An affiliate program, also known as "referral", "associate" or "partner" program, allows web site owners to earn commissions from their web site by referring people to products and services. If you don't have a product of your own to sell, you can join affiliate programs to bring in additional revenue to your site.
Let's say your site is about home improvement and you offer tips on various household projects, tools, etc. You would join affiliate programs from hardware companies and refer your visitors to their products from your own website.
How Do Affiliate Programs Work?
Most affiliate programs are free to join and easy to setup. The company will usually provide you with a special link to use that contain a tracking code inside it. Any time you send your visitors to the company's web site, you'll send them via the link so all your orders can be tracked and identified.
For example, let's say Home Depot has an affiliate program. Once you join, they may instruct you to send your visitors to a link that looks something like this: http://www.homebasedonlinejobs.com
The "ID5004" is the part that is tracked by Home Depot. Any time someone goes to their site via this particular link and places an order, it is tracked back to you. Then you earn commission for that sale.
How Much Can I Earn?
How much you earn per sale depends on the company's affiliate program model. Many programs pay a percentage of the total sale. Some will offer a fixed dollar amount ($50 per sale, for example).
The Big Myth!
Unfortunately, many people believe since many affiliate programs are free and that they are given a website, it will be much easier to make money than it would if they had to market their own product.
Not true at all.
Even if you are involved in an affiliate program, it's very important that you develop your OWN site with a clear and solid theme. Then integrate related affiliate programs into your site. So if your site is about gardening, you would find companies that sell products related to what your visitors are interested in: gardening tools and furniture, lawn care, etc.
It's important to make sure your own site is not just pages full of links to the company you're affiliated with. You should have your own unique and well-organized content throughout your site. Aim for at least 20 pages of ORIGINAL content and prepare to keep building.
Staying with the Home Depot example, you could register the domain name, HouseHoldMistakes.com and develop a guide for common mistakes made when repairing household items.
Throughout that site you could make recommendations for various Home Depot products and earn commissions. The key is to join programs and recommend products and services that naturally compliment the theme of your web site.
Something to Remember
One thing you should keep in mind is that you should only join affiliate programs that relate to your website. If your site is about home employment, it makes no sense to advertise jewelry on it. People are coming to your site to look for jobs, not diamonds.
Although it's tempting to join any and every affiliate program that sounds lucrative, more is not always better. You could do quite well simply promoting one or two programs if they are a good fit for your site's audience and you present the products/services well.
Plastering banner ads all over your site is not a good way to earn money. Recommendations through useful editorial content are the best way to get the sale.
Another Example . . .
Let's say you have a web site about child safety and you're writing an article about burglar alarms. You belong to an affiliate program that pays you $100 for every burglar alarm you sell. At the end of the article, you could include a recommendation for a burglar alarm system, and it's important to note that the recommendation shouldn't sound like an advertisement. It would just be a logical statement that flows with the rest of the article. For example: One of the premiere burglar systems on the market is Burglar Alarm XYZ. We use it in our home and it has always given us top-notch performance. Click here for more information.
And of course when the visitor "clicks here" they're taken to the company site via your unique affiliate web site address so you receive the commission if that person orders a product.
See how the recommendation just wraps up the article? It's not a blatant advertisement that yells for the visitor to BUY NOW!!!!! Notice also that the recommendation includes a personal testimonial. That's a great touch. If you can tell your visitors that you've used a product and can provide feedback about it, which will add to your credibility.
First the article provides general, useful information about burglar alarms and then ends with a solid recommendation for a particular product that the web site owner endorses. Build a Site With Lots of Content Web sites that do the best with affiliate programs contain lots and lots of useful content that's updated often and has its own developed theme with a targeted audience.
Don't ever waste your time joining a couple of affiliate programs and then building a one or two-page web site to promote the products. Build a web site with a clear, concise theme that is supported by tons of articles and information on your topic.
You need to build credibility to encourage people to respect your recommendations. It's difficult to do that with a small site. One good way to build this credibility is by providing useful articles and helpful resources that gives your visitors confidence that you know what you're talking about.
You want them to feel comfortable taking your advice. Remember they can't see or talk to you so all they have to go on is the information you provide on your site -- so make it good!
Also remember, there is no such thing as too much information. The more knowledge you can fill them with, the greater chance they'll keep coming back to your site again and again.
This is another reason you should always choose a topic you are truly interested in. The more you know about a subject, the easier it will be to add content and keep your site updated.
Most people will not buy on the first exposure. They need to see the product more than once. If your site is lacking content, what reason would your visitors have to return again?
Updated, quality content encourages visitors to keep coming back for more. The more they're exposed to what you have to offer, the greater the chance they'll decide to purchase something based upon your recommendation.
Only Promote High Quality Products. Don’t hurt your web reputation by referring less-than-satisfying products and services. There are plenty of good products out there for you to offer. Don’t waste your time on the junk.
If you’re looking for long-term success out here, start off on the right foot and only refer high quality products to your visitors. If you do this, chances are they'll return to your site and respect your recommendations.
Need Help Finding Affiliate Programs?
Commission Junction is an affiliate network that you can join and it will give you instant access to hundreds of free affiliate programs in one place. Simply search through the network and find affiliate programs that fit your site's theme and apply to the ones you want.
Let's say your site is about music and you want to find programs that pay you to refer people to buy CD's. Simply search the CJ network and join the music affiliate programs that interest you. CJ provides all the banners and links to help you promote the specific program. They also track sales and traffic for each program right from their online control panel.
At any given time you can login to CJ.com and check your traffic and earnings for the day, month or year. You can even break down the report by affiliate program so you can see which programs are performing the best for your site. Commission Junction keeps track of all your earnings and sends you a payment once a month for any commissions you've earned. Join the Commission Junction network today.
The key to finding success with affiliate programs is to build a website on a specific niche. It can be a topic you know a lot about, hobby or even a pastime. Create at least 20 pages of unique content on your niche and always look to expand your site. The more information the better. Once you start building that content, begin searching for affiliate programs that match your site's theme. Then work on getting traffic to your site via the search engines, especially Google. If done effectively, you could earn enough income to drastically change your life. I've done it, and so can you.
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