Suppose you could launch an online business in the next ten 
minutes? Suppose that this business did not require your own 
website, dealing with customers, refunds, product development 
or maintenance? This is the ideal world of affiliate marketing.

Made popular on the internet by Amazon.com, marketers can now 
earn a referral fee for directing visitors to countless 
merchants’ website. According to Forrester Research, affiliate 
program earnings will represent $53 BILLION of all e-commerce 
sales by 2005. How could you earn a sizeable piece of this pie? 
Here are some powerful tips that would get you rolling in those 
big commission checks and laughing all the way to the bank.


1. Know what programs and products to promote.

Of course you will want to promote those programs that will bring 
you the greatest profits in the shortest time. There are several 
factors that play into selecting such a program. Choose programs 
that have a generous commission structure, products that fit in 
with your target audience and a solid track record of paying 
their affiliates on time. If you cannot recoup your investment, 
then prune such programs and keep looking for better ones. There 
are tens of thousands of affiliate programs online so you can 
afford to be picky. This is a case where you will want to choose 
just the cream of the crop and so reduce the risk of losing your 
advertising dollars.


2. Write free reports or short ebooks to distribute from your 
website.

Most likely you will be competing with other affiliate marketers 
who are promoting the same program. If you write a short report 
on a related topic to the product that you are promoting, then 
you can distinguish yourself from all other affiliates. In this 
report you can provide valuable information for free with a 
“recommendation” of the product. This is often referred to as a 
‘soft sell’.

The report or ebook allows you to develop credibility with your 
audience and your readers are more likely to follow your 
recommendation. There is less resistance to this type of selling 
because the prospect doesn’t feel ‘sold’, just informed. The next 
step is to make this ebook ‘viral’ by allowing those who bought 
the product through your link to ‘brand’ the ebook for their own 
promotional use.


3. Collect the email addresses of those who download your free 
ebook.

Research has shown that over 60% of the sales of any product are 
made after the fifth exposure to the sales message. In other 
words, most people do not make a purchase on the first 
solicitation. You may need to send your marketing message over 
six times before a sale is made. This is the reason why you 
should collect the contact information of those who download your 
report. You can then follow up on these contacts to gently remind 
them to make the purchase.


4. Never send prospect directly to a vendor’s website without 
collecting their contact info first.

Affiliate marketing is ideal but not perfect. You must keep in 
mind that you are providing free advertisement for the product 
owners. The merchants only pay you when you make the sale. If you 
send prospect directly to their website then these prospect are 
lost to you forever. If you collect these names instead, then you 
can always send other marketing messages to them and earn an 
ongoing commission instead of making a one-time sale.


5. Publish an online newsletter or Ezine.

It is always easier to recommend a product to a friend than to 
sell to a stranger. This is the philosophy behind publishing your 
own newsletter. A newsletter allows you to build a subscriber 
list and develop a relationship of trust with this list. Your 
subscribers will then trust you to recommend products that will 
benefit them.

This strategy requires a delicate balance of providing useful 
information along with a ‘sales pitch’. In other words, if you 
send out frequent advertisement to your list and little valuable 
information you are likely to lose credibility with your 
audience. But if you write informative editorials you will build 
a sense of reciprocity in your readers that will lead them to 
‘support’ you by purchasing your affiliate products.


6. Ask merchants for a higher than normal commission.

If you are very successful with a particular promotion you 
should approach the merchant and negotiate a higher percentage 
commission for your sales. If the merchant is smart he or she 
will likely grant your request rather than lose you. Keep in mind 
again that you are a zero-risk investment to the merchant, so 
don’t be shy in your requests. Just be reasonable.


7. Learn to write strong Pay Per Click (PPC) ads.

One of the most effective means of advertising online is through 
PPC search engines. As an affiliate, you can make a sizeable 
income by just managing PPC campaigns on services such as Google 
Adwords and Overture. Monitor your campaigns to see which ads are 
pulling their weight and trim those that are not.


You can use the ClickBank™ Market Place, for example, and just 
choose a hot-selling product and start promoting. Once you are 
earning a decent return on your investment then you are in 
profit! Just this strategy alone can make all the difference to 
your commission checks.

Affiliate marketing is an entrepreneur’s dream come true. 
Minimum investment, zero inventory, no employees, no product 
development—just BIG checks! 

Chris Coffman is the publisher of Net Marketing Daily.
Visit http://www.netmarketingdaily.com for internet
marketing news, tips, articles, and much more!