How to Start an Affiliate Marketing Business

February 3, 2013

The Internet has given everyone a chance to become a part of the business community from the comfort of their own home. An increasingly popular way of doing this is to delve into the world of affiliate marketing. So what is it, and how can you start your own affiliate marketing business?

What is affiliate marketing?

 

This uniquely 21st Century form of marketing is performance-based, and works by rewarding ‘affiliates’ for every visitor or customer they direct to the primary business through their own marketing efforts. So it’s not exactly ‘word of mouth’, but requires some effort on the part of the affiliates to create a marketing strategy that will bring in customers for the primary business. Basically, it’s a method of ‘outsourcing’ your advertising to satellite affiliates.

There are four primary players in this particular marketing strategy:

  • The merchant, also referred to as the brand or retailer
  • The network, which includes offers by the merchant that the affiliate can select and also deals with payments to the merchant
  • The affiliate, also known as the publisher
  • The customer

How to get started in affiliate marketing

 

Choose a subject you know about. The more you know personally about the subject, the more attractive, informative and engaging you can make your website and the higher your traffic flow will be.

Pick a decent web address – one that gives browsers a good idea of the products you will be promoting. The easier it is for your target audience to find you, the more likely they are to visit you and then click through to your merchant’s site.

SEO (search engine optimization) is a crucial aspect of the process, so make sure you understand what keywords are being used to search for the products you are promoting, and that they form a part of your content. But remember not to overdo the keyword ‘stuffing’ to avoid being penalized by the search engines. Talk to an SEO professional if necessary before starting work.

Get a good web host to look after your website. The best way to find a good host is to talk to people who have already gone through the process and find who are the ‘hosts with the most’! Of particular importance when choosing a host is the bandwidth. This will determine how much traffic your website will be able to handle. The basic rule is the more bandwidth you can get, the better!

Design a site that is eye catching, engaging and, above all, easy to navigate. Keep the ‘bells and whistles’ to a minimum because apart from being annoying, data-heavy gifs and flash graphics will slow the download time for your site, possibly encouraging browsers to bounce away.

Make sure that your content is relevant, up to date and readable. Remember that browsers are not keen on scrolling down through reams of information, so keep pertinent information ‘above the cut’.

To earn your affiliate commission you will need to drive traffic that’s been specifically targeted towards your website. Ensure that you have a small business accounting software such as QuickBooks by Intuit so you will be able to keep track of all commission payments for your end-of-year tax returns and to keep an eye on how financially viable the venture is.

The more traffic you get, the more chance of making sales you have, so you will need to market your site. You can use several different methods to do this:

  • Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising – make sure that the cost of the PPC doesn’t outweigh the projected benefits, and keep an eye on costs very carefully, especially at the start of the enterprise
  • Article marketing – write informative, interesting and relevant articles that are related to your affiliate products with a link to your website and publish them on article sites such as eZines.
  • Social networking – forums can be a great way to encourage traffic towards your website, but be aware of each forum’s regulations regarding posting links to avoid being flagged as a ‘spammer’ or ‘troll’.
  • Post on YouTube – a video that goes viral can drive thousands of browsers to your website, as well as giving you an opportunity to showcase your affiliate products.

INFOGRAPHIC:

How Affiliate Marketing Works

How Affiliate Marketing Works infographic by CommissionFactory.

Author:

Carlo Pandian is a business writes and blogs on entrepreneurship, finance and online marketing. When he’s not online, Carlo loves visiting the countryside and going around town with his bike.

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Extra Income from Home!

March 20, 2012

Despite difficult economic times, stay at home parents, the retired, and unemployed are finding ways to earn extra money from home.  These home business options do not involve mid-level-marketing or direct selling, but are full and part-time jobs based from home.  Many positions are found on the Internet and most allow a flexible schedule while allowing work-home balance.

Choosing one of these opportunities requires common sense more than specific training or talents and experience in given areas.  In order to be successful, an individual should plan on working a couple of hours each day and be committed to the position.

Please refer to following list of work from home options:

Secret or Mystery Shoppers

Homepreneurs do not always “work” only at home.  Secret Shoppers visit assigned retail stores and act as average customers, writing confidential reports about their experience with employee customer service, product knowledge, and sales skills. The reports are typically in template format, with a rating scale, and a comments sections.  Secret Shopper reports assist owners and managers in evaluating store staff and training needs.  Hired by a third-party organization, Secret Shoppers may also be asked to evaluate a store for cleanliness, organization, shopping or dining experience, and product selection.

Experience is not always necessary for these positions.  More important is an ability to read, speak, and write English (in some cases Spanish too), honesty, dependability, and flexibility to shop at specified store locations in a time range.  Common industries that use Secret Shoppers include:  larger retail stores, airlines, and restaurants. To find out more about Secret Shoppers, please visit http://www.mysteryshop.org.

Virtual Assistants

Another excellent home business opportunity is as a virtual assistant: “A virtual assistant (VA) is an individual who provides business support services in a variety of areas. They do not work out of your office, but work virtually for you from our company offices. Support service areas can include website development and maintenance, marketing, search engine optimization, content writing, graphic design and link building. A VA is not employed, but an independent contractor who provides services through our organization for a monthly retainer.” 1

Some skills and experience are typically needed for these positions – computer training – Word, Excel and PowerPoint.  Advanced positions may require: database maintenance and creation, web design, research, blog or website content writing.

Many websites claim to offer virtual assistant jobs and will gladly charge a fee to add you to their database of potential workers.  Please remember that you should never pay a company to list your qualifications.  Once placed – if as an independent contractor – a retainer charge may be required.  Other Virtual Assistant listing companies get paid by employers to locate qualified workers.  Be aware that a background check may also be required by the listing company.  A source for positions: http://www.odesk.com .  Again, please do independent research and verify their claims.

Become a Content / Web Writer

An increasingly common opportunity for those interested in writing or editing for others.  So called “ghost writers” provide content websites and blogs.  “The price range for this style of writing runs from 1 cent per word to several dollars per article. Beginning ghost writers may charge as little as $1 per article.” 2

Ghost writers may also be paid on an hourly basis or on commission, depending on the terms of the contract.  Experienced writers can expect to earn more. Important skills to have: Writing and editing skills, computer skills (Word), knowledge about specific topics (if writing for that area), research ability, and patience.

Also required for starting content writer work:  A computer and Internet connection, a PayPal account or credit card or bank account.  Most website content / articles are between 300-500 words each; keyword density and formatting needs will be part of the contact terms.  Be sure to understand exactly the requirements and due dates.  An informational site:  http://www.exquisitewriting.com/freelance-ghostwriter-hire/

Blogging

As discussed in a previous article on Homepreneurs, money can be made from blogging.  By itself, blogging won’t lead to huge success, but can yield a smaller stream of income while providing a stepping stone to careers such as ghost writing, eBooks, editing, etc.  Articles on a blog fill a  writing portfolio and may lead to bigger and better writing opportunities.  If popular, well-received blog posts on specific topics may be combined into a book, as written in a previous article on Homepreneurs blog.

Further, blogs can provide additional money via advertising and by using Google’s Adsense.  After having 10-15 posts on your blog, submit an easy application at www.google.com/adsense. Once  approved, add some Google-provided script to your blog and Google will automatically display ads related the blog’s theme.   A blogger makes money when the adds are clicked (pay-per-click or ppc) by a visitor.  An individual click may not pay well, but hundreds of clicks can bring in a nice amount.  These clicks provide passive income.  Make money at any time of day, whenever an article is read and a link clicked.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing or referred selling is another way for Homepreneurs to make money from web sites or blogs.  Affiliate marketing occurs when a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer referred by the affiliate’s (your site/blog) own marketing efforts.  Many companies have an affiliate program and will pay people to advertise their products.  These companies provide a banner or text ad using programming code that you insert in your website or blog.  In return, you will receive a percentage of the product(s) sold.  A key point to remember is to align your target market with a potential advertising client.  A company specializing in linens won’t want to advertise on a blog dedicated to sports.

Here are three sites that may help you with affiliate marketing:

http://botw.org/top/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Authoring/Webmaster_Resources/Affiliate_Programs/

http://www.dmoz.org/Business/Opportunities/Online_Opportunities/Affiliate_Programs/

http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Business_Opportunities/Directories/Web_Site_Affiliate_Programs/

Many opportunities, small and potentially large, exist for Homepreneurs.  Some provide passive income – blogging and affiliate marketing – others via direct action.  None of these is a get-rich quick scheme, but can provide needed additional income, especially as a second job or for the stay at home or unemployed.  As always, it is strongly recommended that research and homework are done prior to signing up for any opportunity!

By Dion D Shaw

Dion D Shaw is the founder and owner of Homepreneurs

Homepreneurs.  New Day.  New Opportunity.

References:
1) http://www.virtualassistant.org/
2) http://www.ehow.com/facts_4899931_how-much-does-ghostwriter-paid.html

Disclaimer

Homepreneurs does not endorse nor have any relationships with any of the services listed.  Homepreneurs receives no compensation or consideration for its suggestions.  Homepreneurs strongly urges all interested parties to conduct research and accepts no responsibility for any losses incurred.

© Homepreneurs 2010 – 2012, All Rights Reserved

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Make Money From Blogging Without Annoying Ads

November 3, 2011

A great follow-up question about making money with blogs was posted by WAG, a reader of this blog.  WAG asked me to elaborate on point #10, making money without using advertising.  I prefer not to run ads on this blog, feeling that ads clutter the page and remind me of used car sales.  Any advertising seen here is placed by WordPress to offset costs of keeping the blog free.  There are ways to make money on blogs without advertising and this post will examine some ideas.

According to pingdom.com, at the end of 2010, 152 million blogs on the Internet were tracked by BlogPulse.  Many of these attempt to make money through advertising, Google adsense or similar.  The advertising model can work, if your blog generates sufficient numbers.  For blogs that generate less traffic, try some of these ideas:

- Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate advertising is basically an online marketing channel. An advertiser pays a blogger to promote the advertiser’s products or services on the blogger’s site.

Affiliate advertising or marketing typically uses: pay-per-click, pay-per-lead or pay-per-sale. Each is performance based, earning money only if a reader clicks on a link and/or purchases a product. Using this style does not mean banner or block ads are required.  Simple text highlights can be used instead.  For example:

Put in context, these don’t scream advertising but are subtle affiliate links to other companies.  Several large companies offer affiliate programs that a blogger can set up in minutes, including: Amazon, eBay, and Allposters .

- Affiliate Discovery: Similar to affiliate advertising, monetize your blog through an affiliate directory where various online merchants post their affiliate ad opportunities.  A blogger can pick and apply for specific companies and advertising options. Popular web links for these include:

- Establish a partnership with a merchant(s): A mutual reciprocal relationship where your blog promotes products – perhaps via reviews – and the partner links back to your blog.  All parties potentially benefit and income can be generated.  If this option is chosen, it must be done subtly to not appear as a sales or marketing blog.

- Promote your own products: As indicated in previous posts on Homepreneurs, a blog is an important extension of your website.  Blogs are shorter, dynamic and easily updated.  Websites often require more time to update, test, and review.  Blog provide immediate return.  Have a new product to sell or perhaps a limited supply?  Use your blog to promote the product rather than your website.

- Create a worthy cause blog: For example, each month choose a cause to blog about with donations provided to a related charity.  October might be dedicated to breast cancer survivor stories with donations for the Susan Komen Foundation.  Yes, you can take a reasonable administrative percentage off the top – say 5 or 10 percent – for your time, effort, and overhead.  Be sure to maintain good records and research laws governing charitable donations.

- Sell subscriptions: If you provide unique or valuable information that is difficult to find or know, you can sell this to subscribers of your blog.  Examples might include: tax preparation, financial ideas or investing tips, small business leads for potential customers, or a ‘find your true love’ service.  Each of these may require a tax ID or EIN and may have laws to consider.  Do research to find out what is needed and/or required.

Hope this answers your question, WAG.  Please understand that get-rich-quick blog schemes are rare and often questionable.  Slow and steady with solid content and modest expectations of income are more likely.  But remember, build it and they will come.  Be honest, provide something of value, and become a go-to source.  This blog with almost 15,000 unique visits is proof that the concept can and does work.

Please post your questions in the comment section, on our twitter site or via email: homepreneurs@gmail.com .  Questions of general interest will be answered on this blog.

By Dion D Shaw

Dion D Shaw is the founder and owner of Homepreneurs.

Homepreneurs.  New Day.  New Opportunity.

Disclaimer

Homepreneurs does not endorse nor have any relationships with any of the services listed.  Homepreneurs receives no compensation or consideration for its suggestions.  Homepreneurs strongly urges all interested parties to conduct research and accepts no responsibility for any losses incurred.

© Homepreneurs 2011

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Legitimate Ways for Homepreneurs to Make Money

March 28, 2011

Despite difficult times, stay at home parents, the retired, and unemployed are finding ways to make extra money from home.  These homepreneurs do not involve mid-level-marketing or direct selling, but are full and part-time jobs based from home.  Many positions are found on the Internet most allow a flexible schedule and create work-home balance.

Choosing an appropriate opportunity requires common sense more than specific training or talents and experience in given areas.  In order to be successful, an individual should plan on working a couple of hours each day and be committed to the position.

Please refer to following list of Homepreneurs options:

Secret or Mystery Shoppers

Homepreneurs do not always “work” only at home.  Secret Shoppers visit assigned retail stores and act as average customers, writing confidential reports about their experience with employee customer service, product knowledge, and sales skills. The reports are typically in template format, with numbered ratings, and a comments sections.  Secret Shopper reports assist owners and managers in evaluating store staff and training needs.  Hired by a third-party organization, Secret Shoppers may also be asked to evaluate a store for cleanliness, organization, shopping or dining experience, and product selection.

Experience is not always necessary for these positions.  More important is an ability to read, speak, and write English (in some cases Spanish too), honesty, dependability, and ability to shop at specified store locations in a time range.  Common industries that use Secret Shoppers include:  Larger retail stores, airlines, and restaurants. To find out more about Secret Shoppers, please visit http://www.mysteryshop.org.

Virtual Assistants

Another excellent opportunity for homepreneurs is as a virtual assistant: “A virtual assistant (VA) is an individual who provides business support services in a variety of areas. They do not work out of your office, but work virtually for you from our company offices. Support service areas can include website development and maintenance, marketing, search engine optimization, content writing, graphic design and link building. A VA is not employed, but an independent contractor who provides services through our organization for a monthly retainer.” 1

Some skills and experience are often required for these positions:  Basic computer skills – Word, Excel and Powerpoint.  Advanced positions may require: Database maintenance and creation, web design, research, blog or website content writing.

Many websites claim to offer virtual assistant jobs and will gladly charge a fee for including you in their database of potential workers.  Please remember that you should not pay a company to list your qualifications.  Once placed – if as an independent contractor – a retainer charge may be required.  Other Virtual Assistant listing companies get paid by employers to locate qualified workers.  Be aware that a background check may also be required by the listing company.  Virtual Assistant appears is source of positions http://www.virtualassistant.org/ .  Again, please do independent research and verify their claims.

Become a Content / Web Writer

An increasingly common opportunity for those interested in writing or editing for others.  So called “ghost writers” provide content websites and blogs.  “The price range for this style of writing runs from 1 cent per word to several dollars per article. Beginning ghost writers may charge as little as $1 per article.” 2

Ghost writers may also be paid on an hourly basis or on commission, depending on the terms of the contract.  Experienced writers can expect to earn more. Important skills to have: Writing and editing skills, computer skills (Word), knowledge about specific topics (if writing for that area), research ability, and patience.

Also required are for starting content writer work:  A computer and Internet connection, a PayPal account or credit card or bank account.  Most website content / articles are between 300-500 words each; keyword density and formatting needs will be part of the contact terms.  Be sure to understand exactly what the requirements and due dates.  An informational site:  http://www.exquisitewriting.com/freelance-ghostwriter-hire/

Blogging

As discussed in a previous article on homepreneurs, money can be made from blogging.  By itself, blogging won’t lead to huge success, but can yield a smaller stream of income while providing a stepping stone to careers such as ghost writing, eBooks, editing, etc.  Articles on a blog can be used in your writing portfolio and lead to bigger and better writing opportunities.  If done correctly, well-received blog posts on specific topics may be combined into a book, as written in a previous article on homepreneurs.

Further, blogs can provide additional money via advertising and by using Google’s Adsense.  After having 10-15 posts on your blog, submit an easy application at www.google.com/adsense. Once  approved, add some Google-provided script to your blog and Google will automatically display ads related the blog’s theme.   A blogger makes money by when the adds are clicked on (pay-per-click or ppc) by a visitor.  An individual click may not pay well, but a total of hundreds of clicks can bring in a nice amount.  These clicks can be passive income:  A blogger produce the code or advertising, it is automatically done by Google’s program.  Make money at any time of day, whenever an article is read and a link clicked.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing or referred selling is another way for homepreneurs to make money from web sites or blogs.  Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice where business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s (your site/blog) own marketing efforts.  Many companies have an affiliate program and will pay people to advertise their products.  These companies will provide a banner or text ad using programming code that you insert in your website or blog.  In return, you will receive a percentage of the product(s) sold.  A key point to remember is to align your target market with a potential advertising client.  A company specializing in linens won’t want to advertise on a blog dedicated to sports.

Here are three sites that may help you with affiliate marketing:

http://botw.org/top/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Authoring/Webmaster_Resources/Affiliate_Programs/

http://www.dmoz.org/Business/Opportunities/Online_Opportunities/Affiliate_Programs/

http://dir.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Business_to_Business/Business_Opportunities/Directories/Web_Site_Affiliate_Programs/

Many opportunities, small and potentially large, exist for Homepreneurs.  Some provide passive income – affiliate marketing – others via more directly.  None of these is a get-rich quick scheme, but can provide needed additional income, especially as a second job or for the stay at home or unemployed.  As always, it is strongly recommended that research and homework are done prior to signing up for any opportunity!

By Dion D Shaw
Dion Shaw is the founder and owner of homepreneurs.

References:
1) http://www.virtualassistant.org/
2) http://www.ehow.com/facts_4899931_how-much-does-ghostwriter-paid.html

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Have You Considered Affiliate Marketing?

October 18, 2010

By Seth Brogan

I had the good fortune to address the National Confectioners Association (the candy people) this past week in Miami. There were over 500 companies, ranging in size from behemoths like Mars Chocolate and Hersheys, to several hundred family-run organizations heading into their fourth generation of family ownership. In many cases, during conversations, I found myself recommended affiliate marketing. This, of course, made me think of you.

Affiliate marketing, simply, is when someone has an audience and chooses to market products or services that aren’t theirs to that market. (Want the Wikipedia definition?) So, for instance, on chrisbrogan.com, I market the WordPress blog theme, Thesis, which I didn’t create. Because I have an audience reading my blog who might want to use such a product, I can deliver sales to Chris Pearson, who created the product. Make sense? Chris does the product. I do the marketing. I make some money. Chris makes some money.

Your business could be doing affiliate marketing. The efforts to create a project aren’t all that high. You need to build out the mechanics of the program, including how to handle the financial transactions, how to pay the affiliates, how to manage all the ordering and return policies and the like, but this is a business that has been growing over the last decade (in 2009, it was estimated that affiliate marketing was a $13 billion dollar market). So, what would your first steps be?

If you want to attend the best event in the space to learn about affiliate marketing, check out Shawn Collins’s and Missy Ward’s Affiliate Summit. There, you can see great speeches by the industry leaders, visit several companies who have programs in place, and learn the ins and outs from start to expert.

Want to wing it? You can swing by sites like Commission Junction, or Share-a-Sale, or LinkShare, and browse around their literature to see what it takes to sign up. If you go that route, I recommend searching for an affiliate manager for your program. These skills aren’t necessarily part of the starting toolset of most marketers, and it’s something you want to get right, so it’s worth paying for a few months (at least) of consulting help, or hiring on.

What’s to gain? Revenue. Affiliate marketing is a great way to tap other people’s audiences and markets to build revenue. It’s becoming an important part of many companies’ online marketing efforts, from very small businesses to Fortune 100 brands. Maybe your company should give it a shot.

Though you might make a few errors starting off, give it a chance. Affiliate marketing is a way to connect your products and services to audiences that have yet to find their way to you themselves. It’s a powerful opportunity.

Have you tried? What were your results? Do you have questions? Let me know how I can help.

Chris Brogan is co-author of the NYT/WSJ bestselling book, Trust Agents. He is president of New Marketing Labs, LLC, and blogs at [chrisbrogan.com].

Full Article Here:  http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/marketing/article/have-you-considered-affiliate-marketing-chris-brogan

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