The Digital Beginner’s Guide to Affiliate Marketing

Advertisements are visible everywhere; advertisers maximize all possible mediums to promote their service or product. The internet is no exception to this, most especially since it is free and accessible for everyone at any time of day.

One easy form of advertising for beginners to the online money-making game is affiliate marketing. A publisher or affiliate earns a commission from the earnings of an advertiser (also known as a merchant) or the business owner from their sales if the publisher is able to heighten publicity for the said service or product.

Read through this guide to affiliate marketing for beginners to learn the basics of this approach to making money.

 

What exactly is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a form of advertising done online by posting product promotions on a website. A publisher is hired by a merchant to promote his business by creating traffic to the merchant’s own website. Other than products or services themselves, they could also post sale announcements, discounts, and new products or promos.

With each registration to services or purchase of products made by consumers because of the publishers’ ad, they earn additional commission. If a sale is made possible with the advertisement, a percentage of the sale is added to the commission.

 There are two ways to begin as an affiliate marketing publisher. First, the publisher could be part of an affiliate network. An affiliate network acts as the mediator between the publisher and merchant. Being a member of an affiliate network, the publisher could be more exposed to options suitable for their respective websites.

Aside from joining an affiliate network, one could also opt to apply directly to an advertiser if they are accepting applicants for their affiliate program. Advertisers are established companies that place advertisements for certain merchants that are focused on a particular target audience.

 

Tools of the Trade

In order to keep track of the numerous clicks, views and registrations from your advertisement, trackers are needed to ensure the specific rate of advertising you are helping the merchant with. There are several tools needed for affiliate marketing.

 

A Landing Page Tracker

The landing page, also referred to as lead capture page or “lander,” is the webpage to which the consumer is redirected after clicking an advertisement. The result is traffic. When the customer gets redirected to the landing page, it will be prompted and be included in the click count. A landing page could be reference or transactional depending on the product you are endorsing.

Reference landing pages include information relevant for the customer to learn more about the product. Meanwhile, a transactional landing page could include a promo on a certain service or product that the customer could avail. These transactional landing pages should entice customers to sign up.

 

Link Tracker

Each website has a specific URL or Uniform Resource Locator. Even external pages that pop up on a different window also have different URLs from those of their source websites. A Tracking URL or Link Tracker has a token attached to the end of the URL. Another online tool supporting the Link Tracker separates the traffic of that URL from the website traffic in order to see the performance percentage of the advertisement.

 

Split Testing

How can you determine the effectiveness of your website ads? Simple: you should have split testing. It is testing sample A and sample B to discover areas that need improvement. Aside from A/B Testing, another term for Split Testing is Usability Test. This test is done to see if the ad is easy enough for the customers to understand.

 

Spy Tools

If you want to know how you level to the competition you could make use of spy tools to know the performance rate of competitors. This could also help you improve and make better advertisements in order to get ahead.

 

Choosing a Web Hosting Platform

There are multiple types of web hosting services available that it is impossible for you not to have a reason to keep your site updated. Each kind of web hosting service has different limits. The most important factor in choosing a hosting platform is their up-time or the span of time their servers are active and running.

You’d always want your site to be available; longer availability time means more customers and more income. You should also be aware of the technical specifications of their hardware and the limits of such hardware. A cheap plan may not be able to support the different types of media you would like to explore in the future.

Another defining factor is the added extras they could give you when you avail of their services. These features are similar to energy-saving servers, mandatory data backup, or domain privacy that you think would be important for your website. In the long run, the most important factor would be the price of the service you would be availing.

If the hosting service is good in all areas but the fee you pay is bigger than what you earn from the affiliate marketing business you have, then you may have to consider another hosting provider. There must be a balance between the hosting service features and the amount you’d be investing in them.

It is recommended to choose a webhosting provider that always offers domain name registration as this makes everything much easier.

Find out the discount you'll get for com/net/org/info/biz registration or transfer at Namecheap (highly recommended for hosting and domain names).

 

Tips and Tricks of the Trade

 

Marketing Matters

All businesses begin with one person referring a service or product to another. The same concept applies to affiliate marketing. You use your web skills to promote certain products and every time an ad is clicked, you earn a commission. Your part in the business process is very important most especially since the online network could reach untapped audiences at most.

 

Every click counts

There are numerous points in advertising where the action of clicking the ad matters. A click-through, for example, is an action when the consumer clicks the ad and is redirected to the merchant website. Another is banner impression.

Although banners are not clicked, these will still be noticed by customers and banner impression is the number of times it has been shown on websites. Meanwhile, direct linking is an action where the consumer is redirected to the landing page instead of the web site. This is helpful for the ad to heighten visibility percentage in search engine ranking.

Each type of action has a corresponding commission rate. There are cost per action (CPA), cost per click (CPC), cost per thousand (CPM), and cost per order (CPO). CPA is the amount of cost for conversion for a sale or a lead. Meanwhile, the CPC is the cost of an individual click on a per click basis, CPM is costing for one thousand banner impressions, and CPO refers to every sale made.

 

Quintessential Quality Product

If you are going to advertise, you might as well advertise a great product. Your network of people will be seeing your ads and they will need one of those endorsed products someday. Everybody prioritizes quality in looking for the newest and the latest so if the consumer finds out in the end that what you are endorsing lacks quality as they expect it, they might stop trusting you with product and service referrals.

Be careful in choosing the products you will promote. See to it that the way you advertise a product or service is not exaggerated because this could backfire. A product that seems to have very, very high quality compared to its competitors is a good deal but if it is not as top-notch as it was advertised, the consumers will mistrust the brand itself, not the publisher. That is already one negative that needs to be avoided.

Affiliate Marketing: 6 Undeniable Facts (And A Few Good Tips!)

What is affiliate marketing? 

This may sound like a simple question that most beginners will not pay attention to it. However, it is crucial that you clearly understand what it is in order to benefit from it. Here are six undeniable facts that you should know as a new affiliate marketer.

 

1. Affiliate marketing is an online business practice where you build relationships to earn your income.

Perhaps you, like most beginners to this business, are aware about the technical definition of what affiliate marketing is. From Wikipedia, you know that it is one type of business practice or model where you earn your income by promoting the product/s or service/s of your chosen affiliate program.

While the web defines it that way, there is more to affiliate marketing than just promoting products or services of others to make money online. As an affiliate, more than marketing and promoting, you are connecting with real people, who like you, wish to benefit from the relationship. Building relationship is not limited to connecting with your target market. It is also about establishing good ties with your affiliate program.

Similarly, your affiliate program, if it is decent, will likewise treat you with respect and nurture your relationship. Your success is also their success, and your customer’s success is your success as well.

 

2. You do not necessarily have to focus on one affiliate marketing program when you can find complementing programs.

What is good about affiliate marketing is that it allows you to earn from multiple income sources. You can join not just one affiliate marketing programs, but two or more programs. Just be sure that the programs you affiliate with are complementary.

Yes, it is good to focus on just one affiliate marketing program when you are starting your business. Even so, you can earn more when you make your business a one-stop shop for your customers. The advantage of carrying different products and services from two or more affiliate programs is that you are giving your potential and existing customers various choices.

 

3. Affiliate marketing is for people who love to think.

Affiliate marketing becomes most profitable when you exercise your brain. Those who love to think will enjoy the best profitability from this business practice. The reason most people associate this business practice with non-thinkers is that you do not need to have any technical expertise to make money with it.

Nonetheless, you still need your brains to make the right choices, e.g. what affiliate program/s to join, which product/s or service/s to promote to benefit your target market, how to connect with your target market. Sure, there are tools to automate the process, but it is for you to decide which tools to use to enjoy maximum profitability.

 

4. Affiliate Marketing is perhaps the simplest business model to use in making money online, but keep your expectations real.

Affiliate marketing is the business practice of choice of profitable internet marketers. Most successful web business entrepreneurs started to make money online with affiliate marketing. This is because they find it as the simplest business model from which they could make money online. With affiliate marketing:

• You do not have to spend money to start your business. Well, it is your option if you wish to spend money to start your business online. Generally, though, you can start right away with or without money to spend. All you need is to find a reliable affiliate-marketing program to jumpstart your career as an affiliate marketer.

• Even without a product of your own to sell or a service to offer, you can still start your business and make money. The important thing is to find a reliable program where you can promote product/s or service/s that can serve as solutions your target market needs.

Although it is easy and simple to make money from this business model, it is important that you set real expectations. You simply cannot get rich overnight, or earn your income without effort. This way, you will not feel frustrated when things are not going your way.

 

5. To earn sustainable income from this business practice, find the good balance between quantity and quality.

From the number of affiliate programs you join and products you promote to the amount of money you spend to market and promote the same, it is crucial that you balance quantity and quality. Affiliate marketing is not about promoting numerous products, nor is it about spending more to earn more. Here are the usual reasons most beginners focus on quantity:

• They think that by joining several affiliate programs at once, and promoting many products and services, they are increasing their chances of success. If they cannot earn from one, they will earn from another.

• They spend more money to reach out to a huge number of consumers making their purchases online. The rationale is similar to the first, where the larger the number, the better the chances of earning money.

While numbers help, the thing is it does not guarantee that you will succeed. It will serve you well if you choose a few but complementing affiliate programs to join, and products that your target market really need. It does not make sense to spend on promotional campaigns that do not target your real customers. Spend wisely, and shift your focus to generating leads that convert highly.

 

6. Use marketing strategies and tools that best fit your business.

What is best for one internet marketer may not work as effectively for another. Affiliate marketing is a business practice that is both dynamic and flexible only you alone who can gauge the most effective strategies for your business.

Certainly, there are standards, but the decision to choose the right fit belongs to you. It is therefore important and crucial that you get to know your business well, i.e. the protocols of your affiliate program, your target market, the products or services you will offer your target market, where you can find your target market to connect with them.

 Only then, you can determine what strategies and tools to use to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. For beginners, it is wise to start with free tools for exploratory purposes, especially when you are still familiarizing yourself with how the business works. As you progress and earn money, you can upgrade and choose good proprietary tools. However, if you have the budget to allocate, you may also want to consider outsourcing some of your marketing needs, such as search engine optimization.

Choosing the best services your budget can accommodate will surely bring you high returns on your investment. One of the best ways to market the product of your affiliate is to blog about it. Other than its cost effectiveness, blogging also adds credibility to the product/s or service/s you promote. This is especially true when you are able to connect with the influencers in the blogging industry. These six facts should give you a good understanding of what affiliate marketing is.

You cannot underestimate the power of understanding what it means. Whatever your answer to what affiliate marketing is becomes the foundation of all the things and activities that you will do to earn success in making money online.

What is Niche Marketing? Definition, Examples, Advantages & Strategies

Some businesses have the tendency to market their products and services to general markets, thinking that targeting everyone is more efficient, and that they score more sales this way. They’re wrong. In fact, it’s among the biggest strategy mistake business owners can make.

The thought of catering to the general market alone is enormous, and wastefully expensive as well. It would mean you would have to invest more money than you have expected for your regional, national, and even international marketing campaigns.

You’ll likely end up with a great imbalance that won’t do your business any good. Focusing on a smaller niche market instead is not only realistic and feasible; it’s the right thing to do! The demands of today’s very dynamic and hyper-competitive online marketplace are never simple.

To become successful in this venture, you are better off focusing your business and online marketing campaigns (especially with a small given budget) on a small and specialized niche market.

 

Niche Marketing: Definition

Niche marketing is a marketing strategy that focuses on developing an effective marketing campaign that functions to target a specific market segment. Niche marketing concentrates all the marketing efforts on specified and well-defined population segments.

Niches do not really exist, but they are created or identified through the population’s needs, wants, and even requirements poorly addressed by general firms. As a smart and practical business strategy, experts see niche marketing as like a big fish interacting in small ponds, instead of the other way around. Niche marketing is also known as micromarketing in other cases.

Niche marketing produces various applications for all products/services sold by different business types, however. While the small online retailer deals only with a limited target niche marketing requirements, global brands everywhere utilize various niche marketing campaigns just to promote the same products targeted at different market sectors.

With the way the Internet functions in catering to our needs, niche marketing is able to fuse in with online business models smoothly as consumers are now able to search for any products and services online via specific keyword choices with ease. Niche marketing also involves the following:

• The development of products/services intended for niche audiences.
• The development of internet strategies and specific websites intended for niche marketing purposes.
• The segmentation of your marketing campaigns into specific niche areas that bring about highly-targeted and effective campaigns.

This should allow the targeting of audience share.

 

Internet Niche Marketing - Popular Strategies for Success

Every successful online niche marketing strategy starts with identifying your niche market. Basically, we recognize two stumbling blocks before we can ever start our online marketing campaigns: finding and targeting a profitable niche market, and then narrowing the focus just enough to exclude seductive, yet distracting opportunities.

Business entrepreneurs that are paralyzed with the paradox of choice are seemingly in a much better position due to the available options. Having no idea where to get good ideas on the other hand, proves to be simply discouraging. There’s no reason for such discouragement, however. There will always be plenty of fishes to catch in the wide market sea.

You simply need to know how and where to look. Feasible niche markets always satisfy these three known factors:

• Sufficiency of search traffic to signify the presence of demand.
• Proven online buyers.
• Access to it in terms of the competition involved.

Another winning strategy you must consider would be to win big time simply by “thinking small.” Start with the long-tail phenomenon. This is where you sell your products/services, or rather a wide range of such goods in smaller quantities.

The goods must be designed to resonate with the preferences of consumers as well. And it’s not surprising that many businesses have already embraced such strategy. It enables them to work around the intense competition that defined the mass markets.

Accessible information online has also made this particular niche marketing vital in all essence (especially in the fact that information stimulates and encourages comparison shopping), not to mention it’s much easier to do.

Showing your customers that you listen to them and take into account their inputs is another niche marketing strategy that also goes a long way in building and nurturing your business relationship with your customers. This is best achieved with online consumer-generated content (ratings, reviews, etc), rewarding you with immediate and constant feedbacks. With this already on the table, you can now listen closely so you can react quickly and get the most out of the situation.

 

Examples of Niche Marketing in Action

Niche marketing works because it allows you to search and target specific market segments that need your products or services. This means you can now identify and target a group of individuals who will benefit from what you are offering to them. Focusing on this group brings you lot of benefits, among them is the ability to engage them and nurture the business relationship you have started with them since you are able to focus your efforts on them.

 If you look at everyday products, you would definitely feel the long-tail blue print; if we were so used to wearing Levi’s, or Lee, we now enjoy other great options coming from different design houses. Hundreds of breweries on the other hand present a whole wide array of craft beers that suit every taste.

If you happen to be a tri athlete, a weight lifter, or a simple dieter, you can simply take a look around for a nutrition bar that fancies your eyes and taste. Everything works in great marvel these days. Facebook is another niche marketing concept that exploded in the market, spreading and reaching out to other niches exponentially. It started as an Internet forum designed for university students so they could have access to online content and share them with other online users.

The Facebook website, in its initial phases was marketed exclusively to college students before it spread like wildfire all over societal and cultural landscapes all over the world. Always remember that simply identifying market niches and targeting is never enough. Hordes of unique and attractive consumer products have failed in capturing the consumer’s imaginations all the time, which tells you there is no guarantee in guaranteeing such failures. Extensive market research should help better your chances.