Ask Your Affiliate Marketing Questions
If you have questions about “affiliate marketing”, then we have the answers you need…
What if you could post your affiliate marketing questions here “Right Now” today and have them answered by a nine year veteran of affiliate marketing… Why are we doing this? Simply to help you get a start in affiliate marketing.
We are constantly receiving emails from people all over the world asking us questions about affiliate marketing so we thought it would be a very good idea to share the information with all our site visitors.
And all at zero cost to you… That’s right there is no membership fees to pay or donations to make just the cold hard facts that you need to know so you can start to make some money online.
If you have a question that you just can not find the answer to, or maybe you have a website that just isn’t performing the way you thought it would then post your comments below and we will get on the job finding a solution for you.
We will help you master topics such as marketing strategies to writing awesome copy for your blog post or sales pages, how to start finding finding keywords and even how to pick domain names or products for your niche website.
No matter what your question is we will do our best to help you find a solution.
I have been marketing affiliate products for many years and have tried many different tactics to increase online revenue for my own businesses with some great success and also some very bad failures. Here a some quick tips to get you start How To Start An Affiliate marketing Business.
Now you get the chance to tap into my knowledge and resources absolutely Free Of Charge.
All you have to do is post your affiliate marketing questions below to find answers to anything you want to know about affiliate marketing.
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There are so many questions people new to affiliate marketing need to ask but often you have to already know quite a bit to know what questions to ask – and that applies whether you are an affiliate interested in publishing or a merchant seeking affiliates.
I could recommend a ton of topics that I would love to see you write about, for example:
1) Which affiliate networks are the cleanest. I believe ShareASale would be right up there and the book I’m reading mentions another one. Which do you recommend?
2) Explain parasiteware and why it is bad for both merchants and affiliates.
3) Talk about couponers from the merchant perspective including what to do about coupon prompts in shopping carts.
4) Tell merchants what you, as an affiliate, really want from them.
5) Talk about the various affiliate forums you frequent and how they benefit someone new to affiliate marketing.
I shared a ton of affiliate marketing resources in a post I wrote about the Gift Affiliate Program I promote that Adam Riemer now manages. Have I left anything important out? Any other links I could add? Are there any particularly important posts you have written that belong on that page?
Gail @ Do Follow´s last blog ..Recommended Wedding Affiliate Program: Bridaluxe
Hi Growmap
As usual you have covered some very important topics which are relevant to anyone wanting to start out with affiliate marketing and especially the many affiliate network programs which of course I have tried and I would definitely agree with you that Sharesale would stand with the best of them and I have been using on other sites for more than six years to add value to my sites.
Clickbank is also another affiliate network that is heavily recommended online simply because of its easy policy to get approved, however you can been entering into a very competitive marketplace if you are inexperienced due to the many aggressive product launches for popular products there and if you are not in at the start you will not really see any results.
As for Parasiteware and how many people (new affiliates) assume that this is the same as adware or spyware which in a way it is, except what many affiliates do not realize is that it is actually stealing their affiliate commissions by over writing the legitimate cookie set by the affiliate network. Make sure you have a good a good detection program and even breach this to your online visitors.
As for coupons in shopping carts this has predominantly been used by many affiliates promoting for the large web host companies around the world such as Hostgator to use an example. Where you enter a coupon code and you can get 1 cent hosting for a month or free domain names and so on… This is a very effective way to secure a sale with these hosting companies. If you do a search online for “Coupon Codes” you will find many different companies using them in association with their affiliates to sell there products or services.
You will also find many websites advertising Coupon codes just to try and get your business so if the coupon has not been issued from the actual company be cautious as to what it is you are getting.
As for asking merchants for what you want and need to promote their products I have found over the years that some are only to willing to assist in the form of providing unique articles and even custom banners for my sites… And then again I have found others that have not even responded to my request so at the end of the day you need to ask to get what you need and if the merchant does not respond back to you then you should even rethink whether or not you want to really be an affiliate to their product.
As for affiliate forums I really can’t say that I have a favorite online but I do use them when I need to just by searching affiliate forums, I do however find myself spending time at many of the seo forums online looking at new techniques to market products whether as an affiliate or merchant as I have both forms of business that I manage online…
Some other topics that really need to be discussed are techniques for link building and whether or not reciprocal linking or article marketing is the way to go online. Should you use the article directories or write unique blog posts. As well as Linkedin, Blogged, Friendfeed, Myspace and Facebook and all the social networking sites to effectively promote your site with out being branded a spammer.
What do you think? I would really like to hear your thoughts on this…
The most important aspect of any business whether it is an affiliate business or stating out as a merchant is you need to do your homework and study your market, that is the key and one of the biggest reasons that many people not just affiliates fail online today. Get educated and stay informed.
Affiliatex….
As a blogger I have always been interested in affiliate marketing but only became really aware of the many issues involved because I am also active on the merchant side of the equation. Fortunately for me Murray Newlands introduced me to Adam Riemer and that has made all the difference.
The best thing any affiliate or merchant can do is identify highly ethical Affiliate Networks and Affiliate Program Managers like Adam and work with them almost exclusively. Many power affiliates already know this and that is why they will often change merchant programs based on who is managing them.
You may know Adam as Rollerblader in the ABestWeb forum. If I were much more serious about affiliate marketing at this point (and I will be in the future) I would be sure to read blogs like yours and his. I would make it a point to work with affiliate managers like him who are willing and able to do far more for their affiliates and merchants and protect us from parasiteware and other challenges.
I also recommend that new book Shawn and Missy came out with called Internet Marketing from the Real Experts because it contains some great tips and identifies highly ethical players in the Affiliate Marketing world.
Gail @ KeywordLuv´s last blog ..KeywordLuv: How Using It Benefits Us All
Hi Gail…
Again thanks for another very informative comment…
I to never started out as an affiliate marketer. I had my own products to sell online which then lead me into studying SEO extensively as I could not in the early days afford to pay an expert to do it for me so I started to follow a guy by the name of Brad Callen. Brad is a master at SEO and also has released top rated programs such as Keyword Elite and SEO Elite of which I still use today.
I really didn’t get serious about affiliate marketing until about six years ago when I built a few additional sites really just to see how it all worked. Overtime I started to get some really good results with what I was doing so I persisted and here I am today a full time affiliate marketer.
One thing I should really make clear to everyone is why this affiliate blog was created… Firstly what I was finding online was a lot of conflicting stories about success online and secondly many people that were promoting what I call get rich quick strategies. Don’t get me wrong most of these programs are very good and I should know because I have also purchased them. But you really have to work at it or simply be very lucky and fall into a niche that no one else is promoting.
What I really found lacking was a very common sense approach to affiliate marketing where you had to work at it to be success if you look at every post on this site they all have one thing in common… And that is work hard and get rewarded.
I would have to agree with you about Internet Marketing From Real Experts as being a fantastic resource. And the key to many open doors is having the right affiliate manager to help you along your way. Remember everyone that Rome was not built in a day and neither will your affiliate business but with some useful tips and the assistance of others you will succeed with what ever it is you decide to do in life.
What’s good about affiliate marketing is that everybody in the business can have a share of the profit pie without any kind of saturation. Affiliate marketing adheres to the same ideas as any business, and needs to be handled as such. There are a few pitfalls that you need to be aware of so that you don’t make any mistake that cost you in terms of money or time:
Not Pre-selling
Are you putting in all your efforts to draft out a sales pitch for your affiliate product? If you answered yes to that, then you need to stop doing it. As strange as it may sound, as an affiliate, you’re not supposed to sell. Why is this? because of the following: When a visitor visits your website and goes through your sales info and clicks on your affiliate link, only to find another sales letter waiting to be read. Do you think he/she will make a purchase? Not really. People do not want to be bombarded with advertisements.
Instead, you need to pre-sell the affiliate product with informative content, not with sales pitches. You job as an affiliate marketer is to interest your prospects and send them directly to the actual sales page, not sell the product. By doing so you complete a vital stage in the buying cycle. Your role is to attract the casual visitor, keep their attention, and then send them on to where they can be transformed from potential customer to client.
Not Knowing and Understanding Your Niche
If you were an animal rights activist, would you buy a product tested on animals? It is true that sweaters are useful, but not for a Nomad living in the desert. This simply explains the fact that you should be aware of what you’re selling, who your target market is, and what the different types of products they buy are. If your market is teenagers, you would be wasting your time trying to sell them homeowners insurance. However, if you try to sell them fashion accessories or a related product, you would find making sales is much easier.
Quitting Due to Lack of Motivation
This one mistake leads to the downfall of many affiliates. When motivation is lost, people loose focus and start to fail. This is mostly cause because they are only looking at the short term, instead of considering what their goal is and striving to concentrate on the long term. A lot of such marketers feel that once their website is up, they should begin to make some real money.
This is far from the case. You have to put in a lot of effort and time before you can see any success. Stay motivated by concentrating on your long term goals. Have a reason to push you forward, and soon you’ll see things working out and profits coming in.
Clayne @ Affiliate Millionaire´s last blog ..Can the Affiliate Millionaire Help You Become a Successful Affiliate Marketer?
Hi Clayne
Yes you are right if you conduct your affiliate marketing as your own business you can very easily have a share of the market… As for mistakes I have made many along the way but have always recovered to be smarter and wiser with the way I do business online… It’s simply part of the learning curve for us all.
About the pre-selling so many affiliates today try and sell the product from their own site and then link to the sales page of the product vendor which does at the end of the day usually lose the sale for them simply for the reason you have stated the customer is reading two sales pages which can be very annoying and even lead to mistrust for your website business.
It is also very essential that you know your product or service that you are marketing whether you are an affiliate or business owner. The easiest and most efficient way to do this at the start is to use a free tool such as Google™ Analytics as well as Google™ Webmaster Tools as well as Google™ Keyword Tool. You should also conduct your own market research by viewing your competitors online, analyzing keywords as well as phrases and so on…
There is so much to learn when it comes to having any online business from providing quality content to getting links, customer support, social bookmarking and much more. However many really don’t understand this initially and when they do not start seeing sales in the first few weeks and in some cases they quit and move on to something else.
You have to stay focused and keep going regardless of whether you make a sale in the first few weeks or even months. Try to build an authority site and the traffic and sales will start to come eventually. You really can not put a time frame on this only unless you have found yourself in a real high demand “HOT Selling Niche”.
Another factor many people don’t consider is that by building an authority site in your niche that it could be worth a substantial amount of money to somebody with in that niche so remember that your efforts will not be in-vein if you decide to create a real working business for yourself.
And if you don’t think this could ever happen to you just look back at the the two young guys that started from their garage YouTube… Stay Focused And Work Hard Success Will Follow
Hi,
I am doing a lot of seo techniques to try to get free traffic before I start paying for some. Is this wrong? I know PPC marketing is the way to get fast traffic to your site, but I lost money doing that before and don’t want to take the risk again until I have some income from my site. Should I start with PPC and other paid advertising anyway? Or keep trying for free traffic first?
Thank you!
Karen@Affiliate Training´s last blog ..Affiliate Training Money Guide – 2 Tips to Avoid Failure
Hi Karen and Welcome..
I am not a big supporter of PPC as it only works while you are putting your hand in your pocket and shelling out money. I am a big believer in ranking well in the organic listing which is more of a long term goal for your online business.
It is much more viable for you as an online marketer to have solid listings as this will firstly give you credibility with your customers and secondly substantially increase the value of your website. Try and write some articles to get some quality one way back links coming into your site it will be time consuming but well worth it in the end.
However as I don’t know you situation another tactic would be to use PPC now if you need instant traffic, but also continue building up your site in the organic listing with the intention of stopping the PPC campaigns once you are established. Just remember that PPC is only viable for instant traffic while you are paying for it…
I am just starting. I am totally excited about the business. I am having a problem with my hop url. My hop url doesn’t take me to the domain site that I trying to promote. Help me please. William
Hi William
Here is a short video that may help you with setting up the hoplink – Creating A Clickbank Hoplink.
Hope that helps:)
I’ll have to give this a shot. I’ve had only a little bit of success with my affiliate programs. I’m hoping to find some solutions that will help me succeed without having to invest a ton of time!
Hi…
This is the one element you need to have a lot of at the start “time”. If you can’t afford the time then the rest will take even longer which will potentially cause you to give up unless you find a good paying niche straight away.
I’m a traditional direct mail copywriter hoping to expand into Internet marketing. I have a client base. Where can I get information on how to set up affiliate marketing that will integrate into their current websites? What I want to do is create landing page style websites to direct customers to my current client’s sites. I want to get paid for performance but it has always been a problem to identify what business I have created vs. the business they would have gotten anyway. I’m not looking for the big mass affiliate marketing companies, I want to give my mid-sized clients a way to make more money and get paid for my efforts in a way we can both track.
Hi Esteban,
I can share some insights into some options you can consider. You could have your clients set up formal affiliate programs through a third part Affiliate Network. The most reasonable and cleanest of these is ShareASale.
I would not recommend a client do that themselves as it is very complicated to really do it well. I finally found and Affiliate Manager who is highly ethical and hard-working so I recommend him to anyone who wants to have that type of program.
If third party tracking is not necessary or your clients prefer an in-house program there is software to manage the program themselves. Mary O’Brien who knows more about pay-per-click than anyone and puts on the exceptional PPCSummit pay per click training conferences researched affiliate management solutions and decided that iDevAffiliate was the best solution. I trust Mary’s judgement so if I wanted to manage a program in-house that is what I would use. There are likely to be less advanced solutions for less. That one has training videos and other advanced features.
If you trust your clients you could use the referrer information in their analytics program provided they currently track whatever performance you intend to use for deciding what you have earned. They could set up goals for lead generation or newsletter subscriptions or some other criterion or track from visit through sale.
The drawback to doing that is only immediate leads, subsriptions or sales are likely to be tracked. Once you send them a potential client, that person is likely to return to their site in some manner besides through clicking a link on your site so that other source is likely to get credit for any conversions generated instead of you.
If the client is an ecommerce store you could use their average visits before conversion to estimate how many conversions are not being tracked and ask the client to pay you that percentage more. For example, if 20% of their buyers do not buy on the first visit, negotiate an uplift of 20% over tracked conversions.
It may be possible to have a programmer write code to set cookies on the computers of your visitors for better tracking of conversions that occur after first visit. Some Internet users regularly delete cookies, some refuse them (probably not too many because the Internet is very difficult to use with cookies turned off), and some anti-virus programs automatically delete them. That said, there is no 100% accurate way to track visitors or conversions.
If you have any other specific questions between Ron, Adam, myself and many other specialists we collaborate with we can probably get you the answers you seek.
Gail @ Support Businesses´s last blog ..Best of GrowMap – Our Most Important Posts All in One Place
Hi Esteban… And Welcome to our site…
I am not the best authority on this so as you can see I had my good friend Growmap write a response for you, I hope you have found it helpful and it gets you the information you were looking for.
Hi,
I would like to know about how affiliate marketers pay tax?
Hi Ana,
Today most transactions you do are either paid two ways through a direct deposit or check issued from the affiliate network. you simply need to add that to your income tax at the end of your financial year. It is no different than having a normal job.
I have joined this programme and all that is happening to me is money is coming out of my account going to you with no results or contact from you people. It has now been 3 payments taken from my account and still nothing. What do I get in return for my money? I am not happy with this situation and it did say that if I was not satisfied with the programme I am able to finish no obligations. As an unsatisfied client I wish to resign effective immediately.
Kind Rgards
Ollie Martin
Hi Ollie
You have the wrong website… We are not associated with any membership sites or charge a fee for any services that we personally offer. Can you please let us know what program it is you are referring to so we might be able to assist you further in finding a solution to your problem.
All the information that is offered on this site is free for anyone that wants to take the time to learn about affiliate marketing.
Do you still have a receipt of your payment? Did you use Paypal, if you have used paypal then simply go into your paypal account and cancel the subscription.