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If you want to make an ongoing internet based income with affiliate marketing, you'll have to automate both the front end and the back end processes. Following are some tried and true tips to ensure that you'll be effortlessly making affiliate commissions while visions of sugar plums dance in your head... 1. Research and choose the best affiliate products and related affiliate programs which best fit your targetted market and that will allow you to earn the most amount of money for the least amount of work in the shortest amount of time. You want to make sure that the "affiliate vendor" (if they offer their own program) or the affiliate network (who offers a variety of affiliate vendor products) has a reputation for paying affiliates within committed timeframes with a simple method for affiliates to sign up (get their affiliate ID/link), track their progress (clicks, sales, etc), and get paid (ie: direct deposit into a paypal account versus receiving a check). Choose products or services that provide high commissions and that have a top notch sales page that gets high conversion rates (from lookers to buyers). Make it a point to review the sales page to determine if it excites you enoughto buy the product. If not, it probably won't interest others either. Don't forget that downloadable products or services pay a much higher commission percentage than a physical product due to the fact that they cost less for the vendor to develop, market, inventory, and deliver to the buyer. If you do decide on a physical product, try mixing it with a related downloadable product to boost your overall commissions. An example would be marketing a gardening tool with an associated "how to grow the biggest, juiciest apples" digital report. Also keep in mind that an affiliate product or service with a monthly recurring fee (ie: a gardening club membership site) provides an ongoing steam of income for work you did once. For the most income possibilities, you should have a combination of "one time cost" and "monthly recurring cost" products that relate to your targetted market. Since you should also plan to promote additional products to those that have purchased from you, be sure that the affiliate network you chose has a variety of "related" products you can introduce. Since people usually buy more than one product on a subject they are excited about, this will ensure a continuing stream of money from your initial marketing efforts. Although you can transparently offer products to your customers from a variety of affiliate networks at the same time, it will be less stressful on you and your ability to efficiently handle your affiliate activities if you have as few affiliate product owners and/or affiliate programs to manage as possible. 2. Concentrate on ONE product or service at a time to avoid "activity overload". You must know if your promotional efforts for a specific product or service are paying off or if you are just wasting your time. You need to monitor and modify until you have a continous stream of money from your selected product or service. If it doesn't happen, drop it and move on to another one. Get all promotional and upsell activities (ie: squeeze page, pre-sell page, free reports, autoresponder series, etc.) identified and set up to function automatically before moving on to promoting a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. Automation of each affiliate product or service's process enables you to turn your efforts to developing additional streams of income without disrupting your previous affiliate income stream. 3. SMART affiliates ALWAYS capture prospects name/emails for maximuming income potential Since the affiliate vendor or affiliate program doesn't provide you with a visitor or buyer's name and/or email address, if you send your prospects right to the affiliate product owner's webpage, you have lost them forever (even if they buy, you won't know who they are only that you secured a sale). Therefore, you won't be able to leverage your initial promotional efforts by selling other products or services to those who either expressed an interest or actually made a purchase. Therefore, prior to sending your visitor to the affiliate product owner's webpage, you first want to direct them to a page that you have generated to capture the prospects name and email address. This page is referred to as a "squeeze page" or "opt-in" page. On that page you'll need to give something for FREE (ie: a report, mini-ebook, software tool, newsletter subscription, etc.). Something with VALUE that will entice them to give up the information you want. Since it is a known fact that most people won't buy on their first exposure to a person or product or service, you also have to follow up with the people that have downloaded your FREE item (your list). Since studies have proven that it usually takes 7 exposures before a prospect is comfortable enough to purchase, you must have a process set up to make sure that you follow up in a timely manner. Setting up an autoresponder with a series of messages that are automatically delivered at set intervals, is the best way to do this. This email series needs to be set up so that it helps you to start a relationship as well as position you as a trusted advisor in your targeted marketplace. This will make it easier for your propsects to buy from you. By continuing to provide FREE, valuable information to your readers along with additional promotions built into your email series, it will ensure that your subscribers will continue to stay "subscribed". That they will continue to open your emails and eventually buy one or more of your affiliate promotions. 4. Get the most exposure to your affiliate promotion There are numerous ways to get exposure for your affiliate offer (both free and paid). In other words, traffic to your promotional offer. The biggest marketing effort is made upfront. After that, if done correctly, a "viral" effect takes place and your marketing efforts will take on a life of their own. Free ways: Article writing - Write associated articles and send to article directories. Articles are then picked up by numerous website webmasters, ezine owners, and others looking for online content. Your article's "resource box" should have a direct link to your promotional "squeeze or "opt-in" page (which can't be removed by the publisher). So, each time anyone publishes your article, you'll get free traffic. Forum participation - Find related forums and join in the discussions. Ask questions, offer solutions from your experience/educaton (not a sales pitch). Just configure your "signature" to route to your promotional "squeeze page" and Let your "signature" do your selling for you. Just be sure that the forum offers this type of signature (most do). Blogging - seek out related blogs and write comments, again with a link to your promotional "squeeze page" or "opt-in" page. Joint Ventures - find like minded people in your target market that have "lists" that you can sell to and vice versa. If they present your promotional link to their list, you'll introduce their product in your autoresponder messages to your list. Paid ways: Google Adwords PPC (or other PPC Services) - Write & publish PPC (pay per click) ads. Each time someone clicks your ad, you are charged a certain fee. Keep in mind that you are charged this fee when they "click" your link, not if they "purchase" the product. So, if you aren't monitoring your PPC allowance closely, you will spend way more money on "clicks" than you'll ever earn on affiliate commissions. Be sure to read and understand the terms and conditions of any PPC program before you start to use this marketing resource. If you are too busy or simply don't want to do these tasks yourself, you can always/could easily outsource them to be done by others. But, make no mistake, they must be done. As usual, its a trade off of your time or your money. 5. Make more cash than other affiliates promoting the same product or service Once you have established a solid track record as an affiliate who can close the sales, you can request a higher than standard commission from the merchant. Just contact the affiliate merchant and negotiate a larger percentage of the pie. Since the affiliate vendor doesn't pay you anything unless you've made a sale, they have a zero risk investment in you. If you have been a producer with them or can demonstrate your success with other affiliate promotions, most will accommodate you. Since less than 5% of their affiliates ever generate money for them, they surely don't want to lose an affiliate that does. Just be reasonable in your request. Use these guidelines and you'll soon experience a HUGE increase in your affiliate earnings in no time flat.
Article Source: http://lightwebservices.com
Cleo Craig is the founder of Internet Marketing Scout, a research group dedicated to helping newbies find proven, low cost, and easy to implement stratagies for generating an online income. See her latest recommendation at www.internetmarketingscout.com
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