Affiliate Marketing - What's In It For You?

by Trina L.C. Schiller

Are you making the kind of money, online, as you had imagined you would be? Has becoming and Internet marketer fulfilled your dreams, or has it become some crazy nightmare? Are you making money for yourself, or have you gotten back into the trap of making money for someone else?

Think back to when you first decided to make money with your computer and Internet connection. Wasn't it a desire to make more money, have more time, and stop making someone else rich off your efforts, the main drive that got you going? Are you there yet? Would you like to know why you're still chasing your tail?

The plain and simple fact, for those who have been trying to make money online, without their own product or service to market, is this: You are still working for someone else! Your efforts are making someone else rich, just as your 9 to 5 job lines the bosses pockets.

If you are an affiliate marketer, and 95% of those trying to cash in online are, you are still working for someone else. You are promoting someone else's products, paying to advertise them, and earning a commission on the sales you generate. And to make it even more difficult to make money this way, you have to compete with hundreds of other affiliate marketers who are promoting the same stuff you are.

The gurus of Internet marketing have achieved their status because they know how to do one thing... seduce others into selling their products for them.

Most of them do not create the products you are promoting, they have programmers on staff to do that for them. So, they pay the programmer to create some new widget, get you to spend your time and money to market it, and they get rich, while you get stressed out, trying to top all the competition.

Sure, you might be offered a whopping commission percentage, but the person you are promoting is getting huge checks, based on the sales of all the affiliates working for them, while you are getting a percentage. Isn't that how it works in the real world?

They are leveraging the time and efforts of others, and that is why they are the making the big bucks. The irony of it all is that they are making all this money, telling you how to make a bunch of money. Yet, you're spending and they're collecting.

Guru A has a product to sell. This product is targeted to those wanting to make money online. Guru A sets up a great sales page for the product, offering tons of bonuses and an affiliate program. So, not only can you, the affiliate marketer, buy this great product, which will help your marketing efforts, you can sell it to others too for a whopping 80%. Sounds like a helluva deal! You part with your cash and start promoting this product.

Now, let's say Guru A gets 100 people to buy his product, and join his affiliate program to sell the product. He makes 100% on the first 100 people.

Each affiliate sells 100 copies, and has affiliate sign ups . Guru A makes 20% on every sale, and the affiliate makes 80% on his personal sales only. Who is making more money?

Then there is the other aspect to this... You may have generated a sale, and made 80% on it, but you have also created competition for yourself, when they too, join the affiliate program. The more competition you have, it becomes more difficult to generate personal sales. Your sales drop, but the product is still selling. Guru A is still earning his 20% of all the sales, while you are now getting 100% of NOTHING.

All the while, Guru A is building a huge contact list. A list of buyers and affiliates. A list you are a part of, and through which Guru A will sell you more stuff.

Are You Getting This?

Now, I'm not trying to say that this makes Guru A a bad person. Guru A is a saavy marketer.

Now, if you want to stop this vicious cycle, and start making money for real, for yourself, then the first thing you must do is trim the fat.

Evaluate the affiliate programs you are involved with. Chances are, that you have way more than you can handle. Figure out which ones are worth promoting, and delete the rest. When you have too many affiliate programs in your portfolio, you lose FOCUS. This is why you begin chasing your tail.

You must have focus to reach your goals. Fragmented efforts will produce fragmented results. You cannot walk more than one path at a time and expect to get anywhere.

Once you've trimmed the fat, create a place where you can showcase them all. A lead-in page, if you will. A page where you can focus on a specific purpose and link off to each separate sales page. I'm not talking about some banner farm looking thing either. Create a page with some content. Since you are grouping specific things together, write about the various problems that these products can solve. Write about your personal experience with these products. Then link off , 'For More Information.'

This gives your web site focus. The more focused, the more targeted your traffic will be. That in turn, will increase the likelihood of increased sales.

My advice: Find a company, or niche market that you can promote, one with a consumable product(s). Consumable products must be re-purchased on a regular basis. This ensures repeat sales and income. Residual income is what makes people financially secure. Profit forever from a single action.

Use affiliate programs to advance the promotion of your OWN business. Use affiliate programs to build YOUR contact list, to promote yourself, not someone else. Don't depend on them for life-long income.

Copyright © 2006
The Trii-Zine Ezine
www.ezines1.com

About the Author

Trina L.C. Schiller : Publisher - The Trii-Zine Ezine

http://www.ezines1.com/triizinehttp://www.trinaschiller.ws

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Keywords: affiliate programs, affiliate marketing, affiliate promotion, consumable product