The basics of affiliate marketing
In the normal world you have to
own a product to sell it. Or, you could work as a salesman for somebody
else earning commissions for each sale you make. This is essentially
what we are doing on the Internet. If you own a product you can
sell it yourself, or hire people to do it for a cut of the pie.
If you don´t own a product, you sell other peoples products for a cut.
Simple!
You would still be pretty bogged
down with work though, if you had to sell every single item one at a
time. So here is the interesting part:
Mlm
Mlm stands for Multi Level
Marketing, and is key to success for any would be Internet marketeer.
Let me illustrate this with an example:
You happen to be a genius on
soccer gear, and decide to sell it for a living. So you search the
Internet for an affiliate program dealing with soccer gear, and join
one that offers a good percentage as well as an mlm option. Now you
advertise like hell, and sell maybe one item in a month. This is where
the clever part kicks in: You talk to your equally fanatic soccer
friends, and sell them the idea of being an independent sales agent
just like you.
They join the same affiliate program, but UNDER YOU so that every time
they make a sale, you get a cut. To the outsider this structure looks
similar to a pyramid scheme, but is both perfectly legal and wide
spread. This army of sales men now either just sell the product, or
like you decide to expand operations underneath themselves. Well, you
still get a cut....Beginning to see the picture?
This is called leverage.
Leverage
Leverage is the way to go,
period. You may sell soccer shoes, but if you sell shoe shops you don´t
have to smell peoples feet! Do you see a potential problem here?
If nobody is selling the actual product, you don´t get anything.
In affiliate MLM´s there
typically is down line communication, so you should listen to your
sponsor (the guy who is directly above you). If he is any good, he will
contact you giving you tips on how to market the product more
efficiently. In any case, what ever you discover be sure to tell your
downline so they can boost their sales. More about this in environment.
Recap:
To be succesfull you need to
find a product you feel you know about, or at least can read up on with
out falling asleep. The important part is that you make yourself an
expert on the topic.
Next, you need to leverage your
business so you don´t have to do everything yourself. The idea is to
get rich, not exhausted!
Finally, you need to communicate
with your team, both up and down. No good idea should go to waste.
