An introduction to affiliate marketing

What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a method of promoting web business in which an affiliate (publisher) is rewarded for every visitor, subscriber, customer, and/or sale provided through his/her efforts. Affiliate marketing is the use by a Web site that sells products of other Web sites, called affiliates, to help market the products. Amazon.com, the book seller, created the first large-scale affiliate programme and hundreds of other companies have since followed.
What are the benefits of affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing has become popular for Internet sites trying to create some extra income for their site, perhaps changing a hobby to a profitable, self-supporting business. Affiliate marketing has proved to be a cost-efficient, measurable method of delivering long-term results. Research points to this method of marketing will be an industry trend.

The benefits to the merchant are many:
First, it gives them a broader market to sell their product. More sites will naturally create more sales, if the sites they have chosen to use are in their niche marketing. The merchant needs to do their part by researching interested affiliate websites to make sure they are a good fit for that particular website.
Placing your merchandise with an affiliate program is the same as training a new sales assistant. It will take time and training to reach the fullest potential. This is another important reason to ensure you are using the sites that fit your target customer. Bringing consumers in from different websites also gives the merchant a better idea of consumer trends and needs.

How to be a successful affiliate marketer to bring home those extra dollars
There are a lot of ways to make money from affiliate marketing but have you heard of the 5 powerful methods you can use to make more money through affiliate marketing? Some of these tips will surprise you and you will surely ask yourself, why haven’t I thought of this before?
1. Create a networking website – this is one of the best ways to increase affiliate revenue because networking websites holds the attraction of having members who are looking to build interpersonal relationship with one another. For this reason, your visitors will not only go to your website to seek for the information they want, they will also visit your website for the simple reason that they want to talk to other members.
2. Create an opt-in mailing list – mailing list is the one of the best kept secret to success of Internet marketers. It is only now that its benefits are being realized by new affiliate marketers. The mails will go directly to the reader’s websites thus; they will be tempted to read the e-mails on their own without you having to promote it to them.
3. Follow-up - Contact prospective buyers that have gone to your website but did not place an order. Inquire about the things that kept them from closing the deal. Some of their objections can be easily handled and you can make your way through closing your deals. For example, if they don't have a credit card, ask for another payment method such as paypal or checking account.
4. Advertising - You can also use the space in your mailing signatures to advertise your sites and hence draw potential customers. http://www.aweber.com is a wonderful way to draw potential customers as specified in steps above. You can subscribe to AWeber and avail their services with a nominal fee that they would charge you. I have also used AWeber for my websites and their service is really good plus, you can't resist those extra commisions and goodies they give you.