Affiliate Programs

Get Paid for Referring Customers

What are affiliate programs?

Affiliate marketing or affiliate sales are a way for YOU to earn money off your content rich site just for recommending the products and services that you enjoy, or that fit with your particular niche market.



You apply to an affiliate marketing program and obtain a unique affiliate link. You then use that link on your websiteor blog to promote the affiliate product or service. When a visitor clicks on your link and ultimately makes a purchase, you get paid for it!

An affiliate company will pay you a commission for sales you generate.

Unlike a dropship company, you do not need to process orders, handle payment, or deal with returns.

You simply need to provide a link for your customers to follow to the affiliate website, and the affiliate company will handle the rest.

Commissions vary, and can be anywhere from 4-75% of the purchase.

Some programs give you residual income by allowing you affiliate commissions on all reorders of the product or program.

Most, though not all, affiliate programs are FREE.

Examine any program that charges closely to see if it is worth the money.

I will say that some programs require you to purchase their product or program in order to become an affiliate.

This is usually a good thing, as you will not want to recommend a product or service that you are not familiar with.

A few programs are starting to become 2-Tiered Programs which means that in addition to receiving commissions on those who click through your links, you will receive a smaller commission on those who click through the links of those you have introduced to the program.

These 2-Tiered Programs provide great leverage in the internet marketing world.

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How do you get started?

First, you need a website.

Once you have a content site, and are pulling in a sufficient amount of traffic, you can monetize your site by offering affiliate links.

Alternately, you can advertise affiliate links on your blog instead.

Make sure that you can stand behind every affiliate company that you represent 100%.

When you promote an affiliate program, you are basically recommending the service.

With rare exception, you should be completely familiar with the service, having purchased and used it yourself.

Affiliate Marketing Programs are rampant on the internet.

Use the free Search It tool to explore various programs.

You want to promote items that tie into your site concept. For instance, you wouldn’t promote a Wine of the Month club on a site devoted to pregnancy. Keep this in mind as you are flooded with affiliate offers.

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Different Affiliate Marketing Programs

Some of the main programs that offer hundreds, even thousands of different affiliate links are:

Clickbank
Clickbank deals mainly with information products such as ebooks, subscriptions, and classes. The commission rates are quite high with these types of products, generally ranging from 50-75% of the total price of the item.

It is very important that before you recommend a Clickbank product you take the time (and the cost) to preview the product. Otherwise you could be promoting an inferior ebook. Clickbank is a great program, and highly recommended.

Visit ClickBank


Commission Junction
Commission Junction, or CJ, is another very popular affiliate program. They have hundreds, perhaps thousands, of businesses that you can choose from. Companies like Vista Prints, the Entertainment Book, Mvelopes and more are represented by CJ.

Most of the retail establishments through CJ will pay a flat percentage of the total sale generated by a lead from your site. These percentages vary, usually from 4-12%. This is typical for retail sales.

You can also generate affiliate program income through Commission Junction by customers signing up for free trials, or subscriptions. These prices vary, and can range from $1-15 on average.

Visit Commission Junction


Link Connector
Link Connector is another affiliate program similar to CJ, without quite as big a selection. Still, it is worth it to join the program to see what sort of businesses might fit in with your site concept.

Join LinkConnector.com Network


ClixGalore
Another worthwhile program to explore is the ClixGalore program. Again, this is similar to CJ and Link Connector.

Visit clixGalore


eBay Partner Network
A newcomer on the scene, the eBay Partner Network, EPN, exists solely for eBay affiliate commissions. eBay will pay you 50% of their fees to refer a buying customer to eBay auctions. It is a terrific program, and almost any website can take advantage of it. No matter what your business, chances are there is a category on eBay for you.

Visit eBay Partner Network

If you find that many eBay products would fit in with your site concept, it may be worth it to create an eBay specific resource store for your site, like what I have done with my Resource Store.

I have used the BANS system to create this store, and see great commissions from it. Learn more about the BANS system here: eBay BANS Store


Individual Affiliate Programs
As you are doing research for your site, make sure you use the Search It tool or even a Google search to find affiliate programs for your topics.

Many businesses do offer a referral or affiliate system for their products or services. If you cannot find one, simply ask.

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