Affiliate Marketing Tips

Home
>
Affiliate Revenue
>
Affiliate Marketing Tips

Affiliate Marketing Tips

If there really is a big secret at all, it undoubtedly would have to be: "work hard." We hope that the information provided here helps you get rolling down the road to affiliate marketing success. We also hope it will save you a little time and money in the process. Some of the below suggestions are pretty obvious ones, but sometimes it's nice to have someone else tell you that the obvious answer is a good one.

Choose a topic you know. The most common question asked by people new to affiliate marketing is "What should I start with?" We believe it is best to start with an area you know well. Doing this may not be the best converting, provide you with the highest commission, or even be the best managed program. But it is easy for you to build a site, and it's a subject you know and are interested in. That means you can add your own personal touch and opinions to the site. If you try to build your first site from something in which you have no personal interest, the site soon becomes a painful and boring task. Stick with what you know initially and then grow from there.

Banners, Banners, and More Banners. If success at affiliate marketing could be achieved from throwing up pages of banners - then the world would have many more millionaires. A site with pages of banners or rows banners stuffed under content, not only doesn't make a person want to click the banner; it also has the added bonus of making your site look pretty ugly.

There is no Best Merchant Program. Some people can succeed with a merchant where many others have failed. It is often true that some do poorly where others are making a fist full of dollars. Forums are full of posts that begin with, "My Sales this month for Merchant Program X are very poor." These same posts usually end with some one else posting, "Funny my sales are great." Remember that for your first site select a merchant based on what you know. In the early days, when you have just one small site, it will be easy to swap out all the links if the chosen merchant doesn't work out.

Use multiple merchants in the same niche. As suggested, select a merchant based on what you like, or better yet select a few. Promoting 3-4 merchants on the same site gives your site visitors a variety of destinations to choose from. Doing this provides you with data on what your visitors want to see, and can provide you with important information on how well the different merchants perform against each other when put head to head.

There is no Best Network. Another question commonly asked is, "What is the best network?" Everyone has their own reply to this question, and ultimately there is no best answer. This is especially true when you consider that many great programs don't even belong to a network at all. Every network has its strong points. Make your network selection based on the tools it provides for you. Also take into consideration if the network has the merchants you want to work with. Sometimes joining an undesirable Network is necessary because they have a merchant you really want to sign up with. Our recommendation is to try a merchant from all the main networks, see what works for you, and then focus your time accordingly.

What are Content Sites. If you visit affiliate marketing forums you'll hear people talk about "content sites." These are sites that provide potentially educational and topical content about the products they are promoting, or appear to promote products as a side focus. Content sites are easier to build when you know about the products you are promoting, or the merchant makes content available to you. However, don't forget the goal of your site is to make your site visitors click off of your site onto a merchant's store. No click-through means no sale.

What are Data (Product Info) Sites. Data driven sites are generally limited to pure product data, prices, images, descriptions, there's no illusion of education here. It's all about promoting the product and making the visitor get off your site as fast as possible and onto the merchant's store. Data driven sites generally require access to data feeds and some knowledge of programming or access to software whereby you can turn a data feeds into web pages.

Parasites and how they affect you. You will see a lot of sites that talk about "Parasites", "ParasiteWare" and "ScumWare." All of these are applications that can redirect, overwrite, or intercept your visitors (and therefore YOUR commission) and change your visitor into their visitor. The majority of these masquerade as shopping support software, file sharing applications, browser help objects (BHOs), and even hidden applications installed on a user's PC via drive-by installs or in bundled software packages. To learn more, and there is an awful lot to learn, please visit www.parasiteware.com. Most ParasiteWares also have various traits of SpyWare too. Also click here to learn how you can help consumers protect themselves and your affiliate marketing revenue.

Building your first Site. It does help to know HTML and the ability to use graphics software. Knowledge of these areas gives you the ability to add small touches of class to your site. However don't be discouraged if you have no skills in these areas. It is not always necessary to be skilful as there are a number of tools and merchants around that can help you get your first site up and launched. These include page generation tools and fast launch sites. These tools are great for getting rolling but always remember to do some customization of anything you get automated to ensure it is uniqueness to you. Search engines and directories will remove duplicate content.

Buying a domain name. Geocities and Homestead undeniably have their place in the Internet world; however, registering a domain with them generally is not a very wise decision. Many search engines and directories won't list such sites because of their transient nature. In addition to the pitfall of not showing up in search engines, some affiliate managers will skip over your site as they deem it to be a "Personal home page." It is best to get a top level domain (TLD) name and some cheap, but reliable, hosting. When considering a domain name, first think about what you are going to promote and then base your domain name on it. Don't buy the domain name first and then later think about what you'll promote on the site.

Work at it. While it is the ultimate aim of every affiliate partner not to have to do any work, the reality is, especially early on, there's a lot of work to be done. Whether it's in the site's design, updates, education or reading stats, there is a lot to do. The pay-offs aren't instant and it can take a fair few months before you're even making enough to even cover your costs. It takes perseverance, dedication and patience to succeed, don't quit if your first attempts don't pay off.

Educate yourself. Education is an immensely important part of affiliate marketing. There is a heck of a lot to learn. Educating yourself on basic principles of HTML, programming, data feed manipulation, creating custom links, or learn how to identify a good niche in a way that others have overlooked. The affiliate forums are certainly one of the best places to start this education.

The next step. Once you have that first site up and it's making money, then it's time to start to expand. Using what you have learned by building that first site, move on to a new project. Leave the first site to keep making money, making adjustments, and any needed updates, but generally letting it do its thing. Your next site is likely to be a site in an area you've seen other affiliates having lots of success. It makes sense to follow the money, but remember it can be a crowded market place when everyone is after the same thing. Don't overlook small niche products, items that might not get the huge traffic but should convert well due to limited availability or being in a special interest group. These markets can often be far less crowded and easier to make quick sales on compared to the bigger more crowded programs.

Article can be used with permission of Chris Sanderson as long as the signature and in place links are left unchanged. Chris Sanderson is an Affiliate Marketing Manager based in Bangkok Thailand with AMWSO.com and the owner of Xaap.com.

In The News:

TechCrunch
Refer.ly Lets Regular Folks Earn Affiliate Revenue For Recommending Products ...
TechCrunch
Will a few dollars in affiliate revenue motivate people enough to use Refer.ly? Don't we just share products with friends and family because we genuinely love to help other people out? Morrill said she doesn't expect Refer.ly users to make a living off ...
Danielle Morrill leaves Twilio to start Y Combinator-backed ReferlyGeekWire

all 2 news articles »

Advertising, affiliate revs lift Scripps: Revenue rose 11% to $535 million
Chicago Tribune
Scripps Networks Interactive, parent of Food Network, HGTV and The Travel Channel, said strong advertising and affiliate revenue boosted profit last quarter despite hefty programming costs. Net profit rose to $115 million from $101 million.
Ad & Affiliate Revenues Boost Scripps ResultsWorld Screen
Scripps Networks 1Q Net Up 14% On Stronger Ad RevenueWall Street Journal
Scripps Networks Interactive reports first quarter financial resultsMarketWatch (press release)
Zacks.com -NASDAQ
all 52 news articles »

Many nonprofits incorrectly claim no expense for fund-raising
Knoxville News Sentinel
By Thomas Hargrove Scripps Howard News Service Goodwill Industries operates more than 2600 retail stores, like this one in Sarasota, Fla., where leaders are rethinking how they report overhead costs to the Internal Revenue Service and the American ...
Local charities following tax reporting rulesRecord-Searchlight
Scripps national investigation: Thousands of nonprofits misreport fundraising ...Corpus Christi Caller Times
Harvard University has the distinction of running a nonprofit organizationTimes Record News

all 13 news articles »

Wall Street Journal
AMC Networks Earnings Call Insights: Affiliate Revenue Growth, Ratings
Wall St. Cheat Sheet
Two questions first on the affiliate revenue growth, 8% in the first quarter, two things there. Number one, it is an acceleration from your full year rate from last year. Does that acceleration represent some – or is that primarily due to some of the ...
AMC Networks 1Q Net Rises 45% On Strong Advertising RevenueWall Street Journal
AMC Reports Higher First-Quarter EarningsBroadcasting & Cable
AMC Networks quarterly profit jumps 45%MarketWatch
Chicago Tribune -paidContent.org -MediaPost Communications
all 44 news articles »

Three Multistate Tax Alerts from McDonald Hopkins law firm --
Sacramento Bee
A United States District Court in Colorado recently issued a permanent injunction against the Colorado Department of Revenue from imposing strict notice requirements on out-of-state sellers who do not collect sales tax on internet sales in the state.

and more »

MiamiHerald.com
Viacom Reports Higher Results For Second Quarter 2012
MarketWatch (press release)
Revenues in the second quarter increased 2% to $3.33 billion, driven primarily by higher Media Networks affiliate revenues. Operating income grew 23% to $932 million, reflecting the overall increase in revenues, as well as lower expenses principally ...
Viacom profit beats, but Nickelodeon worries loomBaltimore Sun
Viacom's 2Q Earnings Soar 56% on Networks StrengthFox Business
Viacom Profit Rises, Tops EstimatesNASDAQ
World Screen
all 264 news articles »

News Corporation Reports Third Quarter Earnings Per Share of $0.38; Growth of ...
MarketWatch (press release)
Contributions from STAR in India were essentially in line with the prior year, as higher revenues were offset by increased programming costs, including those from new channel launches. Affiliate revenue growth of 15% at the domestic cable channels for ...

and more »

PFSweb Reports 50% Service Fee Revenue Growth in First Quarter of 2012 ...
MarketWatch (press release)
"New business agreements and expanding existing client engagements continue to drive our strong Service Fee Business growth, resulting in a 50% increase in Service Fee revenue for the first quarter of 2012 compared to the first quarter of 2011," stated ...

and more »

TIME
The Walt Disney Company Reports Second Quarter Earnings
MarketWatch (press release)
The increase at ESPN was driven by higher affiliate and advertising revenue partially offset by higher programming and production costs. The increase in affiliate revenue was due to contractual rate increases and a reduction in revenue deferrals ...
Disney 2Q Profit Climbs 21% On Cable, Theme Park GainsWall Street Journal
Walt Disney's CEO Discusses Q2 2012 Results - Earnings Call TranscriptSeeking Alpha
Disney Fires on All Cylinders in 2QMorningstar.com

all 517 news articles »

Limbaugh Affiliate Cumulus Media Reports Millions In Lost Revenue
Media Matters for America (blog)
If carrying Limbaugh on 38 stations results in millions in advertiser losses over the course of two months, then when you factor in all the other affiliates as well as Premiere's own advertiser interests, the scale of lost revenue associated with ...

and more »

Google News