This page will answer some of the most frequently asked questions about the Make
A Living Online affiliate program. Please do take time to read this entire page. If your
question isn't answered below please contact us and we'll do
our best to assist you.
Q. What are my responsibilities as an affiliate? Do I have
to take orders or have a merchant account?
Actually, you do nothing except send people to us through your specific
affiliate URL. We do all the work... answer emails, do support, collect the payment. Our
advanced order taking/tracking system handles online credit card orders, fax, email and
mail orders, and tags every sale with your affiliate ID. You just bring in the traffic to
your affiliate page and once a month you get a commission check.
Q. How many people will buy out of the visitors I send you?
I get this question all the time and it's hard to answer because there are so many
variables. The average visitor to sales ratio has been running about one in 75-80. But it
is MUCH better in many cases. For example, an ENDORSEMENT will always increase your
conversion ratio (visitor-to-sales). And of course, there are numerous ways of doing an
endorsement. You can send out a solo mailing to your subscriber list if you have one... or
even someone else's list. The best way to do this is to simply talk about the web-based
guide to making a living online, which is your Make-A-Living-Online affiliate site. You'll
get the highest response rate out of that. (I've seen between 10-20 visitors convert to
sales with this method). A personal endorsement yields the highest response rates.
Traffic generated by displaying the banners we provide or by placing the
classified ads provided usually yields a lower sales ratio, however if the traffic is
targeted to small or home based businesses you can still see a visitor to sales ratio of
better than 150-1. These conversion ratios are fantastic when you consider that the
average conversion ratio for a website on the Internet is one sale per 720 visitors.
Remember that the Internet is an information based society and people want information for
free. This is why the free five-page guide informs first and sells only at the end. It's
the perfect mix of education and sales. And as you'll read below, the site does your
follow-up work for you too!
Some people may get a few hundred visitors... or even a thousand and still not get a sale.
Why?... because they chose poorly targeted people. Most of these visitors are coming from
worthless "free for all" links or poor "safe-lists". You have to make
sure you target your customers well. If you put a banner on a car site or a health site
for example, don't expect a sale very soon. You'll probably have to wait for a couple
thousand visitors before you make a sale. Why?... because people do NOT go to those sites
to start a home business.
Also note, the Make A Living Online package is a "higher-end" product... it
costs more than most. But this is good news for affiliates... It is much less
work promoting higher end products and services since the payoff is greater from each
sale.
Q. Do I have to use the banners, ads, and links found here
or can I make my own?
What's found here is just a starting point. By all means, I encourage you to create your
own banners, text links, ads, and reviews that are customized and focused on your
particular audience. Let me know when you do -- I'll take a look and offer any suggestions
I may have.
Q. I've heard about "two-tier" affiliate programs,
how come yours isn't like that?
A two-tier affiliate program allows you to earn a small commission from sales by people
who sign up under you. I've been involved in many programs like this and in every program,
2nd tier affiliate income is far-outweighed by actual first-tier commissions. I decided
not to make this program two-tiered for this reason. What's more, too many affiliates in
2-tier programs concentrate on signing up others into the program and never generate a
substantial income because of it. A single-tier program allows serious affiliates to
generate serious profits. I don't want tens of thousands of affiliates. I want a small
number of serious affiliates earning serious commissions. And I've set up every aspect of
this affiliate program to facilitate that!
Q. How and when do I get paid?
Referral fee checks are mailed on or about the 15th of every month, for the referral fees
that you earned in the previous month. You are paid in US funds, which you should be able
to convert to your local currency just about anywhere in the world. There is no minimum
commission due before we send you a check. Make just one sale and you'll get a commission
check the next month.
Q. If I send someone to my affiliate
site and they decide not to order, will I get a commission if they return to the
main make-a-living-online site at a later date and decide to order
then?
Simply put, yes. The Make A Living Online affiliate program uses cookies to track all
sales and commissions. When someone visits your affiliate site a cookie is set on their
computer. If they do not purchase on their first visit and return later to the main site
and order, YOU will receive credit for the sale. The cookie is set for TEN YEARS so all
traffic you generate can eventually result in a commission for you. (Note: In today's
Internet environment, cookies rarely last that long on any given computer. They are either
deleted manually or pushed off systems to make room for new cookies. But this gives them a
chance to outlast many others!)
Here's exactly how our follow-up
and tracking system works...
We realize that sales are often a product of
follow-up and relationship forming. So we have systems in place that follow up with
visitors regularly for up to six months. This process starts when visitors to your
affiliate site view the background popup upon exiting the site. They then download our
free ebook and they are added to our BizWeb eGazette list and an automated, personalized
email series. This increases the likelihood of an eventual sale. As these prospects tagged
with your affiliate ID return to the main site by way of our email follow-ups or email
newsletter, YOU get the commission should they decide to purchase the package.
One thing to note... When users return to the main
Make-A-Living-Online.com site your cookie is read. But if visitors come in through another
affiliate site, the credit is given to the LAST affiliate who brought the visitor in.
After all, as an active affiliate you would not want your advertising dollars to make
sales for other affiliates just because they started promoting this before you. (Ex: You
send a friend in and they buy. But they visited the main site or another affiliate's site
months or years ago. Now you lose the commission from your sale? Not fair. This is why our
system works as it does.) Remember, some of these instances (such as this scenario) are
rather rare, but folks ask, so that's why we share exactly how it works!
The bottom line is this... affiliates
take precedent over the main site in all cases. And active affiliates earn the most money.
Continually promote your affiliate site and you'll do quite well.
Q. I've been an affiliate for months and have never received
a check. What's the problem?
No problem... you probably need to get more traffic to your site by promoting more or to
better targeted customers. Some people get only a hundred or less visitors to their site
each month and expect to get lots of sales. This just won't happen... it's mathematically
impossible. But don't worry, many of our affiliates start small and keep growing. As they
start to get more traffic to their site and learn more about marketing, the bigger checks
start coming.
Q. Why did I receive a notice asking for my social security
number or tax ID?
By law, if you're in the US we can't pay you more than $600 in referral fees in any
calendar year until we have a signed IRS W-9 form from you. We'll include a W-9 form with your referral fee check once you're near this amount, but
you can also print it out right now (it's an Adobe Acrobat PDF file) and send it to us if
you want. You can mail it to us at JDD Publishing, 400 D Putnam Pike #218, Smithfield RI,
02917 or fax it anytime to 978-964-0523.
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