Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs are probably the best return for your effort with the least demand on your time.  This appeals to us since we want to run the business and not have it run us. We want to have time to “kick back and smell the roses”.

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 time tell the business that you sent the visitor so you will receive the commission in the case of a sale.

As an example, hover your cursor over this link (www.ebay.com) and look at the URL in the bottom left corner of the browser screen (Using Internet Explorer). The link has a bunch of numbers in it and does not even reference eBay. This link is called a “hop link” since it goes to an intermediate website that does the accounting for the affiliate program. It records the affiliate ID which is one of the numbers in the link and then passes the visitor on to the proper eBay page. It takes place so fast that the visitor is not aware that the intermediate step has taken place.

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.

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.