Mining For Gold With The Best Affiliate Programs And Hitting Pay Dirt

Colin McDougall tinkered around with affiliate programs earning a few dollars, nothing much to write home about, even had his own e-commerce site, known as the man's mall. In theory that site was supposed to offer all sorts of gadgets for guys. Colin created the site with the concept "build it they will come" but in reality no one did. Like so many dot.com ventures, it was a huge disappointment, lots of hard work and no pay off.

Colin says, "The man's mall failed because I started the venture blindly, I didn't have a clue how the search engines worked or how to make money with affiliate programs. Without an action plan and a map on how to get the gold it was all pointless. But not anymore, I hit the internet gold mine, a virtual moneymaking machine."

Read on to learn the facts about affiliate marketing and how Colin went from failing on the Internet to making serious money with affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is paying off for retailers

2003 online sales are bucking the retail trend. With traditional retail sales down, retailers are forced to do more with less. They've shifted budgets away from expensive portal deals to performance-based affiliate marketing and search engine marketing and it's paying off. (Source: Forrester Research)

It's no surprise that traditional advertisers such as American Express, National Geographic, Toshiba and even Disney are flocking to the emerging affiliate marketing model. Advertisers have a very low risk with affiliate marketing; they simply pay a commission for actual sales. No sales, no commission.

Affiliates love it too

Affiliates who understand the affiliate marketing business are earning huge incomes, even those who are doing it as a hobby, in many cases, are earning a few hundred to a few thousand extra dollars each month.

Jeff Pullen, President of Commission Junction, a third party provider of infrastructure and tracking told the crowd at a recent conference held in Santa Barbara that, "Commissions are up 80% over the previous year". According to the Affiliate Summit, held in early November 2003 in New York City, affiliate marketing is already a $14 billion industry. (Source: Marketing Sherpa)

Online shopping is booming ? the future is bright

Affiliate marketing works because the pay for performance model makes sense. Plus, people are flocking to the Internet in droves to shop online. According to Forrester Research, a Massachusetts-based research firm, nationally online sales are expected to total $96 billion this year and climb to $229 billion by 2008.

Affiliate marketing in a nutshell

An affiliate program is a business relationship where one website owner (a "merchant") agrees to pay another website owner (an "affiliate") a commission simply for referring customers.

Merchants typically manage their affiliate program by joining a commission network such as Commission Junction or LinkShare who provide third-party tracking and infrastructure or by purchasing and installing specialized tracking software on their own server.

See Commission Junction and LinkShare.com for a list of merchants who are looking for affiliates to promote their products and services.

How Colin got involved with affiliate marketing

Colin says: "I found the treasure map; the Affiliate Marketers Handbook written by James Martell," an entrepreneur and successful affiliate marketer. The first time Colin read the Affiliate Marketers Handbook he mentions, that it was like looking at the horizon through binoculars; he could see where he was headed. The second time reading the book Colin, it was like looking at a road map and seeing how to reach the riches on the horizon.

Colin says, "With the book, you learn how to get organized, plan the site, run the business, and focus on the riches along the horizon."

Colin learned firsthand, with the man's mall, that without understanding the search engines, your business is dead in the water. The "build it they will come" mind set, just doesn't cut it.

As Colin says: "The book's system for using keywords really makes sense, after my prior experience it's like this light bulb went off?so that's how I'm going to attract visitors and making money. In my old business, I was set up to fail, with the handbook I'm set up to win."

Got Dot: How did you go from failing at the Internet to make money?

Colin explains, "By reading James' handbook. His book is real, it's not the stuff of Internet legends, but it's an honest, to goodness road map. James really shares what works. I've followed his 8-step system? and now have a bigger house, a bigger car and financial independence.

At first, I was amazed at how much the book gives away, but that's James. He really wants everybody to succeed, he's got things all laid out in his book. If you follow it the money's there, it's up to the reader to go for the gold."

Got Dot: What was it like getting started?

Colin says, "In the beginning I was skeptical, making money with affiliate marketing, just seemed unreal. After attending James' original class in Vancouver, at the prodding of a friend Chuck Anderson, and actually meeting with other people, earning lots of money with affiliate marketing, the whole process really resonated. I knew I could do it, if they could."

Got Dot: Why was that so hard to grasp?

Colin: "As a system tech I was working 50% harder for a measly 5% raise, all of $250/month. It was awful. In the class all these people were making a lot more money than me, working just a few hours a day. What a wake up call. I felt like a dummy slaving away at 60 hours a week, with practically nothing to show for it."

Colin adds, "The hard part for me was getting over my past, removing the skepticism, and just running. My disbelief held me back four months. So I started off small spending one hour a day doing affiliate marketing.

The beginning search engine traffic and commission checks?just blew me away, talk about a real eye-opener. Nothing like numbers to get a techie excited."

Got Dot: What's the money like?

Colin: "When I first started I earned $400 a month, nearly double my raise as a system tech. By the end of the year I hoped to make $5k a month (my system tech salary). I hit that mark in six months. Within 9 months I earned $120K. The day job is now history. The money's astounding, it just keeps growing."

Got Dot: What is your product niche?

Colin says, "In the beginning, I went after the big paycheck, like credit cards. My newer sites feature things I want to learn more about or hobbies."

Colin follows the same methods for web site construction developed by James Martell. These principals are incorporated into Colin's successful sites featuring: mortgage loans, furniture slip covers and credit card applications.

Got Dot: What is a typical day like?

Colin says, "Its ideal. How many fathers can say they have time to play Barbie's with their daughter? Everyday I work for two hours and spend an afternoon in the park with the family, then another hour or two of work and its dinner time, what a day!"

Got Dot: What tips do have for someone starting out?

Colin says: "Buy the Affiliate Marketers Handbook, follow it step-by-step. Don't jump ahead. Devote one hour a day to affiliate marketing, when you get home from work. Make the sacrifice. The short term pain is worth the long term gain. Don't settle for fool's gold, searching through the "best affiliate programs", find the real gold, James Martell's 8-step system?, it's within your grasp. Go for the gold."

Colin McDougall followed a simple 8-step-system? for affiliate marketing created by James Martell, entrepreneur, successful affiliate marketer, and developer of over 70 specialty shopping sites with topics that range from motorized scooters to treadmill comparisons; and also educates people who want to start a homebased business using affiliate programs and the Internet!

About The Author

Colin McDougall is the editor of the credit review site, Only the best credit cards online. You can visit this site at http://www.only-the-best-credit-cards-online.com/, mcdoog2112@shaw.ca

Discover The Affiliate Program thats Right for You

Are you looking for a profitable Affiliate Program?

When you start to examine the possibilies for your homebased business, it is easy to be overwhelmed with the sheer number of "opportunities" available. A search for "Affiliate Programs" in Yahoo alone, will yield over nine million matches!

As with anything worthwhile in life, starting a homebased business using affiliate programs, should not be done without doing some homework. Take your time and do some research, think about what it is you want to accomplish. Are you looking for a full-time business with "full-time" income, or is your goal to make some extra spending money? Set your Goals before you start and find a program that will help you meet them.

Use common sense when researching affiliate programs, remember the old saying, " Anything that seems to good to be true.....usually is". Look for programs that provide a wide variety of marketing tools and support, after all, if it is legitimate they have a vested interest in you success.

If your a newbie, don't try to re-invent the wheel, there are many successful people involved with affiliate programs. Most of them are eager to share their secrets, their mentoring will save you alot of time and money, time and money you could apply to growing your new business. The vast majority of people who fail in affiliate programs, are the ones who fail to educate themselves on how to promote their new venture. Learn from those who have been there..done that!

Once you decide on the program(s) that is right for you, dedicate yourself to learning and understanding what it is you are promoting. If you are totally new to affiliate programs, it may be a little confusing at the start, but if you take advantage of all of the available resources, you WILL be successful.

Here's To Your success,

John Tillotson - New York

Copyright(c)2005 John Tillotson

Ordinary people are making Exraordinary money WORKING FROM HOME on the Internet! Sign up for FREE Email course; visit http://www.Future-Independence.com

Googles Changed The Rules Again So Now What?

Some tips for Affiliate Marketers

So Google has changed its policies regarding affiliate advertising. In case you don't know, their new policy will allow only one ad per search query for affiliates and the parent company with the same url.

So what does this mean for affiliates? It means that you are going to have to actually do a thing called work to get people to your affiliate page. Here are some suggestions of things that you can do to get people to your affiliate page and still meet Google's requirements.

-You must have your own website. It doesn't have to be anything fancy. You are just going to have to have your own url so that you can increase your chances of being listed on Google.

-Your site needs to have relevant content. It is important for you to have content on your site besides just whatever programs you are promoting. Your visitors might not buy your product right away, but if you give them some free useful content, they will remember you when they do have the opportunity to make a purchase. If you are looking for free content, a great place to start is ezinearticles.com.

-You should also keep a blog related to the topic of the product you are promoting. Blogs are basically an online diary. You can set up a blog for free at many websites. Personally I prefer blogger.com. When you use blogger.com, you get your own domain name and you can customize your template. Also it's owned by Google now so I don't think that this service is going anywhere. You can also post pictures and you can use blogger for audio blogging, so you could even create your own internet talk show. You can add your affiliate links on the sidebar and you can also include articles related to the product and link to it at the bottom of the article.

-You also need to have your own opt-in list. This can be in the form of an ezine or you can use an autoresponder. This is vitally important, because you need to have a group of people that value your opinion and will check out a product or service just becauseyou recommended it. For more information on listbuilding, send a blank email to ldctruth@freeautobot.com

-It's also important to write your own ads. Many times I have published the same affiliate ad 5 times in one issue. It is much more effective for you as an affiliate if your ad is different, because people will be much more likely to click on it just to find out what it is you are selling.

-Network, Network, Network. These changes make it even more important to network. One excellent place to network online is ryze.com. Ryze.com attracts the exact type of people who will support you. Don't just post your ads, however, really get in there and participate. Offer advice, answer the weekly questions that some of the networks post, post an interesting article. You are building relationships and that will go a long way for you in your business.

My last words on this topic are to keep tweaking your ads for performance and to never quit. It may take you a while to turn your business into a profitable venture, but when you do, yes I said when and not if, it will be well worth the effort.

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DeAnna Spencer is the editor for Prospecting and Presents. She also owns the hosting company, Delspin Hosting

To get your own website, visit http://www.delspinhosting.com

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Design Web Site Around Affiliate Programs

When starting a Web business, most people choose a topic for their Web site and then look for products and affiliate programs related to that topic. In this article, I suggest searching for a group of related affiliate programs first, then designing your Web site around those programs.

There are many affiliate directories and affiliate network Web sites where you can search for the best programs. For this example, I use Commission Junction http://www.jc.com This affiliate network site provides a vast amount of searchable information on over 1200 affiliate programs.

On Commission Junction's front page, click on the link "Search all advertisers". This will take you to a page with a drop down list where you can select a category. In order to search the information on Commission Junction, you must be a member, but membership is free. After you login to Commission Junction, go to the bottom of the page to "Find Advertisers & links". Here you can get a list of all advertisers, search advertisers by keyword, or browse for advertisers.

Click on "Browse for advertisers". This takes to to a table where you can arrange the affiliate programs based upon "EPC" or "Network Earnings". EPC is the average earnings per 100 clicks. It reflects the affiliate programs ability to convert clicks into commissions. Network Earnings is a rank, on a scale of one to five, of an affiliate program based on the amount of commissions paid. In the head of the table, click on the name of the parameter you are interested in. This rearranges the entries based upon that parameter.

After you arrange the entries, you have to page past all the "New" programs. I guess Commission Junction puts the new programs at the top of the list to help promote them. As you analyze the data you will discover that the programs that pay the highest earnings per click do not necessarily provide the highest total earnings.

Some important points:

- Commission Junction is not the best affiliate network. Their fees to advertisers are too high. Search Google for other affiliate networks and affiliate programs.

- Join several good programs. You don't want to build your Web site around one program that may be discontinued.

- Don't join too many programs. It takes time and work to promote each program.

- Don't be in a rush to join affiliate programs. Take your time and select a profitable category and high quality programs.

Most people get an idea for a Web site, and then look for related affiliate products to sell. Why not research affiliate programs first? Then you can learn what categories of affiliate products and services are going you earn you the most money. You can then design the topic of your Web site around the most profitable product categories and affiliate programs.

Permission is granted for the above article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included.

About The Author

Copyright(C)2002 Bucaro TecHelp. To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit http://bucarotechelp.com. To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter Send a blank email to subscribe@bucarotechelp.com

Build A High Profit Business With Affiliate Programs

QUESTION: I am considering starting an ebusiness using affiliate programs, but there is so much hype out there I can't figure out which programs would work best for me. Everybody claims their program is best. I'd really appreciate some guidance here.

ANSWER: Great question, Todd. Affiliate programs can be an excellent way to start an ebusiness. Before we dive into the specifics, let me explain how an affiliate program works.

An affiliate program simply means that you sign on as an affiliate marketer for someone else's product. It's your job to market the product, send the company customers, and get a cut each time a sale is made from your efforts. Affiliate program commissions can range from as little as 2% for high ticket items up to 50% for ebooks and informational type products.

As an example, let's say you sign up with Amazon.com's affiliate program. You are assigned an affiliate code which you use to promote Amazon's books on your website. When someone clicks to purchase an Amazon product from your website, your affiliate code is included in the URL and you get a commission for the sale. Some folks have built elaborate websites that sell nothing but Amazon.com's books, and each time they make a sale they get a piece of the pie.

One of the most appealing aspects of affiliate programs is how quickly you can begin making money. You can literally sign up as an affiliate and begin making money in minutes. I've done it, I know it works.

Admittedly, I am not an affiliate program expert, so I sought out the person that many call the Ultimate Affiliate Program Authority, Rosalind Gardner.

Rosalind Gardner began making money with affiliate programs in 1997. She has since grown her affiliate business into a $400,000 a year business and is now considered the authority on the subject. Her book 'The Super Affiliate Handbook: How to Make a Fortune Selling Other People's Stuff Online' has been out since March and is already considered by many to be the affiliate marketers bible.

I ordered Rosalind Gardner's book as research for this article and I have to tell you I found it to be one of the best books on the subject I have ever read. It's a hype-free approach to what affiliate marketing is really all about and how to make it work. The book is 270 pages and leaves no stone unturned. For anyone serious about making money with affiliate programs, I highly recommend this book.

The bottom line, Todd, is this: you can make a lot of money with affiliate programs, if you pick the right product and do your part to promote it. As for which programs would be best for you, I advise that you concentrate your efforts on one or two products instead of starting with a shotgun approach. Pick only top quality products that hold some personal interest you. Never pick an affiliate product just because you think you'll make a ton of money with it.

Remember, you are starting a business. If it's not a business that holds your interest, you won't be in business very long.

Small Business Q&A is written by veteran entrepreneur and syndicated columnist, Tim Knox. Tim's latest books include "Small Business Success Secrets" and "The 30 Day Blueprint For Success!" Related Links: http://www.smallbusinessqa.com http://www.dropshipwholesale.net

Tracking Phone Sales Is Important To Your Affiliates

Today the majority of affiliates are looking for compensation when your customers call in their orders by phone. One of the first things they will look for when thinking about joining your affiliate program is to see if you have an order phone number on your site. If you do not offer phone commissions you are most likely losing out on affiliates.

"But I slightly increased my commission rate to make up for not giving phone commissions..."

Who cares? I know I wouldn't. If I referred 5 customers to Merchant X and all 5 of them called in their orders I get a whopping $0 commission. But if Merchant X paid for phone commissions I would be getting my commissions that I deserve. The bottom line is that affiliates want all of their commissions that they earn, not just some of it.

There really is no excuse for not tracking phone sales other than the fact that you just don't want to pay affiliates for all of their sales. Setting your site up to track phone sales is not that difficult and shouldn't take more than a little bit of time.

Here are the simple steps it takes to set up phone tracking:

Contact your affiliate program software/network provider and ask them how to set up for phone tracking. It is just a matter of passing the affiliates ID number onto your website to display next to your phone number. Usually, it is displayed using a javascript code or a short programming script.

Make sure you place the phone sale tracking code next to your phone number on every page that shows your number. Do not just put it on the index page. Customers may get your phone number from any page.

Then train your sales reps or employees that answer the phones to ask for the "reference code" when taking phone orders. The reference code is the affiliate ID number that referred the customer to you. Have them write it down or enter it into the computer so you can manually credit sales to the appropriate affiliates.

Good luck and I hope you decided to track phone sales for your affiliates. They will love you for it. Hey, it is just like getting a raise! :=)

Chet Brzezinski has been in the affiliate marketing and affiliate management industry since 1997. He owns two affiliate marketing related sites. One that offers affiliate program management & consulting services and the other affiliate program reviews, tips and resources.

Higher Commission Is Not Always Better

I have seen it a million times, especially from newer affiliates. They find two similar affiliate programs and immediately assume that the one that pays the highest commission is automatically the better affiliate program... not true! As an affiliate you need to look beyond the commission and evaluate the entire program. Yes, high commission are always nice to have but there are some things to look for that can make a high commission affiliate program practically worthless and a waste of your valuable time.

The first thing that you should look at is see how much the merchants are charging for their products. Merchants that pay a high commission is usually passing it off in the product prices. By boosting their prices up they make up for paying their affiliates high commissions by trying to get the customers to pay the bill. If the price is to high the customer will leave the merchants site and search for another merchant with lower prices. So you can promote the higher commission merchant to your hearts content. But if the prices are just to high for the customers you are simply wasting your time and effort on a dead cause.

Now, if you go with the merchant that pays a slightly less commission but has much lower prices then the customer is going to buy from them instead of the other merchant, therefore, giving you more conversions which will make you alot more money in the long run.

Chet Brzezinski has been in the affiliate marketing and affiliate management industry since 1997. He owns two affiliate marketing related sites. One that offers affiliate program management & consulting services and the other affiliate program reviews, tips and resources.

Dont Make This Mistake...New Affiliate

Joining more than 2 programs at a time is something you don't want to do. I did this when I started as an Affiliate. If I were to advise a 'newbie' getting involved online I would tell them to promote, market or endorse only '1' product or service at a time.

Why?

You should concentrate your energies on one thing at a time. Having 10, 20 or 30 different affiliate programs floating all over is not the way to go. Take it from someone who knows.

A plan is to start with 1 or 2 programs, you want to duplicate the success you have from the first program to the second, third or twenty the key is to do that over and over again. Once you have the formula down it will work with anything you do.

I regret not doing this today, I am an affiliate for over 100 programs believe me there is no way I can effective endorse all of them in the manner I should be.

Here are a few tips I now use today, you too can learn from them as well.

1. Buy the product or service and use it. How can you endorse something if you yourself have not tired it?

2. Build your website with the necessary banners or text links with your own descriptions of how, what or why you like the product or service.

3. Endorse the product or service from your website only, you want to get the traffic to your website this is key to your success. I would not recommend promoting your affiliate programs anywhere else.

4. Use the time you would promote affiliate programs, to promote you website instead. This is key, because depending on where you are promoting these programs so are thousands of other affiliates.

5. Build content rich websites that offer information, a service or how to manual on things people are looking for or want.

You can build it, but that does not mean they will come without you having to show them where to go. Today I can say I have finally found a technique that is working for what I want to do.

There are many things you can do to improve your success as an affiliate marketer, I have listed only a few that have helped me in my business. Fine tune your own system, test it, use it; see what works for you and your business.

Michelle has been online for about 7-years now. She started out on ebay which she still does some work on occasion. After doing the ebay thing for 2-years Michelle moved over to Internet and Affiliate Marketing. She has not stopped since. Build your own home business now visit http://home-making-money.com for more information today.

Protecting Yourself From Affiliate Link Thieves

So, you have worked really hard to build a fabulous affiliate site. You took the time to add your keywords and relevant information about the products. Your pages load quickly, and your site is even listed in the search engines for specified terms. You look at your stats, and you see a regular flow of traffic coming into your site. You get really excited! You log in to your affiliate program manager, and.... WHAMO! You have very few commissions from sales, and your click-throughs are extremely low. Suddenly, you are asking yourself, "what the heck happened here??" The answer... You might possibly be the victim of affiliate link hijacking!

In this revolving world of the Internet, we are constantly being bombarded by spammers, spyware, viruses, and hackers. Now, we have to worry about link hijackers stealing commissions that are rightfully ours. So, what is link hijacking and how do you prevent it?

In the simplest terms, link hijacking occurs when someone replaces their affiliate ID with yours. The result? They get the commission instead of you. You did all that work, but someone else is getting paid? Yes! You may be wondering how this happens.

Let me explain. I first heard about this phenomenon while visiting various discussion boards on affiliate marketing. Many affiliates had experienced a decline in sales while their site's traffic stats remained high. Common discussions found in affiliate forums include various software programs which "steal" information. Many of these programs download themselves onto a person's computer, either knowingly or unknowingly. These programs can override your affiliate links each time the customer visits your site, therefore giving credit to someone else.

Many times, people download packaged programs that contain these types of software. The innocent surfer may not even realize they have a program running in the background. Anyone who takes part in the Internet community, whether it be a webmaster or a surfer, should stay informed about these programs by visiting parasiteware.com on a regular basis.

Link hijacking comes in various forms... not just from downloads. Let's say your affiliate link looks like this: www.url.com/?123456 , where 123456 is your affiliate ID. A link hijacker is interested in the product and wants to purchase it. He also wants the affiliate commission from the product. He takes your ID 123456 and replaces it with his ID 999999 to look like this: www.url.com/?999999 . The result? He gets the commission from the product purchase. He modified the link to benefit himself. You lose.

Here is another example of link hijacking: A customer comes to your website and sees a link to the product that he wants to buy. When he moves the mouse over your link information, he sees your affiliate url in the status bar of his computer. Instead of clicking your affiliate link, he decides to manually type it into his address bar, leaving off the affiliate referral code: www.url.com. This results in no affiliate tracking information and no commissions for you. You lose again!

So how much money could you be losing? I have read that an estimated 10-30% of commissions are lost due to affiliate link hijacking. (In a recent article from "revenue" magazine, the estimate was as high as 40-50%). Can you imagine the kind of potential revenue that you might be losing right now?

Take Action by Protecting Yourself From Revenue Loss

In the constant search for new scripts and software to improve my websites, I have run into several affiliate cloaking devices. Most of them cost around $50 or more. However, I did run into one cloaking script that is free. It is called Affiliate Link Cloaker (ALC). The site owner simply asks that you subscribe to their newsletter.

By golly, I love free stuff, don't you! If you are interested in learning about this script and how it works, you can visit their site at webmasterinabox.net/affiliate_link_cloaker.html . They have other scripts that you might find useful as well. Now, get out there and protect those links!

Stephani Richardson is a work at home mother of 4 who has been actively involved with affiliate marketing and home business opportunities since December 1999. She owns and operates several business related websites including 1 Work At Home Dot Com.

Attracting Good Affiliates

Good affiliates can be hard to get. There could be any number of reasons for this, but I am going to focus on what I believe is the one major problem that prevents someone from attracting good affiliates. But first lets look at what the make up of a good affiliate may be. A good affiliate is:

Hard Working

Persistent

Motivated to work their business

Does not need constant reassurance

Makes and implements goals

Overcomes obstacles

Recognizes and takes good advice

And Never, Never, Never quits!

The question some may ask is, "Where are these people at?" I'll tell you. Most of these people are already successful with their own affiliate program. And they are successful for the very reasons listed above. Also, they did not fall prey to the very problem that many searching for good affiliates are causing themselves. And that is advertising hype. They overlooked that and went into the marketing program with a desire to succeed, understanding that it is going to require work and time to be successful. Unfortunately though many are for the first time looking for a home business and don't know what internet marketing is all about. They are vunerable to all the hype infested ads out there.

Now. If a person signs up for an affiliate program with none of the traits listed above for a good affiliate can they indeed be a good affiliate? Yes! But it will be an uphill battle helping them to develop some of the above traits. Even though it would be hard it is still worth it to work with them in hopes they will become the perfect affiliate. Who knows.They may become your best affiliate yet! But I want to focus on getting the good affiliates from the start. Why?

My logic is this. I would rather have one good affiliate that is a real go-getter then ten thousand that do nothing or very little at all. That way you have more time to focus on your own business then spending alot of time babysitting someone who will probably eventually give up. The best route to go is to get affiliates who are already conditioned. Well just how do we do that? There is only one way to do that and that is how your opportunity is presented to prospects.

Most all advertising someone does is loaded with hype. Whether it is their search engine description, classified ads, or email. This is what prevents marketers from getting good affiliates. If possible you must remove all the hype from your advertising and sales letter. Now I know that some of us work an affiliate program owned by someone else. And you may be required to use the advertising and sales letter that they give you. But if possible use the ones that have the least amount of hype. What do I mean by hype!

Hype is where you describe something to the greatest, allowable, extreme possibility. Such as but not limited to the following:

Make a MILLION DOLLARS every time you breathe by just posting a website!!!!!

Earn $15,000 a day by reading emails!!!

Buy my ebook, "125,000 Ways To Get Rich Marketing Salt!"

Now I know these are exaggerations but the point is that while on paper you may be able to prove your claims, most do see these types of ads as exaggerations of the truth. Besides that these ads will not get you those good affiliates your are seeking. What these type of ads will get you are:

Curiosity seekers

Gullible People

Get Rich Quick Hopefuls

If you portray your business as a get rich quick scheme, then that is what you will get. People looking to get rich quick. Not exactly my idea of a good affiliate. Why? Because each person who fits into any of the above groups has their own reason for signing up none of which is to run a business. Most individuals like this sign up and do little if anything. When they realize that they're not going to get a free lunch most will opt out in a day or two. Those who remain will just ignore your emails. By the way. How would you like to go to a job interview and be told you will make $20.00 an hour. You work for 2 weeks only to find out that you have to work for the company 10 years before receiving that amount per hour. You would probably walk out the door feeling you were decieved. That is exactly what happens to people who answer ads loaded with hype. They feel as though they were decieved.

Not only that but it can be costly to run an ad campagin that uses hype. Think of Pay Per Click campagins. Your are spending money on the clicks of those who are not interested in running a business. I would rather get one hit to my website a day from someone who will do what it takes to succeed then a million hits from people who want to get rich by the end of the day.

Rather have an ad campagin that focuses on what the average person can expect. Most people are in this category. An average person. So target your advertising as if everyone who reads it already understands the ins and outs of internet marketing. Portray your opportunity as one that will take years to reach it's full potential. Be honest and up front. Then you will get people signing up who are ready to build a business up over time. Remember. Get Rid Of The Hype. If the average person won't make $15,000 dollars a month then don't say they will. If the average person will probably make $1,000 a month then say that. What's wrong with making a $1,000 more a month then they had before. If you have been able to quit your job because of your affiliate program, prove it. If you can't offer up some type of proof, (copies of checks, real testimonials, etc...) then just keep it to yourself.

The point being made is this. Most people are already aware of the saying, "If it sounds to good to be true, then it probably is." There are exceptions to this rule but for the most part it is a true statement. Now if you follow the advice given above you will probably see a significant drop in your website traffic. And also a drop in the amount of affiliates you are getting. But like I and so many others say. "It's not the quanity of the affiliates you are getting but the quality of the affiliates you get.

Leave the hype to those who want to brag about the amount of website traffic and affiliate sign ups they are getting. I'll take a big fat check over hype any time.

Article by Jerry Lunsford. Go to my website http://www.quityourcrummyjob.com to find this and other articles to help with your success as an affiliate, and with the success of those affiliates under you. Use these articles on your website, ezine, or wherever they can be helpful. Copyright (c) 2004

Your Own Affiliate Program

What better avenue to drive high quality and targeted traffic to your website than through your very own affiliate opportunity!

Plus, you have dozens and dozens of other marketers promoting YOUR wares at no startup cost to you, and on top of your own promotional efforts.

Another positive is that it is a win-win situation. It costs nothing for the affiliate to join, and you pay a commission only when a product or service is sold, and it's only a percentile of the actual sale price.

Be mindful, however, that you will need a clear plan of action and that the program should be unique and fill a niche. It is also time consuming.

You will need affiliate automation software that handles the signups, click throughs, sales and tracking. A quick search will find you several types of software and a wide price range. Find out what's right for your program and wallet, but always kick the tires for features and benefits.

Now, you will need to select the type of tier structure you wish to offer. With a single tier, you set a commission structure to pay your affiliates for any referring sales. With a two-tier program, you will also pay the same affiliate a percentage based on sales generated by those they brought into your program. This type also offers more incentive to your "work force."

When a marketer signs up, you need to make it easy as pie for them to promote your biz opp. This could include banners, product images, text links or other ad copy.

You may announce your affiliate program in a variety of ways: free for alls (FFAs), classifieds, ezines and getting listed in affiliate directories.

A word of caution: remember that it is the quality of your affiliates that will make or break your program. Quantity doesn't play into the picture at all.

Walter Pfarr has over 35 years experience in the print media, as well as knowledge and hands on expertise in grant writing and administration, fundraising, development, all facets of public relations, and has several years experience in Internet marketing, Pfarr and his wife reside in Ardmore, OK.

Are You Being Ripped Off By Clickbank Merchants?

I see affiliates from two perspectives.

Firstly as an affiliate, I see myself as a business partner to those merchants that I promote. I send them traffic, and if I make sales for them, I expect to be paid for my efforts in the form of a predefined percentage or lump sum.

As a merchant, I see my affiliates as partners and value the traffic they send me. My utmost priority is to make sure that any sales that are made are credited to the affiliate that sends me the traffic. This is essential if my affiliates are going to trust me and put effort into promoting my products. This is essential if I want my business to grow!

Most of my own products are related to internet marketing and webmaster tools. Because of the nature of these products, those visitors are likely to be knowledgeable of affiliate programs and probably Clickbank as well.

Imagine this scenario:

Joe goes to Google and searches for "webmaster tools". Something caught his attention over in the Pay Per Click ads, an affiliate link to a product that promises to make link exchanges easier.

"Hmmm" thought Joe. "That looks like a great tool".

Joe clicks on the PPC link and is redirected to a sales page. Scrolling to the bottom of the page, Joe sees that the product is $97.

"I want this", thought Joe, "but $97 is a bit steep".

Joe searches the webpage for that magic link, and he finds it easily.

"Great" says Joe out loud. "A link to a Clickbank affiliate program, and this program pays 50%".

After a few minutes, Joe has signed up for the affiliate program, created his own affiliate link, typed it into his browser, and revisits the sales page.

Joe's mouse clicks the buy link. He fills in his credit card details and clicks the purchase button. Closing his browser, he checks his e-mail. He watches as two e-mails are downloaded to his machine. The first is the download information for the new software he purchased, the second one is an e-mail with the Subject "Congratulations Joe, you have made a sale".

Joe checks his stats online for this new affiliate program and sure enough, he has made $48.50 commission on this purchase. In other words, he only paid $48.50 for the product.

OK, what is wrong with this scenario?

Is it fair that Joe used his own affiliate link to make a purchase?

What about the affiliate who advertised this affiliate program at Google? That affiliate paid for the click that started the sale process, yet did not get the commission.

What is going through the minds of merchants who place links to their affiliate programs on their sales page?

I would imagine that some merchants think about these points:

* I want to make $48.50 per sale minimum.

* If I offer it for $97 and give 50% commission to affiliates I will make my goal of $48.50 per sale.

* By adding an affiliate sign up link to the sales page, I can encourage people to sign up for my affiliate program, buy through their own link and get the software for the real price of $48.50, but the customer will be happy thinking they saved $48.50.

*Great plan!

I am sure that a lot of merchants don't see things this way - they just don't think hard enough about their affiliates.

A merchant that uses a link to his/her affiliate program on the sales page is using affiliate traffic as free traffic (whether they intend to or not). After all, the merchant does not need to spend time optimising pages or buying traffic - their affiliates will do that and send the traffic to the sales page for free. If an affiliate sends someone who becomes a customer, the merchant will make their money.

The big problem here is that being an affiliate is hard work. You do have to create content, buy and review products, possibly even pay for advertising. If YOU are doing these things as an affiliate, is your merchant doing their bit to protect your you? Unfortunately the majority of Clickbank merchants don't, and affiliates waste their time building pages and buying advertising to promote merchants who don't deserve it.

The bottom line
----------------


If you are promoting products aimed at webmasters, the traffic you send will likely know how to "steal" your commission. In this situation it is vital to only promote merchants without the affiliate sign up link.

If on the other hand you are promoting products to the general public, e.g. weight loss products, dog training eBooks etc, this affiliate sign up link poses less of a problem since most of the traffic you generate wont be affiliates themselves (most wont even know what an affiliate is) and wont have the necessary skills to sign up at Clickbank, create a link and purchase through their link just to get a commission.

What can you do?
----------------


If you find a merchant that you want to promote and they have an affiliate sign up link on the sales page, contact them. Tell them about your concerns and that they should treat you as a partner, not the source of free traffic. Suggest that they remove this affiliate sign up link.

The usual reaction I get
------------------------


Merchant: "I get a lot of affiliate sign ups from this link, there is no way I am removing it!"

Ask the merchant how many of those affiliates ever make a sale or ever send any traffic. This is exactly my point. The merchant is getting a lot of sign ups purely to get a discount. For every person who signs up as an affiliate to get a discount, there is one affiliate somewhere being robbed of his/her rightful commission.

Most of the "affiliates" you get via a sign up link on the sales page are only signing up to get a discount, they are unlikely to ever try to sell that product.

The only affiliates who will promote the product, are those that buy the software, use it and like it. They see the benefits and can sell it well to their visitors. These are the only affiliates worth getting, and you wont get them from an affiliate sign up link on the sales page.

The best way of getting hard working affiliates is to protect your affiliates from this type of link hijacking, gain their trust and do everything you can to help them out. Build a relationship with your affiliates and most of all, make sure they are rewarded for the traffic they send. To this end, remove that affiliate sign up link, and when someone buys your product, send them an e-mail outlining the benefits of your affiliate program. Active affiliates respond well to knowing their merchants are protecting their interests.

A final thought
---------------


If there are two similar products, similar price, similar commission, one sales page with an affiliate sign up link, one without, which would you prefer to promote? If you want to make money online with affiliate programs, take it seriously and start contacting merchants.

*****************************************************
Andy Williams is author of the free, ezSEO
internet marketing newsletter, offering subscribers up-to-date
information on all aspects of internet marketing.
*****************************************************

Instant Success - Yeh Right.

Join our affiliate-program and make your fortune overnight.

Sound familiar ?

How many times have you received email to say that by joining company X you will have instant success.

And how many websites suggest by using their system you can build an instant list of thousands.

It is possible for the major players on the Internet, but what they don't tell you is that most of the people these "players" signup in a new Internet company are already on their opt-in list.

Here are some well used concepts used in promoting new Internet Companies.

Believe it or not !

1. It will only take you 5 hours each week.

Correct if,

(a) you only want to earn a few $`s

(b) you already have a large optin list to promote to.

(c) you have M-oney to invest in advertising.

(d) you are totally organized, focused and a natural marketer.

What they don`t tell you.

With commitment and the proper training, yes it is possible.

2. Its easy, anyone can make M-oney online.

But only if you have some business background or the Company supplies you with quality training, support and any other tools you need to promote their product. You also need a supportive sponsor and up-line, who are willing to help when needed.

3. Its soooo easy that everyone is do-ing it.

"Slight Exaggeration" here as only about 20% of US families or adults are currently members of Internet companies. There are many other people who are promoting Amway and other Companies but not over the internet. It is estimated that 50% of Americans will have had, or will be operating some sort of business from the comfort of home by the end of next year.

Most experts suggest only about the top 5% of Internet Marketers are making a good income and another 10% are part time earners.

4. By working over the Internet you will be able to work your own hours.

Yes this statement is true, but you still have to "work"

Yes you have more flexibility on when you work, say early in the morning or in the evening if you are part time. You still need to put in the hours, so having a plan and a set of goals is an advantage. If you don`t reach your goals then you will need to re-access them, are they realistic or do you need to increase the hours you work to succeed or take a different approach.

5. Our system guarantees success.

What is success, my idea on success will differ from yours.

Many websites offer a number of tools and provide promotion material but not everyone knows how to best utilize them. This is where training and support is a must. Provide it to your downline and expect it from your up-line.

Ongoing quality training and support are the two most under estimated "tools" or requirements many companies "say" they provide but either not everyone has access or knows how to use them.

6. Its so easy you will make m-oney even while you sleep.

This is a fact, the Internet does not sleep, but you will only make m-oney from sales or signups if you put in the effort.

7. Its cool because I don`t have to talk with people face to face.

Sure you can sit at your computer and promote your website, send out emails to prospects, network on ICQ and Ryze etc...

But you will find the big players are always talking to prospects either on the phone or while at the shops and gas station.

I personally have my ICON Communicator open most of the day while I am online and most days I will have a person (guest) who I have never meet log in, so I have to know the product or services I am promoting to be able to share or answer any questions my may guest has.

The more practice you have at speaking to strangers the more comfortable and at ease you become. And this is coming from someone who doesn`t like public speaking.

Practice makes perfect.

8. F`R`E`E

One of the most powerful 4 letter words ever devised by man.

Can you promote on the internet for f`ree.

The hidden costs. You need a computer, power to run the computer, an Internet connection, office supplies....

Yes it is possible to promote your chosen company or service for minimum cost, but it will usually take longer to get those positive results. Time is m-oney. What is your time worth? Any business requires time and usually some investment to get off the ground.

9. Build yourself a website and watch the sales roll in.

I recommend every Internet Marketer should have their own website for a number of reasons. First is that you are able to create introduction pages to companies, products or services. You are then able to send out email using a URL or website link that won`t be filtered by ISP`s as they are known to filter or delete email that contains affiliated links.

Secondly there are very few search engines that you can list your affiliated website with. So by having your own Domain and website you are able to list it with search engines. But again by being listed does not necessarily guarantee you sales.

10. You "will" receive spillover.

Some companies and individuals promote to prospects that they will receive spillover.

I must be really missing something here as I can count on my fingers the number of people I have received in my downline as spillover in 3 years on the internet.

Yes spillover does happen for some, but don`t count on it.

Some suggestions.

When starting any business you need to have a plan of action and a maximum budget you can spend on products or services to advertise and promote your business.

Register a domain and create a website.

Only consider joining companies where you have full access to support, regular training, provide popular or unique, sort after products that offer a residual income with a positive compensation plan.

A company I can happily recommend to any first time marketers is ItsYourNet. They offer special trainings on building websites, publishing Ezines, using ICQ for networking along with marketing and even supply you f`ree of cost, top quality software to keep your computer safe.

The ItsYourNet "back office area" has an ever increasing list of promotional material and resources.

The product range is also being added to, in the next week we will see the release of the 3D Virtual web system and the 3D virtual mall will soon be opened for business too.

If you want to learn more about the ItsYourNet 0pportunity visit http://main-10534pg.ItsYourNet.com become a f`ree affiliated member and get access to the a truly amazing 0pportunity. One that is suitable for new and experienced online marketers alike.

One of the pluses is the website id ItsYourNet provides you to use in email. Each member receives a sub-domain for each page on your affiliated website. This is of real benefit when sending email to prospects. This allows your email get past most ISP filters.

PETER GREEN. Editor of ~ The INDEX ~ ezine Editor@Internet-Income-Index.com

Unique Joint Venture Twist: Make Huge Profits Even If You Have No Money, No Products, and No List

Would you like to jumpstart your online or offline business without spending a ton of money?

Without a doubt, joint venture marketing is the most powerful secret to making money online or offline.

In its simplest form, you partner with someone else: You either sell their product to your customer base or they sell your product to theirs.

The true power of this lies in the fact that it's much easier to sell a product to an existing customer, rather than going out and trying to get another customer.

Here's the twist:

What if you could use joint venture marketing without having a product, very little money, and little or no customer list?

Let's see what one of the foremost authorities on joint ventures has to say about this unique use of the joint venture idea ...

Marc Goldman is a world-class authority on joint venture marketing, building a website that ranks in the top 6,000 most-visited websites. That's quite an accomplishment considering the millions of websites in existence.

What's more important though is that he's been using joint venture marketing since his first day in business in 1994.

In a recent interview, he offered this simple formula to quickly profit from joint ventures.

(Note: To access Marc Goldman's complete audio interview for fre^e, see end of article)

You simply perform the role of a Joint Venture broker--you bring together partners who can add value to what the other party offers.

For a great online example of this technique, suppose you find a great product on the Internet that you love ...

You could hook up the owner with other Internet marketers who have an existing customer base, and get a commission from the sales.

If the product has a two-tier affiliate program, you simply sign up as an affiliate. You automatically get commissions from the sales of the marketers you convinced to promote the product (who sign up under you).

If you're hooking the product owner up with marketers who have a huge customer base, try to negotiate a higher commission than the normal second level commission.

If the product owner currently does not have an affiliate program, simply approach the owner--make a proposal to get a specific commission on any sales from the partners you bring to him.

Having purchased Marc's Joint Venture Brokering Mastery Seminar, I can testify to the effectiveness of his techniques.

The broker idea works equally well offline ...

Just one case in point:

I joined up an owner of three dilapidated rental houses who just wanted to get rid of them with someone who wanted to buy some land to build a gun shop. Each party got what they wanted and, at closing, I received a check for $8,835.92 ... definitely a nice commission for only several hours' work and no money down.

With that in mind, go out today, have your best day ever, and keep your eyes out for people who you can help by bringing them together with someone else who can help them.

Of course, make sure you remember to get your slice of the profits ...

Rick Miller is a Certified Master of Web Copywriting and co-founder of List Crusade. For fre^e access to the entire interview with Marc Goldman, along with 51 other audio lessons from top Internet Marketing and Self Help Gurus--go to: http://www.scientificinternetmarketing.com/goldman

© 2004 Rick Miller. All rights reserved. Feel fre^e to reprint or forward this in its entirety to anyone you wish.

Set Up Winning Web Page To Be Powerful Selling Tool - 5 Ways to Help Affiliate Problems

The Internet is powerful selling tool. Never before has been easier to start a business, be able to reach out to literally millions of potential customers and make your business succeed.

Yet time has taught us that there is much more to success that simply having a website or using these tools.

A lot of money can be made from affiliate programs and the cost for getting started is generally free, however in order to promote them effectively you will need to be committed to making it work.

Most affiliate program will give us a unique URL , though these methods work ( especially ezine advertising ) they are limited to how long the ad stays visible. We can not generate long term promotion by just submitting ads using that URL.

Also, we are unable to change the company's website that you promote . In other words , we cannot participate in banner exchange , swap links in some cases we cannot even get in the search engines.

The absolute best way to promote your affiliate program are through:

1. A website of our own. Promoting affiliate programs whether it be mlms or any other affiliate program where you are given a unique URL is limiting without a website of our very own. There are literally thousands of ways to promote if we have our own website. Therefore it is imperative that you decide how serious you are about your business and to what level you wish to take your business.

2. Get a free site and domain name.

Find an inexpensive website that already provides means for HTML coding or we could purchase we own domain name and build it from scratch. Obviously the free site is the less expensive and the domain name is the most expensive.

With our own domain we can totally spread our wings and do this right. The doors that open to us are unlimited and so will the income be.

3. One of the best ways to use the our website in this scenario is to provide a testimonial. The testimonial would be bunches of good stuff we think about company and at the end we would provide a link to company that we promote. So the reader can check it out for themselves.

4. Write your sales letter from an informative approach. In other words, make your sales letter look like it's article full information . The slowly revolve your sales letter to ward your opportunity , then encouraging them to click through.

5. Provide quality content related to your topic to keep the visitor on your site for as long as possible, which builds trust.

Erny Setyawati is the author/Publisher of Bali Global Market Ezine that give solution for business online strategy and promotion, visit us at http://www.baliglobalmarket.com

Watch Out For Traffic Leaks

When promoting any affiliate program one thing that you, as an affiliate, has to watch out for is what is called traffic leaks. What is a traffic leak? A traffic leak is something on the merchants site that will cause the visitor, that you referred to their site, to get distracted and leave the merchant site, leaving you with no possibility of receiving any kind of commission.

Having traffic leaks does not mean the affiliate program is a scam or trying to cheat you. It is most likely that the merchant just doesn't realize what they are doing. If you are promoting an affiliate program that is not getting any sales for you, you may want to check for traffic leaks. If you find some then contact the merchant (in a professional manner) and ask if they would consider removing the traffic leaks from their site to increase conversion.

Here are a few examples of a traffic leak:

Advertisement Banners & Links
This is usually the most common traffic link. The merchant will put up a banner ad or two and some text links to "offset" their expenses. You do not want to promote an affiliate program that has this on their site. When you send a visitor to the site and they click the banner or text ad and go to the other site the merchant gets paid while you get zippo. Not to fair is it?

Order Phone Number
Another traffic leak is the toll free (or regular) phone number they put on their site to let customers call in their orders. But when customers do call in their orders you get stiffed on the commission. It is very easy to set up phone commission tracking. You should ask the merchant if they have any plans on setting up phone sale tracking. If they don't know how you can send them to me to show them how to do it.

Basically, you do not want anything on the merchants site that will drive your referred customer away to another site that you will not get a commission from.

Chet Brzezinski has been in the affiliate marketing and affiliate management industry since 1997. He owns two affiliate marketing related sites. One that offers affiliate program management & consulting services and the other affiliate program reviews, tips and resources.

Free traffic vs. Extra Revenue - Earning From PPC Search Engines

What are the Search Engines?

A Search Engine is special database-driven web site designed to index and categorize internet addresses. Search Engines focus to help people to find information stored on the Web.

There are four basic types of Search Engines: Crawler-based (automatic), Human-powered Directories, Meta and PPC (Pay-Per-Click).

Although most of the Search Engines that operates today shall be classified as Hybrid Search Engines because it has become extremely common for two or three types of gathering and ranking results to be utilized for presenting them on results pages to the end user.

How the PPC Search Engines work?

PPC Search Engines create listings and rate them based on a bid amount the web site owner (advertiser) is willing to pay for each click directed from that Search Engine. Advertisers bid against each other to receive higher ranking for a specific keyword or phrase. The highest bidder for a certain keyword or phrase will have their site ranked #1 in the Pay-Per-Click Search Engine results followed by the second and third highest bidder, up to hundreds or even thousands, for the same keyword or phrase. Due to bidding process required to get your site ranked, PPC Search Engines are also known as Pay-For-Placement Search Engines, as the ads will appear prominently on the results pages based on the dollar amount (bid) you will agree to pay for each click.

Affiliate Programs and PPC Search Engines:

Most affiliate programs only pay when a sale is made or a lead delivered after one of visitor's clicks through from your site. Depending on the program, your web site content and traffic target, earnings may be slightly different.

The reason why you should consider joining a PPC Search Engine affiliate program is that it is much easier to earn from PPC Search Engines than other affiliate programs. You will earn from your visitor's click-thru's to an advertisers site and not per sale or action.

Plus PPC Search Engine affiliate programs can very well collaborate with your existing web site's content or ventures.

Resourceful of your web site:

With PPC Search Engine affiliate program you will be able to profit from visitor's who are not interested in your product or service and more likely they would leave your site and never come back. Providing those with an opportunity to search the Web and find the service or product they are looking for will not only earn you commission but also will build your site's brand recognition as a valuable resource. The visitor who finds what he/she needs on your website will more likely come back and review your services more carefully, eventually will be back to search the web for other products.

Key benefits: extra money or "Free" targeted traffic:

As you should have noticed PPC Search Engine affiliate program is an easy way for you to generate additional revenue. When a visitor on your site does a search in the PPC Search Engine and clicks on the advertiser bided listing, the advertisers account will then get deducted for that click. Depending on the Search Engine, you will be compensated with from 30% up to 80% of the advertiser's bid amount.

PPC Search Engine affiliate program shall not be only considered as additional source of income, since it also can help you to promote your own site. Most programs allow you to spend your commission for advertising with them instantly with no minimum earning requirement. This is the most effective method to exchange your raw visitors for targeted surfers who will more likely purchase your product or service.

PPC Search Engine affiliate program integration:

PPC Search Engines usually have a ready-to-use suit of affiliate tools that you can easily integrate to your web site. The most common tools are search boxes, banners, text links and 404 error pages. Many Search Engines utilize custom solutions and provide with a white-label affiliate program, which enables you, with only few lines of code, to integrate remotely-hosted Co-branded Search Engine to your website.

Also referring your webmaster friends to the engine will grant you a lifetime commission for your 2nd tier earnings or deposits.

Krzysztof Wojtowicz is an owner and manager of LooKiez.com PPC Web Search Engine. http://www.lookiez.com main focus is delivering relevant results and helping webmasters to monetize their web site's traffic.

You can read about LooKiez Affiliate Program at: http://www.lookiez.com/affiliate.php

Affiliates Need To Read Their Newspaper

Millions of people check the news everyday-- in the morning paper, online, and on the nightly news.But far too often affiliates do not find out what has occurred in affiliate marketing that day; this is important because affiliate marketing changes daily.There are many resources for affiliate marketers to learn about the day's happenings. The best way to learn about the changes in affiliate marketing is by visiting forums often.

Forums provide a great resource by allowing new affiliates to learn from the experts.New affiliates hear and learn about the different opinions and techniques that are used in the industry.In turn, this information helps educate the affiliates and helps them decide whether they agree or disagree on the particular subject or technique.By visiting forums often you can learn timesaving tips as well as common mistakes that you can avoid.

Here are some of the most popular forums that are most useful for affiliates:


AbestWeb: http://www.abestweb.com/
Who it's for: affiliate program managers and affiliate marketers.

With over 14,000 members this is a vast pool of knowledge that you can draw from.


WebmasterWorld.com: http://www.webmasterworld.com/
Who it's for: webmasters and marketing managers.

For all of your questions about anything having to do with Web design, this is the place to go.There are a lot of quality discussions that are segmented as well as moderated.


Search Engine Watch Forums. http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/forum/index.php
Who it's for: webmasters and affiliate marketers.

Here you can find discussions and questions that deal with all aspects of search engines.Some of the topics include: Questions on specific search engines and directories, specific discussions on search engine optimization and web marketing, general search issues, and current issues.


ReveNews.com: http://www.revenews.com/
Who it's for: webmasters, affiliate program managers, and affiliate marketers.

This site is a great location to find articles on various topics and learn about what is news worthy in the industry.

There are also forums strictly for affiliate managers.Here, managers can learn about those issues that are strictly pertinent for them, such as keeping an affiliate program in-house or outsourcing.You can visit http://www.10xmarketing.com/affiliate-program-management.asp to learn more about some of the options that are available to managers.These forums provide a great resource to learn about the technical details of running a program.

Forums teach valuable information about affiliate marketing that will make help make affiliate sites more successful.By visiting and posting often in these forums many people become experts on certain topics.Networking opportunities will also arise.Many of these forums help industry leaders form business relationships.Forums are an amazing resource; do not overlook them because they are vital to ones success. Since affiliate marketing changes everyday, one should visit them as often as you watch or read the daily news.

Alex Hachtman, of 10x Marketing, wrote this article.

10x Marketing provides companies with Internet marketing solutions that will increase consumer visits on a regular basis, thus increasing potential sales and revenue.

Contact 10x Marketing today for more information about your companies affiliate program. See http://www.10xmarketing.com/res/ecommerce-affiliate-program.asp for more information

Theres a Tween In Your Future - Are You Ready?

Within 15 minutes of coming through the door from school, she has her neck crooked around the phone. A music CD tucked into the computer's drive drowns out all but the occasional giggles of that conversation. While her fingers fly over the keyboard, you risk a quick glance and count six open "chat" boxes. She's IMing (sending instant messages with) the friends she didn't get to talk to at school.

That's just how she communicates.

Once the "he said," "she looked" minutia of the all important social event (lunch hour) of the day have been dissected, the conversations begin to move outward. Movie trivia websites are visited en masse, and the merits of a certain pair of kahkis for sale on one site versus another found the day before cause more windows to be opened, as this virtual gaggle of girls move around the web together.

Sometimes, tasks are split. Three girls visit different movie theater sites where start times for this week's chosen film are carefully matrixed against which parent might be able to drive the group to which venue.

That's just how decisions are made.

Some people call her a tween. She's between 8 and 12 and attends middle school, Sunday school, and high school football games where she and her friends pay far less attention to each other's older brother on the team than their slightly older siblings. Usually that's all an anxious parent in this group is able to watch out for. They don't know the half of what she is capable of yet.

According to brand analyst and Clickz columnist, Martin Lindstrom, 22% of these tweens have already made an online purchase on their own. Lindstrom's study excerpt didn't discuss how they were able to pay for these purchases, but it's a good bet a majority of them were done using mom or dad's credit card. That's a pretty safe assumption when you consider that tweens determine what brand is purchased 60% of the time in a typical household.

60%!
Clothes, music, accessories, gifts, games and other entertainment used to be the exclusive province of the American teenager. The 13 and over crowd used to decide where those dollars were spent. But they're passing the baton to their younger brothers and sisters while they pursue their own, more diverse, interests, also online.

That's just where the teens and tweens are spending their time these days.

Tweens are even more intensely committed to the Internet than their older teenage siblings. Teens are spending in excess of 16.7 hours per week online according to a 2002 Yahoo study. That compares to 13.6 hours spent watching television, 12 hours spent listening to music and 7.7 hours talking on the phone.

Did you catch it?
Do you see what the real difference is between these two groups? And do you understand just how large, and just how evolutionary the impact of that difference will be on your business?

That's the piece of the puzzle that I think is being overlooked. It's been buried beneath an already staggering pile of statistics.

It's not about the numbers at all.

It's about the fact that tweens have already assimilated the Internet completely. It's about the fact that tweens have already begun to filter their media differently, and process that input differently. They don't surf websites anymore, clicking their mouse to zoom in to see the pocket detail on those jeans. They "experience" a site clicking their mouse to turn 3d model images wearing those jeans, or clicking hotspots in panoramic images designed to make them feel as if they are in a room at a store.

They don't spend 16.7 hours on the Internet, then 13.6 watching TV, then 12 hours listening to music, then 7.7 hours talking on the phone. They spend 16.7 and 13.6 and 12 and 7.7 simultaneously. They move from one media to another effortlessly, automatically typing coherent messages for up to five conversations at once, laughing at a girlfriend's joke on the phone, and tapping their foot to the relentless beat of the music. At - the - same - time.

"Tween" is not just a convenient demographic catch phrase for a bundle of statistics. It's also a very apt description of where this particular generation will fall on technology timeline. The web "experience" is likely to continue unfolding long after they have grown up and become everyone's prime demographic.

I have a tween in my house. And she really is somewhere between. Her reliance on a strong social network of girlfriends is as old as the hills. But her communication methods raise the bar on the definition of multitasking. Sometimes I watch her and wonder if we haven't finally broken through another old barrier. I wonder if she's tapping into, and effectively using, more than the 10% of our brains than science claims we use.

But probably not. It's still clear that not all of her senses have been enhanced.

She still can't seem to hear me when I ask if she has homework.


Liz Micik has been an Ordinary Marketer for nearly 25 years, helping companies tell their story to the right people in the right way to sell their products and services. Visit www.ordinarymarketer.com to sign up for the Inside Edge, a free monthly multimedia newsletter, and find out how you can get extraordinary results from marketing you can live with.

Affiliate Programs

Are you having trouble creating new product offerings from scratch? Maybe you're not a natural writer or you're unsure of a topic? Or maybe you'd just like a shortcut to some reliable revenue?

Not to worry, help is here.

And even if you're not stuck creating your own intellectual property, the concept of promoting other people's products and earning coaching income is an idea whose time is fast on its way.

Selling other people's products, and earning a percentage of the sales price for your efforts is what's referred to online as earning money as an 'affiliate.'

Within the next 12 months, the Internet is getting set to see a significant number of coaches begin to grow their one-on-one practices with the help of someone else's products.

In fact, it promises to be a big trend, and I hope you're one of the first.

There are two key things to know about selecting affiliate programs to support:

(1) Give more than a simple recommendation. Use this opportunity to write an article. create a 3-page website, compile a PDF report, or even tape a brief audio about why your audience should sit up and notice this product.

Speak from the heart about the difference it has made to you. Tell a story. Ask questions that engage the reader. All of these are techniques examplifying a coaching approach.

Then embed the links for your recommendations within the body of your article.

In this way, you add value, and you're much more likely to create a connection that leads to real impact, and a purchase that leads to earnings for you.

(2) Especially if you are having difficulty choosing a niche market for your own practice, hunting for worthwhile affiliate programs can be a great exercise.

Other people's work that deserves to reach more people can benefit from your energy and as you earn money through affiliate programs, you'll learn a great deal about what sparks your passion.

At the same time, by making a integrity-based recommendation, you strengthen your bond with your readers in a way that always results in more revenue in your other streams.

You know how when you buy something from a certain brand that you end up liking, you go back and buy more of that brand?

Same thing. As your audience comes to trust your recommendations, they're more and more likely to purchase other things from you.

Win, win, & win.

Andrea J. Lee coaches entrepreneurs and online business owners. As Thomas J. Leonard's General Manager, she helped build and manage the largest network and trainer of personal and business coaches in the world. Now the CEO of Andrea J. Lee Group of Companies, she writes, speaks and consults on Marketing, Internet and Business systems. This is an excerpt from the her NEW BOOK - Multiple Streams of Coaching Income, http://www.multiplestreamsofcoachingincome.com