How does it work?
When you sign up as an affiliate, you will be given an affiliate number, and a special link to use for linking to the affiliate website. This link will send your visitor to the business site and at the same time tell the business that you sent the visitor so you will receive the commission in the case of a sale.
As an example, here is what an affiliate link to eBay looks like. This article site does not allow active affiliate links so this is presented without the standard prefix of the http :// and the world wide web abbreviation The text presented would show a link to eBay, but the underlying code would be to that site.
This link with all these numbers that does not even reference eBay is called a ?hoplink?. It is called this since it goes to an intermediate website that does the accounting for the affiliate program. The intermediate site records the affiliate ID which is one of the numbers in the link and then ?hops? the visitor to the proper eBay page. It takes place so fast that the visitor is not aware that the intermediate step has taken place. Pretty slick, don?t you think?
A Quick Tip -- If you are using Internet Explorer, you can place your cursor over a hyperlink on a web page and the actual link information will appear in the bottom left corner of the screen. Try it. If the link information is the same as the link on the printed page, it is not an affiliate link, but if it has some letters and numbers in it in addition to the URL name, it is an affiliate link.
Who does all this accounting?
There are companies that do the accounting and act as the coordinator between affiliates and the companies they represent. These are called affiliate program providers (APP?s). One of the major sites for handling affiliate accounting is called Commission Junction. It handles eBay and others. The major site for electronic products is ClickBank. Other sites are BeFree, Linkshare, and Performics. A German APP is Affili.net.
How do I get paid?
The reason that you are working in a retirement job is to ultimately have money flowing into your bank account, Right? When you set up your account with your chosen APP site, you specify your business bank account. On the designated payment dates, an electronic funds transfer will occur and the funds will be deposited in your account. When you set this up properly, it is almost on autopilot.
How do I find affiliate programs?
When you join Commission Junction (?CJ?) or ClickBank, you will be able to view the thousands of affiliate companies that are available. I suggest that you sign up at CJ and ClickBank and look for affiliates. You will be able to study the companies or products that are available and the commission structure of each. You can then join the program that you want to join. The signup as an affiliate takes place right in CJ or ClickBank.
Some of the approvals in CJ are immediate and some will notify you later if you have been accepted.
You almost don?t have to find affiliate programs, they will find you. That statement may be a little far fetched, but if you go to Google and type in ?affiliate programs? you will be inundated with selections of every possible affiliate under the sun.
A word of caution: Affiliate programs must be coupled with another activity to make money. You can become an affiliate of multiple programs, but unless you have a way to drive the potential customer to the affiliate site so they click a ?Buy Button?, you will not make a dime.
These programs can be coupled with publishing. You make a recommendation to your readers in your newsletter or on your website or blog to try an item sold by one of your affiliates.
More on Affiliate Marketing
With the internet, you can get almost anything at the click of a mouse. There is tons of data and information out there on all subjects or topics. And the Internet continues to affect how we operate on a daily basis. People use it for everything from entertainment to education. So it is not a stretch to the imagination to see that there are great financial possibilities for the entrepreneur.
Its not only for the professional business types, any individual can make money without a traditional company. You don?t need products to sell. How is this possible? Affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing works when a merchant gets an affiliate to promote his service or product. The affiliate shares some of the revenue. This scheme is an efficient way of getting profit for the merchant it also pays for the affiliate and the affiliate network.
The merchant benefits by having someone else spend the time and money advertising and encouraging customers to buy the product. He also benefits though the variety of markets the products can be reached using different affiliates. And his sales may be increased through word of mouth rather than other costly endeavors. The affiliate benefits by getting a commission of each sale he makes. If a consumer clicks on the merchant?s link on the affiliate website and buys the product or service, then the affiliate may get percentage of the sale.
To become a successful affiliate, you must first figure out what you are interested in. What are you passionate about? You will have to build a website around your subject and be informative about the topic. It would also help to make your site unique.
Then look for a merchant that pays well for products or services related to your area of interest. While making these decisions you may want to think about the conversion rate of visitors becoming buyers. Browse through the various affiliate networks to find out which products work for you.
After choosing the area, the products you would like to use and setting up your website, you will have to address the issue of traffic to your site. This is important if you are to make any kind of money. For example, if you are selling expensive items it is possible to make a lot of money very quickly but high ticket products may be harder to sell. To help with promotion and marketing do some research online and purchase books about the subject.
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