I just ran a search on Google and discovered that there are 423,360 websites that mention the phrase “affiliate marketing explained.”  Not only that,  the average number of searches on a daily basis is 12. Humm, why in the world would 423,000 people be trying to explain what the heck is going on  to 12 people.  Either nobody is interested or we are all so confused you have your choice of 423,360  definitions. 

Affiliate marketing is the vast machine that makes up the majority of the commerce that is transacted on the internet on a daily basis. I do not have exact statistics but I would venture a guess that easily 90% of everything that is sold is done through an affiliate website. The bottom line is that there are manufacturers and services in every country around the globe. How many websites does Sony, or Apple or even Microsoft own? One or two? (I know the sites are huge but still there are only a few) Yet you can pick up a camera, a cell phone or a copy of software from numerous sources most of whom are affiliates of the manufacturers. In fact for the huge concerns that is usually the only way to get their products at all.

I’m sure that I am preaching to the choir, but when you look at the large scale you can see that any area of expertise that you may have to bring to the internet, will most likely have several products available for you to recommend in every imaginable category. The methods of recommendation are where the fun begins. Blogs, direct sales pages, storefront sales pages, mini sites (2-4 pages), authority sites (50 to 100 or more pages) and with the explosion of social networking the super short sentence or tweet to guide your clients to your offer.

With so many methods you need to make some decisions to narrow down exactly how your site is going to look and what you are going to offer. Deciding which niche to get involved with is probably the biggest stumbling block for the internet newbie. There are boatloads of courses and membership sites available out there that are more than willing to take your money to teach you how to market on the internet but precious few who will tell you how to pick a niche or steer you in the direction of the “hot” products to promote. The reason of course is that they don’t want to add competition to a market where they are already involved.

If you don’t have your own ebook, software or physical product to sell then you are left with the wide world of affiliate internet businesses.  These come in many flavors, there are services which sell only electronically downloadable products like Clickbank which hosts thousands of that type of product.  I own a number of these products, they have been extremely helpful in furthering my education about the internet and other subjects, and you will find some of my favorites reviewed in the pages of this blog.  Another aspect of affiliate marketing is manufacturer affiliate marketing.  Ebay is certainly one big example of this type of affiliate marketing.  This is a nice setup because as a marketer you put up the site and sign up with manufacturers who will take care of the payment processing and the delivery while paying you a royalty percentage.

The same is true of Amazon in fact Amazon is the largest affiliate marketer in the world.  Next you could look for a super affiliate guru and get on his mailing list to get advanced notice of his next monster affiliate program.  There are a good number of products listed on clickbank that deal specifically with teaching others how to improve their affiliate marketing skills. One of the most recent is Ewan Chia’s affiliate clickbank ebook which you can find on the clickbank marketplace website.

By the time you reach this level of affiliate marketing you will also know how to set up a web site a write a convincing sales letter.  Welcome to the world of sophistication.  It is called branding; I have an article on Rich Schefren in these pages who is what they call a “Guru’s Guru” he acquired his wealth through establishing himself as the “go to” guy who advises others on how to apply his principles and become wealthy.  Over the last year Rich has released a couple of fantastic pdf’s; the best of which is the “Internet Manifesto” which is a must have for any internet marketer.  A fascinating concept he explores is the whole notion of “attention” and the fact that in today’s information rich society  everybody is vying for a little piece of it. If you have read this article this far I thank you for giving me some of your time.

Probably the formost authority on the subject would be Allan Gardyne and one of his students Rosalind Gardner.  Alan has a free pdf you can download here.  And while you are there poke around and see what else he has to offer.  Rosalind has a great ebook you can purchase which tells you what to do and also what to look out for.  Unfortunately, I had already committed some of the mistakes she mentions before I found the book or I could have saved myself a few hundred dollars.

I hope that my simple take on affiliate marketing gives  a few pointers.  Its seems that the more I know the more I know I don’t know, so I am just another of the 423,000 who has an opinion.

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