"Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; and as that natural fear in children is increased by tales, so is the other."Francis Bacon
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Compelling Reasons to Create Your Own Product Even If You Promote Affiliate Programs
Like many people, I first started online by promoting affiliate programs. I didn't have a product of my own,and affiliate programs seemed like the ideal way to earnan income. Why bother with the hassles of creating my ownproduct if I didn't have to?For ...
Free Affiliate Programs - how students or anyone can work part-time at home
Are you a college or high school student who only has time for a part-time job but can't find one that pays enough? Hate your boss and/or can't stand your co-workers? Have you been searching long and hard for a route to financial freedom that doesn't ...
The Truth About Affiliate Programs
The Truth About Affiliate Programs © 2002 Elena FawknerAffiliate programs are a brilliant idea. For the owner of the product, they're a way of recruiting a veritable army of salespeople to promote your product without having to pay them a dime unless and ...
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When a newbie begins an online business, the temptation can be high to join most any affiliate program they see in the hopes of making extra money. Given the amount of products and services that newbies get presented with, and since newbies have a burning desire to make money fast, it is easy to see how the online newbie can get lured into joining a lot of affiliate programs without knowing if they should join them or not.
For the newbie, the danger in joining lots of affiliate programs is multi-faceted. Joining affiliate programs takes time, time the newbie could be using defining their USP, learning about getting targeted traffic, or learning other Internet marketing skills that will actually generate revenue for them. In addition, the newbie who joins lots of affiliate programs in the hopes of making instant profits, is at risk of being disappointed when they don't make money by joining the latest affiliate program and that leads to yet further "unproductivity" and poor use of time.
So, what steps do newbies take to identify the best affiliate program(s) that matches their USP?
It will differ based on the goal of each newbie Internet marketer, but here's a small set of steps that are useful to start with:
*Define how the affiliate program's offering complements your USP.
You should be able to clearly map out what the affiliate program's offering (product or service) will be useful to patrons or visitors of your web site, list or customer base. If the product that you will be promoting is something that will be useful to you and people you sell or try to sell to, it may be a useful affiliate program to join.
*Make sure that you fully review the product offered by the affiliate program, use it, and make your own assessment of it.
Don't promote a product from any affiliate program unless you own the product yourself and love it. If you own and love the product that you are promoting, you will be able to sell it more effectively because your energy and excitement level will show through in the deliver of your message to would be customer. In addition, you will be able to list and explain in detail the features of the product or service that the affiliate program is offering.
*Make certain that the web site that sells the affiliate program is set up correctly to sell the product, and sell it well.
The web site that sells the product of the affiliate program should be professional in its layout, design, sales copy, and delivery of the product itself. The web site should have a mechanism to capture the names and emails of the visitors. The web site should also have a strong auto responder series in place to follow up with and sell the visitors of that site on the product.
*Check to see if the affiliate program should be tracked with cookies so that the referring web site will get credit for each affiliate sale, even the sales that come as a result of the auto responder series.
If the affiliate program doesn't use cookies to track referrals, do not sign up.
*Take a look to see if the affiliate program is two-tier so that you can earn money from recruiting other affiliates to that affiliate program.
Most of the the noteworthy and professional affiliate programs will be two-tier although there are some notable ones that aren't, Clickbank being the most widespread. At the very minimum, the affiliate program should offer some sort of incentive to recruit new affiliates. If an affiliate program is not two-tier, make sure that you determine whether or not the product(s) being sold are professional and have good conversion rates.
*Ensure that the affiliate program makes it easy to sign up, complete with welcome email and full contact information of the point person who can answer any questions.
If the affiliate program isn't run by a third party like Clickbank, the affiliate program sign up form should also ask for your EIN # or your Tax ID # for proper reporting. For the business owner who has established a business identity, this is key for accurate bookkeeping. Some marketers have gotten away from welcome emails to their new affiliate partners because the potential affiliate partners sometimes do not want to give their name and email, they'd just like to join and make money with no 'marketing' messages hitting their Inbox.
*A strong affiliate program ideally should have plenty of help tools including any or all of the following: real-time tracking, solo email templates (even though I suggest writing your own), graphics, banners, etc.
For the newbie, the better the help tools, the easier it will be for them to feel comfortable selling the product. In addition, the affiliate program should offer follow up emails to all affiliates offering help to sell more products as well as relaying success stories of how other affiliates have made strong sales numbers.
*Ideally, the affiliate program's affiliate links should be unique to the affiliate but should also be structured so that the link is distinctly protected from would be commission thieves.
The affiliate link ID should not be visible in the URL after the would be customer gets to the sales page of the product in question.
For the newbie, the abovementioned steps will help mitigate wasting time and will maximize their time and efforts. The best affiliate program for the newbie is the one that satisfies most or all of these criteria and sells a product that meshes well with the newbie's USP.
Karl Augustine
"Starting Smart!"
About the Author Author, "9 Deadly Mistakes To Avoid When Starting An Online Business"
Publisher, "Starting Smart!" e-zine
Starting an online business
www.9mistakes-online.com
Written By: Karl Augustine
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 RichNet Publishing, LLC Launches New Email Leads Business With Affiliate Program (PRWeb via Yahoo! News)
Email Leads that are targeted for use by home business and MLM professionals and network marketers are the focus of this new venture. An affiliate program that pays 150% more than most competitors has been more than two years in the planning. This is the fourth successful MLM Leads company started by RichNet Publishing, LLC.
MO-Call Launches Affiliate and Reseller Programs (PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance)
Virtual International Mobile Network Operator, Morodo has announced the launch of an Affiliate and Reseller program, enabling everyone to share in the success of the popular MO-Call mobile international calling service.
MaxBounty Launches New API for Affiliate Marketers (PRWeb via Yahoo! News)
MaxBounty, a CPA based affiliate network, launches a new SOAP protocol based API to allow affiliates to programmatically access their account information. This programmatic access give affiliates the ability to write their own custom utilities that integrate with their MaxBounty stats and campaign information.
Girls running programs to finish season with Wondergirl 5K (The Holland Sentinel)
The Girls on the Run/Girls on Track programs of Allegan and Ottawa counties will hold their Wondergirl 5K run Saturday, Nov. 22, at Holland West Middle School, 500 W. 24th St. The noon event culminates the programs’ fall season and the accomplishments of its participants. “We have more than 1,500 girls in over 70 schools sites throughout our two counties,” said Ashley Rea, the program ...
Friends of Turning Point now auxiliary to shelter (Friendswood Journal)
Friends of Bay Area Turning Point, an independent organization which has been dedicated for the past twelve years to promoting programs and fundraising goals of Bay Area Turning Point (BATP), a United Way affiliate, has now become an auxiliary organization within the agency, according to Myrna Baker, Friends Auxiliary chairperson for 2008 – 2009.
Amazing New Rates for Anastasia International's Affiliate Program (PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance)
Anastasia International, the leading International Introduction Company, has announced fantastic new terms for its affiliate program and invites webmasters and dating website owners to take part.
Turkey: Agreement signed with ExxonMobil (Mena Report)
Exxon Mobil Corporation has announced its affiliate, ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Turkey B.V., has signed an agreement with Turkish national oil company, Türkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortaklığı (TPAO), to explore in two large deepwater blocks offshore Turkey, marking ExxonMobil’s entry into Black Sea exploration.
ExxonMobil to explore two deepwater blocks offshore Turkey (Energy Business Review)
Exxon Mobil has announced that its affiliate ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Turkey has signed an agreement with Turkish national oil company, Turkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortakligi, to explore in two large deepwater blocks offshore Turkey.
Purdue Research Park Affiliate Company Launches Educational Software Program to Improve Students' Vocabulary, Spelling ... (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)
MERRILLVILLE, Ind.----Educators looking to improve vocabulary and spelling skills of their students can find assistance through a new educational software program that provides individualized instruction.
Fitch Publishes Presale on 5 Money Mkt Investor Funding Facility Related ABCP Programs (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance)
NEW YORK & LONDON----Fitch Ratings has published a pre-sale report on 5 money market investor funding facility related asset-backed commercial paper programs. As detailed in the report, Fitch expects to assign an 'F1' rating to each of five ABCP programs that have been created in conjunction with the MMIFF.
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