Ups And Downs Of Affiliate Marketing
Try performing a search on Affiliate Programs in your favorite
search engine and you will probably see an enormous number of
search results. There are literally thousands of companies
offering Internet marketers the ability to make money promoting
their products.
Basically, an affiliate program is where you promote a company's
products and when someone makes a purchase using your affiliate
link, and then the company pays you a percentage of the profit.
Your percentage can be anywhere from 1% to 50% and higher in
some cases. Information products typically pay higher
percentages but vary from company to company.
Even if you choose to use affiliate programs as your only source
of online income, you should still have your own website. This
allows you to provide information to your visitors regarding the
products you are promoting and more importantly, allows you to
capture their email address. You can then send them future
emails that promote other affiliate programs you are involved in.
Advantages of affiliate programs are numerous. Many affiliate
programs allow you to start making money almost as soon as you
sign up. The affiliate program itself handles all administrative
tasks such as customer support, payment processing, product
delivery, and refunds. You simply send potential customers to
their website and collect your checks. Also, you don't have to
develop a product; the company operating the affiliate program
has done that for you.
The quality affiliate programs will provide you with all the
marketing tools you will need to promote their products. You
have access to marketing articles, email scripts, and even
ebooks you can offer your prospects with links to your affiliate
ID contained in the ebook.
Affiliate programs also have their pitfalls. One problem is that
all affiliate programs have many affiliate marketers. You are
competing against these marketers for the same product. You may
have to work harder to overcome this type of competition.
Another problem is that you don't have affiliate marketers
working for you. When you have your own product with your own
affiliate program, you have affiliates promoting for you
allowing you to generate much greater income.
You should also be aware that there are some dishonest affiliate
programs out there. Do some research and see if you can find any
bad reports on the affiliate program you are interested in.
Also, start by only selling one or two of their items and make
sure you receive your checks before you spend a great deal of
time promoting this program.
Participating in affiliate programs can be a great way to make
money on the Internet, especially if you are just starting out
with an online business. You should make it a goal to eventually
develop your own affiliate program to maximize your income. Just
be sure to practice due diligence to minimize your risks.