How to Make Money Promoting Affiliate Programs

When working with affiliates you will need to be able to play nice with others. These referral programs make money based on commission sales. You recommend the product or service via a website then collect a predetermined amount if they purchase something. You get the benefit of a commission and your partner gets a benefit from the direct sale. A win/win situation for everyone involved. You can do this in one of two ways: from an already established website you own or by building one particularly for this program. Either way is fine as long as you are making more money than you spend. This is simply another way to make money from your site. Instead of having to deal with product, you recommend what someone else has and reap a reward.

Do not be overly tempted to go for the affiliate programs with the highest commissions. A lot of times, the majority of people cannot afford these high end products. Instead, use a few of these tips to choose an affiliate program.

•    The bottom commission you should consider is 25%. Do not worry there are plenty of programs with large commissions in all fields
•    Track your statistics on click throughs, sales and earnings, this way you can peak and tune your actions
•    Always look for affiliate programs with plenty of tools; like banners and links that you can place on your site
•    Check the terms of service carefully for the pay schedule. There are many different ways this is done and you want to be comfortable with yours
•    Communication is key! Be sure they can answer any and all questions you have promptly and completely, if not walk away.

There is a lot of money to be made in affiliate programs. All it takes is a little time to learn all the ins and outs of the system. When you start out go slowly and let your common sense guide you. As you learn how the systems work you will be on your way to making tons of money. Even if you have to work hard, you will enjoy yourself and be happy that you did.

41 Comments

  • Rayko

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    this blog is very good.

  • DAVE SMITH

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    Hi Reed hope your little bundle arrives soon!!

    I have a quistion about affilates websites

    Is it easier to design your own blank website and fill it with various affilate links? or make the affilate links specisfic to your interests this i would of thought is the better option has you will have a passion for the affilate product your selling

    Also with owning s few differnt type affilate websites i would presume this would create multiple income streams?

    lastly can you reccomend any affilate programs?
    regards DAVE

  • kathleen

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    Signed up for basic program at £89.
    Then had phone call from USA. Caller got annoyed when i would not pay more for advertising etc.He rang off. EMailed them several times asking for costs of adverts etc.I do understand roughly that you have to advertise but surely the £89 should cover more than a website. Can you advise.Is this a scam.??

  • Liz Nichols

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    Another thing to be concerned about is how long your affiliate code will be “cookied” to a buyer. Sometimes if they are in a continuation program your commissions will stop after three months or a year, and it’s because the cookie is set to expire and your commissions will be lost from that point on.

    Liz N

    Liz Nicholss last blog post..Testing LeadEvolution

  • Gimme A Dream

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    I sometimes make banners and set up links to suit the color scheme of my own site, rather then use the banners of the affiliate producer. Particularly if the banners are loud. Is this the wrong thing to do?

    Gimme A Dreams last blog post..I Have Always Loved Bob Newhart Comedy

  • Ted Alexander

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    Dear Reed:

    Our country is in a financial turmoil because Americans are simply
    ignorant about money. They have been led to believe that bank credit
    is money. It is not. You cannot weigh it. You cannot establish a value on it and it is purely an I.O.U. It therefore counterfeit. Look at an ordinary bill and see if it promises anything. A bill must be a lawful document It should tell you who issued it (US), what does it pay in Lawful money, how much to pay, when (0n demand) and to whom (bearer).

    Does your bills say any of that? No, that’s why it is counterfeit! Would you sell your carof receive your paycheck for an I.O.U.? That’s what we are all doing today. Bottomline. Our real money has been stolen from us and replaced with bank credit which based on nothing.

    I will give you my solution to our problem later when I build my website. I want to teach all Americans about financial literacy. That a job and present educatioanal system is outdated and obsolete.

    Americans need to learn how to have money make money for them. That all stocks, bonds, options, derivatives, commodities are speculative. Meaning you have to sell such investments at a higher price than what you paid for it to profit. More later. Ted Alexander.

  • kensilver Enyioha

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    I love this writeup so much more so as it is a subject i am seriously studying at the moment.it is really a good help.
    Could you please tell me how i can benefit from sfi affiliate marketing?

  • TeasasTips

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    @Liz Nichols…I did not know that Liz. I have a couple of affiliate programs I run, you know the type with free downloads, etc. I promote them mainly in safelist environments, however, the bulk of my online income derives from CPA programs. I don’t put too much stock in some of those guys–heard too many bad stories.

  • donald epps

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    HI, don epps here I really don’t know what to say other than iam new at this game and won’t to know more about how to run a successful business,
    Seems like iam going around in circles not getting any thing accomplished. Iam trying my best to get a lot of traffic and refferals so I can start moving with some sales. Wells thats my problem so if there’s some one out there !!”HELP”
    Thanks Don epps

  • Bill Masson

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    In reply to Liz Nichols,
    I think that this is one of many draws that go hand in hand with the sales pitch and is something i take with a pinch of salt.
    One of the major improvements boasted by both the new Internet Explorer 8 and Google’s Chrome browser is the new privacy protections put in place.
    It’s no secret that the new wave of browsers that are present just now have far more sophisticated cookie blocking capabilities along with firewalls. If you look at some of the claims that cookies remain on people’s hard drive for up to 3 months or more you have to ask yourself is this the case.

    I myself have my browser set to clear cookies after each session.

  • Bill Masson

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008
  • PV Reymond

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    Hi Reed,

    You are making a good point here.

    Affiliate marketing is the way to go for those that are just starting out and need to learn how this works.

    There are lot of benefits but the most important one is that you risk nothing… You can even use free traffic sources to test the program to see if it makes you money.

    Thanks,
    ^PV Reymond

    http://www.pvreymond.com/stair

  • normz2

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    Best wishes for your new arrival to be. A minimum of 25% sounds good. I have been dropping down to 5% ?

  • Dennis Francis

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    I’ve been selling my own products and just got set up in Click Bank. I’ve been using the 7 Dollar script to get affiliates.

    If anyone here has had good or bad experiences with Clickbank (as a publisher), please let me know.
    Dennis Franics
    DiD Publishing Inc.

  • Rivers Corbett

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    Reed…the fundamentals are here again. I also find one the best strategies is to be focused on target niches..don;t try to be a Walmart..become know for something…and be honest to that…
    Rivers
    Joint Venture Specialist
    http://www.leverageyourbiz.com

  • Marian

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    Clickbank is great affiliate network, but there are some good in-house affiliate programs as well. I like when I’m provided with various promo materials… and it’s very important to receive a good support by the company.

    Marian

    Marians last blog post..5 Benefits of Internet Marketing With Article Marketing

  • reed, i only manage to get usd4 (4 downloadss) at the moment from out of 170 clicks. justin michie pays usd1 per download. is that normal? the conversion rate is a bit low…

  • Bill Bowen

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    Affiliate marketing has been and always will be the quickest way to make money. I do my homework ( yuk ); amount of commission? reputation? How is the programs sales page? does it “ring?”, if not I re-write it. Banners I do mostly myself. Cookies will expire so contact the company or person before hand and have them re-set the cookies.
    “Kensilver”, I market “green” cleaning supplies from SFI. I have one page sites for other products from SFI and basically use SFI as an affiliate program. Word of caution..watch out for their “terms of use”
    Lastly, forget the “shot-gun” approach. One, one page site for each affiliate program will work better and don’t forget to get your visitor’s name and e-mail address.
    “Remember” treat it as a hobby and you will make money. Treat it as a business and you will soon have “your” own.

  • Emmanuel Mba

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    Hey Reed,
    Thanks for a wonderful blog. I am very interested in affiliate marketing for the past two years but have not yet succeeded in my attempt to earn constant income. I have basically stayed with programs that I can afford. What is your advice as I am of the belief that to succeed one must have his own program.

    Congrats

  • John Bandy

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    Hi Reed,
    This is great reading. I am just starting and I am going with affiliate programs until I get more knowledge about marketing my own products.
    I hope your new addition arrives soon. Have a great day and thanks.

    John

  • Lynda Mekalick

    Reply Reply September 27, 2008

    Hi Reed and others.
    To Don,
    You need to write aricles,add content to your own blog,visit other blogs and add comment,visit forums and add comment.Yo need to be doing EACH of these things EVERY DAY.This is what creates massive exposure which is what you must have,and it’s how you become known and trusted.And – all those advertising methods are free – they just require your time.At the beginning, being an affiliate means being absolutely dedicated and committed in your work.
    My link will provide you with some good information at a very reasonable cost – yes, I’m an affiliate too,and this link is just one of the products I promote as an affiliate.
    Good luck.
    Reed – the bottle of wine is in my fridge just waiting for Marissa to provide the “excuse” to open it!! Lol!
    Cheers
    Lynda

  • Chris Imamshah

    Reply Reply September 28, 2008

    Hi Reed,

    Hope everything goes well with the birth of your new baby. So exciting to witnes that miracle. If this is your first, your life will be changed forever.

    Onto the purpose of being here. I love your blog and reading your posts as well as all of the other comments as well.

    My attitude as an affiliate marketer is that I continue learning while earning so visiting your blog is a great experience for me.

    Thanks,
    Chris
    http://www.fastinternetmarketingtips.com

  • David Smyth

    Reply Reply September 28, 2008

    Thanks again Reed!

    Clickbank is my #1 pick for quality affiliate programs. On a weekly basis I do a search for the most popular products in ‘All’ categories. The ‘gravity’ or popularity of any product gives me an idea how well it is selling and if indeed it is something that I would like to promote.

    Some experienced online marketers advise that one shouldn’t choose products that have too high a gravity as they will have a large following of affiliates who are all selling and competing with you! That seems like sound enough advice yet sometimes I can’t resist promoting a product that has an ‘insanely’ high gravity number! One such item, I observed, had a gravity of over 700 and I knew that it was a ridiculously in-demand product. Hoplink was created in seconds and away I went!

    Never promote anything with commissions of under 25%? If the gravity is sky-high, it sometimes pays to sell products that have a smaller price tag (many small commissioned items do not have a big charge on them). If you successfully market something popular that you don’t get a lot from at least you have put the word out of your Internet presence and may just be able to then make some back-end sales (selling future items to former purchasers.)

    Good luck with your affiliate marketing!

    Regards,
    David Braybrooke – ‘Fatherspirit’.

    David Smyths last blog post..~ The Birth Of Fatherspirit Inc.! ~

  • Sara Waller

    Reply Reply September 28, 2008

    Thanks for this. As I come from an online ad agency background I have always used third party networks like DGM, great if you are UK and Europe based.http://www.dgm-uk.com/index.php/dgmaffiliates

    Then moving clientside into the heavily populated high incoming affiliate earning world of eGaming, there are a heap of excellent inhouse programs that gaming companies developed as well as third parties.

    If anyone is in Gaming I recommend Canaffco
    http://www.dgm-uk.com/index.php/dgmaffiliates

    Good luck with the baby Reed
    Sara

  • Sara Waller

    Reply Reply September 28, 2008

    Sorry the correct Canaffco URL

    http://www.canaffco.com/

  • admin

    Reply Reply September 28, 2008

    @Rayko thanks glad you enjoy

    @Dave you could great a blank web page and basically put anything you wanted on it but it would be more profitable to have a specific focus and not promoting tons of affiliate products on the same page. You could have many sites or pages promoting various products and as long as you were getting traffic that converted you could make residual income. A lot of people do this with the top 3 or 5 products on clickbank for a specific topic and then they rank them and write a short review of the product.

    @kathleen I’m not sure what that product is. You’d need to follow up with the people who sold it to you, it sounds rather scammish.

    @Liz yes it’s important to know how long cookies are for the products you promote, good point.

    @Gimme if you are graphically talented and the company doesn’t get mad at you for making them then by all means go ahead.

    @Ted you bring up some points but they aren’t really relevant to this discussion as this site isn’t political or in the finance markets (it used to be financial so that may be how you found this site)

    @kensilver the six figure income MLM? I tried that back in ’99-2000 but never figured out how to really make money with it.

    @TeasesTips thanks for replying to Liz

    @Don I would suggest becoming a member of Simpleology it’s free and helps me a lot http://register.simpleology.com/

    @Bill thanks for replying to Liz

    @PV thank you

    @normz thanks, most of the products I promote are 50-100% commission.

    @Dennis I actually haven’t used CB as a publisher yet but probably will in the future. I don’t know I’ve waited so long.

    @Rivers you bring up a good point a lot of people want to be the next Walmart or Amazon.com and that is VERY challenging

    @Marian yes inhouse affiliate programs can be really good you just need to make sure they are trustworthy and will pay you. I’ve lost countless thousands of dollars promoting people who haven’t paid me 🙁

    @How To thanks sounds like a very low conversion

    @Bill great points thanks.

    @Emmaunuel I didn’t see consistent success from affiliate marketing until I built my list, start there.

    @John thank you

    @Lynda thank you 🙂

    @Chris great attitude we always will continue to learn and earn, school is never out for the pro.

    @David good tips as usual

    @Sara thank you

    @How to thanks for the trackback

  • C

    Reply Reply September 28, 2008

    Hey, Teasa. What are the best CPAs you recommend?

  • Anatoly Silkin

    Reply Reply September 28, 2008

    Dear Sponsor! I do not know, that it is necessary to make to receive
    Money, so necessary for me!!!!?? ON a card a zero!!!????
    Sincerely Anatoly Silkin.

  • Wayne Bell

    Reply Reply September 29, 2008

    This articles covers a lot of important information about promoting affiliate programs but the one question that the followers of my blog at:> http://waynesusanbell.wordpress.com/
    keep asking is how to choose a Legitimate Work At Home or Work From Home Business? This prompted me to post an article on that very subject which can be viewed at:> http://waynesusanbell.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/searching-for-a-legitimate-work-at-home-or-work-from-home-business/#comments

    Helping others find financial freedom working from home is a passion my wife Susan and I both share.

    Until Next Time

    Health, Happiness And Success
    Wayne & Susan Bell
    BELL’S HOME PROFIT NETWORK
    “Searching The World To Bring You The Best”
    http://milliondollarlinks.synthasite.com/

  • Hartawan Tjiwidjaja

    Reply Reply October 1, 2008

    how can i earn money without pay a member ship or buy a product, example: pay per click or pay per lead.

  • admin

    Reply Reply October 5, 2008

    @C I found this which may help you http://www.nooti.com/profit/cpa-networks.php

    @Anatoly I’m not sure what you meant; I think you are saying that you are broke. Try making some money offline perhaps you could mow some lawns, rake leaves, shovel snow etc. then take that money and invest it into setting up your internet business

    @Wayne it’s nice to see that you are passionate about helping others; next time could you turn down the self promotion a bit in the post. That’s a lot of links back. Thanks I’d appreciate it.

    @Hartawan so you want to make money without spending a dime? That’s very hard to do. It takes either time or money and usually both to succeed. Yes someone could make some money with no investment of money online but odds are it will take a lot of time and that to me costs a lot more since you can NEVER get your time back

  • To answer dave smith … NO its not good to take a blank page and fill it with affiliate links, the search engines hate these types of sites and there is a good chance you won’t make a dime. You are better off building a site or blog on a particular subject and adding a few ads here and there that are relevant to your site content, this works well and has worked for me for years.

  • Felix Makmur

    Reply Reply October 8, 2008

    Thanks for the great tips on choosing affiliate programs. I also try to do some research first before promoting a program, to make sure that the product offered is not a scam.

    Felix Makmurs last blog post..7 Simple Methods to Attract Avalanche of Targeted Traffic to Your Website

  • admin

    Reply Reply October 8, 2008

    @eBooks relevant content is very helpful thanks for the tip

    @Felix I’m glad you do your research keep up the good work.

  • Pat Gunning

    Reply Reply December 15, 2008

    researching who your selling through is as important as what you are selling. Investigate the marketer and their product to see if it really is a good deal for you.

  • Shawn Horwood

    Reply Reply December 17, 2008

    I think your tip about tracking your stats is crucial. A lot of people do not track their stats because they are lazy, but it is really one of the most important parts of marketing online. If you don’t know what’s working and what isn’t, then you won’t know what to scale and what to throw away, and you will make far less then your potential, if you make anything at all.
    Shawn Horwood
    http://top5-workathome.com/blog/

    Shawn Horwoods last blog post..Ewen Chia’s Autopilot Profits System

  • Amelia

    Reply Reply January 4, 2009

    Reed,
    I like to promote affiliate programs and I promote those that I can afford to subscribe to. However, without a squeeze page of my own and an autoresponder, I find promoting as an affiliate is rather difficult as people people do not open the link when they know that they will be enticed to purchase something. I do have an autoresponder which I subscribed to for about a year without knowing how to use it. In the past year, I managed to earn around $350 which was actually 50% return of my own subscription.
    Setting up my own website or squeeze page is one hurdle that I have to cross at the start of this new year and start earning some income.

  • That is a good article. What are the affiliate programs you recommend? I know it depends on the niche, but I mean more like what service? I have been using commission junction. They are pretty good I guess.

    Home Business Blog – Joeybs last blog post..New Pursuit Of Wealth Bookstore Launched!

  • my personal atm

    Reply Reply April 24, 2009

    This is totally true. When you start off with the low end programs most people can afford them 5.00 or 7.00 is not much. Get your list built with the low end programs then you can go for the higher end programs after you and your new online friends are making money with the low end ones.

  • Eric Transue

    Reply Reply June 12, 2009

    Very true, there is a lot of money to made as an affiliate. I truly believe that as an affiliate, pushing a product you actually use and like, will give you a huge advantage over those pushing products they really have no knowlegde of.

    Eric Transues last blog post..Don’t Be Fooled by Fools

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