I am going to give you a short and simple definition.

Affiliate Program – is a web-based pay-for-performance program designed to compensate “affiliate” partner web sites for driving qualified leads or sales to a “merchant” web site. The merchant pays a percentage of any sale resulting from a click-through (via banner or text link) to their web site from an affiliate partner’s web site. Payment Service providers like Clickbank.Com or commissionjunction.com help track and manage these payments.

An example of an Affiliate Program is Amazon.com. When Amazon.com started its affiliate program several years back, it was revolutionary. Amazon.com (the merchant) simply allowed webmasters (affiliates) to place text links or banners on their site that could be clicked on by visitors/viewers. By clicking on these, the visitors were taken to the Amazon.com site where they made purchases. And, for every sale completed by one of these visitors, the affiliate was paid. Because affiliates who participate in these programs have a stake in the response rate (they get paid for responses, known as click-throughs, and purchases made by the viewer), they do everything possible to drive traffic from their site onto the Amazon.com site, and everything they can to prompt a sale once the visitor is taken there.

The traffic sent from an affiliate’s web site is tracked through software and every time a visitor clicks-through and makes a purchase, Amazon.com pays the affiliate (usually with a monthly or bi-weekly check).

As an affiliate, you are a sales person for the site you are directing traffic to. However, to say you are a sales person in the proper sense of the word is not strictly correct, because the selling is done pretty much by the merchant. You see the merchant has already invested lots of money on their product and service, and on their marketing too. Your goal is to effectively deliver traffic to the merchants site who then takes care of everything from that point on. There are two ways you can deliver traffic: a) directly, when you send traffic straight to the merchant’s site from its source and b) indirectly, when you first engage the visitor in your own website before sending them to the merchant. We can summarise your activities as an affiliate as follows:

Generate Traffic (Visitors) to Your Site

Engage the Visitor and Make a Presell

Direct the Visitor By Making a Call To Action (in this case to purchase the merchants product)

Ensure the Viewer Returns to Your Site for Future Purchases I am going to introduce you to a very good online marketplace that is ideal for practicing your affiliate marketing skills.

To learn more on this subject and more click the link below in the bio box and go to my website.

The internet is one huge marketplace. Realize in order to be able to sell your products in such a huge place like this, you will need a store… a web store. This web store takes the form of your website.

A website that sells information products does not have to be complicated. In fact, the simpler it is, the better it would be. Designing your website would depend on what products you’re selling, and how many products you’re actually offering.

If all you are offering for sale is a single product, all you would need is to host one page on the website. This single page is known as a sales page or sales copy. This sales page Is where you would try to persuade your site visitors to purchase yours products. The way You can go about doing this varies greatly. Normally, web marketers hire copywriters to Write a sales page for their products. However, these copywriters are not cheap. The best ones can charge thousands of dollars per sales page. Some will want to charge You a percent of the sales you make… a cut of the profits. If you have chosen a good Copywriter you can trust that whatever he writes will result in good sales for your internet Business.

The big question for you really is, Can you afford to pay their price? Another option for you if copywriting is a little to pricey is to write your own sales copy. You can do this if you keep in mind the following guidelines:

? Your sales page should start with an attention grabbing headline. It should be your Big Idea or Your Hook laser beamed at your targeted customer. If you’re selling an eBook about dog grooming for example, you could emphasize on the best benefit that your readers would be able to derive from this ebook. Here is an illustrative headline: “Finally, An Ebook That Reveals Easy And Comprehensive Steps In Keeping Your Canine Companion Squeaky Clean!” Remember, a headline should be able to grab your visitors’ attention to compel them to read the rest of what you have to say. Always be guided by this rule. If your reader is not compelled to click past the headline, then no sales will be made.

? After your salutations (“Dear Sir/Ma’am;” “Dear Internet Friend;” Dear Valued Customer;” etc.), you should first introduce who you are and what your business is about. This would make your readers know that they are dealing with a credible expert in the field. Also, this would diminish the anonymity that sometimes makes them hesitant to trust you with their hard-earned money.

? Establish burning need for the product you’re about to offer. Talk about the market and why there is a need for your goods. This can be accomplished by Painting a clear picture in the prospects mind about all the problems out there That need to be solved. I is then very easy to reveal your product as the supreme Answer to all these problems. As in our example of dog grooming, you could create the image in our prospects mind of necessity for your eBook if you would discuss the rather unpleasant smell that unclean pups would leave in the house, or the fur that comes off their bodies because of their lack of grooming, etc.

? Reveal your product as an answer these annoying problems and more.

? List ALL the benefits that could be derived from the use of your product.

? Create a sense of urgency. This is their Call to Action! This is where you would make the sale. You would want them to be reading your copy with such excitement that they already have their credit card in hand and are just looking for a place to punch in the numbers and make the purchase for your product. This is the most important element of your sales page.

This sales page can easily become your entire website by itself. Simply add a payment button that would lead your hungry customers to the payment processing page. This is dependent on the type of payment processor you have set up. PayPal, 2checkout, and ClickBank are the most popular payment processors for online businesses. I personally use Paypal but all these three are good.

If you would prefer not writing your own copy you could use an affiliate program to have all the hard work done successfully for you. I have used a program that does it all and allows you have a full blown web store up and running right away. It also supplys all the training and support you would need.