Affiliate Program FAQsto make money online associate sales scheme home paid surveys extra referral multi level marketing best commission juction internet website

On this page you will find information about affiliate marketing in general, and answers to common questions about the our own Affiliate Scheme.

Introduction to Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing has revolutionised the way e-commerce companies (merchants) operate on the internet. Essentially affiliate sales programs are "pay for results" marketing. Merchants generally invite people with websites (affiliates) to partner with them by providing links to the merchant website, such as banners that are placed within the affiliate's website or sent out in newsletters associated with the website. When a prospect comes to the merchant site through the affiliate link and buys a product or registers for any services, the merchant pays a commission to the affiliate that referred the customer. So we at EcoStar are the merchant and we are happy to pay you substantial commissions on the sales that you as an affiliate generate for us through your activities and your website.

Repeat Sales and Residual Commission

Most affiliate sales programs only pay a one off commission on immediate sales. Better ones have products which are purchased repeatedly and the affiliate retains the customer for a period or indefinitely so gaining repeat commissions after the initial introduction. This is known as residual income and obviously makes a big difference to the attractiveness of a program.

EcoStar printer chips is a consumable and most of our clients come back regularly for more chips. We do indeed pay an indefinite commission and so we expect that you will gradually build up an increasing residual income from the customers you refer to us over time as they remain marked for commission to you indefinitely.

Your relationship as an Affiliate with EcoStar as the Merchant

You are our valued partner-in-selling. We only build our business if you build YOURS. We consider you as independent members of our selling team and it is in our interest for you to get as much commission as possible. That is why we have tried to put a good level of commission into the scheme. 5% total commission for a repeat purchase product on an indefinite basis is pretty good for a real product that is bought by people  at home to save themselves money.

How do I promote my affiliate link?

If you already have a busy website and the product is relevant and attractive to your visitors, you should start earning money straight away. If you have a new, low-traffic site, you need to promote your site before you can make these schemes work for you. Experienced webmasters suggest that you need at least 500 unique visitors a day to make reasonable money from a web site through schemes but it could be fewer if the match is really good as that will mean that the visitors to your site are already pre-qualified as interested.

The general wisdom in promotion is that your pages should bring a wealth of well promoted information value to your customer and not be overly concerned with selling a single product. A wide range of relevant links to schemes about which you are enthusiastic is ideal.

Of course you do not HAVE to have a website. You can also promote using printed material, adverts or even by paying for "Pay per Click" advertising on Google or the like. What matters is that customers use your special link URL to go to our website so that they are recorded there as YOUR customers.

Where do I find other affiliate schemes?

Make sure you pick schemes that are attractive to your target audience. Sources of other schemes are:
Commission Junction can provide you as a publisher with a huge number of opportunities from advertisers. It is important that you have strong content on your pages and you have links to interesting and associated programs. AssociatePrograms.com provide a range of stationery related links that you may find useful.

Why do people want EcoStar products?

Let's be straight about it! The main reason by far that people buy our compatible chips is that it saves them a lot of money. Its all about saving! Money is the big motivator. In addition to that is that fact that it is great for the environment.

Every compatible chip that we sell prevents a lot of raw and scarce materials being used to make yet another cartridge and, at the other end, prevents one more cartridge being dumped as land fill. It's friendly at both ends.

REUSE is second only to REDUCE in the environmentalist mantra! Its the best way to recycle at home. A lot of people and organisations are keen to do what they can to help our poor old earth survive as well as possible the ravages of our civilisation!

What is the hardest part of selling EcoStar's chips?

It is getting people to consider the idea. It just does not cross the mind of most people that such an alternative exists! Empty cartridges go in the bin! ...either the rubbish bin or just possibly the recycling bin!

Sow the seed and many will give it a go! Many people who try it will come back again and again as they get used to saving money.

What areas of interest are most suited to my EcoStar affiliate link?

The areas of interest with which EcoStar printer chips is associated are primarily:

A Cost Saving - A very wide interest cutting across particularly the small and middle sized business sector, educational and voluntary organisations and individuals.

Many sectors have a special interest in money saving because they are always short of resources, for example schools, charities and churches.

This is probably the easiest interest to which to link and has its own built in special drivers towards purchase. Everyone loves to save money!

B Environmental - The substitution of refill toner for the use of a new cartridge has great benefits to the environment from both the reduction in use of energy and scarce raw materials, but also in the reduction of non-biodegradable landfill waste. You will find more information on this interest on our environmental page.

C Specific High Use Business Sectors - There are then lots of specific sectors with specially high usage of laser printers. Commercial and instant printers, estate agents, publishers and training providers for example.

What are most important principles for success?

We think that the SiteBuild concepts of

Content - Traffic - PREsell - Monetize

are particularly valuable! The proven way to build any business online!

Content
Web users search for information, for solutions. They are not looking for you - they don't know you (yet!). They seek what you know. Give it to them. Convert your knowledge into in-demand Content. To succeed online, start where they start - at "the search."

Traffic
Your topical content ranks high at the Search Engines (ex., Google, Yahoo! MSN), attracting free, targeted (i.e. interested), open-to-you visitors. Basically, these future customers "meet you" at your site. These visitors are known as "Traffic."

PREsell
Complete strangers develop trust and confidence in you. Why? You "PREsell" by OVER delivering what they seek... relevant, original, information. Deliver it in your own voice, in your own way. Go beyond merely instilling confidence... your visitors will like you.
(Immediate "selling" on Web sites is ineffective unless you have a brand like Amazon.)

Monetize
Convert warm, willing-to-buy ("PREsold") visitors into income. Called "Monetizing," this is the easy part. But "M" cannot happen if you fail to first execute C T P. This is where 99% of small businesses fail.

C T P is the motor that drives "M." SBI! delivers the motor, and the Monetization.

Notes from EcoStar on this!

Monetizing usually comes from a combination of selective and relevant referral links and Google Adsense adverts which are supplied to be related to the content of your page and from which you derive income when your visitors click on them.

This is own main eCommerce website. We hope we provide a wealth of information around the theme of saving money and helping the environment by refilling cartridges on our website! 

Can I earn money without any effort?

Well not really! This is a self employment opportunity and your earning will depend on the effort you put in.

If you have already built up a large network of contacts to whom you can recommend new worthwhile products then you may be able to turn on a flow of income immediately, but this will be a result of your previous hard work. Mostly you have to work at getting traffic to your website, newsletter etc and building your network and then when you have exposure with people who trust what you are saying and the information you are providing, you will benefit from them following your referral links to save themselves money or to join in the network.

If you are not sure where to start then we suggest you look at some of the excellent training resources freely available on the Internet which show you in detail how to build up your business in this field.

It is true that this is a business in which your efforts can build up a significant pool of residual income which will continue to provide you with a flow of income without further effort. That is a special kind of magic!

How much will I make from being an associate?

Maybe nothing! We do not hold out that you will make any particular amount of money because the amount you will make will depend upon how much time and effort you spend and how skillfully you promote EcoStar chips using your referral links. This is not a get rich quick scheme, it is an honest opportunity for self employment! Rewards will only follow effort.

Statistically most members in most schemes earn next to nothing because they don't do anything! In fact most never even publish their referral link so they don't stand a chance! We would prefer to discourage you from signing up unless you plan to be active as otherwise it is basically a waste of your time. (and ours!)

We will only gain from active members and if we could pre select we would! Unfortunately as is true with much marketing, "Half of what we spend is a waste of money, they only problem is we don't know which half!"

Can I get paid when no one is buying anything?

No! Unlike some Multilevel Marketing programs that pay bonuses for recruitment, our referral program only pays commissions on actual orders. These commissions are covered by the income from the order and are limited in total for any order to a maximum of 5%. This is the main reason why this is an ethical program and won't fall apart. We all know exactly what is funding the commissions and so do you!

What are the commission rates?

The rate is 5% for commissions made using your own member Code. The commissions are payable on all sales made at the normal web price. Commission is not payable where the client buys at a trade or other discounted price.

How do you pay your associate members?

We use either direct transfer to bank accounts or send a cheque (UK only)

When will the commissions be paid each month?

EcoStar will pay earned commissions to their associate members within 30 days after the close of the earned commission month.

Commissions must reach £50.00 (GBP) in any pay period in order to be paid in that pay cycle. If your commissions are below £50.00, we will hold them until you reach £50.00.

For example, a member earns commissions in the month of March. He/She will receive the March commissions before the end of April provided the payment is at least £50 (GBP).

Is this a Residual Income or one time pay out income for a customer

Its residual income. Once a customer is on our database with your referral code, you will continue to be paid commission for the life of the program on all successive orders so long as you are a member. Since the product is a repeat purchase consumable this is most important!

However if you do not earn any commission for 12 months you will cease to be an associate.

Can I get commission on an existing account?

Not normally!

If you think there is a good reason why you should get commissions on an account that has already been set up without your commission code, email us and we will consider it. We can manually set the commission code on an account if we want to.

Can I sign up as a company rather than in my personal name?

Before sigining up as an Associate you must open an account with EcoStar. This requires your personal name, as well as your company name. You can use a company bank account to receive payments, or we can send a cheque made payable to your company.

How old do I need to be to participate?

You must be at least 18 years old.

Can people from any country participate in the EcoStar referral scheme?

Yes, we sell our products worldwide and there is no reason why you cannot do the same from any country. The majority of our sales are currently in the UK with decreasing amounts as you go further afield.

Is it legal and ethical?

Yes, it is both legal and ethical. It is ethical because

it costs you nothing

you only get paid when a real product is sold and from the proceeds of the selling

the customer gets a product that saves money at the market price

the program only pays an affordable commission on selling

Is your site secure for credit card handling?

Yes, we use Sage Pay or Amazon Pay as our credit card handlers and we do not see or store any of the sensitive credit card information provided by our customers online. Both Sage Pay and Amazon Pay are major online credit card handlers with an impeccable record. Their websites are fully secure. See our Terms and Conditions page.

Is my personal information secure?

We respect your right to privacy and do not pass information on either our customers or associates to any one else.

Can I send “SPAM” emails?

ABSOLUTELY NO SPAMMING!

We absolutely must protect the integrity of this program and our business. If we have even a suspicion that a member has used spam we will immediately end their contract and pay no further commissions.

Can I advertise?

Yes, BUT

you cannot make any claims that we do not make in our website, and you must include the fact that you are an “Independent Affiliate” after your name or contact information.

You may send email messages to people that you know (and who know you) to advise them about our referral program. You may advertise on websites and you may use Pay-per-Click advertising if you wish. You may promote by small ads, direct mail, leaflets, press releases, networking and word of mouth.

Where now?

The actual Scheme Agreement shows the legal contract. (A bit harder reading!)

Finally you may sign up as an Affiliate on our registration form.