How To Make More Money With Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs are one of the web's most effective marketing techniques. They create a win-win situation by which site A refers a visitor to site B, and site B pays site A a commission if that visitor purchases something. If you are the referrer site (affiliate), you can make money with no overhead (no product, no warehouse, no collection risk). On the other hand, the destination site receives a steady stream of qualified leads from hundreds, maybe thousands of affiliate sites, and doesn't have to spend a dime unless a visitor purchases something.

To maximize effectiveness, affiliate sites need to keep in mind some common sense suggestions:

1) Resist the temptation to add too many affiliate links. Affiliate link overkill confuses visitors and hurts credibility. You want your visitors to view your site as a value-adding destination and not just a cheesy sales site. Recommend links to products you have tried, or that come from good, solid companies. Don't recommend something you don't know just because you're getting paid. Give your visitors the best advice and they will reward you.

2) If you write articles for your website, try not to include the affiliate links in the body of your articles: it will give the impression that you have a vested interest in recommending them. You want your visitors to trust your advice, so don't turn your article into an excuse to promote products and make a commission. It's OK to include affiliate links, but do it on a side bar or on a resource table. Whenever possible, link to your affiliate partners with text links (since banner ad click-through is at its lower rate ever, and people tend to ignore banners).

3) Include only affiliate links that are related to your business and the topic of interest to your visitors. Links to unrelated products will not generate good leads for the destination sites (and therefore won't be a source of significant commissions for you), so they are best avoided.

4) Managing your affiliate programs can be a hassle if you have to deal with many different companies. Try to sign up with a site that administers many affiliate programs to chose from (one of the best out there are Commission Junction [www.cj.com] and Befree.com [www.befree.com]). These sites give you hundreds of affiliate programs to chose from, and act as a one-stop shop where you can sign up with multiple vendors using only one account and receiving one consolidated commission check.

5) Chose affiliate partners that offer long term cookies. A cookie is a mechanism that allows the destination site to know when a visitor is referred by your site. A long term cookie (for example, a three months cookie) means that a visitor who follows a link to one of your affiliate partners today but doesn't purchase anything, can come back and purchase at anytime during the next three months and you will still be paid a commission. The best programs are those who offer unlimited cookies (although there are not so many of them around). However, a 90-day cookie or more is very good.

6) Link directly to the product page and not to the main page of the destination site. If you link to the main page, the visitor will have to find its way to the product and may not find it, making you lose commissions. By linking directly to the product, you will increase the prospects of the visitor buying the product (and of you making a commission). Many destination sites, like Amazon, recognize this fact and offer a higher commission to affiliates that link directly to the product pages than to those who only link to the main page.

Follow these simple guidelines and you will improve your chances of success with all your affiliate programs.

Mario Sanchez publishes The Internet Digest ( http://www.theinternetdigest.net ) a collection of tips and suggestions to help you design a better website and market it more effectively.

21 Simple Ways To Make More Money From Your Current Clients, Part 1

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It is easier to make additional money from your current clients than it is to go out and find new ones! See 21 simple ways in this three part article series.

PART ONE:

1. Insert a brochure for another product in the first product package your customer buys from you.

For digital products, this can be done by:

* Adding a "special Offer" to the thank you page

* Add a 2nd Offer to the download page

* Add an affiliate product to your ezine thank you page

* Add a JV partner offer to Ezine sign up thank you page

For physical products, this can be done by:

* Adding a printed "flier" with a sales letter for another product on it

* Adding a flier with several products on it - These could be a "coupon" page for your products only or for affiliate or JV products

* A printed Newsletter with articles and review of products on it and of course web urls or a phone order number

* Adding a "giant" sized postcard with a bonus or sale item on it

* Adding your catalog (If you have one) in the box with your physical product

2. Sell a basic product and tell people for a little more money they can receive the deluxe edition.

You can create a deluxe version by adding:

* Audio

* Transcripts

* Templates

* Interviews with experts

* A printed version of an ebook

* Complimentary products. For example a planner with a time saving system or a calculator with a financial product

3. Give your customers a free subscription to your e-zine and include back end products in each issue.

I recommend always telling your customers they will be added to your follow up list with the new emailing laws. You don't want to assume anything with email anymore.

4. Charge people extra money to get the reproduction rights.

You can expand on this by offering a reprint rights and a master reprint rights where the buyer can also offer reprint rights to their buyers.

5. Send your customers greeting cards at holidays with your back end product offer included.

I recommend that the backend offers are sale priced and geared to the holiday such as birthday or Christmas if you can. If not, just a special offer will be better than a "regular" product.

You can also send thank you cards to clients when they purchase your product.

Ask my students how surprised they were - especially in Australia and England - to get a thank you card in the mail from me when they signed up for my web master training class!

6. Offer your customers a discount if they buy more than one of the same product.

Look for a shopping cart system that has a built in discount for second, third, etc. purchases by the same person.

7. Offer a "Reward Club" to repeat buyers.

This would give discounts, gifts and special offers to repeat buyers. You can also increase the value of the gifts as the purchase amount goes higher.

Look for Parts Two and Three for the rest of the great ways to make extra money from the clients you already have!

About the Author

"Techie" Teri Mramer is the busy owner of the new training site sensation, Web Master Insider Training Club Get your free 3 week trial membership today and start building your business web site tomorrow!