How does affiliate marketing work?

From a newbie...

[Bubzeebub]

How does it all work? I mean, I know that you earn revenue once a visitor clicks on the sponsored links and buys from that sponsor. However, where do you go to sign up for something like this?

I've heard people on here mention PPC bids/AdSense. How is this being used? I'm under the impression that you have to have a website with a link to the sponsored site. Are there other ways of earning ad revenue?

Also, I've seen the post by the Cabbie who said he quit his job by earning revenue from all the affiliates he has. Is this really possible? Can someone post a link to one of these typical one-page affiliate sites? How can one possibly earn a pretty penny on several new sites like that....assuming new sites are low on the organic lists and don't have much traffic from the get go.

I know it's a lot but I'm very curious about it.

- Confused Bubzee

[rfung]

hi and welcome to WW.

Affiliate marketing (AM) works in a few different ways:

1) you build a website and pepper the pages with links to the merchant. these links have a tracking code that credit the sale to you, and thus you make a percent off that.

2) you can also put adsense, where you sign up with google to put a piece of code they give you on your page. This code generates targetted ads that are related to the content of your webpage. When users click on those links on your site, they go to the merchant who pays google for the click, who in turn pays you for having published the ad on your site. The merchant wins a potential sale, google gets paid for the click who pays you.

3) AdWords to Merchant - with this method, you simply sign up with Google AdWords program which entitles you to place those ads on the side of the results pages with the destination link being the merchant you're affiliated with, with your tracking code to record the sale. In effect, AdWords is complementary to AdSense.

Yes it's possible to make TONS of money with these methods. I started about 6 months ago and I'm averaging $60/day. That's pocket change compared to some of the big players (some of whom frequent this very board), who can pull in excess of $10k per month. As with anything, it takes some skill, common sense, hard work, and a lot of patience to get to those levels, but once you do, it beats hands down (in my opinion) working a 'real job'.

[Bubzeebub]

i see...interesting. I'm assuming these sites are text/link filled and have very little graphics on them. Can anyone send me a link (either here or sticky me) with what a typical low-end affiliate-targetted site would look like?

I'm just wondering, if it's all about the links and related content, what do you guys do? Do you find a topic that would mean a lot of possible related links and build a site around that topic?

[Bubzeebub]

Also, where do you find the affiliate companies?

[rfung]

You'll find that pretty much any topic can be made into an affiliate revenue maker. Of course, some more than others. The top 3 money makers are pharm, adult, financial products (refinancing, credit cards). I'd suggest NOT to start with those, because competition is cutthroat, and the big guys are pulling in monthly what you make in a year. Anything else, there's the potential to make decent money. I've read on the adwords forum that people were making money with flowers, blankets, radiators, you name it. If you think something has the potential to be bought online, then that's an idea you can explore, and you can balance that with what you think the supply(competition) and demand is for the product. As pointed out above, if you go with credit cards, you're dead in the water because even if demand is good, so is supply. On the other hand, pick something that's low key, with a niche market, and you can make a killing. It's not glamorous, but the checks you get in the mail will cure you out of it :)

You can find affiliates if you go to CJ. One advice I've heard here is that you can sort the merchants by the revenue (the green bar), and pick the ones that have the highest EPM. If you have a specific topic that fancies you, you can simply google for the product and find a merchant that has an affiliate program.

Good luck,

[Bubzeebub]

CJ ...and EPM?

[rfung]

CJ.com - Commission Junction. Once you login you'll see the green bars.

[webmastertexas]

I get the feeling Bubzeebub is looking for a "quick cash scheme", not something that requires time, patience, and dedication.

[rfung]

one could argue AM is quick and easy :)...compared to a real job. Heh. Even if my sites were to come crashing down to 0 revenue (knock on wood) I don't think I'd ever go back to a 'real' job. I'd just move back home, cut expenses, and start rebuilding.

..uhm...this is a subject for a new thread.

[Bubzeebub]

you're wrong Texas....was looking for info. I've yet to see anything good that comes to anyone without hard work.

[qwer]

You should also know,
that it will take you about a year (if you are working several hours each day), before you get your first srious amount check.
Just one tip: don't give up, if something fails try another thing. The main reason why affiliates fail is because they give up before they know all what they should know about affiliate marketing.

[Bubzeebub]

I hear you. I just am not sure if some AM's are just making one-page blank sites filled with links to a ton of different products (CD'S, DVD's, computers). How else can some people have literally HUNDREDS of sites like for AM?

[rfung]

One at a time. It can take me 2-3 days to think about, and create a site, if I were to be so inspired to do(which I don't, but that's a different matter:)). These would be rather useless sites, granted,to join the rest of the spam out there. OTOH, my current 'flagship' site that I'm redesigning is taking me over a year to get all functionality done. The point though is you really have to look at it long term - if it takes you a week or two per site, then you could end up with 30+ sites in a year. Each one of them earning you $10 a day, and you're on your way to big bucks. The next year, another 30 sites, and you (can) double your income. No other job out there can give you that kind of return!...

[Bubzeebub]

....not to reveal any of your secrets, but are these sites just a page or 2 of pure links? Are they blogs? Are they message boards? Are they content filled sites? I imagine if they were content rich sites they'd take quite a bit of time to update 30+ of those sites by yourself frequently. Your response .......?

[rfung]

...datafeeds.

[Bubzeebub]

....and the PPC ads are worthy enough to create enough business/clickthroughs I'm assuming eh?

[rfung]

Some people do only PPC to merchant, and they do VERY good money. Of course, whereas putting up a website that doesnt get ranked well doesnt cost you anything(besides hosting), if you fail in PPC, it's money that you won't see again until and when you succeed.

I have websites - because I tried PPC and couldn't figure it out. Now that I have some steady income, I am trying to reinvest and give it another go.

[Bubzeebub]

Ohh...so you're saying that it IS possible for people to do PPC and have visitors click on links that go directly to the sponsor site? I didn't know that. I thought the only way you could make money is if you were to have have clickthroughs from your own website. This is great info ...thanks.

[Bubzeebub]

I'm still thinking about this very deeply. The so-called "datafeeds" costs money? I mean even if you create a content rich site (comic book reviews for example), it'd still take quite a bit of time to update it. I can't imagine how 'CABBIE' can have 300+ sites in that sense then. Surely there's a missing link to this all......