Becoming an affiliate for other Web sites' products and service is a great idea
if you take the right steps. The following are things to look for, and ways to
plan out what you are about to do.
There are also two great sites online that I know that compare affiliate programs. Check
them out for more assistance:
- Sell One Thing and Sell it Well
Web flea markets don't work for the most part. The Web is a
virtually free publishing medium that allows people to offer
anything quickly and easily.
This is also the weakness of this "free" distribution system
called the Internet. It is free in terms of printing costs,
but not in terms of time. A Web Site with tons of products
and services is a tricky venture to succeed with.
For example, most people have 3-4 books in mind when
shopping. Why would you approach them with 3 million
titles? The same logic applies to what you are offering.
Focus on a few good products and sell them well.
- Get Good Profit Margins
Amazon.com is the leader in affiliate programs, which is
surprising. They pay 5-15% per book. Books are often sold
for less than $20.
At best, you are working for tips like a waiter, at $3.50 a
pop. Unfortunately, if you do not have a busy restaurant,
this deal will yield little or nothing.
Let's say you want to make $1,000 a month; you would have
to sell 286 books to reach your goal. That is a huge
volume.
Now compare that to a $50 book; your best case scenario
becomes $7.50 a book. You now have to sell 133 books to
reach your $1,000 goal.
With Web Success, our affiliate channel offers a 50%
commission on our $97 training system, the entry level to
our network. You would earn $50 per sale. To make your
$1,000 goal, you would have to sell 20 of these packages.
If you were to sell our Deluxe training systems ($497), you
would earn $250 per sale.
To reach your goal, you would have to sell 4 deluxe systems.
As you can see, it is more realistic to sell 4 products
with a higher profit margin than 286 books. It is simply a
case of volume; will your efforts be rewarded with a good
profit margin?
Make sure you count this before doing anything.
- Don't just Display a Banner Ad and hope for the Best
Many affiliate programs put up banner ads; the visitor
simply clicks on the banner ad and goes to the company's Web
Site to make the buying decision.
The problem with banner ads is that 1-2% of people will
actually click on them; so if you generated 1,000 visitors
in a month, only 10-20 will even click on the banner ad. If
you even convert 5% of those to sales, you will make only
one or two sales a month.
It is all a game of numbers; if you have a site with great
traffic, this can change. But volume businesses are
difficult to profit from; the bottom line is, do more than
just put a banner up at your site.
- Use Content, Updates, and Keep your Site Consistent
Remember that you are selling a product or service; you are
not just posting an advertisement at your Web Site. Use
content to enhance what you are doing.
Amazon.com encourages this in their reseller's program; you
are urged to review and recommend specific books for your
target market. If you just send people to Amazon's Web
Site, you get a smaller percentage of the sale.
Amazon.com had the right idea; a product recommended to a
customer is more effective than a million titles at your Web
Site. A consumer likely has 3-4 titles in their head when
they shop; point them to the right ones.
Give them a zillion choices and you confuse them. So keep
updating your site, keep it consistent, and try to emulate
the page that you will be linking to. If it changes, it
tells the customer they are in a different retail space.
This may affect their purchase decision; anything that
makes them notice a difference can interrupt their impulse
to buy. Keep your customers comfortable and within the same
purchase decision.
- Target your Market
If you try to sell to everyone, you will sell to no one. It
is that simple.
It is amazing how people do not target their market. They
try to sell everything under the sun. Once again, it is the
illusion of a volume business.
If you think this will succeed, go down to your local retail
store. Look at the small profit margins they have to deal
with. Retail is a brutal game.
My friend Jonathan Mizel has a great saying; sell expensive
products to rich people. More importantly, target your
market and make sure they can afford what you have to offer.
And make sure you can afford to live on what you will be
earning.
- Market Your Site
The bottom line is that you will have to market the site and
the offer. If you just put up a number of affiliate
programs, hoping one will pull, you are taking the magic
dust approach. It is like the lottery; you may win, but
the odds are against you.
Take the responsibility to market and promote your offers;
find out where the customers are and drive them to the site.
- Take Precautions to Make Sure you Get Your Share
Like any business, check out what is going on. Affiliate
programs are simply your chance to resell other's products
and services. Make sure you believe in what you are
selling.
Take the same precautions you would in the real world; what
will be your investment in time, and money?
Are you just generating leads for someone else? I have seen
affiliate programs that have no intention of paying you for
what they are selling. One client had to wait six months
after making tremendous sales for a company.
Make sure you get paid for what you sell. Often this means
waiting 30 days for a monthly check. Sometimes it means
quarterly payments, like Amazon.com does.
