The Forbidden Fruit: Marketing Credit Cards Online

A common question and topic of discussion among Internet marketers is, "What market should I go after?" The number of answers to this question are as varied as there are grains of sand in the Sahara, but there is one thing that I have noticed in my eight years marketing online: people tend to shy away from and even be scared of ultra-competitive markets.

What type of markets am I talking about? Well, there are quite a few. Industries like travel, web hosting, and dating come to mind. One just has to look at the typical commissions being offered to marketers to promote these types of products to realize that there is quite a large mark-up on these services, and therefore mounds of competition.

However, there is one industry that trumps them all: the financial industry. Whether it is mortgages, loans, or investments, there is simply no other market that even comes close to the amount of fierce competition and ultra-high commissions than financial products. The financial market that I'd like to discuss in this article is the credit card market.

"In Short, It's Where The Money Is... Literally."

Credit card companies have been marketing their cards online since the early days of affiliate marketing. Back then, they had affiliate programs that would pay out anywhere from $10 to $20 per completed credit card application. With increased competition, and more people putting their trust into the web than ever before, this situation has drastically changed.

Now, online marketers can pull in a commission of around $30 to $40 for each referral and completed application. This is more than double the commissions being made as recently as five years ago, and more accurately reflects the high profit margins and lifetime value of the customer to the credit card company.

With such high commissions, hordes of marketers flock to push these offers on PPC networks such as Google Adwords and Overture, skyrocketing the bid levels up to astronomical heights. It is for this reason that many less brazen marketers shy away from this market, and may even feel intimidated by it. But rest assured, even with such a high level of market penetration, there is ample opportunity for a savvy marketer to experience very handsome profits.

"The Secret To Success In This Market Is... "

The secret is that a marketer needs to be crafty to succeed in this market. You can't just blindly throw up a PPC campaign, outbid whoever is in the #1 position, and hope to profit. It's just not that simple ? this is a mature market. Instead, the best strategy is to uncover ways of sending prospects to the offers that are often overlooked. The fact is, there are unlimited amounts of ways to send leads to highly profitable offers, without paying upwards of $10 per click to do so.

Let me just give you one idea to get your mind working. If you sell anything online, then you have probably had the experience of a customer asking if they can pay by check or money order. Even if you have not had a customer ask this, it's likely that some customers are leaving your site if the only option is to pay by credit card. What better time than that, to put a link saying "Need a credit card?"

Those who don't will just ignore it. And those who do could not have been your customer anyway, since you only accept credit cards. In that case, you provide them with something that they need and also give them the opportunity to buy your product with the very credit card you referred them to (and pocketed a $40 commission for doing so).

You'd be surprised at how effective this method is, and it costs you nothing. You turn a lost customer into a paying customer, and get paid $40 for doing so. What could be better?

There Are Dozens of Simple And Low Cost Ways To Market Highly-Competitive Products

If you use your head, you can uncover dozens of simple tactics like this to promote highly profitable markets and products at minimal cost. These techniques don't just work for marketing credit cards ? they work for any high-demand, high-margin, commodity product. So get cracking, and stop shying away from the competition. Thrive on it!

Joe Lloyd, The Money Marketer?, is the founder of Zen Marketing LLC and the online marketing group, Profit Guild?, located at http://www.ProfitGuild.com. His company has recently created a unique and simple system - known as Credit Profits? - that allows online entrepreneurs to earn commissions marketing credit cards online. More information at http://www.CreditProfits.com

---

The Five Golden Keys To Massive Passive Income

You can earn a large monthly passive income with a... Read More

Seven Sure Steps In Building Your Reputation Online

If you have to part with your hard-earned money for... Read More

Enough With the Upsells Already!

It happened twice during the same week. All I wanted... Read More

Internet Marketing and Leveraging the Power of Networks

Creating a network -- meaning a community of users --... Read More

Top 7 Internet Marketing Sites for 2005

Are you confused by what really works when marketing your... Read More

Profiting From Your Online Business

Creating a lucrative online business is not an easy task.... Read More

Joint Ventures - How They Can Benefit Your Business

Joint ventures are partnerships in which two or more businesses... Read More

What Are Really The Best Strategies or Ideas for Internet Marketing?

There are many ways for you to do effective Internet... Read More

Seven Ways to Generate Income From Your Website

If you own your own website, there are a variety... Read More

The Naughty Niches: Potential Gold Mines or Business Killers?

Okay, so you're looking for new ways to grow your... Read More

Cheap & Easy Online Marketing

A successful online business takes more than a website?a lot... Read More

Marketing and Design to Get the Most out of Your Website

Once you have figured out your what your focus should... Read More

Ten Simple Tips To Create A Money Magnet Web Site!

Staying awake at night wondering how to pump up your... Read More

What Happened When I Allowed The Mad Hatter To Take Over My Online Marketing

Returns had been steady since I created www.howtoproducts-xl.com back in... Read More

Internet Marketing and Your Old Age

Everybody wants to learn how to make money on the... Read More

How To Pull Massive Profits From Resale Rights Instantly

What's in your name?I'm not trying to be funny here,... Read More

Internet Marketing Basics

Almost all of the articles on Internet marketing lacks coverage... Read More

The Real Truth About Making Money on the Internet

Are you thinking about starting an online business? Have you... Read More

DOI, a Proven Marketing Tool for Driving Traffic and Increasing Search Engine Rankings

The Digital Object Identifier otherwise known as the DOI is... Read More

10 Psychological Desires To Insert Into Your Ad

1. Most people like surprises because it's a change of... Read More

Writing Your Own Entrepreneur Success Story

The world of entrepreneurship is a difficult one full of... Read More

How To Create An Automated Income Producer

One of my favorite net marketing tasks is creating a... Read More

The Real Key To Happiness, Peace of Mind, and Massive Internet Success

Do you know the secret that allowed 100% of the... Read More

Believability - Youve Either Got It or You Aint!

Believability is what's missing, and the majority of all businesses... Read More

So What If You Dont Have A Website?

Gasp! Choke! Gag! That's how people react when you tell... Read More

How Quality Content Will Increase Your Traffic and Sales

Are you aware of how vitally important and valuable CONTENT... Read More

My Wacky Test Marketing Experiment Succeeded

In a previous article I recounted engaging in a wacky... Read More

Providing Information Will Boost Your Web Site

I was at a meeting the other day when one... Read More

Experience the Benefits of an Internet Business

The Internet industry is booming and offers opportunities galore for... Read More

Why You Must Have More Than One Niche Sites

Have you heard of diversifying your investment portofilio?No? Well, it's... Read More

In Depth Analysis of a Successful Niche Product

The product is about teaching your parrot how to talk.... Read More

Seven Marketing Questions You Should Ask Before You Get A 10 Year Old To Build Your Website

Google tells us there are 4 billion websites- almost one... Read More

Website Marketing: 10 Smart Tactics To Make Your Online Testimonials More Credible

You know that using testimonials can help persuade your website... Read More