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Affiliate Programs Equal Secondary Money
Author: Hope C. Clark
We see them on websites everywhere—banner ads representing some product, book or service. We glance at them and move on, occasionally clicking one when the price or item piques our interest. These are affiliate programs for the web site owner.
Affiliate programs pay a third party to sell a product—on commission. It’s a win-win situation with the product’s owner paying other people to sell his product. As a writer with a website, you have a double option—that of being the product owner paying others to sell your work, or being the person who sells another’s work. On my website, FundsforWriters.com, I do both.
I have e-books about various writing markets. They steadily sell. I also offer these e-books under an affiliate program where other writers list them for sale on their website. In exchange, they receive 40-50% of the price. Doing absolutely nothing, I earn money and the listing writer earns money.
I also use services like Vistaprint.com for postcards and business cards, Payloadz.com for storage and downloading of the ebooks, and Aweber.com for newsletter hosting. After becoming satisfied with the services of these companies, I then agreed to become an affiliate for these folks. Vistaprint.com deposits a credit of one or two dollars per sale when someone clicks that link and buys a product. When those credits add up, I buy more postcards and business cards. Everyone is happy in these arrangements.
Payloadz.com stores files and connects with payment programs like PayPal.com. When someone clicks on Payloadz.com from my website, and signs up for the Payloadz.com service for their own ebooks, then I am paid an affiliate fee for the referral. Aweber.com does the same for newsletter hosting. Some sites use Amazon.com’s associate program of earning commissions for the sale of books.
The trick to affiliate sales is common sense and class. It’s easy to clutter your website with banner ads and links to other products and make it difficult for the casual web browser to tell exactly what your website represents…other than affiliate sales. Affiliate sales should be minor compared to the purpose of your website, and they should be products or services that you endorse. Post them tastefully on your website or quickly become recognized as a novice just out to make a buck.
I will not endorse anything I have not tested. When a previous newsletter hosting service changed hands and declined in quality, the affiliate link was yanked down from my website. Listing a link on your website is telling your customer that you highly recommend the product. If you cannot make that claim, then don’t get into that affiliate program. Your customers need to trust you. The Internet abounds with money-grubbing schemes, some of them connected to affiliate programs. Know what you list before doing so.
As for your own products, you have some control over who signs up for the affiliate program. Make sure you have pictures for them to use and pay them promptly. Monthly is a good rule of thumb. When your affiliates trust you, they pump sales for you harder at their website, in their newsletters and in their speaking engagements.
Affiliate programs are as lucrative as you make them. About a tenth of the e-book sales from my website take place through an affiliate. FFW receives half of that income. Those are sales that may not have taken place if not for affiliate websites. You won’t get rich on affiliate sales, but you do live easier.
Keep an eye out when surfing the Internet. Note those little ads here and there and check out where affiliates lie. An easy way to identify them is with a coding at the end of an url. Amazon.com assigned an associate number to tack on at the end of that long url where you find a book. That simple addition tells Amazon to pay an affiliate a couple of dollars for aiding a sale. Most affiliates work the same.
To find out more about affiliate sales and how to set them up for your e-books and products, look at payment venues like Clickbank.com, PayPal.com and PayLoadz.com. If you are interested in selling someone else’s product, go to their website and look for an affiliate link where they will supply you with instructions.
It’s easy money. Put a few of those dollars in your pocket while pursuing your writing career. The bigger you become, the more you publish; the more readers visit your website, the more money you can collect and aid your writing career.
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