Affiliate Sales And Marketing
Sales Commission in Affiliate Marketing
Author: Laura Evans
This article will provide some useful information to those who are planning to start affiliate marketing. The profit in this business is the sales commission. Affiliates are interested in the products that offer high sales commissions. The merchants want to sell their products but they want to pay less sales commission to get the maximum benefit.
This article will guide the merchants on how to set their sales commission. Also it will tell the affiliates how to choose the products on the basis of sales commission offered.
Affiliate Marketers and Sales Commission
Whenever an affiliate marketer plans to enter into this field, the following questions arise in his mind:
“Will I be able to earn commission by selling merchant’s products? What will be my percentage? Will I be able to earn a good amount from selling the products or not?”
There are different types of affiliate programs. The first type is called “Pay per Sale”, the second is “Pay per Lead” and last is “Pay per Click”. There are some more types, but these three are the most popular among affiliate marketers.
In the pay per sale option, the merchant pays the affiliates on every sale. Usually the commission rate is anywhere between 10-50%. The products that are really hot in the market usually give less commission. In the pay per lead, the affiliate is paid for every person that is registered on the merchant website. Usually a visitor is offered to use a free product on a trial basis and their credit card information is stored. The visitor’s credit card is not charged during the trial period. After the trial period has expired, if the visitor is interested, he will be charged. In the pay per click option, the affiliate is paid for every click that is made on his affiliate link. The affiliate is paid for every click, even if the visitors do not make any purchases. Obviously the commission on per click is much less as compared to other options.
In the beginning, only select the products that are hot and are really making sales, even if their sales commission is lower. Greater sales will compensate you. If you are choosing the product just on the basis of high profits and not on the basis of its demand, then you may suffer. Another good way is to choose the hot products with less profit and some new products with high profit. Then keep an eye on your sales. If the new products are giving you the sales then it is ok. Otherwise remove them and select some other new product with good sales commission.
If your website has really a good and constant flow of traffic, then pay per click is a very good option for you. Because you are paid for every click and you are not required to make any sales.
Merchants and Sales Commission
If you are a merchant, then always offer a commission that is both acceptable by your affiliates and you. If you offer a very low commission, then there are less chances of affiliate’s interest in your products and this may reduce your sales. On the other hand, if you are offering a very high commission, it will attract the affiliates but in the long term you may suffer. So always try to offer a reasonable commission.
If you are a merchant and are going to introduce a new product to the market, then you can offer some really high commissions in the start. This may be like 50% of the sale. This will attract the affiliates and you will get a large number of affiliates in very little time. The affiliates will be highly motivated to make as many sales as they can so that they can earn high commissions. This will greatly increase your sales. Once your product has become popular and in demand, then you may reduce the sales commission gradually.
As a conclusion, setting a reasonable commission is an important factor for the merchants to do good business. Also the affiliate marketers should select the products that are giving them good profit and are easy to sell.
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-marketing-articles/sales-commission-in-affiliate-marketing-1476347.html
About the Author
Want to learn the *real* secret to making Affiliate cash without a product or a website – and using unlimited FREE traffic? Check this out… http://internetmarketing-consulting.com
Is there a way to know how many sales I make in affiliate marketing business?
Hi. I am an affiliate of several companies that sell products and services. My question is how do I know if I made any sales? These organizations claim that they attach cookies to visitors that come from my site and if they buy their product/service I get paid. What if i make 10 sales but they only tell me that I made 1? Is there a way to check them? I don’t want to get ripped off for my efforts. Is there some kind of tracking device?
How can I get a large amount of traffic to my site which converts to sales, I am marketing affiliate products?
I have used classified ads, PPC, blogs, only to have traffix trikle in and no sales. I need to find a way to get tens of thousands of potential targeted leads to my sites and have a decent portion convert to sales. Any suggestions that are relatively inexpensive (within $100/ month marketing budget)?
What is the FASTES way to make affiliate sales?
I’ve been doing affiliate marketing for sometime now and haven’t got the results I want…..
if anyone is successful please give me an HONEST answer….
I already know ALL the basic methods….I want to know the FASTESSSSS way to gain sales
ClickBank affiliate sales marketing questions!?
i am an affiliate for various products sold on clickbank, and i am just wondering what compels these people to actually pay me? correct me if im wrong, but clickbank pays the affiliate (me) a commision for any sales made from the product ONLY IF they access and buy the product from a link saying that you are the one that brought them here to buy the product (hoplink). well my question is if there is any way to enforce these people to pay me my commisions!? i mean what is stopping them from taking 100% of the sale and saying thanks for the traffic????
Question about Affiliate Marketing Sales?
Say you promoted a merchant ok, and your says for period 1st jan 09 – 1st april 09, you had 700 clicks for them, generated £10,000 worth of sales and earned £600.00 But in 1st jan 10 – 1st april 10, you had over double the clicks to retailer, 1500 clicks, but you only sold £2,000 worht and earned £100.
Is that a realistic drop, or would you want to investigate if sales were being generated properly by the retailer.
Think you need to visit dumb affiliate
http://squidoo.com/dumb-affiliate-
It is a realistic drop.
This last 8 months have seen merchants drop their per click payments due to the economic climate. Businesses have had to make cut backs on their outgoings so ad clicks was one of the first things for an online business to cut back on.
The revenues are slowly starting to pick up again but the PPC rates are still fairly low comapred to what they where a year ago.
Getting traffic is a combination of a lot of things. The key to success is to create great content that visitors want to use, search engines will love and other websites will naturally link to. Of course, it’s easier said than done.
You can use pay per click advertising in the search engines to reach audiences looking for your products. You can use Google Adwords http://www.google.com/adwords or Yahoo http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com
Here are some shoestring marketing ideas that can help you get the visitors you need at the least cost possible:
1. Create the best content you can with the best products you can possibly offer. Your content is your best advertisement – if visitors love your content, then they will go back and spread the word to others.
2. Improve your conversion. Getting visitors is one thing; getting them to buy your products is a whole different story. Read the article ” How To Sell More on the Web: 30 Tips To Increase Conversion Rates For An Ecommerce Site ” http://www.powerhomebiz.com/092006/ecommerce.htm for tips on how to improve your conversion rates.
3. Rank well in the search engines (organic search results, not the pay per click). SEs can be a big source of traffic. The key is to create the best content in your niche. If you have good content, other websites will gladly link to you and offer your site as a resource to their audience. Check the on-page factors and be sure to get linked from authority sites in your topic area.
If you are going to read only one piece on search engine optimization, I suggest you read Brett Tabke of WebmasterWorld.com’s “Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone: 26 steps to 15k a day.” http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum3/2010.htm
4. Send out press releases. While outfits charge as much as $650 per release, there are free press release submission places on the Web. Press releases allow you to (a) attract media attention; (b) get more back links to your website without sending each website an email request; and (c) get more visibility especially if your press release gets in Google News or Yahoo News.
http://www.prleap.com/sign_up.html
http://i-newswire.com/
http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/
http://www.pressbox.co.uk/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi
http://www.pr.com/press-releases
http://www.prfree.com/
http://www.clickpress.com/releases/index.shtml
http://www.theopenpress.com/
http://www.przoom.com/
http://www.prweb.com
http://www.newswiretoday.com/
http://www.free-press-release.com/
5. Submit articles. Write articles and submit them to websites accepting author submissions. You get exposure for your business; establishes you as an authority in your field, and allows you to get backlinks for your website. If 50 websites publish your article and it contains a link back to your website, then you easily get 50 links from a single article. The more links you have, the greater your chances for increasing your search engine rankings.
Here is a comprehensive list of where to submit your articles http://answers.yahoo.com/question/;_ylt=AhzreGmnCUicOoyedqypscUjzKIX?qid=1006022407481
6. Make it easy for users to recommend your site. Viral marketing is very important — and easy to tap on the Web. But give your users the tools. Get a Recommend this Site script from websites such as cgiscripts.com and similar directories of scripts. Some even go as far as giving incentives to those who recommend the site to their friends. If only 10 people go to your site, but these 10 people invite 10 more – that’s additional traffic that you get for FREE!
Recommend Site Scripts (various) http://php.resourceindex.com/Complete_Scripts/Website_Promotion/Recommend_Site/
Big Nose Bird Recommend this Site http://bignosebird.com/carchive/birdcast.shtml
CGI Resource Index http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/Perl/Website_Promotion/Recommend_Site/
Hostscripts http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/Site_Recommendation/index.html
7. Post a link to your site for free where it is allowed (always read the Terms of Use). Examples are:
Craigslist http://www.craigslist.com
Google Base http://base.google.com
Classifieds for Free http://www.classifiedsforfree.com/...
Text Link Exchange http://www.txtswap.com/
Recycler.com http://www.recycler.com/
Yahoo Classifieds http://classifieds.yahoo.com/
US Free Ads http://www.usfreeads.com/
If you’re dealing with reputable companies, don’t worry. They’re more than willing to pay you a few bucks to keep the program attractive to you and others just like you.
Some companies use promotional codes to identify which affiliate send the business their way. The problem with these programs is that your friends might forget to insert the promo code. If the program also gives your friend a discount, then she is highly motivated to insert the code. Try to select these.
It isn’t in anybody’s interest to cheat you or other affiliates. Publicly traded companies must prove that they have adequate controls of all their financial dealings, and this would just be one of the items that would have to pass that test. If you’re working with a small, privately-held company, it’s possible that the controls aren’t there. But, these companies need you far more that the big boys do, and they know that making sure you earn good dollars is the best way to keep the sales rolling in.
Was in your shoes.
Now I discovered that doing the Affiliate Junktion program which pays for Leads – yes just leads, not sales, changed my situation.
I found it easier to make money with this as most people will not mind giving their email address online. I get paid $2 each time this happens.
Since you already know the basics, you can give the program a re try. Good luck.