Affiliate marketing news and opinion from Shawn Collins, co-founder of Affiliate Summit.
I was just visiting the site for James Martell’s Affiliate Marketers Handbook and I saw that he had created a video of his experience at Affiliate Summit 2004.
See James Martell and his wife Arlene (and lots of other conference attendees) as they cruise from NYC to Halifax, and hear him offer up his opinion of the event.
Did you know the most popular method for promoting an affiliate program is with a 468×60 banner? That’s all fine and good, except that the 468×60 banner is also the least effective way to promote an affiliate program.
The folks that make the most money with affiliate programs are doing it in ways other than the tired old banner. Two techniques that beat out the banner are pop-ups and text links in newsletters. While pop-ups can be extremely effective, they can also annoy your visitors.
But I didn’t bring you here today to talk about pop-ups – rather to encourage you to test text links. Specifically, I endorse the use of content that has integrated affiliate links.
For instance, some affiliate programs offer a number of articles and checklists with affiliate links that can be featured on an affiliate site. So, when affiliates send out their newsletter, they can include a teaser to the full version of content.
This affiliate linking technique is beneficial in multiple ways: it adds content to your newsletter, provides a reason for your subscribers to click to your site, adds content to your site that can be indexed in the search engines, and it’s a high conversion affiliate link.
There is increasing competition for the attention of customers out there, and if you want to maximize your reach, you’ve got to be creative. If you’ve got the right audience for it, try offering coloring pages that feature your affiliate URL – these are great offline marketing tools you can offer from your site.
For instance, when I was running the ClubMom affiliate program, we offerred a number of coloring pages, and they were designed with the intention of Moms picking a picture, printing it, handing it over to the kids with some crayons, and then putting the masterpiece on the fridge.
Each time Mom would go for some milk, apples, etc., she’d be reminded of ClubMom.
What you can do is piggyback on this strategy. Just save the coloring page image to your hard drive, add a message (including your URL) to the image using a graphic design program, and then making the coloring page available from your site.
Bear in mind that your plain affiliate links may be unsightly on a coloring page, so try using a re-direct page to the affiliate link. For instance, use www.domain.com/company.htm, rather than www.affiliate-link.com, which would be a little tougher to remember and type in a browser.
KowaBunga! Technologies has assembled case studies of a couple dozen affiliate programs, including Cardservice International, ClubMom, Domain Direct, and Marketing Sherpa.
The case studies cover the basic metrics of the programs, as well as questions to the respective affiliate managers about their affiliate program strategy, tracking and management decisions, goals, and experiences of the affiliate manager.
All of the affiliate program case studies are available at http://www.kowabunga.com/showcase/index.asp
I received the following email today from KowaBunga. There was also a version of the letter to KB clients that currently have 180 Solutions in their program.
Great to see more folks in the industry taking a stand.
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Dear Merchant,
We at KowaBunga!, in a continued effort to ensure our merchants are running the most profitable affiliate programs in the industry, want to alert you to an important issue. 180Solutions, also known as MetricsDirect, has been signing up to several of our merchant’s programs as an affiliate. Though they do not appear to have yet enrolled in your program, we wanted to give you more information about them for future reference.
This affiliate/company has recently been exposed as engaging in possibly fraudulent activity. A complete analysis of their business practices is here:
http://www.benedelman.org/spyware/180-affiliates/
In summary, this company encourages users to install software on their computers, often in exchange for mp3 downloads or other incentives. This software, once installed, will track the user’s browser activity and, most importantly, will attempt to take credit for any hit to your web site, regardless of how the visitor finds your site. In this scenario you are rewarding this affiliate for a commission even if the visitor actually found your site through another affiliate, or even if they simply typed your domain into their browser. We believe that these practices not only cheat your other affiliates, they cheat you directly.
If this affiliate does sign up for your program in the future, our best advice is to contact them directly and confront them with this information. We would also encourage you to let us know what response you receive from them and what action you do take, as this will help us form policy on our end with respect to new merchants and affiliates in our Kolimbo network. If they assert, for instance, that their practices are not unfairly drawing revenue away from your other affiliates and/or advertising budget, we can work with you to test this assertion. In any event, we again encourage you to keep in touch with us about this matter.
Sincerely,
Jeff Doak
CTO of KowaBunga! Technologies
There are certain things that all affiliates should do to increase their chances of earning commissions from affiliate programs.
Get a Domain Name
You should have your own domain name. This gives your site better visibility with the search engines and directories, as well as credibility and recognition that comes with your own URL (web address) instead of an extension of someone else’s.
For example, what looks more credible to a visitor…
www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/9172/baby.html -or- www.babylounge.com?
You can promote affiliate programs from a free web site, but you will create a more professional image if you have your own domain name.
Pick a Web Site Theme
One of the reasons for joining an affiliate program is to make money. You earn commissions from the traffic you attract to your site. So, a theme for your site should be chosen that will attract a fair amount of visitors to your site – visitors that would have an interest in the affiliate programs your promote.
Target Your Market
Trying to sell to everyone is selling to no one. If you are serious about making money with affiliate programs, you must find a market niche and target it. You must know your visitors, or the market you intend to attract. To this end, you need to choose affiliate programs whose products or services match the audience you attract to your site. This is not as difficult as it seems.
For example, if your site attracts people interested in babies, any kind of product or service that parents use would apply. Programs that offer rewards for moms, coupons, clothing, and baby toys, are all potential offers that you could place on your site. Your task is to create content that attracts those interested in babies on a regular basis, and feature affiliate links that make sense with this content.
Focus, Focus, Focus
Many affiliates make the mistake of joining dozens of programs with little regard to their audience. They figure the more programs they join, the more money they can make. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. Frequently, you will see sites that just have a splash page consisting of little more than banner links from dozens of affiliate programs. Sites like these, known as “banner farms,” do not succeed in earning money. Not only do they not attract traffic, but they have little chance of converting the traffic into sales. Join only a few complimentary affiliate programs, and concentrate on providing attractive content that will generate traffic and sales.
Keep Your Site Simple
One of the best ways to drive visitors away from a site, once they come to it, is to load it up with heavy graphics, animations, sounds, plug-ins, and other whistles and bells that slow down the down load time of the site. If generating revenue is the prime purpose of your site, then site content that loads fast and offers true value without gimmicks is a top priority. Another key decision in your site design is banner and text link placement. Putting these at the top of pages will result in more hits and click-throughs. Always emphasize the KISS method: Keep It Simple, Stupid!
Market Your Site
It goes without saying that the ‘if you build it, they will come’ strategy of web marketing does not work. You must market your site. This includes registering with the search engines and directories, learning how to get the better placement in those engines and directories, advertising in eZines and newsletters, and participating in newsgroups and discussion lists. In addition, start your own newsletter or eZine, and promote your site in the signature files of each and every e-mail you send out.
Keep It Fresh
It is essential that you constantly revise your site and site content. Success requires more than just posting an ad on your site. You have to pre-sell an offer, and place it within the context of your site. And this context or content must be refreshed frequently to continue to attract repeat visitors. This is important, because most products are not purchased the first time a consumer sees an offer. It may take several impressions before they make a buying decision.
Build an Opt-in E-mail List
An opt-in email list is one of the most powerful Internet marketing tools around. Using a list to contact site visitors, who have opted to receive it, gives you a chance to offer products or services, and entice visitors to return to make a purchase or perform an action that will generate revenue. You can use this opportunity to promote the benefits of a product or service. Please note – spamming (sending unsolicited commercial e-mail to people that have not opt-ed-in to your e-mail list) is forbidden.