INTERNET JOBS. PART 2 - AFFILIATE MARKETING (EARNING COMMISSION INCOME FROM ONLINE SALES)

This Internet Job has grown as a bye-product of the global rise of electronic-commerce (e-commerce). e-Commerce is flourishing on date and as a direct consequence, Affiliate Marketing is flourishing too. And, as e-commerce holds out the promise of sustained future growth, it can be expected that this job too has a long future.

The Internet provides an inexpensive means of communicating globally. When we take the perspective of e-commerce, we see that it has radically changed the nature of online selling by making e-commerce "marketplaces" directly accessible to global buyers and as a result, the huge opportunity for middlemen to advertise marketplace products & services and earn commissions from the sellers. 

What is most noteworthy of this model is that it connects marketplaces, sellers, buyers and advertisers seamlessly, regardless of where they are geographically located -  in other words, across national borders. All parties involved need not be present at the same time (i.e. "online" at the same time). As a result, each party is free to work independently and yet get the benefit of the work of others.

Sellers are always looking for ways and means to increase sales of their products & services. Since they have limited marketing staff,  any number of external (independent) advertisers willing to boost product sales is a proposition that is always welcome. Why? They get additional sales at no additional cost (employee wage or training cost) by using these independent persons to promote sales.

Those engaged in this occupation are called "affiliates" of the e-Commerce marketplace and the selling activity carried out by affiliates is called "Affiliate Marketing". NOTE: Affiliate in business means a "subordinate who has a limited relationship with a bigger organization in some way". Hence, if you sign up with Amazon India, for example, to promote products/ services sold on their website, you are an Amazon India affiliate. You may sell their products and earn commissions but are not like Amazon India employees who earn salaries from and have a stronger and tighter relationship with the company.

It is true that a lot of money can be earned thru Affiliate Marketing. Most probably, when "job peddlers" talk about Internet Jobs as highly lucrative, they have Affiliate Marketing in mind. However, the big catch is that this fabulous job it isn't at all that easy for newcomers and inexperienced folks like most of us to succeed in. Why it's difficult is explained in 'Prerequisites' below.

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Now, if you can do all of the above, needless to say, you are already a highly skilled person, so would you really need an Internet Job? Clearly no - it's just another way for the "peddlers" to make their money by selling one impossible dreams.

Having exposed this job as frankly impractical for the inexperienced and newbies, let me also explain how it works so that you can still try your luck if you wish to.

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Assuming that you fulfill the "Prerequisites" mentioned above, here's what you need to do:

Once the above is done, your advertising platform(s) will run the ads and provide you statistics that will help you manage your campaign and "tune" it for best results. When someone on the Internet views your ad (by clicking on it), you will be charged by your platform vendor a fee which is referred to as "Pay Per Click" (PPC). In case your ad was "clicked" upon and the reader's interest was roused sufficiently enough to visit the concerned "marketplace" (for instance Flipkart) and then finally buy the product/ service advertised too, the marketplace, will pay you the promised commission (as you would have noted in Step 3 above).

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You pay for the PPCs and earn commissions, so your profit = total commissions - total advertising expenses.

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Before concluding, let me illustrate the steps above with a live example: my own.

I am an Amazon India affiliate on the date of this Post. Hence, I'm treating Step 1 as "completed".

Instead of advertising thru Google Adwords (and similar paid services), I'm using this very page on the Internet i.e. my Blog's Post to reach out to the world. (NOTE: If you have a Blog or website of your own that's running on date, you can do the same too and avoid using Adwords.). So I'll treat Step 2 also as "completed".

I've done my homework and so am ready with my table of commissions (which is presented) below.

Now regarding what products/ services I should select to promote, I sit down and consider the following:

When I've thought a bit, I write down the answers, which I have to admit is purely "guess work" + some judgment applied to it. In my opinion:

NOTE: Blogger takes care of the first two bulleted points in this section viz. ensuring device compatibility, regardless of device type. In future, if a new device appears in the market, I can expect Blogger to build compatibility to the new device too! Translation is also looked after by Blogger. So, if you chose Blogger, like me, for writing your Blogs, you'll only need to focus on the advertising!!

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Using tools provided by Amazon India, I create the ads and display them. Here's what the result looks like!

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