4 Simple Things Beginners Should Know About Affiliate Marketing

Festus Otasowie

The journey to success in Affiliate Marketing starts with equipping yourself as a minimum with the prerequisite knowledge such as the simple Things Beginners Should Know About Affiliate Marketing.

This article describes just the basics about affiliate marketing, types of affiliate marketing, and finally some of the basic pitfalls to avoid as you begin your affiliate marketing journey.

Being a successful marketer requires an understanding of what your role is in the sales process: To create an awareness that attracts leads to a business and an understanding of your relationship with sales which is the desired end product.

And here is a significant difference between marketing and sales: marketing builds awareness and attracts leads to your business. Sales convert those leads into paying customers

Anybody can sell anything to anybody and selling on the web – absolutely no different than selling by mail, in person, or face-to-face with your prospect – the internet is just a more efficient and economical way of making contact

For marketing to be successful:

• You’ve got to captivate their attention.

• You’ve got to appeal to their interests.

• You’ve got to reveal to her how her purchase of your product will benefit them.

• You’ve got to close the sale by causing her to grab their credit card for whatever it is you’re selling.

Knowing how to successfully handle a potential customer is also one of the simple things beginners should know about affiliate marketing.

The first few seconds of the opening encounter with your prospect ultimately affect the success of the presentation and inevitably whether or not a sale is made. Therefore, it’s absolutely critical that your sales presentation radiates enthusiasm and success!

Once a buyer is on your site and is looking at your presentation, your presentation has got to make them feel comfortable; be friendly and believable.

Stimulate their interest in whatever you’re selling by appealing to one of their primordial wants, needs, or problems with a solution.

Simple things beginners need to now about affiliate marketing

Here are some tips and best practices to follow:

• Don’t waste their time with a long or complicated explanation.

• Make your sales presentation flow.

• Anticipate the buyer’s objections. Logically answer them within your presentation.

• Explain all of the irresistible benefits gained from ownership of your product or service.

• Whenever possible, let the buyer see or read proof or testimonials from people who have already bought from you.

• The most important thing you want to do is to create- within your presentation- the fulfillment they’ll have as a result of buying from you.

• Stimulate their imagination.

• Explain how they can use whatever you’re selling to solve their problems or achieve their dreams.

• Invite them to attend the theatre of their own mind.

• Give them a payment button to click on or a simple benefits-packed squeeze page.

Make it as simple and as easy as possible for your prospect to buy from you, extend a generous guarantee, and – most importantly – stand behind it.

The payment button, order agreement, or simple coupon should close the sale for you – that is, if your presentation is well-written and highly compelling; the visitor should see what you’re selling as an immediate solution to one of their immediate wants, needs, or problems!

Too many sites begin with a boring story about the business or seller. “I’m writing this from the most beautiful beach in the world!” or “We’ve found the secret to soft sheets straight out of the dryer.”

While this has been a grand recap of everything taught on this site, there is a hidden message. Want to know one of the best, and easiest, ways to do this?

See also: How To Start Affiliate Marketing Successfully in 5 Simple Steps

Become an Affiliate Marketer

You’ve likely already come across affiliate marketing before, being a citizen of the net!
The problem is that you just may not have realized it for what it was!

Have you ever read a blog post reviewing a product, with a link to it on amazon attached?

How about watching an unboxing video on YouTube with a link to the purchase site in the information window of the video?

My friend, that, is affiliate marketing at its simplest.

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Types Of Affiliate Marketing

There are different types of affiliate marketing, including:

• Pay-per-click
Just as it sounds! These affiliates work in a way much like AdWords on sites and videos. They are paid every time a viewer clicks their link.

• Pay-per-lead
Just as it sounds! These affiliates receive a payment each time a user signs up for an email list, calls in for more information, etc. – basically, every time the company to which your website product or blog is affiliated gets their sales to hook in, the affiliate is paid.

• Pay-per-sale
Just as it sounds! These affiliates receive a payment each time a product is sold, to a visitor referred to the seller from your website, much like commission.

• Two-tier
The user reaps commissions for their own sales, as well as sales for any affiliates they recruit.

• Climbing-tier
The affiliate’s commissions increase as sales volumes through their links increase.

• Recurring
The affiliate receives a set amount each set number of weeks, days, once a month, etc.

Sitewide
The affiliate is paid based on the entirety of the site’s sales. Good deal!

You may also like: 8 Essential Facebook Marketing Tips For Online Business Success

Typical Examples of Affiliate Marketing

As already explained, many people who visit website sites may be unaware of Affiliate marketing at work.

However, most recently, affiliate Marketers are now being mandated to make Affiliates declare to visitors to their sites.

This is required when they may benefit materially from their promotional activity such as product reviews, descriptions, and blog posts that include links to third-party products or services just to name a few.

The goal is to ensure that visitors are of any potential conflict of interest that may arise from the promotional activities of such merchants or promoters.

So, before you become an affiliate, you must ensure that the products you want to promote are genuine and credible.

There are a few places you can expect to come across affiliate marketing:

• Product reviews

• Unboxings

• Case studies

• Tutorials

• Comparisons

• Webinars

• Checklists

• Guides

• How-Tos

• Lists

• Articles

Why are these excellent opportunities?

Because they build confidence in the affiliate’s opinions and expertise!

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Pitfalls to Avoid as a Beginner In Affiliate Marketing

Well, you might be asking yourself – this all sounds great, but how do you start?

The good news is that it is all up to you!

However, there are a few pitfalls to avoid, four of which are listed below.

As you can imagine this is by no means an exhaustive list.

  1. Avoid Sticking to Only One Affiliate Program

Remember, it isn’t illegal to have multiple streams of income! After all, most affiliate program members still undergo other projects to keep themselves up, not limited to full-time jobs.

There is no shame in that!

Having said this, know that there are many affiliate marketing sources and products out there – there is no need to adapt to or stick to one in particular.

2. Do not Fall Prey to Link-Jacking

Be careful! Should your affiliate links be hijacked, you’ll be missing out on all-important commission income as it is stolen right out from underneath your feet!

3. Avoid SPAM (CAN-SPAM)

The CAN-SPAM Act (Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act) outlines U.S. requirements for commercial marketers.

The act was established in 2003, became effective on January 1, 2004, and establishes guidelines and penalties for spammers and companies who advertise in spam emails if the law is violated. Consumers also gain the right to request mailers stop sending unsolicited mail.

In accordance with CAN-SPAM, email primarily used as advertising or to promote a commercial product or service including website content is considered spam.

However transactional or relationship messages that facilitate an agreed-upon transaction or update customers on existing business relationships are exempt from CAN-SPAM provisions.

Nevertheless, no email can include false or misleading routing data.

Each violation of the above provisions is subject to fines of up to $11,000. Deceptive commercial email also is subject to laws banning false or misleading advertising.

4. Know The Penalties for SPAM

Additional fines are provided for commercial mailers who not only violate the rules described above but also:

• “Harvest” email addresses from Websites or Web services that have published a notice prohibiting the transfer of email addresses for the purpose of sending email

• Generate email addresses using a “dictionary attack” – combining names, letters, or numbers into multiple permutations

• Use scripts or other automated ways to register for multiple email or user accounts to send commercial email

• Relay emails through a computer or network without permission – for example, by taking advantage of open relays or open proxies without authorization.

• The law allows the DOJ to seek criminal penalties, including imprisonment, for commercial mailers who do – or conspire to use another computer without authorization and send commercial email from or through it

• Use a computer to relay or retransmit multiple commercial email messages to deceive or mislead recipients or an Internet access service about the origin of the message

• Falsify header information in multiple email messages and initiate the transmission of such messages

• Register for multiple email accounts or domain names using information that falsifies the identity of the actual registrant

• Falsely represent themselves as owners of multiple Internet Protocol addresses that are used to send commercial email messages.

Affiliate Marketing is one way to start an online business

Conclusion

We have attempted to cover some of the basics to get you started with deciding whether or not Affiliate Marketing is a way to start making money online by starting an online business.

Affiliate Marketing is just one of the many ways you can.

For more detailed or additional information about Affiliate Marketing see our Affiliate marketing Guide
We love to hear from you!

Are you considering starting an online business? Have you started an online business and wondering how you can incorporate affiliate marketing?

Use the comment box below to give us your feedback.

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