An Introduction to Affiliate Marketing
By Dimuthu silva
Probably the most easy and effective way to make a good living online is through affiliate
marketing. Many people are quietly making a substantial income using this method, and their
reasoning is simple. They do not need to develop a product, build a website, or handle
payment processing.
Just what is affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is basically selling products and services
of other people for a set commission. If there is a product or service you are interested in
promoting, you simply join the affiliate program of the originator, and they provide you with
everything from affiliate links to banners and websites, all with your unique ID that identifies
you as the affiliate. After a predetermined time specified by the owner of the product or
service, or when a set payout level is reached, a check is sent to you for your share of the
commissions.
One of the best known - and largest - online distributors is Clickbank. Clickbank is
undoubtedly the largest providers of digital e-products, and many marketers use Clickbank to
handle all their transactions. Joining Clickbank as an affiliate is both easy and free. You are
given a unique ID at the time of signup, and this ID will be used by all marketers to identify
you when you join their affilaite program.
You are then free to explore the Clickbank marketplace, and check each category that may
interest you for products to promote. It is always a good idea to thouroughly research any
niche you wish to market to so that you can determine the demand for any particular product,
and to determine if the product is being heavily promoted by the big affiliate marketers.
Competition, as in any other aspect of internet marketing, is a key element between success
and failure.
Common sense tells you that you wish the highest commission paid, the highest percentage
offered as commission, and the knowledge of the percentage of gravity of the product. Gravity
is nothing more than the amount of affiliates that are currently promoting the product, and is
an indicator as to how popular that product is. Some affiliate marketers like to see a high
gravity percentage, because it means many top affiliates are promoting that particular product.
Others wish to see a lower gravity percentage, because it shows that the product is not over
exposed.
Try to target a niche you are familiar with, or have a lot of knowledge about, and also any
product that is relevant to your own website, if any. Clickbank makes it easy for you,
providing the information that you need to determine if the product is something you might
wish to promote. They list the dollar amount of each sale you make, the percentage of
commission, and the percentage of referrals, which are the number of sales being made by
affiliates, referred to as gravity.
Following these simple guidelines will get you on the road to making money online through
affiliate marketing. Be sure to always do your own due diligence when promoting any
product, and success is within your reach.
Kang has been an unsuccessful internet marketer ever since he started out because he
adamantly refuses to treat internet marketing as work. He treats it like a game instead.
Check out his site for tips and tricks on internet marketing, the fun and easy way!
http://www.KangWeiAng.Com
