Affiliate Programs
A common way for many people to get started with an Internet business is to join a company’s affiliate program. In the simplest terms, you show people where to find the company products and get a commission when they buy. On the Internet, there are more ways for you to get paid but that’s the basic idea.
Affiliate programs can be a good way to learn the basics of Internet marketing and even supplement your income when you start to get things right. The most common way to be an affiliate is to put another company’s advertising (unique banners and text ads) on your web pages. When your visitor clicks on the link the ads provide they are taken to the website of the other company. You can get credit for the “click” or their system will just track which affiliate the customer came from so you get a payment when the customer makes a purchase.
Most affiliate programs rely on cookies to remember who sent which customer. As more people routinely remove cookies at the end of each online session other ways of tracking sales have been developed. My own affiliate program uses unique coupon codes so that people can refer customers even without a computer to hand. This system is much more labor intensive but I feel it gives a better tracking method for my affiliates.
All the affiliate programs I know pay a check when your sales commissions hit a minimum level of about $50. It’s possible for you to have several programs owing you hundreds of dollars but individually they have not met the minimum payment levels. This is one of the reasons that it can be better to concentrate on promoting one product line instead of several different vendors.
The more successful affiliates don’t just rely on the other company’s sales copy to convince you to buy the products. It’s more effective if you also use descriptions and some selling techniques on your own page before you send the visitor to the other company. Be sure your affiliate program allows you this freedom and work carefully within their guidelines.
If a program expects you to pay some fees and talks mostly about your share of someone else’s membership fees, I think you’ve crossed the line from affiliate to potential pyramid scheme. Obviously it will depend on the program but watch the wording in any agreement and try to discover exactly how others have made money with the company. If most incomes come from getting other people to join the program instead of selling real products or services, then you may be at the bottom of a very long line when it comes to making money for yourself.
Mike Myklin is an author, lecturer, and e-business owner. He provides advice and guidance for people and companies who want to expand their operations to the Internet. These articles, including archived materials, can be found at http://www.myklin.com/
Affiliate programs can be a good way to learn the basics of Internet marketing and even supplement your income when you start to get things right. The most common way to be an affiliate is to put another company’s advertising (unique banners and text ads) on your web pages. When your visitor clicks on the link the ads provide they are taken to the website of the other company. You can get credit for the “click” or their system will just track which affiliate the customer came from so you get a payment when the customer makes a purchase.
Most affiliate programs rely on cookies to remember who sent which customer. As more people routinely remove cookies at the end of each online session other ways of tracking sales have been developed. My own affiliate program uses unique coupon codes so that people can refer customers even without a computer to hand. This system is much more labor intensive but I feel it gives a better tracking method for my affiliates.
All the affiliate programs I know pay a check when your sales commissions hit a minimum level of about $50. It’s possible for you to have several programs owing you hundreds of dollars but individually they have not met the minimum payment levels. This is one of the reasons that it can be better to concentrate on promoting one product line instead of several different vendors.
The more successful affiliates don’t just rely on the other company’s sales copy to convince you to buy the products. It’s more effective if you also use descriptions and some selling techniques on your own page before you send the visitor to the other company. Be sure your affiliate program allows you this freedom and work carefully within their guidelines.
If a program expects you to pay some fees and talks mostly about your share of someone else’s membership fees, I think you’ve crossed the line from affiliate to potential pyramid scheme. Obviously it will depend on the program but watch the wording in any agreement and try to discover exactly how others have made money with the company. If most incomes come from getting other people to join the program instead of selling real products or services, then you may be at the bottom of a very long line when it comes to making money for yourself.
Mike Myklin is an author, lecturer, and e-business owner. He provides advice and guidance for people and companies who want to expand their operations to the Internet. These articles, including archived materials, can be found at http://www.myklin.com/
posted by Mike Myklin at 3:36 AM
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