Affiliate Revenue Generation

For affiliate Marketers (AMs) success is all about investing in effective advertising. That sounds simple enough. Except that, for every successful AM, there are dozens who never get past the "first base" of making an income (no matter how small) from their efforts.

Why not?

Because, no matter what the elements of any advertising campaign,one vital factor is knowing how to choose the best, most cost-effective products (advertising tools), for the investment dollar. In short, they need to learn how to shop smart.

While "smart shopping" is a term usually reserved for back-to-school moms or the choice of a ripe melon (in which case, the ladies definitely have it all over the guys in this segment of the business), for an AM to break out and start showing a profit, they must adopt the same, basic principles. They must find good, cost-effective, yet quality products and services.

Here, then, are the basics of smart Shopping, Affiliate Marketer-style:

1. THE WORLD (WIDE WEB) IS YOUR OYSTER
No matter the service -- whether it's lead generators, auto-responders, links, ad trackers, you-name-it -- when looking for a product or service, enjoy the advantages of the competitive marketplace. In other words, shop around. The time is past of being blindly led, either by recommendations, past experience or, worst of all, habit.

Realize the potential and look around because every day, just as in any other aspect of the internet, new advertising competitors are joining the ranks, with fresh ideas, competitive pricing, new or better offerings. For example, while many still swear by such lead generators as Lead Factory and Cutting Edge Media, SimplerLeads.com has stepped in to offer true high-quality, double opt-in leads, plus offer their own auto-responding system and auto-mail system for true auto-pilot access-- all at rates lower than the competition.

2. INVEST NOW, IT PAYS LATER
Invest the time now to research and study the various companies and it will pay off richly later. Pick a few different companies, research them, get familiar with the various features of all of them. Or, even more importantly, features that some companies have while others don't.

In doing all this -- and, yes, it often takes a week or two -- a marketer not only benefits from the education, but can can also gain a clear perspective of what's available and a product versus pricing comparison.

3. ASK AWAY-- EMAILS TO CUST SVC
Never be afraid to ask questions. Even stupid ones. It's all part of the educational process. And that's what Customer Service -- bless their CS little hearts! -- are there for. And, too, CS gives a marketer a good idea of the quality of the company. It a good idea to note their turn around time. By and large, companies go out of their way for their newest and/or prospective customers. So if their response is anything less than stellar, keep looking. After all, if they treat new customers shabbily, how will they treat existing customers. Note, however, two things about CS: 1) They MAY have a good reason for a poor response rate (such giving preference to existing customers); 2) Never bother a company with truly silly questions. Don't, for instance, ask their cost, when it is clearly visible. Find questions that are relevent and genuinely add to your information. Then wait for the response.

4. NOTES, NOTES, NOTES
While it sometimes happens that one company stands out among the rest, it's more common for the differences to be slight or the offers varied enough to leave a marketer dizzy. So note-taking becomes essential in the research process. For anyone who never kept good notes in school, the marketing version is simply a matter of deciding on the key factors in the proposed business, then keeping track of those factors from prospective business to business.

5. COMPARE COST VS. SERVICE
This is when those notes become elemental in the process. Once several different companies have been explored and notes compiled, it simply becomes a matter of choosing which company offers the best product/service for the money.

6. TRIAL PERIOD
Once chosen, the process is far from complete, however. As the old saying goes, "the proof is in the pudding," meaning that a marketer will see how a company/service performs only once they begin using it.

The next step is to follow a company closely for the first 1-3 weeks, making a note of any problems, delays, etc., that might arise. This doesn't necessarily kill a company's possible success, but a bad experience at this point does not bode well.

If there is a continued or repeated problem, the company should be re-evaluated, based on the new information.

7. REGULAR REVIEW
Okay, so the AM has all the marketing they need, the business is well-established and the advertising has performed well. The AM's smart shopping has been successful and the job is done, right? Wrong.

As mentioned in Tip #1, above, the market is constantly changing and so are the advertising options available. Plus, while a company may perform well initially, their performance could change. Sometimes those changes are sudden and dramatic. But more often they experience a gradual decline that only becomes discernable when analyzed over a period of time.

So, unless a marketer decides to *opt-out* themselves, it is essential to continuously monitor and regularly review their advertiser's performance. And, when necessary, begin the process of smart-shopping all over again.

Does it ever end? Expert marketers know this is just one part of the on-going process known as affiliate marketing.

There is a lot of money in affiliate marketing. However, this is true only for those who are seriously and zealously working on their affiliate program. A large part of affiliate success depends on determination and perseverance.

Even the best affiliate program will not prosper if the affiliate marketer does not build their business on a solid foundation. Extra diligence is required when you engage in affiliate marketing using ads. Nothing happens if the links or banners you place online just decorate a web page. The affiliate must convince the visitor to click on it and proceed to the program site to buy the products. No click-through means no income for an affiliate marketer.

You can generate a full-time income as an affiliate marketer. You can do it at home, and yes, even while you sleep. Does this sound too easy?

It can be this easy if you have planned your affiliate campaign well and have taken all the steps towards success carefully and diligently. Steps such as choosing an excellent product, designing a content rich website with banners and product reviews, writing copy for advertising in newsletters and emails to your opt-in subscribers, publishing articles that highlight the benefits your product provides, and placing PPC advertising.

The key to making all these promotional techniques produce the results you desire is an advertising tracking tool. Experienced and successful affiliate marketers know that ad tracking is essential to a successful affiliate marketing campaign.

What precisely is an ad tracker? It is a software program that allows you to trace and take note of every click-through made by visitors to your program?s sale site via your referral link. Best of all you know exactly where you placed the link that produced the click through. You can purchase the ad tracking software or use a service provider.

With an ad tracker, you can monitor the progress of your marketing campaigns, even offline advertising. This tool is especially helpful if you are engaged in several affiliate and pay-per-click programs and have placed ads in emails, pop-ups and pop-unders, message boards, auto responders, ezines, forums, several web sites, surveys and various ad service providers.

Of course, after investing your time, you want to make sure you are getting paid for your effort. Likewise, you want to make sure every dollar you invest in your advertising campaign is wisely spent. With the help of the ad tracker, you will know accurately how many and which of your links were clicked on. It will also act as an email ad tracker. How many of those who opened your email clicked through to the program site? Which of your banner ads brought the most leads and sales? All this data will allow you to do a marketing analysis of each affiliate program and advertising medium you are using. You will easily determine which of your marketing strategies are most effective and beneficial for each product or service you are promoting.

Every decision you make must be well grounded in facts. Using an ad tracker, you will be able to generate a website traffic report for your affiliate program sales page. Armed with this wealth of information you will be able to test and tweak your promotions to reach maximum profitability with confidence.

If you are serious about affiliate marketing, remember that your success depends on the response of those viewing your promotions. Find the advertising techniques that produce the desired customer response. Test everything. Get an ad tracker and begin making informed decisions about your promotional budget. Now you are on the track to success!

Here's the 'Numero Uno' Rule!

Don't be cheap! Always go for quality! Hey, if you wouldn't buy it, why should anyone else?!

Take a good look at the product or service you're considering marketing and make sure it is top notch! Is is a good value for the price? If it's a ridiculous amount of money for something not worth a whole lot, then forget about it. How about the people that are recommending it? Have you done business with them in the past? Are they reliable? Can you talk to a few people who have bought the product? Are they happy with what they purchased?

You've really got to be certain you are recommending a good quality product, from a reputable company, which has great customer service.

This is definitely pretty darn important! As an affiliate, you're sticking your neck out there, every time you advertise or recommend the product or service you're linking to. You are in effect, endorsing them, so it's your reputation at risk! Be sure you're dealing with a company that deserves your trust and reflects well on you personally!

Be smart! Don't ever promote something that's going to harm your reputation!

The Second Most Important Rule

You better be earning a super dooper commission! If you're only being paid 5% or 10% per product sold...boy, are you ever getting the 'short end of the stick'! That's a low commission! You need to look for a company who's thinking about the life-time-value of a customer and is willing to give YOU a very high payout to keep you. You want to associate with a company who pays out around 60% of the net profit to their affiliates. You won't find an affiliate program like this on every website, you're going to have to really search for it! But that's allright. It'll be worth the effort!

With a good affiliate company, when someone joins under you, they get paid for every sale they make (just like you), and you get paid a percentage for every sale THEY make. Just think what would happen if you had a few really hot affiliates, who signed up underneath you and were making 10 sales a mont... you would be making a whole lot of money every month just on the work THEY did. As long as they keep selling, you keep getting paid!

Something else to think about...even if a company is paying out a high commission, if people don't buy from them, you're right back where you started! They've got to have a site which turns visitors into buyers; the site must have a good conversion rate! The site should have at least a 1% conversion ratio; meaning, that one out of every hundred customers you send to them, then turns into a sale.

Make sure you go with an affiliate program which has sales copy and website design that "makes you want to buy". After all, YOU are sending them the potential customers, but it's their job to turn those potential customers into buyers! More buyers, more money for you! Basically pretty simple.

Also, keep in mind your payout amount. If you are earning $50 a referral for one buying customer, you're doing okay.. but, if you are only earning a $10 referral fee for that one buying customer, you may want to rethink things.

Here Comes Rule Number Three, Short But Major Important!:

Match the product or service to the theme of your site. So if your site is about horses and horse products you don't want to be advertising music CD's or weight loss products (unless of course it is a weight loss product for horses!).

You need to target your clientele so that what you are selling or recommending, has something to do with what your visitors WANT. I can't stress this enough it's very important! Provide links, services and products, which are related to what YOUR visitors want!

I am continually astonished, that people build a site and then have products and affiliate programs that have nothing whatsoever to do with each other! DUH!!

The Number Four Rule:

You also need to be concerned with the tracking software the affiliate program is using. You want to see your statistics (stats) in real time and be able to check them at any time to see how you are doing.

Why?

So you can go and check to see how your promotional efforts are working Compare the difference in results between putting a button up and putting up a whole sales page. You need instant information on visitor and sales results. How many sales is your affiliate banner generating, same goes for a text link, or personal recommention....how many visitors are you sending to the affiliate site and then how many sales is it generating for you.

Does the software the company is using track ALL of your sales....some companies use "inferior" software which only tracks about 80% of the time (meaning YOU lose out on 20% of the commissions that are rightfully yours). Other companies will only pay you if the customer visits through your link and buys right then and there...if they come back and buy later, you may not get credit for that sale.

The Number Five Rule:

Don't allow affiliate programs to clutter up your main site. Don't go crazy and find 10 different programs and try to promote them all on your site at the same time!! It just clutters up your site and makes it worthless! Focus on one or two really good affiliate programs, that work for your business and client base. Only become involved with an affiliate program that has products or services that your target market wants.

"Wants" is the important word here. People buy things impulsively because they "want" them, not because they "need" them. When you come right down to it, there are not all that many products which people really "need".

More is not necessarily better! Put too many affiliate programs on your site and you just end up confusing your visitors. You won't make many sales with confused buyers! Stay targeted!

The Number Six Rule:

This is just common sense...deal with a reputable company. If you are ever unsure of a company, ask for references and do some checks on them. Are they professional? If you phone them, do they put you on hold FOREVER!? Be assured, they'll do the same to customers you recommend to them. They should respond promptly to your emails, within the same day if at all possible. If they don't respond to your emails at all....run in the other direction!

Customer response and service is EVERYTHING. If you ask questions about a company's affiliate program and get no answer (or a delayed answer)... whoa, watch out! If they can't be bothered to take care of you when you express an interest in becoming an associate, what's the odds they'll take care of you when you have a real problem!? It's a pretty good bet, that they won't take very good care of your customers either! So be very careful, the company you deal with should be very professional and willing to help you out when you're in need.

Take the bit about the importance of Customer Service to heart and make certain YOU respond swiftly to emails or phone messages you receive in your own business dealings. This IS CRITICAL.

Following are a few related odds and ends.

Affiliate Programs and bulk email do NOT go together.

There's this "myth" out there about affiliate programs, that you go join a few, put them all in an email message and then bulk email thousands of people who will eagerly respond making you tons of money! Oh, so WRONG! This is probably one of the worst things you can do online. It's called SPAM!

Most affiliate programs have a "bulk" email clause in their agreement that says... if you spam, you can get terminated from the program and not get paid for any commissions you've earned. Be aware that there's also a very good chance that you will lose your Internet connection, not to mention your reputation!

Sending unsolicited bulk email to millions of people who have NOT qualified themselves as being interested in your product is not very profitable (you won't get any response!) can end up costing you money and is just plain RUDE!

I even know of some companies who have billed the "spammer" for the time it's taken the company to deal with the complaints and administrative problems caused by the bulk emailing done using their affiliate program URL. You spam with an affiliate URL, and it looks like it was the company doing the spamming, since the recipient is being sent directly to the company website. Not good for the company's reputation! NOT going to make you a very popular affiliate member either!!

One last thing. Watch out for any "exclusivity clauses" in affiliate agreements. Some companies will state that "they can be the only retailer of a specific product on your site". If you signed up with a book selling program for example, with this clause in the contract, that would limit you to selling only their books on your site. This may not be a problem for you, maybe you only want to sell their books anyway! Just be careful not to restrict yourself unless you want to.