List Of Affiliate Programs I Use

Special report: Tonight I'm giving you a list of affiliate programs I use:

• VistaPrint
  
  We link to VistaPrint via ConnectCommerce.com (the Google Affiliate Network).  VistaPrint is for business cards, rubber stamps, and other personalized office supplies or promotionals.  They have great deals for new customers.
  
  
• OfficeMax Deals Of The Week
  
  Also linked to through ConnectCommerce.  Office Max's Daily Deals and Deals of the Week are usually exceptional.  Office Max sells equipment, furniture, paper, toner, and tons of other products to use for your home-based or larger business.
  
  
• MyCorporation
  
  This company helps you file the paperwork required for a new corporation, LLC, etc.  I found their services to be exceptional as we filed our own corporate paperwork using them.
  
  
• Amazon.com
  
  This is a big bookstore that became a big anything store.  Amazon has exceptional prices on everything the sell.  They also use resellers that offer even bigger bargains on books, and... well... everything.
  
  
• Chitika
  
  Usually Chitika ads are display ads that are based on search keywords that visitors use.  I have used them off and on for this blog and have found them to be exceptional.  People click on the ads because they relate to the search terms they use to enter the site.
  
  
• Godaddy
  
  This is a domain registration and hosting company (in case you didn't know).  They have many exceptional services for companies and individuals.  We recently made a move from another hosting company and have found them to be top notch.  Better than any company that we've used before for similar services, and we've used a few.
  
  
• Watkins (VanillaStop.com)
  
  This is the only multi-level marketing company that I am associated with.  Watkins sells over 350 different products that are all exceptional quality.  Watkins customers are raving fans.  Become a Watkins Associate to get a 25% discount on product types that you would otherwise buy from the grocery store (much better replacements), and teach others to do the same to earn residual income.
  
  
• Google Adsense
  
  These are the ads I use between posts.  There are pros and cons to using Google Adsense ads, but I have found that they do pay.

I mainly use affiliate programs that I really believe in and can provide our visitors with a good value.

Affliate Programs Versus Multi-Level Marketing

Affiliate programs on the internet are typically links into a website that give you, the referrer, credit when somebody uses your link or when a sale is made after your link is clicked.  Typically, affiliate program effectiveness for you is a function of the amount of traffic you have on your website, how closely the affiliate is related to your subject matter on your website, and how visible the link or banner is on your website.  So generally, it is you advertising for another website and you get paid for how much business you generate for them.

Affiliate programs that pay based on sales pay a varying degree of commissions, I have seen anywhere from 4% to 75%.  You can actually measure how effective the program is for you based on the number of clicks the advertisement gets or the dollars in commissions you receive from having the advertisement on your website.  Dollars is a better measurement but clicks might be easier to measure in the beginning as you are building traffic.

A multi-level marketing company or upline can similarly use affiliate programs to recruit or sell products, or both.  Commissions on multi-level marketing for sales vary depending on many factors, but I have seen companies pay as much as 50% on direct sales with a decent amount of sales volume.  In addition, you can also earn commissions from other distributors that you bring into the business, and those they bring into the business, and so forth.  Some companies have unlimited depth and pay commissions based on overall volume.  Others have break-away programs that pay on so many levels after the distributors below you break away.  Ultimately, though, you can make commissions, perhaps small commissions, on each and every single sale within your downline network of distributors.

So the question really is: Is it better to use an affiliate program or a multi-level market program to generate income from your website?  I will give you this answer: Sales from your website will be generated by how closely the product matches the information provided.  If you sell household products on a business website, you will probably not see much sales.  However, if you sell a business opportunity on a business website, you may sign distributors.  Will those distributors buy or sell the products?  I believe so, but I do not have personal proof of this at this time.

On the other hand, if you have an ecommerce website that sells the product that also recruits new distributors, this tends to be very successful as long as you can generate sales.  Selling via ecommerce is retailing, and this usually means having the right product at the right price with the right services.  Not everything will sell via ecommerce, but things that will not sell ecommerce probably would also not make good multi-level marketing products.

Some MLM companies have special rules for operating on the internet so make sure you know what these are before you get started.  Good luck and let me know how it goes!

Affiliate Programs and Funky Links

How do I feel about a web site that is provided to you, such as affiliate program sites, sites with funky links, and subsites such as bob.aa.com or aa.com/bob? I have to warn you that people do tend to want to visit the main site - i.e. if they encounter a funky link or a subsite, they want to enter the main website name into their browser. This means that the website owner gets the sale or the benefit of your link. Having said that, they can work for you under the right conditions.

For instance, the image on the left is for a link into Amazon.com for the book "The Greatest Networker in the World" by John Milton Fogg.  This is a wonderful book about building relationships and images with others as you build your MLM business.  You can buy the book with this link and I get a small commission.  I wonder, though, will people buy using the link or go search Amazon.com for the book?  It's just as easy to do either... I mean there is no real reason to buy from me.  I don't offer a discount or a guarantee so what is the reason to buy?  Having said that, I find the ads and links to be somewhat successful.

I use the Google Adsense advertisements throughout my blog and I also find them to be successful.  However, I personally would not include them if they interfered with the website in any way.  They seem to blend in nice and people do click on them.

I have also seen websites built by MLM companies or MLM uplines that provide a "free website" to a distributor which uses what I will call a "funky link" like affiliate.asp?rc=1234, which tells the website which affiliate is linking so the new distributor or sale can go to them.  Again, this can work but beware that people will visit the main site.  If the main site contains a prompt for the code (i.e. 1234 above) and nothing else, it is probably not a bad thing.  If instead the prospect can sign up under your upline... not so good.

I continue to experiment with advertising here on my blog but I don't really make money off of any of them at this time, so I am just trying to see what looks nice, is not too distracting, and is effective with visitors to this site.  I really like chitika because they only advertise to people who visit my site from a search engine and not to regular visitors.  You can find out more information at http://chitika.com/publishers.php?refid=shrinkme.

What I absolutely do not advise is to join more than one multi-level marketing company at one time.  In this case, you really need to put all of your eggs in one basket. 

Please let me know if you have any questions by commenting on this article.