These affiliate marketing tips are primarily for newcomers, however they remain relevant to all affiliate marketers.
- Affiliate Marketing Tips For Newcomers
Most people interested in earning huge net salaries will get their feet wet using the affiliate marketing sales model and for good reason; affiliate marketers generally earn some of the highest net salaries throughout the Internet.
In this current economic climate, people justifiably want to earn as much money from affiliate marketing as humanly possible.
Newcomers in particular have a tendency to jump into every high paying affiliate program that they come across, without doing much research on the product they plan to promote.
This is a serious mistake that almost every newcomer makes.
Newcomers in their haste to earn huge net salaries, often choose products which are the flavor of the day without formulating a strategic plan of action.
This is obviously not a wise path to travel if you plan on becoming a successful affiliate marketer.
Before you even think about selecting a product to promote, you need to formulate a plan of attack.
Select an affiliate product that appeals to you. Then perform a Google search to see how much demand there is for that particular product in the marketplace.
Just like any other line of work, you will have much more success if you enjoy what you are doing.
In general, you will do much better promoting affiliate products that interest you, rather than just promoting affiliate products that payout high commissions in which you have little interest in.
Many “newbies” to affiliate marketing find themselves promoting products they have never used or know anything about.
Always try out the product or service you plan on promoting before you sign up for the affiliate program. Promoting an inferior product is the quickest way to destroy credibility with your customers and ultimately fail in your affiliate marketing efforts.
There are literally hundreds of thousands of affiliate products online and many of them are not quality products. Never promote a product if it does not deliver as advertised.
Many “newbies” to affiliate marketing who have not taken advantage of an online marketing course, mentoring program or have viewed any marketing tutorials wind up using the “scattergun” approach to affiliate marketing.
They sign up for multiple affiliate programs, with the most popular affiliate products, that pay the highest commissions.
Then they either set up a hosted blog or website with a few banner advertisements or email their friends with a few affiliate links and expect to earn a high net salary for their efforts.
Even seasoned affiliate marketers refrain from promoting too many products at one time.
Newbies especially tend to lose focus when attempting to promote multiple products.
They usually find their computer full of programs they signed up for and didn’t have enough time to promote.
It’s much better to choose an affiliate product that you are familiar with that pays at least a 50% commission and promote it until you start making a decent profit. Then you can move on to promoting another affiliate product.
The goal of all internet marketers is to earn multiple sources of income. But when your marketing efforts become too scattered, you will not be able to devote the proper amount of time needed for each product to generate a substantial net salary.
Too many irons in the fire will only lead you to failure.
The affiliate marketing model will be around for a long time to come, so if you get the urge to sign up for every affiliate program you come across, stifle it.
The affiliate marketers who earn serious net salaries online take things one step at a time and are methodical with their plan of attack.
Promoting affiliate products takes a lot of work, dedication, patience and time and is extremely lucrative when done correctly.
If you follow the basic affiliate marketing tips for newcomers as outlined above, your chance for success as an affiliate marketer will be greatly improved.
If You’re Fed Up With Lousy Affiliate Marketing Strategies That Simply Don’t Work, This Guide Can Help You.
The Email marketing model is another way to earn six figure net salaries when it is implemented correctly.
Email marketing consists of two stages:
- Creating a targeted double opt in email list
- Marketing to your email list
But before you do anything, you need a good autoresponder. Without one you simply CANNOT make any money email marketing.
Autoresponders are basically e-mail programs that send out a preset message in
response to every incoming e-mail that is received.
Today most online businesses use autoresponders to automate duties that would otherwise require hundreds of man hours to manually implement.
From list building and tracking of prospective leads, to the programmed broadcasting of timed follow up messages; the autoresponder is the most essential element in the email marketing model.
There is a definite blueprint that must be followed if you plan on making money online from the email marketing model.
The following is a typical example of an email marketing blueprint.
- Choose a niche topic
- Research your market
- Create your content
- Set up your autoresponder messages
- Set up your website or blog
- Build your opt in list of prospects
- Drive traffic to your website
- Rinse and repeat
Choose a niche topic.
To make money online with autoresponders, you first need a product to market.
You can create your own product or follow what most email marketers do and promote an affiliate product.
Your niche topic must appeal to a wide audience for the product you are selling. Usually email marketers sell some type of information in the form of an e-book, e-course, CD, audio program, video tutorial set, e-zine or newsletter.
Whatever product you choose to promote, must appeal to the niche topic you decide on. Hopefully one with a large number of potential buyers.
Research your market
Market research is important. You need to determine who will buy your product, where they are (both on and offline) and how you can best contact them through advertising with your autoresponder program.
The more targeted your niche market, the higher your net salaries will be.
There are many methods for researching niche markets which will be discussed in later articles, but the most effective are fast, easy, and free to use.
The key to advertising success on Google and the other search engines is to find the right keywords to use.
Internet searches are extremely effective in finding how popular your niche topic is, and how to set up your autoresponder to get the best results.
You can also use eBay, Amazon, various groups and forums, market sureys and other avenues besides Google and the major search engines to compile the most effective search terms for your market niche.
Create your content
Creating the information that people will pay you to receive is the next step in the email marketing model.
It is important that your content (your book, e-book, e-course, CD, etc.) is useful, original, of high quality and is otherwise unavailable for purchase outside of other competitive products.
There are two ways to get good content:
- Create it yourself
- Become a member of an affiliate program
Set up your autoresponder messages
Because most consumers will only buy a product after repeated exposure to it, creating a great autoresponder message series is essential to making serious net salaries.
Never spam your prospects; it is the path to email maketing failure.
When setting up your autoresponder messages, pay particular attention to:
- Your subject line.
The subject must be compelling enough to keep prospects from deleting the message unread
- Your opening sentence.
It should be compelling, gramatically correct, short on hype, full of promise and brief.
- Your disclaimer. Remind people that they asked for your message when they opted in to your list.
- Introductory paragraph.
Explain what your product will do for your prospect. Be brief.
- Your sub heading.
Briefly explain the benefits of your product
- Call to action
Explain what your product is, where it can be purchased, what it costs and why your prospect needs it.
- Follow up message reminder
Advise your subscriber when they will receive your next follow up message and why.
- Unsubscribe link.
If you don’t offer your subscribers the option to unsubscribe from your list, you will be labeled a spammer. This is important and must be in every message you send.
Set up your website or blog
Your web site or blog serves as a sign-up point for your opt-in subscribers and a
point of sale for subscribers who have decided to purchase your products. Much more on website construction will be discussed in later posts.
Build your opt in list of prospects
Your opt in list is a collection of e-mail addresses from people who show interest in your product and request to join your autoresponder list.
They MUST request being on your list or your messages will be considered spam and the reputation of your business will be destroyed.
There are many free list building strategies that can be effectively used such as:
- Articles
- E-books
- Giveaways contests
- Mini e-courses
- Pop-up ads
- etc.
In addition to the above, there are the following paid methods.
- PPC campaigns
- Classified advertisments
- Co-registration lists
- Ad Swaps
Drive traffic to your website
Traffic is the lifeblood of all marketing campaigns and there are tons of strategies used by Internet marketers to accomplish it.
Once you have your product, your autoresponder message series, your web site, and all your accounts in place, you need to drive as much targeted traffic to your site as possible in order to market your list.
Countless e-books, training programs, audio/video tutorials, software programs and black hat techniques about driving traffic are available on the Internet.
A simple Google search, on how to drive or “funnel” traffic to your website will give you more information than you can ever possibly digest.
A word of caution; some strategies on the Internet focus on tricking the search engines into ranking a site or landing page high in the Search Engine Results Page for a period of time. Stay away from these.
You can’t trick the search engines and you could get your site banned by trying.
Only PPC advertising and organic searches will provide a steady flow of visitors to your site and this takes work to accomplish.
Keyword SEO, blog pinging, search engine directory submissions, video marketing, social networking, social bookmarking sites, “Tweeting”, updating your site content frequently, etc. will all over time get visitors to your site and keep them returning.
The biggest mistake many email marketers make with the Email marketing model, is concentraing too much on building their list and too little on marketing to it.
A good email list of targeted prospects is like having a checkbook in your pocket with unlimited funds available.
By following the above Email marketing model blueprint or one similar to it, almost anyone with a good work ethic can easily earn six figure net salaries.
Affiliate Marketing
People that make money online with affiliate marketing earn some of the highest paying net salaries.
The affiliate marketing model is what most “work at home” newcomers to Internet marketing start off with, and for good reason. You can make money very quickly.
First of all let’s define what affiliate marketing is all about.
An advertiser is a company who sells their product or service on or off line, in return for payment from their customers.
In order to facilitate the sales of their products, advertisers frequently set up affiliate programs.
When an advertiser has an affiliate program, they allow affiliates to market their product or service for a commission of the sale.
Affiliate marketing is when you get paid a commission on the sale of the products or services that you have recommended online.
Most of the people who make money online with affiliate marketing fit into four similar yet distinct categories.
- Beginner Marketing
- Niche Marketing
- Expert Marketing
- Entrepreneurial Marketing
Beginner Marketing
Beginner affiliate marketing is normally what is taught by most of the online marketing courses, tutorials and mentoring programs.
Affiliate marketers are first taught how to find the latest hot product or service online, regardless their affiliation to the product’s creator, and then find potential buyers to promote their products to.
PPC (Pay Per Click) advertising, blogging, video creation, forum postings, email signatures, banner ads, reviews and other types of promotional strategies are taught to get people to purchase the affiliate product.
Since the potential buyers never know the real identity of the affiliate marketer, this affiliate marketing model is also known as anonymous marketing.
Niche Marketing
Niche marketing is the quickest way to become a successful affiliate marketer online.
The idea is to find and target a small market which you can dominate that has relatively little competition, yet enjoys a high volume of Internet searches.
Choose a specific topic, preferably one that you know well and focus your all your attention on this particular niche.
Do some research to find affiliate products that help people solve a particular set of problems within the niche.
Focus your first websites or blogs on identifying market niches and providing products or services to accommodate the needs of those prospects.
Although you can be an anonymous affiliate marketer, you will achieve better results when there is a face behind your promotions.
Don’t fall into the trap of trying to compete with Amazon for book sales. Instead concentrate on a specific niche such as ancient coin collecting or creating stained glass suncatchers.
By focusing your website and your affiliate marketing efforts on a small segment of the market that is not already dominated, you can make huge net salaries.
The most important thing you can do to become a successful affiliate marketer is to devote enough time to research a good niche market.
Expert Marketing
Expert affiliate marketers leverage their expert credentials into focused recommendations for their existing and potential customers.
As an established expert affiliate marketer, most expert affiliates create their own products to market alongside with the products and services they already recommend.
Expert affiliates usually promote their own products as an add on or as a supplement to an existing product to better serve their customers.
The main difference from the first two categories is that because you are already recognized as an expert affiliate marketer, your recommendations have more authority and credibility.
Entrepreneur Marketing
Real entrepreneurs set up their own affiliate networks and have affiliates promote their own products and services.
By simply setting up an online payment system and connecting it to affiliate tracking software, you can offer your services online and have people around the world serving as your commissioned sales force.
Other than the cost of the tracking software, this strategy has no up front costs. Your affiliates get paid only when they make a sale.
Most of the people who make money online with affiliate marketing do so because it can be done quickly, easily, without the necessity of a website and with no monetary outlay.
eCommerce Drop Shipping Worldwide
Many entrepreneurs and small businesses make money online with eCommerce drop shipping without a storefront business to branch off of.
E commerce is extremely competitive on the Internet but when correctly implemented, eCommerce drop shipping in particular can quickly grow into a good sized business with a very little capital expenditure.
The first thing you need is a website to sell from.
The second and most important thing you need if you plan on making a decent living from e Commerce, is a lot of visitors looking at your site to buy what you have to sell.
For this reason you should be able to execute a well prepared business plan before you even think about setting up your website for drop shipping.
Most e-commerce websites have a conversion rate of 1 or 2%. That means that only one or two people out of 100 visitors will purchase from your eCommerce site.
It also means that to make any real money with eCommerce drop shipping, a mandatory 30% gross profit is necessary.
The line between making money and losing your shirt in eCommerce drop shipping is quite fine and the small details that are inherent to drop shipping can really make or break your business profits if they are not correctly addressed.
If you plan to be successful in eCommerce drop shipping, these four factors need to be considered.
- Your Website
- Your Supplier
- Your Product Line
- Profit Margin
Your Website and eCommerce cart is probably the most important factor in eCommerce drop shipping.
In order to satisfy your customer’s orders, your website and eCommerce script must seamlessly integrate with your supplier’s products, inventories and shipping options.
Because you will probably be using more than one drop shipping supplier, your eCommerce cart script must be able to support multiple shipping options from several warehouses.
One of the biggest challenges in online drop shipping is the matching of inventories. Without accurate product stock information, the potential of losing money by selling out of stock products increases.
For this reason and others, it’s important that you choose a good supplier.
When possible, your eCommerce system should support live integration with your suppliers.
In the event your supplier does not have this capability, you will need to reconcile your inventory on at least a daily basis with each supplier.
Most of the problems that occur with eCommerce drop shipping can be traced to inventory issues. The more accurate your stock information is, the more money you will make.
Your Supplier is a vital link to your customer and should be chosen carefully.
Although many suppliers claim to be able to provide a good selection of products at discount prices, it’s up to you to research their performance. Stay away from drop ship suppliers who charge a monthly fee.
A Google search in your market niche for a drop ship supplier will provide you with plenty of company names who drop ship.
When you finally decide on your suppliers, it is very important that you build credibility with them that will eventually morph into a long term relationship.
Your Product Line and price structure is important to the success of your eCommerce drop shipping business.
Your niche products should have already been researched to be priced competitively.
The price you place on your products should be “middle of the road”. Price them too high and you will lose sales; price them too low and you won’t make any money. Aim for a “middle of the road” price structure unless you know you have an exclusive product line.
Stay away from highly competitive products such as computers, electronics, jewelry, etc. The profit margins on these products are too low to make any serious money, unless you are already getting a huge volume of visitor traffic to your site.
It’s much better to spend some additional time researching potential product lines finding more targeted products that convert higher, than to jump in and select a low converting product that you will lose money with.
Your Profit Margin is the final factor which determines if you will be successful in eCommerce drop shipping.
As stated earlier, if your profit margin isn’t at least 30% you will not be making any serious money with eCommerce drop shipping. And if your suppliers can’t guarantee you that margin; look for other suppliers who can.
Finally, learn as much as you can about SEO and SEM.
You can always hire programmers to build an eCommerce store for you and install what is necessary to make your site friendly to the search engines.
Remember that your primary goal is to make money online with eCommerce drop shipping by selling something that people are actually looking for, so do your homework.
