Affiliate Programs and your Website

I remember TV ads when I was a kid – back then they seemed funny, sophisticated and cute. Now looking back at those same advertisements I find myself laughing at how improbable it is that they would have reached enough people to have been worth the cost and effort – the difference is that times change and with them the way people need to be reached. For a while in the 80’s the radio was the biggest method of reaching the masses and disco and rock and roll was king again – then tastes and technology became to change again as cell phones and handheld computers grew in popularity and internet access, once just a text-based network created as an emergency communications system flourished in so many homes that it became as popular as cable TV and in some cases has even replaced phone service! In this day and age the biggest problem most advertisers have is finding a way to reach the right people with that carefully targeted advertisement so that it will do the most good.

And that is where so many of the new advertising schemes and techniques began – first with mass email and postal blitzes which were considered effective if they had a 1% return, and then as the web grew and people became more sophisticated online banner ads and sales. The latest in this emerging trend of internet-based advertising and ecommerce is the booming and still growing affiliate or associate programs which you are certain to have heard about in one form or another.

Most people have heard of an affiliate program even if they don’t know exactly what they are or how they work – these new ‘holy grails’ of modern marketing are touted as providing the ability to earn income 24-hours a day without doing anything – just add some magic code to your existing website, and viola! The claims go on and on about what affiliate programs can do for you and about how easy they are to implement - but how many people really understand the new Shangri-La of modern ecommerce, and just what exactly is an ‘affiliate program’ anyway? Until you understand at least this much getting involved in one may not only not earn you untold riches as you doubtless dream, but could even cause you headaches, confusion and in rare cases even cost you both in time and money. So sit right back as we ‘tell a tale’ and learn first the basics, and then more about one particular affiliate program and how to use it to successfully cash in on the emerging market.

Affiliates: What they are

The term “Affiliate Program” (also called an “Associate” program at times) refers to the numerous ways you can earn money either through marketing and advertising a merchant’s product or from actual sales of their products on your web site. Basically you are selling other company’s goods or services for them and in return they are cutting you in for a percentage or a flat rate of the sale.

Much less intrusive and annoying then the old bulk email craze of the late 90’s this method of reaching the public has the unique benefit of utilizing existing web pages and traffic to push the products and or services that the affiliate needs to present to the masses, and as such revenues that would in the past have gone into the pockets of large research and advertising firms are instead being shared with the hardy web site owner who is willing to put that splash screen or link on their page. If nothing else the lessons learned in the kickback against pop-up advertisements and bulk emailers show that there are limits to what people will stand for when it comes to invasive advertising – unless the product being advertised is something that they really want to see! That is why targeting is so important, and why affiliate programs can be so successful.

As with any good idea however there are caveats and exceptions – most often greedy web site owners will place too many non-related or untargeted advertisements on their page in hopes of gaining great amounts of money, only to find that just like bulk emailers of the past they have killed the proverbial golden goose! The best affiliate program in the world can’t make money for the web page designer who doesn’t put a little thought into which products or services he presents and how he presents them.

You can in effect think of affiliate programs as the ‘vending machines of the 2000’s’ because that is how they work – all the work and stocking is handled by the people who ‘own’ the machines, you only supply a little oversight and a place to store the equipment. In exchange for allowing the machines (or in this case the code) to be stored on your property you are given a cut of any profits that are generated, as stipulated by whatever contract you agree to. Since most affiliate sites work by posting links to the merchants site or ‘backend’ methods to identify where the link came from has to be incorporated into the link so that commissions will be tracked and given to the site from which the customer followed the link.

In any affiliate program there will be at least three parties: the customer, the affiliate site (you or your web site) and the merchant. In some cases an affiliate ‘broker’ may interface between you and the merchant, handling the code generation and redirects or providing the backend for the actual merchant and in some cases taking a lion’s share of any funds paid by the merchant for the service. This particular marketing strategy was started in the late 90’s by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos in an attempt to link book sales from web sites tailored to specific fan groups to available merchants on Amazon.com and was so successful that it now boasts more then half a million affiliate sites, many of which are not commercial sites in themselves but cater to a specific market or user group that see the affiliate service as a service of the web site itself and not a marketing tool.

The ClickBank Army Of Affiliates

One of the great things ClickBank has to offer is a virtual ARMY of affiliates.

What this means to you is an instant database of thousands of affiliates that are ready, willing and waiting to promote your product for you.

They want to make you loads of sales all at their advertising and web traffic expense because they will make a share in the profit your product pulls in based on all the sales they refer!

This is a serious win/win because these affiliates know that you spent your time, and or hard earned dollars to create your product, and all they have to do is refer sales to share in the profits on your labor!

You win because you now have a method to make sales you otherwise would not have if it were not for your new instant army of affiliates ready to promote your new product for you starting today!

What a great concept ClickBank is for not only the product creator and seller but also for the massive number of people that make a great living just selling other peoples products as an affiliate!

Get ready ClickBank!! Here I Come!

- Leon Edward

Leon Edward Helps people to start, build, market and promote Internet home based businesses. Find legitimate home based internet business ideas, opportunites online, a Free Business Marketing Online Newsletter, FREE Content, Download his FREE Report  - How to Find A Solid Home Business Opportunity without Getting Scammed! - all at
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