Sunday, January 3, 2010

A Brief Note on Affiliate Marketing!

Know what is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing can be broadly defined as one of the best internet-based marketing practice in which, the advertisers pay publishers for generating sales, bringing customers, leads or clicks to the merchant’s site. A merchant is someone who uses the website to advertise and sell his products and services while the publishers provide the medium for promoting the services and products of the advertisers. Today, affiliate marketing has paved its way into each and every section of the industry from business to electronics to home and so on. Affiliate marketing has essentially provided several online companies like, Amazon and eBay, an opportunity to have an edge over other companies. In fact, almost every e-commerce site today is trying to get into affiliate marketing since it does not involve much efforts on part of the merchant. He just needs to place an ad on the affiliates website and sit back and see huge profits rolling in. The usual practice for affiliate marketing is through a focused channel like a niche website, where you can target a particular section of prospective customers. This part may represent anything from health to e-commerce or medicine. The aim is just to get the maximum customer diverts to the merchants site so that you can ensure maximum conversions. There are several ways in which the affiliate marketing program works.

The two basic ways include:

Pay-Per-Click (PPC): As the name suggests, this kind of affiliate marketing depends on the number of clicks the visitor makes on the affiliates site. This is typically useful for affiliates having small websites.
Pay-Per-Performance (PPP): This is a performance-based affiliate marketing program in which, the affiliate receives a commission only when the user performs some action like, buying a product or registering with the merchant
Tips For Affiliate Marketing
It is not everyone's cup of tea to be successful in affiliate marketing. This holds especially true for the newbies who have no idea about how to go about the affiliate marketing programs. With dozens of successful affiliate marketing sites on the run, you cannot afford to just include a few links and banners and wait for good money to roll in. You need to be really careful about your marketing strategy to get that kind of returns.
Here are some effective affiliate marketing tips that you can use to get your targeted traffic:
  • Target a niche market: It is not a good idea to try to sell everything to everyone. A much better idea is to focus on niche markets, especially areas in which you have expertise. This way you can contribute your opinions and personal touch to the site
  • Claim niche partners: Just focusing on a niche market is not going to benefit you. What you further need is to find niche partners who have viewers interested in your niche market along with a good traffic and who would benefit from your affiliate offer.
  • Develop compelling and convincing creative: This is your big chance to tab good affiliate partners. Offer your partners with such promotional materials which would require least efforts on their part and make their marketing job easier so that they are compelled towards accepting a partnership. The easier it gets for them the more are the chances of their promoting your products and services.
  • Do not depend on one partner: It is always in vogue to be on the constant look for new affiliate partners. This is because you never know when one of them would have a change of plans and you may lose a partner. Thus, it is good to keep recruiting new partners through listings in affiliate directories or through direct contact with potential affiliates.
  • Establish rapport with your partners: One way to maintain good relations with your partners is through constant communication. Make them feel welcomed by sending them constant updates on products and services or by providing them with effective marketing tips for your products. Remember to always pay them on time.

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