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For those new to the term, affiliate marketing is simply the online version of commissioned sales. As a traditional commissioned salesperson, you would call or visit customers and try to sell them your company's product. If they bought, you would receive a commission of a certain percentage of the total sale.
Although the principle is the same, it's much simpler online. Instead of having to visit customers and spend time with them, you simply give them a special affiliate link provided to you by a merchant. Clicking on that link takes the person to the merchant's website, but their system recognizes the link as yours. If the person then buys something, you are automatically credited with the sale and your share of the selling price, which is your affiliate commission.
Many people would have you believe that you don't need your own site to be an affiliate marketer, but I say beware of such advice. Technically, it's true. As long as you have some way to give out your affiliate link, you can do affiliate sales. That can mean ways other than a website, such as pay-per-click ads or emailing to a list.
The problem with the first is that, unless you are an expert in pay-per-click (also known as PPC), you can spend a lot of money without getting any sales to offset them. With the second, you can only send out so many emails to the same people with the same offer before they get annoyed. Not only that, but this is something you have to keep doing over and over.
No, I strongly believe the only way to be successful in affiliate marketing is to have your own website promoting one or more affiliate products. That site must be set up based on certain principles so that it attracts a decent amount of traffic and then converts those visitors to sales. That's the essence of affiliate marketing. If you are serious about any trade or business, you need the right tools. Would it make sense to set up in business as a carpenter and not own your own hammer? No, and neither can you make a living as an affiliate marketer without your own website.
An affiliate website doesn't have to be complicated or dazzling, and it's actually not difficult to make your own. The WordPress blog platform can be adapted for the purpose, and there are also powerful programs that will help you create websites specially tailored to the needs of Internet Marketing.
And of course, if you don't want to get into the technical side, you can pay someone else to make your site for you, freeing you to create the articles and other content that will in effect be your "sales pitch" to potential buyers.
But your site does need to have the right keywords in the right quantity, and it needs to make it easy and attractive for visitors to click affiliate links. If you are new to affiliate marketing, I strongly suggest you do some studying of these subjects before you begin. It may seem confusing at first, but not if you have a good teacher, and your efforts will certainly pay off in the long run with a successful affiliate marketing business.
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Helen Wilkie is a professional business speaker who has branched out into the world of Internet Marketing. Let her introduce you to her valued Internet Marketing guides and teachers at http://www.MyBestGurus.com
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