Affiliate Marketing is Here to Stay

Author: Mike Lohmeyer

Will Economic Downturn Hurt Affiliate Marketing?



The economic downturn appears to be affecting every niche in the consumer market, but affiliate marketing may be spared.

As companies look for ways to trim their budgets, they must search for the most cost effective ways to find and bring in their customers with marketing and advertising. And affiliate marketing, it turns out, may be the very last place that companies cut.



Traditional media advertising is expensive and difficult to direct toward the specific consumer you are trying to bring in. The cost of advertising on television and print may become prohibitive for many companies, or at least the target of cut backs.



But the internet is a far different story. Companies find it easier to spend their dollars wisely on captive audiences. And one of the biggest dilemmas of advertising, finding your target audience, is much easier on the internet thanks to the huge number of sites that have narrow interests.



Another plus? It's far cheaper to advertise on the internet than on television. Basically, in this electronic age, you get more bang for your buck.



That bodes well for affiliate marketing, an area on the internet that appears to be growing despite the recession. Affiliate marketing, for those who aren't familiar with this term, is when you sell or promote a product on a website with hopes that someone will purchase that product after clicking on the link on your site. Every time someone buys a product after clicking on an ad from your site, you get a commission.



While affiliate marketing is definitely getting more popular, the switch by major corporations may not happen overnight. Senior management may be at first reluctant to recognize the benefits of putting their advertising dollars on such a relatively new medium. But some experts do see a trend, which is being fast-forwarded to some extent by the worsening economy.



More mainstreams companies are turning their sites toward affiliate marketing and its ability to bring in consumers.



For example, Jet Airways, a privately-owned air carrier, recently announced it is launching its own affiliate marketing program. In another deal, Social Media Ventures, Inc. announced that it has agreed to a new online affiliate marketing program, to feature special savings on pet products from PETCO, for its social networking site for pet enthusiasts, PetsPlaces.com.



Another indication that affiliate marketing is fairing well? The recent Affiliate Summit Conference in Las Vegas, had a record number of attendees. Another is scheduled for August in New York and is expected to attract even higher numbers, according to organizers.



In a survey conducted by Datran Media of 3,000 marketing executives from Fortune 100 companies, 42 percent said affiliate marketing was part of their overall marketing strategy for increasing business. That question wasn't even included in the previous surveys.



As affiliate marketing becomes more mainstream, it can only mean that it could be one business that is considered recession-proof. Studies have already shown that more and more people are buying product on-line rather than in brick and mortar stores, and that trend is expected to continue. That's also good news for affiliate marketers.

About the Author:
Mike Lohmeyer is an internet marketer and owner of http://homebusiness3best.com/blog and http://anybodymoney.com

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/affiliate-marketing-is-here-to-stay-784882.html

Affiliate Marketing Tips

Author: Mandeep Sidhu

Do you know who took the smallest hits in the stock market these days? The ones who had a diverse portfolio. What does this have to do with affiliate marketing? As with anything else in life, if you concentrate all your efforts in one area and that one area goes south on you, you\'re going to be in big trouble. That\'s why it\'s important, as an affiliate marketer, to make sure that you don\'t put all your eggs in one basket. This article is going to offer some suggestions for diversification.

First, a little story. I started as an affiliate marketer back in 2003. I latched onto this really great product that I started selling. I did so well selling it that the product owner told me that I was his top affiliate. I think that\'s pretty cool considering that I had just started out and didn\'t have a lot of experience. For more details www.affiliate-windfall-secrets.com Anyway, this is the only product that I sold back then. I didn\'t need to sell anything else because sales were so good. However, as time went by and the product got old, it didn\'t sell so well anymore. I realized that I had to start looking for other things to sell. Had I done this at the start, I wouldn\'t have had to scramble last minute to find a substitute as my income was starting to dry up.

Now, don\'t get me wrong. I also made sure I developed my own products after marketing a few years so that I didn\'t need to depend on affiliate sales. But as I started to settle into my new role as a product creator, I realized that I missed affiliate marketing and went back into it. Doing this, I noticed that this trend of products that would stop selling after a while didn\'t stop. I was always replacing old products with new ones. So what I started to do was grab hold of a number of products in different niches at one time and promote them all. This made it so that if one stopped selling, I had others to fall back on and could then take my time looking for a substitute. As a result, my affiliate income today is quite steady.

My suggestion is simple. Diversify. Create a portfolio of maybe five or six different products to sell and try to make them in different niches. For more details www.affiliate-directories-online.com For example, you might sell six products from the following niches: sports, dating, make money, debt relief, health and photography...just as examples. This way, if one stops selling, you have five others that will still be selling well while you look for a replacement. This way, you don\'t have to worry about your income ever drying up completely.

About the Author:

www.greatpromotionsite.com

www.master-affiliates-marketer.com

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/affiliate-marketing-tips--778836.html

How to Prevent Fraud and Save Thousands in Affiliate Sales

Author: Egidijus Andreika

Affiliate marketing can be a fantastic way to promote your products online and earn a lot of money with affiliate's help. However, like in any other form of business, there are some risks of facing fraud involved. Here are the best ways to prevent affiliate marketing scammers from fleecing you of your money.



Stolen credit cards and PayPal accounts



Many affiliate marketers are smart enough to steal customer credit card account information and make it look like they have made a successful sale. This is done so that they can earn commissions from your merchant program wrongfully. You need to install safety measures and anti-hacking systems as well as authentication methods to prevent such occurrences. Make sure your merchant account provider provides you with all the tools to detect and prevent fraud.



Detecting spam mails



One other way to detect malicious affiliate marketers is to find out if they have been sending spam mails to customers. Most amateur marketers will send customers bulk emails hoping to receive more income. However, this can get your company ignored and even blacklisted in the minds of your customers. The best way to stop this is by banning these affiliate marketers from your program. Make sure that your merchant account and affiliate management solution allows you to fully control your affiliates and ban them accordingly.



Black hat sites



Many fraud affiliate marketers will use Black Hat sites to lure unsuspecting customers to purchasing products. The way they do this is by using similar domain names as your parent site and having a small typo in it so that no one suspects it is another site. Customers visit these sites and purchase products, little knowing that their credit card information is being logged and stolen. This can damage your company's reputation massively. Make sure your affiliate program has high quality parameters before you enroll new marketers.



Software like human behavior



There are affiliate marketers who will develop software and scripts, which mimic the actions of users. These scripts will make it seem as if a user has clicked to your merchant site, when in reality it is the software doing it. Make sure your affiliate marketing management system can easily detect such scammers and ban them.



Illegal transactions



Affiliate marketers also use fake identifications and use credit cards stolen from customers to make purchases of your merchant products. This way, they get their commissions and later on also perform a chargeback or refund to get the money back into the account. Customers do not suspect as they receive the money back but you as a merchant end up losing heavily by paying such marketers commissions. Make sure your affiliate marketing system protects you from such cases with built-in tools to protect merchants.



Where affiliates are scammed



There are also instances in which other affiliate marketers set up parasite websites, which hack the hard-working affiliates affiliate links and cookies. In this method, leads that your affiliates have procured are diverted to these parasite sites, where the customer is made to make purchases. Thus the commissions are received by these parasite affiliates instead of your own marketers. Make sure your affiliate marketing system protects honest affiliates and protects from unfair ones.

About the Author:
Egidijus Andreika is a creator of Click2Sell.EU affiliate network to sell products. Click2Sell allows you to sell digital products online and run your affiliate program. It protects your business from fraudulent affiliates, sales and all expenses related with fraud because of a advanced anti-fraud system. Visit Click2Sell to sell products online.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/how-to-prevent-fraud-and-save-thousands-in-affiliate-sales-777531.html

To Buy or Not to Buy an Affiliate Program

Author: James Neely

A friend of mine stopped by the house a few days ago and had some questions about making money on the Internet. I thought that this would make a good article on the topic of whether or not you should buy an affiliate program on the Internet.



First, Joe asked what I am doing to make money on the Internet. He knows that I am a freelance writer, but he just didn't get what that had to do with making money on the Internet. I assured him that you do not have to be a writer to make money on the Internet and become wealthy. But, I pointed out that the best decision I made as a freelance writer was to buy an affiliate program.



I also told him that he needs to know this one fact before proceeding: YOU can make money on the Internet. It is not difficult to learn, but it takes motivation, desire and drive to get it done. I also stressed this point: that there are no get-rich-quick schemes that work. In fact, if you see any advertisements that look like them, do the best thing: turn and run.



I told him that the best and most credible programs ALWAYS tell you up front about the amount of work that it will take to get you where you want to go. And, they will also tell you that it takes money to become wealthy. You will need to purchase some tools to help you as you go along. I got a chuckle out of him when I asked him if he expected money just to come pouring into his bank account. The only way that happens is if you win the lottery!



I asked him how much he knows about Internet marketing. He stated that he does not know anything other than the spam emails that arrive in his inbox.



I told him that as long as he has the right tools, and the drive and desire, he needs to buy an affiliate program that will help him reach his goal of becoming wealthy. I broke it down this way:



Tools you need: A computer, Internet connection and an email address. That is the bare minimum. You might want to try to save a little money in order to create your own website. But that is purely optional.



The drive and desire has to come from within. Often times, adversity spawns change. We change because we are unhappy with where we are. That is where I found myself and I used that as motivation to make changes in my life. I am happier and on my way to making a career out of Internet marketing.



Finally, get hooked up with a program that will help you reach your goals. I stressed again that he should buy an affiliate program that is reputable. Not only will they set realistic expectations up front, but the best always offer a great online marketing course. And, to me the most valuable part of any affiliate program is the community of like-minded people who are all doing the same thing. You get connected with those who are not only going through what you are, but also those who have been there and can help you get where you are trying to go.



Joe walked out with his questions answered and a determined look on his face. I know him well enough to know what that means. He is going to buy an affiliate program to help him become wealthy. And he will not be sorry that he did.

About the Author:

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/to-buy-or-not-to-buy-an-affiliate-program-765780.html

How to Achieve Affiliate Marketing Success

Author: Zack Lim

A lot of people have found success in their online businesses and become millionaires in their own right. One form of online business where you can have unlimited income streams is through affiliate marketing. This business model can bring you up the financial ladder in no time at all, especially if you sign-up with good affiliate programs which can provide you with training, banner ads, and even sample marketing e-mails to help you achieve the kind of success you've never dreamed about.


After joining an exceptional affiliate marketing program, you will need to put up your very own affiliate marketing website. You won't have to sweat too much about driving the much-needed traffic to your site. All you need to do is include an opt-in web page that will collect all the names and e-mail address of your prospective customers.


This information will prove to be valuable when you start sending them marketing e-mails to market your product or service. Without this list of names and e-mails, you will have no one to market to, thus, no potential to make a sale.


Another way to achieve affiliate marketing success is to dangle an offer no one can resist. Mouth-watering copy laid down on an attractive website, complete with bonus offers and freebies for every purchase will provide the kind of good value that no prospective customer can resist.


Affiliate marketing is one of the top business models sure to make your climb to the top a successful one. Simply find a good product, create a professional website, build your lists, and start selling with an offer that's hard to resist, and you'll achieve online success in no time.

About the Author:

Zack Lim is an internet affiliate marketer who owns http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com. He has helped hundreds of people to start their own affiliate marketing business.

He’s recently developed a Free e-course showing you a step by step process for starting your own affiliate marketing business easier. To learn how to start your own affiliate marketing business without wasting your time and money, visit http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/affiliate-programs-articles/how-to-achieve-affiliate-marketing-success-759753.html

Understand the Adverse Effects of Affiliate Opportunity: Adware

Author: Zack Lim

Although it is not as bad as the dreaded spyware, adware uses just the same methods and the technologies that create spyware. In the beginning, before light was shed on the reality of adware, merchants and advertisers were uninformed and oblivious about what exactly an adware was and just how destructive it can be for their company.

Affiliate marketers only started to understand what adware was when they began to lose revenue. This is because adware often overwrites tracking cookies, which makes them useless for the marketers who have been using such to force traffic into their websites. An affiliate who doesn’t use adware would feel that they were losing out on the opportunity to increase revenue.

This is just one of the adverse effects of affiliate marketing. Because of the type of the income affiliate opportunity presented by this kind of business, many people are building programs that can bring traffic into the website but then can also bring a lot of damage to the company’s reputation. Adware is often sneaky, has no valuable purpose and rarely gives the user any form of useful content about the product. Moreover, the user is usually unaware that the adware program has been already installed into the computer since it does not need the user’s permission to unpack.

It is really no surprise at all why there are unscrupulous programs that are borne at the different affiliate opportunity of marketing business that became successful. The only great thing here is nowadays companies make it a point to make a code that has high standards in ethical marketing

About the Author:

Zack Lim is an internet affiliate marketer who owns http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com/FreeEcourse. He has helped hundreds of people to start their own affiliate marketing business.

He’s recently developed a free e-course showing you a step by step process for starting your own affiliate marketing business easier. To learn how to start your own affiliate marketing business without wasting your time and money, visit http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com/FreeEcourse

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/affiliate-programs-articles/understand-the-adverse-effects-of-affiliate-opportunity-adware-759806.html

Using Affiliate Marketing Websites to Achieve Rewards

Author: Zack Lim

The term affiliate marketing is an internet-based strategy which a company or a business would give rewards to affiliates or partners for every person or consumer they bring into the marketing efforts done by the company. The rewards are dependent on the volume and number of customers that a marketing affiliate is able to get. The policy is the more customers you can bring into the company to buy their goods or services, the more rewards you can get.


Rewards can come in form of monetary incentives or other non-monetary trade such as internet hosting. Other companies, as a reward, give their goods and services for free to their partners who are able to market the product. For example, John has a Public Relations business, and he knows Nancy, who is an internet savvy. So John asks Nancy to put an ad on her website telling her visitors to visit John’s PR company.


The number of people who actually visit John’s company from the information they got from Nancy’s website will tell how much reward Nancy will get. Perhaps Nancy will set up a more interesting ad, or a bigger one, to invite more clients to go to John’s company. In this scenario, Nancy is the affiliate, and the process that went on is what is called affiliate marketing. Nancy’s website is an example of an affiliate marketing website.


Many companies prefer this method because it is easy and hassle free. Also, for this particular marketing method, the only thing that a company has to do is get a website that has good visitor traffic, and the rest will be up to the website administrator.

About the Author:

Zack Lim is an internet affiliate marketer who owns http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com/FreeEcourse. He has helped hundreds of people to start their own affiliate marketing business.

He’s recently developed a free e-course showing you a step by step process for starting your own affiliate marketing business easier. To learn how to start your own affiliate marketing business without wasting your time and money, visit http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com/FreeEcourse

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/affiliate-programs-articles/using-affiliate-marketing-websites-to-achieve-rewards-759814.html

Affiliate Network: What is the Power of Many?

Author: Zack Lim

Companies who are expanding their advertising and marketing scope will eventually get into affiliate marketing. This type of marketing strategy is defined as a rewards system given to partners of a company, usually a website, who does all the marketing for the product or service.


In usual scenarios, a website will be commissioned to put up an advertisement for the product or service. Now the number of customers that were pulled in through that means is the yardstick by which the company determines how much the reward will be given to the website.


In some instances, a big company commissions several websites. They often use many websites to promote there goods and services to increase the number of customers for the company. This practice is referred as the affiliate network, an interconnection of websites that all markets the products of one company.

However, with the rise in popularity of affiliate network usage, uncontrollable and destructive programs occur. These are those who use spamming, trademark infringement, and false advertising and other unethical methods to trick internet users to click on the link. For some time, affiliate marketing was placed in a negative light, especially since some claim that viruses and other malware are sent through these means.

Nonetheless, in the years that came after the decline, most websites have cleaned up their acts and moved forward to a more secure and friendlier version of internet marketing. The trust of consumers was regained and a lot of this can be accounted to the websites themselves who started to educate customers on how to detect questionable emails or websites. This factor was really such a great help in the popularity of affiliate network use once again.

About the Author:

Zack Lim is an internet affiliate marketer who owns http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com/FreeEcourse. He has helped hundreds of people to start their own affiliate marketing business.

He’s recently developed a free e-course showing you a step by step process for starting your own affiliate marketing business easier. To learn how to start your own affiliate marketing business without wasting your time and money, visit http://www.MyAffiliateMarketingOnline.com/FreeEcourse

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/affiliate-programs-articles/affiliate-network-what-is-the-power-of-many-759788.html