Affiliate marketing programs that can add value without costs to Web sites
by Eric T. Brassell Sr.
Many small businesses have found ways to earn money from visitors to their Web site, even though their sites are not equipped to handle Internet transactions. How? By joining an affiliate marketing program.
After taking the time to create and promote your Web site, you, too, may find that joining an affiliate marketing program is a cost-effective way to enhance the value of your own Internet investment. That type of "virtual" alliance may help you increase revenue without increasing costs. In addition, an alliance can increase the value of your customers' visits by increasing the quality of your Web site, thereby encouraging more visits and increasing your opportunities to establish and maintain relationships with your customers.
What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing programs came into their own during the Internet boom of the mid- to late-1990s. Organized to create virtual business relationships, they are an agreement between two companies to steer business in the form of Web traffic from one Web site to another in return for compensation. If organized correctly, they are a win-win situation for both partners. They help large companies with elaborate, transaction-oriented Web sites increase their Web traffic while providing increased cash flows to smaller businesses with brochure-style Web sites.
How do affiliate programs work?
When you join an affiliate program, you will be able to download an icon or button to add to your Web site. Visitors to your site who click on that button will be sent to the transaction portion of your partner's site. Your partner should have specialized internal computer systems in place. Those systems track all sales generated during the visit that originated from your Web site. In other words, you will own a portion of all sales generated during that visit. If the visitor places an order, you will receive a percentage of the proceeds of the sale, based on the original agreement. A typical revenue-sharing arrangement is for 5 percent of the total sale, regardless of the size of the sale.
Choosing an affiliate partner:
Keep some important points in mind when choosing your affiliate partner:
* Don't partner with a company that charges a fee or requires a minimum level of sales to waive a fee. An affiliate program should not cost you a dime. Programs with conditions are little more than pyramid schemes and should be avoided.
* Do choose a company with which you already have a working relationship. If you've worked with a large supplier or customer over a period of time, you know whether they are trustworthy or not, and have a good idea of the kind of reputation they have in the local or national business community. That gives you the opportunity to avoid partners who are not ethical.
* Choose a partner that will enhance the value of your site to your customers. By making a link to a company on your Web site, you are making a statement about the quality of that company to your customer base, your most important corporate asset. You don't want to jeopardize the goodwill you've built with your customers, so choose your partners wisely.
Potential benefits:
A well-planned affiliate-marketing program can accomplish two important goals for your business without increasing costs. The first and most important is the real opportunity to grow revenue. Second, by aligning with the right partner, visitors to your site may find it a good jumping-off point to the rest of the Internet. That could turn your site into a "portal," which could help get your customers into the habit of visiting your Web site more frequently.
Eric Brassell Sr. is an affiliate of the Six Figure Income Marketing Group. To learn more about the SFI, just take a visit, Click Here. SFI is the #1 free to join affiliate program, with over 8 Million Affiliates World wide, in over 200 countries. Register today for FREE information Click Here. With No Obligation Required. PO BOX 160491, Nashville, TN. 37216 (615) 228-8721, FAX (615) 226-7580.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Brassell Enterprises & Asso. - http://www.WhyClickHere.com
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
More Affiliate Promotion Articles
More By Developer Shed
 developerWorks - FREE Tools!
|
Join this webcast, to learn how the Rational Process Library can help with compliance issues, drive process improvement, and assist in service-oriented architecture (SOA) or Agile development. We will take a peek into the Rational Process Library with content around software and systems engineering (including RUP), operations and systems management, program and portfolio management, and asset and SOA governance.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Download a free trial version of IBM DB2 9.5 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows. DB2 9 is the result of a five-year development project that transformed traditional (static) database technology into an interactive data server that merges the high performance and ease of use of DB2 with the self-describing benefits of XML.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Learn from the best! Find out how developers use Rational ClearCase to be more flexible, innovative and deliver higher quality code in the Rational ClearCase Power Users eKit. This complimentary eKit provides a collection of materials, like articles, whitepapers, and demos that can help you become a power user of Rational ClearCase.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
XML has become a common way of storing business data as flat files and many data server vendors including IBM have provided ways to store this data within relational database systems. Increasingly collections of XML files are accessed like databases using an xQuery and other XML standard mechanisms. Businesses find the need to combine the traditional tabular structured data with XML formatted data. In this webcast, you’ll learn about IBM’s WebSphere Federation Server technology, which provides users with the ability to integrate these two data formats.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
This webcast outlines the best practices that must be instituted to gain the maximum benefit from SOA while maintaining high quality of service. Whether you are deploying new applications or managing and monitoring your existing infrastructure, learn how you can ensure high quality of services with SOA based solutions from IBM. All registrants who attend this live Web Seminar will receive complimentary access to a white paper titled “Maintaining QoS in an SOA Environment”.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Join this Rational Talks to You teleconference on December 6 at 1:00 pm ET to participate in an agile application development discussion and get your questions answered on using IBM Rational Method Composer in a distributed environment.Get your questions answered!
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Join this webcast to discover the key requirements for successful change and release management. Learn how to extend your .NET environment to improve productivity and collaboration, and address core problems afflicting team development. In this webcast, we’ll review typical challenges faced by customers and how to resolve them with the IBM Rational Change and Release Management solution, including Rational ClearCase, Rational ClearQuest and Rational Build Forge. Replay is available for 9 months.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Get a free trial download of the latest version of IBM Rational Performance Tester V7.0.1, a load and performance testing solution for teams concerned about the scalability of their Web-based applications. Combining multiple ease-of-use features with granular detail, Rational Performance Tester simplifies the test-creation, load-generation and data-collection processes that help teams ensure the ability of their applications to accommodate required user loads.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Visit IBM developerWorks to try the IBM SOA Sandbox for people. The SOA Sandbox for people provides a trial environment with the necessary tooling and components required to enable consistent human and process interaction and collaboration, showing how you can improve user experience and business productivity.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
The discipline of assembling and delivering software is maturing beyond standard developer-centric compile/test software builds. The end-to-end software development lifecycle is emerging as the new focus moves “Beyond the Build.” Join this on demand webcast to learn about methods for streamlining software delivery and key capabilities of the IBM Rational Build Forge framework for automating build and release management in environments of any size.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
All FREE IBM® developerWorks Tools!
|
