Per Click Affiliate

Sunday, March 16, 2008

3 Tops Reasons Why You Must Have Your Own Affiliate Marketing Website

Budding entrepreneurs entering the affiliate marketing business invariably struggle with many questions on the setup, methods and strategies of their new business.

In dealing with prospects on a daily basis the same question arises time and time again:

Should I get your own website? Do I need one? Will it make a difference to my affiliate sales?

If you have ever joined any affiliate programs at all then you will know that every affiliate program provides you with your own version of the merchants sales page - coded with your affiliate link, in order to track sales.

Technically it is possible to make money promoting this turnkey site that the merchant has provided. In my professional opinion and from my own experience though, this is NOT the way to go if you are serious about making your affiliate business a full-time enterprise.

Let me explain why - giving the most important points against using the affiliate website:

1. By far the most important factor is that the affiliate program can go out of business at anytime leaving any promotions that you have done for your affiliate site useless. If you have links on the www pointing to an affiliate page and the company is no longer in existence then those links will fail to work.

If you have your own website then YOU are in control. You can simply point the link on your end to a new company and thus give you a chance of building a new income stream.

2. It is undoubtedly of massive importance that you build your reputation online. If you only promote another persons website, even though it will bring you commissions, it will usually have the name of the product owner on this site. So, in this case, you are building the merchants' reputation and web presence instead of your own. Branding your name and business online will lead to further success so it's better to get YOUR name out there right from the very start.

3. Point 3 is, that with an affiliate page you don't have the ability to make changes to your webpage. Again, this is a business, so you MUST add your own uniqueness and some personality to the aspect of this business that you are presenting to the public. You CANNOT do this with the affiliate site that the merchant provides - ONLY with your own website and domain name.

So by now you may be asking for the solution. The only answer is to get a website and build YOUR own web presence and brand rather than someone elses. This way you can promote any affiliate programs you like from your new site AND you can change the links, content etc. as often as you require.

This is how I personally do it. If you visit my own sites you will see that I have added loads of my own content BUT each of the links from within that site point to affiliate product from which I will get a commission for evey sale that is made.

Do you see how this works? Do you see how it is a much better strategy than promoting an affiliate page that will NEVER belong to me?

Now, at this stage you may be terrified as to how you where you would even start to acquire your own business domain name and website.

The process is actually quite simple, once you actually begin to push through the fear and take action.

If you don't see the importance of having your own website now then believe me, it WILL become clear as you get a better understanding of online business.

For a few dollars per year for a domain name and hosting you are much better to have an affiliate website than be without one.

Checkout Mal Keenans' Top Rated Affiliate Marketing Secret Resource Site: http://www.malkeenan.com

Affiliate Networks Explained Webmasters Get Paid Today!

An affiliate network is exactly what it sounds like, a network of affiliate programs. Affiliate networks work by having merchants signup and submit there commission offer which can come in the form of pay per sale, pay per lead or pay per click. Therefore other webmasters pay you to display there link or banner on your website. Once choosing the affiliate program that best fits your website tracking is then accomplished by having each affiliate given its own unique affiliate link. This affiliate link tracks when visitors to your website click to the merchants website. All you have to do is place this link or banner on your website in some prime real estate so it gets some attention.

Three different types of programs exist, the first of the three being pay per sale. Pay per sale can be a flat rate fee or a percentage of the total sale. I personally prefer a flat rate per sale so I know how much to expect from each sale. The second type of program is pay per lead or action. This program pays out when a visitor clicks on your link affiliate link and then performs some type of action on the merchants website. The action ranges from signing up for a newsletter to submitting a form. The merchant chooses what action the visitor must take for you to earn commission. I highly suggest starting with a pay per lead program if you are new to affiliate programs and networks. The last type of program is a pay per click. Payouts range from $0.01 to $4.50 per click and payouts vary by website subject. I would not suggest signing up for any pay per click program paying anything less than $0.25

You may be asking yourself how affiliate networks are at all different from affiliate programs. Well the answer is simple, affiliate networks are simply a collection of affiliate programs compiled in a user friendly fashion so you have the flexibility to find programs and change which programs to promote simply by replacing a link.

Many benefits are associated with affiliate networks including the variety of programs to choose from. With the advanced search tool that many networks offer you can filter affiliate programs in the network related to your website by selecting a similar category or searching for a particular keyword. You can also narrow these searches by choosing only programs that are pay per click, within the United States, newly added, etc...

While not all affiliate networks offer multiple payment methods many do. This is another great benefit of working with an affiliate network in opposition to an affiliate program. I personally do not like waiting for a check to be mailed out every month which is the payment method of most affiliate programs. Instead affiliate networks often offer additional payment methods like Paypal or direct deposit.

Running a profitable ad campaign is another tough obstacle to overcome. I suggest if you are new to affiliate networks to signup for one that offers pay per lead programs and choose a program that fits your website. If you notice your affiliate campaign is not performing as well as expected this could be the cause of multiple reasons. The most common error would be choosing an affiliate program that has a high payout yet does not relate to your website content. Please I cannot stress this enough, when choosing an affiliate program from your network choose the one that best fits your website content. Even if the payout is less more of your visitors will convert to sales, leads, and clicks so in the long run it is the more logical choice.

On occasion you will find an affiliate program that fits the content of your website perfectly yet still does not perform. The solution is more of a trial an error than anything else. You need to try multiple affiliate programs to see which one results in the highest payout by percentage. This is why affiliate networks are so superior, they offer the flexibility to test different programs effortlessly and choose which one best fits your personal needs.

Finding an affiliate network has been made easy, our affiliate network list displays the program types available, payment methods, amount of programs in the network, and if the program is two tier or not. The link for our website is in the article signature, so start earning money with your website today!

Written by: Michael McLaughlin at http://www.webmasteralist.com/affiliate_networks - List of quality affiliate networks, http://www.webmasteralist.com Most comprehensive directory of affiliate programs on the web.

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