Niche Marketing: The Affiliate Angle

If you're just dipping your toes into the waters of Niche Marketing for the first time then Affiliate marketing is the ultimate low risk choice to get you started.

Affiliate programmes cost nothing to join and present an almost infinite choice of products and services from which to build a niche business.

If you're not familiar with Affiliate marketing, let me quickly explain.

An Affiliate acts as an independent "middle man" between a Merchant and consumer by introducing new prospects and customers to the Merchant. In return the Merchant pays a commission to the Affiliate on all sales that result from his or her introductions.

OK. So now you know what Affiliate Marketing is, how do you find suitable affiliate programmes for you niche?

Here are a couple of options to get you started - Search Engines and Affiliate Networks.

Search Engines

Go to www.Google.com and type in your Niche description e.g. "low carb diet" followed by a plus sign (+) and the word "affiliate" - the search query should look like this :

low carb diet+affiliate.

In the results you will get all the pages with the term "low carb diet" and the term "affiliate".

Go through the first and second pages and list all of the sites that show relevant products with affiliate programmes. Hopefully this will give you 10 or more affiliate programmes to choose from.

You could also repeat this exercise on www.Yahoo.com to give your self more options.

Affiliate Networks

An Affiliate Network acts as "middleman" between Merchants and Affiliates, providing a centralised service where Merchants can list details of their products and Affiliate programmes, providing Affiliates with a broad and varied selection of products and services to promote.

Here are some highly reputable networks you should visit to find suitable niche products and services to add to your list of prospective Affiliate programmes :

? ClickBank - http://www.clickbank.com - specialises in downloadable digital products.

? Commission Junction - http://www.cj.com - probably the most popular affiliate network has a broad range of mainly physical products. CJ has a gate way to the "Be Free" another huge network.

? LinkShare - http://www.linkshare.com - runs the largest pay for performance affiliate marketing network on the Internet.

? clixGalore - http://www.clixgalore.com - one of the larger affiliate networks with over 4500 Affiliate programmes to choose from.

? Digital River - https://www.regnow.com - specialises in software products including games, anti-virus and anti-spam titles.

Add all the relevant programmes to list of those you gleaned from the Search Engine(s).

Selecting Niche Affiliate Programmes

Be selective in your choice of affiliate programme. Don't just signup for all of the programmes you have listed, visit each site and check each one out and make sure you "read each Merchant's terms carefully".

Here are some points for you to consider when deciding which programmes to promote:

? Commission rates - rates vary considerably, check them out to make sure get the best deal possible.

? Commission type - does the Merchant pay on a pay per lead, pay per click or pay per sale?

? Frequency of payment - most important. Payment frequency can be weekly, two weekly, monthly, quarterly - I've even seen six monthly.

? Minimum payout - what is the minimum commission amount the merchant is prepared to pay out on. You don't get paid until the amount reaches that minimum.

? Cookie duration - cookies are set to capture your referral code and expire after a specific amount of time. Make sure you get the longest time possible. Very few of your referrals will buy on the first visit, you want enough time for your referral to visit again so that you get the commission.

? Minimum traffic requirement - you don't want to find out that your account has been terminated because you aren't sending enough traffic to the Merchant's site.

? Are sales tools available - it's in the Merchant's interest to help you as much as possible. If they provide sales and marketing tools it makes getting started a lot quicker and shows that the Merchant values their Affiliates.

This is by no means an exhaustive list. As I said earlier, check all the terms carefully, then select and sign up for the programmes which best suit your niche theme and you're ready to start promoting.

Copyright © 2005, André Anthony Niche Market Know-How

André Anthony owns and operates Niche Market Know-How a resource for beginning Niche Marketers. Visit http://www.nichemarketknowhow.com today to find strategies, tips, tools, products and resources for effective niche marketing. Get his Niche Market Know-how Mini Course here: http://www.nichemarketknowhow.com/course.htm

In The News:


pen paper and inkwell


cat break through


10 Packaging Tips That Will Make Consumers Buy Your Product

The customer is king/queen. We have all heard this mantra.... Read More

CRM Star Wars: When Marketing is from Venus and IT is from Mars

Inherent tensions exist between marketing and IT. This is often... Read More

Stretching The String: Five Tips To Maximize Your Marketing When You Are On A Shoe String Budget

"I know I need to market my business in order... Read More

The 5 Musts of Marketing

For most of the small business owners I work with,... Read More

Customers: The Key To Successful Marketing

How well do you know your customers?What is the primary... Read More

Tradeshow Booth Cures - Knick-Knack Knockouts

Okay, we were kidding about the smoke, but not about... Read More

Customer Lifetime Value - The Key To Maximizing Your Profits!

The greatest asset to your business is your Customer, specifically,... Read More

Are You Sabotaging Your Marketing Success?

What?!? Sabotage your own success? Who would do that? Well,... Read More

Standards for Dry Washing and Pressure Washing in Mobile Car Care

The industry standard for mobile washing is completing the car... Read More

Positioning For Success

According to military historian David Chandler the campaigns of Napoleon... Read More

Market Your Identity

One of the most critical but overlooked parts of business... Read More

5 Steps for Developing a Marketing Tag Line for Your Product, Business, or Website

A marketing tag line is the one or two line... Read More

Benefits of Developing & Maintaining a Database

A database is more than a simple list of names... Read More

50 Benefits Of Joint Venture Marketing

What Is A Joint Venture?A joint venture is an agreement... Read More

Your Secret Marketing Weapon

As a professional service provider, you're paid for what you... Read More

Building Credibility for Your Business

Small companies that rely on business-to-business sales often find it... Read More

Test Marketing--How to Increase Your Direct Mail Marketing Response by Using the Internet to Test

I've discovered a really fantastic way to discover what works... Read More

So You Want To Cut The Crap And Get Into The Money?

So, you´ve been around for a while, and maybe even... Read More

Network Marketing Is Definitely A Relationship Business

Heavily branded websites like amazon.com are household names and carry... Read More

Writing Marketing Copy That Sells

When your prospects see your marketing materials, your brochure, your... Read More

Big Ticket Marketing in 28 Minutes

I read an article recently about how many mainstream retail... Read More

Reach Thousands of Your Prospects, Absolutely Free

I'm big on getting maximum marketing exposure at the lowest... Read More

The Dare-To-Be-Different In Marketing Checklist

There is a big payoff in being different. When you... Read More

How To Make More Money

The biggest crime in small businesses today goes unnoticed by... Read More

A Pass / Fail Test for Any New Market

If you are considering entering a new target market, with... Read More

After The Mailing Is Done, What Happens Next?

If you're doing any sort of marketing effort, whether it's... Read More

Advertising Your Private Practice: 6 Tips for Maximizing Your Results-Part 2

As discussed in part 1 of this article, "Your Private... Read More

Marketing Planning Made Simple - Another Small Business Power Tool

Marketing planning must be really difficult and complex, otherwise why... Read More

Mark Twain?s Great Marketing Idea

To tell you the truth (and about 53% of this... Read More

Marketing to a Critical Mass

In "Developing a Marketing Plan", we covered the first steps... Read More

Promotions That Build Profit

Promotions are everything you do to let your customers know... Read More

Is It Time To Kill Your Marketing Program?

Ouch . . . sounds pretty drastic I know, but... Read More

Bedroom Marketing

Hopefully we are all adults here, so let's talk about... Read More