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I started blogging on affiliate marketing back in February 2004. At that time, I wasn’t sure if it was something I wanted to really do, so I took the easy step of getting a presence on Blogger.
Soon after, I decided to upgrade to a more branded, tweakable environment, and purchased a license for Movable Type. [...]
I’ll bet that before the thought of doing affiliate marketing ever entered your mind, you were two things: a customer, and an online customer. (Yeah, I’m really going out on a limb here!)
And, whenever you purchased online, you probably confirmed that the website through which you were making the purchase used a secure server. You may have done so by making sure the website’s URL began with https://. Or, perhaps you looked for a lock icon at the bottom of the web browser. (With the new version of IE, Microsoft moved the icon to the top. That threw me for a loop!)
A secure server is a web server that incorporates special encryption. Applied through Secure Socket Layer technology (commonly known as SSL), such encryption protects the transmission of credit card and other sensitive information during the purchase process from the clutches of Internet thieves.
I won’t go into detail on how it works. But I will answer a fundamental question: Why should you care?
After all, you’re promoting somebody else’s product on your website. You’re directing web visitors to the merchant’s site to buy the product. The only information you request from the potential customer is an email address for your opt-in list. Why worry about a secure server?
First, while you may not need security for your website, you want the merchant’s site to have it. If the merchant cannot provide that level of web security for your customers, you suffer, too.
Second, as you continue to hone your affiliate marketing instincts, you’ll discover new ways to make money from your site. That’s what the power-affiliates do. One sure-fire way to do this is to offer your own product or service. Doing so allows you to collect 100% of the profit from sales, which is sweet.
Ah, but how do you conduct the transactions from those sales? That’s when a secure server comes in handy – along with an SSL digital certificate, a credit card processing service, and a few other things. But a secure server does more than facilitate secure transactions. It instills in your customers greater confidence in your ability to provide expert content and services. And building that trust should never grow old.
Selling one’s own products may not be for everyone. But regardless of the kind of affiliate marketing you do, a secure server is essential to the process, and to your profits.