When you begin searching the internet you will be amazed at how easy it is to find affiliate marketing programs. The real question is, “How do you find RELEVANT affiliate marketing programs”. This task is not always as easy as it sounds.

Basic Search Engine Queries
One of the easiest ways in which to find relevant affiliate programs is of course to fire some basic searches into your search engine of choice. For example, if you plan to promote Oak Furniture then searching for ‘Oak Furniture Affiliate Program’ may yield some relevant results. However, not all merchants offer direct affiliate programs — many will only work with affiliate networks because of the time and effort involved in recruiting, assessing, approving and managing affiliates. From your perspective, managing separate relationships with multiple merchants may also prove to be time consuming.

Sign Up To Affiliate Networks
Affiliate Window, Tradedoubler, Paid On Results, Webgains and Commission junction are among some of the larger and more popular affiliate networks available in the UK. By joining one or more of these networks, you instantly have access to a wealth of relevant affiliate programs. Most of the networks have their own search facilities so that you can search and filter by advert category or keywords, by commission structure or indeed by merchant name. This enables you to quickly trawl through all of the available programs to find the most suitable match for your site.

Further Assessment Criteria
Consider your Audience – The best way to know what affiliate programs will work is to think as a consumer. What could they be searching for? There are plenty of keyword tools out there, not least of which is the keyword suggestion tool within Google’s pay-per-click program AdWords. Type a keyword in here and Google will show you related searches including volume and the degree of competition for each of them (competition here being the number of PPC advertisers, not the number of natural search results). Once you know what people actually search for, you can find merchants that have products relevant to those keywords. This also helps in choosing relevant text or banner links for the program or programs in question.

Believe in the products you are promoting – There is nothing worse than someone trying to sell something when they don’t really believe in it, or endorse it. Promoting quality products or services will get people coming back to your site for more and return business is a key factor no matter what business you are in. If you can get people to review the products or merchants then even better. This user generated content (UGC) will be unique to your site which is helpful for the search engines and consumers alike. Customers are far more likely to go on to the supplier and buy something if they have read through a realistic and truthful review.

Join a number of programs – It’s never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket. Join multiple affiliate networks and promote multiple programs / merchants. This not only gives you both a broader spread of products and keywords but, in providing a wider choice to the consumer, should help with conversions. If a consumer sees a ‘critical mass’ of products in a given category, he or she is less likely to feel the need to check elsewhere.

Consider program earnings – Many of the networks and indeed some of the direct programs will provide data as to conversion rates, earnings per 100 or per 1000 visitors and so forth. Use this data in assessing the best programs to promote.

Consider branding and confidence – Whilst major brands could be argued to convert more readily because of the higher inherent consumer confidence, commission levels may be lower to reflect this. Equally, the larger the brand the more restrictive the merchant’s brand bidding policy is likely to be which may constrain the success of any PPC campaign you choose to run. Major brands are also likely to fare better in their own right in the natural search results for both brand and product related keywords and consumers may have ‘brand fatigue’ having already seen the major offerings by the time they hit your site — so it really is a balancing act. A popular strategy is to combine programs from both major brands and new entrants / lesser-known players. The presence of the household names on your site inspires confidence whilst allowing you greater latitude in your search marketing efforts and the ability to direct traffic to better earning programs.

Other Key Tips
Provide a website and not a billboard – It’s a good idea to promote a variety of products but you don’t want to overwhelm your site visitors with a whole host of annoying, flashing banners or graphical links. Your adverts need to be effectively transparent with the content of your site guiding the audience towards the affiliate ads and links. More often than not, if a site is plastered with confusing adverts with no real strategy then the visitor will leave without reading a thing. Remember that valuable, unique content is critical to any affiliate website.

Generate traffic – What use are the relevant programs without the relevant consumers? We’ve already mentioned that driving traffic towards your site is a key objective for any online business. Don’t just work at building a site based around its links; base it around your reader community and their likely search terms. Build up a user base that is likely to return. This can be achieved in many ways, most of which we cover elsewhere here at lammo.net.

Further Affiliate Marketing Programs Information

Backend Marketing – More Profits for You – You`re in business to make sales, right? So why not take the extra steps
to get as many sales as you possibly can? I`m talking about `backend
sales`.

Most businesses focus on front-end sales, that`s normal, but what most
businesses fail to see is that it`s the backend sales where the most money
can be made.

Having a good assortment of backend products means you can constantly
market new products to your clients expanding your business a lot further.

Even if you have come up with a `miracle` product that gets you tons of
instant money, it will only bring in money for a limited time period. You
can have a thousand customers who buy your $50 product that makes you
$50,000, and that`s great for awhile, but your profit on that one product
will diminish over time. You need to keep the momentum going with backend
sales.

No matter what type of business you are in, or whether you market your
products online or offline, the backend offers are the ones that determine
whether you are going to make simply marginal profits or staggering ones.

But don`t confuse `backend` with an `upsell`, they`re not the same. An
up-sell means suggesting a higher priced product or service for a customer
considering a purchase. The products or services you provide your
customers with after the initial sale are referred to as `backend`.

Backend products can be your own or they can be things like Private label
rights or Master Resell Rights products, in fact both of these work very
well as backend products because of the `how to` content they provide.

Here`s an example of how a backend sale would benefit you…

Let`s suppose you have an information product that you bought resell
rights to for $98 and you want to resell the product for $37. You then
run an ad for $200 and you make 10 sales.

10 sales is $370 minus $98 = $272 minus the $200 ad = your profit $72

Without having applied the `backend` concept, your net profit would only
have been $72 for 10 sales. However, if you offer these 10 customers with
a backend product or service, which sells for $150 and let`s say only 30%
of these customers purchase, you will make another $450 ($150 X 3
customers). Overall, you will make a profit of $522 ($450 + $72).

So even if you do not make much profit from your initial sale, you can
completely make it up with your `backend` sale.

Remember the saying `there`s gold in your list`? This refers to marketers
who have created multi-million dollar empires by selling, not similar
things to different customers, but different things to the same list. All
wise email marketers make good use of their lists with backend sales,
that`s because it`s often easier selling to an exising customer than it is
to a new one.

Methods for promoting the `back end` sale.

Work out your backend marketing strategy by suggesting a product that aids
in the performance of a product your customer has already purchased from
you. The key to higher profits is to recommend a product that has better
performance than the one just bought …it might be more expensive but it
should be even better.

I think Amazon is a good example of how backend sales work. When you`re
shopping for a book they display related books. You might even like the
suggestion and go for both the books, even though you set out to buy just
one.

Here are some promotion ideas…

-Use your `thank you` page of your website endorsing a backend sale or try
mentioning the back end item along with the purchase of the actual product
and add an attractive discount.

-If you use a thank you email when a product is purchased, include a
promotion for your backend product(s). A thank you is always good business
etiquette so why not use it to its full potential.

-A great idea for new customers would be to give them a gift item along
with their purchased products. Use this opportunity for back end
endorsements as well.

-Reward regular customers with new products special promotions. Do this
with an offer that allows loyal customers to buy them with a discount
before they are available to all.

-Your website should contain an area for user up dates for things like
product updates, new items, bulletins and special offers. This is another
excellent place for promoting your back end promotion to regular
customers.

-Your newsletter or bulletin should always include back end goods as well
as your latest website updates. Keep your newsletter content innovative
and novel. This keeps your customers interested in your site and your
offers.

- Do you sell electronic items that are downloadable? Try including links
to other related electronic items and back end goods for higher revenue.

If you have been developing a line of your own products, backend marketing
can be an easy way to increase your profits. Follow it up with good `after
sale` services. You could also get into a partnership with a company that
can ably provide you with good backend products.

Choosing Backend products

Before even choosing your backend products, be sure that your primary
product is a quality one. No backend strategy will work if you offer your
customers junk, so take care to offer products or services that reinforce
your customers confidence that their needs are of the utmost importance to
you.

When recommending backend products or services it works well to select
things that somehow aid your customers with the purchases they have
already made.

For example, if you just sold a customer a car cleaning kit, turn around
and offer a discounted set of `chamois` or a `how to` manual that offers
`secrets to finding a good car mechanic`, or something of that nature.

Don`t underestimate the power of backend selling. If your primary product
provides you with 20% of your profit, proper backend marketing can bring
in 50-% – 80% of your business profits.  
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