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

Earn Top Dollar With Your Affiliate Monthly Income Stream
Virtually all online marketers have attempted lots of schemes and programs. Most online marketers have dropped a load of bread attempting to get going.
Writing About How Easy Affiliate Marketing Is, Dont Make It So
It seems that the VERY popular fashion of article writing is not unlike real world clothing fashion in that; the same things keep coming around with seasonal regularity. In fact, more so with the fast paced development of the 'home business' or 'work at home' article topic conveyor.
Affiliate Marketing: Starting Out On The Internet
So you want to start your own business, and you want to start it without mortgaging your house and maxing out your credit cards. You've done the market research and you've concluded that by far the largest market place in the world is right there in front of you within the cyber world of the internet.
Learning Internet Marketing the Hard Way
Ok, so after reading many articles on internet marketing I decided to take the plunge and started my own website, and decided that url should be something that by itself would bring the shoppers to the website in droves.The url chosen was www.
Watch Out For Traffic Leaks
When promoting any affiliate program one thing that you, as an affiliate, has to watch out for is what is called traffic leaks. What is a traffic leak? A traffic leak is something on the merchants site that will cause the visitor, that you referred to their site, to get distracted and leave the merchant site, leaving you with no possibility of receiving any kind of commission.
Why 95% of Affiliate Websites Lose Money - And To Avoid The Pitfalls
Affiliate marketing is an agreement between two websites in which one site (the affiliate) sends traffic to another site by means of advertising or content.In return, the affiliate receives a percentage of sales generated.
Affiliate Marketing What Is It And Why Use It?
Affiliate Marketing is having Affiliates do your Marketing for you. What I mean by Affiliate is someone who tells people about your product/service and you pay them for a desired response, such as a purchase.
:: How To Succeed With An Affiliate Program
Affiliate Programs have exploded on the internet. Thousand of people join them every day.
Five Ways To Maximize Affiliate Profits from Articles
What does it take to become a "BIG EARNER" with your affiliate marketing commissions? How can you start to make larger affiliate commission checks?The answer has set the Internet on fire.Writing articles for your affiliate niche site and posting them to your site, to blogs, and distributing them to article directories and ezine publishers has become a new Internet gold rush.
Generate More Sales in ANY Affiliate Program - Part Two
Incentive Marketing, Incentive Marketing, Incentive Marketing?It doesn't matter that there are potentially thousands of other affiliates promoting the same program because from today onwards you are going to create an unfair advantage. Today you are going to learn some of the skills to becoming a SUPER INCENTIVE MARKETER.
Affiliating Correctly - Only Work With the Winners
You need to do a bit of research on which affiliate programs you choose to work with. Why work hard to make $10 when the same amount of work could have netted you $100? Choose your affiliate relationships wisely.
Soliciting Referral
Customer referrals are vital to small and home-based service businesses. When you need to increase sales but can't afford a salesperson and have limited selling time, focus on existing clients and let them do the selling for you.
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.
Internet Affiliate Marketing 101 - Its All About Relationships
So you've found the perfect affiliate program, you've signed up and they gave you a website..
Design Web Site Around Affiliate Programs
When starting a Web business, most people choose a topic for their Web site and then look for products and affiliate programs related to that topic. In this article, I suggest searching for a group of related affiliate programs first, then designing your Web site around those programs.
Successful Free Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are the latest money making tools available on the Internet. While there is definitely not a lack of options available, there is a lack of good options available.
Article Marketing 101 For Affiliate Program Managers
This article is for Affiliate Program Managers: Interested in increasing the amount of revenue that each of your affiliates creates for your business? Read on to learn about how to use your existing articles to grow your affiliate program strength.From an affiliate perspective, there are only a few 'deal breaker' type things that I insist any affiliate program that I join must provide me:Real-time reporting statistics Real-time email alerts upon each sale Payment on a consistent monthly basis High price-point products Package of articles that I can reprint on my websites and ezinesOne strategy that many newbie affiliate program designers fail to offer is a package of articles that can be reprinted on my website along with my unique affiliate link.
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.
How to Succeed With Any Affiliate Program
In the early days before the internet was born, starting a business was like taking a giant leap into the unknown. Aside from the involved time and money, it also causes lots of worry.
How To Build An Email List As An Affiliate
You have probably heard "the money is in the list" at least a thousand times. But it is true; the money is in the list.

More Affiliate Revenue Information:

Related Articles

Google AdWords Clobbers Affiliate Sellers
First, we must understand their point of view. Unlike some other search engines, Google is committed to providing the best quality search results possible.
Affiliate Program Mastery: Learn How To Build Internet Capital Goods for Free
As I mention in almost all of my articles, 97% of Internet marketers never make a cent online. I mention this simple fact because it has a lot of power--it has the power to completely discourage people who are not succeeding, and it also has the power to encourage those same people who are failing to learn, so that they can succeed.
23 Ways To Use An Ad Tracker
The ad tracker was originally developed to provide a record of all hits to a site resulting from ad placements. This article shows a host of different ways to utilise an ad tracker.
The Key To High-Volume Web Sales
The quickest way to achieve high-volume sales on the web is to set up your own affiliate program.There are two ways to set up an affiliate program: you can install affiliate tracking software on your server or you can use a 3rd party affiliate tracker.
5 Mistakes to Avoid When Choosing an Affiliate Program
When people decide to join an affiliate program to make extra money, or to have a full time job, they often do so with illusions and no idea of how the affiliate program actually works. Read the following top 5 mistakes people make when it comes to choosing an affiliate program and avoid these mistakes at all costs.
The Secret Shady Practices of Affiliate Marketing
You've probably heard it a hundred times..
Affiliate Programs - Can I Really Make Money?
If you have been looking around the internet for a while in search of ways of making money you cannot fail to have seen the words "join our free affiliate program" - probably followed by something about making thousands of dollars a month!If you are like me you were a mixture of skeptical, intrigued, excited and also thinking "could this work for me?" Well to cut a long story short I was looking to work from home at the tail end of 2004 due to ill health and was surfing the net to find a work from home business. I kept seeing these adverts for affiliate programs but had never heard of them in my life.
The 5 Sure-Fire Ways of Building Massive Traffic and Making Thousands in Affiliate Sales
Why are those top affiliates able to easily make so much money just by recommending and selling other people's products?What did they do to be so different from the rest of the 96% of the affiliates out there who are making little or no money at all?The key to making those huge affiliate sales really lies on what you portray to your visitors and what you can give to your visitors.But before that, let's deal with getting lots of targeted traffic to your website so that you could build a huge mailing list to mine your income from.
How to Create Multiple Streams of Income, Part 2
A while back I wrote a little article called "My Vision of Multiple Streams of Income". After receiving several emails asking for a sequel and sharing more real life experience I decided to give an update on my journey with SFI and Stone Evans' PIPS system.
Are You Building a Business or a Downline?
A common mistake *A LOT* of affiliates make is to focus too much Energy on building their second tier and not enough on selling Their business on the first tier.I myself belive that two-tiered affiliate programs are overrated, If you have a website that PRE-sells effectively you stand to make Quite a bit more by concentrating your efforts on your first tier.
Affiliate Alternative; Google Adsense
The Rise and Fall of Affiliate ProgramsAffiliate programs were once a great source of online revenue, a savvy webmaster with an eye for marketing could easily parley a site into a money making machine with a little luck and effort. However, the evolution and growth of the Internet has hampered the growth of fortune making affiliate programs.
Why Super Affiliates Succeed
Ever wonder why the super affiliates are raking it in and you're still struggling with affiliate programs?Okay, it is an advantage to have a web site with good traffic and a program related to the theme of the web site. It is also important to have a large list to which you can recommend your program.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing refers to the promotion of products or services through affiliates. Affiliates are usually other webmasters and ezine editors who choose to act as sales people on behalf of their principals for a commission on every sale.
Understanding Affiliate Programs
Affiliate programs are commonly misunderstood, in order to understand affiliate programs lets start with terminology. For clarification purposes, an affiliate is defined as any "referrer" or website that promotes a product in an effort to earn revenue.
Are You Being Ripped Off By Clickbank Merchants?
I see affiliates from two perspectives.Firstly as an affiliate, I see myself as a business partner to those merchants that I promote.
Why Two-Tier Affiliate Programs are Best
When you join an affiliate program or start an affiliate program of your own, you have to decide whether it will be a single tier or two-tier affiliate program.With a single tier program you earn a commission on any sales you make and that is it.
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.
Economic Recession or Not, You Must be Creative to Survive
Are we Really in an Economic Recession?Some US statistics seem to indicate we are heading into one. If we are heading in that direction, what should we online marketers do about it?Should we panic and give up our web sites, or just accept that we will get less business, and let it go at that.
Capitalizing On The Autosurfing Craze
You've heard about it in recent months, and its popularity seem to grow in leaps and bounds with each passing day.Paid to surf programs have been on the rise and with the monetary promises that have become the stalwart of their systems, more and more people are joining the bandwagon.
All About Affiliate Networks
Over the course of my Internet marketing career, a significant portion of my revenue has come from affiliate networks. With most networks, you can sign-up for free, earn money from several different affiliate programs at once, and get a single consolidated paycheck from one company.