It’s not a secret that context ads are an excellent way to get additional income from your site. Google AdSence and Yahoo are current leaders in this market and pay fairly high amounts per click. But is there a way to get more for the leads generated from your site than just a few cents (in most cases)? Yes, there is but it’s not for everyone!

So, let’s take a look at couple scenarios that will hopefully help you determine what type of context ads you should use:

1. If you have an informational site with nothing to sell or a site you are using to attract certain type of visitors than Google AdSence or Yahoo Ads are for you. They require minimum involvement from you to get them running and are not competing with what you have to offer.

2. If your website used to sell any type of product, be it an informational or some hard goods you have to be very careful placing above mentioned ads on your site. There is a very good chance that competing products will be displayed there and instead of getting your product sold – you loosing customer when they click on one of the ads. What about sites that are not accepted into programs mentioned above due to their targeting to a very specific customer niche? If this sounds like you – than you should read this article.

First and foremost let me explain my idea of why AdSence or Yahoo ads could be damaging to your online business.

You have build your site, worked hard to make it Search Engine Optimized, add a content targeting you customer base, perhaps even use one of the PPC services to get those customers to your pages, where you present your sales campaign with a full force. You rightfully expect results, since you worked so hard, doesn’t matter what type of results: be it a product sale, newsletter sign-up, paid membership or any other form. You get the idea. Now let’s look at visitors that come to your page. For the sake of simplicity I will split them into 3 distinct categories:

1. Directly targeted customer. He has come to your site in search of exact information or service you have to offer. How he got there is not important and I leave it up to your imagination. This one is almost guaranteed to become your customer as long as he found what he needed. Not likely to be distracted, although it could happen.

2. An accidental visitor. He got to your site by pure chance, click on search engine or any other means. What you have to offer doesn’t interest him and he is just glancing. If you are extremely good marketer – you might be able to convert him into customer but chance are that 99 out of hundred will simply leave your site. I’m not even going to waste my time on this group.

3. A searching customer. He has come to your site searching for something that falls into same category as what you are offering but he is looking. He likes what he sees on your site but due to his nature he is not sure … he feels that your carefully crafted sales pitch is getting to him … he is almost ready to take the action you want him to … and at same time he feels been sold and just looking for ANY way (excuse) to get away from it. Here comes into play contextual ads from one of the services mentioned above that in most cases will offer an ad from you direct competitor. He sees it and decides to investigate, clicks on ad and he is gone from your site! You might have gotten a few cents or dollars but you just lost a customer. I hope you are happy with results and satisfied with a small chunk of change you just got from that ad!

There is a way to fix that situation! People will always click on ads and you cannot stop it short of not having any on your site! How about another option: still use ads that present information to same category of people that visit your site but are not competing with your offer? And how about getting a 40-75% of profits from each sale generated by these ads?

Here is what I use on couple of my niche sites. It requires some basic technical knowledge and ClickBank account. If you don’t have one just go and register – it’s free. Once you complete registration you have the ability to sell affiliate products from ClickBank market place and get the commissions from each sale. Average commission is about 50%. Only we will do the sales intelligently and have them displayed in form of context ads on your site. I offer a quick review of couple scripts that could be easily installed on your site and get you the profits you deserve:

1. CBQuickAds. Script is free to download and extremely easy to use. Once installed all you have to do is specify your click bank account and a category of CB market place to be displayed on your site. It will automatically pull current available products and show them on your site. You can control what products are displayed by using variable to make sure that your competition is not shown, although it’s not guaranteed.

Pluses: Easy to install and setup. Fully automated solution.

Minuses: You can’t control what exactly is shown. Only supports text ads.

Author of the script offers a “pay for” solution that creates a directory from CB market place but its not what we need and who wants to pay when you can have something fro free.

2. Ads-Rotator. Script is very easy to install and use. Comes with a list of ads from CB market place ready to use, just replace the account with yours and start generating sales. Has an admin interface through which you can ad or remove any ads or affiliate links and not just ClickBank. Gives you an option to use horizontal or vertical ads. Supports any type of ads be it a text ads or a banner rotators.

Pluses: Easy to install and setup. Can be used as advertisement solution for your entire site. Has an easy to use admin interface with reporting of number of clicks generated by each ad. You have full control of what ads are displayed.

Minuses: Not fully automated. Not free.

This is a solution I use myself and highly recommend to anyone.

Visit Author’s site: Free-Secrets to Home Based Business to get additional details on location of both scripts.

We’ve all heard stories about teenagers meeting dangerous people in chat rooms. The scary crossroads where people take web conversations and relationships to the offline world. But people who are now beginning to add postings to blogs often forget that over time, they might give out too many personal details about themselves that once combined, could put themselves in potential danger.

What does this have to do with affiliate sites? Many affiliates are in the process of setting up blogs as a way for their niche communities to share information, opinions, product reviews and the like. Once some people become comfortable on such a site, they begin relating their experiences and may let down their guard and reveal too much personal information. When you create a blog, it’s a good idea to remind people that personal information can be accumulated and used in identity theft and threats to personal safety.

Some tips to share: Use first names or nicknames, but don’t give anyone your full name. If revealing your location is relevant to the discussion, don’t give your exact address or clues to the location of your home or office. While you know to never give your credit card or social security numbers, also don’t reveal license plates, boat registration numbers, tax ID or any other identifying numbers. Birthdays, graduation dates or service discharge dates should never be revealed. Photos are not a great idea for adults, but never post photos of your or anyone else’s children. A big dog, however, isn’t a bad idea!

Karen Kari’s articles and more information on the affiliate business can be found at:

http://www.affiliatebandit.com
http://www.advertisingcellar.com
http://www.billionfreeads.com

If you’re marketing your own product on the Internet, you can dramatically increase your sales with an affiliate program.

An Affiliate program will enable you to recruit an unlimited number of individuals to sell your products. The key to obtaining affiliates is to offer a nice commission for each sale. The higher the commissions, the more affiliates you’ll recruit.

There are thousands of affiliate programs on the Internet. In order to be successful you must sell your affiliate program just like your product. In other words, your affiliate letter should be written like a sales letter. You must persuade your visitors to join your affiliate program by packing your affiliate sales letter with benefits. Tell them exactly what your affiliate program will do for them, how much commission they will receive and make the sign-up process simple.

One Tier Verses Two Tier

One tier affiliate programs pay commissions on one level. For each sale an affiliate makes, they will receive a commission. For example, if you offer your affiliates 30% commission and your product sells for $39.99, for every sale your affiliate makes, they will receive a $12 commission.

Two tier affiliate programs pay commissions on two levels. Affiliates will receive a commission for each sale they make and for each sale their recruits make. Two tier affiliate programs usually divide the commissions over the two levels. For example, if you want to give your affiliates a total of 30% commission for each sale, you would offer 20% commission on their first level sales and an extra 10% commission for second level sales. If your affiliate makes a $39.99 sale, they would receive a $8 commission. If one of their recruits makes a sale, they would receive an additional $4 commission.

Increasing Affiliate Sales

Nobody knows more about your product than you do. Provide your affiliates with banners, sample ads, articles or anything that will assist them in making sales.

To further increase sales, create an ebook that is directed towards your target audience and allow it to be freely distributed. This ebook should be packed with valuable information and, at the same time, used as a sales tool for your product. Customize a copy of your ebook for each of your affiliates and allow them to freely distribute it. You can customize the ebooks yourself or purchase an ebook compiler that enables your affiliates to customize your ebook themselves. Not all compilers will allow customizations. I highly recommend Ebook Edit Pro.

To keep your affiliates motivated, set up an opt-in list to enable them to subscribe and receive new promotional methods, sales letters and articles to assist them in making more sales. This will not only increase their sales, but it will also enable you to keep in contact with your affiliates and introduce new products.

Setting Up Your Affiliate Program

When you’re ready to set up your affiliate program, there are basically two options. The first option is to purchase an affiliate software program. Affiliate software will track your affiliate sales and enable your affiliates to view their stats. This option requires that you run your affiliate program and you are responsible for accepting payment and sending out commission checks.

The second option is to use a third party affiliate tracking company to run your affiliate program for you. These companies will track your affiliate sales, enable your affiliates to check their stats and send out commission checks for you.

Affiliate Tracking Software

AssocTRAC- A great affiliate tracking software that features real time tracking of stats. It tracks both visitors and sales for each associate to determine not only the quality of visitors, but also if your sales copy is turning visitors into buyers. It includes an easy sign up process that instantly creates accounts for associates so they can be up and running within five minutes. An autoresponse email message is instantly sent out with linking instructions and other detailed information. This powerful software tracks through the use of cookies and CGI scripts.

Pro-TRACK - A great affiliate tracking software that will enable you to keep track of sales and which affiliate the sale originated. Although the standard version won’t compute any sales data (owners manually keep track of sales), it is an excellent way to track and compensate your affiliate sales. The Pro version will not only track where your sales originate, but also provide you with the statistics you’ll need to track how well your affiliate program is doing.

Affiliate Tracking Companies

ClickBank - This Company will not only enable you to accept credit cards, but they will also run your affiliate program. Over 60,000 affiliates can choose to sell your products for you. ClickBank enables any web seller to automatically pay sales commissions to affiliates. They will bill your customers, pay you, and pay your affiliates a commission. They charge a one-time $49.95 activation fee, and a $1 + 7.5% fee per sale. There are no monthly fees.

Click Trade - Lets you create your own affiliate program to allow others to send paying customers to you. Your business can reach new customers by being featured on thousands of affiliate sites. They have over 120,000 affiliates already interested in participating with your affiliate program.

Take your time and select the best affiliate option for your business. If you’re just starting out, you may want to use one of the third party affiliate companies, as this is the easiest route. You won’t have to worry about anything, as everything is taken care of for you. This will enable you to concentrate on making more sales and developing new products.

Copyright © Shelley Lowery

About the Author:

Shelley Lowery is the author of the acclaimed web design course, "Web Design Mastery" (www.webdesignmastery.com) and "eBook Starter - Give Your eBooks the look and feel of a REAL book" (www.ebookstarter.com)

Visit www.Web-Source.net to sign up for a complimentary subscription to eTips and receive a copy of Shelley’s acclaimed ebook, "Killer Internet Marketing Strategies."

You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook, or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included.

Affiliates can do a lot to protect themselves from those who would take advantage of them by dealing with companies that have good reputations in the offline world, and carefully doing their research on the online-only ones. Affiliate Networks have also put into place strong regulations for the purpose of thwarting and blacklisting serious offenders. But where there’s easy money to be made, the unscrupulous flock.

No matter how they attempt to protect themselves, it is still very possible for an affiliate to be hit with one of the scams of dishonest companies. These include cybersquatters who steal or mimic domains and funnel away money while injuring their reputations, abusers of pay-per-click programs, merchants who never intended to pay commissions, hackers and more.

What recourse does an affiliate have? In response to these cyber crimes, the US government has established the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). It is a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the National White Collar Crime Center (NW3C). It’s charge is to serve as a focal point for businesses to report cyber crimes, where they are researched, and referred to the proper federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

By reporting and following up on the status of their reports of illegal activities, affiliates can not only further the resolution of crimes against their companies. They will be assisting in industry-wide recognition of the worst offenders, helping to bring to light the newest twists in illegal activities at a level where information can be assimilated and distributed for an effective counter-attack. It’s up to all of us. Bookmark www.ic3.gov.

Karen Kari’s articles and more information on the affiliate business can be found at:

http://www.affiliatebandit.com
http://www.advertisingcellar.com
http://www.billionfreeads.com

If you want to make more money as an affiliate promoting other people’s products, you have to set yourself apart from other affiliates. Here are seven advanced strategies that will help you do so:

1. Mailing List

Build your own mailing list of prospects. Keep promoting different affiliate programs to the people on your list, as opposed to losing the visitor forever once they clicked over to the merchant’s site.

2. Success Stories

Write an inspirational success story on how this product helped you or someone you know. After identifying with your success story, many people will be ready to buy.

3. Reviews

Write a detailed review of the product with pros and cons. Of course, the pros should outweigh the cons. People will trust the review much more than a sales pitch.

4. Pay Per Click

Try Pay Per Click advertising on Google Adwords and Overture. Start out with a small budget to test the waters. If your sales commissions are greater than the cost of advertising, continue and expand your Pay Per Click campaign.

5. Blogs

Start a blog on a subject relevant to affiliate programs that you promote. Add affiliate links to your posts. Search engines love blogs, so you will get a lot of traffic.

6. Articles

Write articles releated to the product or service you promote. At the end of your articles, include your author bio with your affiliate link. Other websites will publish your articles and bring you free targeted traffic.

7. Tracking

Always track how many visitors you are sending to each affiliate program, and how many sales you get from those visitors. This way you will separate the winning affiliate programs from the losers, and focus on promoting the most profitable ones.

Melanie Mendelson offers a whopping 60% commission to affiliates of her "30 Minute Article Writing System" at http://www.writearticles-getwebsitetraffic.com

Affiliate Business – The business of linking web sites with special niches or content (affiliate sites) with advertisers or publishers who wish to sell goods or services to this specialized group. The affiliates gain by collecting additional income from their site, and the merchants gain by having a cost-effective way to add new customers. Affiliate programs are promoted by affiliate networks such as LinkShare and Commission Junction, as well as by individual companies.

Affiliate – A company with a web site that displays advertisements for merchants’ or publishers’ products or services. The affiliate’s site is valuable as a selling venue because the affiliate provides value added services, such as the provision of articles and information, such as product reviews, to the site visitor. The affiliate places these ads on his site in order to collect pay-for-performance commissions for sales, pay-per-click fees when his site visitors click the merchant links, or fees per 1000 clicks that visitors to his site make on the merchant’s ad.

Merchant or Publisher – A company with an online presence created for the purpose of selling goods or services. These companies use a variety of methods, besides direct promotion of their retail websites, to attract qualified buyers to their sites. These include pay-for-performance, pay-per-click and PPC, payment per one thousand clicks on their ads placed on the sites of affiliates.

Service Provider - A company that provides services and technologies to affiliates and merchants, enabling them to partner in online selling. Some service providers also act in the capacity of Affiliate networks, where merchants and affiliates negotiate arrangements for partnerships for selling purposes.

Karen Kari’s articles and more information on the affiliate business can be found at:

http://www.affiliatebandit.com
http://www.advertisingcellar.com
http://www.billionfreeads.com

Affiliate programs offer most promising opportunities to earn money, to grow contacts and to establish yourself on the net. But this is easier said than done. There are so many affiliate programs available – genuine programs and the other ones. Joining most of these programs is extremely easy. The natural question is – how do you locate good programs that will suit you?

This is an important question and needs careful consideration. It is better to do a little research before joining a program rather than realizing later that all is not well.

The first consideration is the reputation of the program. It is worthwhile doing some research on this to satisfy yourself. There can be several ways of doing it. You can get in contact with the person who referred the program to you and find out his experience with it. Visit the website of the program and look for testimonials. If you know someone who is well versed with internet marketing he can offer you some advice. There are also websites that evaluate various affiliate programs and you can find them quite easily by searching on Google.

There are affiliate directories which provide some details of hundreds of affiliate programs registered with them, such as:

http://www.cj.com
http://www.associateprograms.com
http://www.affiliatematch.com
http://www.becomeanaffiliate.com
http://www.affiliatedirectory.com
http://www.refer-it.com
http://www.linkshare.com
http://www.2-tier.com
http://www.lifetimecommissions.com

Generally affiliate programs found at these directories can be trusted because these directories do their own verification of the programs before registering them. However, this should not absolve you from doing your own little research.

Once this issue is settled to your satisfaction, you have crossed a big hurdle. I shall assume that you are interested in long term relationship and your own persistence with the program will count as much to your success as the benefits you get from the program.

Another consideration is how much it will cost to join the program. Many programs offer free affiliate membership and to that extent risk is minimized. Therefore it will be advisable to go for free or low cost affiliate programs unless you have definite information that it is worth paying for the program of your choice.

Payment schedule of the affiliate program is another issue to be considered. There are wide variations. Various programs pay weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly and some programs give immediate payments. There is now a tendency towards immediate payment and many affiliate programs are adopting it. This is facilitated by using payment processors like PayPal and Stormpay. The method of payment also varies – payments may be made by checks, direct deposit in the bank account or thru the payment processors. Also different programs have their own policy regarding minimum commission that must accrue before payments can be made to the affiliates. You will be in the best position to decide whether the program’s payment policy suits you.

Another factor to be considered is - what is the hit per sale ratio? This is the average number of hits to a banner or text link it takes to generate a sale based on all affiliate statistics. Many programs make this data available to the affiliates which is a big help. This factor is extremely important because this will tell you how much traffic you must generate before you are likely to earn a commission from the sale.

Now almost all the affiliate programs track the computers which are used to access the affiliate sites by placing cookies on those computers. The lifetime of these cookies varies from few months to the lifetime of the computer. This is necessary to give credit to the affiliate for any sales made thru his promotional efforts. The period of time that those cookies stay in the system is also important. This is because most of the time visitors do not buy initially but may want to return later to make the purchase. It will be advantageous to know if you will still get credit for the sale if it is done some months from a certain day.

Success of promotion can be improved only by trial and error. There is no fool-proof strategy which will work for all situations. This has to be done the hard way. The affiliate program should give ad-tracking services to their affiliates to keep track of their promotional campaigns. The data these services generate should be available online anytime you decide to check them out. Constantly checking your individual stats is important to know how many impressions, hits and sales are already generated from your site.

The affiliate program should offer physical goods, goods in electronic form and/or services of some value to their customers. As an affiliate you should have good knowledge about what the program offers. It will be to your advantage if you actually own and use any of those products – you will be able to narrate first-hand experience to your prospective customers. If by any chance you do not really understand what the program offers, it is better not to join such program.

Does the affiliate program have a single tier or multi-level structure? A single tier program pays you only for the business you have directly generated. A multi-level program pays you for the business, plus it also pays you a commission on the sales generated by any affiliate you sponsor in your program. Multi-level programs help you leverage your earnings which grow to huge amount with consistent effort. In the process you have a chance to get to know your up-line and down-line affiliates well and develop personal relationships with them.

Lastly, what is the commission paid by the program? What other payments are made by the program? There can be one time commission for selling a single item, recurring commission for services or memberships, leveraged earnings and bonus of various types. Understanding the compensation as well as affiliate structure is necessary for an affiliate.

These are some of the important considerations for evaluating an affiliate program. It is not a complete list by any means. The affiliate needs to remain watchful for surprises. Even then some element of risk will always be there. The success of the affiliate will depend not only on the program, but also on his own efforts.

Sanjay Johari is an author and an internet marketer. Visit his website for network marketing opportunities, resources, articles and other information: http://www.sanjay-j.com/

There are still big companies that think they can compete effectively online solely by virtue of the reputation they have earned in the offline world. And yes, people visit their branded sites for transactions, coupons, recipes and sweepstakes. But many of them have done nothing to create an environment that compels visitors to return regularly.

Affiliates can use this to their advantage. You can create a site that has information and solutions that have value in themselves, without selling anything. You can give advice, review products and services, reprint expert articles, publish studies. Provide tips and detailed FAQ’s. Become a voice and an advocate of your niche.

The difference is that you are creating a relationship, and they are furthering a transaction. For example, a brand name auto supply store sells car waxes and polishes. Your affiliate car detailing and accessory site links to stores that sell similar products. The difference is that you have several articles about getting bugs and sap off a car before waxing. And more articles about the number of times a car can be run through a car wash before different products are washed off. A humorous article by a site visitor about the perils of an electric buffer. Add these to some charts with cost, time to apply and overall ratings of products. Why would anyone buy from the other site, unless they couldn’t find you in a search? (That’s another article, but the more content on your site the better you will continue to do in searches.)

If you have enough good content, you’ll find that even after the buyer has bought the product with a manufacturer or distributor web address printed on it, he’ll return to you – because you may have the next greatest thing he may have missed otherwise. Now that’s how to compete!

Karen Kari’s articles and more information on the affiliate business can be found at:

http://www.affiliatebandit.com
http://www.advertisingcellar.com
http://www.billionfreeads.com

There are now plenty of affiliate programs out there on the Internet.

The good news is… This is the quickest and easiest way to make profits for most online businesses. You sell the product or service of another person and then receive a commission.

The bad news is… Only 10% of affiliates really succeed with such programs!

And I have been too much time part of the other 90% …But not anymore!

Some weeks ago, I decided to apply a reverse-engineering to the successful affiliates.

Yes. I was up to analyze their plans, strategies, blueprints… I had to decipher every method which can make difference between a successful business online and a failing one.

By the same time, I had also checked how failing affiliates do operate. And now I am going to reveal my research results right here and now.

Listen up…

The "Successful Affiliate" Profile:

1. Makes a market research.

2. Promotes HOT products.

3. Collects follow-up information.

4. Takes a systematic approach.

The "Failing Affiliate" Profile:

1. Chooses affiliate programs lightly.

2. Promotes any product, any service no matter the market status.

3. Uses wrong marketing methods.

4. Is a "random marketer" and joins and quits programs at the first failure.

With that said… You probably noticed that all those factors you have control over. And this is really good news! Read on…

Back to basics…

If you have not succeeded yet then you are about to learn a way to put your business on the right path. You will soon use the leading methodology of the super affiliates.

On the other hand, if you are already a successful affiliate then you will discover a wonderful market research tool that will do all of the work for you… And put you in automation heaven!

Enough talks…

Let’s apply the right methodology when promoting products and services. And ultimately make real profits!

Here Is The Most Important Step You Ever Make In Your Online Business:

…The Market Research!

This is the most powerful aspect to consider before you join any affiliate program. The aim of market research is to find out exactly what people are looking for.

What are people’s hot buttons?

What do they want?

What is the less competitive industry?

Who is offering quality affiliate programs?

Where is the HOT selling service?

What is the most demanded product?

Answer to these simple questions and you can be sure that you’ve made much more for your business than any other online entrepreneur. Remebmer the old saying: "Fail to plan and you’re planning to fail!"

It is a fact. You need to become an affiliate of a HOT selling product or service. The products you intend to promote must be proven sellers online. Thanks to the Internet, collecting those information won’t cost you ten thousand to a million dollars!

So how can you perform this research?

The short answer is that… you can visit newsgroups and message boards. You can ask questions to the people there. Think of them as potential customers.

You can also hold surveys and collect information on people’s needs and thoughts.

Affiliate Mate is a brand new software that will Perform Your Market Research …with NO Effort on Your Part! It is a HUGE Money, Time and Efforts SAVER. To request the download link, send a blank email mailto:software-request@sendfree.com

Your affiliate site visitors are really getting pretty sophisticated in searching the web, and in addition many receive ezines, newsletters, RSS feeds, research subscriptions and other sources of information. They have a multitude of options for shopping and services both on the internet and off. They can easily find many of the merchants you have as affiliate vendors without going through your site.

So why should these visitors continue visiting your site? Because you have spent your time creating an environment for the niche market they belong to. You provide them with value added products and services , and your site is the place they go to see what is new on your particular subject, what is fashionable, what the latest statistics are – whatever they want to find in one place. And you’re continually doing the following:
Continually upgrading the site – the look, the navigation, and features Polling your visitors to understand how they use your site and what they want that you don’t have Evaluating your merchant statistics, to understand which sellers and products are successful, and fine tuning as site visitors change and new options become available Adding relevant copy, articles, studies and other information they want Providing great customer service, promptly answering their questions and proactively upgrading service Creating forums for them to express their opinions and share information Asking experts to share information on your site Giving site visitors the ability to review products and services and write articles about relevant topics Promoting your site both offline and online venues Speaking at seminars and conferences

Site visitors return because you’ve earned their trust and allegiance. And you have to keep earning it over and over.

Karen Kari’s articles and more information on the affiliate business can be found at:

http://www.affiliatebandit.com
http://www.advertisingcellar.com
http://www.billionfreeads.com