How To Generate Massive Affiliate Commissions?

Massive Affiliate Sales Commissions Tutorial

5 Critical Factors You Must Consider To Make Massive Affiliate Commissions

How would you like to 'print' money on demand anytime you want?

This is the reality for the thousands who have stumbled upon affiliate marketing. The beauty of affiliate marketing resides in its ability for anyone to make incredible profits without much work, and in as little as 2 weeks.

What does this mean? This means you can literally start from scratch and make quick money online, without first having to create your own products, website, or writing a single ad copy.

In fact affiliate marketing is the most ideal starting point for the new marketers to 'get their feet wet'. It allows them the use other people's time, effort and resources for their own gain while they are further educating themselves for future successes.

This is why I call affiliate marketing the ultimate "Earn as you learn" strategy.

Now as powerful as affiliate marketing is, there are certain critical factors you need to first consider, before jumping in onto any affiliate program.

As not doing so can cost you dearly in lost profits and wasted resources.

=> Critical Factor #1: Determining Your Target Audience

To rake in the big affiliate checks, you must first be able to identify and target your audience.

This is a simple case of giving people what they want but then, many affiliates commit the mistake of offering the wrong product to the wrong crowd.

For example, how many sales do you think you'll make if you promoted copywriting products to an audience interested only in networking opportunities? Not many, if any. Pinpoint your audience to maximize your commissions.

=> Critical Factor #2: Accessing The Quality Of The Affiliate Product

A second mistake many affiliates blunder on is in marketing a product that does not deliver on its promises.

It is always advisable to test the product first before recommending it. Not only will this increase your credibility and sales, it helps you promote better as you can then provide personal testimonials on the product.

=> Critical Factor #3: Existence Of A Sales Letter That Sells

Study the affiliate owner's website and sales copy before even sending any traffic over. Enquire about its conversion rates and visitor values.

A good test is to ask yourself if you would buy the product.

It will be a terrible waste of resources if you would to pay for advertising to a merchant's site, only to discover he or she has poor sales copy which does not sell. Think about it.

=> Critical Factor #4: Availability Of Promotional Materials

Most affiliate programs will provide their affiliates with tools to market with. Simply put, the more tools provided, the more chances of you making the sale.

This is because you can then save time by simply editing the provided materials to your own 'voice' instead of creating an ad from scratch. You can focus instead on the marketing. Similarly, having more tools also equate to more opportunities to get the sales message through effectively.

=> Critical Factor #5: Profitability Of Your Promotion

The final factor you must pay attention to is how much you will be paid, in relation to your promotional efforts. A higher commission percentage can be a huge motivation to place higher focus on a particular product in your total portfolio.

Alternatively seek out products with a higher end pricing or those that offer residual income. You would want to profit exponentially from any effort placed.

The above are just the tip of the iceberg in the entire affiliate marketing game.

If you desire to become a power affiliate and bank in huge checks consistently from affiliate programs, you must further educate yourself with the knowledge required for perpetual affiliate success!

A Pyramid By Any Other Name

"Three Days, Three People, Retire in 30 days!

Make no mistake, People will start BEGGING you to sponsor them in!

Take a look at this Income Projection Chart:

Days add up in a hurry and so does your downline!"

OK people ... I know how tempting this looks but REALITY check time. This is but one example of a number of "wealth generation programs" recently touted online. The idea is that you must find three people who want to join this program, you pay $20 to "benefactor" each of them into the program (for a total "investment" of $60) and you're set for life. Oh, and you have to do it in three days. Each of your three, if they are to remain in the game and thereby derive the same wondrous riches from the program as you, must also find three people, benefactor them into the program (again within three days) and their three must find their three in three days and so on.

And, because non-performers are booted from the program, so the theory goes, the only people getting paid are the ones actively benefactoring in their own recruits, each of whom down the line contributes their "investment" of $60.

THE "PRODUCT"

The product each person gets for their $60 (because this is NOT, of course, a PYRAMID SCHEME) is:

"Software entitled "Building an MLM Empire using the Internet", in which you Own Full Licensed Retail Rights to Market the software. Retail Value $29.95 All Sales Are Final-No Refunds!"

OK, three points on the "product".

First, your investment is $60. The product is worth (let's give them the benefit of the doubt) $29.95. HELLO!? But you get RESELL RIGHTS!, I hear you protest. That makes it more valuable than just the purchase price of the product itself. Oh yeah? Well, you HAVE to be able to sell the product otherwise the whole scheme ... er ... program would be nothing more than a wealth distribution arrangement wouldn't it? And that's against the law, and we couldn't have that.

Second, this is not "software", it's an e-Book.

Third, the title of the e-Book deviously and insidiously implies a relationship between this "wealth creation program" and MLM (multi-level marketing). MLM is a different thing altogether.

For a more detailed explanation of what MLM is and what it is not, read "Not MLM! ... Why ever not?" at (http://www.ahbbo.com/notmlm.html).

'WEALTH CREATION' PROGRAMS

OK, so what about these "wealth creation programs" then? Sounds like a great idea, right? Everybody wins! Well, think about this ... if everyone goes out and gets three people who each have to throw $60 into the pot for their three, everybody up and down the line has effectively contributed $60 and that's all there is in the pot. How do you get more than your $60 back?

Ahah! you cleverly point out, those who don't recruit ... er ... "benefactor in" ... er ... SELL (yeah, that's it, SELL) the "product" to their three gets dropped, don't they, so now the $20 their benefactor contributed for them to join the program is still in the pot but they're not. They've forfeited their investment. THAT'S how we make money.

OK! Very good. I can see you're paying attention.

Just one, teensy little problem with this brilliant plan. It's B.S.. It's a pyramid scheme and it's ILLEGAL.

PYRAMID SCHEMES VS. LEGITIMATE MLM

In her prepared statement to the International Monetary Fund's seminar on "Current Legal Issues Affecting Central Banks" in May 1998, Debra Valentine, General Counsel for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, had this to say about pyramid schemes: "What is striking about these schemes is that while they are very old forms of fraud, modern technology has vastly multiplied their potential for harming our citizens. The Internet in particular offers pyramid builders a multi-lane highway to world-wide recruits in virtually no time.

"What is a Pyramid Scheme and What is Legitimate Marketing? "Pyramid Schemes now come in so many forms that they may be difficult to recognize immediately. However, they all share one overriding characteristic. They promise consumers or investors large profits based primarily on recruiting others to join their program, not based on profits from any real investment or real sale of goods to the public. Some schemes may purport to sell a product, but they often simply use the product to hide their pyramid structure. There are two tell- tale signs that a product is simply being used to disguise a pyramid scheme: inventory loading [recruits are forced to buy more product than they could possibly sell] and a lack of retail sales [sales are made only between people inside the pyramid, not to the public in general - sound familiar?]. ... "[P]yramids are quite seductive because they may be able to deliver a high rate of return to a few early investors for a short period of time. Yet, .. pyramid .. schemes are illegal because they inevitably must fall apart. No program can recruit new members forever. Every pyramid .. scheme collapses because it cannot expand beyond the size of the earth's population. [Footnote 3: "Assume a pyramid scheme in which each person recruits 10 new people. There would be one person at the top, 10 beneath her, 100 beneath them and so forth. The pyramid would involve everyone on earth in just 10 layers of people with one con artist on top. The bottom layer would have more than 4.5 billion people."] When the scheme collapses, most investors find themselves at the bottom, unable to recoup their losses.

"Some people confuse pyramid .. schemes with multilevel marketing. ... [U]nlike pyramid .. schemes, MLM's have a real product to sell. More importantly, MLM's actually sell their product to members of the general public, without requiring these consumers to pay anything extra or to join the MLM system. MLM's may pay commissions to a long string of distributors, but these commissions are paid for real retail sales, not for new recruits."

Now consider how our "wealth distribution program" above works. Which is it, do you think? Pyramid scheme or MLM? Bzzzz ... time's up. All who think it's a classic pyramid go to the top of the class.

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION GUIDELINES

Not surprisingly, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") pays close attention to so-called MLM's that are, in reality, nothing more than pyramid schemes. It regularly prosecutes the promoters of such schemes, obtaining injunctions and orders freezing the assets of the promoters to be applied in redress of victims. If you knowingly participate in a pyramid scheme, you too can be named as a defendant in such an action.

Bear in mind that as a distributor (whether you're participating in a legitimate MLM program or an illegal pyramid scheme), you're legally responsible for the claims you make about the company, its products and business opportunities. It is no defense that you're merely rehashing the same old representations made to you by the company. The FTC can require you to verify the research behind any claims you make.

For more on the subject of representations and your obligation to be able to back them up, read "Not Just Six Lines ... 65 Characters" at (http://www.ahbbo.com/adsftc.html). In addition, if you solicit new distributors, heed the FTC's warning in its Consumer Alert, "The Bottom Line About Multilevel Marketing Plans": "You are responsible for the claims you make about a distributor's earnings potential. Be sure to represent the opportunity honestly and avoid making unrealistic promises. If those promises fall through, remember that you could be held liable."

Finally, here's the FTC's tips for evaluating a multilevel marketing opportunity:

"1. Avoid any plan that includes commissions for recruiting additional distributors. It may be an illegal pyramid. [And, by the way, calling it "benefactoring" won't help. Just a handy hint ...]

"2. Beware of plans that ask new distributors to purchase expensive products and marketing materials. These plans may be pyramids in disguise.

"3. Be cautious of plans that claim you will make money through continued growth of your downline, that is, the number of distributors you recruit. [Don't take this tip out of context - by definition, the more people you have in your downline, the more you'll legitimately make in MLM. What the FTC is saying here is to watch out if the plan rewards you for recruiting per se, rather than paying you a commission on sales of product to the general public generated by your downline.]

"4. Beware of plans that claim to sell miracle products or promise enormous earnings. Ask the promoter to substantiate claims.

"5. Beware of shills - "decoy" references paid by a plan's promoter to lie about their earnings through the plan.

"6. Don't pay or sign any contracts in an "opportunity meeting" or any other pressure-filled situation. Insist on taking your time to think over your decision. Talk it over with a family member, friend, accountant or lawyer.

"7. Do your homework! Check with your local Better Business Bureau and State Attorney General about any plan you're considering - especially when the claims about the product or your potential earnings seem too good to be true. [Don't rely too much on the BBB though - companies pay to be listed with them so they're not as authoritative and independent as they seem. Asking whether they have complaints on file about your particular program is worthwhile, however.]

"8. Remember that no matter how good a product and how solid a multilevel marketing plan may be, you'll need to invest sweat equity as well as dollars for your investment to pay off."

By testing any opportunity against the above tips, you'll go a long way to ensuring that what you're getting yourself into is a legitimate MLM program and not an illegal pyramid.

Probably the best gut check of them all though is the good old "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is". Hmm ... $1.1m in 39 days for an investment of $60 ... somehow, I JUST don't think so ...

Reprinting of this article is welcome! This article may be freely reproduced provided that: (1) you include the following resource box; and (2) you only mail to a 100% opt-in list.

About the Author
Elena Fawkner is editor of the award-winning weekly ezine, A Home-Based Business Online, a down-to-earth publication containing practical home-based and online business ideas, telecommuting job listings, original articles, free e-books and much more. She also runs the A Home-Based Business Online website at at (http://www.ahbbo.com) You can subscribe to her newsletter at the site.

Affiliate Tips for Top 20% of Affiliate Marketers

No doubt you've heard of the 80/20 rule which states that 20 percent of affiliates generate 80% of affiliate income, and conversely, remaining 80 percent of affiliates generate only 20 percent of all income for most affiliate programs.

There are ten basics that will put your affiliate marketing in the top 20 percent of affiliate earnings. Ten suggestions that will transform your affiliate income from a trickling creek that barely covers your hosting fees, to a roaring river of extra disposable income.

TOP AFFILIATE MARKETERS DO MOST OF THESE TEN ITEMS

1. Top affiliate marketers cloak web site links

   Cloaking affiliate links should not be necessary, but is. Oddly many site visitors refuse to visit your links if they see an affiliate code appended to the URL when they hover their mouse over a link on your web page.

   Sidebar: Example affiliate URL to see what I mean , hover your mouse over this link and then look in the status bar at the bottom of your browser. Then hover over this link to see the same URL cloaked. The affiliate ID is still embedded, but it doesn't show in the browser status bar. Use your browser "View Source" command to view the source of this page or copy the URL from your address bar and visit our Source Code Viewer to see how this works. Clever eh?

   Sometimes visitors will type the affiliate domain directly to the browser address bar while removing your affiliate ID from the URL. To short circuit this odd behavior, simply cloak the URL. How? Visit this Link Cloaking Tool:
   http://WebpositionAdvisor.com/tools/link_cloaker.php

2. Top affiliate marketers write & distribute articles

   Writing articles about your market niche is essential to gain reputation as an expert in your field. But the biggest benefit comes not just from writing those articles, but from having those articles published by other web site owners and ezine publishers. Your article gains you both reputation and links from other web sites from the resource box appended to the end of each article. Here are major article distribution sites.

   http://yahoogroups.com/group/free-content/
   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aabusiness/
   http://www.goarticles.com
   http://www.ideamarketers.com

3. Top affiliate marketers focus on a market niche

   Filling a web site with content reflecting a narrowly focused product or service niche is a well known method of gaining web traffic in your area of specialty. An excellent resource that can help you determine relevant and focused areas to fill your site with is called NicheBot. They offer innovative tools to research and pinpoint market niches for your web site based on the WordTracker Database and Google.
   http://www.nichebot.com

4. Top affiliate marketers use autoresponder series

   Autoresponders are incredibly valuable tools that allow you to send a timed series of email messages to those that sign up for them. Most often those autoresponders are sent through a third party provider. Some of the top providers are Sendfree.com and aweber.com, for a tutorial covering autoresponder basics, visit it here.

5. Top affiliate marketers create web pages to pre-sell

   Creating either testimonial pages or review pages that discuss and pre-sell the product or service you are affiliated with is the best method of getting increased orders for your chosen affiliate programs. Many programs actually provide either an article or recommended text to sell their products for you and allow reproduction of those articles with your links embedded.

6. Top affiliate marketers gather email addresses

   The best affiliates collect email addresses on their web site by offering free reports via the above mentioned autoresponders or by giving away ebooks or through newsletter signup forms. The best use all of these methods or more to build their list of email addresses. This also allows you to contact potential customers that would otherwise never see your site again after clicking away to the affiliate program web site.

7. Top affiliate marketers advertise SOMEWHERE

   Depending on your market niche you should advertise using PPC and/or ezine advertising. Some categories of Pay-per-click can be prohibitively expensive, but advertising somewhere is all but mandatory to gain substantial additional traffic to your site. There are some great bargains in ezine advertising and some less popular PPC engines other than Yahoo's Overture and Google's Adwords. Try 7search, Kanoodle and FindWhat for lower Bids than the big boys of PPC.

8. Top affiliate marketers optimize for search engines

   Search engine optimization is becoming more complex as more and more webmasters participate, but the basics applied to your site can increase visibility dramatically over time. The most critical of the many SEO techniques is to use title tags that reflect individual PAGE content. Many webmasters write a master title tag and apply that site-wide. This is the worst thing you could do for search engine ranking. Learn more SEO:
   http://SearchEngineOptimism.com/SEO_Tutorial/

9. Top affiliate marketers give away ebooks or freebies

   Everyone knows by now that giving something away is a great traffic generator and allows you to gather email addresses to allow contact of potential customers at a later date. This strategy is employed by EVERY successful web-based company at one time or another. Think of all the free things YOU have collected online over time. Screensavers, software, ebooks, discount codes, toolbars, white papers. They work!

10. Top Affiliate marketers have their own mailing lists

    The best of affiliate marketers have their own newsletter or ezine and gather email addresses on their site to build their list of subscribers. Having this list allows regular contact with potential customers interested in your site, your product and your market niche. If you don't write your own material or think you can't produce weekly content, there are hundreds of authors out there that will gladly product articles for you. The article distribution lists provide free content and ghost Writers provide high quality content for a fee.

If you implement ALL the above techniques, you are guaranteed to become one of the top affiliate marketers on the web. Then you can create your own product telling everyone how YOU did it, create your own affiliate program and have hundreds of us selling for you!