Method to the Affiliate Madness
The appeal of affiliate programs lies in its overall simplicity: Anyone with a
Web presence from the mega-media giants to the
mom-and-pop shops to personal homepages) promote and sell goods on their site without having to do much.
The opportunity presents virtually limitless avenues for promotion, access to
a sales force of thousands, and no out-of-pocket costs.
Affiliate programs work by allowing you to place advertisements from various
vendors on your site, and reap the rewards of traffic sent from you to "them."]
By participating in such a program, you can provide a "click through ad" on your site
which earns]a fee for every purchase (or, perhaps, every lead) that comes from
your site.
Creating affiliate relationships allows you to concentrate on writing or producing
your online publication while offering] products and services that you do not
have to actually produce, advertise or ship. In effect, its a commission system.
For example, LinkShare.com not only brokers the marriage of content and products but also
provides lots of services to make these] relationships work successfully.
Each month, they provide you with a statement of all transactions and traffic
generated from associations brokered on their site. This type of arrangement
is ideal for entrepreneurs who are looking for revenue but don''t want to]
manage "dull tasks" as accounting and contracts.
If you''re one of the many content producers who dream of turning your
Web site into an e-commerce/money maker, then an affiliate program (or programs -- why stop at just one?)
may be just the answer you''re looking for.
Don Sussis is an eCommerce advisor and business consultant. He
frequently writes about business over the internet.
He can be reached at dons@interested.com.
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