I'm looking for ideas on what affiliate programs could be marketed to budding entrepreneurs. Only the best programs would be recommended but if there is a toss up between two or three options then the best affiliate scheme will determine which service I recommend obviously. For example, almost all entrepreneurs will require a website and so hosting will be required. There is a very good quality hosting company that will pay $65 for each referral. I'm sure i can find a good domain register with a decent affiliate program. I'm looking for other similar ideas if anyone could suggest something that would be much appreciated.
It all comes down to supply and demand and being able to market it effectively. You can have the best product and service but if you can't separate yourself from the competition it can be hard to break even. Id start off with any affiliate program that is good quality and start small. Don't worry about how much you will earn but worry about how to market effectively.
I appreciate the advice but I'm more looking for specific things that would be of interest in general business startup scenarios that can provide an affiliate income. The affiliate side is a bonus (an additional revenue stream), not the main motivation.
The bottom line is you're looking for high paying affiliate programs. Check out this page: http://www.highpayingaffiliateprograms.com/
It doesn't have to be a high paying affiliate program - first and foremost it has to be high quality, relevant and useful to a large segment of general entrepreneurs. The main purpose of the website is not to make affiliate income - its just an added bonus.
If someone is a successful entrepreneur, do you think he/she will be concerned with what affiliate programs they should be using on their site? Those programs will "come" to them real fast. I guess, I don't quite understand your question or concern. And if anything, wealthy entrepreneurs will want expensive affiliate programs on their site. Why not? I mean you yourself gave an example of a referral program paying $65 for a qualified lead. That's a pretty expensive aff. program IMO. Uber has a nice referral program. So do expedia, alibaba and a host of other companies: https://developer.uber.com/earn/ https://www.expedia.com/p/network-affiliate http://ads.alibaba.com/ Just to name a few.
there is some website security feature provider, and they have affiliate program too. eg. http://www.webroot.com/us/en/home/affiliates/ And there is some payment processor that allow affiliate program too, signup merchant and you will be rewarded.
I appreciate you taking the time to offering advice in the thread qwikad but i don't think you really understand where I'm coming from. I want to set up an information website targeted at early stage entrepreneurs. The vast majority of these entrepreneurs are neither wealthy or successful... yet. They are just starting out on the journey. My motivation is offline business advantages this will provide. If the website makes no money directly that is ok, i will make money offline on the back of this website bringing in business in a related area as I provide a professional service. If i can make some extra cash from affiliate earnings that is the cherry on top but not at all a priority.
Early stage entrepreneurs are usually hungry for information. They need to learn a lot of new things in order to develop a working business, so I believe information products works best. Courses that teach them how to manage people, organize their time, understand their customers, how to better market their products, how to fit in their personal life etc. You might want to check Eben Pagan's (#3 on IM rich list) products to get the general idea about the niche. They won't be able to afford the very expensive seminars yet but the content surely is appealing to the target group. You might want to check ClicBank, JVzoo etc. for products that best fit your target group (what kind of entrepreneurs budding entrepreneurs?)
Thanks Swiftley. Some great leads there. I'll have a look at those sites and see what looks good. The website will be primarily geared towards people in my country who will be setting up their business in the near future as I have a lot of information already they need as well as expertise in financial services. I will just have to re-write everything in a easier way to be understood by someone starting out and more suitable for SEO purposes and have some infographics designed to make some of the bulkier information easier to digest with some videos to appeal to a wider range of people. I will probably start out with whiteboard animation style videos as they are quicker and easier to produce and do the job well enough.
A few days ago I have created a vendor account on ClickBank, listing Meta Productivity - a premium productivity training course (e-book/audio/video). It was well received by Eben's audience - as a bonus to customers purchasing one of his programs. It's priced at $99 and the commission is 50%. It teaches people how to become more productive, organized, and master their habits. It offers a broader look at productivity than most other courses, and it comes with customer support service. It's not being promoted much yet, it's just available on our website. I like to think it's a good product as we've received some testimonials and the refund rate is about 0.67%. I'm new to the whole affiliate marketing idea, so I'm really figuring things out myself. I have created a sales video for affiliates to use, but apparently that's not everything a vendor needs. I'm working on a possible subscription based upsell and trying to figure out what other tools I need to have to be more attractive for affiliates. If you have some insight from your (affiliate) point of view, that would be great. I'm trying to understand what are affiliates looking for the most, and a bunch of articles suggested to go on IM forums. Sorry if I hijacked your thread a little. You're saying that you'll be offering your clients expertise in financial services, perhaps some Forex products might be a good fit, from what I've learned so far these are also very popular. Is your site going to be in English?
Yes the site will be in English. Forex would not really be something I will focus on. The target market need information about registering a business name, registering for tax, how to do bookkeeping, marketing, accountancy, suppliers and distribution and supply chain management and the legal requirements around running a small business. American ebook/audio/video courses would not be much use to them and I would lose all respect from these type of viewers if I tried to sell them a PDF to show them how I started making $23,500 a month working part time from home (with a picture of my Ferrari on the cover). I don't want this website to be a typical affiliate website where every second page the viewer is asked to sign up to something or buy something or get a free something or other by signing up to this list. I am well aware of the importance of building up good quality email subscribers but I'm not looking to monetize them in the traditional affiliate website fashion.