Copyright 2005 Robert EvansAffiliate programmes are springing up everywhere and cover
every type of product or service imaginable. Some
incorporate fully automated systems that sell high volumes
of hard products all over the world. Many have several
thousand affiliates and one or two of the bigger companies
have over one million affiliates.
So what are the advantages of joining an affiliate
programme?
* they provide a ready-made business. This is a very big
plus for those people who want to earn some kind of living
off the internet but lack the knowledge or inclination to
set up a business by themselves
* commissions and rewards are generally good and the more
established programmes offer a real chance of advancement
to higher and better-paid levels.
* other affiliates are usually on hand to offer practical
support
How about the limitations?
* you are restricted in your promotional activities due to
the fact that you do not actually own the affiliate site
they give you. I'm thinking here about not being able to
put such things as banners, images, links, meta tags etc
onto your page
* the URL of your affiliate page is often either too long
or contains such awkward things as question marks, which
many Search Engines will not index
* any promotional literature provided has probably already
been used by thousands of other people and consequently may
have lost its impact, making it more difficult to achieve
sales or referrals
* if the programme you have joined has not yet established
itself (or in some cases even if it has) then you may
encounter problems with payments owed to you not being
honoured, or low quality products, or sub-standard
statistics that do not accurately record how many referrals
or sales you have made etc
* you may also be required to purchase a minimum quantity
of the product on a regular basis before you start to
qualify for commissions or even before you can become an
affiliate
* you may not get the technical or affiliate support you
might expect from the company. This may be due to
inadequate staffing, or perhaps the company just doesn't
care about you!
* other people in your downline do nothing to promote the
programme
* the programme itself ceases to exist overnight
At least four of the above limitations can be overcome with
a little time and effort. You could, for example, come up
with fresher ads to promote the programme (provided this is
allowed).
You could shorten that over-long affiliate URL by using a
free service like tinyurl.com
It might be a good idea to purchase any product you are
promoting anyway. This would then enable you to review its
strengths and weaknesses and would put you well ahead of
the majority of affiliates who know nothing about the
product they are promoting.
With your new found knowledge, you could build a site or
page dedicated solely to the affiliate product. You could
write a review and also produce articles related to the
subject.
If the company supplies the email addresses of people in
your downline then you could offer to help the less active
members. Very often these people are passive not because
they are lazy or apathetic but merely because they don't
know HOW to promote effectively! Your guidance could mean
the difference between no sales or referrals and healthy
downlines and residual incomes.
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Robert Evans has been doing business online since October
2000. He currently writes a blog in the form of a free
tutorial on the subject of how to build a profitable web
site from scratch. http://www.market4profit.net/blog
