Is affiliate marketing the right move for you?

Thousands, if not millions, of webmasters and online marketers are turning to affiliate marketing to earn extra money from the web. Affiliate marketing offers the perfect way for the average person to profit from the billions of sales made online each year.

But is affiliate marketing right for you?

Is this something you should investigate and move forward with if you really want to monetize your site or content? As a way of answering and to make you think about affiliate marketing; I would like to offer some of my own experiences as a full time online affiliate marketer. I’d also like to give you some marketing tips and pitfalls you should try to avoid.

To tell the truth, I did not plan to become an affiliate marketer. It just happened, mostly by accident, when I was struggling to promote my first internet marketing site about 10 years ago. My original plan was to resell some software products in hopes of making a fortune on this new thing called the Internet.

Well, to make a long story short, most things don’t turn out the way we originally planned. Instead of selling my own products, I became much more interested in studying “how to do online marketing” and examining “how marketing systems work” than selling my own products. I was much more fascinated with the “nuts and bolts” or “marketing tools” behind these online marketing systems than I was with making a few cents.

I was particularly intrigued by a new search engine called Google. Yes, there are many marketers who have been studying Google since it started. And I think it was Google and their AdSense program in particular that legitimized the “whole idea of ​​making money online” for me. I turned my attention to other ways to monetize my sites, especially with affiliate programs. And the rest, as they say, is history…

But enough of me, how about you?

Do you have a website? Are you interested in earning additional income from your site? Are you trying to earn a full time income online? More important:

Is Affiliate Marketing Right For You?

First, you need to realize that affiliate marketing is when you promote and sell affiliate products from your site(s). Selling is actually not the right word because you do NOT actually sell anything from your site. You simply refer or send interested customers/buyers to the affiliate sites you are promoting through your affiliate links.

Believe me, sometimes this concept is very difficult to explain to family and close friends. But what do you sell online? Don’t you have anything to sell? How can you earn money?

To repeat, with affiliate marketing you don’t sell anything directly online… you send clients and customers to online companies or merchants where they buy things and since they come from your site’s affiliate links, you get credit for the sale.

I don’t sell Dell computers directly on my sites, I just send leads to Dell where they can buy Dell products, and since they come from my affiliate links, I get credit, plus a small commission in return if they buy something. The same goes for Amazon or hundreds of other companies and products that I promote with my sites.

Now affiliate marketing suits me perfectly! This is why…

• You do not handle any sales transactions.
• You do not handle any delivery of products.
• You don’t have to deal with customer complaints or run customer support
• You don’t have to manage employees or operate a business
• You do not need an office, stock or any physical product

With Affiliate Marketing all commercial and sales operations are carried out by the company you are promoting. This saves you a lot of headaches and problems that come with running your own business or developing your own products. Everything is made for you.

In addition, online affiliate marketing has great advantages:

• Your sites and affiliate links work for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You earn sales/commissions while you sleep, eat, watch TV or do anything humans do!
• You earn money even when you are on vacation. This happened to me last year when I went to Florida to see Bruce Springsteen in concert. Unfortunately a band member died so I didn’t get to see Springsteen, but I made more than enough online to pay for my entire trip WHILE I was in Orlando. It was also the first time, I didn’t have access to my computer or sites for more than a few days, but they still made me money.
• Once you have set up your affiliate links, they will continue to generate income automatically. All of your online marketing can be automated and run from your home office or anywhere you choose.
• Keep in mind that your content and sites continue to build and grow. The work you did writing that great article two years ago is still generating affiliate sales today.
• Also, with Affiliate Marketing, all of your marketing materials (banners, sales copy, videos, ads, links…) are provided by the Affiliate Network or the Company.
• There is little stress with affiliate marketing mainly because you are your own boss and can work from home. No office politics or all that nonsense. Without changes. Also, there is very little capital investment, for a few hundred dollars or much less, you can have a working site on the web.

However, affiliate marketing has some real drawbacks:

• You can often earn much more if you develop and sell your own products. You’re not really getting the most out of your site’s content by selling other people’s stuff. The profit margin can be much, much higher if you sell your own products.
• There is also the problem of lost commissions and sales theft, you can never be sure that you are getting credit for all your traffic and referrals. In most cases you are not.
• There is often stiff competition from other affiliates selling the same things and using the same marketing materials…although many top affiliates create their own marketing materials to stand out in a crowded marketplace.

Since I am a full-time online affiliate marketer, the benefits far outweigh the few depressions associated with this great lifestyle. Mainly because it is just that: a lifestyle more than a job. I never consider it a job or a job. Maybe that’s because I’m my own teacher, I can work from home and set my own hours. I can take time off, I can go on vacation, or I can live anywhere in the world where there’s internet access, and these days that’s pretty much anywhere. The feeling of freedom is truly intoxicating, to say the least.

If you find that affiliate marketing is something you’d like to pursue, even part-time or full-time, here are some of my top tips for increasing your affiliate income and sales:

• Focus your marketing and outreach efforts on programs and products that provide you with recurring or residual income. Make a sale and get paid for years to come.
• Develop your own sites and marketing materials to stand out from other affiliate marketers. Create your own unique selling position even if you’re not technically selling the products. Offer additional bonuses if they buy from your links or site.
• Create your own list of customers who are interested in the products you are promoting. Grow your own list as well as that of the affiliate business you are promoting. You will always have these subscribers and you will be able to promote other products similar to them.
• Focus on targeting “long-tail keywords” with your content and sites; These multi-word keyword phrases are easy to rank high for and generally have better conversion rates.
• Cloak your affiliate links to reduce affiliate theft. For example, ClickBank has a simple HTML code that will hide your link. use it
• Internet users and especially buyers want simple and useful information to facilitate their purchasing decisions. Give them valuable information that they can use in their task and they will reward you with a sale. In addition, giving away coupons and discounts online will increase your sales and commissions.
• Use the major affiliate networks like Commission Junction, LinkShare, ClickBank, Amazon, Shareasale… I have found these networks to be very simple to use and very effective. Plus, your checks never bounce!
• Keep an eye on your monthly sales, with many of the companies if you go over $25,000 or $50,000 in sales during the month you get additional bonus incentives. I’ve found that these can dramatically increase your monthly income, so keep a close eye on your sales stats.

If you find that affiliate marketing is right for you, it is almost 100% certain that you will never regret it. Affiliate marketing offers one of the least stressful ways to make a living on the planet and the lifestyle is second to none. Anyone can change their life with affiliate marketing. I did it and you can too!