Does Affiliate Marketing Really Work?

Affiliate marketing can be extremely profitable, but it's not as easy as all the gurus make it sound. After all, you have to generate targeted traffic and make it convert in order to get paid. That means convincing people, most of them with short attention spans, to take sign up for offers or make purchases through your link. This works well for both parties because the producer doesn't pay you money until you give them some leads or customers.

How Do Associate Affiliates Make Money?

Associate affiliates use this relationship to make money without having to worry about customer service or product delivery. It sort of lowers the risk for both involved parties. For beginners, this is an excellent way to start earning money. You'll also learn the ropes of Internet marketing and this is vital to your long term success. Of course, your site might have its goal, but starting off with promoting a product that is already converting and optimized you're making things a lot easier for yourself.

Doing so requires a combination of factors almost all of which are under your control, which is a good thing ... Many companies will enable you sign up for their affiliate program even if you don't have a website of your own. On the other hand, some companies require that you have a website that's closely related to their niche and you'll need to submit traffic stats to them in order to become an associate affiliate for them. After all, if you have the same topics on your sites, there’s a greater likelihood of crossover from readers.

If you had a soccer website, you probably wouldn't have crossover readers for a site on wheelchairs. Another factor to know about is keywords. Keywords are the words that people put into search engines to search for a specific topic or subject. Just about anything can be a keyword phrase, but some keywords are more profitable than others.

These are usually keywords which have moderate to high searches on a regular basis and a low number of competing pages. Optimize your sites for the most profitable keywords and you'll stand a greater chance of not only making sales, but securing a hands-off income stream. Of course, being an associate affiliate isn't the be all and end all. Unless you’re simply there to make money, you probably opened a website because it's something you’re interested in.

If you’re not enjoying it anymore and you’re not just in it for money, feel free to turn to more interesting prospects. You have to be in a place that’s suitable for you – otherwise, you wouldn't be able to stand the grit and the everyday pressure that a website demands. If you’re still interested, there’s a lot of money to be made being an associate affiliate and if you go about the process correctly you can turn your efforts into residual, long term rewards.