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| If you advertise holiday properties of ours on your site we will pay commissions for booking volumn along with increase your page rank and customer visits. |
We are currently looking for affiliation with sites that would be willing to place Featured properties on their sites and genrating traffic to that property add. In return for this we will pay annual commission and increase your page rank with strong incoming links to your site. Sound interesting? Why not contact us now to find out more details.
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| Here are some tips on Affiliate Programmes. |
What are associate programs or affiliate programs?
Associate programs - also known as affiliate, reseller, commission, bounty, pay-per-lead or pay-per-sale programs - are revenue sharing arrangements companies use to pay commissions to webmasters for sending them customers. You are paid a commission if the person buys a product or service, or perhaps if he or she simply fills out a form, or asks for a free sample.
It is a rapidly growing, fairly efficient way for businesses to increase traffic and for webmasters to make money. They are usually remarkably easy to join and operate.
How much money can a webmaster make with affiliate programs?
Most affiliates don't earn much. However, the potential rewards are huge. Affiliate marketing is a $95 billion industry that is expected to grow to about $230 billion by 2008, according to an August 2003 report by Forrester Research.
Corey Rudl says that his #1 associate earned $US8775 in the month to June 15, 1998, selling his home-study marketing course The Insider Secrets to Marketing Your Business on the Internet. In that month I earned US$195 from Corey with a site which attracted about 7,000 unique visitors. My July, 1999, commission was $845 (I pushed it up by using one tip from the marketing course.) My June, 1999, commission was more than $1,500. It has been a steady earner for me ever since. Corey's program is an unusually good one.
Many affiliates earn only a few dollars a month. Some earn $10,000 or even $100,000 a month or more from affiliate programs, but such cases are fairly rare.
Wouldn't I make more money selling banner advertising on my site?
Probably not. Banner ad click-through rates have declined sharply since the dot-com crash. Affiliate programs are wonderful for people who haven't managed to find advertisers, are too busy to find advertisers, or have vacant advertising spots on their site. What is much more important is the fact that affiliate products can also be promoted in all sorts of innovative ways.
How much traffic do I need to make money with affiliate programs?
It depends a great deal on how appropriate the service or product you're selling is for your site, and on your audience – whether they are buyers or lookers. Visitors to a site offering freebies are less likely to buy than visitors to a site offering financial tips.
Your sales also depend on what you do. If you write articles or personal recommendations or do anything at all creative to get people thinking positively about the product or service, you should do much better than someone who merely pastes in the code for a banner. You should be aiming for a minimum of 500 unique visitors a day – about 15,000 a month. And then start aiming higher . . . Think of ways to make your site interesting or useful enough to attract that sort of traffic – and interesting enough to make people want to return again and again. And once you've reached that goal, aim higher . . .
I have 5,000 visitors a month to my site. How much money can I make?
If you have 5,000 visitors and on average they visit two pages, and you have three affiliate text links per page that gives you 30,000 impressions a month. At $5 CPM (effective cost per 1,000 impressions) you would make $150 a month. If each product was a very good one, perfectly suited for your site, you might achieve $5 CPM, especially if you add well written content, such as a personal endorsement. If the products don't suit your site quite as well, you might achieve $1 CPM, earning you $30 a month. Add a newsletter to the mix and capture email addresses. That way, you can sell to those same people over and over again.
Simply using banners is just about the WORST way to try to make money with affiliate programs.
What's the best affiliate program?
Wrong question. You should be asking: "What is the best affiliate program for my site?" There's no sense in trying to sell investment seminars to people who have no money, or arthritis cures to healthy young teenagers. Choose an affiliate program which best suits the visitors your site attracts – or you plan to attract. See My Top 10.
How can I increase how much I make from affiliate programs?
Buy the product and if you like it write an enthusiastic endorsement. This is the most powerful sales method – it could easily quadruple your sales. Another way is to join programs which allow you to place text links. Most programs allow this. You can get more text links on a page (still sticking to one theme), giving you more impressions, and more chances to sell. (However, the more choices you give people, the more click-through rates tend to decline.) You can promote some programs in newsletters (yours and other people's), on message boards, in mailing lists, discussion groups, etc. A good start, I think, is to have a really useful site - so useful and interesting that people start giving you free publicity. Another way is to join good two-tier commission programs and earn commissions from the sales of people you sign up.
Another way is to join lifetime commission programs, which pay you over and over, each time "your" customers buys something. You can find lifetime commission programs reviewed at LifetimeCommissions.com.
What is the best way to promote an affiliate program?
Write a personal endorsement in your own useful, interesting, opt-in newsletter. People may not visit your web site every week, but if you produce an interesting newsletter they will read your words every week.
What is the second best way to promote an affiliate program?
A. Build a THEMED web site – a site created around one particular theme. Make sure that every page on the site concentrates on ONE topic, which is closely related to your over-all theme. An excellent tool for building themed sites is Site Build It! You're building for the future when you use it.
B. Buy a new domain name and set up a small, interesting, useful web site, specially for one product, or three to five closely related products. Learn how to get the site well ranked in search engines. Ken Evoy's book Make Your Site Sell includes more than 300 pages of excellent advice on ranking well in search engines.
Why should I go to the expense of buying a new domain name?
Because it works brilliantly when it's done right. Considering the potential, it's cheap. Having your own domain name shows people you're serious, that you own a business.
What are the worst mistakes to avoid?
If you send spam (bulk unsolicited email) your reputation will be ruined and your Internet service provider may close down your site. Only selfish, greedy, inconsiderate, thoughtless oafs send spam.
Lots of people have created shopping malls based on affiliate programs. There are already thousands of shopping malls on the Internet, so it would appear to be futile to add yet another one – unless you are absolutely brilliant at marketing and can also make the site attractive enough so that people will keep coming back.
I suppose the next worst mistake is trying to sell something that is totally unrelated to the theme of your site – it's a bit like a shoe shop trying to sell toothpaste.
Another thing to be wary of is being conned into selling some all-hype-no-substance program. That, too, can wreck your reputation.
Should I promote an affiliate program in my signature?
To me, using this technique as your main strategy doesn't make a lot of sense. If you write a message to an email discussion list and promote a good program in your signature, you've gone to all that trouble to achieve one-off sales (maybe). You've sent people directly to the MERCHANT, instead of introducing them to YOUR site.
To me it makes more sense to promote your site or your newsletter – especially your newsletter – giving you a chance for many repeat sales, perhaps for many years. However, If you are promoting Make Your Site Sell, which has lifetime customers, perhaps it does make sense. That way, you'll sell once and earn indefinitely.
What is a two-tier program?
Two-tier affiliate programs reward you for signing up affiliates. As well as earning commissions on your sales, you earn commissions on their sales.
Why don't you list multi-tier programs?
1. The main reason is that I became tired of being pestered by people wanting me to join multi-tier programs. 2. Most of the new friends I've made on the Net don't touch multi-tier programs. 3. I found I was wasting lots of time because MLM web sites often make you wade through pages of hype before you can find the facts. 4. MLM products are very often over-priced to pay for all the levels of commissions. 5. MLM has a bad image on the Net. 6. It's a simple business decision. I've decided to specialize. MLM programs? Sorry, that's not my field.
How do I subscribe to the newsletter?
A. Sign up here.
Do I need a web site?
It's definitely best to have a web site, because that way you can get repeat customers. It's easier to sell to an existing customer than a new one. Ken Evoy says you don't have to have a web site to promote his ebook Make Your Site Sell. A huge advantage of not having a web site is that you can spend ALL your time on marketing.
I'm only 15. Will companies pay me?
Yes. Most won't ask your age. As long as you can type those keys on your computer sensibly enough, you can sign up for some of them. Some will ask for your Social Security Number. Some insist you have to be at least 18. I know of one 15-year-old who has his father's permission to join programs using his father's name. Make sure you read the affiliate agreement before you join.
I don't live in America. Will companies still pay me?
Most will. Some won't. I used to live in a tiny fishing village in sub-tropical Queensland, Australia. I saw that as an advantage, not a disadvantage. Most companies pay by check. Beware of checks in which THREE countries are involved. For example, if the merchant is in Canada, writes the check in US currency on a Canadian bank and if you live in another country, the bank's fees can be horrendously expensive. But don't let this put you off. Just ask to be paid in US funds written on a US bank, or Canadian funds written on a Canadian bank, or UK funds written on a UK bank, etc.
May I recommend someone else's affiliate program?
Yes, as long as it is not already listed. Check the listings to make sure.
I visited a site listed in the AssociatePrograms.com directory and couldn't find any information about an affiliate program. How can I find out about it?
First, have a more careful look for the words Partners, Affiliates, Resellers, Webmasters, or something similar. You can also search the site by installing the Google toolbar and clicking on "Search Site".
I don't live in America and my bank charges huge fees to process overseas checks. Is there a cheaper way of being paid?
First option: Ask companies to hang on to your commissions until you have accumulated $50 or $100, so you pay bank fees less often. Second option: Save up several checks and deposit them at the same time and ask the bank to treat it as one transaction. You may be able to negotiate a special lower fee. I've done that in the past. Perhaps it will be possible where you live. It may not, banks tend to be greedy. Third option: Put all you energies into promoting your site to boost your traffic and sales – then you won't worry about the bank fees.
Some companies won't allow me to join because I don't live in the United States. How can I get a U.S. address?
First, try looking for a phone number on the site and talk to the affiliate program manager. Explain politely that this is the World Wide Web, and it doesn't really matter where a modem or server is located, you can still attract US visitors. (I live part of the year in Australia and part in New Zealand, but I've almost totally ignored those markets. Most of my customers are in the US.) Second best choice: Try an email.
There's a US mailing address service at http://www.mailnetwork.com I've been told that one costs US$300 a year. A cheaper option is USAbox.com which will supply a US street address and forward your mail. This may be suitable for US citizens living abroad. However, if the merchant doesn't want non-US residents, pretending that you are a US resident is unethical. Find another company to promote.
Why don't you list pay-per-click programs?
I list pay-per-click networks, but I don't list the many companies which sign up with such networks and then offer pay-per-click programs. The companies involved and the payout rates can change too frequently for a directory like this one.
Do I have to pay taxes on affiliate program income?
Yes. All the normal tax laws apply to the income you earn.
Can I make a living just from affiliate programs?
Maybe. Probably not, but you can have a lot of fun trying. For most people, they are a way to supplement income from a job or from your main product or service. However, clever creative people keep dreaming up imaginative ways to earn a living from them. (I've been making a very good full-time living from affiliate programs since 1998.) Good luck.
Do you have an affiliate program to promote AssociatePrograms.com?
No. In Internet marketing, I tend to choose the easy paths. It's much easier just to promote other people products, rather than create your own and manage thousands of affiliates. I make a good living doing that, so I don't see any need to start my own program. Of course, I would make more money...
If I sign up with a particular program, am I locked into them or can I have as many links on my site as I wish?
Only a few companies have an exclusivity clause. Most companies don't have such rules. Remember, it's usually not a good idea to have a large number of affiliate links. Sites that do often end up looking like cheap flea markets. Successful affiliates usually concentrate on a small number of good programs.
Do most of the affiliate programs require that their products be related to what my site has?
No. Most merchants these days will approve almost any site. However, the fact that merchants allow you to do something doesn't necessarily mean it's a good idea. Remember, your biggest hurdle is to attract a LOT of people to your site, and keep them coming back. Having a memorable theme will help you achieve that goal.
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