Making Money Online Selling Other People’s Products
Sunday, November 23rd, 2008Lots of people are beginning to realize that getting into online businesses and online marketing is an excellent way to earn money online to supplement their “real world” income or for many internet marketers it has become their principal source of income.
Why is that so? Many individuals will tell you that internet marketing provides them a loads of benefits! Below are some of the reasons:
First, you can reach just about anybody in the world who has Internet access if you market your products online. That means a wider market for you, which can translate to larger profits.
Second, setting up an online business requires only a fraction of the cost required to set up an actual business establishment, which means a lot of savings for the business owner.
Thirdly, another aspect that has attracted a lot of people towards online marketing is the fact that one doesn’t have to have his own products to get started. In online marketing, one can start making a lot of money just by selling, or even by just trying to sell, other people’s products. And getting started with this kind of marketing strategy is actually quite easy. All that one needs to do is to set up an agreement with an online retailer or merchant, and after everything is settled, one can immediately start making money by selling the merchant’s or the retailer’s products.
Incidentally, this is called affiliate marketing and it is a great way for people to make money online. It is a relationship between an online merchant or retailer, who has products to sell, and his affiliates, who want promote the merchant’s product on their website.
The process of signing up with for affiliate marketing is quite fast and simple. You can opt to sign up as an affiliate with online merchants that has affiliate programs or alternatively join some of the affiliate networks which you can be an affiliate by selling its member’s products. While many of these affiliate networks are free some do charge a monthly or yearly membership fee.
Some affiliate programs or network will require you to submit your website’s address and description as a verification that your website is active and relevant to their products. Others do not require this verification process and you are free to choose the affiliate program you want to market.
Affiliates are normally given special html codes, banners or text advertisements to place on their website linking to the merchant’s website. Affiliates are often paid on commission basis if the affiliates send traffic or sales to the merchant’s website.
How do you make money online with affiliate marketing? It depends on the type of affiliate marketing program you’ve signed up for. Most affiliate marketing programs compensate their affiliates in different ways:
1.Pay-Per-Click (PPC) - the affiliate is paid whenever he directs traffic to the merchant’s site
2.Pay-Per-Sale (PPS) - the affiliate only gets paid when his referral converts into an actual sale. In typical PPS affiliate programs, the affiliate would usually get a commission for each conversion.
3.Pay-Per-Lead (PPL) - affiliates are paid a fixed fee whenever his referral converts into a lead for the merchant.
4.Two-Tier Programs - the affiliate is also allowed to recommend other affiliates to the merchant. In such affiliate programs, the affiliate would not only be paid for the traffic or sales that he would direct to the merchant’s site but also for the traffic or sales directed by the affiliates who signed up with the program through his recommendation.
5.Residual Affiliate Programs – these are affiliate programs where the affiliate gets paid a number of times for as long as the merchant keeps the customer the affiliate has referred to his site. One form of residual program gets the affiliate paid a commission every time the referred customer purchases something on the merchant’s site. Another form of residual affiliate program gets the affiliate paid a percentage every month for as long as the company keeps the referred customer.
The most popular way of earn money online is with affiliate marketing. As to how much money one can get from affiliate marketing actually depends on the affiliate’s determination as well as his internet marketing and SEO skills.