A question about affiliate programs

[mdarwish01]

Hi all

Just wondering here, I have read quite a bit about affiliate programs, and as i'm currently very busy in full time education (but very eager to have a business) I think it might be a good start.

Just thinking an affiliate might be a good way to bring in some petty cash, as well as gain a little bit of experience along the way.

Don't know what you guys think, but they seem to be a no-risk method of making money and experience. There has to be a catch somewhere....right?

 

[Mwebb]

The only catch of an affiliate program where you sell a product for someone else. ( not these multi level marketing schemes) is that, and i use amazon as an example, you send the customer to them, get paid once, then they market to them over and over and get lots of business from them.

Great if you are the merchant i supppose!

 

[Niteflyer]

Catch? not particularly, you can make money from them but don't forget for for every affiliate program you do there could be another 100,000 people (or more) doing the same thing.

Most programs don't pay THAT much, what kind of program did you have in mind?

Matt

 

[mdarwish01]

I wasn't thinking of anyone in particular, maybe a book affiliate. Probably something not so popular though.

I saw one on the forums for mobile phones, but i'd imagine they're incredibley competitive.

Anyway, thanks very much Matt and Michael for your replies.

 

[uksbc]

i would probably suggest going for a "white label" reseller type arrangement rather than an affiliate program

by doing this you would market someones product but you act as a middle man in the transaction and can therefore get the repeat business too

For example: .....(searching for one of the top of my head now :roll: )

Oh... Superbreak i think they are called do a Holiday reseller scheme. They provide you with an unbranded site but all the products are theirs. You can then trade the business in your own name, hence the repeat business

either way, whether you go for an affiliate program or a reseller one, be prepared to spend time marketing it. too many people think all they need to do is build a site loaded with affiliate banners and watch the money roll in. it really doesnt work like that

Hope this helps. If you need any more info on White Label Reseller Sites by all means let me know. I have helped a few people set up sites like this

Del


PS stay away from finance related ones. they do pay high comissions but the market is saturated so you will need to spend far more marketing the site.

 

[SillyJokes]

Affiliate marketing can be successful business and some earn a lot of money.

However the majority do not do so well. The trick is to find a niche which pays but is not over represented like mobile phones, loans, holidays, gambling etc etc

Most programs have a cookie length which means if the customer visits and buys within a set period of time you still get commission, 30- 60 days is average.

Don't forget you can also get paid commission on customers who passed through your link even if they are regular shoppers with the merchant so it swings and roundabouts on winning and loosing commisions.

I think the major skill set needed is to be very good at search engine optimisation - better often than the merchants who are being promoted. If you are no good at this you simply won't get the traffic needed.

Some affiliates employ pay per click models where they buy traffic via Google Ad words or similar and send to the merchant but this is a risky strategy as if the merchant doesn't convert they don't see the return on investment and even then the return could be a couple of months coming.

You need to pick your merchants carefully - use those that convert the best basically. It is wasted traffic sending potential customers to a rubbish website.

In short it is possible to make a lot of money affiliate marketing but the majority do not because they don't have the skills or work hard enough at it.

 

[Magsite]

Good luck with your choice. Remember to make sure that you enjoy your second job and treat it like a rewarding hobbie!

Lisa

 

[Mwebb]

I think it is quite clear that the people that earn most from affiliate marketing, will have a site that sells something else, say their own headline product, and use affiliate marketing to increse revenue.

See my signature for an example.

However, ebay's biggest affiliate earns over £1m per year!! But you could put money on that the affiliate is someone like MSN, or Hotmail etc!!

The point silly jokes made about SEO is a big one. If you join a program usually they ban you from certain keywords if you use Pay per click advertising. Ebay ban you from advertising on the keywords" ebay" and others related, as it will bring their site up in the natural listings. This is why you need to be able to target a particular niche, and go from there.

Another option is google adsense sites. Find a niche that has highly paid adwords. The mortgage market is a particularly highly paid market.
You then design a site relevent to the niche. Could even be a blog. Advertise adsense on your site, and earn money for click throughs. Beware this is not easy!

Michael

 

[mdarwish01]

Hi All

Thanks for all your feedback. I was just looking at different options I could do for a part time business really.

Thanks again all of you for your help. It was really appreciated.

Kind regards