Sunday, April 05, 2009

What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Publisher: Earl Williams
The NetMarketer


On most websites you'll see advertising links at the top, bottom and on the sides. Most of the advertisements are related to the site. Displaying these ads on other sites could be a part of an affiliate marketing program.

Affiliate marketing is the idea of using other sites to help sell your products and drive traffic to your site. Affiliate marketing works best when everyone involved benefits from the process. If you need exposure for your products, get other business websites involved in making that happen.

Many websites offer affiliate programs. One of the more popular ones is Google AdWords. Some programs require you to just sign up, while others have an application that they ask you to fill out to evaluate if your website is right for their program.

Affiliate marketing is great for websites that don't have a product or service to sell but would like to generate revenue in some way. As a part of an affiliate marketing program, websites earn commissions for hosting your ads on their website. As you make money so do they.

You have worked hard to build your website. Maybe you have employed several strategies to increase your visibility on the Internet: SEO content, email marketing, eBooks, viral marketing and the like. Now you are ready for something new to increase your traffic and sales.

Affiliate marketing is easy and effective. The strategy here is to find your niche and decide what you will sell on your site. Develop a strong philosophy and operating policy to attract others to your affiliate program.

Investigate other affiliate programs. You may have joined a few when you were getting started to generate revenue. Learn how the better ones operate and their strategies for success. Before beginning your own, decide on commission rates, how you will pay your affiliates, and what benefits you will offer them.

Set yourself apart as a resource for your niche to increase your popularity. When you produce great search engine optimized content that is updated regularly, people come back to your site over and over again. You want them to have something fresh to see each time someone clicks on your links.

Affiliate marketing works for those who are also selling goods or services. They are not in direct competition with you so both of you can benefit. Get regular reports on how well the affiliate marketing strategy is working for you. Some products may sell better than others. Change the items you sell based on these numbers.

Affiliate marketing uses other popular websites to advertise for you and your website. With links to your products and services on other websites, you increase your traffic and hopefully your sales through this marketing strategy.


Earl Williams is a real entrepreneur who is making money with his online marketing business using some of the largest Affiliate programs on the Internet. He makes it easy for anyone to build their ideal online business and earn a substantial income from home. Learn how to start your ideal business and start making money online by visiting his website: http://www.netmarketer.org