Smart business owners are always looking for easy ways to expand their customer base. One of the ways to do this is through affiliate marketing.
Green affiliate marketing is a little bit more specialized, but it is possible to find green affiliate programs that you can join, and in turn find affiliates who are willing to market your green products.
Green Affiliate Marketing
If you are thinking of expanding and „greening“ your business, one of the easiest ways to do this in a risk-free manner is to become an affiliate marketer. In this way, you can test the market and your customers’ interest in green products without spending a lot of time, money and energy creating them from scratch.
There are many companies which offer affiliate programs so that you can sell their products in exchange for a commission. You could also sign up for Amazon Associates and create an entire store of green products with just a few clicks.
In addition, there is direct selling – that is, face-to-face selling of brand-name products and services in exchange for a commission. Good examples of top direct sales companies would be Tupperware and Pampered Chef. Avon and Mary Kay are also hugely popular; however, since they now test their products on animals, they are no longer green and ideologically sound.
However, you are sure to find a large number of green companies if you search for green affiliate programs and green direct sales companies in Google. Sign up for the programs, start selling, and track your results.
Getting Green Affiliates and Joint Venture Partners
If you are already selling green products, it is important to look for affiliates to help you broaden your customer base. Your best affiliates might also be willing to form joint venture partnerships with you, in which you work on mutually profitable deals together in order to make more sales.
In terms of green affiliate marketing, the process is similar to becoming a green affiliate yourself. Online affiliate marketplaces are a hive of activity with many opportunities that should be right for your business. Some of the top ones like CJ.com and Rakuten LinkShare are easy to use as an affiliate, but too expensive for small businesses to use if they wish to look for affiliates.
Fortunately, there are a couple of marketplaces which are affordable. ClickBank is the best affiliate marketplace for selling digital products – a perfect green product. For example, an eBook conserves trees, water, chemicals, ink and so forth.
ClickBank has recently also allowed people to start selling tangible products at their site, such as herbal supplements, customized clothing and mugs, and so forth. The listing fee for each of your items is currently $50. You set the commissions, which can range from 50% to 75%.
Another good site for picking up green affiliates is PayDotCom.com. It allows you to sell both the digital and tangible goods and has a very easy-to-use interface. You can create a shopping cart, and also offer valuable resources for your affiliates in order to help them sell your products like pros.
Joint Venture Partnerships
Once you are working as an affiliate, or have affiliates, you will get to know both you competitors and those who sell similar but not identical products to your own. You might decide to approach them with a deal, or vice versa. The deals usually involve mailing to each other’s email lists and splitting the sales 50/50. Other deals can be more complicated if you work well together.
Becoming a green affiliate, and collecting an army of green affiliates, are two of the easiest ways to grow your business by leaps and bounds and tap into this multibillion-dollar market.