Many looking for a way to work from home and run their own business turn to the Internet for answers. It’s only natural that people turn to the World Wide Web to find information on the topic, since television commercials seem to abound now with claims of people who are making money running their own at home business.
Maybe you even know someone personally who runs an online business. It’s not as uncommon as many think. The Internet is full of opportunities to turn your dream of working from home, being your own boss, and having control of your financial future into a reality.
With its vast amount of information on almost any subject you could imagine, people in households around the world are jumping online and Googling “ways to make money online” every day.
One of the more frequent terms that pop up when searching for ways to make money on the Internet is Affiliate Marketing. But, what exactly is affiliate marketing and how can it help you create a thriving and profitable business?
In this article series you’ll find 11 of the most frequently asked questions on the topic of Affiliate Marketing along with the answers to each of them. You’ll learn what affiliate marketing is, the basics of how it works and by the end of the report you’ll have a better understanding of what everybody online is talking about.
Who knows, you just might decide that affiliate marketing is something you’d like to try for yourself. If so, I wish you success! Just remember any business worthwhile does take time and work. It won’t happen overnight (although it is possible to do some work before you go to sleep at night and wake up to money in your pocket the next morning with affiliate marketing).
When done correctly an Affiliate Marketing business can produce the income, security, and longevity anyone looking to create a successful business could ever need or want.
Defining Affiliate Marketing
Q: What is Affiliate Marketing?
A: Affiliate marketing as defined by Wikipedia.com:
“Affiliate Marketing is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts.”
I don’t know about you, but when I first read that definition, it wasn’t exactly jumping out at me, making me go “Oh yeah, I get it. Now I know what I want to do to make a living!”
Of course you can read more about the practice of affiliate marketing at the Wikipedia website, but we’ll save you the trouble, because although it isn’t hard to understand, it is a bit overwhelming and really doesn’t tell you in easy to understand terms what affiliate marketing is.
Affiliate Marketing Is The Process of Referring Others To A Product OR Service And Being PAID For Your Efforts
A great example that I’ve found most people can easily understand is that of a car salesman. When you go to a dealership to purchase a new car, you’re normally greeted by a salesperson. He or she will do their best to answer your questions, show you the car including its features, engine, warranty, and even let you test drive it.
Once you decide the vehicle is the one you want to buy, they will then walk you through all the paperwork, getting financing, taking your down payment, trade-in and everything else involved in the process from start to finish.
Once the deal has been made and you’ve driven off the lot with your new car, the dealership receives the sticker price of the car.
But, what about the sales person who worked with you all afternoon? He listened to your needs, recommended the car that you fell in love with and are now sporting around town in. What does he get out of the deal? After all, he did all the work – he should get something for making the sale. And, he does. He will receive a percentage of the sales price of the car you just bought. This is known as a commission.
Affiliate marketing is the same thing, only in this particular case you are doing the referring and “selling” on the Internet.
Make Money With Affiliate Marketing
Q: How exactly do you make money from Affiliate Marketing?
A: We touched on the answer to this question in the previous question. When you (the affiliate) refer someone to a product (or service) and that person makes a purchase, you receive a commission on the sale.
However, there is more to it than that. After all, how can a company know for sure that you are the one who sent this person to their website since you’re not there to tell them and the person buying may not even know your name?
When you sign up to become an affiliate with a company or individual, you’ll receive a special link (your affiliate link) that is embedded with a tracking code to let the affiliate program owner identify you among other affiliates and their own marketing methods.
Whenever you use this special affiliate link to refer someone to the company’s website the person’s visit is tracked to you via that special code. There are various software programs that make this possible and the process is beyond the scope of this particular report. Just remember that visitors to the website are tracked back to you from this special code within your affiliate link.
Whenever someone who uses your link purchases something from the company’s website you are credited for the sale and receive some sort of payment.
Common Types of Affiliate Payments
Sales Percentage – This method is the most common form of payment to affiliates. Example: For every sale you refer as an affiliate, you’ll earn 50% of the total sales price. You refer $50 worth of sales and we’ll pay you $25. Percentages vary and are set by the company or individual who runs the affiliate program. They can vary from 5% all the way to 100%.
Pre-set dollar amount – This type of commission is not extremely common, but it is out there, specific dollar amounts could include things such as: For every $5 worth of product sales you refer to us, we’ll pay you $1 or a flat $20/sale.
Credits – Some sites pay their affiliates in credits that can be used for future purchases of their products. An example of this would be receiving 1 credit for every dollar’s worth of product sales you refer.
Here’s the end of Part 1, in Part 2 we will discuss how to know your Market, you MUST get to know them before you can successfully promote products and services they will buy.
