The Secrets to a Profitable Affiliate Website.

Task #1: What is your niche market? You need to identify your potential customers and clients. It is critical to find your niche and market it to its full extent. Focusing on your niche market will reel in more customers because you aren't barraging them with extra information that they don't need.

Shy away from websites that cover a wide range of topics. You want to establish yourself as a leader in a niche market that is under-served online. You should find a suitable niche market that currently has less then one million websites on the Internet. This drop in competition will help you grab more of the customers that search for your keywords and phrases regarding your product or business. Plus, you have a better chance of a higher search engine ranking.

Task #2: Create a website of substance. A website is not merely a reserved parking spot on the Internet, but a means of communicating the services and products you have to offer. Potential customers are interested in your niche area and will also crave informational articles about your product or service. Therefore, you need to provide web article content.

It is comforting to a customer to see that you have invested time in supplying them "free" information through these articles. Plus, you will improve your free search engine ranking by incorporating niche keywords and phrases into your website content.

Where can you find articles to post on your website and how much do they cost? The good news is that you can find FREE articles on the Internet through a wide variety of sources. The vast supply of free articles will keep your website filled with pertinent information on a daily or weekly basis.

Task #3: Seek out the cream of the crop affiliate programs. Affiliate programs can definitely build your bank account. That is, if you join the BEST affiliate programs. Don't just join affiliate programs on a whim though, join the ones that will make you money.

Task #4: Offer Incentives for Customers. Customers will flock to what they perceive as a great deal. A rebate off the regular price is a great way to do that. Many times popular products have earned name recognition. Customers often type the product's name into search engines in order to find your affiliate product.

When they do find your affiliate website, you can hook them with a rebate. Let's say that you earn a 60% commission on a popular product. You could feasibly offer this product to customers at a 25% discount off of the regular price. A customer will jump at the chance to receive a discount. Don't give the discount immediately however. Offer a 25% rebate instead. Why? Offering the 25% discount up front will guarantee that you sell them the product for a lower price, but a rebate of 25% on the other hand is not often utilized. For one reason or another people do not often follow up on the rebate. Only about 15-20% of customers remember to send in the rebate. This is to your advantage.

As example, let's say the product costs $100. Your commission is 60% so you will earn $60. You can offer a rebate of 25% that amounts to $25 off. Therefore, if the customer takes you up on the rebate offer then you will make $35. However, like I said, most customers do not follow through with the rebate so you earn $60 even though you initially hooked them with the 25% rebate. How should you offer the rebate? Explain that if the customer orders directly from your website link that the rebate is valid. Request that they send in a receipt regarding their purchase. State that the rebate is valid 60 days after purchase. You'll want to make sure to wait until 60 days have passed to make sure they haven't already requested a refund. It is very easy to pay a rebate through Paypal or by old-fashioned check.

If you are risk taker you can increase the rebate amount. It is up to your level of risk aversion and experience.

It is true that anyone could purchase a program through their own affiliate link and have massive savings up to 75%. But guess what? Most people don't realize they can save money doing this. So point them to your affiliate link instead.

The major benefit of offering a rebate is that it distinguishes your affiliate from other competing affiliates. There maybe several other affiliates selling the same product, but you are selling the product at a discount price (with the rebate).

Task #5: Cash in on lead generation. Sales may be the number one thing on your mind as an affiliate. But don't forget about generating leads. Why? Generating leads will put more money in your pocket, plain and simple. How do you generate a lead? Leads can be generated by first offering free information for a product or service. Next you follow up with a contact information capture form that forces the customer to fill out lead forms in order to access the free information.

Let's say, for example, that you wanted to create sales leads for a health product. You can attract customers with the option of viewing free information and research regarding the health product. However, before they can view the free information they must first fill out a no obligation form regarding the health product. This is known as a "forced lead".

This lead from your affiliate page is a benefit for the health product company. You should be compensated for your lead. Many companies do not want to spend money on forced leads. However, you can work with them to explain that you are giving free related information. They may then approve your lead generation and compensate you for your effort.

Offering free information is beneficial to everyone. You will benefit from the lead generation fee. Your customer will benefit from learning more about the product or service for free. The company that owns the product or service will have a lead to follow up on for an actual sale of their product.

Task #6: Build your affiliate website. Building a website has never been easier. There are many programs on the market that allow you to create a dynamic website quickly and relatively cheaply. Many website building programs are geared for the non-technical person meaning you don't necessarily have to know how to program in HTML to create a robust website.

Check out these website building programs to help you create the website: SiteSell.com – Let SiteSell.com do the work of building an affiliate website for you. They will customize it to your niche market. Programming experience is not required and this program is around $300.

Plug in Profits – Set up your affiliate website with tutorials and extensive customer support. Create a website that fits your niche market.

XsitePro – This is an awesome website building program. It has all the bells and whistles including creating and a website to sell your own products, affiliate products, or a website traffic tool. Another great benefit is that no programming experience is required. You can get this program for around $200 and it well worth it.

Perhaps you don't have the time, energy or the know-how to build your website. Seeking out qualified website designers and programmers will ensure that your website is top notch. You can outsource this task to a website programmer on Elance or a ScriptLance. Both of these sites allow you to create a project in which skilled professionals from around the globe will place bids for building your website. A major benefit of these resources is that you can benefit from their professional experience at an inexpensive price. It's not uncommon to have a complete website built for only 100 – 300 U.S. Dollars.

Seal of approval… Don't forget that you want to convey that you have a legitimate business through your website. A great way to accomplish this is by applying for seals of approval companies like the Better Business Bureau. Your customer will feel much more confident about your business and services if you have been prescreened by the Better Business Bureau which will lead to more sales.

Task #7: Create a site that SELLS! I personally think the easiest way to get your first profitable website is to start with a "Review" website on digital products. Build your website simply and quickly. Write reviews about other digital products. The beauty of a review website is that you don't have to worry about customer complaints. The product merchant is responsible for the effectiveness of the product, not you. You are merely providing a review.

Creating your website is at the heart of starting your online business and the next step is to write a slam dunk sales letter. Sales letters play a key role in your financial success. The sales letter must be gripping, interesting, and communicate the necessary information to your customer. You've most likely read sales letters for products or services in the past. Some sales letters you came across were horrible, while others prompted you to buy right on the spot. So how do you write an effective sales letter?

A sales letter must include following components to convert a lead to a sale:

* Display Optimism
* Exhibit Neutrality
* Demonstrate Expertise
* Stress Immediacy
* Scare Them a Bit
* Reverse Psychology

Display Optimism: We live in a culture of the desire for quick results with little or no effort. This mentality hooks customers in by the thousands. Think of all the weight loss advertisements in which customers claim they tried "every" diet plan out there and found out that this specific program was the best for them. The keyword is "every" diet plan. Customers will stop at nothing to try any diet program or product on the market until they can fix their problem.

This is good news because they are willing to try your program, product, or service in their journey to success. Display optimism by communicating that there is still hope for their situation. Explain that your product is "the" product they have been looking for and it is a step above the rest. The customer wants to hear that all their problems will be solved by using your product.

By displaying optimism you are latching onto your customer's emotional heart strings. They may feel depressed and desperate and your product could save them from their misery. This quick fix is what they are looking for. In the diet program example many customers buy a diet program, stick to it for a short time and then fall off the bandwagon. They may determine that the program is too hard to stick to, not effective, or they are just plain sick of it. This applies to several different eBooks as well. YOu can offer your money back guarantee because you will often find customers that buy an eBook thinking it will solve all their problems and they don't even end up reading it after they purchase it. They are not likely to not require a refund if they skip reading the ebook altogether. It is a form of procrastination that is good for your bottom line.

Exhibit Neutrality: An effective sales letters promotes your product without pushing it down a customer's throat. The customer doesn't want to read only your review of the product because it's your product and you will appear biased. They want a "second opinion" from a neutral source. You can appear neutral by stating typical customer situations and how your product would help them. You can also offer different levels of product commitment so that the customer feels like they have a choice based on their own situation and are not automatically pointed to the most expensive product or service option.

By appearing neutral, your customer will feel like you are looking out for their best interests and rather than just your own financial gains. Appear as if you are giving them an unbiased opinion even when you are earning commission on the sale. Just include your affiliate link at the bottom of the review. You can cover your affiliate link using something called a "mouseover" so they don't even know you're getting a commission.

Demonstrate Expertise: While appearing neutral is beneficial, you must demonstrate your expertise regarding your product or service. You don't buy computer services from a worker at a fast food restaurant so why would your customers buy from you if they don't know your level of expertise? They want to know that you are an authority on the subject and that they are investing their money with a reliable, intelligent business.

Communicate the amount of money you have earned in your area of expertise. If you had to choose between buying an eBook from an online marketer that earned $10,000 versus $1,000,000, which one would you choose? The $1,000,000 online marketer of course! So would a customer. This "authority" has demonstrated that they have achieved real financial success in the area they are writing about.