Special post today, we have an affiliate article from a new guest author on freebloghelp.com.
Hey, my name is Craig and I am the owner of Love to Play Bingo, which is an online bingo comparison site and I thought I would put this article together to help people out who want to know more about affiliate marketing and for people who are thinking about giving it a go.
My site is aimed at confused bingo players but that does not mean that affiliate marketing stops with just gambling. You will be surprised at how many sites on the web have affiliates programs. Usually, there is an affiliate link on the bottom of the page of the site if they have one (see the image below for the link boxed in red). Affiliate programs usually take a few minute to sign up to, and once you have imbedded the links and banners on your site you are good to go.
Image may be NSFW.
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What is Affiliate Marketing?
The way affiliate marketing works is based around promoting a website’s business or services. You as an affiliate will either have to gain visitors to a site, subscribers or most popular, sale leads. It is usually referred to as paid on delivery. You will not get paid unless you deliver.
What do I Need to Get Started?
A website or blog is crucial to get started at affiliate marketing. A blog or site that is well established will give you better results to start with than with a site you just register today.
Before you start, you need to make sure if you want your site to be an informational site with the odd banners at the side, or you want your site to be a full affiliate site, where the sole purpose of the site is affiliate links.
Whatever you decide you need to make sure what niche your site will be about. There is no point having a site that promotes TVs, watches, cooker, and then gambling. You need to make a site that discusses and promotes similar products. Having a site that reviews TV with an affiliate link at the bottom of the review is perfect. Bear in mind that you need to sign up to all the affiliate programs from the different manufacturers of TVs. Then you as an affiliate will receive commissions for every person that you refer to the TV merchant who buys a TV.
But Wait
Many people believe that you can make an affiliate site today and then tomorrow be rich. I am sorry to disappoint you but it is really not that simple. If you had a huge advertising budget then, sure, you will get results a lot quicker. For the rest of us however, it is going to take some time.
Without Visitors to your site you are going to make no commissions whatsoever. You can either use such programs as Google Adsense to buy traffic to your site, or you need to get your site into the top of search engines. To do this you will either have to hire an SEO (which could have negative effects if you hire the wrong one) or you need to learn SEO (search engine optimisation) yourself.
The look and feel of your website can also play a big part. It is not essential, but a site that you think does not look professional will also have the same effect with other people. Getting a Designer and Developer to make your site look and function better can be very expensive. Knowing how to do this yourself will save you a hell of a lot of money in the beginning. It is just taking the time to learn.
Most affiliate programs will not pay you the $5 you made last month if that is all you made. You need to read the small print as many affiliates have a withdrawal minimum and they will not let you withdraw any funds from your account if it is below this minimum.
This post was written by guest author, Craig Crossland, who runs Love to Play Bingo.
His site is a bingo portal that is aimed at bingo players who are unsure which bingo site to join and he wrote this post to give you an insight into affiliate marketing.
Drop a comment below and he will be more than happy to reply.
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