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Affiliate Marketing Any Good? Yes and No

Written by: B Esguerra

Article Overview: Looking for an online opportunity? Wonder which one to dedicate your time and money to? If affiliate marketing was something you considered you may want to read the following article on online affiliate marketing programs.

Affiliate Marketing Any Good? Yes and No

I first started online marketing a few years ago. I walked into the field with a lot of determination, strong work ethic, high hopes...but no product. I was doing okay in my current job at the time, just a little bored and I wanted to make more money. I ran across the banner ads for online businesses and I wanted to start selling, and it needed to happen soon. Through hours of research online I found that affiliate marketing was probably the simplest and quickest way to get started. But as time went on I also found out that it takes more than a product to produce sales. It's a simple concept. It's a sales job-you have a product that you are selling for someone else. In return you get a cut of the sale (the commission). Typically you get a good amount of the sales price as your commission, and with internet affiliate programs, you don't carry much overhead (if any at all). The company sponsoring you usually gives you a website that you direct customers to and any sale transactions done on the website are automatic. Simple concept, however...

You need a marketing plan to make good on your affiliate marketing system. Though you don't come up with a product to sell and you don't need to design a website, per se, you do need to find a way to get people to your "store." Some folks buy into the product and join the affiliate program without a game plan on how they intend to generate traffic to their "store." If you have a large presence on facebook or myspace then maybe you can direct sales via those means-but would you really want to start commercializing your social platform?

Now don't get me wrong...affiliate marketing is good to start with if you want to have an online business but you don't have a product to sell. The great thing about being an affiliate is that you can literally start selling once you sign up. You can even get a discount on your product if the company allows you to sign up as an affiliate first and then you proceed to purchase the product as a customer-though I'm not sure why you'd want to sign up to sell a product you haven't first tried for yourself...? Just remember-in order to sell something you need people who want to buy and it doesn't matter how great a product is, it takes effort to put it in front of the customer (marketing) and to show them why they need to buy (selling).

Wondering what I would suggest for a good affiliate program to start with? Go to my website where I list my top 5 programs with descriptions, reviews, and testimonials.

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Article Tags: affiliate marketing, affiliate program, banner ads, facebook, game plan, high hopes, internet affiliate programs, marketing plan, marketing system, money, nbsp, presence, sales job, social platform, strong work ethic, traffic



Related Forum Posts
Re: Affiliate Marketing - Open for Discussion - Carol, Mary and David - thanks for your great input and insight on Affiliate Marketing! This is the kind of discussion I was hoping for in this thread. There are pros and cons to Affiliate Marketing, just as there are to any business. As has been suggested, he best policy is to proceed with caution and do some research before jumping in. As Carol has recommended, this topic thread in the EvanCarmichael.com forum is the ideal place to ask questions and seek further input on available Affiliate Marketing programs. If a person is serious about building an online business and is interested in Affiliate Marketing plans, they should approach the process as they would any other form of business. Research, ask questions, compare opportunities, participate in forums on online business and Affiliate Marketing. GT :-]
Re: Affiliate Marketing - Open for Discussion - Hi GT Affiliate Marketing is one of the easier ways to get started making money online, but it does take quite a bit of work before you see any great results as you have to keep promoting constantly. It does teach you one hell of a lot about all aspects of Internet Marketing though as you will need to learn how to write and submit articles, create and maintain a blog, social networking is a great help to affiliates too..the list goes on and on. In fact from what you learn from Affiliate Marketing you can apply to any niche and be sure to succeed, take care, Carol
Re: Affiliate Marketing - Open for Discussion - You made some very good points here Jeff and I agree with you, Affiliate Marketing should not be something that you concentrate all your efforts into. As i said earlier I have learned a lot with Affiliate Marketing and continue to do so, and it has helped me tremendously to understand what I am going to have to do in my chosen niche(s). I am also being coached by the same group of mentors as GT and we are all moving forward daily to achieve our ultimate goals. Take care, Carol
Re: Should Evan add a "Social Media Marketing" category to the f - Hi, Online Marketing would be a great title, and having sub categories would make it even better, there would plenty of categories to choose from, Social Media, SEO, Article Marketing and yes even Affiliate Marketing to name just a few, great looking site btw Jeff, take care, Carol
Re: Internet Marketing is the best business in the world - No problem. I am also interested in creating an ebook one day and am glad that I can finally contribute to someone who is, maybe not so up to date in an area that I have some knowlege of. Also I forgot to mention Affiliate Marketing from my previous post. Getting others to sell WhyNot's ebooks for him is a great way of promoting as well.


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