How to Earn Money as an Affiliate

How to Earn Money as an Affiliate

It seems today that almost every web site offers an affiliate program. They have become an important way of marketing your site. But actually making money as an affiliate can be more challenging then you think. Learn how to earn profits through your affiliateships.

First you must identify what the aim of your site is. Does your company sells products, or is it a personal site, link site, information site, etc? Understanding your goals well help determine which affiliate program is right for you.

It is very common for web-based companies to become affiliates of other sites. This enables them to offer their already existent clients products they do not offer as part of their own product selection. It is a low risk, easy and inexpensive way to introduce new products to your clients.

Long Distance Post, LLC
Long Distance Post, LLC is a small Boston based telecom company that exemplifies good affiliate relationships. They offer a variety of different products including prepaid cell phones, prepaid calling cards, switched long distance, high speed voice/data lines, etc. Prepaid calling cards are Long Distance Post's core business. However, they resell prepaid phones from Locus Telecommunications. Locus is a supplier of prepaid cell phone services. Long Distance Post receives a commission for sales on every product sold. Long Distance Post has accurately matched a complimentary product to their current line up through their affiliateship.

Because of their affiliateship, Long Distance Post is able to offer prepaid cell phones and services to their customers. Trying to develop their own brand of prepaid cell phones and services would be costly and time consuming for a small company. As a result, Long Distance Post markets Locus products, creating mutual benefits between Locus and Long Distance Post.

Selecting an Affiliate Program
There are several different types of affiliate programs to be involved in. Most affiliate programs involve simply placing a link, graphic, or banner ad on your web site. Depending on the affiliate program, some will pay per click, while others pay only for referred sales. In the case of Long Distance Post, they are actually selling and distributing the Locus products. It is a bit more hands on then most affiliate programs, but works the same. Long Distance Post still receives a commission for every product sold.

When selecting an affiliate program it helps to make sure the product or site you are endorsing has some sort of related content on your site. For example if you're a web store selling computer parts, becoming an affiliate of a flower delivery company would be useless to your customers. The computer store would receive greater benefit and more sales if they became affiliates of broadband services or VoIP phones. Both of those products are more related to computers, and would be of interest to someone who is browsing your page. In the Long Distance Post example, they have added another telecom service to their lineup.

Locating an affiliate program is an easy process. There are several directories found on the web that list multiple affiliate programs for all industries. This is an easy way for you to compare which companies or products you would like to offer from your site. Also this will enable you to see which programs pay the highest commissions and best match your needs.

Making Money
Affiliate programs do not make money for themselves. Often people place links on their personal web pages expecting to make high commissions each month. However are surprised at how low their commissions checks are. Making money as an affiliate on the Internet takes work. You need to market your site so it will receive traffic for your products. In the case of Long Distance Post, they have optimized their site to respond to prepaid cell phones, Locus Telecommunications and similar keywords.

Becoming a successful affiliate can be a slow difficult process. It is important to take time to read the full details of an affiliate program and learn about the company before just signing up. If you are going to invest your time in marketing their products, it would behoove you to make sure you are doing this for a stable company. Affiliates need to work to make their programs successful; they don't just generate revenue themselves. If they did, everyone would be an affiliate.

Garrett Friedman is a well-known and respected published author of numerous articles on telecom services. More information about telecom services can be found at Long Distance Post, LLC.