Ruth Marlene Friesen: Welcome!

This site is like Ruthe, the heroine of my novel, Ruthe's Secret Roses

Ruthe is. . .
intimate with God,
prays a lot,
a bleeding heart for the hurting,
a big sister,
rescues friends,
has creative ideas,
likes to give surprise gifts,
loyal to friends,
dreams of love and marriage,
dreams of writing a book
goes the extra mile

So this site offers;
good books to read!
help to become Friends with God,
The One Ideal Real Friend
a cure for loneliness
An Older Sister's Coping Secret
how to pray Panic Prayers,
& regularly/daily
devotionals,
how to grow in faith
Christian mentoring,
how to share your faith
character development
how to become a writer



te-Oh-oh!

In Part One of this two part series, you learned how to evaluate an affiliate program based on how long it's been around, how much commission it pays, and whether or not you would personally use the products or services.

In this installment, we'll take a look at several other deciding factors.

4. How many products do they offer? If a company offers just one or two products, but you really like, use, or recommend them, and the commission is good, and/or the sales volume is good, then great -- there are no problems. Generally though, you'll want to partner with a company that offers at least three or more quality products or services. Why? Because you can increase your income much easier if you have additional products to promote.

This concept is called "back-end sales". You've probably heard of it before, right? In general, you work your tail off to convert a prospect to a customer. They become a customer as soon as they buy one item. After that, the hard part is done! Once a prospect becomes a customer, it is much easier to sell them additional, related things. So, if you have partnered with a company that offers a few quality items, you can contact previous buyers and offer them those additional items.

Following our examples above, The ScamFreeZone's Internet Success Program offers several related, high-quality products. As an affiliate, once you have made a sale to one person, that person is much more likely to come back and get another ScamFreeZone product later... which means you earn commissions again -- every time they buy.

5. How many ways can you make money? This may seem like a strange question at first, but the fact is: some affiliate programs offer just one way to make money, while others offer several. Direct sales is the primary way of course, with back-end products being an additional revenue stream. Additional sales of the same product, or recurring revenue on the product -- i.e. the customer pays a monthly subscription fee -- can make you additional money as well. In some cases, you'll get paid for every month that the customer keeps their service active.

Another common way to make money with an affiliate program, is through 2nd-tier sales. 2nd-tier sales is simply another form of referral income. In other words, if you send a prospect to your affiliate site, and they sign up as an affiliate themselves instead of buying something, then you wouldn't make any money from them. If however, the affiliate program is set up in a two-tier structure, that new affiliate would be listed as a sub-affiliate of you. And, any time that new affiliate made a sale, you would get a percentage. The 2nd-tier commission percentage is usually a small portion of direct sale commissions, but it can still add up nicely.

So, two-tier structured affiliate programs can be beneficial in a couple of ways. First, you're not in a fierce competition with other affiliates. If you had a retail store, and your customer went to your direct competitor, you would not get any money from the purchase they made at that other store, right? As an affiliate though, in a two-tier program, if your customer signs themselves up, or buys from someone you signed up, then you still earn a reward. So, in effect, you're working together instead of against each other. Each time you or one of your sub-affiliates makes a sale, you both earn money.

In The ScamFreeZone's Internet Success Associate Program for instance, you can make 10% of every sale made by a sub-affiliate. Your sub-affiliates still earn a full 50% on their direct sales, so your commission does not come out of their pocket. Programs structured this way give you the potential to add several hundred dollars to your affiliate income each month, without essentially lifting a finger.

The second advantage to a two-tier system is that you can choose to be more managerial instead of direct sales. If you prefer not to sell products and services to customers directly, you can instead concentrate on recruiting sales people. Then you simply mentor, teach, and encourage them... they make the direct sales, and you both profit.

6. What kind of support, motivation, or training do they offer? Unfortunately, many modern-day affiliate programs are simply looking for people to put up their banners and links. They don't have a systematic teaching or support system in place, and if you send email to them it can take days or weeks for a response... if you get a response at all.

A sign of a good affiliate program is one that's devoted to helping the affiliates achieve. Usually this type of program will have a dedicated affiliate manager, and will keep in constant contact with you through newsletters or other similar means.

Now, a newsletter in and of itself can be slightly misleading. Many companies today -- affiliate related or not -- tend to send email that they *call* a newsletter, but in reality that email is more promotional than anything else. Have you gotten "newsletters" from companies which essentially looks and feels like a sales flyer? If you're like me, you see that as borderline spam, and not overly useful... especially if you're trying to make commissions from the company's products or services.

A good affiliate program is going to have a useful and informative newsletter. It may only come out once a month, or it might arrive every week. Either way, it is usually chock full of help, information, tips, and tricks... all designed to help you increase your income through their program.

The ScamFreeZone's Internet Success Associate Program is another good example in this case. They send a weekly newsletter to their affiliates, and in that newsletter you'll find helpful articles focused on marketing. You'll also find tips and short articles about how other affiliates have succeeded, and you'll find ideas about how to best utilize the ad creative they provide for you. Sometimes, they even send out special new creative in the newsletter, before it is available anywhere else.

7. How often do they pay? This isn't so much the mark of a good affiliate program as it is a convenience, but it is important to note. Some affiliate programs only pay once every three to six months. Some require you to earn a minimum amount of commissions before they'll pay. In some cases this minimum is not unreasonable -- $25 -- but in some cases you have to earn $100 or more before you get paid.

There are also a few key affiliate programs which offer faster payment options such as direct to a PayPal account, or direct deposit to your regular bank account. So, knowing how they pay, as well as how often they pay, can be a deciding factor in whether you choose to partner with them.

And there you have it :) A nice, not-so-quick, but informative, list of things to look closely at when you're selecting affiliate, associate, or partner programs. Now you can go out and make decisions about those companies with confidence, and start letting yourself really profit in the affiliate game! :)

For additional information on the examples given here, please visit The ScamFreeZone's Internet Success Associate Program

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Tips & Solutions

Do you eat novels like chocolates? Here's one with both weight and excellent flavour! For a satisfying treat, read Ruthe's Secret Roses





How can you be sure you would like an e-book before you pay for it? In a store you'd stand and read a couple of chapters first, right? Sit down, take your time; READ six chapters of Ruthe's Secret Roses for free!


SOHOs, startups, and newbies This is ideal for the small business person just starting out, looking desperately for the perfect solution? -- SBI! is it.


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Fiction is fun and for pleasure, the big money lies in writing how-tos and knowledgeable non-fiction. Want to make a living in this internet information age?


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Anything you know well (ie. your book?) can be digitalized! Sell it!





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