It is time to publish the results of my Affiliate Marketing Survey.  The survey was conducted a few weeks ago and I want to first say thanks to those of you that participated. 

The survey will really help me to better serve you.  I got some great information and great feedback with this survey.  At the same time this will be helpful for me with staying focused on issues that you all or at least most of you will be interested in.

The Survey Questions

1. How would you describe your current activity in Affiliate Marketing?

I’m totally new to Affiliate Marketing aka. Newbie.

I’ve joined affiliate network(s) but have not made a sale yet.

I’ve made a few sales but nothing to brag about.

Part-time affiliate – I’m making good side money.

Full-time affiliate – I make a living from affiliate marketing.

The Results: 33% of surveyors were totally new to affiliate marketing, 50% were making a few sales, and 17% were making good side money.

2. Based on your current activity level, please rate your current level of expertise in the following affiliate marketing subjects.

Before I forget again, Happy Belated Father’s Day to all you Dad’s out there!

I want to share with you a couple of things going on right now.

As for my first niche site (the yeast infection niche), I am terribly disappointed in the results.  I worked very hard on this site.  I also worked very hard creating articles for backlinks and a few other web 2.0 properties for backlinks.  For some reason google does not show any of these backlinks and I am not sure why!  I have checked and Google has indexed my site but that’s it.  If you don’t remember my initial niche marketing plan, I was trying to generate traffic by following an article marketing plan.

Over the past month there has only been 47 visits to the site with 39 of those being unique visits.  Obviously it is impossible to make money with so few visitors.  Of those 47 visits there has been over 200 page views and the average time on site is 2:21.

As of today, I have 3 subscribers.  They have already gone through the 9 hard sell, soft sell and content follow-up emails.

The most important stat – Zero sales

Over the past few weeks we have taken a look at why I like affiliate marketing, affiliate marketing networks, 4 affiliate networks for beginners, and what to look for when selecting an affiliate product to promote.

Affiliate Marketing – What’s next Rick?

Let’s look at another common question that seems to come up when talking about affiliate marketing.  That question is “should I promote informational products or physical products?”  To be totally honest it is up to you.  Sorry to disappoint you  folks but there is no magic answer here.

For me, I have not promoted a physical product yet but it is next on my list of things to promote.  Since I do not have any direct experience with physical product marketing I have done a lot of research for you guys.  One thing that continues to come up during my research is that physical products offer a huge potential for making money online.  This is why I am exciting to get into marketing physical products.

So Which Do I Choose – Informational Products or Physical Product?

Alright, alright, alright!

Last week we established why I like affiliate marketing.

Today let’s take a look at Affiliate Networks.

What Are Affiliate Networks?

An affiliate network acts as an intermediary between affiliates and merchant affiliate programs. It allows affiliates to more easily find and participate in affiliate programs which are suitable for their website.  It also allows merchants that have affiliate programs to be able to reach a larger audience by promoting their affiliate programs.

Most affiliate networks allow merchants to offer affiliates a share of any revenue that is generated by the merchant from visitors through the affiliates site/link.  There are some merchants that offer a fee for each visitor on an affiliate site that completes a specific action (making a purchase, registering for a newsletter, etc.).  This type of offer is referred to as CPA or Cost Per Action.

Affiliates are typically able to join affiliate networks for free.  However, there is typically a fee for merchants to participate in the network. Some affiliate networks might charge an initial setup fee and a recurring membership fee. It is common for affiliate networks to charge merchants a percentage of the commissions paid to affiliates.