Affiliate Marketing is where a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer that they bring to the site. It can be an excellent source of regular income; particularly when promoting products or services with recurring monthly memberships or fees.

Affiliate products can be promoted by using viral marketing strategies; however, a more successful and frequently overlooked method is to use one’s website to drive traffic to another (via your affiliate link).

There are main two types of affiliate products you can promote:

1. New products (known as product launches).
2. Established products.

However, another alternative and less commonly known is Cost Per Action or CPA marketing. Where the affiliate is remunerated when the customer performs and action – which is not necessarily a sale (ie a survey, competition, claiming a coupon after entering details, etc).

New products can be found by joining a community like JV Notify Pro, relevant forums and even the mailing lists of top performers in your niche, who will keep you informed when a new product will be released.

With regards to promoting established products, you could source products from Amazon, ebay or hundreds of affiliate programs, so check an Affiliate Directory and research your niche. Many affiliate programs are free to join, so visit a number of affiliate sites and check them out.

One of the things you may want to consider, particularly if you live outside the United States, is whether the company pays an affiliate via cheque or using PayPal (or equivalent). This will make a huge difference to the availability of your funds and is particularly important at the beginning if your checks are for small amounts and you have to pay a commission to get the currency exchanged.

Clickbank and Commission Junction are two of the top affiliate programs; both very reputable, provide excellent training and pay commissions up to 75%.

Whether you promote new or established products, there are some key elements you need to consider:

  • A good product from a well known source or manufacture.
  • Quality promotional material (including banners, videos, product features and benefits, testimonials, etc).
  • A sales letter that works. The sales letter should include:
    • Benefit driven headline and sub-headline prominently displayed.
    • Relevant information on the product creator or merchant.
    • Bullet point list of benefits of the product.
    • Bullet point listing all the features.
    • Social proof or testimonials.
    • Money back guarantee.

Once you have selected your product then you can either send your traffic directly to the sales page or create a review site or bonus page.

If you create your own mini site to pre-sell the product you will notice a much greater sales conversion ratio, and if you have your own site that is ranked high on Google then you can take advantage of the buzz as the product launch nears for free traffic.

For free training on creating bonus pages and review pages as well as strategies for successful affiliate marketing join my FREE VIP Affiliate Marketing Training Program by filling out the quick and easy form below.

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Filed under: Affiliate Marketing

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