The
Truth About Earning $1,000 or More Weekly From Affiliate Programs
By Terry
Dean
Everyone
is talking about them. Almost everyone is a member of at least
a few of them. Affiliate programs are hot.
You can usually sign up for free and be selling products within
5 minutes. The web sites, sales letters, and order shipping
are all done for you. All you have to do is promote.
But...is
anyone making money from these programs except
for the affiliate program owner?
It is a
surprising statistic when you find out that only around 10%
to 20% of affiliate members do enough to ever get a
check. Then, only a small percentage of those go on to earn
really good incomes from affiliate programs.
It isn't
the affiliate program either. Although some affiliate programs
have pitifully small payouts (5% to 10%) and limit their members
that way, the real problem comes with the fact
that affiliates have no idea how to sell from their affiliate
sites. The affiliate owners usually don't have any idea how
to help them either.
I own several
affiliate programs myself, so I have spent a considerable amount
of time studying my top affiliates and the top affiliates in
programs all over the Internet.
The principles
below are true of almost everyone of the top
affiliates in every program I have looked at. If you want to
succeed and earn at least $5,000 or more per month
from affiliate programs, then you will have to be following
the five steps below. If you don't, it just
isn't going to happen...and you have no one to blame but yourself.
Create
Your Own Web Site
Although
almost every program gives you a web site to use to promote
with, you really shouldn't be promoting with
that site. The top affiliates always have their own
web sites which they promote from. Then, they link
to the affiliate program sites.
I never
drive traffic directly to any of the affiliate programs.
I drive it to my site, get their name on my opt in email list,
and then promote affiliate programs. If you are serious
about earning profits online, then you will do the same.
Having your
own site and linking to your affiliate program gives you some
additional advantages as well:
* You can
write up a short two to four paragraph endorsement
and testimonial for the site yourself.
* You can
generate subscribers to your opt in email list
first (this is the key to Internet profits).
* If the
affiliate program ever stops or changes your link, you still
have all the traffic you worked for at YOUR
site (this happens quite often).
If you don't
currently have a web site, but want to earn through affiliate
programs, you need to get one today.
Generate
Website Traffic
You can't
earn a single penny in any affiliate program
without generating traffic to your site. No
traffic equals no income. Combine the right ingredients of an
opt in email list, good site design, and the right sales offer...and
your income will be directly proportional to the targeted
website traffic you generate.
An advantage
that I didn't mention above in why you should own your own domain
is getting listed with the search engines.
The pages given to you by your affiliate program
owner aren't going to receive virtually any traffic from the
search engines. They won't have top rankings because there are
at least 1,000 other pages just like them (from the other affiliate
members) and many software programs create pages which can't
even be indexed by the search engines.
Having your
own domain will give you the freedom to create web pages
which achieve high rankings on the search engines. Each of the
major search engines such as AltaVista, Infoseek,
Hotbot, and the others have their own ranking algorithms which
change virtually monthly.
You can
stay on top of them though by using a program such as Web
Position Gold, which actually monitors
the search engines for you and helps you prepare doorway
pages which will achieve the top search engine rankings
you are seeking...and the website traffic which comes from having
those top rankings.
You can
read more about Web
Position Gold and everything it can do for you here.
You can also even download a trial version for the three of
the major search engines, which is good for 30 days to try it
out free. Check it
out and download the trial.
Search engines
are not the only way to increase website traffic.
You can trade links with sites, place free
and paid classifieds, and even use banner advertising. There
are dozens of ways to generate traffic. If
you want to make
money online from your affiliate programs, you will be using
them.
Start
an Opt In Email List
I checked
my affiliate members' checks this month and noticed a very interesting
trend. All top 10 affiliates have their own opt in email
lists and are pretty aggressive marketers to those
lists. They all contact their opt in email list at least weekly
and the number one affiliate this month mails to his list every
single day.
That is
where my income is coming from also. Over 700 of my income comes
through using opt in email in one way or another...either
through my newsletters
or through my autoresponders
with follow-up. If you don't know how to use email, then your
always going to be living on barely get by street in the online
market.
The web
sites which you send the most website
traffic to should have one purpose to them...and
one purpose only...to sign them up on your opt
in email or newsletter lists.
All of the content that is on this site is for that one purpose.
If you can't
get a visitor to sign up for a free newsletter,
then you aren't going to be able to get them to fill out your
order forms and order. Get them on your list,
and then start emailing them as often as you can, but you must
put out good content.
Although
I prefer to personalize my newsletter
using software you have to buy (I get mine from Pushbutton
Publishing). If you are just starting out and are on a budget,
you can start your list using a free servicet
from http://www.listbot.com
Develop a Unique Web Position
Here is
a trick to increase your sales from ANY affiliate
program, but people rarely ever mention it. Any successful web
site finds a way to make their products and or services unique
from their competition.
When you
are an affiliate though, you have thousands of competitors
selling the exact same product at the exact same price.
Every other affiliate in that company is your competition!
You will
have to become unique if you want to beat the
other affiliates competing against you. You may think it would
be difficult to do, but it isn't.
All you
have to do is add on some extra bonuses to
those people who are purchasing from you. For example, if you're
an affiliate for a video course, then add in a special free
report on the same subject, which is ONLY good for those
who order from you. Your free
report can be emailed to those who order so it won't cost
you a penny of your commissions.
If you own
an opt in email list like you should, you could give
a free ad to anyone who orders an affiliate product
from you.
For example,
you could write that anyone who orders the ________ (you would
list the product here) before midnight tonight will also get
a free ad ($30 value) in your newsletter...or three free ads.
Buy submission software and submit their site to 1,000 search
engines if they order today.
Do something
like this and tell your opt in email list subscribers and web
site visitors about it. You will be setting yourself
apart from the competition and be giving your purchasers
an even better deal than buying from the affiliate
owner!
Special
limited time offers work extremely effectively when combined
with your own opt-in list.
Generate
Multiple Streams of Income
If you follow
all four of the principles above, then you are going to be able
to earn money from many different affiliates programs, and that
is exactly what you should do. You should join several non-competing
programs which sell products to the same targeted market.
For example,
if you have chosen to sell to Internet marketers, you may join:
- An Internet
Training Program
- A Web
Hosting Program
- An Autoresponder
program
- A Business
Opportunity
You can
find several programs which target any specific niche group.
You can
be earning 3 to 10 streams of income from the same visitors
at your web site and subscribers to your newsletters. Having
several streams of income helps every visitor to your site be
worth more money to you!
Let Terry
Dean, a 5 Year Veteran of Internet marketing, Take You By The
Hand and Show You Exact Results of All the Internet Marketing
Techniques He Tests and Uses Every Single Month Click here to
Find Out More: http://www.netbreakthroughs.com
