Suppose you could launch an online business in
next ten minutes? Suppose that this business did not require your own website, dealing with customers, refunds, product development or maintenance? This is ideal world of affiliate marketing.Made popular on internet by Amazon.com, marketers can now earn a referral fee for directing visitors to countless merchants’ website. According to Forrester Research, affiliate program earnings will represent $53 BILLION of all e-commerce sales by 2005. How could you earn a sizeable piece of this pie? Here are some powerful tips that would get you rolling in those big commission checks and laughing all way to bank.
1. Know what programs and products to promote.
Of course you will want to promote those programs that will bring you greatest profits in shortest time. There are several factors that play into selecting such a program. Choose programs that have a generous commission structure, products that fit in with your target audience and a solid track record of paying their affiliates on time. If you cannot recoup your investment, then prune such programs and keep looking for better ones. There are tens of thousands of affiliate programs online so you can afford to be picky. This is a case where you will want to choose just cream of crop and so reduce risk of losing your advertising dollars.
2. Write free reports or short ebooks to distribute from your website.
Most likely you will be competing with other affiliate marketers who are promoting same program. If you write a short report on a related topic to product that you are promoting, then you can distinguish yourself from all other affiliates. In this report you can provide valuable information for free with a “recommendation” of product. This is often referred to as a ‘soft sell’.
The report or ebook allows you to develop credibility with your audience and your readers are more likely to follow your recommendation. There is less resistance to this type of selling because prospect doesn’t feel ‘sold’, just informed. The next step is to make this ebook ‘viral’ by allowing those who bought product through your link to ‘brand’ ebook for their own promotional use.
3. Collect email addresses of those who download your free ebook.
Research has shown that over 60% of sales of any product are made after fifth exposure to sales message. In other words, most people do not make a purchase on first solicitation. You may need to send your marketing message over six times before a sale is made. This is reason why you should collect contact information of those who download your report. You can then follow up on these contacts to gently remind them to make purchase.
