An Introduction
A marketing practice wherein business revenue is shared between the business and its affiliates is known as affiliate marketing. An affiliate serves as an agent who works towards bringing opportunities of revenue generation for a business and gets paid for his efforts. Affiliate marketing is a system in which a seller or merchant, in correspondence with his affiliate, also called publisher, generates business, and rewards the affiliate for his help. An affiliate plays a major role in attracting customers towards the business, for which he receives compensation from the seller. The business merchant, the publisher (the affiliate), the customer, and the affiliate network are the core players in the affiliate marketing industry.
An affiliate network is an intermediary between affiliates and affiliate programs. This network serves as a platform over which websites offering affiliate marketing programs access the customer base. It also helps the websites to easily participate in affiliate programs.
Beginner's Guide
Those new to this field should know that this marketing practice can be considered as a form of online marketing where the 'affiliate logic' is used to direct web traffic from one website to another. Affiliate marketing programs often make use of Internet marketing methods like pay-per-click, pay-per-lead, paid SEM, and email marketing. There are thousands of websites that are ready to pay a commission to affiliates based on their efforts towards promoting business of the website's products and services. With continuous growth in this field, there is an increase in people turning towards affiliate marketing. Many have begun looking at this type of marketing as a lucrative option for making money online.
Remember, affiliate marketing is about the sharing of revenue between a business and you. Isn't that interesting? Imagine, you are actually sharing business revenue; you are earning a share of the revenue generated by a flourishing business; flourishing because of your efforts. Imagine, you are actually directing customers to a business, which means you are enhancing its customer base and getting paid in return.
What's the exact role of an affiliate? Simply put, if you are an affiliate, you act as a middleman (or woman) between a business and its customers. It's usually something like you own a website, you use it to send customers to a company and you are rewarded for it. All you do is place a link that directs users to a company product or service, from your website. Users who click on this weblink are directed to the business product or service. If they avail the company service or buy their product, you earn. And that's because you were the one who caused the user to visit the company website, who was then attracted to buy their product or service. In short, you as an affiliate, played that important role of bringing customers for a business and now you are eligible to earn your well-deserved share of revenue. And the good news is that all you need to be in this field, is a computer with an Internet connection. And yes, you should be ready to work hard and wait to reap the fruit of your effort.
Internet affiliate marketing, apart from a computer and a broadband connection, needs the marketer to have knowledge of search engine optimization and an understanding of web users. Well then. You have decided to venture into this form of marketing and make the most of it. You are aware of the basic SEO concepts like keywords, niches, hyperlinks, building a website, and web traffic. You need to learn affiliate marketing before you actually make it a means to earn money.
Steps for Newbies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82Ut3N0HZTA
Tips for Beginners
Find the right niche. When searching for a niche, select one that you have enough knowledge about and are interested in. As you would be writing on and promoting a product related to the niche selected, it doesn't make sense to choose something you are unfamiliar with or not interested in.
Whichever product you choose to advertise, see that you are convinced with what you are doing. Promote the right kind of product and in the right way. It will help you gain user trust.
Learn SEO. It's important to know how to optimize your website content as well as the website design. Optimization is the key to achieve higher rankings, thus increasing the probability of attracting more users.
Try different marketing programs till you find the one that suits you best. Be careful while choosing them. Update your website content on a regular basis. Try to give your readers something new, something useful. Users like variety.
Be focused, be innovative, and do not be afraid of experimenting. Yes, experimenting with new products and new strategies is important.
Be patient; affiliate marketing cannot bring you success overnight. With persistent efforts, you will be able to make a mark in this industry.
Well then, are you ready to take your first step towards becoming an affiliate marketer? I would suggest going through this article again. Revise what we've just discussed and put your best foot forward towards making affiliate marketing a success. If you feel you need someone to guide you in your endeavor, come back to us any time.
