Three Suggestions to Increase your Affiliate Commissions

A survey done by the Forrester research projected that in 2005, affiliate programs will reach $53 billion. It is still very early to tell, we are just starting with 2006. No matter, even a figure lower that is still a lot of money that is changing hands in e-commerce.

That also goes to show the popularity that affiliate marketing has generated since its start ten years ago.

How then earning potential should be boosted to get a piece of the market and keep you up there?

Here are simple tips to increase your earnings.

· Choose the products that you are most comfortable with. Not all products are very saleable. Choosing a product or a service that gives the highest commission may or may not be a work out for good reasons.

Ask any salesman and he will readily tell you that the higher commissions are given for a product, the more difficult it is to sell. Conversely, easy to sell products give lower rates. Depending on your temperament and your preferences, choose wisely a product or a service that you have to promote. If you want windfall and do not mind so much the waiting time to convert your leads into sales go for products offering bigger rates.

But whatever the choices you select, the most important products to choose are those that are already within your target audience needs and requirements. Something that they are already familiar about.

The varieties of online merchant affiliates doing business and wanting to get into online marketing are growing by the day. Marketers can now at least afford to be picky. So chose one that would least likely get for you the earnings benefits you want.

· Build your list. Having a good directory of customers, marketing people call it the customers list, will pay great dividends. The lifeline of any business involved in selling is the customers list.

Do not send a customer directly to your merchant without getting the contact information first. Sending your prospect to your merchant does not allow you repeat sales. It also does not give you much chance on selling to them the other product lines that are in your portfolio. You lost the opportunity of sending those marketing messages and establishing a relationship with them that are so essential in selling situation. All that you could expect is a one time sale. Send them to your merchant and you loose them forever.

· Because of the current competition merchants are adjusting, fine tuning and revalidating their commission structures. They mean business and they like us want to be ahead of the competition. Many merchants maintain other incentives outside of the regular commission that hey offer. These "other incentive are usually earmarked for their better performing affiliate marketers. If your have proven yourself to be a successful promoter of their products and additional incentives are not yet on the talking table, ask them. A smart merchant will always want to keep marketers that are performing. No merchant will want to loose you to the competition besides you are a no risk investment to the merchant.
Ask them for omission higher than normal or request for additional incentives. If your stay within limits you just might get it.

· E-books. There is a good chance that you are competing with other affiliates that are into the same program. That being the case, the third step is for you is to write e-books and collect the e-mail addresses that downloaded your e-book. This is a soft sell approach that could enhance your credibility with your customer. Remember you are not selling them anything. You are just informing them. There should be very little resistance with this approach if any.

These three suggestions will improve your earning potential from your venture as a marketing affiliate.