Product Affiliations
Difficulty: Easy
Cost To Use/Implement: Free
Time & Effort Involved: 10-60 Minutes
Ways To Use/Implement: Several
Description:
This is number one for a good reason. It is the easiest, and cheapest way to earn money. However, you will have a considerable wait time before you see your profits in earnest. Meaning, when you use this money making idea, as an affiliate, you will have to wait anywhere from 7 to 60 days before receiving your commissions.
What is involved here is to become an affiliate, or promoter, of an already existing product(s) and earn commissions from your work as the affiliate/promoter. The simplest way to do this is to write up a product review about a particular item, include a link, this would be your specific affiliate link, forwarding your potential customers to purchase this product, and earn your commission payments.
To select a good product you will need to take into consideration a couple of things:
1. Does the product fit your specific subject matter or 'niche'?
2. Is the affiliate commission payout at least 50% for you?
3. How long will it take for you to receive your commission payment?
4. How are the affiliate commissions paid out(i.e. - by check, PayPal, etc.)?
A terrific place to begin your product affiliation search is through ClickBank. And, since CB also offers payments made via PayPal(https://www.paypal.com), it is a much more favorable choice among product creators. If you do not already have a ClickBank account for the purposes of being an affiliate, or 'promoting their products', then simply sign up for a free account from ClickBank Here(http://www.clickbank.com).
Afterwards, begin searching through the ClickBank Marketplace to see which products you are interested in promoting. Don't worry about where you will be promoting them, that will come later. For now, simply select a few products to get you started.
A good rule of thumb is to write up one product review at a time and add them to your list of product reviews day after day. This will give you better search engine ranking because you will be adding new content on a regular basis, and give your personal web site, or blog, wonderful, and helpful new content to your visitors daily. If, however, you cannot do this on a daily basis, then aim for every other day, or every 3 to 4 days to add a new product review.
Notice in the last paragraph I gave you the 'wheres' to list your product reviews? No? The answer is simple. . .On your own personal or business web site or online Blog. Your site does not have to consist only of product reviews, unless you have elected to set it up in this manner, but you should have at the very least a separate section created just for product reviews. And, it should be done for both 'normal' web sites and blogs.
Another great way to 'show off' your product reviews is through your own online forum. Most cPanel web hosts offer 'push button' type forum set ups, so this should be easily done without incurring any additional costs.
Plus, if you don't have your own web site that you can set up your own forums on, you can always find a forum that offers you a chance to post up your free product reviews on.
Now that you have the 'whats' and 'wheres' down, we're left with the 'hows'.
In order to write up an effective product review, you need to know what you're talking about. Otherwise, no one will believe you and consider your reviews as 'sales pitches'. Of course, this IS what they are, but part of being a successful marketer is knowing how to finesse your audience. It's not that you AREN'T being truthful, it's that you need to write FOR your audience and THEIR needs.
Okay, so where can you find information for your product review at? Well, if the product creator has an affiliate program and they have taken the time, they will have pre-written materials you can use to help serve up an informative review. If not, go back to the main source, or the sales page and start scanning it for ideas you can incorporate into your product reviews.
This way, you still don't have to pay out anything to get your hands on a copy of the product to write up a review about it and offer it to your visitors for free. It's free to write, free to read, and free to be forwarded on to more detailed information(i.e. - the sales page). And, hopefully, you will be able to generate a sale or two from your product review!
Is this the ONLY way to use a product review? Nope! You can also create a 'special report' consisting of just a few pages giving your personal opinions and praises to a particular product. Remember, the most effective product reviews are those that cater to the 'WIIFM(What's In It For Me)' factor of your prospective customers.
Creating a 'special report' is actually a really simple process. You write up your product review, pointing out the most important 'why should I buy this?' factors to your readers, using NotePad, WordPad, Open Office Writer, or any other word processing tool, convert it, once completed including your affiliate link(arguably the most important piece of the report ;-) ), into a PDF file and give it away to everyone who wants it. Now you have a 'viral' product review that will be spreading around as fast as people can give it away! And, a wonderful place to begin giving these away if you don't have your own web site or online blog is through forums. Although, you will need a place to store your report for downloading. TradeBit(http://www.tradebit.com) offers a free account, as do MediaMax(http://www.streamload.com) and File Lodge(http://www.filelodge.com/refer.php?referrer=ebe01). Again, all the services mentioned above are free to use. So you still have paid nothing out of your pocket, and still don't have to have your own web site. Pretty good, eh?
Here's another idea. If you have your own ezine or newsletter, why not try sending out a product review to your subscribers every once in a while? You should try to avoid 'selling' to them and instead 'informing' them of why this product is a great purchase in your opinion. If you are their 'respected authority' on the subject matter, then they will more than likely take the time to at least ponder your opinion and might even decide to purchase a copy of the product you are reviewing. And, if you happen to throw in some type of 'subscribers only' bonus or discount, all the better for them. And, the more receptive they will be to your reviews. It happens all the time my friend. Believe it!
There are plenty of inventive ways to use the free product review to earn yourself some easy profits. Take some time to brainstorm and see what you can come up with.
