Affiliate marketing has firmly established itself as a popular method for people looking to increase their disposable and general income.
It’s also a pretty good route to go down when starting a business from home due to the minimal start up costs. One of the main advantages is that you don’t have to be a technical guru to become an affiliate marketer. However, there are a few tips that can help get you started on the right track, and avoid some of the pitfalls that can be costly if you don’t know what to look out for.
- Look for your product niche, then promote
If you venture into the same area as many other affiliates, your competition already has a head start on you. If you manage to find a niche area then you’ll have the upper hand. Finding a unique but still in demand product can give you the added advantage of not having to compete with so many other affiliates to find traffic (buyers).
- Check out the merchants (seller) affiliate program and marketing tools
When you first start your affiliate marketing you will find that having signed up to promote a product that provides a lot of affiliate support will make your life a lot easier than having to do everything yourself. It is worth taking the time to check out the different merchants before making your choices about products to promote. You will find that many supply you with banners, images and even in some instances keywords and articles that you can use on your websites.
- Some examples of affiliate resources:
- Articles
- Pre-written emails
- Banners
- Adwords adverts
- Free eBook samples
- Product Images
- Tracking your websites.
One of the most overlooked aspects of affiliate marketing is the failure by many to track and test their results. This can make a lot of difference to the effectiveness or your campaigns and how successful you can become by sometimes just making a few small tweaks to your sales copy. It is important to know where your visitors are coming from and how they are finding you, and then track what they are looking at when they do visit your site.
There are a number of tracking software programs available for purchase, but if you are being budget conscious at the beginning at the very least use Google analytics which is free.
- Passive or recurring income.
An affiliate marketer receives a percentage of the sale of a product as pre-determined by the merchant (owner of the product) this can vary dependent on the merchant. In many cases this is a one off sale, but another alternative to consider is promoting items such as membership products, this means you will get an ongoing percentage paid to you each month that the buyer remains a member. Consequently after having made that initial sale, you don’t have to do any further work to keep receiving a further monthly payment.
Affiliate marketing can be a very lucrative source of additional income, by just following the tips above you can get started in your new business enterprise without having to make any major dents in your wallet.
On a final note you should keep in mind that setting up an affiliate marketing business is just that a business, so be prepared to put in a bit of work at the beginning and don’t get distracted by the promise of shiny toys that will do everything for you.
