Affiliate Programs - Diversify Your Internet Business |
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Diversify your
Business: Part 1 – Affiliate Programs
X-men 2, Charlie’s Angles 2, Terminator 3, Matrix 2, Bad Boys 2, American Pie 3, Fast and the Furious 2, Dumb and Dumber-er, Legally Blonde 2, Spy Kids 3, Tomb Raider 2, Freddy vs. Jason, Jeepers Creepers 2 (If you can believe that!), Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers…
The movie business loves sequels. Once a Producer tastes the profits a of a feature film, they’re quick to begin planning that franchise's next go-round, all in the pursuit of profits.
Before I start to spiral off into a discussion about the merits of Feature Film Sequels, let me ask you a question:
Has your business begun planning it’s sequel?
If you haven’t, don’t worry, it’s never too late – just don’t put it off any longer!
Having a well-diversified Home Business is the surest way you can guarantee a regular income short of keeping your day job. It’s also the most efficient way to increase your income. And expanding on the Internet is the easiest and least expensive method of becoming diversified.
Consider the film “Lord of the Rings”. Did you know that the executive producers at New Line Cinema actually decided that it would be more cost effective to shoot all three installments of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic at one time, then stagger their releases over the course of 3 years?
If you’re a fan, you probably did – but do you know why they chose to shoot for 15 months straight? Efficiency. Plain and simple. It’s much more cost effective to keep the crew, the stars, and the equipment consistently than it is to shoot for one film, edit it, post it, and then bring everybody back to do it all again.
And that’s the beauty of doing business on the Internet. Every time you want to expand, it’s easier, faster, and more efficient than your first time.
One of the easiest methods that Audrey and I use to diversify our business is through Affiliate Marketing. And if you’re looking for a fast and simple method of increasing your income, it’s a good method for you to consider too.
Affiliate Marketing Explained.
When you’re an Affiliate of a product, you’re essentially a commissioned sales person. Basically, your job is to send qualified buyers of the product that you’re an Affiliate of to the Affiliate Manager's site.
For example, let’s say that you’re an affiliate of a Home Furnishing Company. You know a good bit about interior decorating, so you can speak intelligently about that subject.
You put up a web site all about the ins, outs, ups, and downs of furniture. Somewhere on your site, you tell your customer “My personal recommendation for the best interior furnishing belongs to Ethan Allen – visit their site here”.
Now, in that sentence, you’ve created a hyper-link that contains a code. This code tells Ethan Allen that the person that just clicked on the link that brought them to their web store was a referral from you.
If they make a purchase from Ethan Allen when they get to that web site, you get a commission.
That’s it.
How much can you make? You’ve heard me talk about Michael Campbell before – the search engine guy. Michael makes $200,000 a year doing nothing but promoting affiliate programs. Frank Garon makes over $150,000 a year. And James Martel is up to about $50,000 a month promoting nothing but affiliate programs.
But, these are exceptional affiliate marketers. Audrey and I are not full-time affiliate marketers, but we have been expanding in that direction. As of this moment, we’re hovering around $3,200 a month promoting affiliate programs. We’ve been at it for about 9 months.
“Yeah but, isn’t it a lot of work?”
Pishaw! No. Consider what you have to do.
Notice what you DON’T have to do:
“How much does it cost to become and Affiliate?”
Nadda Nothing Zip Zero Squat
You can join hundreds or even thousands of affiliate programs and never, ever pay a fee for joining them. Ever.
“What will it cost me then?”
Here’s what you can expect. Joining an affiliate program is free.
If you decide to put up a web site to promote your program, you can expect to pay as little as 1 dollar a month for hosting. When you decide to expand your affiliate marketing, you can switch over to a multiple domain hosting company and pay $30.00 a month to host 200 of your affiliate sites.
If you're using the Free Search Engines to get traffic to your web site, then traffic is Free. If you use Pay Per Click Search Engines, then you can expect to pay. Same with E-zines.
“What do I need to have?”
A connection to the Internet. A program to create a web site, and honest to goodness knowledge about the affiliate product that you’re promoting.
“What kinds of programs can I promote?”
There are literally THOUSANDS of unique and interesting affiliate programs that run the range from practical and exciting to down-right bizarre (yet still profitable).
Audrey and I promote a company that makes Replica Lightsabers.
We promote a company that let’s you legally buy a Royal Title. That’s right, you can actually buy the title “Lord, Lady, Duke, Duchess, Count, Countess, Baron, Baroness, Viscount, Sir, Lady…”
Imagine the fun you can have with that!
“Table for 2 ready, Lord Andy Jenkins and Lady Audrey Kerwood”.
Or
“Will Duke Andy Jenkins please come to the courtesy counter…Duke Andy Jenkins”
I know, that program sound nuts! But the affiliate commission for that product is $35.00. All to stroke someone’s ego!
The possibilities are endless! Seriously, there are some COOL affiliate programs you can promote. Finding a niche market for one of the thousands of affiliate programs out there is a no-brainer.
Here’s a sample of categories that you can choose from.
“Yeah but, isn’t this a lot of work?”
Grrrrrr. Some people...
Okay fine. It is work. Reading this newsletter is work. Going grocery shopping is work. Mowing your lawn is work. But this kind of work PAYS YOU. Get used to the idea of having to do something in order to make money.
But consider this. Audrey set up our Star Wars replica site in one afternoon. She hasn’t touched it in 6 months. It’s cost us 6 bucks to keep the site on the web.
It’s made us $3,140 in 6 months.
We now make it a point to set-up at least one affiliate site every month.
Do the math.
“Why bother if I already have a store that makes me good money?”
The day the war started, our store sales stopped. They picked up again the next day, but they didn’t return to normal for 2 weeks. I’m talking about a 40% drop in daily sales. Could you survive if your salary was cut by 40%?
But, while our stores felt the brunt of it, many of our affiliate web sites kept plugging along, unhindered. We’ve been promoting an affiliate program that offers mortgage refinancing. That site has been BOOMING, and didn’t flinch when the world started watching CNN.
That’s why you “Bother”.
Lately, we’ve been reading 2 fabulous books.
One of the is by the Authors of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad”, and it’s called “Retire Young, Retire Rich”.
It’s too late for me, but I like the idea of retiring without worrying about finances. In the book, the Author explains that there is basically 3 types of income.
He says “By far, the best type of income, the most dynamic income, and the most sought after income is Passive Income.” The reasons why are beyond the scope of this newsletter, but the gist is, when you promote an affiliate program, you work some to create the Affiliate site, work a little more to promote it, then sit back while it earns you income.
Work Once, Profit Many Times.
Sound Good? Then get to "work"!
Just to whet your appetite for passive income, take a look at some of the affiliate search engines to get a sample of what you could be earning commission from.
Hosted By Allen Gardyne, this directory, at last count, offered over 5,000 affiliate programs for you to choose from. Allen is a bit of a legend in the Affiliate Marketing world. He is one of those folks that earns so much money using affiliate programs, that he’ll only say he makes “High Six Figures”. No one doubts his honesty. There are tons of good programs here, and a startling amount of helpful tips and information. Zero Cost of Entry.
Resources
Now, there are really only 4 Information Products on the Internet that are worth looking at if you want to become an expert affiliate marketer.
This week, I wanted to talk about just one of them. It's the other book we've been re-reading... Phil Wiley’s Mini-Site Profits, in my opinion, offers the most straight forward and easiest affiliate marketing strategy at any price point. Phil is one of those fellas that does what he teaches, that is, earns a living entirely from promoting affiliate programs.
He’s promoted cell phones, Solutions to Bad Breath, Gold Fish… I mean, the guy is neat! And he’s down to earth.
His Product, Mini-Site Profits is a comprehensive 200 page manuals that covers everything you need to know about mini-site creation. Just so you understand, Phil calls his affiliate Web Sites “Mini-Sites” simply because they are between 3-5 pages in length (This newsletter is longer than that and it took me 4 hours to write).
Here’s a screen shot of his table of contents:
Notice Action Plan #2? “The quick and easy way to build a money making site in 25 minutes?”
That’s what I’m talking about!
Mini-Site profits gets high marks from Audrey and I, for it’s fluid writing style, current, useful information, and easy to use approach.
The truth is, Phil’s material is, in part, responsible for our affiliate income.
Check Out Phil Wiley’s Mini-Site Profits and start your business diversification now.
Next Time:
Yep, you guessed it. The Sequel to Business Diversification. Part 2.
Till next time!
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