Choosing the best affiliate program

Are you a webmaster in need of additional income? Or are you planning to create an online business, but you still have no product to sell? If so, affiliate marketing may be the best solution to your problem.

With affiliate marketing, you need not worry about the products you have to sell. All you need is a site with enough content that is related to the products of online companies offering affiliate programs. By becoming a member of the affiliate programs, you can start earning money immediately!

Affiliate marketing is a business relationship established between a merchant and its affiliates. In affiliate marketing, an affiliate agrees to direct some traffic to the site of the merchant. If traffic is converted into some kind of action, like a visitor purchasing a product on the merchant's website or a visitor becoming a lead to the company, the person who directed the traffic will be compensated.

The compensation may take the form of a commission or percentage of sales for the sales generated or a predetermined fixed rate which is customarily detailed in the affiliate programs agreement.

Promising a host of benefits for both merchants and affiliates, affiliate marketing has become one of the most popular marketing methods online today. In fact, today almost all business or retail sites offers an affiliate program that anyone can join.

Most retailers motivate people to become members of their program by promising great benefits like large commissions, lifetime commissions, click through incomes and many other benefits. But would all these affiliate programs bring off the same benefits?

Most programs that pay you, as an affiliate, a commission at once for every sale or lead you brought to the merchant's website. Commissions for this type of affiliate programs are usually large, ranging from 15% to a high of about 60%. Other affiliate programs that pay a fixed fee for every click through or traffic you send to the merchant's website.

Programs like this often pay a small fee per click through, usually not getting any bigger than half a dollar. The good thing about this type of program, however, is that the visitor does not have to buy anything for the affiliate to qualify.

Another type of affiliate program is a residual sales affiliate program. Residual affiliate programs usually pay only a small percentage of the sales commission for every sale directed by the affiliate merchant's site. This commission often comes only in the range of 10 - 20% of the sales. Because of this, many people ignore residual affiliate program and prefers to opt for affiliate program paying a high one-time commissions.

While residual affiliate programs actually pay a lower rate, merchants offering such programs generally pay regular and ongoing commissions for a single affiliate initiated sale for the life of the customer!

Suppose there are two online merchants both offering web hosting services on their sites. The first merchant offers a one-time commission type affiliate program that pays $80 for every single affiliate initiated sale. The second merchant also offers an affiliate program, but this time a residual affiliate program that pays only $10 for every single affiliate initiated sale.

Most affiliates would opt for the $80 over the $10, but may be passing up the opportunity to make more money over the lifetime of the customer, given that every time the customer renews their hosting the affiliate is credited with another sale.

Then is the residual affiliate program the one you should always opt for? I shy away from using terms like 'always' but it is something you definitely want to consider. In those circumstances, you have to look at what commodity or service is being sold, and how likely is the customer to stay a customer.

The key is to find yourself a niche or a company you can identify with, trust, and fits your personality best.

Online Business - The Naked Truth

Making Money Online is a really HOT phrase these days. It's one of the most popular search phrases for on Google, MSN and Yahoo! It conjures up images of being able to sleep in on a lazy, rainy Monday morning, or taking a leisurely stroll in the park, knowing that your online business is raking in the cash! It's about being free from the volatile job market and having the financial and personal freedom to work anytime, anywhere, anyway you want. But at the back of your mind, you're asking yourself, "Is it really that easy to set up an Online Business?" Well folks, the answer is YES� and NO. If you're considering joining the millions of folk who are clicking on the net hoping to make a quick buck, here are a couple of YES's and NO's you need to know:

It's easy-peasy to set up an online business

YES! - Setting up an online business is ridiculously easy these days. Technical innovations make it possible to have your business up and running in a matter of minutes complete with a ready inventory of stuff "guaranteed" to make you tons of money.

NO! - It's what comes AFTER the setup that's difficult. Other than the fact that your business operates in cyberspace, everything else about running an online business is the same. You still need a business and marketing plan, advertising and promotional campaigns. It takes hard (brain) work � initially at least!

I'll be swamped with orders from all over the world!

YES - The beauty of an online business is that your market world-wide! Even if you manage to sell an e-book for only 10 dollars to a fraction of this market, you'd be a very rich man/woman indeed!

NO! - Setting up a website is pretty much like building a hotel on an exotic island. You may have the best beaches, services and products, but nobody's going to know you exist until you shout it out to the world. That's probably the hardest and most frustrating aspect of promoting an online business. Building a substantial web presence can be expensive if you want it done quickly OR a long, lonely and tedious journey if you're on a budget!

Tons of people will visit my website!

YES! � If you have a VERY unique website, product or service, people will quickly pick up on it and you will see other websites and sources driving (people) traffic to your site.

NO! - One SEO (Search Engine Optimization) report estimates that Google well over 5 billion web pages a day! Yours is probably one of many thousands (if not millions) vying for that coveted top spot in search rankings for your category. Unless you have professional SEO people looking into this for you or you are into SEO, you will probably be languishing in page 20 or more for quite a while. Be prepared for this!

Making money online is dirt cheap

YES! � You can get by with free or cheap web hosting, free email, and a battery of free tools to run your online business. There are many people who have made millions with very little investment, but these are the EXCEPTION rather than the rule.

NO! � Eventually, as your online business grows, you will require specialized services like faster web hosting, autoresponders, link management and SEO tools - just to mention a few. The online business arena is a fiercely competitive one where you will be competing with the big boys so you have to be prepared to invest in your online business. It takes money to make money.

My online businesses will guarantee me passive and residual income

YES! � If you're hardworking, persistent and you approach your online businesses with the same fervor as you would your career, the results will be quite pleasing indeed, hopefully not just for yourself, but for your family and generations to come!

NO! � Statistics show that about 85 % of people who attempt to run an online business eventually give up after a year. These are the folk who either went into it believing the promises that riches will come quickly (and easily) or those that just gave up too soon.

I can relax while my online business makes me tons of money

YES! � Like I said, if you're persistent, done your homework and invested in technology to automate your online business, you WILL be sleeping in on a lazy, rainy Monday morning and taking long leisurely walks with your kids in the park while others are stuck in a job they hate!

NO! � Like every successful online business owner, you WILL hunger for more success! I love the fact that online businesses allow you to be anywhere in the world at any time of day, to make money! Once you get into the groove, you're not going to want to sit still while there are money making ideas floating around in that brain of yours!

Multiple streams of income IS possible

Too many people believe that building multiple streams of income is as easy as setting up a website. The truth of the matter is that it takes a conscious and consistent effort to make things work. Many people fall into the trap of trying to do too many things at once. They join a bunch of affiliate programs thinking that they'll be able to work on all of them at the same time.

Most successful Internet Entrepreneurs will tell you that the best way is to work on one specific online business (or website) until you've achieved some level of success before you move on to building the next one. Work on a schedule and give your online business time to grow. Eventually, you will have a network of money making ventures creating multiple streams of income!

In closing, remember this - the online business pie continues to grow at an incredible rate everyday. There's enough for everyone so dig in and enjoy! Here's to your success � and mine too!

Andrew Shim is the owner and editor of http://www.PositiveMoneyIdeas.com a website which offers FREE IDEAS for those interested in starting their own freelance or home based business and http://www.PositiveTones.com a FREE resource website for Positive Living. He and his wife run a successful home catering business. When not up to his eyeballs in veggie, meat, gravy and being official taster for his catering business, he manages his websites, writes for numerous other sites and magazines and fools around with his kids.

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