A Startling Fact Of Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing sounds easy but you do need to exercise some caution. You want to avoid the affiliate marketing pitfalls that can ruin your business and worse, have you crawling on your hands and knees back to that boss that now knows how you truly feel.
People tend to get excited when they start a new venture. Unfortunately this excitement and eagerness can cause them to miss key things in their agreement. Whenever you sign up for an affiliate marketing program, you will be expected to sign an agreement.
The terms and conditions of the agreement for both sides should be outlined. Well you have finally done it. You have packed in the rubbish job and told your boss exactly what you think. You have taken the plunge and made the decision to begin your own affiliate marketing business.
However, if they want to hide something this is where they will put it. It will either be in the small print, so get your magnifying glass out, or they will baffle you with legal language. Either way, you need to read and understand your agreement thoroughly to avoid disappointment and lost earnings.
If you are signing up for a commission based affiliate marketing program then you need to understand how the term revenue is defined. This is one of the biggest pitfalls of the contracts. They may advertise 5-10% commissions but it all fall on how they define revenue.
Most affiliate marketing programs will calculate commission on the gross value of the sale. In other words, the amount of money the site will get at the completion of the sale. You may think that this sounds great.
However, you need to read this part of the agreement very carefully. The amount of the sale almost always excludes credit card or debit card payment surcharges. They also are likely to exclude payment and delivery charges as well as any gift wrapping or other surcharges. What sounded like a nice commission is soon shrinking before your eyes. Ask these questions specifically before you sign an agreement.
Some affiliate programs are even stricter in their definition of revenue. Your commission may be based on the profit margin of the sold product. For example, if you help sell a book for 20 dollars but the company only makes 10 dollars profit, you will receive a percentage of 10 dollars not 20. This can make a substantial difference in your earnings.
Again, make sure you understand these things and ask specifically what your commission will be based upon. Read your agreement and look out for odd sounding clauses. These could come back to haunt you later.
Something else to beware of when you work on commission is returns. Many affiliate marketing companies only pay commission out on completed sales and then only if the customer keeps the item. If they return the items your commission could be cancelled.
To really rub salt in the wounds, you could be billed for the outstanding commission if you do not have sufficient commission credit built up. Make sure you understand this before signing on. You cannot expect a company to pay you a commission on an item that is returned but make sure you understand their return policy. Find out your rights in this situation.
Affiliate marketing can be a great way to earn money. If you have good sales and marketing skills then it can give you the opportunity to out them to good use. You will be able to work for yourself and not someone who undervalues and does not appreciate them.
One needs to consider affiliate marketing carefully. Make sure you understand your agreement and exactly what you will be paid for. You do not want to have to go crawling back to your boss begging for your old job back!
BlueWaterArticles.com: - A Startling Fact Of Affiliate Marketing
About the Author
This article was submitted by Niz S., an up and coming expert in affiliate marketing. Did you find these tips on affiliate marketing useful? You can find out more about affiliate marketing tips and secrets by going to Working Online Secret Blog or Affiliate Marketing Tips where you also get a FREE ebook on affiliate money machine
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Criteria for the Best Affiliate Marketing Programs
The affiliate marketing program is top quality
Always go for the affiliate marketing program that is backed up by a reliable and trustworthy team with the appropriate and sufficient knowledge about the industry. Check the affiliate product and services as well. Are they for real, offer good value and are saleable? Remember that you will be putting your own credibility on the line when you sign up for that program. If it's trustworthy, then you will be viewed as such as well.
The affiliate product is 'hot' or getting there
Stay current on market demands and about the 'hottest' and 'to watch out for' products. A simple search online will help you find out the kind of things that people are looking for and are willing to buy. There's a good chance an affiliate marketing program is selling that product. When a product has a high market demand, it's much easier to sell. For more help go to www.money-secret-exposed.com .This is good news for you as an affiliate of that program since there won't be any backbreaking work to do just to get the product off the ground. It will sell on its own or for minimal effort.
The affiliate marketing program pays high commissions
Ultimately, the affiliate's goal in signing up for an affiliate marketing program is to earn money. In affiliate marketing, earnings come in the form of commissions? Usually a percentage off the sale of a product. Why settle for a low-paying program when there are others from which you can benefit more from given the same amount of efforts on your part?
When considering what affiliate marketing program to use, choose those that offer higher commission rates. Good rates range from about 50 percent to 75 percent. If the program pays lower than that, you might want to reconsider. It may not be worth your effort at all.
The affiliate marketing program has a higher than usual conversion rate
Conversion rate refers to the period it takes for a prospect who clicks on an affiliate site to become a paying customer. In affiliate marketing, this can be notoriously fickle, with leads taking as much as 60 days before ever purchasing anything.
A good indication that a particular affiliate marketing program is the best one to use is its high conversion rate. This means that more visitors to an affiliate's site become buyers. When there are more buyers, an affiliate's earnings increase.
To find out about their conversion rate, you can check an affiliate marketing program's website. Some of them publish this information. If not, you will have to test the product yourself using targeted visitors to see how well it performs. To know more about it logon to www.affiliate-manager-pro.com .The affiliate marketing program offers full support.
This is an especially important criteria to look for when deciding what affiliate marketing program to use if you're a beginner. There are many programs that will offer their system and leave you to your own devices without checking in on your progress.
If you're not a self-starter or are wary of affiliate marketing programs that don't assist their affiliates, avoid these types. Use affiliate marketing programs that provide sufficient information, training and affiliate support. You will appreciate this extra feature in case you run into a bit of trouble later.
BlueWaterArticles.com: - Criteria for the Best Affiliate Marketing Programs
About the Author
www.myspace-marketing-secret.com www.clickmagnet-secrets.com
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Affiliate Marketing with a Twist the Free Way to Easy Money
Article marketing is nothing new. However, applied to affiliate marketing it is the easiest way to make money online. In addition, best of all, you can do it without spending a dime using only free tools available online.
This is all you will need:
- A free keyword research tool.
- A free text editor.
- A free Clickbank account.
- A free Blogger account
Quickly search your favorite search engine and you will easily find these free tools.
Quick cash blue print:
1 - Keyword research:
Using your keyword research tool, search for low competition keywords. Those are keywords that have at least 300 searches a month and that have less than 5000 competing pages in Google (when entered between quotation marks like this "keyword"). Try to find 5 to 10 good keywords related to the same topic.
The idea is to focus on keywords for which you can get a first page ranking in Google, Msn and Yahoo.
Hint: If you have no idea of which market to target, start by checking popular phrases like, how to, purchase, get rid of, help, cure, tips, etc.
2 - Find a digital product to promote
Go to Clickbank.com and find a product related to your topic. Choose one that pays at least $15 to $20. Generate your affiliate link and write it down or save it in a text file on your computer.
3 - Article writing:
Write an informative article (approximately 400 words) focused on each of your keywords. Put your keyword in the title and in the first and last paragraph of your article. Also, sprinkle it throughout your copy. You can also throw in a few other keywords related to your topic. This will help you rank well.
Most important, write great bio boxes that will make people want to learn more and click on the link to your blog. Put your keyword in your bio box as an anchor text link to your blog.
4 - Set up your blog.
More and more article directories will not let you put your affiliate link in your bio box. Therefore, your blog is going to be your landing page. The idea here is to put up a simple blog that will pre-sell (not sell) your product and make people click on your Clickbank affiliate link to go to the sales page.
Hint: set up a blog for every product you promote and give it a keyword-focused name.
5 - Submit your articles to article directories.
You will need to find article directories with a PR of five or more. Google likes there and it will help you get a first page ranking in the search engines and drive tons of free traffic to your blog.
Hint: Your best choice is articlemarketer.com. You will need good quality articles, but it is the most powerful directory online. Alternatively, you can use Goarticles.com.
6 - Rinse and repeat!
Article marketing is a game of numbers. The more articles you submit, the more money you will earn. However, not every product is going to be a winner. Some will do well, some will not. So test a new product every week putting up 5 to 10 focused articles each time.
http://www.article-promotion-course.com
That is all there is to it. This may seem to good to be true, but it really does work. Off course it will take a couple of weeks for money to start rolling in on a regular basis but the magic of this method is that once you write a money making article it will generate residual income for months and maybe even years -- without ever costing you a single dime.
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