In December, we had the pleasure of attending the Internet Marketing Party – a gathering of like-minded Internet marketing entrepreneurs and marketing professionals held the second Tuesday of every month in Austin, TX and run by Dave Gonzalez. We were able to watch the speeches of ClickBank Senior Staff members- Neil Hartley and Dush Ramachandran.  During this event we had the opportunity to gather fundamental tips for online marketing success that they have learned over the years.

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1. Steve Demeter, the developer of the $5 game Trism spent $5,000 developing the game and in those amazing two months following the launch of the App Store, grossed $250,000. To date the APP has brought in several million dollars. Demeter acknowledges there was some luck involved, but designed Trism with unique gameplay and high replay value and an online leaderboard for a community dimension. Intelligent marketing, naturally, is a critical component of success.

2. While I was doing the final edits for this very page, The New York Times ran a major article about Ethan Nicholas and his wife Nicole who were having trouble making their mortgage payments and medical bills. Nicholas heard about Steve Demeter and decided to write an iPhone app himself. The 30-year-old had zero experience in iPhone apps but years of java programming experience. After six weeks of working “morning, noon and night,” he created an iPhone application called iShoot.  The first day, the $4.99 app made $1,000, and he thought he had won the lottery. The second day, $2,000. The third day, he made $5000, and this earning level persisted for several weeks. Then he retooled the app and gave out a “free” version with fewer features but with an upsell to a paid version. So far, he has earned $800,000, called his boss and quit his job. He plans to “milk the gold rush as long as I can.”

3. A Greek entrepreneur and two of his friends invested a week of their time and created an iPhone app called iSteam. It makes the face of the iPhone look like a fogged up bathroom mirror. They made $100,000 in 90 days.

4. Bart Decrem created Tap Tap Revenge, a music rhythm game, and within two weeks of release hit the 1 million download milestone. The game was free to download, and Decrem looked to finance his application through advertising and a premium paid version of the game.

The iPhone and Apple’s Development Kit open the market to those who would like to Get Rich Click; you don’t need substantial capital, simply talent and time. Many liken the iPhone landscape to the early days of the Internet, when excitement was high and the sky seemed the limit.

Remember, if you want to have an iPhone app created, get competitive bids at iPhoneAppQuotes.com.

Some merchants allow their affiliates to buy products essentially at wholesale prices. To take advantage of this, create an affiliate link on your website and then use that link to buy products for yourself. That means you are buying from your own affiliate link at the retail price minus the commission you get back.

You might also ask your friends and family to buy from these links. It’s a great way to start to profit from the Internet immediately. Be aware, however, that some merchants have restrictions on this type of buying. Make sure you read the fine print on your affiliate agreement.

Generate more income per sale by choosing affiliate programs that pay higher commissions. Some of the categories that pay the most include:

• Loans
• Surveys
• Insurance
• Casinos
• Credit card sign ups
• Financial
• Digital products offered at ClickBank

The affiliate program market is also referred to as a cost-per-action (CPA) market.  These websites pay other site owners for a variety of actions such as buying, clicking, filling out a form or sending them a lead.

Before using any of these firms, you should ask for references so you can talk with other site owners to learn whether they are happy with the services these businesses offer. You might also want to ask your accountant and/or lawyer to review their terms and conditions and explain all the information listed in the “fine print.” When you use an affiliate marketing firm to bring revenue to your business, that firm becomes your business partner. You need to know as much as you can about them.

Many credit card companies and online colleges or universities will pay you an affiliate commission of $5 to $25 for each referral that completes an application. These commissions can possibly double if the company approves the application.

There are three primary ways to locate affiliate programs for your website:

1.  Consult affiliate sites like clickbank.com or cj.com.

2.  Work with a large affiliate network that provides the platform for dozens or even hundreds of  advertisers.

3.  Research individual merchants to see if they offer an affiliate program

Through these companies, you can market the whole merchant site or a specific product from the central site. The activity you generate is tied to your personal affiliate code, and the respective merchant sends you a commission check.

My friend Adrian Morrison makes a great living in the affiliate marketing world.  He has over 70 different campaigns running at the same time, and they’re all bringing in revenue.

Here’s one example:  Adrian was buying traffic  from Facebook for $.02 per click and selling those leads to an advertiser who wanted to build an e-mail list. The advertiser was giving away two tickets to the movies – at a wholesale cost of $2.00 — and paid Adrian $1.35 for every lead that signed up.  It took about five clicks for every sign up, which works out to the following:

•  Advertiser pays $2.00 for wholesale movie tickets

•  Advertiser pays out $1.35 to Adrian

•  Adrian pays Facebook $.02 per click, or $.10 for every five clicks

•  Adrian nets $1.25 per e-mail sign up

This cycle occurs 400 times per day — which means $15,000 per month profit on this single campaign.

There are thousands of ways to make money in the affiliate business. The trick knowing what traffic is out there to be purchased, at what cost, and what type of traffic the affiliates want. Then you put those pieces together — and keep the profit for yourself.

There are two popular variations of the basic affiliate model:

• Two-tier programs. These programs offer commissions based on sales and sales recruitment; they are similar to the old “Amway” business model — now called Quixtar. Not only can you, as the affiliate, generate income from sales, clicks or leads, you can also get paid for the activity from other affiliate sites you have referred to the merchant.
• Residual or Lifetime programs. You may find merchants with a subscription business model offering residual programs. For every visitor you send who becomes a client, you receive a regular commission for as long as that client keeps purchasing the merchant’s goods or services.

Businesses can create affiliate programs around actions that are important to them — not all businesses sell products, but they all have sales goals. Perhaps a business wants to encourage newsletter subscriptions or promote registrations for a conference. If you understand how affiliate programs work and the accounting technology behind them to monitor the activity of affiliates, you can help businesses create the affiliate marketing programs that meet their needs.