This is the main technique I am going to be talking about. I’m sure you’ve used the Google search engine, and have seen the “sponsored links.” From the name, you must recognise that people pay for those links.
Google have set up a nice easy way to relieve you of some money from your credit card, for which they provide these adverts for you. How this works is that you decide on the text of an ad you would like to place, on what search keywords the ad should be displayed, and how much you would be prepared to pay if the person searching clicks on your ad. The person doing the search is then sent to the web site you specified, and you get charged an amount that may be as little as one penny, but typically may be in the region of 3 to 10p (5 to 15 cents). The service is called Google AdWords.
There are many affiliate networks that allow you to send traffic to a third party web site that sells something, and pay you commission if a sale results from the action. Clickbank is one of the most popular; you may have purchased some products through them already! Clickbank mainly deals in information products such as ebooks. Another affiliate network is Commission Junction, one of the largest networks which deals with affiliate programmes for a lot of household brand names. You can sign up as an affiliate for free, and they will send you money when your sales reach a certain level; in some cases this is done electronically, in other cases through cheques.
How do you profit from this? Well, you place an ad in Google Adwords that leads to the web site. You think of phrases that people who are interested in the product may enter into the search engine, and then an advert that would be likely to get clicked on that leads to the web site. If the customer buys the product, you have paid maybe 5p for that person to click on the link, and have made about £10 from the sale!
Now, of course, not everybody who clicks on your link will buy the product. That’s why you have to monitor your advertising campaign, and there is an element of risk involved as nobody may buy your product. While you are starting out, you should expect to lose on your first campaigns; in fact, experts in the field only generate campaigns that make money about 1 out of every 7 times, and they believe that for new entrants into the business the numbers may be typically 1 in 20. As with any other business, perseverance is necessary to get to the stage where you are earning money. I have so far had one successful campaign out of 12 that I have set up, and another that I believe I can make successful, after having tried this technique for about two months, so I don’t think that’s too bad for somebody who has never studied marketing before! I suggest that while you are starting out you keep the price you are willing to pay for a click low, and you do not spend more than the commission you expect to receive on ads.
What’s good about this approach is that once you have come up with a campaign that consistently makes money, all you have to do is to monitor it, maybe once a week, or however often you feel comfortable with. You then have made a campaign that generates autopilot income for you! Keep going and going, and you will eventually make a significant income from this approach.
Google Adwords have something known as a display URL that is shown to the user; this matches the first part of the URL that the user sees when they click on your ad. They also have a destination URL. Clickbank and other affiliate programmes will provide you with a URL that is redirected to the web site containing the product. It is important to use the URL provided, because this enables the sale to be tracked back to you.
One other thing you need to know at this time is that Google will only display one ad that is directed to a specific display URL. This means that if somebody is already promoting a product with your keyword, you will have to make it more attractive for Google to display your ad. Usually this means you have to increase the amount you are prepared to pay when someone clicks on your ad, although you can also increase the effectiveness of your ad (the ratio of clicks it receives to the number of times it is displayed) to do this. There are ways round this which I will be discussing in a future article.
The next article will describe some of the resources out there to help you get going in the business. A little information is dangerous, and armed with just the knowledge available here, you will likely lose a lot of money unless you do some more learning first!
David Thomas, The Affiliate Marketer
