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Does Anyone Really Make Money With Affiliate Programs? (cont)
While there are no magical keys to absolute success in this industry, there are a
lot of very ordinary people making very liveable incomes online. You can hardly
open your email these days without someone trying to sell you a book on the fast
and easy way to Affiliate wealth - and some of those stories are true and others,
well...but the truth is that Affiliate Marketing is like any other business - it takes
an investment of a little money, a lot of time, and a great deal of effort...but
success is quite possible if you are willing to work for it.
The most successful Affiliate Marketers are those that carefully choose products
that appeal to them at a personal level - perhaps because it involves a hobby or
personal interest, or perhaps because they have used the product or program
successfully themselves.
Successful Affiliate Marketers do not usually try to market a product that is
completely out of their range of personal or business experience because they
know that trying to market to an unknown “niche” is extremely difficult, if not
impossible.
In other words - if your passion is needlepoint - which EBook would be easier for
you to market - the ABCs of Creating your Own Needlepoint Designs...or How
To Catch More Bass with Home-made Lures??
The key to being successful in Affiliate Marketing is doing your homework before
diving in. Sit down and list your own personal passions, hobbies, interests, areas
of expertise etc - then go online and do a search for sites on these topics to see
what is currently being sold, and what kinds of Affiliate programs are available.
Visit the WNN Ultimate Affiliate Directory and the WNN Clickbank Directory and
do key word searches related to your list. You may wind up investing in some of
the products, services or EBooks before you sign up as an Affiliate - especially
if you already have a website and are going to be recommending these products
to your current customers or members. Remember that when you personally
recommend a product to your customers - they are going to buy not just based
on great copy - but on the trust and faith they have in you - so don’t take a risk
on recommending something you have not used or read!
You will also need to research the potential marketing costs for your chosen
products. The best way to begin mapping out your strategy is take the top two or
three items of interest from your list, and see how they rank in Google AdWords,
and 2 or 3 other search engines that offer paid advertising programs. Don’t be
concerned if you find that the top 3 or 4 positions cost an arm and a leg - contrary
to what you may have heard - it is not necessary to always be in the top of the
category - but you do want to try and be on the first page of a search. In most
cases, you will find that there is a huge price difference between the top listings
and those that fall at the very bottom of the page. Position number 1 could be
$15 a pop - but position number 10 might be .14¢....that's a huge difference in
your advertising costs - but the difference in sales might not be nearly as
dramatic as one would expect!
Because here’s a rather interesting thing to think about....serious buyers tend to
do more research and will visit more than just a few sites before deciding where
and what to buy. Although you may not get as many visitors by being at the
bottom of the page - you will probably get just as many buyers - and at a lower
acquisition cost per sale. Also, by going for the lower priced key word - you can
spread your budget out over more possible search phrases.
The biggest mistake made by new Affiliate Marketers is spending all of their
marketing budget trying to get into the top position and it just isn’t necessary!
When you finally have narrowed down your choices to a few products or services
or books that you want to sell, spend some time looking at the merchant’s site
and their posted policies:
xxx• Do they have a clearly stated refund or return policy?
xxx• If it is a tangible product, not downloaded, what are their shipping costs and
xxxxpolicies?
xxx• How long will you be paid for referring a customer to their site?
xxx• Are you paid only on the first visit or a single sale or is it for the “lifetime”
xxxxof the customer?
xxx• What are the posted policies for commissions?
xxx• Do you have to pay to have your check cut and mailed or will they do an xxxxACH to your bank account?
How Women Can Make Money With Affiliate Marketing >>>>>>
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