Affiliate Basics Tutorial

Introduction

What is an affiliate and how you can use affiliate programs?

Meriam Webster defines affiliate as a : to bring or receive into close
connection as a member or branch b : to associate as a member <affiliates herself with the local club>

Both apply to being an affiliate in an online sense. When you become an affiliate for a program you become a branch of the particular business that you have joined but at the same time you are also a member.

Now the beauty of an affiliate program is that you can have products from a wide variety of vendors without having to create them or store them. You do not need to carry an inventory or handle any of the delivery problems.

All you have to do to fulfill your part is to send people to the program and let them handle the sale, money collection, delivery etc. For this you will receive a commission that can vary from about 3% to 75% depending on the product.

If you are looking to sell physical products you can use services like Amazon, Commission Junction, Linkshare or many others. Most physical products pay between 3% and 10%.

If you are looking to sell digital products there are literally thousands of products available. Clickbank and Paydotcom are two of the largest programs which will allow you to sell other people's digital products.

Getting Started

So far we have defined what an affiliate is and looked at some of the variety of products that you could become an affiliate for. The list is almost unlimited.

Now we are going to look at the equipment you need to seriously run an internet business. There are some things that you absolutely must have and other things that you will want to get down the road.

The idea is pervasive online that you can earn huge amounts of money with little or no effort. This is a myth.

You are building a business and all normal business principles apply. You need to budget, keep records, and plan where you want to go. The internet can help to cut the time frame that it takes to achieve profit but it does NOT change the basics of building a successful venture.

If you still think you can do this free with little or no effort do me a favor
and stop reading right now. You're wasting you time.

Now if you are still reading you have passed your first hurdle. We will now look at a few of the things you will need.

1.A dependable computer (Hey if you are still using windows 95 on a 486 get real.) You need a fairly fast computer with enough ram to allow you to traverse the net. You should be running at the minimum a Pentium 4 or equivalent computer with at least 256 k ram. You can get started with an older machine but you should seriously plan on upgrading to a newer, more powerful model as soon as possible. This is your number one tool and it has to work for you to be effective.

2.An internet connection; preferably high speed (Cable or DSL). If you intend to build a progressive business dial-up just won't cut it. You can start that way but a faster connection should be one of the first upgrades in your budget.

3.You need antivirus and spy ware protection for your computer.

4. Stationary and supplies – Pens, papers, files folders, index cards, a log book, an appointment calendar etc.

That will get you started for basics.

Next we will talk about planning your business.

Your Business Plan

First a quick review. First we discussed what an affiliate is. Next we discussed what equipment and supplies you need. Now we will talk about  planning your business .

The first thing is to figure out exactly how much time and money you are going to spend on YOUR business. Now understand that the more money you can invest on a regular basis and the more time that you can spend the faster you will be able to build a business.

Once again though if you cannot afford to make a financial contribution and a definitive time commitment towards your business please save yourself a lot of frustration and accept the fact that you are not ready to build a business at this time.

You really need to be able to commit to a minimum of 10 hours a week and at least be able to invest $25 a month to have any chance of building a successful operation. I realize you see all those ads that say you can do it in 5 minutes a day but this is simply a fantasy and nothing more.

The next step you have to take is decide what kind of business you want to build. Take the time to actually think about this. Remember, normal business rules apply on the internet too. There are skills you have that make you unique and things that you like.

Now I don't have the background to open a cabinet shop. I know absolutely nothing about carpentry or installing cabinets. If I tried to open a cabinet shop biz, because there is a lot of money to be made, I would either go broke quickly because of a lack of knowledge or would have a huge learning curve until I understood all that was needed to run this kind of operation successfully.

The same applies online. Look at what your strengths, knowledge and interests are and look towards those for your business idea or be prepared for a larger learning curve.

Finding Your Niche

First a quick review.

We discussed what an affiliate is.

We discussed the equipment and supplies you will need.

We discussed how to plan your business.

Now we will discuss how to decide where to concentrate your efforts. Despite what it may seem from looking at the various items advertised the real money is in finding your niche and applying the general marketing tips to that narrow area.

Lets find an area that interests you. This will take you a few minutes but will save you quite a bit of aggravation and frustration.

You will need a pencil and paper. Draw 3 columns on your pad. The first column you will want to list all of the things that you enjoy doing. This could be hunting, fishing, sewing knitting, etc. List exactly what you look forward to doing in your free time.

The second column should be a list of all of the things that you have experience in. It could be courses you have taken, experience you have gained from your work experience or dealing with children, things you have learned from various hobbies, the possibilities are endless.

The third column will be a list you get from asking your friends and family what they think you are good at doing.

Anything that shows up in all 3 columns is an area that you should explore and consider for building your affiliate business. It will take a bit more research to make sure you have found a profitable area but you are well on your way to building an affiliate business in an area that you have an interest and talent for.

Two Must Have Tools to Begin Your Business

First a quick review

We discussed what an affiliate is.

We discussed the equipment and supplies you will need.

We discussed how to plan your business.

We discussed how to find your niche.

There are four basic tools that you will need to get started. You will need a website builder, a domain name, a hosting service and a way to gather subscribers.

The website will be your office online. Regardless of what area you have decided to use for your business your web site will be your base. It will be where you will post content that people looking for information on your topic will be able to come to find it.

You will then be able to direct them to whatever affiliate program you have decided to use and do it as a recommendation from a source that has proven to provide relevant information on your topic.

This web site will need to be reliable and easy for you to update. If you're an expert a HTML you probably already have the skills to build a website. If you're not I recommend using a webpage editor such as FrontPage or DreamWeaver to build your website. If you don't own a webpage editor I recommend Ewen Chia's My Free Website Builder.

After you have finished building your website you will need a domain name and a hosting service. I recommend any one of the following services:

Host4Profit

Host4Profit requires $24.95 to open your new hosting account and $15 to register a new domain name. Your hosting account also comes with a 10-day money-back guarantee. If you're not happy with the service for any reason, simply contact Host4Profit within 10 days and get your money back. Host4Profit also has an affiliate program with $10 per month commissions per referral. So look at this way, if you refer 3 people to Host4Profit your website hosting is free.

Host Gator

Host Gator lets you register a domain for $15 at the same time you setup your hosting account. Hosting plans at Host Gator start at $4.95 per month for a "Hatchling" plan. Business plans are very affordable with pricing starting at $12.95 per month. All hosting plans come with a 45 day money back guarantee.  

Global Domains International (GDI)

GDI has a $10 a month package which includes domain registration, hosting, 10 email addresses, URL forwarding, and an easy-to-use online WebSite builder that will allow you to get a professional looking WebSite online as quickly as possible. If you register as an affiliate you will receive a seven-day FREE trial! FYI: GDI ranks #37 on this year's INC 500 list of fastest growing companies (details) and is also one of the EASIEST affiliate programs to make money with that you'll ever try.

The next thing you will need is a way to gather subscribers. Most people will only stop once even if they bookmark your site because they loved it. (Go look at your bookmark list and see if you even remember why you bookmarked half of the sites listed there). They really do mean to return but there is always something else that will be attracting their attention...

That is why it is important to gather them into your subscriber base by collecting their email address with some kind of offer. It can be a free book, a series of reports on your subject, or even a trial product (depending on your niche).

This way a week later you can send them an update about the new article you just posted, the special deal you have located or just more free tips on your topic. This will help them to remember your site and if they liked it enough to subscribe originally they will likely return because you have reminded them that you exist. The easiest way to gather subscribers is to use an autoresponder service.

My favorite autoresponder service is Getresponse. With Getresponse you can build your subscriber base quickly and easily! Getresponse even provides complete instructions on how to install an attractive form on your web page to capture new subscribers.

That concludes this tutorial Affiliate Basics