How to Become an Affiliate

How to Become an Affiliate

Exactly what is required to become an Affiliate on the Internet

First, get your own web site

In most cases, the Affiliate company (called the Merchant) requires you to have a web site before you can become an Affiliate for their products.

Companies offering worthwhile quality Affiliate Programs are usually first-class companies. Certainly we would only ever consider joining the very best world-class companies.

To become accepted as an Affiliate you first of all need a web site of good quality, preferably, and sometimes mandatory, with a unique URL (i.e. not a sub-URL such as you get with free web space).

To see why it is essential you own your own business and web site click here.

Get your site Approved by the Affiliate company

With the very best world-class companies that we have joined as Affiliates, the quality of your site and it’s content has to be in harmony with those of the Affiliate company.

In most cases the Affiliate company inspects your site to ensure the requisite standards are met.

This is (part of) what Commission Junction requires from you before you can be accepted into their Affiliate Programs:

You have a quality, professionally done Web site.

Your Web site does not contain or promote, or Link to Web sites that contain or promote, any of these types of content: libelous, defamatory, ‘adult’, obscene, pornographic, abusive, violent, bigoted, hate-oriented, illegal, cracking, hacking or warez, or offer any illegal good or service.

You do not mislead others.

You charge a fair price for your product or service.

You have a secure shopping cart for processing orders and credit cards.

You have published customer service and satisfaction policies.

You provide a toll free customer support number or email address.

You fulfill customer orders promptly and quickly.

You provide email confirmation upon acceptance of an order.

You provide email confirmation of a shipment if applicable.

You have a published return policy and guarantee.

You have a published privacy policy.

You have robust back-end systems in place to process orders.

Of course, this web-site has satisfied all those criteria because we are Commission Junction Affiliates.

You then Apply to become an Affiliate

This is easy, just go to the site in question and fill in the forms. You will need your own unique URL and E Mail address.

Free web hosting and email addresses will not be allowed.

Next Load the banner or text links onto your site

All Affiliate companies issue special text links and sometimes banners to display on your site.

You must load these onto your site before you can achieve anything. To do this you must:

Have a site that you can access using FTP. Many ‘Free’ sites do not allow this

Have a fairly good knowledge of the site layout, HTML and FTP

This can be time consuming, and sometimes confusing, especially if you have many Affiliate programs.

Create value copy to promote the links on your site

You must add value and promote the product or service of the Affiliate company.

Explain why you are promoting the product. Draw your visitors to the advantages of visiting the site you are promoting. Be active, not passive.

Don’t make this mistake that many sites make. Many sites simply overload their sites with banner ads of all types. This is off-putting and detrimental to the site. And this is one of the “Top Ten Internet Marketing Blunders”. (Available in the Marketing Section of this site.)

If you simply cover your site with banner ads you are basically offering multiple escape routes for people to leave your site. Your prime aim is to keep YOUR visitors on YOUR site.

You only want people to leave your site by following one of the banners only when you have ‘told and sold’ the visitor of the benefits of the product you are promoting.

You want them to go to the Merchant’s site with their hands held up in the air saying ‘I’m interested – tell me more’.

Promote your site

You must promote your site. Search engines won’t help. You must actively promote your site through advertising, eMail, ezines and so on.

We show you what all these terms mean and how to apply them, right here on this site. Check out the Marketing and Advertising sections of the site.

Also please read through the Internet Marketing Reports and EZines that are free on this site.

Build a list

You must build a list from the visitors to your site.

Failure to build a list is one of the biggest mistakes Affiliates make, even after the importance of doing so has all been explained to them.

You can build a list by asking for visitors’ email addresses in return for a gift, such as a free eBook.

You need some kind of ‘device’ on your site to do this. Pop-ups are very effective.

Nurture the list and build trust

You must nurture and educate your list of contacts to build trust and credibility.

Eventually, the people in your list will become your customers.

Build a Team of Sub-Affiliates

You can add leverage to your efforts by finding other Affiliates to help you.

Some Affiliate programs allow you to recruit Sub-Affiliates. You then receive a share of the profits any of your Sub-Affiliates make.

The number of levels of sub-affiliates is usually restricted to one or two tiers.

Any more than that then the scheme becomes a Multi-Level-Marketing scheme. (MLM)

Many top Affiliates believe that an essential feature of any good Affiliate program is that it must be at least 2-Tier.

Isn’t that easy?

No, not really. In fact it’s quite difficult. It is also time consuming.

First you have to build or buy an acceptable site
then you have to find an appropriate Affiliate program
apply to become a member
have your site pass the test
install the banners
add the links and edit the HTML code
add the product promotion and endorsements
promote your site
build your list
build you team of sub-affiliates

Then simply go to sleep and let the profits roll in!

The more Affiliate programs you want to join, the more work you have to do first.

What if we could show you a fast-track route to start turning profits from today?

Now find out how to start turning profits from today. Click here to continue the Tour.