Affiliate Marketing: what to look for to get started?

Image via WikipediaAffiliate Marketing for Beginners
Avoid 3 Main Pot Holes in Setting Up Your Internet Marketing Program.

As you begin to look at where to begin when starting out on the Web, there are some key points to cover before you spend a cent on anything. Affiliate marketing is a business after all, so take the time to think things through before you do anything.

Among the first considerations is where you should start and with what product or program; that all depends on your background, your interests and where you stand on the selling spectrum.

Pot Hole One—What Are You Knowledgeable About and What Are You Interested In?

There are many programs that will promise rags to riches no matter what if you just follow the easy steps to heaven. Well good luck to you. The first thing to ask yourself is what do you really know and what do you really believe in when it comes to starting your business. For example, if you are passionate about bicycling and ride 25 miles a week, you could take a niche market segment and market bicycling accessories. If you are passionate about helping your child with his/her learning disability, you could concentrate on developing a resource report on all the things you have learned to help prepare that child for college. Whatever your experience you should gravitate to an affiliate program that fits your interest or passion if you have one.

You need to really believe in what you are doing and then select the product or affiliate program that you can sell on a natural and instinctive level. Your customers will feel and see it in your Web site or blog and you will see it in sales and profits.

Pot Hole Two -- Limit the Scope of Your Business

When you set up your affiliate online program, do not over extend yourself and join a large number of affiliate programs or sell too many products. It is best to start out with one solid affiliate agreement that pays a decent commission, say 50%, and concentrate on growing that business into a steady revenue stream. The goal is to start progressively and consistently increase your income with good traffic building and customer service techniques and practices. In this sense online business is no different than off line business; you want customer loyalty not customer service.

Once you have established your first solid business line, you can then move to a new one; one that will be based on customer feed back and market research you have gleaned from your first business line.


Pot Hole Three -- Sell What You Have Bought and Tested

In order to promote and sell anything, you need to know what you are selling. What are the features and more importantly what are the benefits your product or service offers? You should be intimately knowledgeable of the problems your target customers are facing and how you can solve their problems. What you are doing by working this way is getting your target customer to buy from you without the need to sell. They should see you as a resource and a trusted solution provider with just what they need to make their life better.

For that to happen you need to buy, test and confirm that your product or service works. What are the benefits? What are the deficiencies? How does it work for your target market? Once you buy into the business solution you are offering, you will not need to sell it because your customer will sense at a very basic level your deep commitment to the business solution.


Conclusion

Many affiliate marketers make the mistake of taking a Shopping Mall approach by just picking hot or top ranked affiliate programs and setting up quick and dirty sales pages to promote as many as possible. That approach has some short term buzz but no long term legs. That explains why they continually come out with new promotions every week to make up for the drop off in business that comes with poor customer retention.

So take the time to build your business, one block at a time. Create a place where your customer sees you as a trusted solution and your customer will return, referrals will grow and your income will grow with your internet marketing program.


May Your Travels Be Prosperous

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