In part 1 of this article, we looked at what affiliate programs and why you should consider adding affiliate marketing to your local business’s sales arsenal. In this second and final article in this series we’ll look at…
How do you integrate affiliate marketing into your local business to increase your sales and profits?
I'm glad you asked.
First, decide on the theme that mostly relates to the business you are already in (or would like to start). Then go to one of the major search engines, and type in - your niche market+affiliate - whatever your niche is.
For example, if you sell women’s shoes, type in womens shoes+affiliate
This will bring back search results of merchants who sell products or services related to women’s shoes who have an Affiliate Program.
Check them out and then apply for inclusion in the programs that are the best fit with your target market. Any program worthwhile will be free to join, as well.
Put links to these merchants on your website, send traffic to the merchants, get paid a commission every 2 weeks, sell stuff 24/7.
Sounds easy, doesn't it?
Well it's a bit harder than that...but not very much, actually.
So what else do you need to know to make a lot of money as an Affiliate marketer?
High earning Affiliates do several things differently from ordinary marketers who are trying to make a dollar on the Internet.
For example -
* They don't just put up a sales page and try to flog several different products on each page, they build a website that Pre-sells their visitors on the benefits of owning one single product per page and then direct their visitor to that exact product on the merchant’s sales site.
* They know that their visitors may not buy on the first visit to their website, so they always try to get their email address so that they can send follow up information later on.
* They focus on one or more tightly focused niche markets, devoting each separate website to it's own small target market.
* They follow up, then follow up...then follow up some more with products or services that are closely related to the theme of their website, never straying into territory that is unfamiliar to their targeted visitors and trying to sell things that are unrelated to that theme
These and other traits set them apart from the vast majority who fail miserably at trying to make an Affiliate Program work.
Affiliate marketing, done correctly, could be a huge part of your businesses income in a very short space of time. It really has the potential to turn your business into a Money Tree - you just have to know how to go about setting it up properly.
I do hope this short lesson had inspired you to add Affiliate marketing as one of your Multiple Streams of Income. Done right, it can be a very profitable, low risk way of extracting lots of extra profits from the relationships you have built with your customers.
Combine affiliate marketing with your email list of customers and you could be bringing in the cash faster than you can count it...
Rocky Tapscott is the author a free 7 Part Mini Course "How To Build The Perfect Home Based Business Around Your Favorite Hobby, Pastime, Sport Or Skill" which uses 6 real life case studies to show how others have used a proven system to build profitable businesses around their favorite hobby.
Drop by
http://www.hobbyandlifestyle.com/ecourse.html to grab your free copy.
