Affiliate Marketing

Affiilliiate Marketiing

Part I

Affiliate marketing can sometimes appear to be too good to be true and there are many who fail

miserably at generating revenue using this method. Unfortunately, only one fifth of affiliate

marketers generate four-fifths of all the revenue leaving just 20 percent for everyone else to fight

over. While this may not appear to be a very good route to take when trying to make $700 in 7

days, the truth is that you can succeed using this method. In particular, this section was written

for website owners who already sell products to boost their revenue by $700 or more in a week

or less using affiliate marketing.

Affiliate Marketing Basics

The premise behind affiliate marketing for those who already have a website is very simple: you

sell related but not competing products on your website as an affiliate and in return you receive a

commission (which can range all the way up to 75% in some cases but it is more common to see

the commission in the 25-50% range). For instance, if you ran a website selling fireplace

screens, you might become an affiliate for someone selling basket holders, candelabras, and

other products that relate to your site but do not directly compete with it. Every time someone

linked over to the other site and made a purchase, you would receive the agreed upon

commission—simple as that!

Clickbank is a very popular site to find affiliate opportunities that can create new revenue

streams and boost profits dramatically. The site specializes in e-books and other information

products so there is little chance of them directly competing for your sales. This site can also

help you identify trends in the market as well as niche topics to concentrate upon. However, this

is just one site and there are literally thousands of affiliate opportunities out there that could

enhance your online presence, increase sales, and enhance the professional image of your eenterprise.

To successfully boost revenue by $700 in a week or less, make certain to do the

following:

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• Choose Products with Care: Since affiliate marketing means that visitors to your

site are being directed to another that you personally recommend, be sure that those

products/services are reputable and confer a true benefit upon the visitor. Otherwise,

your own traffic will begin to suffer along with your sales. Successful affiliate

marketing requires the trust of your visitors so don’t allow high commission rates

affect your better judgment—only recommend products that you would personally

use and find benefit from.

• Testimonial: If you are going to be putting your reputation on the line, then be sure

to “sample the goods” before placing your stamp of approval and creating an affiliate

link. If the product does not deliver on the promises made in the sales copy—run,

don’t walk! There are thousands of great opportunities out there to genuinely

enhance your revenue by $700 or more in a week or less so be sure to choose

carefully and do your homework.

• Cloak Affiliate Links: Research has proven that visitors are much less likely to click

on your link if they see it is leading to an affiliate program (maybe they feel they can

get a better deal or more information by going to the site directly). There are a

number of services and programs that will help you hide your URL so be sure to use

one before placing the link.

• Create Monthly Newsletter: Anything that enhances your site with useful, relevant

content will ultimately help your affiliate sales. While this particular step will not

immediately boost revenue by $700 in less than a week, it is very useful in

establishing a long-term and very profitable affiliate program.

• Become an Expert: Related to the advice above, this simply relates to your site

being viewed as a reliable source of accurate information about a particular topic or

niche. If your site appears gimmicky or is filled with a bunch of high-intensity and

hyped sales pages, then traffic will begin to disappear and the spiders will consider

your site to be less relevant. Keeping your site loaded with SEO content that is both

useful and accurate is essential to establishing and maintaining a successful revenue

stream from affiliate marketing.

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Of course, you can also use affiliate marketing as your primary source of revenue as opposed to

merely supplementing your existing e-business. However, becoming an affiliate and selling

complementary products is a very viable method of increasing revenue by $700 in a week or

less. We will discuss how to make $700 in 7 days solely through affiliate marketing in a later

section.





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Affiilliiate Marketiing

Part II

If you do not already have a website and thus have no existing products to sell nor

complementary products to become an affiliate for, then you will need one to become a

successful full-time affiliate. Unlike a website owner merely creating a new revenue stream by

becoming an affiliate for a complementary product or service, the full time affiliate is essentially

a full-time salesperson. Affiliates need their own websites because they essentially get paid by

placing links on as many relevant and useful web pages as possible and then getting people to

click on those links—sometimes they are paid when the link itself is clicked or when a person

buys a product via an embedded link.

There are a number of web hosting sites and software packages that have website templates and

easy-to-use programs that can literally have you up and running in a few hours. Remember, the

majority of your potential audience is surfing the web via dial-up so try to avoid the fancy,

complicated graphics because they can really slow download time and cause potential customers

to become frustrated and leave—possibly to never return!

Aside from a functional platform that will help you promote products, the most important

element of any successful affiliate marketing pro is selling useful products in a specific and

targeted niche. Some topics, such as those related to health and beauty, are so dense and fiercely

competitive that it becomes almost impossible to find something to promote without running into

thousands of competitors. Thus, you want to concentrate on finding a niche. In fact, this is

known as affiliate niche marketing and this is the surest path to making $700 in a week or less.

Finding the right niche will depend upon the available products, how competitive the market is,

and the availability of keywords to help promote the products. But, once you have done your

homework and located the perfect niche and 4-5 products to promote, how do you actually make

any money?

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Remember, 80% of all the revenue generated by affiliates is done so by the top 20%. There are

still a lot of people promoting Adsense and making money by having people click on links and

the like…but you won’t make $700 in a week or less taking that route so concentrate on actually

promoting products because the commissions are far higher and the work…well, there is still a

lot of work to being a successful affiliate. To make money, you need to promote that product

and here are some of your options:

• Create an e-zine

• Start a blog

• Article marketing

• Online classifieds

There is a reason why successful affiliates concentrate on a niche: because it makes them

experts in that field! Plus, all the content added to the site is relevant to that niche so anyone

looking for reliable information will land on the specialty site—created by the affiliate. There

will be links to several related products from that site all with the potential to reel in

commissions.

In addition to adding useful content to your own website, publish articles relating to the niche

and then embed a link at the bottom leading readers to the site to purchase the product. Every

sale made through your site will have your URL embedded in the link so that you are properly

credited for the sale and receive your money.

Ideally, of course, you want a website and a database filled with people interested in your niche

topic and products. Then, you just need to create e-mail autoresponder sequences to help

promote new and relevant products to your loyal customers. Until you reach that point, however,

you will need to post content with your links in free Internet marketing resources such as ezines,

free classified ads (like Yahoo), article directories, blogs, etc.

What you are ultimately doing is branding yourself and your website as an expert in the niche

topic. That way, when you recommend a product or service relating to your niche, people are

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more likely to make a purchase based upon your advice. Therefore, content is critical and it

needs to be accurate and reliable. Eventually, people will repost your articles on their own

websites, blogs, etc. and your links, reputation, and potential for profit will grow exponentially.

Affiliate marketing is a science—not some hit or miss affair. If you consistently generate good

quality content, only promote useful relevant products, concentrate on a niche market, and

continue to brand yourself and your site as an expert—then affiliate marketing can quickly be

transformed from a mere income stream into the path towards your financial independence.

Now, the million dollar question: Can this be done in a week or less while making at least $700?

In reality, probably not especially if starting from scratch. After all, it does take time for a site to

even be indexed by Google and the other search engines so we are not promoting this as a surefire

method of making $700 in a week or less. But, for long term profitability and unlimited

growth potential, a consistent affiliate marketing effort is one of the best ways to make money

via Internet marketing. It may take around 30 days to consistently generate $700 or more a

week, but that number will continue to grow along with your content, knowledge, and expertise

in your niche topic.