I have had websites selling products and services since 1992. Yes, I'm dating myself here but also showing my experience in the online marketing arena. I have joined a few of the best affilliate marketing companies because I believe their products are ones that others would be interested in and the payout for each click or email entry was decent. The reality of it all is in the numbers.
Affilliate marketing can be fun and addicting, while also very frustrating. It is like any other sales career - it's a numbers game. If you have one specific line of products you focus in on, for example health care products like diet pills or weight loss supplements, then it is easier to keep your sanity. However, if you get into affilliate marketing to just make money and are just going after the highest payout item, you variety of choices will vary greatly and may confuse the consumer.
Affilliate Scout offers a large list of some affilliate marketing groups there are. You can select a category on the left of their website and see which affilliate program to choose from.
If you have a little money for a budget, my advice for you are to set up a professional looking website that has a domain name that is similar to the industry you are trying to promote. Place on it tons of great content and relevant free information about the industry, its trends and products available. Have the affilliate ads placed strategically throughout the page, along with having a Google AdWords campaign running for relevant ads. This will give you two ways of getting paid – by the affilliate company as well as by Google.
All in all, there are pros and cons that I have learned about affilliate marketing that I'd like to pass onto you before you get started. This will help you determine whether it is worth your time or not.
Pros:
- You can make a lot of money in the business if persistent with adding valuable content and not spamming emails of people you don't know.
- You can enjoy the benefits of working from home on your own time.
- You do not have to have your own product or service because you are promoting the merchants products or services.
Cons:
- You need a large subscriber list in order to reach a high volume of potential customers.
- The ratio of ads displayed to the amount of clicks and payouts you get is about one click per every 10,000 displayed ads. That is a huge number that you may not be able to wait for (or afford, if paying for traffic).
- Sometimes the merchant closes down the affilliate offer without informing the affilliate. Therefore, you end up running ad campaigns for them and then not getting paid because the offer is no longer valid. Due to this, you have to keep in continuous contact with the affilliate marketing companies website for updated offers and dates of when they expire. If you do not have the time to do this each day, it is not worth the hassle.
If you work hard at it and are persistent after a few years, you can make some money and possibly even become a superaffilliate who makes substantial income. To me, after about six months of getting paid less than it was worth, I did not find it very lucrative. To each his own.
