Shake Hands With Your Success Affiliate Marketing

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Internet Marketing and Website Promotion Hands On
Newbie Guide

Shake Hands With Your Success Affiliate Marketing
By: Tanja Kelly

Affiliate Marketing is a 3-step process for earning income. It begins with signing up to sell someone's online product or service for a fee, then actually going out and advertising that product/service with the intention of generating sales, and finally making those sales to earn an affiliate commission.

To make things crystal clear, let me give you a real world example of the affiliate process. Meet Bob, an "ace" used car salesman. Bob has applied for a job (for obvious reasons) at Ace Automotive. Ace offers to pay Bob a 30% of the sticker price of every car he sells.

This sounds good to Bob, so he agrees. Every time a satisfied Ace customer drives off in an Ace car he's sold, Bob collects his 30% sales commission. This relationship makes Bob became an "affiliate" of Ace Automotive?

And it's exactly the same on the Internet! To enter the lucrative world of Affiliate Marketing online, you sign up to become an affiliate of any person's program or service in exchange for a commission. You are paid a commission for each "unit" you sell. But how do you make this concept work for you on the Internet?

The Missing Link to Success - Your Affiliate Link

Once accepted as an affiliate, you'll receive a special link to use in your advertising called an affiliate link. The purpose of having an affiliate link is to identify you as the seller when a sale is made from your link.

When you advertise your affiliate link and someone clicks on it, they are taken to the website where the product or service is sold. If the consumer makes a purchase, you receive the commission because that person used your affiliate link to access the site.

Making the Right Choice - Sorting Out Your Options

There are probably over one million different affiliate programs on the Internet and they sell a countless number of different products and services. Some are good, some are bad, and some are well?probably not something an "ethical" business person wants to get involved with. This means that you should really put some thought into what you want to promote as an affiliate. It's also in your best interest to be picky about which affiliate programs you join.

Shout Out to the Pay-Out - What You'll Earn

The money you receive as an affiliate, called affiliate payout, is the one of the first things you should look at when deciding whether or not to join the affiliate program. A pretty standard rate of commission is something close to 50%. (You will encounter both higher and lower commission percentages, but 50% is a pretty average starting point.) This means that if the product retails for $40, you'll receive $20 for each one you sell.

A high-priced item will increase the amount you receive per sale, so the lower percentage doesn't mean that you do a lot of work for a small payoff. For example, if a product costs $500 and the affiliate program for that product pays you only 30% per sale (instead of 50%), you'll make $150 from each sale. Now even though 30% is a low commission percentage, a $150 affiliate commission is not!

Once you've master the techniques of selling with a moderately priced item, you can "step up" and start selling the big-ticket items that make a huge income possible.

Tiers of the Gods - Commission Levels

You'll frequently find the word TIER in affiliate marketing literature. No biggie. A tier is simply a level of commission.

A one-tier commission program will pay out a certain percentage on each sale you make. A two-tier commission program will pay out a certain percentage on each sale you make plus another percentage of any sales made through your referral "sales team." In a two-tier affiliate program, for example, if you make a sale to Rosa and Rosa makes a sale to Jimmy, you will be paid a percentage of both sales. In most affiliate marketing arrangements, the second tier commission (and beyond) will be less then the first tier?but not always. Keep your eyes peeled for programs that offer second-tier commissions that are the same as first-tier to "ramp up" your profits.

Wrapping Up

I've really given you just the basics to affiliate marketing in general. There is a lot more you can learn, of course! But my goal is to give get you enough of a foundation so that you're pointed in the right direction and prepared to avoid some pretty common pitfalls.

Thanks for reading...

There are virtually dozens of ways in which you can be successful in Affiliate Marketing. However, according to Tanja Kelly they are two things you must have: good ideas and motivation to take action. While Tanja Kelly doesn't claim that she can give you the motivation to succeed she can give you good idea and a clear plan. Visit her site to learn more Affiliate Project X

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