February 2008 - How to Get Started....

FEATURED COMMENTARY

By Colleen Darwent,
Affiliate Manager

Hi All,

I’ve got great news… I am now writing this newsletter as the new Affiliate Manager for Worldwide Brands. Colette Marshall, former Affiliate Manager has been promoted to Director of Marketing and will still be available as an added resource. As the new Affiliate Manager for Worldwide Brands, I want to personally welcome all of those affiliates who are both old and new to the Worldwide Brands Affiliate Program.

I noticed that recently we have received quite a few questions from new affiliates who don’t really understand what affiliate marketing is all about and how to really get started. For this reason I have decided that this newsletter is going to target those of you who are just beginning in the Affiliate Industry, and I am going to answer a few questions that you may be asking yourselves.

So here it goes…

1. I’ve heard about affiliate marketing, signed up to a few programs, but really, what is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is a performance-based, revenue-sharing marketing strategy utilized by many ecommerce merchants to promote their products. An affiliate is anyone who wants to generate extra income by promoting a merchants product through their own websites, e-stores, opt-in email databases, or Pay Per Click campaigns, etc. As an affiliate of Worldwide Brands you will receive a commission for referring customers who purchase a product. The Worldwide Brands Affiliate Program is a 2-tier program. For every sale that you generate as an affiliate you will earn 25% commission. For every person who joins the affiliate program that found us through one of your links you will earn 10% for every sale that they generate too.

2. What are the various methods of Affiliate Marketing?

There are many different methods that affiliates use to promote a merchants products. As an affiliate of Worldwide Brands your target audiences are those people who want to sell physical products online. So, in essence you are promoting a Product Sourcing Solution to those who are in the process of setting up and online store, or who have been selling online for many years. An example of this is an eBay or Yahoo! Store. Some ideas to get the creative juices flowing are to set up your own website in the form of perhaps a blog, or a site that reviews various products that you have used. Maybe you are actually selling online and would like to promote this product because it helped you in your personal business; so put a link up in your store and talk about why you like the product so much (please make sure that you are in compliance with the guidelines of the platform that you are using). Of course another method is to create a PPC (Pay Per Click) campaign and drive traffic either directly to one of the Worldwide Brands pages (there are many to choose from, ask me if you need help with this), or drive the traffic to your website first. At the moment the new and exciting thing is Video, and video we have, and a lot of it.

3. Where can I get good information about Affiliate Marketing?

It’s always good to keep ahead and know what is going on in the industry of Affiliate Marketing. A great place to do that is a forum called A Best Web. www.ABestWeb.com is jam-packed with answers to any and all questions that you may have. I always suggest that before posing your question to the forum that you do a search for what you are looking for first. There are various threads that deal with just about everything you can imagine, and then some.
I am not saying that A Best Web is only forum for good information, but what I am saying is that I am familiar with ABW and that it’s the one that I use the most. Some other forums are 5 Star Affiliate Program, Revenue Source and many more. Of course there are many books and other materials that you can purchase, but this is one option that has no cost associated to it.
Affiliate Classroom is an excellent place to help you get started. Affiliate Classroom is a proven training system that shows you how to be an affiliate marketer and build an online business that lasts. Click Here to learn more.
Shawn Collins is very well known in the Affiliate Marketing Industry. He has been an affiliate marketer since 1997. Visit his site at, www.affiliatetip.com to find a wealth of information on Affiliate Marketing.

4. I’ve heard of the term SEO, but what in the World does it mean, and how do I do it?

The term “SEO” means Search Engine Optimization. Many people think that you can just create a website, get it hosted, and you are “A” for away. This is not the case. You need to build your site so that it is search engine friendly. There are many tactics, tools, and so much education out there to help you optimize your site. This is not something that you do once in the beginning and forget about it; it is a long process of AB testing pages, headings, wording, colors and much more. There are various methods of improving your score with say, Google. A great resource for this is a company called StomperNet. At the moment StomperNet’s blog has some absolutely fabulous videos about SEO. I strongly recommend watching them before they are taken down. I would suggest starting out with their first video on page 3, and working your way up to the latest video. Watch the StomperBlog Video's Here.

That’s about it for now; I look forward to working with all of you and hope that you’ll contact me with any questions or concerns that you may have.

Thank you for promoting OneSource!

Colleen Darwent
Affiliate Manager
Worldwide Brands
affiliateteam@worldwidebrands.com
877-637-6774 ext 8121