Affiliate Feeds and News
Affiliate Feeds and News
Frequently Asked Questions
Question: "What is Affiliate Marketing?"
Answer: Affiliate marketing is a specific form of Internet marketing. While Internet marketing is any marketing effort that is done on the Internet to sell a product or service, affiliate marketing falls under this umbrella. Affiliate Marketing specifically relates to marketing and selling products or services for other individuals or companies.
For example, if a company sells a product and wants to increase their sales, they will allow individuals to become an affiliate of that product. That affiliate then promotes the product and drives more sales. If a sale is made by the affiliates efforts of promoting the product, they make a commission on that sale.
Question: "Can Anyone Become an Affiliate?"
Answer: Yes! Anyone willing to become an affiliate may become one. However, some affiliate programs have strict requirements, but most just want to make sure that their affiliates will follow the law. The best part is that you do not need a web site as long as you have a way to attract visitors to the product you are promoting and generate sales.
Question: "Does Becoming an Affiliate Cost Anything?"
Answer: No. You should not have to pay anything to sign up with an affiliate program.
Question: "What is an Affiliate "ID" or Affiliate Link, and Why Do I Need One?"
Answer: When you sign up with an affiliate program, you will be issued a special affiliate link (sometimes called a hoplink). This is the address that you want to promote for the product you choose. It is typically a URL that is specific to you. If someone clicks on this link it generally take that individual to the parent company's web site.
This affiliate link is how the parent company will tract your customers. It has an ID, that is specific to you, embedded in it that tells the company that you are the one that referred a specific customer. This way the company can give you credit for the sale if one is made. Without an affiliate ID or link, the parent company would not have a way of determining where specific customers come from and who should get credit for sales.
Question: "What is Internet Marketing?"
Answer: Internet marketing, also referred to as i-marketing, web-marketing, online-marketing, or e-Marketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including: design, development, advertising, and sales.
Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along different stages of the customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), banner ads on specific web sites, e-mail marketing, and Web 2.0 strategies. Goals of Internet marketing may include driving targeted traffic to a Web sites and features on the Web sites to create a desired call to action. Internet marketing may include keyword and meta tag strategies, newsgroup and mailing list postings, banner advertising, reciprocal links, online promotions, content positioning, online image development, email strategies and other interactive features.
Question: "How Exactly Does Internet Marketing Work, and What Will I Be Doing?"
Answer: There are literally thousands of companies online that are willing to pay you a performance based commission if you can drive sales to their web sites by promoting their products and services. These are called affiliate programs, and your job as an affiliate is to align online consumers with the products that they are looking for. Promoting these products can range from starting a pay per click campaign, writing articles, social networking, and blogging, among other things. The possibilities of promoting your affiliate product are virtually endless. Your job as an affiliate is to implement these different mediums, and promote the product in any fashion you see fit to be effective.
Question: "Should I Still Consider Participating in Internet Marketing Given The Current State of the Economy?"
Answer: Generally speaking Internet marketers have not been affected by the current economic situation. This is because Internet marketing is a global phenomenon allowing you to sell products to people in all countries all over the world. You are not dependant upon local economies. Recently more and more people are becoming more comfortable with making online purchases. This is resulting in an overall increase of revenues online. Also, the recession in the US has increased online spending in many industries. Many people are finding that purchasing products online can many time be cheaper than buying the same products in retail stores.
Question: "How Much Time is Required to Make Money Online?"
Answer: That all depends upon you and your drive and desire. We encourage you to work at your own pace. Just like with most things quality is generally better than quantity. Whether you work a few hours a day, or a few hours a week, Internet marketing is something you can spend as much, or as little time working on, and earn profits. Obviously, the more time you spend the more likely you will be to earn profits. Treat this like a business. If you owned a restaurant, how much time would you spend on it?
Question: "Is It Really Possible to Make Millions on the Internet?"
Answer: Although there are a few individuals that may be making millions on the Internet, they are the exception -- not the rule. However, don't let this discourage you. Although making money on the Internet requires a total commitment and takes a great deal of time and effort, it is still a good way to make a significant income. It's not going to happen overnight, and it's not easy. However, if you take the time to educate yourself and plan each step very carefully, the possibilities are endless. You can generally make more than you make with a typical job, and you have no one to report to. You are your own boss!
Question: "What is Generally Considered The Most Effective Medium of FREE Advertising Online?"
Answer: Writing articles and allowing them to be freely published is generally the best way to market on the Internet. Doing this requires only time on your part, but your articles will have the potential to be viewed by millions of people. By freely publishing your article they may be published by several ezines with subscriber bases of a few hundred to several thousand. In addition, they may be displayed in ezine archives, or on high traffic web sites. Best of all, writing an article enables you to advertise in ezines completely free. It just doesn't get any better than that.
Question: "Is It Still Possible To Succeed If I Don't Have a Web Site, or Know How To Make One?"
Answer: You do not need a web site to get started. Many of the blogging sites, such as WordPress and Blogger will Allow you to create one with a "plug and Play" type format. Also, there is a fantastic, user-friendly, program that will allow you to create a site from scratch, called Homestead. This is one of the easiest that we have seen.
Question: "What If I Do Not Have My Own Product, or Know What To Sell?"
Answer: Affiliate and Internet Marketing do not require you to have your own product. There are literally millions of companies who are looking for people like yourself, and willing to pay commissions for each sale that you drive to their web site. Simple do a search for affiliate programs in in your search engine and you can simply browse from there to choose with whom you'd like to partner.
Question: "What is Pay Per Click (PPC)?"
Answer: Pay Per Click (PPC) is an Internet advertising model used on search engines, advertising networks, and content sites, such as blogs, in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. Content sites commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than using a bidding system.
Websites that utilize PPC ads will display an advertisement when a keyword query matches an advertiser’s keyword list, or when a content site displays relevant content. Such advertisements are called “sponsored links” or “sponsored ads,” and they appear adjacent to or above organic results on search-result pages, or anywhere a Web developer chooses on a content site.
Although many PPC providers exist, Google Ad Words, Yahoo Search Marketing, and Microsoft Ad Center are the three largest network operators, and all three operate under a bid-based model. Cost per click (CPC) varies depending on the search engine and the level of competition for a particular keyword.
Question: "What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?"
Answer: The use of various techniques to improve a web site's ranking in search engines in the hopes of attracting more visitors. Among other things, this involves making sure the website contains truly useful information, including accurate information in meta tags, and arranging for other web sites to make links to the site. Although there are some commonly shared ideas about how to increase your search results rankings, no one know for sure what the "magic" formula is. However, placing propper meta tags, and having plenty of backlinks is important.
Question: "Why Search Engine Optimization so important?"
Answer: Most major search engines send out automated programs, called “spiders” to index websites. These spiders examine a website to determine where that site should stand in the rankings when users put in particular key words. Search engine optimization involves setting up a website in such a way that the spiders will give it a high ranking, and the site will be one of the first ones to come up when someone searches on the particular term the website owner targeted as important. Websites that show up closer to the top in search engine results are more likely to get visited…and more likely to make the sales.
Question: "Why do I even need to be in the search engines?"
Answer: Today, everyone uses the Internet to do everything from buying Christmas gifts to emailing family members across the country. The only way to show that your ecommerce business is relevant is to have a website and advertise on the search engines so that you can take a piece of the pie. Plus, it’s easy to get lost in the clutter of billions of websites. Unless you’re ranked on Google, Bing and Yahoo potential customers will never find you. Search engines are the best way to generate traffic to your site. Without search engines displaying your site, so few people will see it, and you will be sure to fail.
Question: "What is Search Engine Submission?"
Answer: Search engine submission is how a webmaster submits a web site directly to a search engine. While Search Engine Submission is often seen as a way to promote a web site, it generally is not necessary. This is because the major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and MSN use crawlers, bots, and spiders that eventually would find the site all by themselves. However, there are two basic reasons to submit a web site, or web page to a search engine. The first reason would be to add an entirely new web site because the site operators would rather not wait for a search engine to discover them. The second reason is to have a web page or web site updated in the respective search engine.
Question: "I’ve submitted my site to the search engines. Why am I not getting traffic?"
Answer: Submission is only the first step in getting the search engines to recognize you. It allows them to index your site and rank you according to their formula. Depending on how relevant they find you, you’ll get indexed but not necessarily ranked high. The next step is to work on your ranking and submit again.
Like what you've seen so far? Get even more great information with our free newsletter!
If your interested in keeping up to date with our recommended products to promote, and new found products that should make your Internet marketing life a whole lot easier, then sign up for our FREE newsletter.
We won't flood your in-boxes with garbage. You will receive one brief list per week. Don't worry, we don't share your address with anyone else. Your privacy is important to us.
