Friday, May 29, 2009

What's Affiliate Marketing? -- Answers You Need To Know

What's affiliate marketing? That's a question that's often asked by those who've heard the term, but aren't actually sure what it is. Affiliate marketing is a very simple concept. It requires you to sell a product through a link provided by the merchant. When you make a sale you're paid a commission. To run an affiliate program, you would need to have a website where you can post the link of the merchant.

You Need To Work On It

The concept is simple and many affiliates do in fact, earn a five figure income from it. Some people might've told you that all you need to do is set up a website, and post the link on your website. Then simply sit back and wait for the money to roll in. However, the reality is little bit different. It's true that you don't need a high school diploma or a college degree to become an affiliate. But you do need to put in some effort to succeed as an affiliate. So let's ask the question again: What's affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is indeed an easy way to earn an excellent income, compared to a regular, everyday job. However, you need to devote at least 4 to 5 hours everyday to your affiliate program. After you've joined an affiliate program, your first task is to get people to your site, and then direct the traffic to the merchant's site where they can make the purchases. You can't just have a website and hope that massive amounts of traffic would just flow in. That would be great, but it's not unlikely to happen. This answers another aspect of the question: What's affiliate marketing?

Choosing A Product
A proper understanding of affiliate marketing will tell that you can't just select any product and become an affiliate for it. You need to choose a product that has a market. Moreover, you need to go for a product that you know something about. This is important because you need to write articles on the product, and submit them to various article directories. This will help you get the targeted traffic you need and want to your website.

Your Website

Another thing that you need to keep in mind while looking for answers to the question: What's affiliate marketing, is that you'd need to work on your website. You'd need to work on the layout and also on the content. Looks are important because that's what'll hook the visitors. Rich and easy-to-read content will entice the visitors to browse through your site. If they like what they see and read, they'll click on the link which would lead them to the merchant's site. You would also need to work on getting your site in the top rankings on all the major search engines as well.

So now when someone asks, "What's affiliate marketing?", you can say to them that it's a great way to earn an excellent income, but they'd have to put in a good deal of effort to be successful at it.

Article Source: http://www.thecoolestinfo.com

Charles McDuffie is an author and entrepreneur for ASB Enterprises. xrl.us/oxmq8>Click here to learn exactly what affiliate marketing is all about.

Submitted By ArticleUnited.com

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