create an excellent high traffic website instead. Both ways work.

Conclusion is: Like any business, affiliate marketing with or without a website involves refining your strategy plus making a considerable investment of time, work, money, and the right tools. And, like any offline business, growth can be slow.

However, if you enjoy working with your computer and are able to see beyond the obstacles, plus, you have the drive and incentive to work hard, chances are, given time and experience you will succeed.

Cash Flow

Posted 25 June, 2007 in Articles

Many people decide to start an online affiliate marketing business because it’s quick and easy money. You don’t have to create a product, you don’t have to worry about providing customer support, you don’t have to do shipping, returns, deal with fraud, and all those other hassles that come with running a standard sales business.

With affiliate marketing, all you have to do is send targeted traffic to reputable merchants and desirable products. Sales are made and you automatically earn commissions because you sent the traffic. Easy right?

Now it is possible to put up a website or advertisement for an affiliate product and literally make a sale within minutes. And technically you have made money in minutes when this happens. The reality though, is that money doesn’t actually make it into your hands - or even your bank account - for weeks. And in severe cases… months.

And this seems to be the biggest problem point for many new affiliate marketers. Cash flow. Anyone who has run any kind of “standard” business before understands the concept of cash flow. The same applies if you’ve run a service based business too. In the case of service businesses, you do the work then send an invoice to your client. Then you wait. Sometimes you wait a long while… before that invoice is paid.

With sales based product businesses you buy inventory, or pay rent on your store if it’s a physical location, then you try to sell the products you’ve bought. There are days you might make $200 in sales and days where you make nothing. If however, you spent $1000 on inventory or rent… you’re still in a negative cash flow status even on the day you made $200 in sales.

Cash flow is basically just “how much cash is on hand to hold me over until…” In other words, if you’re an offline store you must ask yourself: Do you have cash to cover all your expenses until the current inventory reaches break even? If you’re a service based business, you must ask yourself if you have cash to cover regular bills and expenses until invoices are paid.

If you’re an affiliate based business however, it works similar to a service based business. Do you have enough cash to cover regular bills and expenses until your affiliate payments arrive?

Lack of cash flow can break a business before it even has a chance to get established. If you spend the last of your available money to advertise for instance… it doesn’t matter how many sales you make or how fast you make them. By spending the last of your money to promote affiliate products and services, you’ve made yourself broke for an extended period of time.

Most affiliate programs pay once each month. And there’s a delay built in as well, so it ends up being close to two months before you actually get your earnings in useable form. Affiliate networks such as Commission Junction and Share a Sale for instance, pay each month on the 20th. So if you were to make $1000 in sales on January 1st, you would not actually get that money sent to you until February 20th.

Now there are affiliate programs and networks which pay every two weeks instead, and this can make cash flow issues less of a problem. But there’s still a delay built in. Most new affiliate marketers think something along the lines of “Oh I just have to last for two weeks, then I’ll have more money”. But it can sometimes be three or four weeks before that money actually shows up, depending on the network.

Click Bank for instance, will send you a check on the 1st and 15th of each month, assuming you’ve earned enough to meet the minimum balance requirements. If that check takes 3-5 days to reach you however, it ends up being closer to three weeks before the money is actually accessible to you.

This scheduling issue is not as problematic once you’ve become more established, and you’re earning commissions on a regular basis. It is important in the beginning though, because that’s when cash is needed the most. You’re promoting affiliate programs so that you can make some money, but you must be sure you have enough money to survive on until you actually receive money you’ve earned.

Secrets to Finding Good Affiliate Products to Promote

Posted 22 June, 2007 in Articles

When you decide to become an affiliate marketer, the first choice you have to make is what products you’ll promote. Hopefully you’ve already researched and found a lucrative market to target, and you have a promotion plan in place to start making money. So now you need to choose good affiliate products, programs, and merchants that fit into your overall niche and plan.

Choosing affiliates can be very difficult. For many beginners, it’s a difficult trial and error process for awhile too. But it doesn’t have to be. Here are several key points to consider when looking at affiliate programs to promote.

1. What’s the commission you’ll be paid? This tends to be the first thing new affiliates look at, because they want to know how much money they can make with each sale. And most people choose to promote products which offer very high commission rates. What they don’t realize is that sometimes you can make much more money with lower commissions.

You see, it’s not the commission rate that’s really important. It’s the dollar amount you’ll be paid. If you choose to promote a product that sells for $25 just because you’ll earn 75% of the sale, you’re only going to get $18.75 each time you make a sale.

And while that’s nothing to sneeze at, there might be much better options. Let’s say another product sells for $100, but it only offers 30% commissions. Would you pass it by just because the commission “look” lower? Many would, and do. Do the math though, and you’ll realize something: 30% of $100 sale is $30. Almost twice what you can make with the 75% commissioned product.

So don’t decide on products based solely on the commission percentage amounts. Think about the actual dollars you’ll make instead.

2. The next important factor to consider is conversion ratio. If you send 100 targeted visitors to an affiliate sales page, how many of those visitors will actually pull out their credit card and buy?

In this instance, percentages count a lot. If 1% of people buy, that’s a 1% conversion ratio. That means 1 person out of 100 will buy on average. If however, a product has a 10% conversion ratio, then 10 people out of 100 will buy.

If you combine conversion ratios with commission rates, you can get further insight on which product might be the best to promote. Let’s say the 75% commission product has a 2% conversion ratio, and the 30% one has a 3%. Since you already know you make more actual dollars with the 30% product, it’s a no brainer to stick with it because it has a higher conversion ratio too. If however, the 75% product has a 10% conversion and the 30% product has a measly 0.5% conversion ratio, you would probably change your mind about which one to promote. Because no matter how much money a product can earn you, it’s worthless if people won’t buy it.

3. Look at the sales page itself. This is a step many new affiliate marketers miss. If you visit the sales page that you’ll be sending prospects to, and you see Google AdSense on that page, it might not be a great idea to promote it. Why? Because if you send visitors to the page and they don’t buy, they might click the merchant’s adsense ads and make them money while leaving you out in the cold.

The same applies if the merchant has other affiliate links on their page. If they’ve signed up to someone else’s affiliate program, and they put those affiliate links onto the page you’re trying to make sales from, they might make other affiliate sales from the links that you would earn no money from.

Another problem can sometimes crop up with merchants who sell physical products. It’s not uncommon to find a phone number on the sales pages. Often this is a toll free number. The merchant needs to have a contact number so sales aren’t lost, but if they make the number huge and in the way of everything else, chances are the potential customer you sent to the page will just pick up the phone and bypass you all together. Some merchants handle this issue well though, and they put a referral code next to their phone number, then they ask for that code when the prospective customer calls. That referral number tracks back to you, and you still earn commissions from the sales.

4. What are the merchant’s terms? This is another key things most new affiliates don’t realize they need to look closely at.

Some merchants put sneaky exception clauses into their terms of service, and affiliates don’t realize they won’t get paid for various types of sales. Some for instance, might say that affiliates will not earn commissions on any orders taken over the phone. Others might say affiliates can only earn commissions on X items, but not any others. And sometimes they’ll even say that affiliates can only earn commissions on products under a certain dollar value. I’ve even seen some merchant terms which state the affiliate can only make sales commissions once, ever. So even if you send a customer to the site every single day, and that customer bought something every single day, you’d only be paid for the very first thing they bought.

5. What are the Payout terms? Related to the previous item, you also need to pay attention to the payment terms. Some merchants will only send commission to you every three months. Some will not pay you until you’ve generated $100 in commissions. And some will not pay you unless you first generate a certain amount of money, then wait a certain amount of time, then request the payment. Yes, there are affiliate programs out there that will not automatically send you the money, you have to actually ask for it instead.

There are many more things to pay attention to when selecting good affiliate programs, but these are the most important. In general though, do your research. Find out exactly how the program works and if possible, find out how other affiliates feel about the program before committing too much time or money to it yourself.

If you are serious about earning income online from Affiliate Sales and Marketing, one of the best investments of your time and money is Roslind Gardner’s Affiliate Marketing Handbook. Rosalind is a Canadian Netraprenuer who earns her living online. She is well known and well respected in Internet Marketing circles and has an excellent reputation. Jump-start your Affiliate Marketing career by investing in this excellent book.

Introduction to Affiliate Networks

Posted 21 June, 2007 in Affiliate Networks

Affiliate Networks

When you first get started with affiliate marketing, you may not initially know about affiliate networks. Or maybe you see references to them, but you can’t figure out what they are.

In short, an affiliate network is a third party system the has many different affiliate merchants, products and services all rolled into one. An affiliate network is supposed to make things easier for both merchants and marketers, because everything is standardized.

An affiliate marketer for instance, can sign up to an affiliate network just once, but choose from hundreds or thousands of merchants to promote. Without using a network, the affiliate would have to sign up at many different sites - one for each merchant or program they want to promote.

Using an affiliate network usually makes it easier to create links on your websites too. Instead of having to log into many different places and get advertising links, pictures or copy… you simply log into the network and the links all use the same format.

Often using an affiliate network means you can get paid more often too. If you’re promoting ten different merchants individually, and each of those merchants has a minimum earnings requirement before you’ll get paid, it can take much longer to generate enough sales for each one. Using an affiliate network though, all the sales you made for all your merchants are totaled together, so your commission payments are aggregated and you’re able to get paid sooner regardless of how many merchants you promote.

Now this is one of the best reasons to use an affiliate network. Earning $5 each with 10 or even 100 different merchants individually is great… but not when it comes to being paid. If each of those merchants requires you to earn at least $25 or worse, $100 before you can get your money, you end up having $500 you can’t touch - or use.

If you’ve made those sales through an affiliate network though - even with 100 different merchants - the network combines your earnings. So you’ll get your $500 when the network sends your check.

Not all affiliate networks work this way though, so you need to research each one before joining. Having just one site to log into is nice, and having one reporting system that tells you how all of your campaigns are doing at once is also nice. But if that network does not combine all of your earnings together into one payment, it may still take you a very long time to get cash in hand… or in your bank account.

Thankfully there are several very good, long standing, reputable affiliate networks that pay on time all the time, and they combine all your earnings into one check. Here’s a brief overview of some of the major players.

1. Commission Junction - This one has been around the longest, and they have the most merchants to choose from. You only have to earn a combined total of $25 to be paid, and you can choose to have your payment direct deposited to your bank account.

2. Share A Sale - This affiliate network has been around for several years, and it’s getting better all the time. They don’t have as many merchants as Commission Junction does, but they do offer quality merchants and products. They also pay on time, and minimum payout is also $25. Share a Sale will also direct deposit your payments if you’d like.

3. Linkshare is another network of choice by many affiliate marketers. They have lots of major merchants andproducts to choose from.

4. Click Bank - This one has been around for many years too and they have hundreds of products you can promote.

Unlike the other three affiliate networks though, Click Bank products include eBooks and some software. Share a Sale and Commission Junction pay once a month on the 20th, but Click Bank pays every two weeks: The 1st and the 15th. Unfortunately they pay by regular paper check unless you’re making a ton of money with them. I don’t know the exact amounts, but I believe you must be earning about $10,000 or more each pay period before Click Bank is willing to do a direct deposit for you.

For those just starting out in affiliate sales, the best recommendation is to pick a company that allows you to promote products that are relevant to your website or niche market. Often, less is more. Pick one or two good products and once you start earning income with these, then add a new one to your current line.

The temptation for newcomers to affiliate marketing is to go ‘hog-wild’ with promotions, as there are truly and unlimited number of excellent products and services to promote.

My best converting product, and one I highly recommend is Jay Abraham’s Millionaire’s Secrets; a course which basically teaches people how to leverage extraordinary financial results from every single asset they own. Once you have mastered the basics, you are truly informed and well prepared to explore new venues, online or off!