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Affiliate
Programs - What are They
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by:
Lois R. Thompson
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Affiliate
Programs - What Are They
by Lois R. Thompson (c)
In recent years Affiliate Program marketing has taken the Internet by
storm. Many surveys have demonstrated that Affiliate Marketing can be
the most cost effective method to promote your website and quickly
generate additional streams of income. For example, Forrester Research
has rated Affiliate Marketing as the most effective of all online
marketing methods.
Jupiter Communications claims that, "By 2002, 25 percent of the
expected $37.5 billion in Internet retail sales, not including autos,
will have originated on Affiliate sites."
Some of the giants offering affiliate programs are: Amazon, Barnes and
Nobles, Microsoft, The Mail.com, and many smaller but well-managed
companies.
Affiliate Programs offer a wide range of products and services, many of
which are needed by All Internet marketers. The wide range of products
and services offered by Affiliate programs are software, web hosting,
auto-responders, marketing, art, books, e-books, music, movies, etc...
Almost any type of product or service can be packaged and sold using an
affiliate program. You'll find that many of the products and/or
services needed to support your MLM are Affiliate Programs.
What Is An Affiliate Program?
Affiliate programs are also known as associate, reseller, or
referral programs. They are revenue sharing programs between
companies (the merchant) and individuals (the affiliate). An Affiliate
can be likened to an independent contractor. Affiliates are basically
self-employed people who are marketing the products and or services of
another company. They are then paid by the company they represent for
referring customers to the company's website.
This strikes a wonderful partnership between the company and the
affiliate, offering a Win-Win situation for both parties. The benefit
to the company in soliciting an affiliate to promote their product or
service is, that they save in the cost of advertising. The benefit to
the affiliate is that they do not have to develop their own product,
stock inventory or worry about e-commerce, the order processing or
payroll for that matter. It allows them to take an already developed
product or service directly to market and focus on marketing.
Affiliate programs are fairly simple to work and will allow you to
operate your on-line business much more efficiently while
increasing your income drastically.
The Best Affiliate programs, offer a Two-tier pay plan. First, you earn
commissions for signing up associates on your first level, as well as
earning additional commissions on their sales. However, if you find an
Affiliate program which pays only on one level but allows you to earn
residual income this is an excellent opportunity.
Developing Affiliate income is beneficial to you in that it builds a
stable secondary income stream. For many people this could be the
difference in income they need to maintain building their MLM into a
profitable venture.
About 90% of people who try to make money from two-tier affiliate
programs are missing it by simply signing up free, in hopes they will
make money through others, who most likely also signed up free. This
just does not work.
Why doesn't that work? Well, if everyone signs up to an Affiliate
program free, no one is Actively Promoting it consequently no one makes
any money. This is also true of MLM programs. If everyone has the
option of a free sign-up, most will take it. If most people are signed
up free and in turn promote that offer to others who also sign-up free,
there is no revenue generated. Without revenue there are not profits.
Remember, it's all Your business, You have to work it. You cannot
depend upon the next person.
In Affiliate Marketing as well as any other type of business, You Must
do the work yourself. Build your first level and invest a little time
and training to teach them, so they can then build
their first level, which then becomes your second level. In Affiliate
Marketing, your second level commission should be considered a Bonus.
There are many supporting products and/or services needed to build any
MLM, which offer an Affiliate program. For example, the use of an
Auto-responder is a must in any online promotional effort. Since the
use of an Auto-responder is necessary in building your MLM, becoming an
Affiliate of a good Auto-responder program would be a wise choice.
As you focus on building your MLM begin to look closely at the products
and services you are using and determine if they offer an Affiliate
program or not. I believe you'll be much surprised.
If you don't have an existing business, that's not a problem. A
combination of a solid group of Affiliate programs working in synergy
offers a great income producing potential, when effectively promoted.
This could actually help you to begin earning income as you research
and seek out the MLM opportunity that's best for you.
To re-cap, we have learnt that Affiliate Programs are offered in a
variety of products and services. By choosing the right group of
Affiliat programs in support of your MLM, you can quickly begin earning
additional income.
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