Saturday, August 15, 2009

Affiliate Marketing: The Hidden Path To Online Riches

By Mike Mullins

A frequent comment from successful marketers heard over and over again revolves around one particular question that they do not like answering. They are constantly being asked, "How can I make money really fast?"

Of course everyone wants to make money fast but there is not one answer on how to do that. In Internet marketing there are a million ways to get to one point on the map of failure or success and it cannot be mapped out for you by a simple answer to a simple question.

The obvious thing is that you will need to sell something if you want to make money online. While this is the simple answer, it just the start because the costs of creating and marketing something to sell can be a lot more than most people realize.

If you're interested in selling information products in a digital format, you can often save a lot of money by creating them yourself. It's a good idea to research the market first to make sure people are willing to pay for it. If you don't think you're a good writer, you can hire someone to write it for you or create a JV with a someone who can write but doesn't know how to market.

Of course, this is just the beginning of the journey you will be mapping out.

You will need to write a great sales letter. This is, by far, one of the most important things to do in the process. If you're a good copywriter, you can do this yourself, but doing it well and creating a salespage that converts is very challenging and time consuming. Although the cost of a professional copywriter can cause you to faint from sticker shock, it may be worth the expense if your product is something that justifies the cost.

It's also important to create good visual elements for your website. The internet is extremely visual so your graphics and design layout are very important. You can attempt to do this yourself if you have good artistic abilities and the software, but it may be worth tracking down a graphic designer if you're really serious about your site.

Unless you have a lot of extra cash laying around and a lot of time on your hands, the tasks involved with setting up a successful online business can seem daunting when you're first starting out. Regardless of what you might see on some less-than-upfront internet sites, there are a lot of start up costs to get everything set up properly.

Even if you do have the cash and know the way to getting these product inexpensively create, you might not want to take the time or the risk. If the product your product does not go over well, you will have paid out all of that cash yourself with no return on your time or monetary investment.

That initial expense of product creation is one of the reasons a great many marketers are attracted to affiliate marketing. No product creation costs are expected from a marketer just starting out online when they use affiliate marketing because the affiliate program owner/operator bears the costs associated with product creation and development. An affiliate program provides the Internet marketer with a commission for every sale he or she can produce and some of the commissions are very generous.

Affiliate marketing allows Internet marketers to sell products without a great deal of out of pocket expense of product creation. Basically the map is there for you to pick up and you choose the road to your financial freedom.

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