Think of any product nowadays and you can be pretty sure there's an affiliate program attached where you can earn commissions on any sales of that product that you may make as an affiliate. But with all this choice how do you decide which products you should be promoting?
As a list owner, I get asked this type of question quite a lot by my subscribers, and my answer is always the same. Rather than chase those products with high commissions, I recommend starting off my promoting products that offer commissions on a recurring basis. Classic examples of such products include autoresponders, web hosting services, and membership sites.
These sites will generally pay you a certain percentage in commission for every person you sign up and for every month they remain a member. So therefore, you can see that by promoting these types of products, you can create a constant residual income for yourself every single month, with no extra effort needed on your part.
The great thing about these types of products, particularly autoresponders and web hosting providers, is that if you can find and promote really top quality providers, you will find that very few members will change to a different provider because they are so happy with their current service. So you can potentially earn recurring monthly commissions for many years.
Compare this with the one-time commission that the vast majority of companies pay out and you can see exactly why I recommend that you find products that pay out recurring commissions. Sure you can promote products that pay one-time commissions, but make sure that you spend at least some of your time promoting products that offer you a recurring residual income, so you know you have a steady monthly income coming in in future months.
Other products that I recommend you promote are those that pay commissions on a two-tier basis. By that I mean products that pay out not only a commission for each direct sale you make, but also pay you a set commission on any sales that your customers may make.
For example, let's say you are promoting a product that costs $100, and which pays out 30% commission on every sale you make, and 10% on any sales your customers make. So in this case you can see that not only can you make $30 per sale, but you also earn $10 for every sale your customers make as an affiliate, so again your chances of earning additional income are greatly enhanced, with no extra effort needed on your part.
So to sum up, and to answer the original question, in my opinion the best types of products to promote as an affiliate are those that offer recurring commissions, or those that provide additional income opportunities such as two-tier commissions. These types of programs require the same level of effort to promote as products that pay one-time commissions, yet can offer far greater financial rewards.
James Woolley is a full-time marketer who runs a website and newsletter, dedicated to helping people make money online through internet marketing.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Beginner's Guide to Building an Affiliate Website
By Curtis Kopeschny
Article Source: EzineArticle.com
The concept of Affiliate Marketing is simple. Promote a merchant's products or services on your website by joining their affiliate program and earn commissions when a sale is made. It's completely understandable that so many people want to give it a try. The problem however, is that unless you're a graphic or web designer, building the website can be confusing and difficult. Even if you're a marketing guru, you may still need help building your affiliate website. Let's go through some different ways to get a stylish and functional affiliate website online.
Do-It-Yourself Website Design
If you have basic knowledge of web design or know how to code and design websites inside and out, you should consider building your website yourself. Not only can you save a lot of money, you can use programs like Dreamweaver or FrontPage to help you out. They will provide you with a nice graphical view of your site as you design it as well as provide an easy method to FTP your files to your web server. Of course, if you are familiar with web design, you can always use the 'code view' option.
If and when you need help, there are many forums on the Internet to help get you back on track. It is important to recognize that if you don't have an eye for colour, layout, or style, doing it yourself might not be the best option. The point of the site is to generate trust with your visitors so they click your links and earn you income. If your site looks like it was thrown together and is illegible, it won't be an effective affiliate website. You'll just be wasting your time.
Read more....
Article Source: EzineArticle.com
The concept of Affiliate Marketing is simple. Promote a merchant's products or services on your website by joining their affiliate program and earn commissions when a sale is made. It's completely understandable that so many people want to give it a try. The problem however, is that unless you're a graphic or web designer, building the website can be confusing and difficult. Even if you're a marketing guru, you may still need help building your affiliate website. Let's go through some different ways to get a stylish and functional affiliate website online.
Do-It-Yourself Website Design
If you have basic knowledge of web design or know how to code and design websites inside and out, you should consider building your website yourself. Not only can you save a lot of money, you can use programs like Dreamweaver or FrontPage to help you out. They will provide you with a nice graphical view of your site as you design it as well as provide an easy method to FTP your files to your web server. Of course, if you are familiar with web design, you can always use the 'code view' option.
If and when you need help, there are many forums on the Internet to help get you back on track. It is important to recognize that if you don't have an eye for colour, layout, or style, doing it yourself might not be the best option. The point of the site is to generate trust with your visitors so they click your links and earn you income. If your site looks like it was thrown together and is illegible, it won't be an effective affiliate website. You'll just be wasting your time.
Read more....
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
HOW TO CHOOSE PROFITABLE DOMAIN NAME
Choosing a domain name for your website is a very important decision, and should not be taken lightly. A bad choice of name could seriously affect the potential profitability of your online business, and prevent it achieving as much success as it should do.
There are many factors you should consider when selecting a domain name.
Firstly, you should try and include your main keyword(s) in your name if at all possible. This will help your site in terms of search engine rankings, because search engines generally rank websites slightly higher if they include their main keyword(s) in their domain name.
In saying that though, ideally it should be relatively short and easy to remember. This is fairly obvious, but is a mistake that a lot of webmasters make. I always prefer names without any dashes or numbers in, as this increases the risk of people mistyping your address into their browsers, and try to keep them as short and as memorable as possible.
Sometimes though it's just not possible or desirable to include your keywords in your domain name. For example, your main keyword terms or phrases could be two or three words long, and if they're long words as well, then any available domain name you find that contains these keywords may simply be too long. Also, you may decide that any domain name containing your main keywords would be too generic and unmemorable, so in this instance you would probably have more success trying to brand yourself, and creating a unique, distinctive domain name, that sets you apart from your competition.
Indeed a lot of major companies now prefer to brand themselves with a memorable domain name, and don't include any keywords at all in their name. You only have to look at some of the biggest companies online to see evidence of this. A lot of offline companies also do this when building an online presence, by simply using their offline company name as their domain name.
One other thing to consider is that you should not use a trademarked name in your own domain name. This is again fairly obvious, but can be a serious problem. You should double-check before you choose a domain name as you could potentially face legal action in the future when the company who owns the trademarked name finds out about your site. At the very least they could demand that you give up the right to the domain name, which could be catastrophic to your business if you have to suddenly drop your name and go for a completely new one.
Finally, whatever name you choose, I recommend, if at all possible, to choose a name with the suffix .com. This will instantly give your website increased credibility, as people still refer to online businesses as dot-coms, even those people that have never used the internet. Also I know from personal experience that when I browse various websites I will always give more credence to a website ending in .com, than one ending in .info or .biz, for example.
James Woolley is a successful marketer who has several money-making sites in various niches. His latest site is a free internet marketing resource guide, which also includes a newsletter filled with free tips and bonuses
There are many factors you should consider when selecting a domain name.
Firstly, you should try and include your main keyword(s) in your name if at all possible. This will help your site in terms of search engine rankings, because search engines generally rank websites slightly higher if they include their main keyword(s) in their domain name.
In saying that though, ideally it should be relatively short and easy to remember. This is fairly obvious, but is a mistake that a lot of webmasters make. I always prefer names without any dashes or numbers in, as this increases the risk of people mistyping your address into their browsers, and try to keep them as short and as memorable as possible.
Sometimes though it's just not possible or desirable to include your keywords in your domain name. For example, your main keyword terms or phrases could be two or three words long, and if they're long words as well, then any available domain name you find that contains these keywords may simply be too long. Also, you may decide that any domain name containing your main keywords would be too generic and unmemorable, so in this instance you would probably have more success trying to brand yourself, and creating a unique, distinctive domain name, that sets you apart from your competition.
Indeed a lot of major companies now prefer to brand themselves with a memorable domain name, and don't include any keywords at all in their name. You only have to look at some of the biggest companies online to see evidence of this. A lot of offline companies also do this when building an online presence, by simply using their offline company name as their domain name.
One other thing to consider is that you should not use a trademarked name in your own domain name. This is again fairly obvious, but can be a serious problem. You should double-check before you choose a domain name as you could potentially face legal action in the future when the company who owns the trademarked name finds out about your site. At the very least they could demand that you give up the right to the domain name, which could be catastrophic to your business if you have to suddenly drop your name and go for a completely new one.
Finally, whatever name you choose, I recommend, if at all possible, to choose a name with the suffix .com. This will instantly give your website increased credibility, as people still refer to online businesses as dot-coms, even those people that have never used the internet. Also I know from personal experience that when I browse various websites I will always give more credence to a website ending in .com, than one ending in .info or .biz, for example.
James Woolley is a successful marketer who has several money-making sites in various niches. His latest site is a free internet marketing resource guide, which also includes a newsletter filled with free tips and bonuses
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