I’m not generally a fan of articles from article directories, but I found one yesterday that I wanted to share with you:

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to make money online. Affiliates don’t have to worry about product creation or writing a sales letter. When you are an affiliate you just drive traffic to your affiliate link and sit back and collect the commissions.

Once I learned about affiliate marketing, I knew it was the business model for me! However, after spending a few weeks getting to know the basics I realized that there was a hard way and an easy way to be an affiliate. Here are three simple ways to increase your affiliate commissions while also working less.

1. Residual affiliate programs

Which sounds better to you? Developing a traffic building campaign to your affiliate link and making the sale once or developing the same amount of traffic and getting paid each and every month? Of course, the second situation definitely makes much more sense! With residual affiliate commissions you can make money over and over again from just one sale. You can find residual affiliate commission programs from many sources including membership sites. When you become an affiliate for a membership site you can get commissions each and every month as long as the member stays subscribed.

2. Build a list

One of the biggest mistakes I made when I got started in internet marketing was not building a mailing list. I’ve made thousands of additional dollars marketing to people on my mailing lists. Had I started earlier, who knows how much more would I have made. If you don’t have an autoresponder account, I recommend signing up with AWeber and getting started today.

– Antone

Many affiliate marketers simply send their referrals through their link without capturing their e-mail addresses. If you want to build a long term affiliate business you need a build a list from your prospects. Even if the referral doesn’t buy through your affiliate link you can market to them later down the road with additional affiliate offers. Building a list is simple. Instead of referring your traffic directly to the affiliate offer page, you can direct them to your own landing page. Give away a free report or offer a free ecourse in order to encourage your visitors to opt in. Once they have signed up for your list, you can direct them to your affiliate link. You can also market different products, which can increase your overall commissions.

3. Develop a short product with your affiliate link embedded

Have you ever gotten a free product that was chock full of information but it also included affiliate links? You can do the same in your niche and create a viral ebook that will distribute your affiliate link all over the Internet. You can sell giveaway rights to the book, or just include giveaway rights to anyone who downloads your ebook. The key to making this strategy work is to find a hard hitting topic that will attract attention. Offer three to five unique tips on your topic that will inspire or inform your niche. You can upload the book to your website, give it to your list with resale rights and distribute it in giveaway directories. You can also upload the PDF to Scribd.com. Within just a matter of time your report will be widely distributed along with your link.

These three ideas just scratch the surface on how you can multiply your affiliate earnings.

Dan Higby is the author of eBiz Snap a free newsletter for online marketers of all experience levels. Fill your mind with business snap fill your pockets with profit with your own complimentary copy of eBiz Snap News Letter.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com