Sunday, June 14, 2009

What Is Affiliate Marketing? An Affiliate Marketing Beginners' Guide

By Chris Denver

The term "Affiliate marketing" crops up all over the internet at the moment. It seems that it's the latest big thing in online money making and there's always someone trying to get involved with it in some way or another, so what is affiliate marketing, Is it just another flash-in-the pan thing, and does it actually work?

Affiliate marketing means marketing someone else's product for them and taking a cut of the profit whenever you send them a customer who turns into a sale. You may not have heard about affiliate marketing until recenlty, but it's been around for many years now and there are many affiliate marketers who have been making a very tidy income for a long time now.

It's very possible for you or I to set up an online affiliate marketing business and be making a very good living with a relatively short period of time. Don't let this fool you into thinking that it's an easy ride though - you're going to have to learn the ropes well. Affiliate marketing is a very competitive arena these days and, whilst success is within anyone's reach, it's not without it's pitfalls.

Digital products are commonly affiliate marketed for several reasons. They take the form of download-able ebooks, video, audio or combined media courses, so they're very easy to sell instantly online. Because they're purely digital, they also have very large profit margins, meaning that the person who sells and distributes the product can offer much larger commission rates - 75% percent commission on the whole selling price isn't unusual for digital products!

When people ask "What is affiliate marketing?" they often learn about the affiliate programs of various digital products first, and this can indeed be a very good place to start. However, physical products can also be very profitable and shouldn't be overlooked when considering an affiliate marketing campaign.

As I mentioned, affiliate marketing isn't as easy as it used to be to get into and make money with. This is mainly down to the large amount of competition. However, it's still easily within your reach - you just need to learn the right techniques and methods, and avoid the confusing (and often just plain incorrect) advice that plagues the internet. Learn the right ways to implement affiliate marketing and don't become one of the many who try it, fail once, and give up forever.

To get started with affiliate marketing, you should find a very good affiliate marketing study program. This is easier said than done, as there are many bogus ebooks and courses out there, which profess to be the next big affiliate or interet marketing mecca, but never actually deliver. When it's time to buy study materials, be very wary.

So, what is affiliate marketing all about? In a nutshell, affiliate marketing is a great way to make money online - it allows you the freedom to work from anywhere, take more free time and be your own boss. That said, it isn't as easy to get into as many people would have you believe. As long as you're careful to do your research, you can make very good money as an affiliate marketer.

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