The Benefits Of Being An Affiliate
Let’s take a quick look at the benefits of starting your own affiliate business. We’ll leave the details of each point till later, as we’ll be mentioning them a lot during this series of articles ...
- Very cheap (or even Free) to start up.
- Very cheap (or even Free) to promote.
- You work at your own pace, being your own boss.
- You don’t have to pay anyone to do the job for you; an affiliate business is very easy to manage -- if you know what you’re doing, which is exactly what these articles will show you.
- Worldwide, easy to reach customers.
- Easy and inexpensive to test and automate.
And there’s even more benefits ...
- You don’t need to have your own product to sell.
- Brand yourself as an expert.
- You get collateral publicity -- you can advertise your own products when you have them.
- Make money in other ways, e.g. ad placement, e-zine publishing, article posting, etc.
All these benefits, and many others, are very promising, and they give the affiliate business model unquestionable allure. But the most important one, the basis of and the reason for affiliate programs, is that
you don’t need to have your own product. We’re going to talk about this specific benefit right now, since it’s going to be the basis for everything we do from now on as affiliates ...
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There are many ways to make money. For example ...
- You can manufacture a product and then sell it
- You can market your professional services, e.g. legal advice, medical advice, network administration, etc.
- You can work for a company using your education as an accountant, a programmer, a translator, etc.
- You can have a job related to your life-long experience, e.g. as a driver, a sales-person, a telemarketer, etc.
But do you see what all the above have in common? You must already posses either a product, a service, or significant experience in a certain field
before you can make any serious money.
So what would your answer be if I was to ask you this question:
“If you don’t have a product to sell or a service to offer, would you make money?” I
did ask a lot of my friends that question. And the answer has always been a resounding
No! But let’s take a look at something we’ve all seen before. A super-market.
Super-markets present us with many, many different products. Be it packaged food, toys, cigarettes, baby diapers, perfumes, or anything, there are two things to notice about super-markets in general:
- They do NOT manufacture any of those products.
- They mostly sell the exact same things.
So how do super-markets make money even though they don’t really own those products, and what makes one super-market any different, i.e. more successful and profitable, than another?
Well, super-markets actually provide us with a service, but it’s a subtle one. It’s
convenience. They save us the trouble of going to a dozen different specialized stores, by grouping most everything we might need in one place.
But that only answers the first part of the question. We still don’t know what makes one super-market better than any other.
Well, the answer to this one is not as subtle, but it can be overlooked just the same. The secret lies in
the selection, the presentation, the atmosphere, the friendliness of staff ... the overall
look and feel of the place.
So how does any of that relate to
YOU, the affiliate? Let’s think about it ...
You don’t have a
physical product to sell, and perhaps your college education (if you had one) cannot be offered as a service over the Internet, and you don’t even have experience in anything yet. Even so, you can still offer people a service ...
your Website. And what makes up that service?...
- The design, the colours, the organization, and the overall look and feel of your Website.
- The content on your Website.
- The focus of your Website.
- The top-quality selection of products (of other merchants) you offer on your Website.
- The attention and care you provide your visitors, making sure they will only find the best products and enjoy their time on your Website.
All that is your
service. Let’s assume for a minute that you’re opening a Website selling music CDs. You’re an affiliate of CDNow.com and Amazon.com. So what? There are million other Websites doing the exact same thing, some even selling the exact same titles and albums. So the physical products you promote don’t distinguish you in any way.
What does? The way you assemble and present your products, the look and feel of your Website, and the superior support and attention your provide your visitors.
That’s your real product!
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Now that you
really know what affiliate businesses are all about, it’s time to put some meat on them bones
.
In the following article, we’re going to discuss something we all like.
Money ... that got your attention, didn’t it?
That’s good, because the next article will show you the
how, the
why, and the
what about affiliate businesses and money. So until then ...
Best Regards,
Dr. Tamer Aly
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