OK, I'm an Affiliate. Now What?

Affiliate marketing is an on line marketing tool that you can use in tandem with other marketing tools to increase your exposure. Affiliate marketing is when you promote other's products to your customers and get a commission off any sales that you generate.

Sounds easy? Well it is and it isn't. Just because you are an affiliate of a great product won't make you the big bucks. It has to be a good fit with your customers, you still have to promote it and you are still responsible to your clients to bring them reputable products.

Here are some tips to making your affiliate marketing into the best it can be for you and your customers.

1) Know your market. If you are selling fishing lures and you put up an affiliate link for a travel adventure to the desert, you better have a good reason and tie in or you won't have any results. You must be tuned in to what your clients want and need.

2) Know the product. It is not enough to go find a product with a high sales rate, high commission offering and that sounds good. You must have knowledge of the product so you know if it is a good fit to your niche market. You must know you are offering your clients something that will deliver. If you aren't going to use it, why would they? If it ends up being a dud and you recommended it, your credibility will go down.

3) Know how to promote the items. It is not enough to put the links on your site, mention them once in and email and hope the checks start rolling in. Affiliate marketing has to be part of your overall marketing plan.

-How will these products be part of your product line?

-How long should I promote these items?

-How will I track the success/failure of these offers to my clients?

4) Have realistic expectations. I have clients all the time that are disillusioned with affiliate marketing. They have heard all the hype that someone put up a product and it has been generating $10,000 a month for them ever since. Well that simply is not the norm. It takes time to build a base of customers. If you are just doing affiliate marketing you have to build a great amount of content offerings, just like anything else, it takes work, it takes a plan, and it takes time.

5) Make sure you understand your part of the deal. You should not have to do any order fulfillment, tracking etc. That is the beauty about being an affiliate, you are their marketing arm. There are a few pseudo-affiliate programs that require you to do it all. Make sure you know what you are getting into and that your responsibility to the affiliate program is simply to drive customers their way.

6) Know that you are building your reputation. Don't just put anything on your site as an affiliate. Your customers know, like and trust you. They are looking to you to weed through the bad stuff and deliver the good to them. Have high standards and only recommend the best. If you don't know a lot about it be honest and say something like it was a recommendation to you, you are checking it out and would appreciate feedback from them as well. You are responsible for your recommendations. Take it seriously.

If you keep those things in mind you will be able to have a successful affiliate marketing program. You can generate income promoting other people's products. You can get the best of both worlds for your customers and create joint ventures with some other great business owners like yourself.

Susan Snyder
Founder/CEO buildyourvaskills.com

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