Google

Mining For Gold With The Best Affiliate Programs And Hitting Pay Dirt


Colin McDougall tinkered around with affiliate programs earning a few dollars, nothing much to write home about, even had his own e-commerce site, known as the man's mall. In theory that site was supposed to offer all sorts of gadgets for guys. Colin created the site with the concept "build it they will come" but in reality no one did. Like so many dot.com ventures, it was a huge disappointment, lots of hard work and no pay off.

Colin says, "The man's mall failed because I started the venture blindly, I didn't have a clue how the search engines worked or how to make money with affiliate programs. Without an action plan and a map on how to get the gold it was all pointless. But not anymore, I hit the internet gold mine, a virtual moneymaking machine."

Read on to learn the facts about affiliate marketing and how Colin went from failing on the Internet to making serious money with affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is paying off for retailers

2003 online sales are bucking the retail trend. With traditional retail sales down, retailers are forced to do more with less. They've shifted budgets away from expensive portal deals to performance-based affiliate marketing and search engine marketing and it's paying off. (Source: Forrester Research)

It's no surprise that traditional advertisers such as American Express, National Geographic, Toshiba and even Disney are flocking to the emerging affiliate marketing model. Advertisers have a very low risk with affiliate marketing; they simply pay a commission for actual sales. No sales, no commission.

Affiliates love it too

Affiliates who understand the affiliate marketing business are earning huge incomes, even those who are doing it as a hobby, in many cases, are earning a few hundred to a few thousand extra dollars each month.

Jeff Pullen, President of Commission Junction, a third party provider of infrastructure and tracking told the crowd at a recent conference held in Santa Barbara that, "Commissions are up 80% over the previous year". According to the Affiliate Summit, held in early November 2003 in New York City, affiliate marketing is already a $14 billion industry. (Source: Marketing Sherpa)

Online shopping is booming - the future is bright

Affiliate marketing works because the pay for performance model makes sense. Plus, people are flocking to the Internet in droves to shop online. According to Forrester Research, a Massachusetts-based research firm, nationally online sales are expected to total $96 billion this year and climb to $229 billion by 2008.

Affiliate marketing in a nutshell

An affiliate program is a business relationship where one website owner (a "merchant") agrees to pay another website owner (an "affiliate") a commission simply for referring customers.

Merchants typically manage their affiliate program by joining a commission network such as Commission Junction or LinkShare who provide third-party tracking and infrastructure or by purchasing and installing specialized tracking software on their own server.

See Commission Junction and LinkShare.com for a list of merchants who are looking for affiliates to promote their products and services.

How Colin got involved with affiliate marketing

Colin says: "I found the treasure map; the Affiliate Marketers Handbook written by James Martell," an entrepreneur and successful affiliate marketer. The first time Colin read the Affiliate Marketers Handbook he mentions, that it was like looking at the horizon through binoculars; he could see where he was headed. The second time reading the book Colin, it was like looking at a road map and seeing how to reach the riches on the horizon.

Colin says, "With the book, you learn how to get organized, plan the site, run the business, and focus on the riches along the horizon."

Colin learned firsthand, with the man's mall, that without understanding the search engines, your business is dead in the water. The "build it they will come" mind set, just doesn't cut it.

As Colin says: "The book's system for using keywords really makes sense, after my prior experience it's like this light bulb went off?so that's how I'm going to attract visitors and making money. In my old business, I was set up to fail, with the handbook I'm set up to win."

Got Dot: How did you go from failing at the Internet to make money?

Colin explains, "By reading James' handbook. His book is real, it's not the stuff of Internet legends, but it's an honest, to goodness road map. James really shares what works. I've followed his 8-step system? and now have a bigger house, a bigger car and financial independence.

At first, I was amazed at how much the book gives away, but that's James. He really wants everybody to succeed, he's got things all laid out in his book. If you follow it the money's there, it's up to the reader to go for the gold."

Got Dot: What was it like getting started?

Colin says, "In the beginning I was skeptical, making money with affiliate marketing, just seemed unreal. After attending James' original class in Vancouver, at the prodding of a friend Chuck Anderson, and actually meeting with other people, earning lots of money with affiliate marketing, the whole process really resonated. I knew I could do it, if they could."

Got Dot: Why was that so hard to grasp?

Colin: "As a system tech I was working 50% harder for a measly 5% raise, all of $250/month. It was awful. In the class all these people were making a lot more money than me, working just a few hours a day. What a wake up call. I felt like a dummy slaving away at 60 hours a week, with practically nothing to show for it."

Colin adds, "The hard part for me was getting over my past, removing the skepticism, and just running. My disbelief held me back four months. So I started off small spending one hour a day doing affiliate marketing.

The beginning search engine traffic and commission checks?just blew me away, talk about a real eye-opener. Nothing like numbers to get a techie excited."

Got Dot: What's the money like?

Colin: "When I first started I earned $400 a month, nearly double my raise as a system tech. By the end of the year I hoped to make $5k a month (my system tech salary). I hit that mark in six months. Within 9 months I earned $120K. The day job is now history. The money's astounding, it just keeps growing."

Got Dot: What is your product niche?

Colin says, "In the beginning, I went after the big paycheck, like credit cards. My newer sites feature things I want to learn more about or hobbies."

Colin follows the same methods for web site construction developed by James Martell. These principals are incorporated into Colin's successful sites featuring: mortgage loans, furniture slip covers and credit card applications.

Got Dot: What is a typical day like?

Colin says, "Its ideal. How many fathers can say they have time to play Barbie's with their daughter? Everyday I work for two hours and spend an afternoon in the park with the family, then another hour or two of work and its dinner time, what a day!"

Got Dot: What tips do have for someone starting out?

Colin says: "Buy the Affiliate Marketers Handbook, follow it step-by-step. Don't jump ahead. Devote one hour a day to affiliate marketing, when you get home from work. Make the sacrifice. The short term pain is worth the long term gain. Don't settle for fool's gold, searching through the "best affiliate programs", find the real gold, James Martell's 8-step system?, it's within your grasp. Go for the gold."

Colin McDougall followed a simple 8-step-system? for affiliate marketing created by James Martell, entrepreneur, successful affiliate marketer, and developer of over 70 specialty shopping sites with topics that range from motorized scooters to treadmill comparisons; and also educates people who want to start a homebased business using affiliate programs and the Internet!

About The Author

Colin McDougall is the editor of the credit review site, Only the best credit cards online. You can visit this site at http://www.only-the-best-credit-cards-online.com/, mcdoog2112@shaw.ca


MORE RESOURCES:

RELATED ARTICLES


Commission Junction: the Perfect Affiliate Resource for Niche Markets
There are many affiliate programs you can go to to find real solid product to market online. Most marketers who produce their own product provide these programs that are easily accessible, and can be worked simply by signing up to them.
Big Ticket Items - 6 More BIG Benefits To Selling As An Affiliate
Today, we're going to cover 6 More BIG Benefits to selling Big Ticket items as an AFFILIATE. First, we had better define both Big Ticket Item and Affiliate.
Top Three Internet Marketing Two-Tier Affiliate Programs
If you run an Internet marketing web site and sell your own products or services, you probably follow up with your current customers using autoresponders and upsell them with products and services from related affiliate programs?Note that if you don't do this, you are leaving money on the table.Why? Simply, your customers have already spent money on your web site, and if they enjoy your product or service, they now trust you.
Sell Affiliate Product? Lets Change The Odds
An affiliate is simply an individual or business who signs up to promote someone else's product or service for a share of the profits. It's one of the most popular ways of starting an online business.
7 Sure-Fire Ways to Build Large Affiliate Checks
Everyone wants a huge affiliate check. All the advertisements promise them, but if you just buy into the affiliate program and expect large affiliate checks to come, you will be sorely disappointed.
6 Affiliate Mistakes Youre Probably Making...
Everyday I see more and more affiliates making the same mistakes. The worst part is that they're just doing what they're taught by the so-called "experts.
Choosing An Affiliate Marketing Program
If you are new to affiliate marketing, you are probably overwhelmed with the number of programs available out there for you to join and promote. This article will provide a guideline to help you choose the right affiliate program for yourself.
Is It Possible To Make A Living Being An Affiliate Marketer?
It may sound cliché but it is worth repeating. Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to earn money online.
How to Become a Super-Affiliate
Did you begin your affiliate marketing business like this? You surf the internet looking for an internet marketing product you can affiliate with and sell (even though you know nothing about internet marketing), sign up for the program and get your link, and then visit traffic exchanges and safelists, advertising your affiliate site. At the end of the day, week, or month, you wonder why you didn't sell one product.
7 Powerful Tactics To Promote Any Affiliate Program Instantly
Affiliate marketing is truly one of the most powerful and easiest models online to generate massive cash quickly, fact is you can get started in minutes from now without the hassle of creating your own products or websites.While there're many factors to consider in the affiliate marketing business, one of the most critical questions I get every time from newer marketers is always.
A Unique Opportunity For Affiliate Recruiters
If you're a webmaster, web publisher, or web merchant, chances are you have already come across the concept of affiliate marketing.As online joint venture partnerships, affiliate programs allows both content publishers and web merchants to maximize their online profits by working with each other.
Three Easy Ways to Become a Super Affiliate and Earn Cash Quickly
If you want extra cash every month, you have to read this. You can start a part-time or full-time business simply by developing an affiliate network on the Internet.
Make Money Online With Affiliate Programs
If you have wanted to find a way to make money from home without all the hassle of selling products out of your own home yourself, perhaps you should take a look at affiliate programs.Affiliate programs are an excellent way to make money from home.
How to Booost Your Affiliate Commissions by almost 30%
Affiliate marketing is one tough business. Everyone online today is looking to make or save money in any way they can.
Affiliate Marketing--Huh?
In my search for a presence on the internet, I searched many avenues, but was finding more scams and dead ends than I would care to speak about.It was one last scam and six months of my presence on the internet that I realized that the only way I could possibly make a living on the internet -- and gain any amount of satisfaction --was to work for myself.
How to Join Affiliate Programs - Affiliate Marketing
The first thing you may be wondering before you join an affiliate program is how much is it going to cost you? Well most of them are free to join! Affiliate marketing can be a great way to earn a little bit of extra cash on the side and some people actually make a full-time living from it. And you have some guru's in the affiliate marketing industry that will earn more then the average person in one year compared to their 20 years.
How to Succeed With Any Affiliate Program
In the early days before the internet was born, starting a business was like taking a giant leap into the unknown. Aside from the involved time and money, it also causes lots of worry.
Affiliate Programs... A Not THAT Easy Start To Your Own Online Business
"Where is all the help I'm supposed to get. I have been buying ezine and classified ad builders and signing up for Echecks and Virtual credit cards.
How to Grow Your Affiliate Marketing Business
Affiliate marketing is a large business in the internet today that involves a partnership between a merchant and one or more affiliates, in which the affiliates advertise or promote the merchant's product and services free of charge until a customer is gained.Then, a part of the profit received by the merchant from that customer will be given to the affiliate as commission.
The 5 Sure-Fire Ways of Building Massive Traffic and Making Thousands in Affiliate Sales
Why are those top affiliates able to easily make so much money just by recommending and selling other people's products?What did they do to be so different from the rest of the 96% of the affiliates out there who are making little or no money at all?The key to making those huge affiliate sales really lies on what you portray to your visitors and what you can give to your visitors.But before that, let's deal with getting lots of targeted traffic to your website so that you could build a huge mailing list to mine your income from.