How to Run A Successful Affiliate Program

There are many people who log onto the internet everyday looking for a way to make money online.

They start with all the best intentions, but unfortunately, before they know it they are getting bombarded with information and are simply spinning their wheels.

I completely understand this. There is so much internet marketing information online and once you get started it seems like "information overload".

Therefore, I will try to keep this as simple and short as possible.

Many people will sign up with an affiliate program promoting the affiliate's product or program. This makes sense. Starting as an affiliate marketer is probably the easiest way to get started online. There are many affiliate programs out there that will give you everything you need to promote their products or program?Well almost everything.

You see, many of these affiliate sites will give you a website, but you don't own the site. It is a gateway site. You don't even own the domain name for that matter.

Being part of one of these programs is not bad though. I belong to several. SFI is a perfect example. I joined their program and have several sites that they gave me to promote their products and their affiliate program.

But if you are truly going to make money with these types of sites you are going to have to do a lot more than simply sign up for their program.

It is simply unreasonable to think that people are going to just stumble upon your site and sign up for your program and start making you money.

There are a few things you need to do if you truly want to make an affiliate program work.

First of all, you must have your "own" web page with your "own" domain name and your "own" host. You will then have links from your "own" site to the other "gateway" site(s). You will promote your gateway site it, but you will promote it through your own site.

There are so many reasons for this I couldn't possible fit it into this one article, but basically the site is yours to run the way you want to. Think of it this way?it is "your" store and you are selling "their" product.

Your web page could be designed as a short sales letter that focuses primarily on this one program if that is what you choose. Or, you could focus on several affiliate programs and products within the same market. For example, a sales letter with the top 3-5 money making opportunities.

THIS IS IMPORTANT: Either way, promoting one program/product or promoting several, you will not only want to own your own site, you definitely want to be able to "drop in" on potential customers from time to time. What I mean by that is you want to capture email addresses of people who visit your site.

To do so you need to give something away that is of enough value that people are willing to give up their email address and receive something from you week after week or at least month after month.

A newsletter/ezine is perfect for this. Send out a weekly or monthly newsletter on your topic that includes articles, tips, e-courses, bonuses etc. This way you can plug your programs over and over again (not just once).

I know this sounds like a lot?design your own web site and your own newsletter.

However, there are programs available that actually set everything up for you, including a website, an autoresponder, a pre-written newsletter, and even unlimited support.

Plug-in-Profit (PIPS) http://www.money-teacher.com/pluginprofitsite.htm is a perfect example. You can have a web site that site is 100% yours to change however you wish. The site comes ready to promote 5 different programs. You could work with as many of them as you want and you can also add your own.

You also get a pre-written newsletter and autoresponder that is also 100% customizable. The newsletter is obviously designed to promote the programs that come with the web site, but you can change it however you wish.

PIPS may or may not be what you are looking for; however, if you truly want to be successful online you will definitely need your own web site and your own newsletter.

Copyright 2004 Adam Waxler

About The Author

Adam Waxler owns and operates The Money Teacher web site and publishes The Money Teacher's Home Business Tips Newsletter teaching others how to reach online success. To get your free newsletter subscription send a blank email to: newsletter@money-teacher.com or visit our web site at http://www.money-teacher.com.

In The News:


Hurley: YouTube Looking for Affiliate Revenue Streams
NewTeeVee, CA - Jun 26, 2008
... dinner in Palo Alto, but he went onto lay out an argument that there’s also a growing opportunity to make money from direct response affiliate deals. ...

The Associated Press

Rush Limbaugh to get $38M a year for next 8 years
The Associated Press - 11 hours ago
"This is exactly where I want to be, doing what I was born to do, with an amazing audience and phenomenal support from affiliate stations and sponsors," ...

ValueClick: Has the Hunted Become the Hunter?
Seeking Alpha, NY - 8 hours ago
Think Partnership (hereinafter THK) is in many respects similar to ValueClick, albeit a smaller version as it is most widely known for the affiliate ...

Google Talk,
CNET News, CA - 6 hours ago
By Caroline McCarthy – July 1, 2008 7:10 AM PDT Post a comment Google is using this optimistic graphic to help sell affiliate marketing. ...

PR Web (press release)

Google Affiliate Network
CNET News, CA - Jul 1, 2008
MacFarlane, who will receive a percentage of the ad revenue, told the newspaper that the two-minute episodes would be "animated versions of the one-frame ...
AOL’s Platform-A Offers Guaranteed CPM for Bebo and Facebook ... Business Wire (press release)
all 28 news articles

American's June passenger tally dips
Trading Markets (press release), CA - 6 hours ago
... affiliate, both reported single-digit decreases in passenger traffic in June, airline executives said Wednesday. American flew 11.8 billion revenue ...
American Airlines June passenger traffic down Trading Markets (press release)
all 9 news articles

HipCricket Hires Vice President of Sales and Client Development
Eastside Business Journal, Washington - Jul 1, 2008
At CW affiliate KSTW Television, McCormick served as general sales manager and delivered an eight percent increase in station revenue, more than double the ...

VNUNet.com

Social networking revenues disappoint
VNUNet.com, UK - 10 hours ago
Affiliate advertising, the selling of virtual goods, micro-payments, site merchandising and data mining are all viable alternatives to traditional revenue ...

Marketers to spend over $2 billion on affiliate marketing
BizReport - Jul 2, 2008
“Affiliates are starting to embrace YouTube, for example, to get a revenue share by tying videos via links on YouTube back to affiliate links on their blogs ...

Indian mobile market to hit $37 billion, Gartner says
NetworkWorld.com, MA - Jul 2, 2008
Voice calls, which comprise 89 percent of revenue, will fall to an 85 percent share by 2012, Gartner added. The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.
affiliate revenue - Google News

Free Keyword Research Tools Are Not As Effective as Wordtracker

One of the most unanswered questions online today is, how... Read More

A Unique Opportunity For Affiliate Recruiters

If you're a webmaster, web publisher, or web merchant, chances... Read More

Internet Affiliate Marketing 101 - Its All About Relationships

So you've found the perfect affiliate program, you've signed up... Read More

11 Awesome Ways To Explode Your Affiliate Commission

1. Start your own affiliate program directory. Join a large... Read More

Are Your Affiliate Programs Eating Away Your Money And Time

So many times I have heard this. So many examples... Read More

How to Make Money with Affiliate Business Programs

There are thousands of affiliate business programs on the internet... Read More

Where Affiliate Programs Fail and How It Can Impact Your Success

Recruiting people for your business opportunity or paid program by... Read More

Are You Wasting Your Time In Pursuit Of Money?

There was a time when I had no idea how... Read More

Affiliate + Blogs = Money

I've been an affiliate for a long time, trying different... Read More

Using Google AdWords For Affiliate Selling

While many people may have you believe otherwise, selling online... Read More

Super Affiliate Strategies Part 3

In our previous Super Affiliate Strategies articles, we went over... Read More

How to Monetize a Free Website

For some time now I have been aggressively marketing my... Read More

How To Build Your Sales

You may have heard of joint venture marketing, It's used... Read More

Affiliate Marketing Step... Set Yourself Apart from the Rest.

I'm sure you've heard the expression, "This is where you... Read More

Affiliate Marketing: An Online Marketing Strategy

Everybody it seems can make money online. The simplest way... Read More

Choosing The Right Affiliate Program

Choosing the right affiliate program is vital for your success.... Read More

5 Tips If You Want To Be A Reseller

If you are planning to be a reseller for a... Read More

How to Join Affiliate Programs ? Affiliate Marketing

The first thing you may be wondering before you join... Read More

Dont Even Think About Affiliate Marketing Until Youve Read This - Part 1

You've probably heard some of the affiliate success stories from... Read More

5 Affiliate Marketing Mistakes To Avoid

Many people with the best intentions fail at affiliate marketing... Read More

Expanding Your Business With Affiliate Programs

Many people think that they can only get involved in... Read More

How To Make Affiliate Sales In 15 Minutes

If you are one of the 98.6% of affiliate members... Read More

How To Build An Email List As An Affiliate

You have probably heard "the money is in the list"... Read More

Whats a Mini Affiliate Site?

In this article I'm going to cover two specific marketing... Read More

10 Things WalMart Teaches About Affiliate Marketing

We already know about wal mart because of their ads... Read More