Home Based Internet Businesses
Selling for others: your home based Internet business.
Selling for Others
One of the best of home based Internet businesses is selling
other people's goods. The principle is not restricted to home
businesses, moreover, and many companies become affiliates to
supplement their revenues.
Amazon Books started the idea. Companies providing literary content,
or selling travel products etc., placed a link from their site
to a recommended book, a convenience to visitors that also earned
commission for the site. The link recorded the site originating
the sale, and software maintained by Amazon managed all aspects
of the process thereafter.
The link was a simple piece of HTML code, readily cut and pasted
to the page, and affiliates could view sales through a password-managed
account.
Amazon still run their own system, but most companies have handed
the process over to affiliate solution providers. The fee or percentage
of sales taken by the third-part company covers:
-
maintaining lists of potential affiliates and companies looking
for affiliates.
-
supplying links to the affiliate sites.
-
maintaining records of sales and commissions earned.
-
providing password-secured sites where sales records can
be viewed.
-
publishing a simple-to-read report.
-
paying commission at agreed intervals.
Our resources page
lists directories of the better-known affiliate solution providers.
Selling Email Addresses and Pay-by-Lead Deals
Free newsletters are a good way of building traffic, and selling
the emails obtained is another popular form of Internet home business.
There are also pay-by-lead deals listed on our resources
page.
Dealing Direct
You can sometimes cut out the middleman and deal direct with
the companies concerned, though that's not recommended for the
average home business. The link software itself is readily
available (product details here)
but you'll have to come to some arrangement with the company concerned
over its purchase, coding and/or installation, particularly in
the sections managing sales and commissions.
Becoming an Affiliate
How do you become an affiliate? Simple. You either look at the
merchants represented by affiliate
solution providers, or visit specialist
affiliate sites presenting their recommendations. Alternatively,
you can make your own list by searching for affiliate opportunities
available from the companies of interest to you. You'll appraise
the goods or services concerned, scrutinize the terms and conditions
applying, and sign up. An online form will ask for details of
yourself, your website and the account into which the commissions
will be paid. Acceptance is often automatic — particularly
if you have already been accepted by the affiliate solution provider
— or you'll get an email from the merchant a day or so later
when they've inspected your site.
Finding an Affiliate Solution Provider
We list directories on our resources page, but you need to:
-
shop around for the best deal, one where companies
- supply quality goods/services
- have popular products/services that really sell
- offer lifetime commissions
- happily provide names of other affiliates
- assist their affiliates with good product information
- don't insist on exclusive contracts
- allow independent sales copy/evaluations
-
consult third-party
sites and manuals for advice on selecting a competent
and reputable provider: some 40% of companies are not apparently
happy with their initial choice.
General Considerations: Performance
Creating a site with dozens of affiliate links is just the start.
You'll need to work hard to:
-
make your site outstanding: i.e.
-
establish trust,
confidence and authority.
-
actually sell the
affiliate products.
It's easy to become an affiliate. There's no a sign-up fee, and
many companies allow a free trial of their products. But you must
remember that competition is fierce. The popular products are
promoted by thousands (and sometimes tens of thousands) of affiliates.
Our resources section
points you to advice, courses and ebooks on Internet marketing,
but the points constantly stressed are:
-
planning:
find out what's really selling, and by what methods.
-
content: your site must provide free/unique/helpful content
to be popular.
-
research: you must understand
affiliate products to endorse them.
-
suitability: products must be appropriate to your visitor's
needs and wants.
-
quality: you need top-notch products you can be proud of.
- commissions should be sufficiently generous to repay your
efforts in promoting the products.
- do not engage in hard-sell, but create a willingness to purchase
by engendering trust and confidence in your visitors.
- replace banners supplied by informative text links —
if allowed by the merchant.
- consider adding a doorway page between your recommendation
and the merchant's site, one where you can supply more information
to the potential purchaser.
- tacking on affiliate programs to an existing site doesn't
usually work: you'll need to redesign the site around a tightly-focused
group of affiliate opportunities.
Current Picture
Affiliate selling has become much more difficult in the last
two years, with tens of thousands of affilates promoting the same
product. Most earn very little.
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