Affiliate marketing is simply making recommendations for products or services you have used and liked. The company whose product you recommend will pay you a percentage. The customer does not pay a higher price, and sometimes they get a special discount for purchasing. If you have been reading any of the other blog posts here, you already know that my aim here is to help you take your blog from idea to profit. By adding affiliate ads on the page of a blog promoting it, you will earn a comission on any sale made through the link in your blog or if they click on an ad and make a purchase.
The way this system works is that you find a company whose product or service you like. Then you check to see if they have an affiliate program. I was amazed at how many companies have affiliate programs. Amazon is one of the big ones. They have an interesting program that I will desribe in detail later. When you are on a website, scroll down to the footer to see if they have an affiliate program. Watch this short video. I have to beg your patience, the audios starts before the video starts. It demonstrates where you can find that information. If you don’t find it, simply call or contact them and ask.
As I described in the video, once you find the program, there will be a form you will have to fill out to apply to the program. That form will ask for the usual information about you, but it will also require your social security number. That was an immediate red flag for me. I admit that in the beginning I did not give that information. Some companies will allow you to join without giving them that information, however, they won’t pay you the commissions your earn until you do. They also will require a W-9 filled out and faxed or mailed to them for their files. It is all required by the IRS.
You are building a business.
I have to take just a minute to talk about this, because I am a skeptical person by nature. Many people are making a good living doing affiliate marketing. It is their business, and it has to be treated like a business. If you are here, I am assuming you are at least curious about earning an income online. Whether you are intending it to be full or part time, working online is your business.
I owned a corporate catering company for ten years. I had a CPA do all my tax preparation, and a bookkeeper to do my bookkeeping. It was my business, and following the law was a big piece of it. Keeping accurate books, paying my taxes in a timely manner was just part of owning a business. Now I am working online. Some of what I do is different, I work with a computer instead of an oven, but the bookkeeping and compliance things are the same. It is my business. Remember, I am trying to help you build a business. Make sure that from the very beginning you put yourself in that mindset.
The companies you do affiliate marketing for are businesses, and payment of affiliate earnings will be reported to the IRS. That is why you are required to provide that information to them. You are becoming an independent contractor working as a “free lance” sales person for them. You are just doing that online, on your schedule. One of the reasons the companies are paying affiliate commissions is that your direct customers to them, and it is becoming more effective than other advertising they may do.
Find affiliate products
There are companies that specialize in managing affiliate programs for thousands of products. You can either create products and add them to their program for other affiliates to promote, or you can promote others products. You can do both, but for the purposes of this post, I will concentrate on just introducing you to a few of the big ones. I am gong to just give you a list and you can take a look at them.
ClickBank - they have over 10,000 digital products. You can get their information by clicking on this link. This company has a great reputation, but you need to know that your first payment is held until you have made five sales with different credit cards or methods of payment to insure that you are not violating the rules about not collecting commissions on products for yourself.
Amazon – they have a huge selection of products. Since they are a household name, you have a trust level already established. It is for many the shopping place of choice. One of the great advantages is that once someone clicks through to Amazon through your affiliate link, you will get a percentage of the total amount they spend with Amazon while on the website through the link you provided. You can sign up here for their program .
Commission Junction – The largest affiliate network. Join CJ.com
ShareaSale – I really like this one, I made my first affiliate sale with them,ahhh. They have a large merchant base and you can see your sales as they happen practically. You can join their program here
Linkshare - LinkShare has signed on some of the most prestigious and well-known brands in the world including Wal-Mart, Macy’s, Clinique, OfficeDepot, Apple iTunes, and hundreds more! You can join here.
Well, that is an explanation and a little demonstration or what affiliate marketing is and how it works. You can take a little time to check out the above programs. There are lots more, but this will get your started.
I promised you that as I build this website, I will be doing some of the things I suggest you do. You can see that I placed an ad on the sidebar of this page. It is for a great seminar being held in August. Several of the people I have been learning from will be instructors. I am planning on going to this seminar. You can see that the highlighted link here in the blog is a text link to it, and the ad in the sidebar speaks for itself. If you want to learn from some of the top names in affiliate marketing, this might be something you would be interested in. Clicking on the ad or the link will take you to the sales page for the event, but if you wait awhile, another box will show up. They are now offering free access to some of the training seminars that are currently taking place.
The way this system works is that you find a company whose product or service you like. Then you check to see if they have an affiliate program. I was amazed at how many companies have affiliate programs. Amazon is one of the big ones. They have an interesting program that I will desribe in detail later. When you are on a website, scroll down to the footer to see if they have an affiliate program. Watch this short video. I have to beg your patience, the audios starts before the video starts. It demonstrates where you can find that information. If you don’t find it, simply call or contact them and ask.
As I described in the video, once you find the program, there will be a form you will have to fill out to apply to the program. That form will ask for the usual information about you, but it will also require your social security number. That was an immediate red flag for me. I admit that in the beginning I did not give that information. Some companies will allow you to join without giving them that information, however, they won’t pay you the commissions your earn until you do. They also will require a W-9 filled out and faxed or mailed to them for their files. It is all required by the IRS.
You are building a business.
I have to take just a minute to talk about this, because I am a skeptical person by nature. Many people are making a good living doing affiliate marketing. It is their business, and it has to be treated like a business. If you are here, I am assuming you are at least curious about earning an income online. Whether you are intending it to be full or part time, working online is your business.
I owned a corporate catering company for ten years. I had a CPA do all my tax preparation, and a bookkeeper to do my bookkeeping. It was my business, and following the law was a big piece of it. Keeping accurate books, paying my taxes in a timely manner was just part of owning a business. Now I am working online. Some of what I do is different, I work with a computer instead of an oven, but the bookkeeping and compliance things are the same. It is my business. Remember, I am trying to help you build a business. Make sure that from the very beginning you put yourself in that mindset.
The companies you do affiliate marketing for are businesses, and payment of affiliate earnings will be reported to the IRS. That is why you are required to provide that information to them. You are becoming an independent contractor working as a “free lance” sales person for them. You are just doing that online, on your schedule. One of the reasons the companies are paying affiliate commissions is that your direct customers to them, and it is becoming more effective than other advertising they may do.
Find affiliate products
There are companies that specialize in managing affiliate programs for thousands of products. You can either create products and add them to their program for other affiliates to promote, or you can promote others products. You can do both, but for the purposes of this post, I will concentrate on just introducing you to a few of the big ones. I am gong to just give you a list and you can take a look at them.
ClickBank - they have over 10,000 digital products. You can get their information by clicking on this link. This company has a great reputation, but you need to know that your first payment is held until you have made five sales with different credit cards or methods of payment to insure that you are not violating the rules about not collecting commissions on products for yourself.
Amazon – they have a huge selection of products. Since they are a household name, you have a trust level already established. It is for many the shopping place of choice. One of the great advantages is that once someone clicks through to Amazon through your affiliate link, you will get a percentage of the total amount they spend with Amazon while on the website through the link you provided. You can sign up here for their program .
Commission Junction – The largest affiliate network. Join CJ.com
ShareaSale – I really like this one, I made my first affiliate sale with them,ahhh. They have a large merchant base and you can see your sales as they happen practically. You can join their program here
Linkshare - LinkShare has signed on some of the most prestigious and well-known brands in the world including Wal-Mart, Macy’s, Clinique, OfficeDepot, Apple iTunes, and hundreds more! You can join here.
Well, that is an explanation and a little demonstration or what affiliate marketing is and how it works. You can take a little time to check out the above programs. There are lots more, but this will get your started.
I promised you that as I build this website, I will be doing some of the things I suggest you do. You can see that I placed an ad on the sidebar of this page. It is for a great seminar being held in August. Several of the people I have been learning from will be instructors. I am planning on going to this seminar. You can see that the highlighted link here in the blog is a text link to it, and the ad in the sidebar speaks for itself. If you want to learn from some of the top names in affiliate marketing, this might be something you would be interested in. Clicking on the ad or the link will take you to the sales page for the event, but if you wait awhile, another box will show up. They are now offering free access to some of the training seminars that are currently taking place.
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