Affiliate Marketing - Make your Living Online
Affiliate marketing's been a staple of the internet marketing
scene for many years now. It's highly touted as a money maker
for newbies and experienced marketers alike. But does it really
pay to be an affiliate marketer? Let's take a look to learn
more...
Basically affiliate marketing's an agreement between a web site
owner and a merchant. The web site owner's actually an
advertiser for the merchant or product creator. The agreement is
a contract between the two parties that stipulates that the site
owner can use various methods including the space on his site to
promote the merchants goods. The merchant meanwhile agrees to
pay a percentage of each sale generated through the affiliates
personalized link.
This benefits both sides because the product creator spends
nothing to advertise their goods and the affiliate pays nothing
to research and develop new products.
This creates a win-win situation.
The product creator wins by saving money on advertising, which
is one of the most costly aspects of doing business, by passing
this cost on to affiliates. Basically it's a pay-per-performance
deal because the merchant doesn't accrue any costs until the
sale's made and the merchant pays the specified commission.
The affiliate marketer wins by being able to sell an already
developed product, thus saving the time and money on the front
end by not having to deal with R&D and product creation. The
product is already developed and proven by the merchant, and all
you have to do as an affiliate is find as many prospects as you
can that will bring in the profit for both the merchant and
yourself.
Another benefit to the affiliate is that most programs are free
to join and have pre-made sales material so your marketing
experience doesn't have to be that of an expert.
Probably the biggest benefit to being an affiliate marketer on
the internet's the internet itself.
Because of the global reach of the internet it's very easy to
reach tens of thousands of prospects for almost any type of
product line. It's also very easy to intensify your efforts as
an affiliate marketer to exploit new and productive strategies
such as viral marketing, ebooks, special reports and
autoresponders.
Lastly, as an affiliate marketer you get to pick and choose
between many different products to promote. You're not married
to a specific product or even a specific product type. Your
risks are minimal because there are no long term binding
contracts so if one product doesn't bring in a profit you can
quickly and easily replace it with another.
All in all affiliate marketing's still an excellent way to earn
income from the internet. Perform your due diligence, find a
hungry market, find a good product and go for it!