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If you've been online for more than 5 minutes, you've heard about Affiliate Marketing. This section
of eBook Crossroads is dedicated to helping you build a profitable business by providing you with the
latest information, tools and resources.
The Basics
Selling Affiliate products is one of the mainstays of the Internet. It is most often the first type of
promotion that new businesses undertake online. The reason for this is that most new online
businesses don't start out with their own product line, so promoting affiliate products is a natural.
Even after we have our own products, promoting affiliate products that don't compete with our
own provides another income stream, which is always welcome.
What exactly is Affiliate Marketing?
Simply put, it boils down to one basic action - getting paid a commission for referring customers
to a merchants website.
There are two basic rules to remember about promoting affiliate products:
1. It is your job to locate potential customers and provide them with the benefits of the product.
It's always helpful to share benefits you have personally received from the product. Discuss a
problem you had and how the product helped you solve it.
In other words, it's your job to get the customers interested and excited - and get them to visit the
merchants sales page.
2. It is the merchant's job to sell the product. One of the biggest mistakes affiliates make is
in trying to sell the actual product instead of the benefits. Let your merchant tell them about the
features and do the actual selling.
Following this advice will result in the merchant selling more products - and you making more commissions.
The reason promoting affiliate products is so popular with new online businesses is that it's not necessary
to have a large outlay of money to get started. There are many ways to promote affiliate products for
little or no cost at all.
The one investment you should make, however, is your own website(see video above).
Before customers will make a purchase from you they need to trust you, believe that you know about the
product you're promoting. Creating a content-rich website will provide the platform for building that trust
and credibility with your customers.
If you take some time and optimize your website for the search engines, you will receive traffic
that is targeted to your niche. This is another no-cost endeavor - and well worth your time!
Traffic generation is the lifeblood of a successful website and to building a successful affiliate
business. Marketers use different methods to generate targeted traffic, including search engine optimization,
traditional advertising , email marketing, viral marketing and article marketing.
Now that you have your website up and running, it's time to choose affiliate programs to work with.
Obviously, you're looking for products that match or enhance your niche, but how do you choose the
programs that will work for you?
There are several things you'll want to research before choosing an affiliate program. Surprisingly,
it may not be the highest commissions that will work best for you! You need to consider the merchant's
site conversion rate, does the merchant offer tools (graphics, ads, emails, etc.), Is the program one-tier
or two-tier? For more in-depth information read
"Choosing An Affiliate Program".
In this section you'll find information on many facets of promoting affiliate products, as well as tips, tools and
resources to help you get started buiding your affiliate business or growing your existing business.
To your success...
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