Automate Your Way To Affiliate Marketing Wealth

If you want to make a sustained internet based income with affiliate marketing, you'll need to automate both the front end and the back end processes.
Here are some proven tips to ensure that you'll be easily making affiliate commissions while you sleep...
1. Research and determine the best affiliate products and related affiliate programs which best fit your targetted market and that will allow you to earn the most amount of money for the least amount of work in the shortest amount of time.
You want to ensure that the "affiliate vendor" (if they manage their own program) or the affiliate network (who manages a variety of affiliate vendor products) has a track record for paying affiliates on time with an easy method for affiliates to register (get their affiliate ID/link), track their progress (clicks, sales, etc), and get paid (ie: direct deposit into a paypal account versus receiving a check).
Find products or services that pay high commissions and that have a high quality sales page that gets high conversion rates (turns lookers into buyers).
Make it a point to read the sales page to determine if it entices youto buy the product. If not, it probably won't entice others either. Don't forget that digital products or services offer a much higher commission percentage than a physical product due to the fact that they cost less for the product owner to create, advertise, inventory, and deliver to the buyer. If you do select a physical product, try mixing it with a related digital product to boost your overall commissions. An example could be selling a gardening implement with a related "how to grow the fattest, juiciest tomatoes" downloadable report.
Also keep in mind that an affiliate product or service with a monthly recurring fee (ie: a gardening club membership site)
generates an ongoing steam of income for work you did once. For maximum income possibilities, you should have a combination of "one time fee" and "monthly recurring cost" products that relate to your targetted market.
You should also plan to promote additional products to those that have purchased from you, be sure that the affiliate network you decided on has a variety of "complimentary" products you can sell. Since people usually buy more than one product on a subject they are interested in, this will lock in an ongoing stream of income from your initial marketing workd. Although you can transparently sell products to your market from a variety of affiliate networks simulatneously, it will be less stressful on you and your ability to efficiently handle your affiliate tasks if you have as few affiliate product owners and/or affiliate programs to manage as possible.

2. Concentrate on ONE product or service at a time to avoid "activity overload".
You need to know if your sales efforts for a specific product or service are making you money or if you are just wasting your time. You need to observe and tweak until you have a continous stream of money from your chosen product or service. If it doesn't happen, drop it and move on to another one.
Get all promotional and upsell tasks (ie: squeeze page, pre-sell page, free reports, autoresponder series, etc.) determined and ready to operate on autopilot before moving on to marketing a 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc.
Automation of each affiliate product or service's process allows you to turn your attention to developing additional streams of income without sacraficing your previous affiliate income stream.

3. In the know affiliates ALWAYS capture prospects name/emails for maximuming profit potential
Since the affiliate vendor or affiliate network doesn't provide you with a prospect or buyer's name and/or email address, if you route your prospects right to the affiliate vendor's webpage, you have lost them forever (even if they buy, you won't know who bought, only that you completed a sale). Therefore, you won't be able to capitalize on your initial promotional efforts by presenting other products or services to those who either expressed an interest or actually made a purchase.
Therefore, prior to sending your prospects to the affiliate vendor's sale page, you first want to direct them to a page that you have set up to capture their name and email address. This webpage is referred to as a "squeeze page" or "opt-in" page. On that webpage you'll need to give something for FREE (ie: a report, mini-ebook, software tool, newsletter subscription, etc.). Something with VALUE that will get them to give up their information.
Since it is a common fact that a majority of people won't buy on their first exposure to a person or product or service, you also need to follow up with those that have downloaded your FREE item (your list). Since statistics have proven that it often takes 7 exposures before a prospect is comfortable enough to buy, you need to have a process in place to ensure that you follow up in a timely manner.
Setting up an autoresponder with a series of messages that are automatically delivered at set intervals, is the best way to make it happen. This email series needs to be set up so that it helps you to establish a relationship as well as position you as a trusted advisor in your targeted marketplace. This will make it easier for your propsects to buy from you.
By continuing to offer FREE, valuable information to your prospects along with additional promotions built into your email series, it will ensure that your potential customers will continue to stay "subscribed". That they will continue to open your emails and eventually buy one or more of your affiliate offers.
4. Get the most exposure to your affiliate promotion
There are a number of ways to achieve exposure for your affiliate promotion (both free and paid). In other words, traffic to your promotional offer. The maximum marketing effort is made upfront. After that, if done right, a "viral" effect happens and your marketing efforts will take on a life of their own.
Free ways:
Article writing - Write associated articles and send to article directories. Articles are then picked up by numerous website webmasters, ezine owners, and others looking for online articles. Your article's "resource box" should have a direct link to your promotional "squeeze or "opt-in" page (which can't be removed by the publisher). So, each time anyone publishes your article, you'll get free traffic.
Forum participation - Locate related forums and particiapte in the discussions. Ask questions, offer solutions from your experience/educaton (not a sales pitch). Just configure your "signature" to route to your promotional "squeeze page" and Let your "signature" do your selling for you. Just be sure that the forum OKs this type of signature (most do).
Blogging - find related blogs and write comments, again with a link to your promotional "squeeze page" or "opt-in" page.
Joint Ventures - find like minded people in your target market that have "lists" that you can market to and vice versa. If they introduce your promotional link to their list, you'll present their product in your autoresponder series to your list.
Paid ways:
Google Adwords PPC (or other PPC Services) - Write & publish PPC (pay per click) ads. Each time someone clicks your ad, you are charged a certain fee. Keep in mind that you are charged this fee when they "click" your link, not if they "buy" the product. So, if you aren't monitoring your PPC budget closely, you may spend way more money on "clicks" than you'll ever earn on affiliate commissions. Be sure to read and understand the terms and conditions of any PPC program before you start to use this promotional resource.
If you are too busy or simply don't want to do these tasks yourself, you can always/could easily outsource them to be performed by others. But, make no mistake, they must be done. As always, its a trade off of your personal efforts or your money.

5. Make more money than most affiliates promoting the same product or service
Once you have established a solid track record as an affiliate who can close the sales, you can request a higher than normal commission from the merchant. Just contact the affiliate merchant and negotiate a larger percentage of the pie.
Since the affiliate vendor doesn't pay you anything unless you make a sale, they have a zero risk investment in you. If you have been a producer with them or can demonstrate your success with other affiliate efforts, many will work with you. Since less than 5% of their affiliates ever produce money for them, they won't want to lose an affiliate that does. Just be reasonable in your request.
Use these guidelines and you'll soon see a BIG increase in your affiliate earnings in no time flat.