Affiliate Marketing 101 - Basic Vocabulary - Part 3

So, you are interested in using your computer to make money on the internet with affiliate marketing. Congratulations! Affiliate marketing is a fascinating area, and it can be unbelievably rewarding. However, it can also be unbelievably confusing. Even some of the words your encounter can make you think you re reading a foreign language. Here s a quick summary of some of the vocabulary you will need to know. This article is the third in an ongoing series of articles about affiliate marketing vocabulary. You will almost certainly be doing some writing to promote your chosen affiliate products. No matter where your writing will go (website, blog, article, etc.), there is one very important point that you should focus on. As you write, keep this point constantly in mind: products have features , but people buy benefits . Sound like the same thing? Not really. A new washer may have 12 different cycles (feature), which will mean you can now save money by washing at home the clothes you used to pay to send to the dry cleaners (benefit). Here s another one: a new computer has an ultra-fast video card (feature), which will enable you to play the newest and coolest games (benefit). See what I mean? It doesn t matter what product you are promoting - people generally care way less about what the product has than they care about what the product will give them. Everybody would like to save money or time, find easier ways to do things, be seen as smarter, stronger, more attractive, have more fun, be a better parent, make more money, etc. Think about your product with those things in mind - make a list of the benefits of buying what you are promoting. If you get stuck on features compared to benefits, here s one way to separate them. Try the "so what?" or "what s in it for me?" strategy. Think about what your affiliate product offers - let s say, training your new puppy to stop chewing on your shoes. You are very knowledgeable and enthusiastic about that dog-training guide, and you think other people would also really like it. But how will you convince them to buy it? List the things that make that product great - it s written by a well-known authority on the subject, it s only 10 pages long, etc. Now start on the "so what?" part. Your product is written by a well-known authority. So what? Well, that probably means it s good information. (That s still a feature.) What s in it for me? I get good information (getting closer). So what? Maybe I won t have to buy any other books to solve this problem. (Getting really close!). Never spend another penny saving my shoes from my chew-happy puppy! Yes! There s the benefit for me. Let s try the "only 10 pages long" (definitely a feature). So what? It won t take me long to read it (getting closer). What s in that for me? I save time! Bingo - benefit! Try the same steps with your affiliate product. Start with a feature, and keep asking yourself, "so what?," "what s in it for me?" until you get to the benefits of using that product. Hint: If you find yourself going through "so what?" without every really getting to a serious benefit, you may not be promoting the best product for your market niche. It s true that there is a lot to know about starting an affiliate marketing website, but it is all completely do-able - even if you are brand new to the internet business world. You just need to approach it one step at a time, and make sure you have understood and completed each step as you go along. Reprint Rights: You are free to copy this article and reprint it as long as you adhere to the following requirements. You must reprint this entire article, exactly as it is now, with no changes. You must include in your reprinting the full Resource box at the end of this article. You must not change the title or the content of the article in any way. You must reprint this article in such a way that all links are active and linkable with no syntax changes. You must follow all requirements regarding spam, disallowed topics, etc. You must include the following article source credit below the article with an active link. CindyAnn Williams is a self-taught, successful internet affiliate marketer who began her internet business with absolutely no knowledge of affiliate marketing. She has built her business by trial and error, always trying again after every dead end, and learning from every mistake. CindyAnn s goal is to share what she has learned to help other people who want to become successful affiliate marketers avoid the many mistakes she made along the bumpy and often detour-filled road to affiliate marketing success. http://NewbieProfitRocket.com