Started by amazon.com in the late 1990s,
affiliate marketing has exploded across the web and is one of the
lowest-risk ways to earn income online.
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The concept is simple. Let's say you
have a great website about dogs. Your site, thanks to this website
building tool, is getting good search engine traffic from Google and
Yahoo! You would like to earn money by selling dog-related
products (collars, food, training books, etc.) on your site, but you do
not want the hassle of taking payments, ordering products, storing them,
tracking them and shipping them. So instead of selling your own
products, you sell someone else's products by placing their links on your
website. When a visitor to your site clicks on one of those links
and then buys a product on the other person's website, you are paid a
commission for the sale. They are the merchant and you are the
affiliate.
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Affiliate marketing is a win-win for both
parties. The merchant reaches more customers through his affiliates,
and the affiliate makes money just by promoting merchants' products.
But how to choose the best merchants? How are the sales you generate
for the merchant credited to you? How do you know that you will
actually be paid for the sales you refer?
Luckily, there are a number of
reputable marketplace websites that act as middlemen between merchants and
affiliates (website publishers). Here you can find merchants in many
different categories, one of which is sure to fit your website's theme. You can also compare payout rates, traffic to
sales ratios, etc. Once you have chosen a merchant (or more
than one), you will select the link(s) you want to place on your
site. These have a code embedded in them that will track all of your
sales. Affiliates are then paid, usually monthly, by the
marketplace website, not by the individual merchants.
This makes tracking income easier and ensures that you will be paid for
referrals you have made.
The Top Affiliate Marketplace Websites
These are the biggest and most reputable
affiliate marketplace sites on the web. There are others but many
do not have much merchant inventory, have had troubles making payments
or do not provide reliable customer service. The sites below have
been in business since the early days of the web, are proven performers
and even have independent forums where affiliates can discuss
strategies, specific merchants, etc.
Keep in mind, too, that not all links have to be for
products. Some websites are better suited to selling services or
generating leads rather than selling actual products. You will be
able to search for these kinds of merchants as well and be paid for each
valid lead or service subscriber that you refer.
For extra help in learning how to make
money with affiliate programs and Google
Adwords (advertisements you buy on Google), this
eBook is a good guide for beginners. It's been around for
awhile and has been updated to reflect recent Google Adwords
changes.
Things to Look for When Joining a
Merchant's Affiliate Program
1) All good affiliate programs are
free to join. If anyone asks you to pay to join, walk away.
2) The merchant has a dedicated
affiliate manager to manage the program.
3) The merchants' links lead directly
to product or service pages, not to the homepage (this will increase your
conversion rate).
4) There is no 1-800 number listed on
the landing page (a phone number will reduce the number of people who buy through
the website and hence reduce your number of sales).
5) The merchant's website is
attractive and easy-to-navigate. If you can't navigate it or find it
confusing, then chances are that the people you refer to it will also and
leave it without buying anything.
