NOT a Guru!
Keeping it simple, without the hype. PC tips and Internet advice for mom and pop businesses.
Keeping it simple, without the hype. PC tips and Internet advice for mom and pop businesses.
(This series of articles is geared for the mom and pop business owner who is building his online storefront for the first time and other newcomers to the Internet.)
Today, we’ll take a look at monetizing your site. If you have your own inventory, you will obviously not need to join any affiliate programs or other online income opportunities unless you would like to enhance your earnings elsewhere.
Affiliate programs basically refer to web-based services that connect vendors with resellers (“affiliates”). Affiliates can access special banners or linking codes within the affiliate program in order to promote the vendor and its products and services. These codes contain a special tracking code which records all of the sales made by the affiliate. In return for the affiliate’s work, the affiliate receives a commission, which is a percent of the sales price.
Links to Join Today If You Are Planning on Selling Your Own Digital Product or Others’ Digital Products.
Digital products include ebooks, online videos, audios that can be downloaded and so forth. The following are the program that I have participated in and have had good results with:
Clickbank – This may be the most popular digital reseller program on the Net. From a vendor’s point of view, Clickbank is easy to set up and with so many people participating in the program, a wonderful way to enlist an army of affiliates selling for you. You set your price for the product. You set your commissions. Clickbank handles all of the orders, including the sales taxes and affiliate fees. A percentage of your seales will be kept by Clickbank in return. You won’t need to get a merchant account, since Clickbank accepts all major credit cards:
From the perspective of an affiliate, Clickbank is very easy to use, You get paid every two weeks, provided your balance meets Clickbank’s “threshold level.” You dont’ even need to have a website to promote products through Clickbank. You can promote products through pay-per-click advertising programs or, if you have one, your email list, instead of online. If you are looking to make money online, I would definitely join Clickbank.
PayDotCom is another digital product program that offers services to sellers and affiliates. Like Clickbank, PayDotCom will process sales on behalf of vendors and pay affiliate commissions for those sales. From the perspective of an affiliate, one of the things I like about PayDotCom in comparison with Clickbank is that it has widgets, banners and a lot of other premade advertising tools.
Sites to Join if You Want to Sell Products and Services as an Affiliate.
The services below will allow you to receive a commission for selling products and services. You have a choice of thousands and thousands of vendors. Obviously, you don’t have a website up yet, but you can still become an affiliate.
The Pepperjam Network is a fantastic program to sign up with as an affiliate — and you get $10 just for signing on! They have a huge selection of vendors and some things to make your affiliate promotions very easy, including coupon and product feeds, a store builder and more. The easy-to-use storebuilder works on both html websites and blogs. Read my review here. Some of the vendors will “auto approve” you as an affiliate, rather than reviewing your website before allow you to sell their products. Sign up for Pepperjam and, based on the content you plan to publish on your site, join the auto approve programs.
ShareASale also features numerous vendors and has a “storebuilder” where you can select all kinds of products to match the theme of your site. It offers data feeds, coupon feeds and much more. Join ShareASale todayand then use its web-based search to find merchants who carry the types of products that match your site theme (for instance, antiques, car parts, weight loss and so forth). Look for the vendors with an auto approve program for now. What this means is that you will be able to sell products without having to have your site approved by the vendor. This will help with your content building. You can participate in more vendor programs in the future, but definitely go for the auto-approve programs right now.
The following sites will also allow you to sell products and services for a variety of vendors, but you might need to have your site approved before doing so. Sign up as an affiliate for the following:
- Amazon sells a lot more than books! Definitely sign up. To do this, scroll to the bottom of the home page and click “Join Associates.” You might need to have an approved website — to be honest, I can’t remember and don’t have time to look it up, but check it out.
- The Betty Mills Affiliate Program is one of my favorites, especially when it comes to datafeeds and storebuilders for office products, cleaning supplies and outdoor storage sheds. Definitely check this one out today.
- Commission Junction (or CJ) is another “must sign up” type of site becasue you will have access to thousands of vendors and products.
- It seems like LinkShare has been around forever, and they offer a huge selection of “name brand” merchants. You can get product feeds and a wealth of affiliate promotional tools at LinkShare, which I highly recommend.
The foregoing programs will get you started today. Be sure to join the “auto approve” programs available in ShareASale and in Pepperjam, where available.
If you are ambitious, here are a few more affiliate networks you should join:
- Google Affiliate Network – This used to be “DoubleClick Performics.”
- LinkConnector is another “really good one” because it offers data feeds and widgets.
Tomorrow, we’ll start building! Today, join the above programs. Once approved, sign up with various vendors offering “auto approve” programs.
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