Are you representing reputable affiliate programs? Your
business and your livelihood depends on it if you do
affiliate marketing for a living. You only have to get
stiffed one time to really understand how important it is.
In this article we are going to talk about what happened to
me and how I now understand why representing reputable
affiliate programs is so very important.
When I first set out to make money online in the fall of
2002 everything was foreign to me. I certainly did not have
a website of my own and even sending email was a chore. It
didn't bother me because most of my friends were not any
better than me and I was willing to work and learn as I
went.
What I quickly learned to like was the concept of affiliate
marketing. Because I did not have any products of my own I
liked the idea I could get paid to sell products for
companies and get paid for it.
I was an outside sales rep that had built up one of the
largest territories in the country selling over $3 Million
a year in products. I had a solid customer base that
ordered from me on a regular basis. it was pretty close to
residual income, so I decided to look for affiliate
programs that could create residual income.
Finding things to sell that people buy and then pay for
every month was a little harder than just selling products
like eBooks, leads. or clicks. Selling hosting was a good
affiliate program because people who build a website and
host it for any period of time usually will not drop it. So
the commissions come every month just for making one sale.
I liked that.
Flash forward to the fall of 2007. I am a full time
internet marketer now. I have a website that ranks very
high on Google bringing me great traffic. I am an affiliate
for Google Adsense which brings me easy income when people
click on ads on my site.
I am an affiliate for Max Bounty and earn commissions when
people fill out short lead forms online. I have joined
several affiliate programs that earn me residual income
like the Plugin Profit Site, My Power Mall, SFI,
Host4profit and others.
In 5 years now I get paid every month on time because these
companies are reputable. Think about that for a moment. Why
is it important?
1. You work hard to make sales so you deserve to get paid
for your efforts.
2. You never deal face to face with the companies you
represent so you have to trust that they will pay you.
3. Your customers trust you to deliver what you say you
will and you rely on the affiliate company to back you up
with that.
The internet is full of scam artists and companies that are
not reputable. I have a pretty simple formula for how I
deal with that. Burn me once, shame on you. Burn me twice
shame on me.
In five years the only company to screw me out of my
commissions was an article marketing company. They offered
a article submissions service, which I sold because I used
it and I liked it. That is another criteria I use on my
main affiliate programs I represent. I like to be a
customer as well as an affiliate which allows me to
pre-sell from a perspective of first hand experience.
This article marketing company was not a reputable
affiliate program for several reasons.
1. They did pay on time or at all.
2. They ignored emails from their affiliates leaving you
hanging high and dry.
3. They continued to let you make sales for them and then
they keep all of the money knowing they will not pay you.
Number 3 is probably the worst. You work hard to make
sales, you put their banners on your website, blog, inner
pages, ezine ads etc. so it is very hard to go and find all
of those and replace them. It's great for them because you
just keep making them money!
Thankfully there are way more reputable affiliate programs
than there are bad ones. In my case being stiffed out of
almost $1000 dollars in commissions hurt, but it is not the
end of the world.
It just reinforces the importance of trying to know more
about who you represent. Do you due dilligence if it is
going to be a major part of your business. Your reputation
and income depend on it!
----------------------------------------------------
Jeff Schuman invites you to visit his make money online
website for hundreds of make money ideas, articles, and
products. To see how he uses JV With Jeff to help you make
money please visit his web site here:
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