Newbie Guide To Affiliate Marketing

by Dean Sharples Internet Marketer

When a company or an individual person wants to sell their products they have to promote them to the public. They do this by using various advertising resources such as newspapers, magazines and of course ? the Internet.

The main problem they face is cost. When they advertise their products there is no guarantee they will make enough sales to cover the cost of the advertising. As with any kind of business, they can only grow if they are making healthy profits.

Therefore they need a way of promoting their products to the world while saving money on advertising. This is where Affiliate Marketing comes in.

The concept behind Affiliate Marketing is that the company makes an agreement with an individual person to promote their products for them. Once a sale is made then the company pays a commission to the person who gets the sale for them. This person is known as an affiliate.

Supposing a company was selling health products. Your role as an affiliate is to promote these health products to the general public. You do this by referring people to the company?s website. If the person you referred decided to buy a product costing $50 then you would get a percentage of that $50 as commission. How much depends on what the company offers.

Top affiliates make thousands of dollars from the sales of multiple products. Using a resource such as Clickbank they set up marketing campaigns to promote products for various vendors. You can promote these products as if they were your own and receive commission from them. You can even create your own product and get other affiliates to promote it for you.

The great thing about Affiliate Marketing is that you don?t have to sell any products. You simply encourage people to visit the company?s website which will do the selling for you. Affiliate Marketing is also known as ?Referral Marketing? ? because you have ?referred? someone to the company?s website.

As an affiliate you are not expected to sell. Just simply refer people to the company?s website and let the company do the selling.

Affiliate URLS

In order for a company to recognize who referred a customer to them ? each affiliate is given an ?affiliate URL? also know as an ?affiliate link?. This URL is similar to the company?s URL except that it has a part in it called a ?username? which is a combination of letters and numbers. Sometimes it is called a ?user ID? and just contains numbers.

Assuming that a company sells Health Products. Their URL may look something like this?

http://www.companyname.com

If a customer goes to this website and makes a purchase then the company will earn 100% of the sale. But if it was an affiliate URL then it would look something like this?

http://www.companyname.com/9825432/

The number in the URL is a user ID of an affiliate. If a customer visits the company website through this URL and makes a purchase then the company will pay a percentage of the sale to the affiliate.

Some companies allow new affiliates to choose their own username. So if an affiliate was called Jim Smith then his affiliate URL could look like this?

http://www.companyname.com/jimsmith/

You can choose any word or phrase you like as long as it suitable and has not been used by any other affiliate for that company. You might even want to choose a business name for yourself as a username.

Building a Downline

As well as earning commission from sales made from your referrals you can also earn commission and bonuses by building a ?downline?. This means recruiting a team of other affiliates and training them to do what you are doing. Your team can also become your customers if they decide to purchase some of the company?s products.

As each member of your team refers a customer who makes a purchase, they get paid a commission from the company. As that member was referred by you the company will offer you a bonus.

So the bigger the team you build the more money you can make. How much can you possibly make? Well?how does becoming a millionaire sound?

Network Marketing

You can see how building a team can make you more money. But what if your team members start building their own downlines?

When your team members start to build their own teams you can start earning commissions and bonuses from those teams as well, even if you didn?t personally recruit them. This is known as Network Marketing or Multi-Level Marketing (MLM).

Companies such as Strong Future International (SFI) will allow you to earn commission from a network of affiliates up to seven teams. The bigger the teams get, the bigger your income gets.

As an affiliate you have entered a business relationship with the company. You do not work for them as an employee ? you work with them as an individual business person. As it is your own business you only get paid when a sale is generated from your marketing efforts. You do not get a weekly salary as in a job. If you don?t work you don?t get paid.

It is important that you understand the above paragraph fully. You are in business not in employment. I am not going to promise you that you?ll be earning thousands of dollars by next week for doing nothing like some scams on the Internet claim. I believe in being honest with people. You can only become successful if you are willing to put in the time and effort.

CONCLUSION

There are some great affiliate companies that give you everything you need to build a solid income. But make sure you read and understand their commission plan before you commit to them. Affiliate Marketing is by far the most popular and easiest way to earning a fortune on the Internet as many marketers will testify.

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