Make Money On Wizzley - Using Direct Affiliate Links

If you are not yet familiar with the term "affiliate" then you may well have heard of a "commission salesman". You know the pushy chap who knocks on the door trying to sell you a vacuum, or the woman who calls just at dinner time trying to get to change power companies? Yup an affiliate is pretty much the same as commission sales.

At least online you don't need to door-stop or call people! Instead you attract people to your website or page and promote something, in the hope that they will buy it.

If they do buy it, then one of several scenarios might happen:

• you get paid a flat fee by the vendor for signing them up - e.g. Hostgator web hosting 
• you get free goods from the vendor e.g. if the sign up for free file storage at Sugarsync, I get more free space (its a great service BTW I recommend it) 
• you get ongoing fees from the vendor e.g. if you sign up for Wizzley.com I get 10% of all the advertising impressions on your pages.

(I don't have to tell you do I that all of the above are affiliate links!)

Many companies that sell a lot, or exclusively online have their own affiliate programs. Affiliates will often actually use a third party to manage their affiliates: e-Junkie, Clickbank, ShareASale, Commission Junction are all examples of these third parties. Using a third party has some advantages for you the affiliate. It means that you can aggregate your sales over more than one vendor, and that you may reach payout more quickly. It may also mean that the third party has standards in place that will protect both you and the customer.

However its not that hard for a company to run their own program. The three examples I've given above all do. The question is - do you trust them? Will they pay you? There are no guarantees in life.

Once you start making some sales for your chosen affiliate - its also handy to have a look around and see how useful their tracking is. Most affiliates will tell you who has signed up with you, or the ones that were interested but didn't actually "buy" e.g. Sugarsync tells me who downloaded the software but didn't install it. Wizzley tells me who signed up - so I know which of you haven't actually written anything!

Lastly you need to be aware of what level of payout you need to get to before you get paid. Most standalone programs have reasonably low levels ($25 or $50) - but I've found the odd hotel reservation site which won't pay until I hit $200 - that could be a very, very long wait unless I already have lots of visitors anxious to buy!

How you will be paid is relevant too, particularly if you are outside of the US. Many programs will pay via Paypal.com - but Paypal has its issues - and offers a very poor exchange rate for those of us with bank accounts not in US$. Other sites will send a US$ check. Find out how much one of these will cost to deposit into your local bank account, I've heard of very high fees for some European affiliates.

Be honest - yes really, particularly with direct affiliates, I generally only recommend products I actually use. I prefer to do the review approach - and it works, because people trust my opinion. Also I don't promote every website hosting, or free cloud storage company out there. I promote one of each, and have done for years. So it may well be that this is the third or fourth time that you've heard me mention SugarSync - this time might be the time that my nagging gets to you and I actually make the sale!

Ideally, you should be one of only a few affiliates for product so you are not fighting with many others for the same commission. Once you get a reputation online, those types of opportunities may come to you.

How To Apply To Become An Affiliate Directly

Many sites will ask you once you sign up - if you would like to "invite your friends". Sugarsync gets straight to the point - "would you like more free space"? Yes, I would. Otherwise look at the fine-print - usually at the bottom of the main page - and you will see the term "affiliates", sometimes under advertising.

Wizzley is incredibly flexible. Not only can you insert your own affiliate link in the text as I did above. But you an also do a bit of html magic and create a clickable image like the one below. A screen shot is easy to create using free software, and people just love to click pictures - really, its OK, off you go, I'll wait... 

Many, not all, affiliates will also provide you with something called "creatives" - these are basically banner ads, or even ads that will let your customer do something useful - like book a hotel. 

Again because Wizzely allows html - you can cut and paste something like this in (usually creatives will already have your affiliate ID embedded in the code)