Affiliate Networks ,CPA Networks,CPM Networks
PPC Networks, PPL Affilate Networks, Affilate Network Reviews

Admit it … selling something online, from the comfort of your own home office, would be great. More specifically, selling something from your own home office that you don’t have to stock, that you don't have to ship, and where you don't have to deal with customers would be great. This sounds like the perfect job, doesn't it?

But what if you have nothing to sell? Let’s say you’re not an author, and you are not a professor, nor do you manufacture anything. Can you still make money by selling things part time from home?

Yes, and it's called Affiliate Marketing.

And it works something like this:
A person registers with some company's (merchant's) affiliate program (retailers such as Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Vonage, etc). This person then "drives" or "refers" Internet traffic to these merchants. When a referred visitor purchases some product, say a book or piece of software, the person who referred the visitor is paid a commission for generating the sale.

The person or company that owns the product will be responsible for stocking it, getting it to the customer and dealing with any customer service issues. You, as the affiliate, have nothing more to do with the transaction except cashing your check. What a job!

You’re first step is to decide what to market.

Deciding what to market has been made a lot easier by the emergence of Affiliate Networks. Affiliate Networks are also know as "Pay for Performance Networks" or "Marketing Solutions Providers". They all provide basically the same service, which is to allow affiliates to search for and market the products of the companies ("merchants") in their network.

The process works basically like this:

1. A person who wishes to sell something signs up with an Affiliate Network. They now become an "affiliate".

2. The affiliate searches or browses the Affiliate Network for products that they think they might be able to sell.

3. When the affiliate finds a product they want to sell, they are given their own "affiliate link" to the website where a customer can purchase the product. This link is encoded with the affiliate's uniquely identifying number.

4. The affiliate sends or "drives" potential customers to the company's website via their affiliate link.

5. If a customer purchases the product then the affiliate gets credit for that sale and earns a commission.

6. At the end of the pay period (defined by the Affiliate Network) a single paycheck consolidating all commissions for all products sold is issued to the affiliate.

"Driving" customers to the company's website is where the real fun resides. There are two main methods for driving online traffic to these companies:

Build a large or small website. Place various links, banners, and products on this website. When your visitors click through on these links and purchase a product you will get a commission.

Send potential customers directly to the companies using Pay-Per-Click (PPC) networks. When these people purchase a product you will get a commission.

It takes more time to build a website with all of the affiliate links. However, you can use your website to "pre-sell" the company and/or products that you are promoting. In addition, you can capture the email addresses of your visitors. These can be used later to offer more products and generate even more sales. Luckily, there are software programs available that can make building a website a breeze.

Affiliate Networks are free to join.

They make their money by charging the merchants a percentage of their sales. Some networks will allow just about anyone to join, while others are more particular ... maybe requiring that you own a website that receives a certain number of visitors each month.

Some of the most popular Affiliate Networks are:

ClickBank

ShareASale

LinkShare

ClickBank is one of the easy ones to join. They offer mostly downloadable products (i.e.; ebooks, software, etc.). They also allow you to browse their product directory before you signup. In addition, affiliates are not required to even own a website to join. That makes this a perfect starting point.

You can do affiliate marketing full or part time

One great aspect of this business is that you can put as little or as much time into it as your schedule allows. Many people start by just doing a few hours a week after work or on weekends. Just have fun with it and the money will come!

Much, much more…

This has just been a very basic overview of affiliate marketing. For those people who want to grow this into a full-time “at-home” business there is much more they can learn to do. Topics such as ad placement, search engine optimization, link building, auto-responders and others are very important.

Understanding Affiliate Networks.

If you have worked as an Internet marketer for any amount of time, you have probably heard repeatedly that affiliate network marketing opportunities are the most lucrative, cleanest, quickest way to make an income on the Internet. And if you have actually tried affiliate network marketing for any amount of time, you more than likely ended up broke or never achieved more than modest, fluctuating success. . .like almost everyone else who goes into the field.

Affiliate programs are commonly misunderstood, in order to understand affiliate programs lets start with terminology.

One way to find good ideas for niche web sites is by joining small affiliate networks and hunting for niches which don't have many competitors.

Affiliate Networks are free to join.

They can be hard to find. They sometimes call themselves names like "marketing solutions provider", "pay-for-performance network", "cost-per-action advertising network", or even "performance-based online marketing services company".

Affiliate networks provide pay-per-lead (PPL), pay-per-sale (PPS), pay-per-action (PPA) – sometimes called cost per Mile (CPM) – and pay-per-click (PPC) offers from merchants that you promote on your web site or in your newsletter.

Some affiliate networks allow almost anyone to join. Others insist your site must receive a certain number of visitors.

Some let you see a directory of the merchants in the network before you join. Others show you their list of offers only after you join.

Introduction

Associate Programs :

Associate Programs, often referred to as Affiliate Programs, are created by companies and individuals to increase sales of their products or services.

In return for marketing their goods, you receive a commission, also known as a referral or bounty. The amount you receive varies with each program operator.

Definitions

Because of the varied types of goods and services currently available on the Internet, a program operator can choose from a number of different payment methods.

Cost Per Mille (CPM) You simply get paid to display banners on your site. The rate varies, but is always based on a thousand impressions. You are paid a certain amount of money for every thousand banners viewed (known as impressions), regardless of how many people actually click the banners.
Pay Per Click (PPC) By displaying a banner or link on your site or in emails, you receive a payment of a few Cents, when the banner or link is clicked*.
Pay Per Sale (PPS) You receive a commission on sales made based on your visitors clicking through your banners or links to the operators site and making a purchase.
Pay Per Lead (PPL) You receive a commission on people you have referred (referrals) This type of payment method is least popular.

Two Tier Programs :

These are simply program operators that offer you an addition income for referring other people to them - usually webmasters. This can take the form of a one off payment, a small commission on their sales, or both.

Joining Costs

All associate and/or affiliate programs featured on AffiliateSphere.com are FREE to join and participate in.

We DO NOT and WILL NOT feature any associate programs that require you to part with money.

Level of Success

There's no such thing as a dead cert, but all of the associate programs featured on 123Cash4Free.com work. We test every type of associate program and if it doesn't work it isn't featured. That's the bottom line.

There are a number of important factors that will govern your level of success. Here are some to consider.

1. Site Traffic - This is the single most important factor.

2. Program Types - Select programs relevant to your site.

3. Link Selection - Make sure you choose the most suitable.

4. Effort - How much work you are prepared to put into the program.

5. Payment

We only features sites that have proven that they pay. This site is a scam free zone.

6. Achieving Success

Follow the hints and tips you find on our site. They are tried and tested and proven to work.

7. Program Support

Program operators usually provide continued support by e-mail and/or newsletters. Read them and follow the instructions, after all, no-one knows how the programs work better than the designers!!!.

Notes * Simply clicking on a link may not be sufficient to register a payment. In most cases you must click-through or actually visit the site pointed to by the banner or link.

Learn The Basics

Getting Started

You don't need much to get started, just a couple of things. Web Site - Pretty essential. Traffic - Without visitors all your hard work will be in vain. Time & Effort - You won't need too much to get started.

Site Content

You'll need some good material to put on your site. Program operators quite often want to visit a site prior to approving an application to become an affiliate. At the end of the day it's their products that you're selling, so try and project a good image!

Joining a Program

Associate Programs are fairly easy to join. All that you need to do is fill out the Program Operators application form and submit it. You'll usually receive an e-mail within a few minutes giving you all your necessary instructions or where to get them.

One word of advice - Make sure you enter your correct name and address otherwise you won't receive your check at the end of the month!!!

The Beginning

As I mentioned in the introductory section, you will need to work hard and take an active role to promote your site. The more traffic you get the more money you'll make. If you put the effort in then you will be rewarded handsomely.

CPM Advertising

CPM (Cost Per Mille) Advertising

Put simply, you are paid a fixed amount of money per thousand banner impressions. The rates quoted by the banner Networks are always based on these rates. This is by far the quickest and easiest way to get some revenue coming in. It only takes a few minutes to set up and simply requires you to copy some htm code from the Advertising networks and paste it into your web page. You will be paid for an 'impression' regardless of whether your visitors click it or not.

The Advertising networks act as an intermediary between you and the advertisers. These companies have a huge selection of banners to choose from, so selecting one which co-ordinates with your site will require a little thought. You can always experiment with different banners until you find the one that is making you the most money.

Site Comparisons

Since you're paid per thousand impressions, it stands to reason that the higher the number of page views your site has, the better it is for you, the Banner Network, and the Advertiser.

For example, a realistic rate would be somewhere around $3.00 CPM (per thousand impressions), and assuming that your site has 40,000 page views per month, which is not too difficult to achieve, then your Annual income would be as follows: (40,000 / 1000) x $3.00 x 12 = $1,440 per year

Now, lets assume that you do a little promotion work on your site and your number of page views increases to the extent that you are receiving what could be considered a reasonable amount of traffic: (300,000 / 1000) x $3.00 x 12 = $10,800 per year

Banner Positioning

By now you've probably realized that the above figures are based solely on one advertisement per page. Sure, you can put more banners on the page but you'll find that it interferes with site content to the extent that your visitors will soon get fed up and you'll loose them. Stick to 2 banners per page, 3 at a push depending on page size and content. For maximum impact banners should be placed at the top and bottom of each page (if you must use 3 banners locate the 3rd banner close to some important page content).

Remember the old saying "Everything in Moderation, Including Moderation!!!".

Different Advertisers

Most of the time it's not a problem displaying different banners from different advertising agents on the same page, however, a minority of agents do not allow this so it's always worth reading the terms and conditions first.

Pay Per Click

PPC (Pay Per Click) Advertising

Pay Per Click is an associate program that will pay you every time a visitor to your site clicks on a link to another site. Links usually take the form of a banner and/or text link. This is also easy to set up. Simply copy the htm code from the Advertising network and paste it into your web pages, and you're up and running. Remember to think about the style, size, position and theme of your banner.

Relevant Content If you want to maximize your earnings (higher click through rate) try to keep the advertising content relevant to your site. You will get a much higher click through rate advertising fishing rods on a fishing site than you would advertising meat produce on a vegetarian site!. Always try to integrate your advertising with site content.

The Click Through Rate (CTR) This is the ratio of the number of times a banner or link is viewed to the number of times it is clicked. The CTR is expressed as a percentage. The higher the CTR the better!

Typical CTR's:

Banner < 8%
Text Links < 12%
E-Mail < 20%

Site Comparisons

PPC rates vary but you can assume that they will be between 2 and 8 cents per click through. O.K., time for some more number juggling. We can realistically assume the following:

15,000 Page views per month
10 Links per page
5 Cents per Click
2% CTR

So, on this basis your annual revenue would be: 15,000 x 10 x $0.05 x 2% x 12months= $1800 Once again, lets assume that you do a little promotion work on your site and your number of page views increases to 300,000, your annual revenue would be: 300,000 x 10 x $0.05 x 2% x 12months= $36,000

Making It Pay

Promote Your Site
We cannot stress enough the importance of promoting your site. Promoting your site brings traffic, and TRAFFIC means MONEY!!!
Banner Integration
Use links and banners that are relevant to your site content.
The Right Banners
Use banners and links that people will click on. So what if it pays a slightly lower rate, at least they fit in and keep the site tight. This only serves to further enhance the overall quality of your site which means more traffic.
Wide Selection of Programs
Promote your site in a positive proactive manor.

Different Advertisers

Pay Per Sale

PPS (Pay Per Sale) Advertising

Pay Per Sale is a term given to a type of associate program that pays you either a fixed cash payment or percentage commission every time a visitor to your site purchases something from the program operator as a direct result of your link to his/her site. Links usually take the form of a banner and/or text link. Setting up the links and/or banners is very similar to that for CPM and PPC. Simply copy the htm code from the Advertising Network/Program Operator and paste it into your web pages, and you're up and running. Once again don't forget to consider the style, size, position and theme of your banners.

Choosing a Suitable PPS Program When you've finished reading this section take a look at the programs section, you should be able to find a suitable program that will work well with your site.

Link Types There are a wide variety of links available which you can use on your site. These range from plain text links to banners and search forms. There are some other types of links which deserve to be mentioned as they are gaining popularity among webmasters.

Direct Links The program operator will allow you to link directly to a particular product or product category. For example, if your site was Stocks & Shares related then you would be allowed to link directly to NASDQ for the latest prices. This is far more convenient than just linking to the home page as your visitors can cut to the chase.
Site Duplication This particular method is gaining pace rapidly. Basically you are given a free website (with populated pages) which you can refer to. Some Program Operators will even offer co-branding of your logo!

Pay Per Lead

PPL (Pay Per Lead) Advertising

Pay Per Lead is a variation on the Pay Per Sale theme. You pass on a potential customer to a sales team who then contact the customer. If a sale is made you receive a flat or fixed rate payment. Consider it as being paid for an indirect sale. Setting up the links and/or banners is the same as previous advertising methods. Simply copy the htm code from the Advertising Network/Program Operator and paste it into your web pages, and that's all there is to it.. Remember to consider the style, size, position and theme of your banners. Here's a good example to illustrate the point:-

A visitor to your site clicks through to company XYZ who offers to manage all their quarterly bill payments. All the customer has to do is write out one check to them every quarter to cover all the bills, and the customer needn't ever worry about forgetting to pay the bills again. In this instance you would be paid a flat fee when the customer filled out the form and joined, and another fee when they activated their account.
By way of a slight diversion here's a little more information on Company XYZ.... Company XYZ not only assures the customer complete peace of mind by proudly informing them that they will be notified by both e-mail and letter when a payment has been made, e.g. to the Electric Company, the loan company, mortgage etc, but on top of that the customer pays nothing for the service!!!

O.K., How does Company XYZ make money??? .......answers on a postcard...

Two Tier Affiliate Programs

Two Tier affiliate programs provide an incentive for referring other webmasters to the program. This can take the form of a single payment a percentage commission, or maybe even both. The program is slightly flawed in so far as a situation could be arrived at whereby nobody is actually making any purchases and everyone is trying to solely make money from commissions. With the above in mind it would be better not to view this particular affiliate program as a main source of revenue, but more like a bit of extra money for some beers!!.

A Two Tier affiliate programs rewards you for signing up sub-affiliates. As well as earning commissions on your sales, you earn commissions on their sales. Here's another way of looking at it: When you join an affiliate program, you are the first tier. The person you encourage to sign up is the second tier. If there are any more tiers, that's regarded as multi-level marketing, according to the definition used by most affiliate directories.

Are Two Tier affiliate programs MLM? I asked a multi-level marketing specialist to answer that question for me. Here's his answer. Two-tier affiliate programs aren't as effective as they were several years ago. That's because affiliates can now choose from thousands of affiliate programs and often switch rapidly from program to program. If you're thinking of relying on second-tier affiliates to do your work for you, you may be disappointed. However, if you join a good two-tier affiliate program and earn two-tier revenue, that can be a very nice bonus.

Select merchants carefully If you're aiming to make money by persuading sub-affiliates to sign up "under" you, pick your affiliate merchants very carefully. You want to promote merchants who produce a steady stream of top-notch products, pay high commissions, and treat their affiliates exceptionally well. You also want a merchant who has a high visitors-to-sales conversion rate.

Here's a good example John Evans' Success Alert is a two-tier affiliate program which pays 40% on the first tier (to you) and 10% on the second tier (on sales made by your sub-affiliate). It has a top-notch product, with similar products planned. It achieved a high 5.5% conversion rate in its first month.

All-In-One Agents

Basically the "All-In-One Agent" acts as the middleman between you as the associate and the merchant or program operator. There are a vast number of benefits in joining this type of program:-

Statistics & Monitoring All your programs are under the same umbrella, so it's easy to keep track of your traffic and sales. Statistics are update either daily or weekly.
Multiple Access Rather than having to hunt around the net seeking sponsorship lots of programs are located in the Agents area.
Quality Revenue Streams Advertising is not cheap and merchants will have paid a substantial amount of money to promote their products and sites. You are pretty well guaranteed to find serious, quality Merchants.
Wide Selection of Programs You'll find a huge choice of merchants subscribed to these All-In-One Agents.
Single Account Co-ordination Instead of receiving a check from every merchant at different times of the next month(s), you receive all your different payments as one check from the All-In-One Agent, at a fixed date the following month.

Recommended All-In-One Agents 99% of the All-In-One Agents are respectable quality businesses, however there are always one or two who won't pay you for your honest work. Select a quality Agent to learn more about them:-

To find other great "All-In-One" agents who provide good quality advertising and services Click Next , if you come accross new quality "All-In-One" agents which is not listed here , send us an E-Mail and we'll put it on our website AND give you CREDIT for finding it!

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