When it comes to promoting affiliate programs we all follow a certain defined process. We first go to google.com ,type affiliate programs in the search field. When the results get displayed we look for “high paying” affiliate programs. By “high paying” I mean those who pay more than 25% commissions.

Then we visit each and every website listed and join the programs becuse they are free! to join. We put all sorts of banners and text ads on our links page and expect to see a check in our mail box the next morning.

Well, I am here going to reveal a very different way of promoting affiliate programs. Let us revise the process one-by-one.

Step 1> Search for affiliate programs with your favorite search engine. Look for only those affiliate programs whcich have products which interests you. For example if you are interested in “radio controlled airplanes” then look for such products first. Don’t start with promoting “herbal shampoos” or “yoga cd’s” just because they pay 40% commissions.

Since you already know a little about rc planes it wiil be much easier for you to promote various aspects of the product.

So when selecting the affiliate prgram keep in mind the following sequence

a)Product which you know about or are interested in. b)Quality of the product. To know the quality of the  product it is advisavle to buy the product yourself  first. c)The organisation associated with the product. Look for  the promotional material they are giving to affiliates.  This shows the confidence of the manufacturer in their own  product. d)Commission structure. Some webmasters provide 2 tier commission structure. Some have a threshhold amout before  the affiliates get paid. Here is a nice place to sart with. This is a list which contains 50 affiliate Programs That Pay AT LEAST 50% commissions.

Step 2> Design a simple landing page to “presell” the product before sending the visitors to actual sales page. Now this step is extremely imporant. Why do you to presell the product ?. This is because this is internet. No one knows you here or has seen you personally.

Normally when someone buys from the internet he is going to look for similar 4-5 products before he gets to the final decision. Here if he comes to your affiliate landing page it becomes much easier for him to compare the product you want to promote with similar 4-5 products in the category.

The landing page you have designed can have testimonials, which you can borrow from the sales page. It can also contain your own experience about the product. You can use before or after situations for describing the benefits of the product. You can use photographs of yourself using the product successfully. This adds instant credibility to the product you want to promote.

Step 3>When the visitors reach your landing page you must have a system to capture their names and email addresses. Because as I said earlier there are many people who look for similar 4-5 products before buying. By capturing email addresse you can “follow up” your subscribers later on using newsletters or product features using email autoresponders.

The best way to capture email addresses is to provide a free gift related to the product. This free gift can be an eBook written by you or many webmasters already have an ebook written for the affiliates. SO again this is a very importan tpoint, join only those programs where you will find a decent promitional material already prepared for the affiliates.

1. by:                 Tal Fighel

   If you ever had the desire to start your own online internet business from home, you may have never heard the word “affiliate programs” before. If you did come across this word before, you may also have found the affiliate program review opportunities available that are online are overwhelming. So Where do you begin? Affiliate Programs – Know how Affiliate programs may be the easiest online business to start running. Why? With any online business you must have a product or service to sell. First you must create this product or service and then you must be able to fill orders or find people who will sell it for you for a hefty commission. Selling your own product or service also means creating a website, learning how to write ad copy, setting up a marketing plan, being able to accept payments online and obviously doing the work. If you’re selling a physical product then you will need to make or buy the item, package it and pay for shipping costs. If you provide a service than you will likely have to start by doing free jobs to build your credibility and then when you are charging for your service you are still limited by how much work you can actually handle. The magic of affiliate programs Starting with an affiliate program is a great way to get started in the online business world. In fact there are even some ‘Super Affiliates’ who are making a nice and comfortable full time incomes from affiliate programs. So, what exactly are affiliate programs? Affiliate programs allow you to sell another company’s service or product and make a commission on every sale or lead. You do not even need to build a website, process the order, ship the product to the person, or anything like that. Your only job is to drive traffic (customers) to your affiliate link and hope that they click on it and buy the product. An affiliate link is a special URL code that will identify customers coming to the company’s site from your advertising. It will likely be the website address with a code attached to the end. Some affiliate programs also have tiers. That means if someone who is interested in SELLING the product comes through your link and signs up you will also get a small percentage of THEIR earnings. This is also called internet network marketing. How do you choose the right program? Try to determine if people are buying or looking to buy that product or service online. Is it cheaper or more expensive. There are many sources for finding that information including free ones such as the Overture keyword tool. When you have found an area that is popular then type the subject along with ‘affiliate program’ into your search engine and see which programs have services or products for that area. You can also use an affiliate program review directory. When you have found a program that looks interesting you should read the terms of the program. Make sure that payouts are not based on a high commission earning or you may never see your money. Also try to choose programs with high commission rates. Often you will find ebooks and downloadable software has the highest rates as there is no physical product to make or ship. If you are satisfied with the terms then you need to sign up – usually a simple process. Starting your marketing efforts The reason affiliate programs are so wonderful for beginners and starters is that you only need to focus on marketing it and not making the actual product itself. Many affiliate programs have information on how to market and give you tools such as solo ads, product feeds and more. The Plug In Profit Site is exactly what an affiliate program should be like. It has all the right tools to marketing online such as writing articles, creating pay-per-click campaigns, commenting in online forums etc. I totally recommend it: http://www.talfighel.com/pluginprofitsite.htmlCopyright 2005 Tal Fighel About the author:    Tal Fighel has several websites dedicated to helping people earn money online, make money at home, and make money online. He is a great mentor and can give you the right tools to make money online here: http://www.talfighel.comhttp://www.talfighel.com/affiliate-program-review.html