A network marketing affiliate program is a partnership between a merchant who has a product he or she wants to sell to as many people as possible and one or more entrepreneurs who have agreed to promote the product on their websites or to their email lists for a commission.
The people promoting the products for a commission are called affiliates because by promoting the product they are affiliating themselves with the merchant and his or her products.
There are huge benefits for both parties with this arrangement.
The merchant gains by having a large number of people selling the product for him.
Look at it this way, what would you rather do, sell 10 products for $100 each or sell 100 for $50 each? When it comes to digital products most merchants are more than happy to offer a 50% or higher commission in order to attract as many affiliates as possible.
The reason is simple.
The higher the commission is the more attractive the agreement becomes for potential affiliates.
With physical products the commission is usually substantially lower because of the manufacturing, storage and handling costs.
The affiliate gains because she doesn't have to go to the trouble of creating a product and sale page or worry about setting up a merchant account to collect the money.
All she needs to do is put an ad on her website, blog or newsletter and wait for the checks to come in.
That sounds simple, but the majority of affiliates make little or no money because they go about it all wrong.
First of all you need to find a product that appeals to the type of person that comes to your website.
There is no use promoting a dog training course if your site is about allergies.
Second you need to get qualified people to your website.
By qualified I mean people that are actually interested in buying the product.
Another mistake they make is to make outlandish claims about the product they are promoting.
People aren't naive and if they see a review that is an obvious sales pitch most often they will leave.
For those that are willing to spend the time learning the ropes and doing then actually working at it network affiliate marketing can be a very lucrative home business.
The people promoting the products for a commission are called affiliates because by promoting the product they are affiliating themselves with the merchant and his or her products.
There are huge benefits for both parties with this arrangement.
The merchant gains by having a large number of people selling the product for him.
Look at it this way, what would you rather do, sell 10 products for $100 each or sell 100 for $50 each? When it comes to digital products most merchants are more than happy to offer a 50% or higher commission in order to attract as many affiliates as possible.
The reason is simple.
The higher the commission is the more attractive the agreement becomes for potential affiliates.
With physical products the commission is usually substantially lower because of the manufacturing, storage and handling costs.
The affiliate gains because she doesn't have to go to the trouble of creating a product and sale page or worry about setting up a merchant account to collect the money.
All she needs to do is put an ad on her website, blog or newsletter and wait for the checks to come in.
That sounds simple, but the majority of affiliates make little or no money because they go about it all wrong.
First of all you need to find a product that appeals to the type of person that comes to your website.
There is no use promoting a dog training course if your site is about allergies.
Second you need to get qualified people to your website.
By qualified I mean people that are actually interested in buying the product.
Another mistake they make is to make outlandish claims about the product they are promoting.
People aren't naive and if they see a review that is an obvious sales pitch most often they will leave.
For those that are willing to spend the time learning the ropes and doing then actually working at it network affiliate marketing can be a very lucrative home business.
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