The internet has many opportunities to make money by advertising other companies’ products and services. With over 16 million web pages on the Internet, it’s nearly impossible to “stumble upon” a company’s site. Companies figured out if they pay commissions to “average Joes” they could drive customers to their site at very little cost. Why pay for a large sales force when you can pay a commission to an affiliate only when a sale is made? Affiliate programs not only improve their bottom line but are a free way for them to “get the word out” about their site.
Is it difficult to succeed as an Affiliate? Not really depending upon your definition of success. It is quite easy to do very little work and make a few extra bucks promoting products to your friends and family.
What about a steady cash stream? This is very possible – some of the top performers earn over $250,000 a year just from affiliate programs. They are doing much more than telling friends and family.
Affiliate success boils down to this:
- Build a website
- Write content on a subject you have a passion for that will inform and interest visitors
- Partner with companies and enroll only in the affiliate programs you truly believe in that sell goods and services related to your content
- Recommend the products and services to the visitors of your site
- Earn a commission for every sale
There is a lot of software and information on the internet selling help on how to succeed with affiliate programs. Most are overpriced and do not work. I will only recommend to you the two products I have found successful for affiliate success: SiteSell and the SEOBook. SiteSell will introduce you to building a content-rich site based on finding a niche in the Internet. They have great research tools and an all-in-one site manager and hosting system that allows you to build and promote your website. SiteSell has detailed proof of results, comparing their product performance against other well known small business and affiliate sites.
The SEOBook provides more advanced Pay Per Click and SEO concepts, although the book does provide great supplemental material on how to build your site. I would recommend both but if you can only afford one up front then go with SiteSell to get started.
If you think either or both are too expensive then come back in a month after trying to advertise on the Internet without educating yourself and see how expensive SEO can be without a plan. Consider that 99% of business websites fail. Start with their free resources and move on from there. Their testimonials speak for themselves.