The majority of affiliates are not earning much money from the
affiliate programs they belong to. It doesn't have to be this
way. Here are a few tips and techniques that will help you to
maximize the commissions you receive from the affiliate programs
you belong to.
Choose your affiliate programs with care.
The most critical thing you need to do is choose your
associations with care. If you do this wrong, you limit your
ability to earn good commissions before you even start.
The programs you choose must fit with the product or service
range that you are offering. It is important that they are
natural add ons to what you are selling. Alternatively, they
must complement the theme of your site. For example, if you
offer web design services, a natural add on could be an
affiliate program for web hosting.
If you do not offer your own products or services, then your
web site needs to convey useful information on a topic of your
interest. Affiliate programs relating to this topic of interest
would be good add ons for your site. For example, if you have a
poetry site, useful affiliate programs could be poetry books,
greeting cards, or flowers.
Limit your choice of affiliate programs initially so you can
concentrate your efforts on learning how to market them
effectively. Having too many programs will dilute your focus and
make it harder to learn what works best. Once you are
successfully selling and making reasonable commissions from your
initial choices, you are then in a better position to choose new
programs to add to your site.
Don't choose based on what pays the highest commission.
Instead, put yourself in the shoes of your customer and choose
what would best serve their needs. When you do this, you will
choose programs that will sell very well and make you more
commission in the long run.
Personal recommendations.
Once you have settled on a small list of programs you think are
suitable, buy the product or service yourself before making your
final choice. This will enable you to test the service delivery
and product quality to ensure that it is totally suitable for
you to recommend to your customers and visitors.
Your credibility with your customers will be damaged if your
refer them to another merchant who does not provide them with
good service or product quality. Therefore, always test the
product or service before you give a personal recommendation.
Most marketing experts say that the best way to sell products
through an affiliate association is by personal recommendation.
Once you have used the product, you are then able to write a
review that tells your customers or visitors what you liked
about it and how it helped you. A personal recommendation will
sell more than any advertisement.
Opt In Lists v. Web Sites
Your advertising message will produce a stronger response from
people that already know and trust you. Therefore, your own opt
in list or ezine is going to be more effective than your web
site at generating commissions. If you don't have a means of
staying in contact with your customers or visitors, you are
severely limiting your income producing potential.
Banner links on web sites are less effective than text links.
More people will click on a text link than a banner. With text
links, you are able to pre-qualify people before they visit your
affiliate partner's site, and you will find that more convert to
sales.
Advertising
To supplement your promotional activities, consider advertising
that gets people to visit the details of the affiliate program
on your site, or alternatively, sends them direct to the
affiliate site using your affiliate link. Paid ads in ezines can
be relatively cheap and can provide you with highly targeted
prospects for your promoted product or service.
Many ezines accept paid advertising. Check out List
Resources.com http://list-resources.com/ who has a directory of
sites that list newsletters and ezines. Another option to
consider for low cost ezine advertising is the "2 Bucks an Ad
Program" http://www.ksinclair.com/2bucks.htm
Free classified ads are another option but are less effective
than targeted ezine advertising. Yahoo Classifieds
(http://classifieds.yahoo.com/) is the first choice for free
ads. Ensure that you update or change your ads every couple of
days to keep them near the top of the listings. Also, check out
The Grandfather Of All Links FREE Advertising Directory which
has over 10,000 + places to advertise for free.
http://www.ecki.com/links
Track Your Results
Always test and track the results of the ads and promotions you
run. Use the information gained to fine tune your efforts. If
you don't track your results, you will not know what is or is
not working for you. The best decisions are made based on good
information.
A good service I use to help me track my advertising and
promotion results is provided by ROIbot
http://www.roibot.com/w.cgi?R379_ROIbot . A free trial is
available so that you can test their services with your next
adverting or promotion campaign.
Conclusion
You can maximize your commissions from affiliate programs. You
need to carefully choose the programs you will participate in
based on what would best suit your customers or visitors. A
personal recommendation is the most effective selling tool
especially if it appears in your own ezine or opt-in list. Other
advertising tools should also be used to enhance your earning
potential. Always test and track your results so that you can
maximize what works best for you.
Article by Kevin Sinclair, CPA, of Be Successful! Business &
Personal Success Resources (http://www.ksinclair.com). He is
the author of 2 free ebooks: "Success Secrets" & "How To Choose
A Home Based Business".
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