Building a revenue and profit model - Part 9
Posted 11-05-2008 at 11:00 AM by awesometbn
Tags affiliate, kotler, referral, start with content
Referral income
You are the middleman, and you earn money by referring customers to others. This method gets a bad reputation from others who are more experienced with selling their own products and services directly. Why? Because the finder's fee is so small compared to selling stuff on your own. But don't let that stop you from getting started. Today you are earning pennies, but tomorrow you are earning dollars and beyond!
Too much hype I suppose. But you really can earn money this way, even if it is considered small time. What I recommend is that you start with the best website or blog content you can create to serve your customers. That's right, you don't start with the affiliate program and ad networks, you start with good content. You want repeat customers who are interested in your website. Later you can promote products that fit their tastes and desires.
Here's what I did. For a long time I just had a regular website that presented various information I collected about one topic. Then I joined the Amazon Associates program and created a page on my website for books. On this page I listed (by hand in HTML table format) every book that matched my topic from Amazon. The link behind each book image description was my Amazon tracking code. I was delighted to learn that regular visitors were following through from my page to Amazon and actually making purchases. That started me on the road to earning regular money, paid quarterly by Amazon. I repeated the process with another page about recordings, and so on.
So the take away from my experience with Amazon is not just to join an affiliate program and display their products, but to present your tracking links in a special way that appeals to your audience. When I join other affiliates, I do so in order to find the exact matching products for my topic. It's not random, and it's not the entire store with generic product feed generators. Instead, it's very specific and focused to serve my customers. Good response so far.
Amazon is just one idea. Others include Cafepress for selling promotional products that have your logo, the regular ad networks like Linkshare, CJ, Shareasale, and many more. You have to try them out and drop those that don't work. Run special promotions on those that do work. My preference is to continue using those affiliate programs that keep on giving you residual income from future sales, such as 5% for life. Not all affiliates offer this, but for those that do, the extra ongoing income is really important.
And since we're on the broad topic about referral income, you could always take the high road and create your own affiliate program. I know about directtrack.com to setup your own affiliates, complete with tracking, reporting, and all types of bells and whistles. You may also be able to use a free program, but I would rather have something important like this outsourced and managed in a professional manner. Setting up your own program gives you the opportunity to earn more money than simply being a member of various individual programs.
That brings me to a conclusion on this miniseries about building a revenue and profit model. Comments are below. When I have more time I will try to add some new blog posts. Thank you for spending a little time with me today. Good luck to you on your new income adventures! Cheers.
You are the middleman, and you earn money by referring customers to others. This method gets a bad reputation from others who are more experienced with selling their own products and services directly. Why? Because the finder's fee is so small compared to selling stuff on your own. But don't let that stop you from getting started. Today you are earning pennies, but tomorrow you are earning dollars and beyond!
Too much hype I suppose. But you really can earn money this way, even if it is considered small time. What I recommend is that you start with the best website or blog content you can create to serve your customers. That's right, you don't start with the affiliate program and ad networks, you start with good content. You want repeat customers who are interested in your website. Later you can promote products that fit their tastes and desires.
Here's what I did. For a long time I just had a regular website that presented various information I collected about one topic. Then I joined the Amazon Associates program and created a page on my website for books. On this page I listed (by hand in HTML table format) every book that matched my topic from Amazon. The link behind each book image description was my Amazon tracking code. I was delighted to learn that regular visitors were following through from my page to Amazon and actually making purchases. That started me on the road to earning regular money, paid quarterly by Amazon. I repeated the process with another page about recordings, and so on.
So the take away from my experience with Amazon is not just to join an affiliate program and display their products, but to present your tracking links in a special way that appeals to your audience. When I join other affiliates, I do so in order to find the exact matching products for my topic. It's not random, and it's not the entire store with generic product feed generators. Instead, it's very specific and focused to serve my customers. Good response so far.
Amazon is just one idea. Others include Cafepress for selling promotional products that have your logo, the regular ad networks like Linkshare, CJ, Shareasale, and many more. You have to try them out and drop those that don't work. Run special promotions on those that do work. My preference is to continue using those affiliate programs that keep on giving you residual income from future sales, such as 5% for life. Not all affiliates offer this, but for those that do, the extra ongoing income is really important.
And since we're on the broad topic about referral income, you could always take the high road and create your own affiliate program. I know about directtrack.com to setup your own affiliates, complete with tracking, reporting, and all types of bells and whistles. You may also be able to use a free program, but I would rather have something important like this outsourced and managed in a professional manner. Setting up your own program gives you the opportunity to earn more money than simply being a member of various individual programs.
That brings me to a conclusion on this miniseries about building a revenue and profit model. Comments are below. When I have more time I will try to add some new blog posts. Thank you for spending a little time with me today. Good luck to you on your new income adventures! Cheers.
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