What is an "Affiliate" and how does this work?
You may not have noticed in your surfing that very many of the websites you visit have an 'Affiliate' link usually at the bottom of the page with the 'contact us', 'privacy policy' 'terms' links, etc. You can generally sign up for free with most of these sites as an affiliate. And as the term implies, you are not an employee of the company, however you are affiliated with them as an independent salesperson. As you know many commercial stores have salespeople who work on a commissions basis.Well, that's what affiliate marketing online is all about. Companies with a product or service for sale will pay you a commission, if you can refer people to them online that make a purchase.
Most of these companies already have websites set up so that they can give you a link with your own personal username built in. You then say post a free classified ad online using your referral link. When some one sees your ad and clicks on the link, they are then taken to the companies sales page. If the person you referred makes a purchase, you will then earn a pre determined commission for the sale. Many of these companies will give you a further incentive to sell more for them by offering bonus commissions, or higher commissions for those that can refer more people. And my favorite kind of commissions can also be earned as an affiliate - residual income.
Residual income is most often associated with multi level marketing companies. For instance GDI, Global Domains International is a domain name and web hosting company that pays out monthly residual commissions to it's affiliates. For only $10 per month, you can pick a website name and they will give you the tools to build and publish your site on the internet. For each person that you refer to GDI, they will pay you $1 per month. Also, and here's the sweet part, for everyone you refer, you also get $1 per month for each person that they refer, and so on for 5 levels deep. So once you start referring people, it doesn't take very long get 10 people below in your downline, and then start profiting.
Sounds easy enough, huh?
Well, it's not really that tough, but at the same time over 90% of internet marketers fail. Why is there such high attrition? It's because so many people are looking for a fast and easy way to make money these days, that they don't realize that internet marketing is the same as trying to sell anything anywhere else. If you intend to make an income from it, the you simply must treat it as a business, and not a get rich quick scheme.
So now you've decided to become an affiliate. You've picked a product, service, or business opportunity that you would like to promote. The first thing you must realize now is that although it's not very difficult to do, you do need to know how to do it. One must first learn how to market online before actually doing it, make sense?
Learn While You Earn
That's what I did when I started affiliate marketing. While being careful as to how much I was spending, I made a few little mistakes along the way, however, I also made some money and learned a lot. The key here is if you want to jump right in with both feet as I did, is to find a company that will pay you commissions plus residual income, and most importantly offers support and training for their affiliates. There are many other places online where you can learn all you need to know get started, but some prefer to have everything laid out in a structured manner, as found in the Wealthy Affiliate University
I consider myself very fortunate to have started out marking online line with the Acme People Search (APS) program. This program is designed to refer people to GDI's web hosting, and also GVO's internet marketing tools. Your referrals are given something of value for free, a People Search Engine. This search engine can be advertised for people to use to find others in the US. and when it is used, you can earn some commissions.
The nice part here is APS program also gives your referrals an incentive to sign up for web hosting, so that they can brand their SE and make more money with it. After doing so, they will in turn want to refer others to the business opportunity to duplicate your efforts thereby earning you more money.
As mentioned the Acme People Search program has awesome and informative webinars 3 - 4 days a week with the program's creator Tissa Godavitarne. Also there is the APS Support Forum in which you can find the answers to all of your questions from all of the forum members. Tissa early on added a Super Sponsor feature to the forum, where he will pay all of your businesses fixed operating costs for each month for you willingness to help other people with their questions. I'm proud to say that since it's inception in April, I have been made and remained a Super Sponsor.
There is tons of great content and advice posted in the forum, and also there is another site associated with the program which also promotes the same two companies, GDI and GVO. This site is called The New Rich Report and contains free step by step internet marketing tutorials for all of the most effective advertising techniques available.
In closing, I highly recommend the Acme People Search program for it's 8 available income streams, and it's incredible support system where myself and many others are willing to help you in your efforts at making money online with affiliate programs.
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