Why Affiliate Programs Are The Best Training Ground For Internet Marketing Newbies

Making money online can be a long and complicated process. It’s one thing to promote your own products, but when you’re just starting out and want to make some money, where do you start? The answer: affiliate programs.
This article focuses on the big picture, the “whys” of affiliate programs. Next article we’ll talk about the “hows” of promote affiliate programs.

Affiliate programs are easy to implement and simple to understand.

• No products necessary
You never have to have your own product to make money with affiliate programs. It’s all about promoting other people’s products. The steps to making money promoting other people’s products can be summarized in simple steps:
1) Choose an affiliate program.
2) Obtain an affiliate link from the program you’re trying to promote.
3) Create a site that has your affiliate link.
4) Prospects who click on your link will be redirected to the website that has the product you’re promoting.
5) If they make a purchase at this site through your affiliate link, you’ll get a commission (the percentage varies according to the program. What’s cool about it is that your prospects do not necessarily have to make a purchase right away for you to make money. Most affiliates (not all affiliate programs are created equal) will have software that “tracks” your prospects so that if they come back, say, three months later, and make a purchase, you’ll still make money.
• No geniuses allowed
You don’t have to be a John Reese (a big time internet marketer) to make big money with affiliate programs. In fact, if you’re a John Reese, you shouldn’t be reading this article! Most affiliate programs are designed with the beginners in mind. In fact, you can promote a product without being an expert on the product. Leave that to the one who owns the product you’re trying to promote. All you have to do is pick a winning affiliate program that has a proven track record. Some affiliate programs will even provide you with prewritten emails, banners, text links and free eBooks that you can brand and promote.

Planting seeds

Think of affiliate programs as the planting seeds. Besides from the fact that you can make some money while promoting affiliate programs, you’re building a list (customer base) that can make you money again and again in the future. What you’re doing is really building relationships with your list. You can do this by sending follow-up emails, newsletters, etc. Once your “seeds” are “planted”, you can promote other affiliate products, or even your own to your list! – naturally, the bigger the list, the better. Keep nurturing your list and it’ll pay big dividends for you.

Understand the importance of building a list.

If there’s one thing that you get out of this article, it is this: you must build a list. How can you promote anything if you have a zero customer base?

If you’re going make mistakes, might as well make them here.

Just because affiliate programs are easy to implement and the fastest way to make money, doesn’t mean you’re not going make mistakes along the way. You WILL make mistakes. John Reese made mistakes. Babe Ruth made plenty of them. Every successful person makes mistakes. But since this will be your training ground, you might as well you’re your mistakes here. But more importantly, learn from them. The mistakes you make promoting affiliate programs will prepare you to bigger things – like creating and promoting your own products becoming a master marketer.

Building assets

Looking at the big picture, you’re learning valuable skills to build ASSETS. Use the skills you learn to continuously create multiple sources of income. Next article we’ll talk more about this.

You can start making money today if you followed these steps. Let the idea of building a list sink in your mind. It can produce both instant gratification and a perpetual cash machine if you set it up right.

Profitably Yours,

Alex Nguyen


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Affiliate Program Marketing

Why Online Marketers Are Signing Up With Sports Betting Affiliate Programs

Becoming an affiliate is a simple case of signing up to a domain name and an affiliate program. However becoming a successful affiliate is a far harder proposition. In a variable industry where there is no real market share or defined success method, affiliates often have to feel their way through the maze of options to get the most out of their scheme. The affiliate-marketing program is well within the means of any Internet user, and has been exploited by hundreds of thousands of sites already. It is an easy and potentially hugely effective way of earning money from established and profitable online industries.

One of the first things that an affiliate should consider is which industry they wish to represent. If a new affiliate already owns a site their may be an industry that is linked to it and therefore a more relevant to represent. To earn money it makes sense to be encouraging a clientele that are likely to want to visit a site if it is linked to something that has something to do with the content. For example it would be fairly inopportune to represent a music site if a site was dedicated to sports. If however you are looking to create a site that is dedicated to hard selling the affiliate links, then it is far easier to mould a site around an industry. One of the largest online industries that provide greatest service to their affiliates is that of online sports betting. By joining an affiliate program like that of sports betting, you can increase your chances of earning potential. Because it is such a large industry already and still has the potential for growth, it provides the perfect backdrop for a new affiliate.

Sports betting affiliate programs offer some of the largest and most profitable payouts to their affiliates. Like others in the online gaming industry, sports betting programs don't simply offer small one off payments or percentages of a sale. Instead it is possible for an affiliate to sign up and receive a percentage of each player that they generates lifetime money created for the site. Therefore if a person signs up and gambles daily for a few years the affiliate stands in line to earn a sizeable portion of the bookmakers profits for the entirety. But unlike the bookmakers that they represent, the affiliates stand no chance of losing out when a player doesn't generate money or wins a bet. The worst thing that can happen is that an affiliate will receive nothing, but they will never be forced to pay a negative balance, which in turn makes the sports betting program both profitable and safe. It is because of this successful and risk free equation, that so many people have decided to make their websites dedicated to sports betting affiliation. As a result the sports betting industry is achieving phenomenal growth, and affiliates everywhere are experiencing unimaginable gains. The best thing about the program is that because it is free for anybody to join it is wide open to opportunity for everyone. There are no restrictions and no qualifications required, so even people with the least marketing or Internet skills can profit from the industry.


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Affiliate Program Marketing

Where To Find Good Independent Affiliate Programs

It seems that there are thousands of companies that have chosen to manage their own affiliate programs rather than using companies like Linkshare or Commission Junction.

In fact, our friends at Five Star Affiliate Programs tracked a posting on a UK affiliate forum where they are wondering if the networks deserve their 30% commission. Great Question.

The point is that it takes big bucks to get into a Commission Junction or a LinkShare, and there are plenty of good-paying, unique programs out there that are worth at least reviewing. Like everything else on the Internet there are plenty of directories out there that list independent affiliate programs. Again, like everything else on the Internet some of them just list programs from other networks (like Clickbank).

In fact, a lot of them were organized the same way and had the same sites listed, so I came to the conclusion that they were just repackaged content (which I find a lot on the Net these days).

I looked over 25 to 30 of these directories, and here are the 5 I found the most useful, in the order that I liked them:

1. Affiliateseeking.com
This was my favorite. They seemed to have the most unique set of sites, and the user interface is intuitive.

2. Earnfind.com
EarnFind was a good one too, with lots of good links and good organization.

3. Clickslink.com
Not a bad site, although many of the listings were from other networks.

4. AffiliatePrograms.com
Great layout, some good sites. My only gripe is that it is a paid listing service, which lessens its impartiality.

5. AffiliateGuide.com
This is the affiliate guide template site. Lots of ads, but some good programs. I wanted to include at least one of these sites…there are many.

Here's a good Google tip: type in the word or phrase that describes the affilate program keyword, then include +affiliate. For example, if you're looking for a dog toys affiliate you would search dog toys +affiliate. You should get back a bunch of programs.

If you know of any more good ones, drop me a line at www.affiliateblog.com.


Make Money Online Fast

Affiliate Program Marketing