Affiliate Marketing Part 1 - Introduction

I use affiliate marketing now for some time in yourself and have learned a lot during that time. However, I am not an absolute affiliate marketing professional and will therefore not safely reveal all secrets, nor for any situation have the right answer.

But I will share my knowledge with you, and that will certainly help many of you like to earn money with affiliate programs.

Otherwise, the same motto as always, you never stop learning and you should always test, test, test.

Okay, enough of the preliminary apology and go.

[Click here for the summary page with all the articles of this affiliate marketing series ]

Introduction to Affiliate Marketing

For those who have not been involved in affiliate marketing, I would like to explain the concept behind it for now.

Basically, it is of course true that companies want their products and services to the man or the woman. This goes in completely different ways and usually you have to stir it well the word.After all, thousands of companies are trying to sell their products.

The Internet offers the opportunity to pursue a purchase process very closely and it is a new form of advertising incurred, the Affiliate Marketing.

By making a website or blog operator installs a specific product link to his site, he can get this commission when someone goes through this link in the respective shop, where they can buy something.

As an example, Amazon is mentioned. There you can sign up for free as an affiliate and generate categories or individual products in Amazon Store special links. I build you as a link with me, then I get a commission of a few percent when someone clicks on these links and then buys something from Amazon.

It sells itself as an affiliate nothing, but gives buyers (or prospective customers, but more on that later). The dealer

The course ensures that you can apply without any financial risk hundreds of products, and then collects commissions. But of course, the commission is as high as if you would sell the product itself.

Commission models

Advertising

The best known way to earn a commission is the "pay per sale". One builds eg a link to a product on Amazon in its website and someone clicks on that link and then buy this product from Amazon. I get 5% of the product price as well written as a commission.

But apart from the "pay per sale" There are a number of other payment models:

• Pay per sale
  is As I said, here paid a commission when I teach a client about my links to the merchant. Usually be enforced by a cookie that I also get the commission when it mediated the customer a little later with the store bought. (Usually 30-60 days after you click on the affiliate link)
• Pay per Click
  Similar to Google AdSense here you get a commission when someone clicks on an affiliate link. These rates, however, prices are usually quite low.
• Pay per Lead
  This type of remuneration is quite popular and is used eg for insurance. I'm already writing a commission good when someone on my affiliate link makes contact to the dealer or the insurance example. This type of commission is most often used for consultation-intensive products, because hardly anyone buys or ordered something immediately.
• Pay per SignUp
  This fee is, if for example someone has logged into an online game and has come through my affiliate link to it. The compensation is usually quite low even here, but again, it makes the ground.
• Pay per view
  is also the traditional billing per 1,000 banner displays it in affiliate marketing. However, this compensation model actually goes against the advantages which distinguish the affiliate marketing.
• Lifetime
  There are some affiliate programs that not once, but over a longer period to pay commissions. That is usually the case with dealers who sell subscriptions. As long as customers switched so the merchant has a subscription (eg, server rental) I get every month an amount X. It may be worth it if the customer referred term for merchant remain.

There are a few more obscure payment models, but in reality play little role.

Market Data

Affiliate marketing is basically taking place in 2 ways.

Either you work directly with the dealer, as it is for example the case of Amazon. You register directly on Amazon, where it can then generate the affiliate link and choose the ads.

Or you can use one of the many affiliate networks. These have been connected as an intermediary between merchants and Blog-/Website-Betreiber. Make the technique to measure sales, clicks etc. and settlement of accounts with affiliates ready.

This primarily use many small firms and traders affiliate networks and rely on no own. The Blog-/Website-Betreiber finds in this way hundreds of interesting affiliate marketer and everything is running an account. This is of course the time factor is not insignificant when you consider that you would have to log otherwise, as with Amazon, with each dealer separately and put all the different billing software etc.

The affiliate market is growing despite the economic crisis continues. The Online Marketing Group BVDW expected for 2009, a 15% increase in affiliate marketing to around 308 million euros. In order for the affiliate marketing is growing faster than the normal online advertising market (+10%), although the absolute volume far less.

And it is likely that in an economic recovery, the growth of affiliate marketing will continue to grow.

Who can benefit from affiliate marketing?

Naturally Afffiliate marketing not the best choice for everyone.

There are still many other ways to make money on the Internet . This example is part of thesale of advertising space , paid content , Google AdSense and many other sources of revenue.

Affiliate marketing has a lot of potential and if the needed traffic to a sufficient extent to let go of the right affiliate links, then it is possible to earn very well.

According to a recent study, at least in the U.S. earn 17% of affiliates (450 took part in the study) over $ 20,000 per month with their affiliate programs.

The broad mass of affiliates (46%) earned relatively little (between 0 and $ 500).

Also Here again, that affiliate marketing is not automatic. Only if you really depends purely and constantly tested and optimized, it increases its revenue. But why I am writing this series of articles, too.

Affiliate marketing on blogs?

There are always claims that affiliate marketing blogs in poorly functioning. And if you affiliate links and banners incorporating equally unkind, how to do that as with AdSense banners, then it usually works well only very poorly.

But there are also use blogs for very good methods for affiliate marketing. I will focus on these methods in detail in an article of this series.

Basically, blogs and the appropriate software, such as WordPress, but no obstacle to the affiliate marketing. On the contrary. There are many successful affiliates that use WordPress. It depends, as with many things in life, just depends on how one uses the technique and of course I will also go out in an article.

And just blogs offer a great advantage over normal websites. You can not build a reputation as a blogger. And if the readers trust you, then Product recommendations are naturally absorbed better than on any website.

Why the future belongs to affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a so-called Peformance-based marketing tool. The cost is coupled with the income and it will never happen that one has cost, but as a marketing tool has brought nothing.So it is indeed in classic banner advertising from time to time.

Especially in difficult economic times, companies look really close, how effective a marketing instrument. And in the case of affiliate marketing for the company falling yes you only pay when sales were also made.

Therefore it is so popular right now. Cost is clearly calculable and if its Portal well as business plans, then there is also no surprise.

But for blog and website owners affiliate marketing is very interesting. If you do it right, then you can earn very good money.

Therefore I assume that the importance of affiliate marketing in the future is increasing. Many companies have to get used to it but for now that marketing is no longer centrally located in their hands. This is hard for some companies.

Pros and cons of affiliate marketing,
the end of the introduction to affiliate marketing, I would like again to list the pros and cons of affiliate marketing.

Advantages of affiliate marketing

• There are no up-front cost for affiliates. So you do not build an expensive shop, shop or similar products.
• It has a wide range of partner programs. In Germany, thousands of programs from all areas to choose from.
• Affiliate links and banners are to be installed quickly and easily.
• One can use affiliate links very closely to appeal to a target audience.
• The reason is that you have full control and only displays what you really want.
• Affiliate marketing offers a lot of potential for improvement. This does indeed work, but it can increase the earnings, ideally, as much as on any other source of income.
• Affiliate marketing is very good for the long tail. You have a website or blog with hundreds or thousands of old articles? Perfect!

Cons of affiliate marketing

• It is just the "pay per sale" very different from the optimization of stores pending. Then you have no control. If the shop is done badly, then I can still give as many potential customers, it will barely make sales and therefore commissions.
• There are no guarantees of income. If you want more security, which is the sale of banner places better off, since one can have a certain predictability.
• A big issue is transparency. Since dealers usually manually activate the commission, no one can really say for certain whether the dealer paid for all sales correctly. There's certainly daily black sheep.
• There is certainly affiliate programs that are not without concerns. If you are applying eg, drugs or gambling, then the legal consequences entail.

I hope this introduction first gives a comprehensive and comprehensible picture of affiliate marketing.

Of course this is just an introduction. Details of affiliate programs to choose from, the optimization of affiliate sites, the traffic generation and so naturally follow. So not the same complain.

As always, I welcome comments and suggestions.