First of all, let me say that affiliate programs are great ways for ordinary people to make money. In fact, with the right program and the right marketing tactics, an affiliate marketer can make thousands of dollars.
One such marketer, Rosalind Gardner has made nearly half a million dollars in one year simply through affiliate marketing. Many others make anywhere from a few bucks here and there to thousands a year simply by sending website traffic to an affiliate link provided them by the owner of product.
That's the person who really profits from an affiliate program.
There's your first lesson.
In most cases, to really make money from affiliate marketing, you need to own the product.
Now, don't get scared, this isn't the end of the story. I am going to tell you how you can either be the owner or put yourself in the owner's shoes.
To Be the Owner:
Most people do not have a couple of hundred items laying around the house to sell online, and don't know how to get their hands on such a stock of wares. Also, they do not have the storage area, the staff, or, in many cases, the time, to sell solid stuff online.
This is why so many who are making money online are selling information products.
Before you close the page and give up, please realize that for almost any imaginable topic, there are thousands, in some cases even millions, who are seeking information about that topic.
If you have any first hand or academic knowledge about one of those topics, you can create an ebook which some people will possibly want to buy.
Life, and affiliate marketing, is full of uncertainties, and I certainly cannot tell you that YOU will be the one to have millions standing in a virtual line to pay you for the privilege of learning what you already know, but that's exactly how those who get rich, or make a few bucks, with information products manage to do it. You really have nothing to lose by creating an information product and setting it up with an organization like ClickBank.
Creating and selling your own information products is great because no storage room is required, the product can be sold worldwide (as opposed to hard goods), and no staff is needed and order fulfillment can be automated.
To Be in the Owner's Shoes:
If you sell physical products, such as exercise equipment, you may find:
a) Physical products are harder to sell online than information, and
b) The commissions are smaller.
Even if you, as an affiliate marketer, can sell big ticket items online you will find that the commissions are usually as small as 4% on each sale. Not many can regularly sell big ticket items online.
People who create information products, such as were talked about in the earlier section "To Be the Owner", generally offer generous commissions on their products. YOu will often find commissions as high as 75% even on big ticket information products!
Imagine selling an ebook for $50 and pocketing $25 or more on each sale.
I do it all the time.
To be successful, however, you not only have to know what you are doing, but you have to become the owner's partner in more ways than one.
In other words, if you don't like the person or their product, or the person as represented by the product, you probably will not be effective at getting people to share your enthusiasm and buy the product.
Your first step is to find a product that you personally would recommend to a friend or family member. Also, you should pick a product that you yourself are interested in and which discusses an area with which you are familiar.
What you are really looking for is a product that you wish you had created. Sell it like it's yours and be as proud of it, and as proud to be identified with it, as if you had made it yourself.
Last, but not least, whichever course of action you choose, educate yourself on the ins and outs of Internet marketing, affiliate marketing, and, believe it or not, blogging. Blogs can be one of the cheapest and most effective ways to become an affiliate marketing success online.
Is affiliate marketing for you? Well, you won't know until you try. The Queen of Affiliate Marketing, Rosalind Gardner offers an
affiliate marketing course where she shows you exactly how it is done.