Affiliate Marketing - Join in on the Success of the 2nd Wave


What do I mean by '2nd Wave'? Let me explain:

Can you remember the good old days when affiliate programs first came into existence in the mid to late 1990's? Everybody jumped in with two feet and put up dozens of affiliate links on their site with no real thought to what they were doing. We then wondered why we didn't make any money - not any real money that is.

The same thing has happened with the launch of other new industries in that the initial craze and hype got out of hand but when things quietened down people thought things through, put together business models and now succeed big time within that industry. The good news is that we, as affiliate marketers, can learn from these industries through their first and second phases.

A Definition of what a First and Second Wave is

The first wave is the pioneering stage, the launch of a new industry. There is lots of excitement and hype with most people now knowing what they are doing. There are many failures and very little profits during this period.

The second wave is the exciting phase. It has already come to light within phase 1 that there is potential within the industry. People put together long-term business plans and even ordinary people like you and I can succeed in a big way. Hence, wave 2 is when the real wealth is created.

Industry Examples of their First and Second Waves

Let's take a look at some examples of industries in their first and second waves and the success they have achieved for thousands of people who were in the right place at the right time:

Video Cassette Recorders (VCR): Remember the first VCRs? They were huge, very expensive and not many people could afford one. In 1972 Phillips were the first to launch a VCR for home use but it didn't appeal to the consumer market. Only a few hundred were sold.

Second wave: VHS introduced their version of the VCR in 1977 which was more appealing to the public. Prices came down and soon the average household had one. Today, DVD players are now replacing them and huge profits are being sought in this industry.

Personal Computers: In 1976 Apple launched the first PC, quickly followed by IBM with Microsoft's DOS operating system in 1981. These PCs were slow, expensive and always seemed to crash.

Second wave: Dell and Compaq introduced new design PCs, and Bill Gates and his Microsoft Empire launched 'Windows 1.0' in 1985. As a result of this boom thousands of millionaires were created in a single decade.

The 1st and 2nd Wave of Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing: The first wave of the Internet and the affiliate marketing business lasted between approximately 1996-2003. All the initial hype about the World Wide Web and making money from selling other people's stuff grew within this period. Affiliates give no real thought to their sites and put up dozens of affiliate links. Not many affiliate marketers made any real money to talk of and not many of these sites are in existence today.

Second wave: From 2003 onwards the initial hype has died down and with the introduction of new wave technology and software, means that it is now easier for the average webmaster to build a successful and useful website business to succeed long-term with big profits.

So What Does This Mean For Today's Affiliate Marketer's?

You are now caught up at the beginning of the 2nd wave of affiliate marketing. You are in the right place at the right time - use this to your advantage now... today... Here are some reasons why:-

• The online shopping industry is growing at a phenomenal rate

• More and more people are buying online

• The competition with affiliate sites is still relatively low as compared to what it will be like in the future

In order to get ahead of this ever-increasing competitive industry, you need to think of affiliate marketing as a business. Even go as far as writing a business plan out for your affiliate business. You need to understand that in order to get ahead of your competition and even get to the top of the search engines, you need to build a business platform for long-term success. You must think of yourself as a publisher of informational content first, then an affiliate marketer second. This is the 'key' to the success of the second wave of affiliate marketing. Let me repeat it again 'you must think of yourself as a publisher of informational content first, then an affiliate marketer second'.

Summary

Realize that the Internet is still in its infancy and that you are here in the right place at the right time. This could only happen once in your life, so jump on it straight away. The first frantic phase of affiliate marketing is over and we have entered the new and exciting second phase, which is where the 'real' wealth is created. Remember, Bill Gates and his Microsoft Empire came into existence within the second phase of the personal computer industry - the rest is history!

Claire Bowes is a successful freelance writer and owner of many successful affiliate marketing websites.


More Resources

Top Five Ways to Earn Extra Money Online at Home for Free
Here's a fact: everybody wants to earn extra money. We allhave bills to pay, families to feed, and the list goes onand on.
Launching Your Affiliate Program Correctly
To any Internet Marketer these days an affiliate program is absolutely essential marketing method of achieving a decent e-growth. Allowing others to promote your products or services can be the most efficient way of selling your products as you only pay for successful results, whether these are leads, sales Or traffic.
Are You Doing Well As An Affliate Marketer?
I have been working on the Internet now since December 2004 and I have done all the things one needs to do to earn an income from the use of my computer at home. There are many resources and so many different programmes and opportunities that it amazes me.
Affiliate Web Site Pros, Cons and Getting Traffic
With the web these days growing at a substantial rate, just about everywhere you turn on the web, you will see offers to own your own web business. Many of these offers are legitimate businesses with real products and items waiting for you to open one of their affiliate sites and start selling.
How to Become a Super-Affiliate
Did you begin your affiliate marketing business like this? You surf the internet looking for an internet marketing product you can affiliate with and sell (even though you know nothing about internet marketing), sign up for the program and get your link, and then visit traffic exchanges and safelists, advertising your affiliate site. At the end of the day, week, or month, you wonder why you didn't sell one product.
How to Grow an Affiliate Marketing Business
The biggest failure in affiliate marketing is not collecting prospects' email addresses. If you only send your prospects to your affiliate website, you are promoting someone else's business, not your own.
How To Make Niche Profits Without a Website
You don't need to buy any "amazing new ebook" or a bunch of fancy software. You don't need to write hundreds of pages of content or hire someone to.
How to Write an Effective Product Review
How do you choose the products you buy? Do you simply accept as gospel truth all the good things a merchant says about their own product? Or, do you ask your friends' opinions and look for independent product reviews before opening your wallet?If you're a savvy consumer (which of course you are), then you put more stock in your friends' opinions and independent product reviews.As affiliate marketers, we become much more successful when we approach our site visitors as friends and take the attitude that they too are savvy consumers.
Ebook Review: The Super Affiliate Handbook
Rosalind Gardner's 270 page ebook "The Super Affiliate Handbook" is the "Holy Bible" of affiliate marketing. It's also surprisingly well written (I've seen some real junk passing as informative writing) and logically steps through each of the 15 chapters, all but the Introduction building on the previous in an easy to understand style.
Affiliate Marketing - Conversions
What is a good converting site?Well they say a "good" converting site is one that sells 1 in 100 visitors.Now once you've chosen which affiliate program you want to promote using Google Adwords you may be thinking "well I'll just let it run for 100 clicks and if I don't make a sale I'll give it the flick".
How to Easily Increase Your Affiliate Commissions in Two Days or Less?
Clearly, the people benefiting the most from affiliate programs are the companies running them. My goal here is to help you - the affiliate - earn more money.
Spending More Money Than You Make In Your Online Business?
Have you been lured into online business and internet marketing with promises of the gold you will find at the end of the rainbow? And ended up spending much more than you make each month, and wondering how these marketing gurus make money, if at all?You aren't alone - there are thousands of people out there who buy various kinds of info products on how to become rich and say goodbye to their day jobs. The irony is that they are still stuck at their day jobs, working even harder to make up for what they have lost month after month in their quest for online profits.
Never Get Burnt by a Cycler Program Again!
A cycler or doubler that offers nothing of real value is likely a scam and for the most part is illegal. Check out what you are buying, and look at the cylcling or doubling as a bonus or rebate.
How to Make Money with Affiliate Business Programs
There are thousands of affiliate business programs on the internet today that offer wonderfully lucrative opportunities. The majority of business opportunities require zero overhead and once set up, will generate income with little or no maintenance on your part.
What are the Benefits of Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a cooperative effort between merchant and an affiliate's website. It has become popular for Internet sites trying to create some extra income for their site, perhaps changing a hobby to a profitable, self-supporting business.
Affiliate Marketing - How to Start Earning Money Today
If you're new to Affiliate Marketing and your finding everything that your learning is a little "mind blowing" but really want to start making money today then here is the quickest way to get results.First, I would begin with using ClickBank.
BEST SERVED HOT: A Simple Recipe For Success With Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs have become very popular because of their potential to generate substantial, and even lavish, income in a relatively short period with little investment cost. Their fame has become so big that they are being credited as one of the main reasons for the resurrection of the online business community after the dotcom bubble burst.
Content Really is King
It is every affiliate's wish to have unique site content absentof any re-write or editing restrictions, effectively content with an"open license." Many sources do exist for content that can't bechanged, but there are very few sources which allow an affiliate tomanipulate the article and make it unique and specific to theirsite(s).
Affiliate Marketing Tips
If there really is a big secret at all, it undoubtedly would have to be: "work hard." We hope that the information provided here helps you get rolling down the road to affiliate marketing success.
Understanding Affiliate Programs
Years ago before the internet was born, starting your own business was like taking a leap into the unknown. It involved MONEY, TIME, and lots of worry.
Affiliate Marketing - The Comparison Model
The value of an affiliate is nil in a customer's mind - ok, so you've shown them where they can get a few products related to that niche, but there needs to be some sense in their mind that you have offered a genuine reason for choosing those particular affiliate partners. Are the chosen partners simply making you the most handsome commission?

More Affiliate Revenue Information:

Related Articles

How to Grow an Affiliate Marketing Business
The biggest failure in affiliate marketing is not collecting prospects' email addresses. If you only send your prospects to your affiliate website, you are promoting someone else's business, not your own.
5 Affiliate Marketing Facts of Life
Affiliate Marketing (AM) is fast becoming a major trend in line business. With the internet still in its adolescent years, it has already established itself as an extremely viable career opportunity, bridging the advertising gap for companies, while providing much sought-after work at home revenue.
Attracting Good Affiliates
Good affiliates can be hard to get. There could be any number of reasons for this, but I am going to focus on what I believe is the one major problem that prevents someone from attracting good affiliates.
Tracking Phone Sales Is Important To Your Affiliates
Today the majority of affiliates are looking for compensation when your customers call in their orders by phone. One of the first things they will look for when thinking about joining your affiliate program is to see if you have an order phone number on your site.
How to Make Money with Affiliate Business Programs
There are thousands of affiliate business programs on the internet today that offer wonderfully lucrative opportunities. The majority of business opportunities require zero overhead and once set up, will generate income with little or no maintenance on your part.
Reselling - Money On The Side
The other night I had dinner with a friend who mentioned knowing quite a few people needing websites for their local businesses. Despite being a software engineer, my friend is not a web designer nor does he know enough about servers to actually host (store) websites.
Affiliate Assets -- Discover the 3 Secrets That Will Turn Your Affiliate Link Into a Business
Your affiliate marketing business is just that ? a business. To be successful, you need to treat your business like a business and focus on growth.
Why is Affiliate Marketing Popular with Home Based Business Entrepreneurs?
The great strides made in the development of the Internet in the recent past has enabled information to be transmitted thousands of miles away with such ease and clarity that time and space are hardly of any consequence to the Internet Marketer today.Marketing Programs have literally taken over the Internet and riding high, is Affiliate Marketing.
Why You Dont Succeed As An Affiliate ?
Affiliate Program have exploded on the internet. Thousand of people join them every day.
Preparation - the Way to Success
I have two questions to ask you. One.
Home Business Affiliate Marketing
How would you like to make money with a Home Business without ever having to sell anything? There are lots of people earning thousands of dollars doing just that. There are very few home businesses that are easier or cost less than affiliate marketing.
The Affiliate Interview - Do You Have What It Takes?
So you have decided to start up your own home business and after hours of searching you have decided on the program you are going to join.Now stop and take check before you rush in.
Top 3 Things All Affiliate Marketers Need To Use
Every affiliate marketer is looking for exactly what allows those truly successful markets to make the big affiliate paychecks. It seems at times to be almost a magic formula! It is not.
Choosing the Best Affiliate Program - What You Absolutely Must Know
Choosing the best affiliate program means that you are aware of what affiliate programs are and what their ultimate benefits and drawbacks are. To choose the best affiliate program, you will want to decide on one that has the most benefits with the least drawbacks.
12 Tips On Selecting An Affiliate Program
People sign up with affiliate programs everyday, looking to expand their income and make a good living for their efforts. The unfortunate part of all this is that most people will sign up with a company without really knowing what the company is all about.
Five Common Mistakes Affiliate Marketers Make
Affiliate Marketing is one of the most effective and powerful ways to earn a living online. Affiliate programs give everybody a chance to make a profit through the internet.
Affiliate Marketing--Huh?
In my search for a presence on the internet, I searched many avenues, but was finding more scams and dead ends than I would care to speak about.It was one last scam and six months of my presence on the internet that I realized that the only way I could possibly make a living on the internet -- and gain any amount of satisfaction --was to work for myself.
Whats LinkShare, And Do I Need To Use It?
Online affiliate marketing is one of the most effective, cheapest and fastest ways to promote merchandise. With millions of people getting access to the Internet everyday, there's a great chance for a merchant to introduce his products and services to a wider market, thereby, maximizing his revenue.
Collect Visitors Info First Before Sending Them To Affiliate
Honestly, I'm not a big affiliate fan because in the past I haven't gotten 90% of the money promised either because they disappear before they pay out or they have so many exceptions -- paying out once a quarter, has to be over X dollars first, etc. Another negative side is that some of them think that 10% commission or some low amount is worth the 20 hours it takes for us to sell it.
Overwhelmed at the Number of Affiliate Programs, Help is On the Way
Business is founded by the principal of right contacts, meaning you succeed with as many good contacts you have. Internet has expanded this to mean "remote contacts" people whom you have not seen or sometimes even talked to.