Online Referral Programs allow anyone to sell other people’s products over the internet. This is a popular business model known as affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is basically a method of recommendations online. By referring people to products and services, anyone can earn commissions based on sales they generate. By referring people to products through a tracked ‘affiliate link’, the product owners can see who has sent them the customer.
There’s literally millions of products you can promote online as an affiliate marketer. Anyone can learn how to do this too to either build a full or a part time income from the internet.
Online Referral Programs
Amazon is the largest affiliate marketing company on the internet. Anyone can apply to join their online referral programs and promote anything they want from the online store. Each sale will make you a commission. Physical products tend to pay much less than digital products so many affiliate marketers concentrate their efforts on promoting digital products.
Digital Products
Digital products are good for affiliates because they can pay out up to 40%+ commissions on a sale. That’s because there are much fewer costs involved in the sale of digital products. Physical products must be manufactured, stored and physically posted out. After the product owners and the online sales platform (such as Amazon) have taken their commissions, there’s not much left for the affiliate.
Digital products are different because the main cost is marketing. Digital products don’t have many costs once they’ve been created. They can be stored digitally and sent out to customers over an internet connection. This means more of the profits can be shared with the marketers – the ‘affiliate’ marketers.
Digital products might include things like:
- Online Membership platforms
- Internet based training courses
- Digital downloads (eBooks, for example)
- Hosting for websites
- Digital Software
Online Referral Programs – Lifetime Value Of A Customer
Digital products can also offer other benefits to affiliate marketers. For example, membership products such as training courses can offer customers ongoing value. This means affiliates can earn continually, month after month, for referring customers to membership and subscription products.
Not all online referral programs offer this kind of product. Most of them only offer a single commission. Once the item has been sold, the affiliate has basically passed that customer to the retailer. From there, the retailer might have found a customer for life! The affiliate has only earned a small commission for finding what is potentially a lifetime customer.
With membership products and product ‘suites’, the affiliate is rewarded again and again for the initial referral. This is a much better deal for an affiliate. Subscription products which pay the affiliate for continual lifetime sales offer the most value for an affiliate marketer. If you’re going to work hard on an online business, wouldn’t it be better to make the most from your efforts?
Online Referral Programs – The Best Commissions
In addition to choosing online referral programs with membership products and ongoing commissions, it’s also wise to choose products which have:
- High ticket products – Offset advertising costs and scale up more quickly
- Up-sells – Earn for sales made later to existing customers
- A built in sales system and team of sales people
- Multi-Tier Sales – You earn commissions from sales made by your referral’s.
Referral Program Software
There a variety of software you might need for any given referral program. Referral program software might include:
- Website building software
- Automated email delivery and collection software (auto-responders)
- Training and educational software
- Website Hosting Software
- Online advertising and website development software.
- Etc.
Checkout the digital business lounge in the video below (click image). You can see how this software can allow you to easily and quickly build a website which has built in referral products.
Online Referral Programs For Small Businesses
If you already have a small business, you can join an online referral program (affiliate program), by searching for “Your Business {insert keywords} affiliate programs”. Whatever business niche you are in, there’s usually some kind of affiliate program which can compliment your business. Affiliate programs let you automate online sales and promote other people’s products on your website. This can mean another income stream for many businesses.
Once you find something suitable, you need to join the affiliate program which is attached to the product you want to promote. Then you should get access to your own specific affiliate links and banners, which you can place on your website. If your website visitors make a purchase from your affiliate link, you earn a commission.
If you already have a website and enough traffic, you can start making sales as soon as you put up your link. This can be a nice passive income, if you get the right products for your audience. See why target market is important.
Referral Marketing Software
Once you join an affiliate program, it’s no guarantee of making sales. You need to either already have a website and traffic suitable for your products, or you need to learn how to use referral marketing software. Referral marketing software might include:
- A website – From which you can create content
- Online marketing platforms – Google Adwords, Facebook marketing platform, YouTube marketing platform, etc.
- Opt-in software (email marketing tools)
- Email auto-responders
A website is a good start for online marketers to build a foundation of website traffic cheaply. Alternatively, you can market online referral programs directly with paid advertising. Paid platforms include Google’s Adwords program, Facebook, YouTube, Bing, Yahoo etc.
Access Online Training
Access an online training and education platform which you can use to build an online business from scratch. You will get:
- Access to online training events, seminars and webinars
- A business system and website you can use to sell digital products
- Join an online business community and learn from others
- Promote products which give you subscriptions and lifetime commissions based on sales you generate.