We’ve checked out how you can use affiliate marketing if you are a website owner – promote a product on your site and get a commission if you make any sales.

The other side of that coin is useful if you create your own information products or ebooks. You can list your product on an Affiliate Directory such as Clickbank, and have it promoted by many website owners. More and more people will see your product, and the result will be increased sales.

So, what do you need to get thousands of people promoting your product?

Firstly, your product must meet a need or solve a problem. There’s no point in creating a product that nobody wants, and if that’s the case, you can’t expect website owners to promote it.

Secondly, you need an eye catching sales page. Website owners won’t be keen to direct their hard earned visitors to an unattractive sales page, because they’re less likely to buy. You can use a WordPress blog as a sales page, install a simple theme such as Elegantio, and create a good looking header to match your product. In your admin area, click on settings >reading and select “static page” for your front page, and you have a site that will open to that front page.

Thirdly, your sales letter must be convincing. It must show people that by purchasing your product, their lives will be changed for the better. There are lots of tutorials in cyberspace that can guide you in creating a good sales letter, so do use them. Check out other sales letters and see what you like and don’t like about them.

Professional copywriters can command hundreds of dollars to create a sales letter, and they get results, but they’re not within budget. Give it a shot, and you may surprise yourself.

Fourthly, get some testimonials. Find some credible people in your niche to read your report, and give you feedback. If it’s not great, then improve the product, but if it is, ask if you can use that testimonial on your sales page. A purchaser is more likely to buy your product if he can read good reviews on it.

Lastly, there must be a good commission paid to the website owner. Most commissions are in the range of 50-75%, which, when you compare to offline businesses, is huge! However, don’t forget that it has cost you no more to have your product promoted on another website, and your product could be marketed to people all over the world that you may not be able to reach yourself.  25% of another hundred sales by an affiliate is better than 100% of no sales because it wasn’t worth his while promoting your product.

Setting your product up on an Affiliate Directory can take a bit of time to do properly, and may cost a few dollars. However, the payoff is that if it’s a good product, you’ll make sales that you may not have made on your own. It’s worth doing!

Related posts:

1. Affiliate Marketing – Part 1
2. Forum Marketing – Do It Right

Affiliate marketing is, in it’s simplest terms, being paid a commission when you refer a buyer to a website, and they make a purchase from that site. It’s no different to chatting to your friends and mentioning the great pizza you’d had from the shop down the street, except you get paid for the referral when your friends buy a pizza too.

There are lots of information products, ebooks and software that you can be an affiliate for, and you can find them at affiliate program directories such as Clickbank or Commission Junction.

However, you can also be an affiliate for tangible products such as clothing and pet care products. Even Ebay has an affiliate program where you get paid for referring new members.

An example of some affiliate links are the advertisements in the sidebar of this blog. I have tried all these services, and they are good quality, so I’m quite happy to recommend them.

To start this type of business, you need a website or blog. You can then register with an affiliate directory such as Clickbank, and place affiliate links on your site. When you drive traffic to your site, some people will click on your advertisement, and you will receive a commission if they purchase.

Another option is to build a mailing list, and send emails containing advertisements to your list. This is a whole topic on its own, so we’ll discuss it in detail in a later post.

There are lots of advantages to affiliate marketing as a business model. To get started, all you need is a website, and a free Blogger blog will do this for you.

You don’t have to collect any payments, it’s all done by either the vendor or the affiliate program directory. You don’t have to deliver any products; in fact, in most cases, you don’t need to deal with customers at all.

If it’s that simple, are there any negatives? Well, there are no negatives as such, but a few things you do need to take care with.

You still need to create a site with good content. Your readers aren’t likely to trust your recommendations if your blog posts or articles aren’t interesting and informative.

You need to promote products that relate to the topic of your website or blog. There’s no point in having affiliate links for pet products on a website discussing Harley Davidson motorbikes.

You will need to get traffic to your site, so potential buyers can click on your links. There are many ways of doing this; we’ve already discussed some and will cover more in the future.

Lastly, stick to recommending quality products. If you can’t review a product yourself, then check online for feedback or reviews of the product. Some vendors will allow you to check a review copy of the product if you ask, but you’ll need to show you have a quality site that has a good chance of bringing him sales.

It will do your reputation no good at all if you recommend a product and it turns out to be no good. I personally don’t recommend anything I haven’t read or used myself, so I can feel confident that my review is accurate.

Affiliate marketing is a simple and effective method of earning money around your children. You can set up an affiliate site in a matter of hours, and you can do it without spending a cent. It may be a good option for you.

Related posts:

1. Affiliate Marketing – Part 2
2. Forum Marketing – Do It Right
3. Autoblogging – Can It Work?