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Affiliate programs

First, let’s define the difference between affiliate and reseller programs:

Affiliate programs: Many internet programs on a wide range of topics use affiliates to boost their sales. It’s free to join an affiliate program, but you keep only a percentage of the profit you make (albeit a high percentage); the rest goes to the parent company. Additionally, most affiliate programs offer bonuses in the form of money or “rank” when you sign up affiliates beneath you. The higher up in rank you move in an affiliate program, the more exposure your affiliate site gets. Affiliate programs set up everything for you, providing a web site with a distinct URL. Unfortunately, the URL only differs from other affiliate members by a few characters, so it’s easy for buyers to arrive at a mirror site run by another affiliate. This problem can be minimized or eliminated by using NameStick, a URL streamlining service discussed later in this chapter.

Reseller programs: In reseller programs, you will pay a one-time fee to purchase the program and all selling rights for it. This means you can then resell the program and keep 100 percent of the profits. The main difference between this and affiliate programs is the rate of profit and initial investment. Affiliate programs require no upfront investment, but take longer to reach the profit levels gained by retaining the full price of the program. With effective autoresponder marketing, you can quickly earn back the investment made in reseller rights.

What you need to know to profit from affiliate and reseller programs

The main thing to remember is this: hundreds of other people are selling the exact same product as you. One of the most important things you must do with affiliate and reseller programs is to keep an eye on your competition and try to make your product more attractive than theirs. There are several factors to consider in this process:

1. Price. This one is obvious. You may not have much leeway in setting prices with affiliate programs, but with reseller programs you can check out how much others are charging for the same product, and set your price a bit lower. This means lower net profit per unit sold, but your higher sales volume will more than make up for it. Internet shoppers love to compare prices, and if yours is the lowest they will buy from you.
   
2. Marketing message. Make your autoresponder series more convincing than the competition, and more people will follow your links and buy your product. Further in this book we’ll discuss crafting powerful autoresponder messages that get results. You will also find information on setting up your web site to draw customers in and stand out from the competition.
   
3. Bonuses. Everyone loves to get something for free. You can give away free e-books, mini-courses based on the material contained in your product, or free newsletter subscriptions (as long as you make the content of your newsletter informative and worthwhile) that would be otherwise unavailable to the buyer should they purchase your program from another seller.

With affiliate and reseller programs, you already have a fully developed product people want to buy. This leaves you free to concentrate on your marketing effort. If you put all the proper components in place and invest extra time in developing your autoresponder message, you will be able to automate your profits and keep your money machine going with little effort or maintenance.

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