Best Affiliate Products, Where
to Find Them and Select the Best choices
The BIG QUESTION on everyone's mind is...
Can you make money on-line through affiliate programs?
The Answer is YES and YES and YES!
It is totally possible to make money on-line, there
are all kinds of articles and stories about people who have been
successful making money through affiliate programs. A great example is
Affiliate Super Star Rosalind Gardner who makes over $ 400,000 a year.
There are also lots of "little guys" doing well
selling affiliate products.
It has nothing to do with getting in on the ground
floor in a particular program. It has nothing to do with having loads of
money to market your program. Yes, you do need to have to have a marketing
budget, but that is just the cost of doing business.
What it boils down to is knowing what to look for in
an Affiliate Program.
More specifically, you look at programs which
provide:
1. Products/Services that are in demand. This is
pretty obvious, right? If you don't have a market for your
products/services then you aren't going to make any money. Now, you did
your research already and found that your niche idea does have a
demand...so what you are doing is looking for products/services to weave
into your niche site.
The best product or service to weave in, of course,
is one that you have used personally. Nothing works better than giving a
personal recommendation. If you can, weave in testimonials from others who
have used the same product or service. That way, there is more than one
voice and that goes a long way to helping a customer make a well informed
buying decision.
2. Look at the Commission Structure. The BEST
commission structure is one that pays you on a recurring basis. Monthly
income is the best way to go but, depending on your niche, might not
always be an option for you. If that's the case then do a little
investigative work and check out competitor commission structures, and
then, go for the one that pays you the most for a one time sale.
3. Promote more than one product/service. Now this
can get a little dicey for you because you don't want to confuse your
customer but, you also want to have a few options available for making a
sale. Let me explain this a little better for you, by explaining what I
would do using the Golf example I referred to earlier in this course.
The niche site that I suggested I would build around
the "golf" niche was 'used golf equipment'. I said that I would have had
some sort of a membership board where people could post their buy/sell
items. That membership site would, of course, be my own product, so that
means I would get 100% of the money generated by it.
I also said I could incorporate some form of
comparison chart for buying used versus new golf equipment. That way if,
say a specific club was selling at $150 used and maybe $185 new, then the
customer would be able to decide... new versus old. I would still make the
commission on the new item. See where I am going with that???
Ok, now...in addition to the golf products, I would
also want to have posted some good content on my web site, as to what to
look for when buying used equipment etc. I would post articles that
related specifically to my niche. I would then go and apply to the Google
Adsense Program and would post little ads on the article pages. If a
customer came and decided to clickoff into some other site, then at least
I would see a commission from the click. I may then even decide to join
Amazon.com or some other online book club and pick a few good golf books
to recommend.
So...one niche site and I have created 4 income
streams for myself. That is what I mean by promoting more than one product
or service. Essentially what you are doing is giving yourself a good
well-rounded product mix.
You can specialize if you want to. For example, I
know of someone who is going to build a niche site around a specific
coffee machine that they feel is going to take off. The machine is made
from one specific company, which is ok. So they build a site around that
machine, then they go a step further and weave in the coffee that you need
to buy in order to use the machine. No other company's product/service is
involved, just the one specific one.
See where I am going with this? and just how
powerful affiliate programs can be...IF you know how to use them in the
right manner.
Ok, so let's recap what we need to look for when
deciding to participate in Affiliate Programs.
1. YOU WANT programs with products/services that are
IN DEMAND.
2. YOU WANT programs that pay you MONTHLY
COMMISSIONS if you can have the right affiliate product. Or, at the very
least, you want to shop around and find the products with the best
commission rate out there.
3. YOU WANT an arsenal of programs that link or tie
into one another to give you MULTIPLE INCOME STREAMS.
That is what to look for in an Affiliate Program.
Now, let's cover how to find an affiliate program for your niche.
The more obvious way to do this is to go directly to
the web site of the merchant who you want to work with, and see if they
offer an affiliate program. If they don't ... don't worry, we have a few
other places to check out. We'll find an affiliate program for you.
There are three main sites that you can use, and it
just so happened we covered them yesterday in "Tools of the Niche Trade."
To save you having to go back over your notes, here they are again:
1. Commission Junction
www.cj.com
CJ is THE affiliate program directory for both
physical and downloadable products. They have hundreds of merchants listed
within their directory. They have also joined forces with BeFree, another
affiliate directory. You can sign up for the CJ site, and then on the CJ
home page you will see BFAST.
Sign up for both and then, once you are in your
account, you can link them both so you get the BEST of both sites. ALL
affiliates are listed, as well as their commission structures. They also
provide you with banners, ads and links that you can weave into your site.
2. Clix Galore
Clix Galore
clixGalore has about 3500 affiliate merchants listed
within their directory. From Mickey Mouse watches to Health and
Nutritional Products, and everything in between.
It also is a no cost directory to join, and like CJ,
they too provide you with marketing materials to incorporate into your web
site.
3. ClickBank
ClickBank
ClickBank is yet another affiliate directory. It is
the most popular affilate directory for downloadable products. Actually
they only handle downloadable affiliate products.
Here you can make anywhere from 10% - 75%
commissions on products or services you sell. Acceptable affiliate
commissions today range from 25% to 55%.
The neat thing about ClickBank is that their
products are listed by popularity. So, it makes your job a little easier.
You can go right for the related product/service that is making the good
sales.
Of course these directories will help you find the
right merchant program to weave into your site in order to make money ,
BUT...do your homework! Find the one that is going to pay you top
commissions.
Use the information you just read and apply it to
ALL your niche sites and you can't go wrong! |