Affiliate marketing is both new and old. It is new in that it has a new delivery system – the internet. It is old in that it is similar to the past sales systems where sales reps sell a product that someone else owns, earning a commission for doing so. The difference in the two is significant. In contrast to sales representation, affiliate marketing means no inventory having to be carried, low-cost business, unlimited income potential, worldwide customer base, low risk due to no-cost or low-cost startup, and twenty-four hour business due to the nature of internet marketing. It is THE way to make money in sales. Affiliate marketing makes it easier than ever to make a good income with a minimum of time and money.



How do you profit from affiliate marketing? You invest a minimum of money and time in promoting someone else's product on mail lists or websites. You have to find the right product and the right way to promote that product. Often, article marketing is the perfect way to promote the product, involving writing information filed articles about topics related to your product you wish to promote. For example, if you are promoting a dog training book, you might right articles about dog health, filled with useful information. The key to this is search engine optimization (SEO), meaning you discover the right keywords that will bring traffic to your site or article, but that is not so popular that you have to compete with thousands of competitors.

There is three ways you get paid in affiliate marketing. One is pay per click, where every time someone clicks on your affiliate link that is either in your article, in your email signature, or on your website, a certain, agreed-upon amount is added to your account. This compensation is usually very low, from a few cents to a dollar or so, because just clicking through is no guarantee that the person will purchase the product. Still, every click through is a potential customer, either immediately or at sometime in the future. Many affiliate programs record the customer identifying information so that if they come back and buy later, you get credit for the sale. Another method of compensation is pay per sale. This involves only getting paid if the customer actually buys the product. Usually the compensation is the most with this method, ranging from 10% to as much as 75%. Some affiliate programs just give a set compensation amount, but they usually fall within that percentage range. Another method of compensation is based on pay per lead. In this method, you get a small amount deposited every time someone registers at the merchant website after clicking on your affiliate link. Again, some programs also keep a record of this contact and pay a percentage if a sale is made.

What are some keys to success in affiliate marketing? They include all of the following:

* High quality content – Whatever you use to promote your affiliate product, whether articles, emails, or websites, you need to provide good quality content that is related to your product. This content needs to be updated periodically so your potential customers will come back repeatedly. This is especially important if you are promoting multiple products from the same merchant or the same or related products.

* A newsletter or email campaign – This is often done using an autoresponder which entails very little effort on your part past the initial setup. Just don't forget to update if you are using an autoresponder so that your content is always current to marketing trends and news that benefits you. Use this method to present new information, make frequent contact with good relevant content, or to let the customer know when you update your website with new information.

* Networking – This involves joining email lists, blogs, or webrings. Any time you can take advantage of someone else's traffic, you have to work less.

* Optimize your content – Optimizing content means knowing what are the popular keywords, but keywords that are not so competitive that you may never reach the first page of the search engines. Search engine optimization (SEO) just means making your content such that searches for certain keywords will mean your listing will be on the first page.

* Tracking results – You can't know what is working or not working unless you have a method to track what is happening. Track ads, articles, website visits, ROI, click throughs, and any other information that will tell you what is working and what is not as effective.

To succeed at affiliate marketing, it is important to choose the right product, right merchant, and the right marketing method. Keep all the above affiliate marketing tips in mind and you will enjoy success in affiliate marketing and earn a very decent income with very little investment of time and money.