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Monday, November 27, 2006

The advantages of joining an affiliate program and how it’s beneficial to the affiliates.

 


Its become common knowledge amongst the internet surfers who scout for various avenues available to them, to make big money from the internet, that affiliate marketing is a wonderful concept that’s available for free, which are offered by the various merchant sites that want to expand their business globally, by recruiting online agents or affiliates, also called associates, who are willing to promote their products and services, in lieu of a hefty commission on the internet globally and offline locally. Most affiliate programs, without exception, are free to join, without any upfront fees that are to be paid by the willing affiliates, who volunteers to promote, not on salary terms or being in the payroll of the company, but as a commission agent. Affiliates do not have any legal tie up as in a partnership or a shareholders company. Its just a revenue sharing arrangement where neither party is a loser and  both are declared joint winners.       



Their relationship with the merchant site is limited to promoting the various tangible and intangible products or services on the net within the ambit of the terms and conditions that every affiliate has to subscribe to before they are accepted as affiliates by the merchant sites.   



Let us take into account the advantages of joining an affiliate program before we discuss the technical nitty-gritty that goes into identifying each of the affiliates with their unique code and a link that’s used as a gateway, by the customers visiting the merchant website and which identifies the customers, preferably for lifetime, as the affiliates own customers because of a unique java script code, called cookies, that’s automatically embedded in the customers computer, each time they visit the parent merchant website and because of which  the affiliate is paid a commission, every time its customer makes a purchase from the parent merchant website, even if the customers visit the merchant site directly or by bypassing the affiliates gateway link, perhaps using some other affiliates website/link.


 


First of all the affiliates and their parent merchant website offering the affiliate programs enjoy a symbiotic relationship without any monetary obligation, except for paying the commissions on time to the affiliates by the merchant site, whenever a sale is made, provided the affiliates has adhered to the terms and conditions of the merchant site, without having scammed or spammed to promote sales that puts the reputation of the merchant site at stake and which automatically nullifies the cordial affiliate or associate relationship that the affiliates enjoy with their merchant sites. Apart from the symbiotic, win-win relationship that they enjoy, we will further discuss the other advantages that are available to the
affiliates.


 


Affiliate programs are great ways to make money online, without having to own any products or services that you offer for sale. In fact it’s the best option available on the net to make millions of dollars, without having to spend a dime. All you are expected to do is promote the products and services, every single day. It also relieves you of the hassles of developing a product that’s tailor made to suit the clients that you wish them to buy from you for satisfaction, reliability and at a bargain price, that makes them return to you many times to look out for more products, which you need to keep developing if you do not wish to lose your business that has built a large and loyal customers nurtured over the years. As an affiliate you do not have to develop products, rather look for ones that are available on the internet and start promoting them as an affiliate to satisfy your hungry customers whom you have made your fans, like the film stars, and keep them happy with products that you promote to them, since they have begun to trust your choice and acumen of the products and services that you offer from your website.


 



Affiliate marketing is perhaps the best option available for anyone to do business on the internet. It’s especially good for those who are novice and do not have much of an idea how ecommerce actually works. No other program other than the affiliate marketing gives you a vast opportunity to sell any products or services not belonging to you, yet help you to make lots of money without having to invest anything other than your time and effort. It is not necessary to maintain an inventory or host an expensive website. The whole operation is online and automatic without you having to know about the nitty-gritty of Internet technology. All you need to do is promote on behalf of the merchant whose affiliate you have become. For every sale you make the merchant pays a commission to the affiliates. It’s not even necessary to have your own website initially, but preferable if you wish to make the mullah that you desperately seek to buy yourself your dream car or house, to promote your affiliate products. In fact all that you need to be saddled  in these online affiliate marketing business is to have access to a computer, irrespective of  which corner of the globe you are in, even while cruising on a ship mid ocean, as long as you are connected by internet to the rest of the world.   


 


There is no capital outlay. It costs nothing and your obligation is virtually nil, when you join an affiliate program offered by a merchant. In fact you can start promoting and selling immediately after being approved for the program. The internet marketing tools are already provided for you by the merchant sites that are available readymade or if you are already an established super affiliate maybe you can have the promotion tools customized to your specifications. 


 


One of the greatest responsibility and the problems associated with collection of money, from customers making a purchase using their credit card or through an intermediary that makes the payment on their behalf, is to maintain a proper record of the payments along with the names of the customers who makes the purchase, and the consequences of a chargeback from a disgruntled client who wishes to get back the refund. These problems and responsibility faced by a merchant site is missing in case of an affiliate. In fact the affiliate does not have to bother with the complex process that goes into acceptance of payments. Neither they have to cope with the problems of chargeback, scam or of losing a merchant account.    


 



Whether you are a newbie to Internet or a proud owner of a website, affiliate programs are great opportunities for you to make money online. It is an interesting concept that allows affiliates to develop a source of income and the program owners to sell their products more effectively.



As an affiliate your job is to drive traffic to the program owner’s site. Once a potential customer visits the parent/owners website having used your specially coded unique affiliate code as a gateway, it becomes the responsibility of the merchant site and not yours to convert that visit to a potential sale that results in a transaction for which you are paid a commission in appreciation to your marketing promotion.



You get a commission from each sale made to a customer that originated from your marketing efforts.



Once you become interested in making money through affiliate programs and do some research you will come to know that there are many affiliates, who consistently make thousands of dollars month after month.



James Martell, who also wrote a handbook on affiliate marketing, claims that he makes over US$ 40K each month from his 30 over niche affiliate sites.



Phil Wiley lives in a remote area near Australia’s Great Barrier Reefs but it does not create any barrier for him to make a comfortable living from his online incomes.



Rosalind Gardner, author of the Super Affiliate Handbook, made over US $400,000 last year alone by promoting different affiliate programs.



In fact you don’t even require having an MBA to do business on the internet. Rosalind Gardner is a perfect example. She is a citizen of Canada, and before entering into online business, she worked for the government as an air traffic controller for twenty years. She doesn’t even hold an MBA degree, and had zero experience in online business. According to Rosalind, from 1997 to 2001 she was only promoting affiliate programs. She earned 100% income from the Internet alone, since 2000, when she quit her regular job. She has been making $30,000 to $50,000 (in US dollars) each and every month. Last year she made
$436,797,
($657,801 Canadian),by affiliating with Internet merchants and selling their products.



Rosalind Gardner’s affiliate sites have been so lucrative that they've been profiled in many venues. Interviews appear in the late Corey Rudl's, now Derek Gehl’s '
Secrets To Their Success
', and Jason Anderson's 'Achieve Net Profits' as well as in glossy magazines such as 'Six Figure Income Magazine'.



 Kevin Bidwell of
All-in-One Business has written about her affiliate marketing business success, as has Allan Gardyne of 'AssociatePrograms.com'.


For further study on the subject matter, its recommended that you refer the following sources:



1. Super Affiliate Handbook: How I Made $436,797 in One Year Selling Other People's Stuff Online
"



2.NetProfitsToday  -

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