Introduction to Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing has revolutionised the way e-commerce companies (merchants) operate on the net. Essentially affiliate sales programs are "pay for results" marketing. Merchants generally invite people with websites (affiliates) to partner with them by providing links to the merchant website, such as banners that are placed within the affiliate's website or sent out in newsletters associated with the website.

When a prospect comes to the merchant site through the affiliate link and buys a product or registers for any services, the merchant pays a commission to the affiliate that referred the customer.

So we at TonerTopUp are the merchant and we are happy to pay you substantial commissions on the sales that you as an affiliate generate for us through your activities and your website. (Normally 12%) However we wish to take the concept of Affiliate sales programs just a little bit further than this as the special "cost saving" nature of our refill toner product gives scope for an extended program which we believe will benefit many of our Affiliates.

Repeat Sales and Residual Commission

Most affiliate sales programs only pay a one off commission on immediate sales. Better ones have products which are purchased repeatedly and the affiliate retains the customer for a period or indefinitely so gaining repeat commissions after the initial introduction. This is known as residual income and obviously makes a big difference to the attractiveness of a program.

TonerTopUp refill toner is a consumable and most of our clients come back regularly for more toner. We do indeed pay an indefinite commission and so we expect that you will gradually build up an increasing residual income from the customers you refer to us over time as they remain marked for commission to you indefinitely.

Single and Multilevel Programs

The majority of affiliate sales programs only pay you on the sales from those you directly refer and perhaps on the purchases you make for your own use. These are "single level" schemes.

Some better ones also pay you a commission on the sales of those you introduce as affiliates, your downline. This is normally restricted to a single level and these are called two level schemes. (We normally pay 8% at this second level.)

The advantage of these from your point of view is that you are rewarded for spreading the word about the sales program and you can, if you wish, focus some of your effort on building a network of affiliates who "work for you". Of course from their point of view, they get precisely the same deal as you do and can build their own downlines on exactly the same terms.

Now there is potentially a team involved and the more you can help your downline to be effective at selling the more you earn. You have a natural interest in supporting and encouraging them. From our point of view as the merchant we are rewarding you for spreading the word. Doing this by a commission on selling works all round as we can only afford commissions when items are sold. That is why it is rare to find a fixed payment for recruitment and you should be wary of any selling schemes that pay one as they are not likely to be stable and may be illegal!

We go one step further, which is unusual for an affiliate scheme, as we also pay a small 2% third level commission. If you think about it you will see that this gives you an incentive to encourage your downline to recruit as well. This is in both your and their interests now. We think this is the best structure for an expanding, team orientated, sales network and that it will stand us in good stead for the future.

Why else do we pay three levels of commission?

There is another reason for the extra commission levels which is to do with the nature of the products and of some of the organisations who are naturally interested in buying our refill toner to save themselves money. Our customers are predominately small organisations, both commercial and non-commercial, and individuals. Many of the organisations have hierarchies. These may be regional or maybe membership based.

For Example a Charity

For instance a national charity may have a large number of regional bodies that organise the work and do the fundraising. Our commission structure facilitates the spread of our selling scheme throughout such an organisation.

Maybe one individual at a local level sees the potential of the scheme for fundraising and registers. He or she now has a big incentive to pass the idea onto the national body for replication to other areas. Its a win-win position at each level. The national body may be incentivised to promote it to their other areas and will benefit centrally from them taking it up. All the while everyone involved with using the product is also saving a lot of money! This is why people buy it in the first place!

For Example a School

For instance a parent sees the potential for raising school funds by promoting TonerTopUp refill toner on a school website and maybe interesting some neighbouring schools to do the same thing. The schools will not only benefit from any selling made via their website to other parents but also from parents signing up as affiliates in their own right. We have many schools as customers because the tight budgets they have mean they are always looking for ways to reduce their costs and refilling their own cartridges works well for them.

All in all the multiplier effect of a three level commission structure increases vastly the potential income of those prepared to work actively to promote the selling scheme. It is a win-win position for all involved....that also obviously includes us!

(Note: If you are beginning to have thoughts of pyramids let me reassure you! Commissions are only paid as a proportion of our selling revenue, in an amount we can afford to pay so the scheme is stable. There are NO costs to any team member ever (Unless you choose to spend your time or money.) There is no stock or paid for promotional materials or samples etc. It is totally ethical and legal! If you want further reassurance on this look at our page on the UK Legislative Context .)

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Your relationship as an Affiliate with TonerTopUp as the Merchant

You are our valued partner-in-selling. We only build our business if you build YOURS. We consider you as independent members of our selling team and it is in our interest for you to get as much commission as possible. That is why we have tried to put a good level of commission into the scheme and include as many products as possible at the highest rates. 22% total commission for a repeat purchase product on an indefinite basis is pretty good for a real product that is bought by people to save themselves money.

How do I promote my affiliate link?

If you already have a busy website and the product is relevant and attractive to your visitors, you should start earning money straight away. If you have a new, low-traffic site, you need to promote your site before you can make these schemes work for you. Experienced webmasters suggest that you need at least 500 unique visitors a day to make reasonable money from a web site through schemes but it could be fewer if the match is really good as that will mean that the visitors to your site are already pre-qualified as interested. (For detailed information on the conversion rates of our website, average order size and so on visit our FAQ page.)

The general wisdom in promotion is that your pages should bring a wealth of well promoted information value to your customer and not be overly concerned with selling a single product. A wide range of relevant links to schemes about which you are enthusiastic is ideal.

Of course you do not HAVE to have a website. You can also promote using printed material, adverts or even by paying for "Pay per Click" advertising on Google or the like. What matters is that customers use your special link URL to go to our website so that they are recorded there as YOUR customers.

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Where do I find other affiliate schemes?

Make sure you pick schemes that are attractive to your target audience. Sources of other schemes are:

Commission Junction can provide you as a publisher with a huge number of opportunities from advertisers.

Also see the My Referer Network site.

Paradigm Red Shift are another provider of links that may be of value to you.

It is important that you have strong content on your pages and you have links to interesting and associated programs. AssociatePrograms.com and affiliatefirst.com provide a range of stationery related links that you may find useful.

What areas of interest are most suited to my TonerTopUp affiliate link?

The areas of interest with which TonerTopUp refill toner is associated are primarily:

A Cost Saving - A very wide interest cutting across particularly the small and middle sized business sector, educational and voluntary organisations and individuals.

Many sectors have a special interest in money saving because they are always short of resources, for example schools, charities and churches.

This is probably the easiest interest to which to link and has its own built in special drivers towards purchase. Everyone loves to save money! You will find specific data on cost savings elsewhere on our website.

B Environmental - The substitution of refill toner for the use of a new cartridge has great benefits to the environment from both the reduction in use of energy and scarce raw materials, but also in the reduction of non-biodegradable landfill waste. You will find more information on this interest on our environmental pages.

C Specific High Use Business Sectors - There are then lots of specific sectors with specially high usage of laser printers. Commercial and instant printers, estate agents, publishers and training providers for example.

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Affiliate sales programs business development learning.

If you are involved in a business segment it is always a sensible idea to receive the trade magazines related to it. It keeps you in touch with current ideas, activities and opportunities. The following will probably be useful!

Network Marketing Business Journal

Network Marketing Success Now

In a similar way trade associations often have a lot to offer, especially to new entrants to the business who are on a steep learning curve. See the Multi-Level Marketing International Association

For an excellent free eBook on marketing, we recommend the Affiliate Masters Course, good ideas and inspiring case studies. You can down load FREE copies of the following too:

Make Your Price Sell!,
The Masters Course - Make Your Net Auction Sell!,
The Masters Course - The Service Sellers
Masters Course - The Affiliate Masters Course
The Webmasters BUSINESS
Masters Course- The Site Build It!
Action Guide -Getting Started
Action Guide -Make Your Site SELL!

Download the free books from their site at https://freetrial.sitesell.com/sitesell-downloads.html#PM

We suggest you might try Site Build It. if you do not yet have your own website. We do not have personal experience of their product but they do appear to offer very good functionality and are well considered by many. (This one is a special link!)

Yes, they are selling their service but they follow their own excellent precept of providing a wealth of information on the way!

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What are most important principles for success?

We think that the SiteBuild concepts of

Content - Traffic - PREsell - Monetize

are particularly valuable!

The proven way to build any business online!

Content
Web users search for information, for solutions. They are not looking for you - they don't know you (yet!). They seek what you know. Give it to them. Convert your knowledge into in-demand Content. To succeed online, start where they start - at "the search."

Traffic
Your topical content ranks high at the Search Engines (ex., Google, Yahoo! MSN), attracting free, targeted (i.e. interested), open-to-you visitors. Basically, these future customers "meet you" at your site. These visitors are known as "Traffic."

PREsell
Complete strangers develop trust and confidence in you. Why? You "PREsell" by OVER delivering what they seek... relevant, original, information. Deliver it in your own voice, in your own way. Go beyond merely instilling confidence... your visitors will like you.
(Immediate "selling" on Web sites is ineffective unless you have a brand like Amazon.)

Monetize
Convert warm, willing-to-buy ("PREsold") visitors into income. Called "Monetizing," this is the easy part. But "M" cannot happen if you fail to first execute C T P. This is where 99% of small businesses fail.

C T P is the motor that drives "M." SBI! delivers the motor, and the Monetization.

Notes from TonerTopUp on this!

Monetizing usually comes from a combination of selective and relevant affiliate links and Google Adsense adverts which are supplied to be related to the content of your page and from which you derive income when your visitors click on them.

This is own main eCommerce website. We hope we provide a wealth of information around the theme of saving money and helping the environment by refilling cartridges on our website! Now we have our scheme in place we will be expanding this site to explore fund raising ideas for schools charities and the like along the lines outlined above! It is all aimed at making your site useful to visitors.

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