Basic Questions for a Successful Online Affiliate Business: Part One
Ask anyone who runs an online affiliate business and they will agree on one thing – people use the Internet to search for the things they want. Whether those things include physical products like hard-to-get species of tulip bulbs, informational reports on medical conditions or even customizing Jeep Blazers, entrepreneurs can form an alliance to market, promote and encourage sales. Their reward is commission checks that can be minor or substantial depending on the type and volume of transactions.
Since there are literally hundreds of affiliate programs, starting and building an online affiliate business depends on answering several questions. Here is a review of the most commonly asked questions and their answers.
What Do I Promote?
Start with what you have an interest in. Since online customers buy from someone they trust, you need to identify what products you can honestly use, review and promote. For example, if you love purple Gucci purses, it will be easy to share that passion and enthusiasm with another person through a pre-sales page. If you hate purses and think they should be banned, your conflict to sell them will get picked up and resulting sales and commissions will be sparse.
The second part of that answer is finding out if people are actually looking for what you like. You can look at keyword tools like NicheBot, WordTracker or ThemeZoom to help you analyze if anyone is actually typing those keyword phrases into search engines like Google and Yahoo.
What Does It Cost to Become an Online Affiliate?
Will it cost you anything to join? Most affiliate programs being offered today are absolutely free of charge. So why settle for those that charge you some dollars before joining. You may have to qualify for affiliate networks, like Commission Junction, and comply with their terms of service. Once you do, you will have access to a wide range of affiliate products to promote.
When Do I Get Paid?
This question is absolutely vital. You are working an online affiliate business to generate profits and revenues. Find out when the program issues commission checks. Different programs and networks have different payment schedules and commission thresholds. Some programs cut checks or transfer electronic funds to your bank account once a month, every quarter. Others will pay when a minimum commission total is reached like $25 or $100. Select the one that is suited to your payment time choice.
How Much Do the Clicks Earn?
The common measure of earning power is the EPC – earnings per 100 clicks. This is an average of how much people earn for every 100 times an affiliate link is visited. For example, if you want to sell garden tools and you find two garden supply sites. ABC Gardening Supply has an EPC of $20.00 and XYZ Garden Tools has an EPC of $6.00, you’ll earn more with ABC Garden Supply, on average. Know the percentage of commission you receive. 20 percent is better than 10 percent. The rule of thumb is that higher commission percentage and EPC are the first criteria for selecting an affiliate program that makes dollars, not cents.
Since there are many different products to promote, it does make sense to have a system of tools to build and promote portals and blogs for an online affiliate business. Portalfeeder offers a suite of tools, training, technology and community to speed up the process and update it regularly.
Do yourself a favor and check out Portalfeeder for yourself or you can read my detailed review by clicking here.
Dave Pipitone, www.portal-profits.com