Affiliate Marketing - What's In It For You?
Are you making the kind of money, online, as you had imagined
you would be? Has becoming and Internet marketer fulfilled your
dreams, or has it become some crazy nightmare? Are you making
money for yourself, or have you gotten back into the trap of
making money for someone else?
Think back to when you first decided to make money with your
computer and Internet connection. Wasn't it a desire to make
more money, have more time, and stop making someone else rich
off your efforts, the main drive that got you going? Are you
there yet? Would you like to know why you're still chasing your
tail?
The plain and simple fact, for those who have
been trying to make money online, without their own product or
service to market, is this: You are still working for someone
else! Your efforts are making someone else rich, just as your 9
to 5 job lines the bosses pockets.
If you are an affiliate marketer, and 95% of those
trying to cash in online are, you are still working for someone
else. You are promoting someone else's products, paying to
advertise them, and earning a commission on the sales you
generate. And to make it even more difficult to make money this
way, you have to compete with hundreds of other affiliate
marketers who are promoting the same stuff you are.
The gurus of Internet marketing have achieved their status
because they know how to do one thing... seduce others into
selling their products for them.
Most of them do not create the products you are promoting, they
have programmers on staff to do that for them. So, they pay the
programmer to create some new widget, get you to spend your time
and money to market it, and they get rich, while you get
stressed out, trying to top all the competition.
Sure, you might be offered a whopping commission percentage,
but the person you are promoting is getting huge checks, based
on the sales of all the affiliates working for them, while you
are getting a percentage. Isn't that how it works in the real
world?
They are leveraging the time and efforts of others, and that is
why they are the making the big bucks. The irony of it all is
that they are making all this money, telling you how to make a
bunch of money. Yet, you're spending and they're collecting.
Guru A has a product to sell. This product is targeted
to those wanting to make money online. Guru A sets up a
great sales page for the product, offering tons of bonuses and
an affiliate program. So, not only can you, the affiliate
marketer, buy this great product, which will help your
marketing efforts, you can sell it to others too for a whopping
80%. Sounds like a helluva deal! You part with your cash and
start promoting this product.
Now, let's say Guru A gets 100 people to buy his
product, and join his affiliate program to sell the
product. He makes 100% on the first 100 people.
Each affiliate sells 100 copies, and has affiliate sign ups .
Guru A makes 20% on every sale, and the affiliate makes
80% on his personal sales only. Who is making more money?
Then there is the other aspect to this... You may have
generated a sale, and made 80% on it, but you have also created
competition for yourself, when they too, join the affiliate
program. The more competition you have, it becomes more
difficult to generate personal sales. Your sales drop, but the
product is still selling. Guru A is still earning his 20%
of all the sales, while you are now getting 100% of NOTHING.
All the while, Guru A is building a huge contact list. A
list of buyers and affiliates. A list you are a part of, and
through which Guru A will sell you more stuff.
Are You Getting This?
Now, I'm not trying to say that this makes Guru A a bad
person. Guru A is a saavy marketer.
Now, if you want to stop this vicious cycle, and start making
money for real, for yourself, then the first thing you must do
is trim the fat.
Evaluate the affiliate programs you are involved with.
Chances are, that you have way more than you can handle. Figure
out which ones are worth promoting, and delete the rest. When
you have too many affiliate programs in your portfolio,
you lose FOCUS. This is why you begin chasing your tail.
You must have focus to reach your goals. Fragmented efforts
will produce fragmented results. You cannot walk more than one
path at a time and expect to get anywhere.
Once you've trimmed the fat, create a place where you can
showcase them all. A lead-in page, if you will. A page where you
can focus on a specific purpose and link off to each separate
sales page. I'm not talking about some banner farm looking thing
either. Create a page with some content. Since you are grouping
specific things together, write about the various problems that
these products can solve. Write about your personal experience
with these products. Then link off , 'For More Information.'
This gives your web site focus. The more focused, the more
targeted your traffic will be. That in turn, will increase the
likelihood of increased sales.
My advice: Find a company, or niche market that you can
promote, one with a consumable product(s). Consumable
products must be re-purchased on a regular basis. This
ensures repeat sales and income. Residual income is what
makes people financially secure. Profit forever from a single
action.
Use affiliate programs to advance the promotion of your OWN
business. Use affiliate programs to build YOUR contact list,
to promote yourself, not someone else. Don't depend on them for
life-long income.
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