Introduction to online affiliate marketing: in simple layman language

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What is "online affiliate marketing"?

For beginners, the first step to learning what is "online affiliate marketing' must start with understanding the concept of "affiliate marketing". This lens is more than just explaining in plain words what online affiliate marketing is as it also introduces starters to useful resources to help you kickstart your ambition in internet marketing. If you are planning home-based businesses through affiliate marketing, this lens will help you take that first big step.

Online affiliate marketing explained 

A case of revenue sharing

WHAT do Kyle & Carson of WealthyAffiliate University fame, Ewen Chia of AutoPilot Profits fame and Rosalind Gardner of SuperAffiliate Handbook fame have in common? I am using these examples as I've benefited from these Internet marketers' knowledge, They are all renowned Internet marketers and they are in one way or another involved in "online affiliate marketing" for "digital products". Let me first explain what is "affiliate marketing". It is a marketing activity involving revenue sharing. Let's say someone is trying to market an e-book. He gets a commission from the e-book publisher when there is a successful sale. So he is known as an affiliate marketer and his activity is known as affiliate marketing. When the product he is promoted uses the Internet as the medium, it is called "online affiliate marketing". The products being promoted are often "digital products". What then are "digital products"? Read on....

What are "digital products"? 

Let's use an example. Imagine Rosalind Gardner or Ewen Chia trying to sell an "affiliate marketing" start-up kit to aspiring affiliate marketers. The "affiliate marketing" program can be published as a book and sold as a physical product in the bookshop. But in the Internet age, a faster and more effective way is for the product owner to sell his product as an e-book. This means that when someone buys the program, the product owner need not despatch a physical copy to the purchaser. Instead, the owner sends an electronic version of the book to the
customer. The receiver downloads the electronic version of the book using his computer. If the receiver likes to, he or she could print the book
using a printer. When does the affiliate get his or her commission? Simple. The affiliate attaches a link to his promotion material. A click on this link by a potential customer will directly or indirectly lead him or her to the digital product the affiliate is representing. If this results in a sale,
the affiliate marketer will be compensated, usually in the form of a commission. The cost to the customer is the same if he or she buys direct from the product owner so there is no need to deprive the affiliate of his commission by buying direct from the product owner. Many product owners promote their products through a common body such as Clickbank. Others can sign up with Clickbank as affiliates. The payment by the customer is by way of secure electronic transaction. When a transaction is completed, the affiliate will get his commission. But just bear in mind that products bought are also subject to the right of return by customers. Within this lens, there are examples of affiliate marketing products such as Ewen Chia's AutoPilot Profits and Rosalind Gardner's SuperAffiliate Handbook. I'm using these examples as I've benefited from them.

Some recommended readings 

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A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing: Quick Reference for Affiliate Managers & Merchants by Evgenii Prussakov

A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing: Quick Reference for Affiliate Managers & Merchants by Evgenii Prussakov

A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing was writt more...0 points

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Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants by Shawn Collins

Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants by Shawn Collins

A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing was writt more...0 points

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Affiliate Selling: Building Revenue on the Web by Greg Helmstetter

Affiliate Selling: Building Revenue on the Web by Greg Helmstetter

A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing was writt more...0 points

Ewen Chia's AutoPilots Profits 

Helping to kickstart your Internet marketing ambition

"The Big System To Making Real Money On The Internet...Or How To Finally Succeed On The Internet!" For more information on AutoPilot Profits or to get your free gifts worth $47, click here.

Why affiliate marketing? 

The sky is the limit in online affiliate marketing

Now that you understand what is online affiliate marketing, you may ask: Why go into affiliate marketing? The most important reason, to me, is that there is no limit to how much you can earn: it is all up to your desire, effort and imagination. This is unlike a salaried job in which your income is fixed. At a time of global recession when many people are out of job, online affiliate marketing becomes a real income avenue for the many jobless. Let's look at some reasons given by Affiliate Marketing Queen Rosalind Gardner.

Low start-up costs 

There are a thousand and one reason why online affiliate marketing is attractive but the second most important reason I can think of is that one cannot start this business with virtually zero capital. There is no production cost as you are selling other people's products; and there are also no joining fees and shipping cost; and you can start the business if you've a computer and an Internet account.

15 Reasons to Become an Affiliate Marketer 

There are HUGE benefits to promoting affiliate
programs with your own home-based Internet business,
and if you ask Rosalind Gardner, for example, she will have at least 15 great reasons for you to become an affiliate marketer.

Let's look at each reason separately:

1. No Production Costs - With affiliate marketing, one avoids the prohibitive cost of developing and
producing a new product to start a home-based business.

2. Low Cost Set-up - Compared with building a
brick and mortar store, starting a home-based
Internet business is relatively cheap.

3. No Fees for Joining or Licenses to Buy - Affiliate programs are usually free to join, and geographic market reach is limited only by the affiliate's ability to promote his web site.

4. Choose From Thousands of Products and
Services - There are thousands and thousands of
affiliate programs selling every product under
the sun.

5. No Sales Experience Needed - You can get excellent marketing material from the companies you are representing as affiliate marketers.

6. No Employees - If you are the publisher or owner of an affiliate marketing product, you don't have to worry about hiring full or part-time
employees. If your product is good, many will be willing to sell it for you as affiliate marketers. Also, when you have a project you want to
hire out, it is easy to find specialists in every
computer-related field who can work for you from
the comfort of THEIR own homes. You pay only
for the project, and never have to worry about
ongoing employee-related benefits and
deductions.

Read on...

15 Reasons to Become an Affiliate Marketer...continued 

7. No Expensive Merchant Accounts Needed -
Merchant accounts aren't a concern
when you're an affiliate. The merchant bears that
cost and handles all processing of payments.
You never have to lose sleep over potential
chargebacks, fraud or losing your merchant
account when you're an affiliate.

8. No Inventory to Carry - Even if you live in a
small one-bedroom apartment, as an affiliate you
can sell large items without storage concerns.

9. No Order-Processing - Forget the problems
associated with collecting and storing names,
addresses, credit card numbers, etc. The
merchant does all that!

10. No Product Shipping - Affiliates never
have to worry about packaging supplies or postal
rates.

11. No Customer Service Concerns - Do you
hate the prospect of dealing with nasty people or
customer complaints? Don't worry about it! The
merchant handles them.

12. Make Money While You Sleep - What other
business allows you as a sole proprietor to keep
your doors open and keep making money even
when you take breaks or after you go home for
the night?

13. The World at Your Doorstep - The Internet is
the world's largest marketplace. You can drive
more visitors to your online store in a day, than
many small-town merchants sees in his or her
brick and mortar business in a year.

14. Minimal Risk - If a product you chose isn't
making money, just dump it. There are
no long-term contracts binding you.

15. High Income Potential - If you have a job,
your salary or hourly wage is probably
pre-determined. With your own affiliate
business on the Internet your income potential is
limited only by your desire, effort and imagination.

"An amazing story of how one woman, with no previous marketing experience, earns $435,000+ p.a."

The SuperAffiliate Handbook... 

...from an Internet marketing guru who needs no introduction

This is an amazing story of how one woman, with no previous marketing experience, earns $435,000+ per year online selling other people's stuff. Rosalind Gardner needs no introduction.
Click here for more information on Rosalind Gardner and her SuperAffiliate Handbook.

Free WealthyAffiliate Guide 

Internet Marketing learning under one roof. WealthAffiliate Internet Marketing University is a membership-based online learning website run by two Internet millionaires. A unique learning place for detailed instructions on how to earn significant profits online. The system includes guides, tutorials, case studies, online courses, support, one-on-one coaching and many other tools to help you succeed at making money online. To claim your free Internet Wealth Guide and get further information on WealthAffiliate Internet Marketing University, click here.

Share your views/thoughts 

Lensmaster

work-from-home-income wrote...

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ReplyPosted December 28, 2008

Lensmaster

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ReplyPosted December 14, 2008

Lensmaster

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ReplyPosted November 14, 2008

Lensmaster

ElizabethJeanAllen wrote...

Great lens! It would be a valuable addition to the list of references (plexo) on The Squidoo Learning Curve.
I'm just starting with affiliates and I'm a little nervous about it. Your lens helped.
Thanks,
Lizzy

ReplyPosted October 27, 2008

Lensmaster

tenretni

Great lens, loads of useful information, another site i found good is googlesucks

ReplyPosted October 17, 2008

Lensmaster

Scott8580 wrote...

The Super Affiliate handbook is a great handbook...for your visual oriented subscribers, I would suggest the video affiliate marketing training...Michael Cheney does a great job explaining affiliate marketing step-by-step...

ReplyPosted August 28, 2008

Lensmaster

InternetJunkie wrote...

I love affiliate marketing; it's got great potential.

ReplyPosted July 05, 2008

Lensmaster

Junyuan wrote...

Great information you have in your lens on affiliate marketing. Very good introduction on affiliate marketing. Definitely very useful for newbie Internet Marketers. I've given your lens a 5 star rating. By the way, I've just created a lens on affiliate marketing - where I've answered questions that most people have when they are looking to start off with affiliate marketing. You may want to consider adding your lens to my Internet Marketing directory which I've created and give you more traffic to your lens. Hope to see you there! :)

ReplyPosted May 28, 2008

Lensmaster

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ReplyPosted May 25, 2008

Lensmaster

bamm wrote...

That is a nice lens, just joined and I am impressed.

ReplyPosted May 04, 2008

Lensmaster

oneaveragejane wrote...

Excellent Lens! You've done a great job oulining all the benefits of being an internet marketer.

ReplyPosted May 04, 2008

Lensmaster

stevenroy wrote...

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SUBJECT: Visibility in Search Engines to get Prospective Leads!

Dear RovingReporter
I am Steven Roy from the Search Marketing team of SalesUniverse.

We facilitate our clients to noticeably improve their online visibility using various services that includes SEO (Search Engine Optimization), PPC (Pay per Click) and WebXplor.

I was doing some research on websites that would need our help in getting a better position in the search engines listings (natural or sponsored) and found that you have a great scope in exploiting the online search engine scenario. It looks like we might have a good reason to talk.
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ReplyPosted April 08, 2008

Lensmaster

spacetruckin wrote...

Great Lens! Lots of good resources, learn how to jump ahead of others doing Affiliate Marketing.

ReplyPosted November 27, 2007

Lensmaster

hooshmand wrote...

Great lens! Gave you 5 stars.
There are 4 main steps in this process which I have explained more on Affiliate Marketing Business Plan. It is a must-read information, now available online for FREE!

ReplyPosted November 15, 2007

Lensmaster

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ReplyPosted September 15, 2007

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