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Christian InTech Articles - Affiliate Information
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A Glimpse At Online Affiliate Marketing
Online affiliate marketing has become the wave of the internet's future. An inexpensive and effective marketing plan, affiliate programs enable e-commerce merchants to sell
products online, and promote their web sites at the same time. The...
Achieving Success With Affiliate Programs
No product... not even a product idea. What's a would-be online entrepreneur to do? For many beginners, affiliate programs seem like a dream come true: earn a commission selling another company's products or services. No need to create one of your...
Affiliate Program Checklist
Affiliate and other cooperative programs are announced almost daily. Website owners are flocking to these programs. Enthusiasm is high. But.........why not compare and evaluate first? The following checklist was prepared from the point of view of...
Affiliate Programs That Make You Money
This information may be helpful for everyone, regardless of how long you have been in the affiliate business, or even if you are just getting started. First, a good affiliate program can be hard to come by. It needs to offer decent commissions,...
Don't Make These Common 4 Affiliate Mistakes!
Myths concerning affiliate marketing are appealing and
attractive. People who do not know the entire system the wrong
way round are prone to believing that it is something capable of
giving them great fortune overnight. Stories...
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Affiliate Marketing - An Excellent Choice for Your First Home Internet Business
Promoting affiliate programs is the least costly and least
stressful of all types of home Internet businesses and makes an
excellent starting point for Internet marketing novices. It is
also one of the best ways to earn revenue from your web site if
you don't have a product of your own to sell. In fact, there are
some 'super affiliates' out there that make their living online
doing nothing but promoting other online merchant's products or
services through affiliate programs.
So, just what is an affiliate program? An affiliate is
someone who partners with another online merchant to help drive
targeted business to that merchant's web site in order to
increase sales. An affiliate program is an inexpensive
marketing strategy used by an online merchant in which a
monetary incentive is offered to webmasters (affiliates) to
drive traffic to that merchant's web site. The monetary
incentive is usually in the form of a percentage-based
commission or a fixed dollar amount. Affiliate programs are
sometimes referred to as associate programs or referral
programs. Affiliates are also referred to as publishers in many
cases.
Sponsoring an affiliate program makes sense for an online
merchant because it helps to
Increase online exposure
Increase traffic leading to greater sales Generate more targeted
leads
For an Internet entrepreneur there are many more reasons it
makes sense to start an Internet affiliate business. Here are
just some of them:
Low cost set-up Affiliate programs are free to join
24x7 passive income
No employees
No inventory
No order processing
No product shipping
No merchant account needed
Minimal risk
Large income potential
There are three general types of affiliate programs:
Pay-Per-Sale (PPS) - in which an affiliate earns a
commission or fixed dollar amount based on each sale made
through links from the affiliate's site.
Pay-Per-Lead (PPL) - in which an affiliate earns a fixed
amount every time a customer directed from their web site fills
out a survey, requests information, joins a program, etc.
Pay-Per-Click (PPC) - in which an affiliate earns a
fixed amount every time a potential customer clicks on a link
from the affiliate's site to the merchant's site.
Once you are affiliated with a merchant, you may place their
ad(s) on your web site. When a customer clicks on one of these
ads and is taken to the merchant's online store, if they then
make a purchase, fill out a survey, etc., you get a commission
for that sale or referral based
on the merchant's payout
structure.
The 'million dollar' question that I had when I first started,
and that you may be wondering about right now, is "How does the
merchant know that the sale/referral came from my site?"
When you join an affiliate program, you are assigned a tracking
number or code, usually referred to as an affiliate ID. This ID
is unique only to you. When you create a link from an ad on your
web site, you simply include this ID in the link.
Once a customer clicks on your link, a tracking cookie with your
affiliate ID is placed on the customer's computer. If that
customer then makes a purchase, the tracking cookie will
identify them to the merchant as being referred from your web
site. Depending on the affiliate program, the tracking cookie
may be valid for just that one visit, up to a lifetime for that
customer.
Most merchants realize that a customer may not make a purchase
during the same visit in which they were directed from an
affiliate site. As an incentive to the affiliate, if a customer
returns directly to the merchant site within the time specified
by the cookie duration and makes a purchase, the affliate will
still get credit for the sale.
While a normal link to a page that is selling product 'abc' at
merchant 'XYZ' may look like:
xyz.com/products/abc.html
Your affiliate link may look something like:
xyz.com/product.asp?PID=1234567&AID=9876
where your affiliate ID is '9876' and the product ID or SKU for
item abc is '1234567'.
This example is a hypothetical link to a specific product or
product page. Most merchants also permit you to link to their
home page, or any other page on their web site. Most of the ads
you will place on your site are in the form of banners, text
ads, images or text/image combinations. Many merchants also
supply you with more advanced linking options such as data
feeds, storefronts, virtual stores, search boxes, and the like.
If you're contemplating starting a home internet business, then
promoting affiliate programs is the best way to test the waters.
Affiliate marketing is a proven win-win-win scenario for online
merchants, internet marketers, and consumers alike.
About the author:
Bob Davis is a professional database consultant, web designer,
graphic artist, and Internet marketer. If you'd like some solid
tips on starting your own legitimate Internet business, then
visit his Home
Internet Business Guide for Beginners.
You have permission to reprint this article, provided that the
author bio, content, and links remain unaltered.
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