According to emarketer.com, online sales are predicted to hit 26.2 billion this holiday season. Thats over 8 billion dollars per month, not including travel, finance or ticket sales. A fair chunk of that will be earned through affiliates - who will be paid accordingly. Heres the shocker.
98% of affiliates earn little or nothing. According to AffTrack CEO Scott McNulty, 2 percent of affiliates make 98 percent of the commissions.Wendy Salomon, Vice President of Account Management for LinkShare said about 20% of affiliates actually do any good business for a given company.The Internet Affiliate Marketing Association estimates that fewer than 5 percent of Internet affiliates earn over $100 a month.For the parent companies, when 2% of the affiliates are already making 98% of the sales, its not cost effective to hand hold the 98% that earn 2% of the sales. So, its up to you to learn what works. They're not going to teach you. Checklist for Success; The following seven strategies are used by the majority of super affiliates. How many of them do you use? Check off the strategies you use to see where you could improve your results. _____ 1. Super Affiliates choose their market first, their products second. Whether you choose to sell dog products, kids products, or health products doesn't matter. What matters is that you choose your market first, and your products second, based on your chosen market. Otherwise, you risk ending up looking like an online flea market. When choosing products, make sure they pay a viable commission, too. It's pretty hard to make a substantial income if you only earn pennies per sale. _____ 2. Super Affiliates know their market Many affiliates fail because they don't know anything about their market. For example, if you sell internet marketing products, but you've never sold anything online, can you really compete with people that have and do? Maybe you should sell something else first to learn how its done? _____ 3. Super Affiliates have a website and domain name based on their market. Content drives sales. You may be able to get away with a blog, or at least start with one, but you need a web presence. An affiliate link, itself, with no web presence just doesn't say youre serious about building a business and making sales online. Hobby effort equals hobby results. Fun, but no money. _____ 4. Super Affiliates mask or cloak affiliate links on their website. Its estimated that 80% of unmasked links will be stripped of your affiliate id and you'll never get the sale. Unmasked links are great branding for the parent company, but don't do much to help you make sales. Too many people will just replace your id with theirs, and you've lost the sale. _____ 5. Super Affiliates build a mailing list or other conversion system. Almost no one buys the first time they see a product. A mailing list is the easiest way to achieve repeat contact. If you don't want a mailing list, you need some other method of achieving repeat contact with your visitors or you'll have nothing but hit and run traffic - and little or no sales. _____ 6. Super Affiliates write and distribute articles and product reviews The number one reason that super affiliates sell as much as they do is that they are credible in their industry. Writing articles and reviews can offer that credibility. Of course, if you offer the thumbs up to lousy products once too often, you'll lose credibility just as fast. _____ 7. Super Affiliates promote and strive to become known in their chosen market. You don't make any money being invisible. Super affiliates spend 75% of their time promoting and marketing their websites they don't do it by cramming affiliate links down peoples throats at forums and blogs. They promote their content, and exude personality and expertise in their chosen market. As retailers rake in millions a day over the remainder of 2005, will you be earning a substantial income? Or will you be left wondering why affiliate programs don't work for you? |
