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Affiliate ProgramsAffiliate programs
are probably the best return for your effort with the least
demand on your The
attraction to this model is that it is virtually risk free except for your time.
It costs you nothing to sign up as an affiliate.
You recommend the product and send your visitors to the website where the
product is sold and if the customer purchases the product, you are paid a
commission. Amazon.com is credited
with being the first businesses on the Net to fully develop the affiliate
concept and now all the major companies have affiliate programs. How
does it work? When
you sign up as an affiliate, you will be given an affiliate number, and a
special link to use for linking to the affiliate website.
This link will send your visitor to the business site and at the same As
an example, hover your cursor over this link (www.ebay.com Who
does all this accounting? There
are companies that do the accounting and act as the coordinator between
affiliates and the companies they represent.
These are called affiliate program providers (APP’s).
One of the major sites for handling affiliate accounting is named Commission
Junction. It handles
eBay and others. The major site for
electronic products is ClickBank. Other
sites are BeFree, Linkshare, and Performics.
A German APP is Affili.net. How
do I get paid? The
reason that we are working as entrepreneurs is to ultimately have money flowing into our bank
account,
Right? When you set up your
account with your chosen APP site, you specify your business bank account.
On the designated payment dates, an electronic funds transfer will occur
and the funds will be deposited in your account.
When you set this up properly, it is almost on autopilot. How
do I find affiliate programs? You
almost don’t have to find affiliate programs, they will find you.
That statement may be a little far fetched, but if you go to Google and
type in “affiliate programs” you will be inundated with selections of every
possible affiliate under the sun. Since Commission Junction is the best known affiliate program provider, I recommend starting there.
When
you join Commission Junction (“CJ”), you will be able to view the thousands
of companies that are in its affiliate program.
I suggest that you sign up at CJ and look for affiliates there.
You will be able to see who the companies are and the commission
structure of each. You can then
join the program right in CJ without having to go to each company and apply. Some
of the approvals in CJ are immediate and some will notify you later if you have
been accepted. When you join CJ you can study the many companies that are represented. Take note of a few that you feel might be ones that you would like to represent. Don’t join the affiliate program immediately. Go to Google and research the company website. See if they sell themselves well and will support the sales effort that you are going to expend to sell their products or services. Also, from CJ, you can link to the landing page in the company website. Go there and check it out to see if it sells well. I
had a funny experience on one site.
While writing sales copy for the program that I had joined, I
clicked on the link to the landing page and it was not the same company name as
the ad copy. I found that it was a
subsidiary. It is important to know
what your customer will see when they first meet your affiliate company at its
website. For a detailed explanation on how to join Commission click the following link. Click here go to Commission Junction and continue your education on affiliate programs.
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) and look at
the URL in the bottom left corner of the browser screen (Using Internet
Explorer).
