The best part of affiliate marketing is you don't have do all the hard work associated with retail sales. You don't need a store, you don't need to speculate and buy inventory to sell, you don't have to deal with shipping and handling, and you don't have to handle returns. All of these activities are performed by the company who has signed you up as an affiliate. As an affiliate marketer all you have to do is drive your traffic to these products or services and the rest is up to them. When a sale is made you make a commission. It's as simple as that.
When you sign up as an affiliate marketer you are given several types of "ads" to choose from which you can put on your website or blog. Some ads are full ads with pictures and all the bells and whistles. Some are simple text links. An example of a full ad is shown here.
These ads are a nice way to ad a little color and pizazz to your site and they are good at catching the eye of your site visitor. Other ads are less conspicuous and are easy to embed in your content. They are called text ads. Text ads are a good way to offer products without "in your face" selling. For example, let's say you are blogging about the latest cellular phone technology. In your blog you start to review the Palm Handhelds. If your visitors click on the words Palm Handhelds in the previous sentence they are taken to the Palm Store to browse the various products Palm has to offer. If they make a purchase...you get a commission. In many cases these affiliate marketers have cookie based programs which basically means, if a customer visits their website from your link and then comes back up to 45 days later and makes a purchase you still get credit for the sale! This is nice because many consumers don't purchase items without doing their research and price comparison. You don't have to coax them to buy now; you just have to get them interested in the product and get them to the retail site of your affiliated producer. The items you can cell are almost limitless. Electronics, Books, Movies, DVD's, MP3 downloads, Dating Services, Greeting Card Companies, Website Hosts, and Contest entries are just a few. When you sign up as an affiliate marketer you'll need to read the terms of each affiliate to see how their system pays out.
With your affiliate programs you are also able to buy your own products and receive commission for your own purchases. When I buy Christmas cards I buy them here:
Spread some cheer this Christmas with the new "Elfis" eCard from AmericanGreetings.com. It's simple, I don't have to leave the house, and I get paid a commission for making the purchase.
As an affiliate marketer you don't have to view yourself as a pushy salesperson. You are offering a multitude of products to the entire internet community. Many of your readers may come from small towns with no shopping mall. In essence you are bringing the malls to their computer. It is one of the best opportunities for retailers. They can reach any consumer with an internet connection regardless of where they live. It is also equally beneficial for the consumers. If you live 40 minutes from the mall you have to plan a special trip to go shopping. Even then you may not find the product you want. Shopping on the 'net opens up thousands of stores with a simple mouse click. With affiliate marketing you can lead these consumers to products and make money by doing so.
So where are these affiliate marketing companies? I'll show you a few of the most popular companies who make millions of dollars through their programs. You've probably heard of Amazon.com. They started out as a book retailer but now they sell hundreds of products. By becoming an Amazon Associate you are able to sell their products for a commission. They do all the work; all you do is lead your visitors to their site or specific product. All you do is create an account and find the products you want to offer. Once you find a product to offer all you have to do is get the HTML code for their ad and place it on your website or blog. Copying and pasting code is not as difficult as you may believe. There are many free software programs which interpret the code into "layman's terms". In other blogs we'll offer some basic code lessons to simplify these tasks. I like Amazon because you can offer specific products, products relating to a topic, or all products they have available.
Here's a few examples. Let's say you want to offer the new Desktop Computers
. You go to your Amazon Associates account and find this specific product. You copy the code and paste it on your website or blog. Now your readers can buy the Desktop Computers by clicking on the link on your site. At Amazon you can click on the category of Desktop Computers, copy and paste the code on your site, and now your visitors have an opportunity to browse Amazon's site for all of the latest technology to find the product which they desire. As you can see affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to monetize your website or blog. All you do is write the content and paste the code. That's ALL the work you have to do. As long as you are an active member of these affiliate programs your "sales pitch" is already done. People can find your site 24/7 and you don't have to be available when the customer arrives to help sell them the product. You don't have to feel the rejection of a customer saying no, and you don't have to feel the guilt of pushing a product on your customers. Additionally, your customers are able to shop at their convenience without being pressured by a salesmen, without having to drive to the store, and without having to buy "on the spot".
I highly recommend that you take advantage of this simple way to monetize your website. You shouldn't expect to get rich off this technique but you can make good money on the side through affiliate marketing. At the very least you can pay for your website. With a lot of work (posting a lot of content or creating several websites) you can make substantial income for a long time.
