Can You Succeed Marketing An Affiliate Based Program?
by: Ian Bosworth
Internet Marketing can be an enjoyable and profitable
experience, but it can also be very frustrating, time
consuming, money draining and anti social.
So why do we keep putting ourselves through all this
pain?
Well, I’m sure that for everyone there is a
different answer depending on your driving force,
but for me it’s the thought that one day I’ll
succeed and make a tidy income. God knows how many
‘Get Rich’ schemes are out there but experience
has taught me that 95% of them are simply schemes
for making the owner rich and not the affiliate. On
the plus side, they do teach you the pitfalls of Internet
Marketing and hopefully move you that little further
down the line towards your ultimate goal.
You may think that this article is simply a moan about
the chaos which is ‘Internet Marketing’
but I assure you that’s not the case. My aim
is to pass on the good and bad of this type of venture
and to hope that I can help someone to avoid the many
obstacles and reach there goal reasonable unscathed.
Can you make money from a program which doesn’t
sell a tangible product?
Time and time again you’ll see these type of
programs – They’ll say pay $5 as a one
off payment and we’ll give you thousands in
return. The word that comes to mind is ‘Pyramid’.
Logic tells you that $5 can never become $1,000 without
you sponsoring thousands of people and then they’ve
got to sponsor thousands of people and so on. At some
point you run out of people and the system fails.
You loose your money but the owner makes a tidy sum.
Maybe the answer is to invent your own ‘Get
Rich’ scheme but then, how do these people sleep
at night?
Personally, these schemes should be outlawed because
all they do is serve to undermine the ethics of Internet
Marketing.
So, can you make money from these types of programs
– My experience tells me ‘No’
Should you avoid them?
Most certainly ‘Yes’
What about programs where you pay a monthly fee but
again there isn’t a product?
These are very much the affiliate based programs and
do have some merits. They tend to offer the same,
old same old, free resource tools, safe lists to join
and a type of ad co-op guaranteeing leads and/or sign-ups.
Of course, the tools are usually obsolete in today’s
market, the safe lists are more geared towards the
owner making an advantage by you joining using their
affiliate ID and the guaranteed leads are too old
to be of any use. I’m sorry for being a cynic
but I’m sure there are people out there who
are reading this article and nodding there head because
they’ve been there.
On the plus side these programs do have a sustainable
growth because of the monthly income and so getting
personally sponsored affiliates can recoup your loses
over time. The problem however, is that people tend
to be reticent to join because of the fees and then
become despondent when they struggle to get affiliates
for themselves. Most of the programs offer free membership
and ‘Yes’ you will get tens to hundreds
of people joining the free program but the ratio from
free to paid is very poor.
People enter these programs believing, that by simply
joining, they will be given thousands of Dollars for
doing zilch! Like I said these programs do have there
merits and if you stick in and spend loads of your
money on advertising, hours of your time promoting
to rotators and safe lists then you may come out the
other side breaking even or with a small profit. Don’t
get me wrong I still have some involvement with these
types of programs – Why? – Because I believe
the hype that I can be the one success story and come
out the other side, a rich man!
What about the programs where you pay a monthly fee
and promote a product?
If the product is unique in some way, affordable to
the masses, useable and needed and you can get in
on the ground floor then you could be onto a winner.
In my experience, it’s the product which brings
in the serious marketer not the affiliate program.
Think back to the early days of mobile phones, when
they use to be very bulky and expensive and people
were saying “They’ll never catch on”
However, the marketer with vision saw the mass potential
and stuck in. Oh how I wish I’d been in this
game then because now I wouldn’t be here typing
this article, I’d be on a beach somewhere and
my secretary would be typing this article. There are
other types of product based affiliate programs out
there which will also give you a chance for success,
but finding it is like crawling through a minefield.
Don’t simply sign up because it’s free
membership or the site looks professional, read all
the pages and understand the ethics of the owner.
Consider the product(s) on offer and think about your
target audience. The product(s) should be affordable,
useable, sellable, exciting and hopefully unique in
its market. The affiliate program should be affordable
and sustainable. Look at the Compensation plan and
consider how feasible it will be for you and your
potential team, to reach the profit line. Some plans
may look impressive but sometimes they dazzle you
with big Dollars. Look at the amount of paid sign-ups
required together with the percentages paid and compare
this to the cost of the program and the cost of advertising
needed to reach those required sign-ups. Work out
how long it will take you to break even, for instance,
if the cost of the program is $20 a month and you
spend $20 a month on advertising you may get 1 or
2 sign-ups a month. If the comp plan pays you $5 a
sign-up you’ll need 8 sign-ups to break even
but it may take you 4 to 8 months to get to that point.
So it could cost you between $160 and $320 to get
there.
Do your sums or you may never really break even?
You should look at the make-up of the down line and
how it fits in with the matrix/comp plan. Some down
lines have legs, in that you build so far down and
then the line splits off and begins again. This usually
happens when you reach another level in the comp plan,
but the resulting effect can make it hard to progress
to the next level. Some have a straight down line
so everyone who joins will be in your line. This can
be misleading in that you believe that it’s
your sign-up and you’ve earned money.
However, it does allow you to assess the popularity
of the program and help you decide if you should continue.
Now Image you’ve come across an affiliate site
(Not hard to do with today’s Internet) Ask yourself
the following questions:-
Does the site look impressive?
Does it make you want to read on?
Does it have a product that excites you?
Could you use the product?
Could you sell the product?
Would you buy the product?
Is the product affordable?
Do I get the product as part of the affiliate program?
Can I afford the monthly payment?
Do they have a worthwhile Compensation Plan?
Do they have a matrix or a straight down line?
How quickly will I break even?
Can I make a profit?
SO CAN YOU SUCCEED BY MARKETING AN AFFILIATE BASED
PROGRAM?
Find today’s ‘Mobile Phone’ with
an affordable affiliate program, offering you a good
compensation plan, workable matrix and responsive
down line and the answer is undoubtedly
‘YES’
Thanks for reading my article. If you want to subscribe
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http://www.profitmashine.com/biztipspop.html
About The Author
Ian Bosworth has over 2 years experience in Internet
marketing and has put all his ideas and knowhow into
his website and newsletter at http://www.profitmashine.com
