The Truth About Earning $1,000 or More Weekly From Affiliate Programs
by Terry Dean
Everyone is talking about them. Almost everyone is a member of at least a few of them. Affiliate programs are hot. You can usually sign up for free and be selling products within 5 minutes. The web sites, sales letters, and order shipping are all done for you. All you have to do is promote.
But...Is anyone making money from these programs except for the affiliate program owner?
It is a surprising statistic when you find out that only around 10% to 20% of affiliate members do enough to ever get a check. Then, only a small percentage of those go on to earn really good incomes from affiliate programs.
It isn't the affiliate program either. Although some affiliate programs have pitifully small payouts (5% to 10%) and limit their members that way, the real problem comes with the fact that affiliates have no idea how to sell from their affiliate sites. The affiliate owners usually don't have any idea how to help them either.
Since we now sell Affiliate software which is available as a bonus with our course at
http://www.ezinfo2000.com and I own several affiliate programs myself, I have spent a considerable amount of time studying my top affiliates
and the top affiliates in programs all over the Internet.
The principles below are true of almost everyone of the top affiliates in every program I have looked at. If you want to succeed and earn at least $5,000 or more per month from affiliate programs, then you will have to be following the five steps below. If you don't, it just isn't going to happen...and you have no one to blame but yourself.
1. Create Your Own Web Site.
Although almost every program gives you a web site to use to promote with, you really shouldn't be promoting with that site. The top affiliates always have their own web sites which they promote from. Then, they link to the affiliate program sites.
For example, you can take a look at my top 10 affiliate program pages at
http://www.bizpromo.com/income.htm I never drive traffic directly to any of the affiliate programs. I drive it to my site, get their name on my opt-in list, and then promote the affiliate programs. If you are serious about earning profits online, then you will do the same.
Having your own site and linking to your affiliate program gives you some additional advantages as well:
* You can write up a short two to four paragraph endorsement and testimonial for the site yourself.
* You can generate subscribers to your opt-in list first (this is the key to Internet profits).
* If the affiliate program ever stops or changes your link, you still have all the traffic you worked for at YOUR site (this happens quite often).
If you don't currently have a web site, but want to earn through affiliate programs, you need to get one today.
Contact me at hosting@bizpromo.com if you would like to know more about how to have your web site hosted and designed.
2. Generate Traffic
You can't earn a single penny in any affiliate program without generating traffic to your site. No traffic equals no income. Combine the right ingredients of an opt-in list, good site design, and the right sales offer...and your income will be directly proportional to the targeted traffic you generate.
An advantage that I didn't mention above in why you should own your own domain is getting listed with the search engines. The pages given to you by your affiliate program owner aren't going to receive virtually any traffic from
the search engines. They won't have top rankings because there are at least 1,000 other pages just like them (from the other affiliate members) and many software programs create pages which can't even be indexed by the search
engines.
Having your own domain will give you the freedom to create web pages which achieve high rankings on the search engines. Each of the major search engines such as AltaVista, Infoseek, Hotbot, and the others have their own ranking algorithms which change virtually monthly.
You can stay on top of them though by using a program such as Web Position which actually monitors the search engines for you and helps you prepare doorway pages which will achieve the top rankings you are seeking after...and the traffic which comes from having those top rankings.
You can read more about Web Position and everything it can do for you at our site. You can also even download a trial version for the three of the major search engines which is good for 30 days to try it out free. Check it out and download the trial at:
http://www.bizpromo.com/webposition/ Search engines are not the only way to build traffic to your site. You can trade links with sites, place free and paid classifieds, and even use banner advertising. There are dozens of ways to generate traffic. If you want to make money from your affiliate programs, you will be using them.
3. Start an Opt-In List.
I checked my affiliate members' checks this month and noticed a very interesting trend. All top 10 affiliates have their own opt-in email lists and are pretty aggressive marketers to those lists. They all mail to their opt-in list at least weekly and the number one affiliate this month mails to his list every single day.
That is where my income is coming from also. Over 90% of my income comes through using opt-in email in one way or another...either through my newsletters or through my autoresponders with follow-up. If you don't know how to use email, then your always going to be living on barely get by street in the online market.
The web sites which I send the most traffic to have one purpose to them...and one purpose only...to sign them up on my newsletter lists. All of the content that I have on my site is for that one purpose.
If you can't get a visitor to sign up for a free newsletter, then you aren't going to be able to get them to fill out your order forms and order. Get them on the list, and then start emailing them as often as you can put out good content (along with the ads).
One tool that I am now using very effectively is Mail Master Pro which is a CGI script you host on your server to hold and send out your newsletter lists.
What I love about it is that it enables me to send out a personalized newsletter and even use HTML format if I want. Personalized email will usually get around three times the response rates of regular emails.
You can read more about the Mail Master Pro at:
http://www.bizpromo.com/mmp.html 4. Develop a Unique Web Position.
Here is a trick to increase your sales from ANY affiliate program, but people rarely ever mention it. Any successful web site finds a way to make their products and or services unique from their competition.
When you are an affiliate though, you have thousands of competitors selling the exact same product at the exact same price. Every other affiliate in that company is your competition!
You will have to become unique if you want to beat the other affiliates competing against you. You may think it would be difficult to do, but it isn't.
All you have to do is add on some extra bonuses to those people who are purchasing from you. For example, if you're an affiliate for a video course, then add in a special free report on the same subject which is ONLY good for those who order from you. Your free report can be emailed to those who order so it won't cost you a penny of your commissions.
If you own an opt-in list like you should, you could give a free ad to anyone who orders an affiliate product from you. For example, you could write that anyone who orders the ________ (you would list the product here) before midnight tonight will also get a free ad ($30 value) in your newsletter...or three free ads. Buy submission software and submit their site to 1,000 search engines if they order today.
Do something like this and tell your opt-in email list subscribers and web site visitors about it. You will be setting yourself apart from the competition and be giving your purchasers an even better deal than buying from the affiliate owner!
Special limited time offers work extremely effectively when combined with your own opt-in list.
5. Generate Multiple Streams of Income.
If you follow all four of the principles above, then you are going to be able to earn money from many different affiliates programs, and that is exactly what you should do. You should join several non-competing programs which sell products to the same targeted market.
For example, if you have chosen to sell to Internet marketers, you may join:
* An Internet Training Program
* A Web Hosting Program
* An Autoresponder program
* A Business Opportunity
You can find several programs which target any specific niche group. To see our list of programs, go to
http://www.bizpromo.com/income.htm You can be earning 3 to 10 streams of income from the same visitors at your web site and subscribers to your newsletters. Having several streams of income helps every visitor to your site be worth more money to you!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Terry Dean is the webmaster at
http://www.bizpromo.com Visit today for turn-key web site solutions, turn-key products you can sell, and answers to all of your Internet marketing questions.
For "115 Internet marketing tips" please send an email to 115tips@aweber.com
Products For Internet Entrepreneurs
Scientific Internet Advertising: Why does a marketer who has been dead for over 50 years know more about Internet marketing than you do?
Instant Internet Cashflow System: Our online membership site will teach you everything you need to know about Internet marketing in a step-by-step format.
Internet Publishing: The Ultimate Guide to Creating, Publishing, and Selling Information Online:
Video Special: A different video set is offered every single month at an unbeatable low price...
Top Ten Affiliate Opportunities: Earn multiple streams of income from your site using the top ten paying affiliate programs
| 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!
|
Hear how IBM Rational Project and Portfolio Management integrated solutions help teams put the right tools and processes in place to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of project teams and ensure that the business vision is being executed correctly. Learn how to automate and integrate requirements prioritization, top-down project planning, communications and controls, and methodology deployment to keep your scope, costs, and schedules under control. Tackle with an end-to-end approach the management of scope and scope changes, usage of methodology to control and empower project teams, and optimization of resources to align activity costs with the overall project plan.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Join this Rational Talks to You teleconference, featuring Paul Boustany and Mark Krasovich, to speak to the experts about becoming a Rational ClearCase power user. Get a chance to ask your questions and learn tips and tricks for using Rational ClearCase in Agile development
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
You probably have thousands of lines of COBOL code loaded with business intelligence and being used to run your business, along with an army of developers maintaining these applications. Learn how to prepare your applications and developers so you can keep that competitive edge and move to a service-oriented architecture with the IBM Rational Enterprise Modernization solutions. Replay is available for 9 months.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Poor Requirements Management capabilities in an Enterprise have been linked to excessive project failures, escalating IT costs, and failure to deliver competitive advantage into the marketplace. Join Brianna M Smith from IBM Rational and learn about how successful organizations align IT and Business stakeholders through collaborative processes and tools for effective requirements management, and how an integrated approach across the IT lifecycle can provide unparalleled visibility and traceability to ensure that project teams are delivering on the business vision by "doing the right things" and "doing things right."
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Build secure Web services with transport-level security using IBM Rational Application Developer V7 and IBM WebSphere Application Server V6.1. Follow this three-part series for step-by-step instructions about how to develop Web services and clients, configure HTTP basic authentication, and configure HTTP over SSL (HTTPS). This first part of the series walks you through building a Web service for a simple calculator application. You generate and test two different types of Web services clients: a Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE) client and a stand-alone Java client. You also handle user-defined exceptions in Web services.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Join us for this web seminar to learn how you can defend your web applications from attack. Learn about the 3 most common web application attacks, including how they occur and what can be done to prevent them. We’ll also discuss manual versus automated approaches for scanning and identifying web application vulnerabilities and how IBM Rational AppScan, an automated vulnerability scanner, can help you automate more of what you are doing manually today.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Join this webcast to see how IBM Data Studio Developer and pureQuery can take the pain out of Java data access. uApplications developed using both Java and SQL have become a common requirement. Database connectivity using Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) to create an application is a multi-step tedious process, and tooling that covers both SQL and Java has been unavailable, until now. IBM Data Studio introduces the pureQuery platform: a high-performance, Java data access platform focused on simplifying the tasks of developing, managing, and optimizing database applications and services.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Rational Modeling Extension for Microsoft .NET enhances usability for code generation supporting a more intelligent refactoring. The latest enhancements enable organizations with Java and .NET systems and software development maintain architectural integrity across heterogeneous platforms.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Learn the basics of the IBM Customer Information Control System (CICS). With a hands-on exercise, learn how to get your first CICS application up and running on your desktop using TXSeries V6.1 for Windows. The tutorial shows you how to download and install a free trial version of TXSeries V6.1.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
Visit IBM developerWorks to try the IBM SOA Sandbox for connectivity. The SOA Sandbox for connectivity provides a trial environment with the tooling and components to help you explore how to effectively connect your infrastructure and integrate all of the people, processes and information in your company. Use the hosted sandbox to explore SOA techniques that streamline connecting existing IT assets together, as well as learn how to connect them to new business logic.
FREE! Go There Now!
|
|
|
|
All FREE IBM® developerWorks Tools!
|
