Planning Legitimate Affiliate Marketing

I'm glad to be back and posting.  I have not vanished or otherwise left this site stranded alone in the Internet void.  I apologize for not keeping a more visible presence; however, I've been busy revamping my primary business site, updating site files, and making modifications to my shopping cart.  This has required a fair amount of work as I write and code my own pages, and this is not something I'm particularly good at.

The particular home business system that I've been concerned about lately is affiliate marketing,  And I'm concerned about business newcomers starting affiliate markting and understanding that longterm success requires business know-how and planning.  This kind of marketingis a retail model that I employ, and one that I personally like as it seems to suit my personality.  I am not a terribly gregarious, social person, and I tend to prefer working alone or at least alone-ish, and this brand of direct marketing allows that.  So what is it?

Legitimate Affiliate Marketing

In my opinion, affiliate marketing is the collective body of practices and techniques that have to do with selling products of other people and businesses for a commission.   Because this is a commission based business, affiliate success depends on commission percentage and numbers of sales.

Legitimate affiliate marketing itself is simply a way of doing business, perhaps most closely related to direct marketing.  Direct marketing, of course, is the selling of products through done through direct mail, door-to-door, late-night t.v. infomercials, tabloid ads in the supplements to Sunday papers, and so forth.  So this is simply another form–highly effective–of retail selling.  The Internet has given direct marketers and affiliate marketer alike yet another means of reaching potential customers.

How you get numbers of sales is important  and the subject of never ending conversation and debate.  Basically, making money with  affiliate marketing is about the numbers, and ethical affiliate marketing practices–the only ones we are concerned about–are a give and take between getting the greatest numbers of visitors to your site pages and conversion.  Although affiliate marketing does not necessarily have to use the Internet, the Internet is an ideal tool because you have potential access to vast numbers of potential clients.

For better or worse, affiliate marketing has largely been co-opted by Internet marketing, which is the business sub-niche that specializes in selling information products about how to make money.  As a result, the field is frequently littered by bold, largely unsubtantiated claims that run the gamut of essentially harmless information to the most outrageous and flamboyant bullshit.  Honest marketers use hype to create excitement for a product but stay within ethical boundries of product representation.  Nevertheless, Internet marketing has created a sort of feeding frenzy in this area because of the potential for making money on the Internet with little upfront, start up cost.  One of the results of this furor has been the misrepresentation of affiliate marketing as a sort of get-rich-quick scheme, and it isn't.

My point is probably not clear, but what I want to convey is that success depends upon treating your marketing with respect and as a business, not just a set of techniques and procedures.  Yes, techniques and procedures are important, but without business planning you are not likely to be successful over the long haul.  Business planning gives you a measure of control and predictability over the future, whichh is why it is planning.  Done well, it will serve as a predictor for your success.

Here is some advice from the sba.gov:

The importance of a comprehensive, thoughtful business plan cannot be overemphasized. Much hinges on it: outside funding, credit from suppliers, management of your operation and finances, promotion and marketing of your business, and achievement of your goals and objectives.

This sounds just like conventional business.  And that is my point.  Although as a small, single person affiliate marketing business, you might not have to worry about credit from suppliers (but this could be a concern depending on the scope of your operation), affiliate marketing is still conventional business, and you need planning just as in any other business.

What are the most very basic elements of business planning?  Again, the sba.gov advises:

• What service or product does your business provide and what needs does it fill?
• Who are the potential customers for your product or service and why will they purchase it from you?
• How will you reach your potential customers?
• Where will you get the financial resources to start your business.

We do offer a video course on the fundamentals of affiliate marketing.  Feel free to visit our sales page here or here!