Just What is Affiliate Marketing and Why Become an Affiliate Marketer?

You have seen previously in this book we mention affiliate marketing as a great way of starting an online business. In this chapter, we will take a more in depth look at what affiliate marketing is.

Affiliate Marketing is basically, commission sales. Almost every business on the internet has an affiliate program. As an affiliate you are paid for every visitor, subscriber, customer and/or sale provided through your efforts to the actual company selling the product.  Depending on the program there are many different ways to make money as an affiliate. Compensation  may be based on;

•    a certain value for each exposure (simply advertising their site).
•    visit (pay per click),
•    new customer (pay per lead),
•    a percentage of the item sold (pay per sale or revenue share)
•    or it may be a combination of any of these.

Many companies like to use affiliate marketing because it reduces their advertising expenses. And, they pay nothing unless the desired results are met.

Some e-commerce sites run their own affiliate programs, while others use third party services.  Third party programs act as intermediaries who track traffic or sales that are referred to them from their various affiliates.  There are many businesses online today who owe much of their growth and success to the use of affiliate marketing.  It has been especially successful for small and midsize businesses on the internet.
The most popular third party programs are Commission Junction, and Linkshare who mostly handle physical products, and Clickbank who handles digital products.
Note: One big advantage in selling digital products as an affiliate is the large commissions. Where physical products (such as jewelry, gifts, pet supplies) typically pay around 10%, the digital products found on Clickbank typically offer 40% – 75%.

We have now looked at what affiliate marketing is, now let’s look at some reasons why it is a good type of online business to be.

No Production Costs
With an affiliate program, production costs are no longer an issue as the product has been developed and proven to be good.  Best of all, it has all come out of the merchant’s accounts and not yours.

Do not need a lot of money to set up.
All you will need is a desk, computer, internet connection and word processing software to get started.

Costs Involved
Normally it is free to join an affiliate program, and all the set up costs and shipping costs will be met by the merchant whose products you are selling.  And, you don’t need to warehouse or inventory products. So, even if you happen to live in a 1 bedroom apartment, you can still sell the biggest products because all the goods are held by the merchant you are working as an affiliate for.

Choices
There are thousands of products and services that you can choose from.  So finding the right products for either a website you have already or one that you are planning to build is immense.

No need to have a Merchant Account
This can be a time consuming and costly expense for anyone setting up a business for the first time.  Certainly, it is even more so where an online business is concerned.  However, as an affiliate, the merchant you are selling the product for will bear all costs, as well as handle the processing of all payments.  So you never have to worry about any potential charge backs, fraudulent purchases or losing your merchant account completely as an affiliate.

Plus, you don’t have to worry about dealing with awkward or nasty customers and their complaints.  This is the merchants  problem to deal with.

Another benefit of affiliate marketing is that if the product you chose isn’t profitable, then you can just dump it.  Remove any links to the product and move on to another product.

You may incur minimal advertising costs. But, other than time that’s all. And, you can keep these costs to a minimum because testing the product and market is accomplished so much more quickly.

If you work hard at affiliate marketing, the potential to earn a good income is high.  It really depends on just how much you want it and how much effort you are willing to put into the products you are trying to sell. And, once you have a system in place that’s working you can easily move on to the next product or niche.

For an idea of just what kinds of products and services offer affiliate programs, check out Clickbank.com or ComissionJunction.com. Both of these sites are generally at the very top of affiliate programs.
Mentors On Call

How to Set Up Your Online Business

The best way of setting up an online business today is as follows:-

1.    Choose a niche and then specialize in it.  Don’t think you’re going to make big bucks by selling everything under the sun. Even using Ebay you still need to find the market, the products and how to make sure your customers will find you. Go to www.internetmarketingcompanion.com to learn more.

2.    Choose or create a product.  You can either use affiliate products or create your own.

3.    One of the most important things to do when setting up an online business is to find a good name.  It should be short, easy to remember and reflect what your business actually does.

4.    Your domain name is the name by which your online customers will remember you by. If possible make your domain name and company name should be the same.  A good domain name just like your company name is one that is memorable, short and easy to spell.  There are many websites around offering domain names. We Recommend 1and1.com

5.    Get your own website.  Do not go for a free page on some affiliate site, but get your own.  It is much easier to do than you think.  Get some hosting (there are plenty of companies on the web today offering their services).  Then buy a template system if you can not program (again take a look around the web and you will soon find plenty of companies offering web templates).  Now all you have to do is start learning how to use it.  However, if you are not technically minded then you will need to hire someone to handle all the technical aspects of your online business.  This could include such things as building your website for you, the handling of your website hosting and the setting up of any domain names that you may require. We recommend: www.1and1.com

6.    Always look for a secure and reliable host service provider.  It is important that you examine the “uptime guarantee” that each service provider offers.  Also, analyze the physical infrastructure of where your online business will be stored.  But probably most important of all is that you should scrutinize the hosting providers “Back Up” and “Data Security” systems. This includes calculating how much time would be required to reinstall your online business if there was a complete infrastructure failure on the part of the hosting provider.  This will help you to calculate the least possible loss to your business if such a situation arises.

7.    Build a list.  This is the single most important aspect of your online business!. This is how you will keep in contact with your customers and generate more sales.   It is important that you keep the visitors up to date on what’s happening with your site, and enables you to contact them regarding new offer(s), sales, promotions, etc. For list building tools and information go to: www.internetmarketingcompanion.com

8.    Find a good online payment processor. Paypal is a one example.
If you’re selling an affiliate product, this will not be a problem as the affiliate program will handle the payments for you.  However, if you’re selling your own product, then you will need your own payment processing system. This will be looked at more closely in another chapter of this book.

9.    Arrange for goods to be delivered to your customer if you’re selling your own physical products. Check local courier companies, as well as the postal service and UPS and find which one will be more cost effective for delivering your products to your customers.  Also, you will need to decide on a pricing system for the delivery of packages to your customers. Shipping, packaging, and handling costs.   Cost isn’t the only thing to consider when choosing a shipping company. It is paramount that you choose a shipping company who you know is reliable.  Look especially for companies who offer an online tracking system.

How to Set Up an Online Business on a Budget

OK, you’ve decided to set up an online business, but your budget is very small. So, how can you get up and running?

You could start off by looking for free domain names but, BEWARE. Remember, you get what you pay for.  Because there are so many companies around who are now selling domain names, you can register one pretty cheap. There are a few sites that will register a domain for you at no charge, however, there is a catch. They will set themselves up as the administrator for your domain and only transfer ownership to you after a set period of time for free or will charge you a fee.

If you’re going to be setting up and launching a website, we strongly recommend you pay the $10 -$20 per month hosting fees for a reputable hosting provider. But if you don’t want to pay the $10 -$20 a month that you are typically charged for hosting. there are plenty of places on the web today that will host your site for free.  But before you get too excited about this prospect, remember. There is a drawback to using free hosting.  Most of these free host sites will place a banner at the top of your pages in exchange for hosting.  However, there are some web hosts around who do not charge you a fee or force you to have a banner on your site. But, there are other considerations. Such as web space. You will need room to expand as you add products to your site. And, many of these free hosting services don’t give you the control you need to make any necessary changes to your site. Note; We DO NOT recommend free hosting. The disadvantages far out weigh the advantages. There again we recommend 1and1 .

What if you a don’t have your own product to sell, but still want to make money online?  Then becoming an affiliate marketer is the answer. We will look at more closely in the next chapter of this book. Mentors On Call is my newest site. check it out

How to Set Up a Business Plan

By setting up a business plan, you are mapping your way to success.  It will help you to develop your business goals and strategies, as well as providing you with a better understanding of the marketplace.  It will also highlight any business strengths or weaknesses that you may have. A part of any good business plan is researching the competition. You can also include financial projections, historical data and growth expectations in your business plan.

A good business plan, should show who the target audience is, just how the product or service will meet or exceed their needs and expectations, and how it will be delivered.

When organizing a business plan it’s best if you break it down into sections such as:-

1.    Business summary – The product or service you want to provide.

2.    Market analysis – Research on the product or service and how the competitors are doing.

3.    Product positioning – How to stand out from your competitors.

4.    Marketing strategy – How are you actually going to market it?

5.    Customer analysis –What the customer wants or needs.

6.    Financial analysis – What you need to invest in order to set up the business and to keep it going while it grows.

7.    Overall business goals – What you hope to achieve in, say, a year’s time.

But what’s more important is that once a business plan has been developed, don’t put it in the back of a drawer somewhere.  It should be a working plan that you can refer to when you need it.

The best way to make a business plan is to keep it simple (one or two pages should be all you need).
Certainly one of the best things you can do when starting an online business is to create a plan and stick with it.  http://www.mentorsoncall.net

How To Market Your Online Business?

In the final chapter of this book, we will look at the various ways in which you can market your online business.

Marketing is THE KEY to your success or failure.

The first thing to consider is how to optimize your website so that it will start getting ranked in the top three search engines  (This is called SEO. Search Engine Optimization) Google, Yahoo and MSN.  The sooner you do this the faster it will get ranked and the sooner the traffic will start to appear.  A great way of doing this is by investing in either a book, E-book or E-course on how to optimize your site. Our recommendations are listed in the “Useful Resources” section at the end of this book.
The best way to optimize your website is through backlinks to your site.  Backlinks are links to your site placed on other sites. This is accomplished through various methods.

Link Exchanges
This is where you exchange links with other websites that have complimentary products or services to your own.  It will not only give you direct traffic from the link, but will help to increase your pursuit for getting ranked higher in search engines.

Write Articles
It is important that the articles you write are interesting and full of useful information regarding your niche.  This is probably one of the best ways around for gaining more traffic to your website.  Not only is it free, as there are many article sites around where you can have your articles published for free, but each article you have published will be providing a link back to your site.  This means that you are helping to gain even higher rankings where search engines are concerned.  When writing an article, you should always include information about you, the author (this will usually be in a resource box at the bottom of your article), and do not forget to include that all important link to your own website.

By distributing to numerous article sites, you are not only gaining traffic (as when someone sees it on there, they will click on your link if they like what they saw), but also you get a link that points directly back to your site, which the search engines use to rank sites.

However, if you are someone who dislikes writing, then you could always look at using a ghostwriter.  There are many sites around today who offer ghostwriting services, but when initially setting up an online business, this may not be an expense that you want to incur.

Online Forums
When using these, do not forget to include your signature line at the end of any comments you make. This will provide a link back to your site. Post to forums that are related to what you are trying to sell. Not only will you be learning about your potential customer’s desires, but you’ll be able to establish yourself as an expert in the field.
You can easily find forums on your topic or niche by doing a simple search on “your subject” +forum

Blogs
Blogs are a great way of ensuring you get back links to your site.  So why not start a blog on your website?  But ensure that you post to your blog several times a week and think of it as news page for your site.  Certainly blogging has become the in thing at the moment on the web.  You only have to do a quick search to find out just how many there are.
Blog and Ping and Tag and Ping are ways to get your site indexed by the search engines more quickly. You can find more information on how to do this at www.internetmarketingcompanion.com

Social Bookmarking
With the advent of Web 2.0 social sites such as Myspace, Squidoo, and Youtube
are becoming increasingly popular ways to advertise your site and create backlinks as well. Go to www.internetmarketingcompanion.com for a full tutorial on how to use MySpace and Youtube to promote your site.

Using an Online Payment System

There are many online payment services which provide you with an alternative to traditional payment methods.  So, unlike banks and credit card companies, services such as PayPal and CheckFree don’t require a business to have a merchant account.  In fact, using services like these not only provides a quicker way for money to be paid online, but it is more secure than having someone sending you a check or cash.  This is because the funds are electronically transferred to your account

Such services have become especially popular for online auction sites (such as Ebay), but many other online businesses are now beginning to see the advantages of these services as well.  However, it is important to know how they work, and how to avoid any potential problems that may arise. How to handle refunds or disputes for example.

Most of these services provide seamless transfer of funds. By this we mean that when a customer makes a purchase from your site they simply click on the “pay” or “buy” button and the service provider (such as Paypal) processes the entire transaction. The funds are transferred, the proper notifications sent, etc. without either party having to do anything more.

Most of the payment services charge a small fee in order to transfer funds.  For example, PayPal charges you up to 2.5% for each transfer that they make (but this all depends on the amount).  But keep in mind these fees are generally less than what you would pay for a credit card merchant account.  Also, such services can be especially helpful when you need to arrange for small repetitive payments to be made to your account, such as affiliate rewards and commissions.

But there are some drawbacks to using a payment service:

1.    Many of them impose a daily or weekly limit on the amount of money that you send or receive.  So if you want to exceed these limits you may find yourself incurring an additional fee for a “business account” or “premiere account”.

2.    These services are not banks, and therefore are not subject to strict banking regulations or protected by Federal Deposit Insurance.

3.    Often these services provide their customers with less protection against fraud and abuse than many credit card companies offer.

4.    Also, they are sometimes quick to freeze a customer’s account if they suspect fraudulent or other criminal activities are taking place.  They can be so quick sometimes that some customers have found that their account has been frozen for no apparent reason whatsoever.

It is important therefore, before you sign up to any payment service, read their terms and conditions thoroughly.  Also, read their terms of service agreement carefully.  It is important that you fully understand and accept the service’s dispute policy, limits on liability, their fee structure and any other rules or regulations that they may have.   It is also important not to keep too much money in your account, rather keep enough in it to conduct a few days of business and any unused funds should be transferred over to your regular bank account.

Below are just a few more payment services that you may want to check when setting up an online business account.

1.    Authorize.net. This service processes credit card and checking account transactions.

2.    BidPay.  This allows person to person payments, in which they accept a credit card payment from the payer and then send a money order through to the payee.

3.    BillPoint.  This also allows person to person payments, but from a credit card.  Originally this system was being targeted specifically at Ebay customers.

4.    E-Gold.  This allows the payment in gold (silver, platinum or palladium) to be made from one customer to another using an account based system.

5.    PayPal.  This is probably the most well known of payment services, and it allows user to user payments.  This is where a payer uses a credit card to pay money into another user’s account.  Or, in fact, they can use money they already have in that account in order to pay for the goods they have purchased.

6.    World Pay.  This service provides both an internet merchant account, and payment processing service in one package.  Mentors On Call

What Type Of Online Business(es) Should You Have?

Here are some of the more common types of online businesses that people are running. Keep in mind, the decision is up to you as to what type of business you want to run online.

Marketing Business

This is one of the most common types of online businesses. You can run this business by exclusively marketing your own products, or by marketing those of other big budget companies. For this you need to produce a quality web page that has all the necessary information and purchasing options for the products you’re selling. In order for this business to be successful, it needs to be promoted effectively to potential customers via search engines, email and other means. We will look at marketing in more depth in another chapter of this book.

Turnkey Internet Business

This is a very popular type of business to have online. This is where you purchase a ready-made website from an established marketer and promote it on a business plan that is provided to you by the marketer. Much like a franchise. There are many different approaches you can take to promote a turnkey business. You can promote individual products or services to your online customers, or promote the entire site as a resource for different products pertaining to a single niche. For example: fishing tackle.

Internet Services

This is a business where specific services are provided to online customers at a reasonable price. Such businesses are often set up according to a person’s professional expertise and will provide services to their customers in relation to this. The types of businesses that will come under this umbrella are online consultancies, computer software assistance, and hardware trouble shooting and even such things as how to start an online business, web site building, etc.

Medical & Health Care Facility Services

An example of this would be a complete online pharmacy and the services related to this type of business will be offered to online customers. Such businesses will provide customers with medical consultancy, selling of medications and other medical charges. If you look further into this line of business, you will find that there are several medical institutes who can franchise a person to run a virtual medical and health care facility for them. Medical billing services have become very popular over the last several years.

Besides the ones mentioned above, there are countless other kinds of online businesses.

• Entertainment websites,
• home decoration,
• dating,
• article writing,
• fitness,
• allergies,
• online chat and interaction and
• email servers

are just some.

But no matter what type of online business (“niche”) you decide to get into, it is important to plan carefully and have the ability to promote the business professionally over the internet.

Are You New To The Net And Looking For A Proven Way
To Make Money? Brand New E-Course Teaches You
Everything You Need To Know.www.mentorsoncall.net

Why Online Marketing Tutorials?

Online Marketing Tutorials Can Add An Income Stream To Your Business

Your business relies on marketing, and if you’re dedicated to growing your business, online marketing is one of the best ways to do it. However, online marketing is one of those things that is fraught with lots of mentors and lots of programs, and no clearly discernable way to distinguish between them. Which online marketing tutorial is best for you? How do you choose a mentor to help you get started?

Well, the first way to make this choice is to ask if they’ll add a revenue stream to your business right now. A good online marketing tutorial program will offer you an affiliate link, and sales from anyone you refer to them as your traffic grows; this affiliate program will give you an immediate revenue stream, and all businesses live on revenue in the long run.

Other traits of a good online marketing tutorial are practical advice; anyone can sell you a program promising to make your servers melt with traffic. Good ones give step-by-step instructions and explanations of what’s going on. If someone is going to mentor you about their program, wouldn’t it be a good idea to know that they’ve used it themselves and gotten positive results?

Indeed, the second trait you should look for when choosing a mentor with an online marketing tutorial is referrals. Will they let you contact their prior clients for a recommendation and assessment of how useful the program was? Ones who won’t let you talk to their prior customers should probably be steered clear of. You should also look for web sites offering reviews of the online marketing tutorial program; be warned that a lot of the ‘positive review’ web sites are built solely to drive traffic to affiliate links, so keep your skeptical mindset going on as you read.

So, in summation, when evaluating a program and a mentor-pupil relationship, ask the important questions – what’s the immediate gain to your pocket book to cover the expense of the online marketing tutorial program, and whom among their past clients can you contact for an honest assessment of its impact? Last, read the terms of the contract closely. It’s worth the extra 60 to 100 dollars to have your attorney look it over. mentorsoncall

Power Of Mentorship

No matter what your field of study or what you are looking to accomplish, you will find that you need to think about the power of mentors. While it might seem like an odd concept or even one that is slightly outdated, the truth of the matter is that mentors can help you a great deal when it comes to achieving the goals that you have focused on. What can the power of mentors do for you and what you can you gain from allowing them to aid you in your work?

At the most basic level, you will find that the power of mentors is founded in experience. They know the industry in a way that would take you a long time to understand. They essentially have knowledge that only time in the industry can give, and you’ll find that if you can access that information that you will be all the more powerful. When you are looking forward to making sure that you will have the success that you need, take a look and think about what the power of mentors can do for you in this regard.

Another thing that you will find that mentors can do is that they can help you out when it comes to contacts. Did you know that there are plenty of people who can help you, if you only know that they exist? The truth of the matter is that many of us don’t know about half the things that might be good for us. When you think about the fact that your mentor might know about plenty of resources that you can tap in to, it becomes clear that the power of mentors is not to be trifled with!

When thinking about the power of mentors, finally keep in mind that they can prevent you from making many of the pitfalls that can come about as you are looking to make a name for yourself in the business. Think about all the mistakes that you have made in the past. Although hindsight is 20/20, there is a good chance that you could have avoided making them at all if only you had known then what you do now. Take some time and think of what costly mistakes you might be able to avoid in the future!

Take some time to think about the power of mentors and what one could mean to your business and your place in the industry! mentorsoncall

Choosing The Right Online Business Mentor

If you’re just starting out in the field of internet marketing, trying to live by J. Paul Getty’s adage of “I’d rather live off of 1% of the effort of 100 men than 100% of the effort of 1″, then the most important commodity, and the one you undervalue the most is time and experience. We all know what it’s like to be in the “new start up” phase of running a business – everything is full of opportunities, and every order that comes in on the web shop (or every referral bonus or affiliate check) is cause for a celebration.

However, as your business grows, those initial steps become cherished memories, but not a case for day to day celebration…and then there comes the prospect of actually planning a course for your business. Only one business in seven survives past two years in the American market, and the chief killer of small businesses is undercapitalization, followed by success that takes them past where their infrastructure base and starting capital can take them.

This is where business mentors come in, and if you’re doing an online business, an online business mentor may be the best choice to go to. The trick is picking the right one; any kind of online business mentor relationship should be built around measurable metrics and success; always ask your potential online business mentors to show samples of their work, whether it’s ad campaigns on Google, article creation, or web site creation. You want to be able to talk to their former clients and see how they work – see how their suggestions turned into concrete improvements.

That being said, there is a strong prospect that online business mentors can help you considerably; we’re still in the “everything is new and different” phase of web marketing, which means that the established wisdom hasn’t been established long enough to become standard doctrine or dusty cliché. A good online business mentor will show how they’re taking efforts to remain on the top of the techniques used for reaching customers and helping businesses grow, from marketing and advertising support to graphic design referrals , even down to inventory management, and recommendations for how to sell online downloadable content.

So, in the end, choosing the right online business mentor is a step on the road towards making your business successful, but like any other hired professional working for your business, check their credentials, talk to their prior client list, and comparison shop. mentorsoncall