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Informative Articles

3 Keys To Success With Your Affiliate Program
Copyright 2005 Andy Murray Affiliate programs (also called Referral Programs or Partnership Programs) are essentially commission-based sales schemes. Joining an affiliate program is a neat way to make money from your users. But just as you...

A Glimpse At Online Affiliate Marketing
Online affiliate marketing has become the wave of the internet's future. An inexpensive and effective marketing plan, affiliate programs enable e-commerce merchants to sell products online, and promote their web sites at the same time. The...

Can you succeed marketing an affiliate based program?
Internet Marketing can be an enjoyable and profitable experience, but it can also be very frustrating, time consuming, money draining and anti social. So why do we keep putting ourselves through all this pain? Well, I’m sure that for everyone...

Five Ways To Maximize Affiliate Profits from Articles
What does it take to become a "BIG EARNER" with your affiliate marketing commissions? How can you start to make larger affiliate commission checks? The answer has set the Internet on fire. Writing articles for your affiliate niche site and posting...

How To Create Your Own Successful And Profitable Affiliate Program
How To Create Your Own Successful And Profitable Affiliate Program Simply Easier Marketing - Part 1. ----------------------------------------------------------------- (c) 2004 Charles Kangethe ------------------------- Most of the truly...

Is There Really Any Way to Make Big Money With Affiliate Programs?
You here all the hub bub about affiliate programs. If you have been online a while you have undoubtedly seen a flashing banner, blinking button or an ever so dreaded "but I think misunderstood and over used" pop up window inviting you to make big...

Is Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) killing your affiliate sales?
Have you noticed a drop in affiliate sales since Microsoft's Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) was released? I have and I didn't really know why until my wife, kids, and friends started asking me why their computer wasn't working right. While using...

One Simple Method I Use To Skyrocket My Affiliate Revenue
============================================================ One Simple Method I Use To Skyrocket My Affiliate Revenue (Or How I Get Up To 1 In Every 3 People Who See My Affiliate Links To Click Them) By Richard Adams (c) 2004. All rights...

The Pros and Cons of Earning Money with Affiliate Programs
"I don't have a product. I don't even have a product IDEA!" This is one of the most common concerns I hear from people interested in starting a business on the Internet. It's obvious that you need to sell either a product or a service in order to...

The Truth about Google’s Adsense affiliate program.
The truth about Google’s Adsense program is that it is amazing. It’s the greatest affiliate program ever invented. There is no affiliate program that even comes close. If you are not using Google’s Adsense, you’re truly missing out on a great...

 
 
 
The Past, Present, and Future of Affiliate Marketing

The Good Old Days

Remember the good old days? You'd purchase a domain name, set up your site (with a few swear words here and there), and place some banner ads (while crossing your fingers for the best banner ad click-through results). This all worked great--for a while; until people managed to avoid our banner ads like the plague. Life got more complex. What were us internet marketers to do? We had to become more savvy. Fortunately for us, the affiliate model was introduced.

Ah, the affiliate marketing model. It never hurts to get a little help from your friends, right? Affiliate marketing networks offer a wide range of advantages to businesses. In short: it's a booming business with dollar signs all around it. Sure, affiliate marketing can be a profitable business, but it can also be very aggravating, time consuming, and antisocial. So here's the big question: Why the heck do we keep putting ourselves through all of this pain? The answer, although seemingly complex, is quite simple: easy money.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

The average person thinks of affiliate marketing as a "get rich quick" scheme for geeks and nerds. Actually, it's the farthest thing from the truth. Nowadays, you're just as likely to find a High School dropout behind an affiliate marketing operation; as you are to find a computer science major.

Despite the revenue advantages, many successful affiliate managers are weary of transparent affiliates. After all, there's a lot of trickery out there. You have to be on the lookout for the 'Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.' That's right folk, if you're the good guy, beware of the bad and the ugly affiliates. They're out there right now placing infectious adware on an unsuspecting consumer's computer.

As a marketer, it's your responsibility to investigate your affiliates use of adware. Don't turn your head and look the other way. It's OUR consumers that may receive unwanted and/or destructive ads. Can you blame them for becoming angry at the marketer who (perhaps inadvertently) funds adware infections? Of course not. Destructive ads shouldn't even be considered a marketing strategy. It's completely unethical.

The New Guy

In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is a great starting point. If you experience success--run with the ball. Explore additional performance compensation structures. But before you even consider jumping into the game, you should ask yourself the following questions (to avoid business pitfalls):

1). Will affiliate marketing assist you in reaching all of your business

 


targets?

2). Will affiliate marketing have advantages over other types of online marketing?

3). Do you have the time and commitment to run a developing affiliate operation (which will require time to flourish and succeed?

4). How flexible is your budget for affiliate marketing?

Here's some background information for the 'new guy': Time and commitment are essential to your success. While running a network of affiliates doesn't require a college degree, it does require your attention for details. Perhaps this is why merchants find outsourced providers offer a very appealing solution. In addition, the new guy should realize:

* Not everyone will make five figures a month with affiliate marketing. There's a lot of marketers out there. You're the new guy, remember? Find some successful companies that use affiliate marketing. Research them. What did they do to become such a success? Can you duplicate that plan?

* You're not going to make any money eating potato chips in front of the television. If it were that easy--I'd be doing that instead of writing this article on affiliate marketing. Be prepared to devote a lot of time to your business and your affiliate relations.

* Don't take blind referrals from anyone! You'll discover the best affiliate opportunities through your own research.

The Future

In just the last few years, affiliate marketing has become a very powerful force on ecommerce. Every day thousands, if not millions, of merchants rely on affiliate marketing to drive their businesses. But is affiliate marketing all just a big hype? What ever happened to customer service? What strange times we live in; as the value of business is no longer placed on the customer--but on the relationship with whoever facilitated the connection.

This just goes to prove that affiliate marketing is only as good as the people who run it. Remember, there are ways to get your affiliate program noticed; just make sure that you get it noticed for the right reasons. If you value internet based businesses and you'd like more job leads, educational information, and tools to aid your internet entrepreunership, than visit: http://www.ebyro.com (a Vertical Portal for Internet Entrepreneurs).

About the author:

Marissa Ranello is an independent marketing consultant with clients in the United States and Canada. As an employee of eByro, a Vertical Portal for Internet Entrepreneurs, Marissa devotes her time to internet business, performance-based marketing, and affilate programs.