Psssst.... Did you know that most successful web sites have thousands of other webmasters working for them for free!
What's that?... You can hire free labor on the web?..
Well, not exactly. This new, powerful sales machine is called an affiliate program. Affiliate programs are yet another marketing power tool that the World Wide Web has spawned.
Here's the whole inside scoop, from a guy who's been working on both ends of the spectrum for years...
The idea behind an affiliate, or associate program is simple. You recruit hundreds or even thousands of webmasters to help you sell your wares, and pay them for each visitor or sale. From a business owners point of view, you can't go wrong. You pay only for performance and you end up reaching far more customers than you could reach yourself.
Not for you? Wait one minute!!!....
Before you decide NOT to offer an affiliate program at your website, read the following...
"By 2002, a full twenty-five percent of the expected $37.5 billion in Internet retail sales, not including autos, will have originated on affiliate sites" -- Nicole Vanderbilt, Jupiter Communications
Convinced yet?
Let me back this up with a few more stats...
When I released my Insider Internet Marketing book I had a decision to make. Should I sell it myself and take the lion's share of the profits? Or should I let others help me market it and spilt the profits with them? Thankfully, my decision was made for me. Once I released it I realized there was no way I could continue to market it effectively while juggling 25 other small biz owner's tasks. I immediately set up a simple associate program.
Well over half of my sales have been generated by my associates. A few experts told me that paying my associates 40% of the profits was a mistake. Is doubling sales and splitting the extra profits a mistake? I think not. Without my associate program, I would not have been able to sell close to 10,000 copies the first year. With a new edition due out in a few months, I plan to split the profits on another 10,000 copies!
So, are you convinced yet that YOU need your own associate program at YOUR site? If so, you're making the right move.
It's really not as difficult to set up as you may think. Thanks to the high demand for affiliate systems recently, there are now lots of ways to set up your own associate program.