Internet Affiliate MarketingInternet affiliate marketing is an online business model where you, as a web site owner/publisher, promote a specific product through links placed on your site that direct visitors to another web site where they can place their order. You get a commission when your web site visitor makes a purchase from your link. Sign up for the Internet Strategies Hot List. Get tips on hot products that will help you build your online business plus a bonus download in every issue! How Internet Affiliate Marketing Programs WorkAffiliate programs can pay you per lead, per action or per purchase. If your visitor enters their name in a form through your link, then that's a lead. If they subscribe to a merchant's service or program through your link, that's an action. If they buy something through your link, that's a sale. For the purposes of this article, we'll be talking mostly about pay per sale affiliate programs.Most merchants have a contract with an affiliate manager who handles all the tracking and paying of commissions. The most well known affiliate managers include Click Bank, Commission Junction, Link Share and Link Connector. Some merchants opt to either go with a smaller affiliate manager or if they're technically-inclined, do it themselves. Web site Publishers contract with the affiliate manager to track their transactions and pay them when they get a sale. When you, as a web site publisher, are accepted into the merchant’s program, you are given a specific url that has your unique tracking ID. When your web site visitors click on your affiliate url, that’s how the affiliate manager knows who to pay. Most merchant’s limit the amount of time that your affiliate url is active. For instance, Amazon has a 24 hour “cookie”. That means if someone doesn’t make a purchase within 24 hours of clicking on your link, you won’t get that sale. The Super Affiliate Handbook has detailed information about all of these different types of affiliate programs and what's been most profitable for her. If you like, you can read a review of Super Affiliate Handbook here. How to Choose the Affiliate Program that's Right for YouSo, there are a few things you want to consider when you apply for or are invited to participate in a merchant's program whether it's independent or within an affiliate manager.How long does the merchant’s “cookie” last? 24 hours? 30 days? 60 days? 90 days? If you’re going to spend a lot of time adding banners and text links to your site, then the cookie should be a minimum of 30 days. 90 days is better. Lifetime commissions are best! Choose a product with a good commission/sale price ratio. If a product is high end and you get a 10% commission, that’s great. If it’s a low price product and it’s only a 10% commission, you might be better off just adding adsense to your site. What’s the minimum amount needed before you get paid? If you have a minimum of $100 before you get paid, that’s quite a long time and chances are you won’t see a check, ever. But $25 is a reasonable minimum. Lower than that is even better! The next step in making your internet affiliate marketing campaign a success is to maximize your conversion rates. That's the ratio between the number of clicks and the number of sales from your affiliate url. You also need to know how to promote the programs properly. You aren't limited to a web site to make affiliate marketing profitable. You can promote affiliate programs through email marketing and blogs, as well.
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