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What is an affiliate program?
Affiliate is just another term for referral, finder's fee, or lead. You generate leads or referrals and the companies pay you a percentage or flat fee for the sales generated by those leads. It's like being a manufacturer's rep or commission sales person in the real world.
How does it work?
It usually starts with a product you like. You're happy with your item and want to share the news with your online friends and visitors to your website. All you need to do is go to the company's website and look for a referral or affiliate link. After that, they'll tell you exactly what to do and how to do it--no technical expertise required.
The general procedure is that you'll fill out a short application--sometimes just your email address and a password. Then, the company sends you an email with login info. You sign in on the affiliate site, where they'll tell you everything you need to know.
Somewhere on the affiliate site, you'll find the necessary code to copy their ads onto your site. They'll usually offer text ads as well as banner ads--try both to see which works best for your audience. You may also want a simple URL, so you can add the affiliate link to your email signature. IMPORTANT: Follow instructions, carefully, when copying these links, to be sure your affiliate code is in the link. If you just copy the URL from your browser's address line, odds are your ID won't be in it, which means you won't get credit for the sales you generate.
Once you have the banners/links on your site, that's all you have to do. When your visitors buy products from your affiliate links, you should get paid. NOTE: Reputable companies pay, automatically, but new, small, or slippery companies may require that you ask for your money or it will just sit there forever.
Almost all affiliate programs have a minimum payout amount. $25 is common, but it could be more.. This means that your commissions will accumulate until you reach that amount, then your payment will be sent. Reputable programs will keep this info on file, indefinitely, so you may be surprised by an affiliate payment several months or even years down the road, when your earnings finally reach your payout level.
What are the benefits?
- The biggest benefit
of affiliate programs is the passive income. This means you can get
back to your real project--developing and marketing your business--without
any more effort on the affiliate program. The money rolls (or dribbles)
in automatically.
- Another benefit
is the prestige of having important advertisers on your website. The
general public assumes that if they've heard of the companies who advertise
on your site, then your site must be pretty good. Even if you never
make a nickel from them, it's a good idea to have a few prominent companies
represented on your website.
- Marketing expertise
is a real plus. Once you have affiliate programs set up on your site,
you'll start getting newsletters, promotional info, and other offers
for the products you represent. What works for them, might work for
marketing your own, products, too.
- Education is another reason for working with affiliate programs. If you choose a few good affiliate companies in your fields of interest, they'll probably keep you notified of what's happening in your industry, through email newsletters and message boards. Many of them also offer training programs and sales aids. This makes affiliate programs a good way for a small business person to keep up with the big guys.
For more information, please read Making Money With Affiliate Programs.
