How
I Earn 80k a year in Affiliate Income?
A few years ago,
when affiliate programs began to make their way onto the Net, I was
already "living" online. So naturally, I was one of the very first marketers
to take a look at this "new" online marketing idea.
And frankly, after
a close look inside the numbers, what I saw was not overly exciting.
But thanks to a little patience and a few strategies I developed, I've
been able to generate affiliate income that most experts predicted was
impossible (and continue to say it's impossible to this day!)
If you're looking
to do the same, read on...
The very first
affiliate program I reviewed, paid an average of ten percent commissions
on each product sale my site generated. The products (mostly books)
averaged around $15 so my share would be about a buck and a half per
sale. I figured if I could get one sale out of every 35 visitors I sent
to the site, that would be a decent conversion rate (better than average,
actually). After doing a little math, I concluded that I would earn
about $45 for every 1000 visitors
I sent to the site.
But getting
1000 visitors to any given affiliate site meant I'd have
to get about 10,000 visitors to my own site. If I could do that every
week, I'd be doing OK for a small business site with a marketing budget
close to zero. But I was already learning that it takes time and money
to get 10,000 visitors a week. And let's see... for all my traffic generating
efforts I would pull in a cool $180 a month? It didn't take a genius
to figure out that it might not be worth the effort. I passed.
But I did NOT
pass on the affiliate game altogether. I knew there was potential
for excellent long-term income in the right affiliate programs so I
bided my time and grew my website traffic and my ezine subscriber numbers.
Meanwhile, I kept a close eye on the affiliate horizon.
Then during 1998
and 1999 I joined my first few serious affiliate programs. And to make
a long story short, these few affiliate programs were responsible for
over $80,000 in income at my website
last year alone. Who says you can't make a decent income with affiliate
programs?
While I've sampled
a few other programs along the way, I continue to promote only a select
few programs on a regular basis. As far as affiliate program marketing
goes, you won't find too many marketers who are as picky as I am. But
picky works. Had I joined that very first affiliate program I looked
at, I would have been lucky to make $5,000 last year in affiliate income.
Not bad, but a far cry from 80K.
So what programs
pulled in 80k last year for me?
I'm not going to
tell you!
That's right, you'll
have to poke around at my website and find out. I did not write today's
tip to round up more second-tier affiliates. I wrote it to show you
the TRUE potential in affiliate program marketing and to explain exactly
how you can grow affiliate income like I have.
So let's get to
that next. What are the secrets to generating measurable affiliate income?
Here they are in a nice five-step program...
1. Choose the
right affiliate programs! As my example above shows, this important
step can mean a difference of 75K a year, easily. The right programs
for YOU are ...
a) programs that
tie in with your site well (Ex:
don't promote a dating service if your site focuses on business)
b) programs that
you can get behind 100% and recommend personally
to your website visitors, subscribers and all else who come in contact
with your business
c) programs that
pay serious commissions of 25% or more
on sales -- and if you can earn residual or recurring income that's
even better (Ex: services like web hosting require customers to pay
monthly, so you as an affiliate can earn monthly too!)
2. Promote your
best programs with personal recommendations at your website and
in your email messages.
While most affiliate
programs offer marketing assistance to their affiliates, your best bet
is to form your own marketing plan and promotion material. This sets
your affiliate site apart from thousands of others.
And don't forget,
in order to truly make personal recommendations, you'll
need to be a CUSTOMER as well. I see far too many affiliates
making personal recommendations without even making the investment in
the product or service they are promoting. Not only will you lose
credibility when you do this, you'll be limiting your marketing
potential by not knowing the product like you should.
3. Don't
go affiliate crazy and promote too many programs. A handful
is fine, but a dozen or more cheapens the experience for your users.
If you absolutely MUST promote lots of products and services, PERSONALLY
RECOMMEND only a small number of them. Take your very best ONE
or TWO affiliate programs and stick to recommending them as your staple.
A premium service with a slightly higher than normal price tag and generous
commission is ideal for this strategy. But be sure it is worth the price!
4. Don't expect
to grow serious affiliate income without having
a website of your own. Too many newbies make this mistake.
They think they can avoid ALL online business start-up time and expenses
by joining an affiliate program and using the free site they get as
their main site. It's a mistake. The best affiliates in EVERY program
have their own website where they bring ALL their traffic first. From
a "home base" like this you are free to make personal recommendations,
promote a variety of programs and earn income other ways such as advertising
or selling your own products and services. Growing your own site
is a major key to growing serious long-term affiliate income.
5. Get help! Don't
go it alone. Ask successful affiliates
how they've grown their incomes - most are happy to share the details.
Read their books, take their courses and get on their subscriber lists.
There's no point in trying to reinvent the wheel. Simply follow the
path that other successful affiliates have taken before you and you
can achieve success too. It really is that simple. And if you want some
more hype-free advice on generating real, long-term, "wow!" income online,
read my new five- page website that reveals _exactly_ how I did it and
how YOU can do it too...
Tutorial
by Jim Daniels of http://www.bizweb2000.com/. Jim's new, no-hype, step-by-step
Guide to Making a Living from the Internet is at http://www.make-a-living-online.com/
Read Jim's web-based guide and discover how you could make your living
online.
Read
the amazing true story of how one
woman, with no previous business experience,
earns $435,000+ per year ... selling other people's stuff
online!
In her down-to-earth, sincere and often
humorous style, Rosalind Gardner guides you through the entire
process of building an affiliate marketing business on the 'Net.
In 270+ pages, and more than 73,000 words, you'll
learn how to pick the best programs, negotiate a commission raise
and save time, money and effort on everything from affiliate
software to web hosting.
To learn
exactly how she does it, Click Here.
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Earn
Money Form Affiliate programs!
