Generating a Residual Income With Affiliate Programs

Copyright (c) 2008 Jim Suzak

The best way to increase your earning potential is to seek out a residual income opportunity. The online world has brought to us many different affiliate programs which invite us to participate in a well thought out residual income scheme.

Affiliate marketing opportunities are the cheapest and easiest progams on the internet today. The programs are simple assuming that you have a well maintained website that is user friendly, search engine friendly, filled with interesting content, and also has the ability to repeat visitor traffic. Then you will have a great start by simply signing up for an affiliate marketing program that goes with the content of your site and then once accepted, they will place a link onto your site.

The ultimate goal is to invite your website's visitors to click the link and then visit the merchant that you signed up with. If the visitor makes a purchase, you will receive a small percentage of the sale total. If you have a well run website, you will have a lot of web traffic and the odds of sending a large number of potential customers to the merchant's site will translate into a heightened residual income opportunity of making some serious online money by virtue of the potential sales the merchant stands to make just off of your link.

To present an overall seamless look to your site, you should choose graphic links, text boxes and search links to fit the overall design of your site. If you sign up with a number of merchants whose products are in tune with the web content you feature, you have the opportunity to maximize your residual income potential with the affiliate option.

One of the most commonly made mistakes is the creation of a website for the sole purpose of making it into a dollar mill by placing affiliate links on it. Search engines have gotten wise to these sites and have begun to rank them rather low, thus making them next to impossible for the web surfers to find. Some sites with great content sometimes go overboard by placing to many links on the site. One or two may be fine, yet if the affiliate links are starting to overwhelm the content and the message is getting lost, you will find that you will lose a lot of the visitor interest.

Remember that your website's visitors are taking a peek at the link you are providing because they trust you, but if you do nothing but try to hawk a slew of products, this trust flies out the window and you will notice not only a sharp decline in your online visitors, but also a decrease in the click through rate.

By concentrating on your site's main message and then on your affiliate links, you will find that this approach will most likely be the most profitable one. In addition, monitor your click through rates and ensure that the company to which the affiliate links are leading remains reputable and dedicated to customer service so in the end you will create a non-stop residual income.