How to Make Money with Affiliate Programs
Discover how to make money with affiliate programs - whether you're a website owner or blogger, or just want to earn some extra cash using Google AdWords.
August 9th, 2010 by Becky Turner
How to Make Money with Affiliate Programs |
For the last 2 years, I've made 95% of my income online through affiliate programs.
Without a doubt, this is one of the safest, easiest ways to make money online without opening yourself up to any risks. Signing up to affiliate programs is free, so you don't have to front up any cash.
Once active, your affiliate account can generate passive income for you 24/7. That's why affiliate sales are the best form of income for my online businesses. Not only does the money arrive on autopilot, it also increases every month as my traffic scales up.
So let me explain how to make money from affiliate programs... in this crash course for beginners.
What Are Affiliate Programs?
Affiliate programs are incentive schemes run by just about every online business with a product to sell. In essence, simply by recommending their products, you gain a healthy percentage of every sale.
I discovered my first top paying affiliate programs in 2008, shortly after launching my first website, World of Lucid Dreaming. I needed a way to make money from my website visitors so I began reviewing products designed to help people have lucid dreams. One of my favorites products is The Lucid Dreaming MP3 by a vendor called Unexplainable Store. Soon people began buying the MP3 via my unique affiliate link on my website, and I made $15 per sale. The money soon added up.
Today I advertise products from more than 20 affiliate schemes across four content-based websites (including this one). I make several thousand dollars per month on autopilot, now that I have set everything up. In fact, the only reason I continue to work is to scale up my income even further, by writing new articles and attracting more traffic. If I leave my websites alone they will still generate income, week after week, month after month. That's what I love about affiliate programs :)
What's The Catch?
Learning how to make money with affiliate programs sounds like a doddle. So why isn't everyone making money online this way?
Well, a lot of people are. Affiliate marketing is no secret. There is a lot of money to go around because online shopping is a multi-billion dollar industry - and that makes for a lot of affiliate commissions. And, like I say, virtually every online vendor runs an affiliate scheme. Even major names in online shopping like Amazon still need help generating new sales through affiliate marketing. It is a massive industry, being vacuumed up by:
- Website and blog owners - Usually through product reviews, text links and banner advertising interspersed with their free content.
- Online marketers - Usually through Search and Content marketing programs like Google AdWords and Yahoo Search Marketing.
So there's the only catch. You need to have a method of sending hundreds (and preferably thousands) of potential customers to an online store via your affiliate link. You can expect your visitors to click on your links at a rate of anywhere between 1% and 20%, depending on how relevant the link is to your content or advert. Of those people, a healthy conversion rate lies between 1% and 5%. It really is a game of numbers.
And that's why affiliate programs work so well for people who work them. If you are a prolific blogger and have a wide audience, putting up some high quality affiliate links is a no-brainer. You should not pressure people into buying anything, nor should you advertise crap products. But if you can show people products they are already thinking about buying, you can make money online just by being "the middle man". The customer doesn't pay any extra this way - it comes out of the vendor's pocket.
So how should you advertise affiliate links - via a website or online advertising? I actually recommend both if you're really keen to make money with affiliate programs. I've written on both of these topics recently, so if you're looking for a place to start I suggest you read How to Make an Income Generating Website and also Mastering Google AdWords.
What Are The Top Paying Affiliate Programs?
You probably don't need me to tell you that there are tens of thousands of affiliate programs on the World Wide Web. Which is why I haven't got around to test driving them all myself... But I can tell you about some of the key qualities of top paying affiliate programs and where you'll find them.
The most lucrative schemes are usually those that:
- Sell digital products - Once a digital product (such as an ebook or MP3) is created, there are no costs of upscaling. So you can earn 50-75% commission since it costs the vendor nothing to make 1 sale or 1 million sales. I make most of my money from digital stuff.
- Act professionally - Review the vendor's sales page for signs that they are professionals (ie not scam artists) and offer reassurances like real life testimonials and 100% money back guarantees.
- Pay by PayPal or direct credit - Most affiliate programs offer to pay you automatically by PayPal or direct to your bank account. However, unbelievably, some will still only pay by check which costs extra to cash if you are an international affiliate like me.
So where can you find these top paying affiliate programs?
Some companies choose to run their affiliate programs themselves via their own websites. They will provide you with a unique affiliate link which tracks all your sales, often for up to 6 months or more. They also provide banner adverts, commissions statistics, and make direct bank payments. So if there is a particular product you want to recommend on your website, go straight to the vendor and scan their website for an "Affiliates" signup link.
Alternatively, you can sign up to an affiliate marketplace which hosts thousands of affiliate programs in one place. Unfortunately, being new and fast-growing, this industry is still very fragmented and so you'll end up having to join multiple marketplaces just to get in on all the programs you want. The best places to start include: ClickBank, Share a Sale, Ejunkie, Commission Junction and Link Share.
How to Increase Your Affiliate Conversions
This would make a fine article in itself but I'd just like to quickly point out some obvious ways of increasing your affiliate sales straight away.
- Write a personalized product review - Grab a free product sample (or purchase one with your new affiliate discount) and test it out yourself so you can explain all the benefits to your readers. Regular readers are more likely to make a purchase if it has your approval.
- Place affiliate banners on your website - Use the affiliate banners provided or make your own and put them on your website or blog. I link my banners to my product review page too, which warms up a visitor before asking them to make any purchase.
- Arrange a special discount for your readers - While some affiliate programs are too large and anonymous to do this, I find some are more than happy to arrange special discounts just for my readers. For instance, Real Subliminal enable me to give away a free subliminal MP3 album called Remember Your Dreams worth $14.97 as well as offering 30% off their Learn Lucid Dreaming album.
- Use direct product links - Take the time to create product-specific links for your readers. They are more likely to buy a specific product you have recommended than keep browsing a vendor's website when they don't know what it is they're looking for.
- Run a Google AdWords campaign - By targeting people who are already searching for your affiliate product on Google, you can significantly increase your affiliate traffic and conversions. Check out my free tips on Mastering Google AdWords to learn more.
Final Thoughts
Looking back, it's clear that learning how to make money with affiliate programs was a hands-on experience. I had a lot of help along the way with the video lessons of Site Build It, but ultimately I had to learn from my own mistakes too. I learned that some affiliate programs are scams and never pay out. I learned that some never respond to questions or feedback. I learned that joining too many programs at once would make me rush the process and fail to track and optimize my performance.
I also learned from some extremely positive and unexpected results. Some products have sold way better than I expected, and even generated bonus payouts for a star performance; affiliate programs like Rebuild Your Vision (the bestselling product on my website, Improve Vision Naturally) pay an additional US $2,000 bonus per month if you make 200 sales.
I've also been delighted with natural traffic surges caused by a sudden new interest in my niche. When the movie Inception was released, traffic to my lucid dreaming website shot up by 45% and so, in turn, did sales of my lucid dreaming related products - without me lifting a finger.
Are you ready to make money with affiliate programs? If you're prepared to spend a little time working for free in the beginning, you'll see that affiliate programs pay out many times over in the grand scheme of things. This makes an excellent basis for an online business in virtually any niche.
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