Archives for November 2004

Q: How do I, in becoming actively involved as an affiliate to another website, technically speaking, actually place the affiliate ad on my website usually. Do I need to be knowledgeable as a computer technician? I need an example of how to technically, on my computer screen, become an affiliate. Is there only one way involving copying and pasting there logo on your website or is there another general way.

A: In order to begin the journey of becoming an affiliate, your first step is to create a Web site. This requires that you have a host for your site, as well as a means for creating and uploading your pages.

As far as hosts, my personal favorite is PHP Webhosting ($9.95 a month).

Also, if you are serious about your efforts as an affiliate, I would urge you to purchase a domain name for your site. As far as domains, I like GoDaddy ($8.70 a year).

In order to create the pages for your site, you’ll need an HTML editor. HTML is the language used to create Web pages.

HTML is really easier than it looks. You can code the pages by hand (in Notepad), but it will take some learning on your part.

You can also jump right into a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) HTML editor, in which you can compose pages with a basic knowledge of Windows applications.

In fact, you can save a MS Word document (in the newer releases) as an HTML file — just save it as a “Web Page.”

According to a poll I took of ClubMom affiliates, 75 percent were using Dreamweaver, MS FrontPage, and a handful of other HTML editors for their sites.

Another 25 percent were composing their sites by hand with raw HTML or using Arachnophilia, which is a great free program (it’s what I use, even though the Dreamweaver devotees keep trying to convert me) that is basically raw HTML with shortcuts for some of the monotonous keystrokes.

When the HTML pages have been created, then you will need to upload them. Some hosts offer a utility to upload from the host interface.

Otherwise, you will need an FTP program. I use WS_FTP to upload my pages.

The affiliate programs will provide you with snippets of HTML code to add to your site to display banners and text links. These snippets of code will include your affiliate ID, so the companies will be able to credit any referred leads or sales to you.

What is the best way to handle affiliates who don’t obey the rules; i.e., bid on trademarked terms, don’t update datafeeds for years, etc.? These people make decent sales, so I don’t want to drop them, but repeated emails aren’t working! Any suggestions?

This can be a big problem. As I mentioned recently in an article at iMediaConnection, only 45 percent of affiliates always read the affiliate agreement.

So chances are that your affiliates are oblivious to your affiliate agreement, and if they are not responding to your email, it may be due to their having an outdated email address with your network, or a spam filter is catching your mail.

However, it could also be that they are knowingly ignoring your messages, because they are aware that they are breaking the rules, and they are going to string you along for as long as you’re willing to let it go.

Either way, it’s time to step up the communication efforts. If you have a phone number for them, start calling. If the number on file is not correct, try dialing the number they’ve used when registering their domain(s) by going to http://www.allwhois.com/

If you still strike out in your contact attempts, I’d urge you to go old school and try reaching them through snail mail. Either send them a letter, or if you’re dealing with lots of folks not responding to you, try a direct mail postcard campaign.

If these steps do not result in a response, I’d suggest terminating their account for violating your affiliate agreement (assuming you account for the issues you mentioned in the agreement).

As far as I am concerned, you cannot have a mutually beneficial partnership with somebody that refuses to communicate with you.

Q: I need to know what to look at to check that affiliates aren’t engaging in cookie stuffing and other problem behaviors. How is this done?

A: I’d like to preface this by saying that I am not an expert in sleuthing for cookie stuffing. I know some things about it, but one of the main ways that I keep up on the methods for stuffing cookies and some of the big perpetrators is by keeping an eye on the affiliate marketing message boards.

That said, there are many ways that affiliates effectively stuff cookies, and some are widely considered to be acceptable by affiliate programs, while others are strictly taboo.

A few years ago, I was speaking with a big casino program affiliate at an Affiliate Force conference, and he told me how he was making massive earnings with the affiliate programs by using IFRAMES.

Basically, he would join all of the big affiliate programs, and set up the IFRAME code to feature the affiliate links as 1×1 pixels. This way, when people hit his site, they would be cookied by all of the affiliate programs in the IFRAME without ever noticing a thing.

You can recognize this sort of behavior by looking at the source code of the affiliate’s site and searching for the word: IFRAME. Also, when you hit their page, look at the status area at the bottom of your browser – if you see tons of different URLs loading in, that could be a another sign of cookie stuffing.

Some affiliates also utilize a JavaScript to stuff cookies, but this is more difficult to recognize.

And then there are two of the more mainstream methods: pop-ups and pop-unders. While these are generally considered to be acceptable forms of marketing (aside from being annoying), they are stuffing cookies. The end user isn’t requesting to see the page of the company that is popping up or under, but they are getting a cookie anyway.

There are other methods, too. And the scammers are always innovating new ways to beat the system, so it’s essential to constantly learn about the new methods.

Take a look at Ben Edelman’s site, http://www.benedelman.org, for more details on cookie stuffing and other tricky methods used by online marketers to generate affiliate commissions.

There is also an upcoming service called AffiliateFairPlay that “will provide Compliance Testing Results and will assess various mechanisms utilized by affiliates to invoke tracking mechanisms and the conditions utilized to invoke the tracking.”

Q: I’m thinking of starting a member rewards site where members get rewards for banners, etc they click. Do you know if advertisers which pay good $ / click (like eBay) actually like this idea? Is is important that you tell them before you sign up that your website is an incentive based website?

A: There are a couple of things to consider when putting together a member rewards site that will act as an affiliate.

1. Sub ID Tracking – You will need to build an infrastructure to reconcile the Sub IDs, so that you know which of your rewards members are due how much affiliate commission. Some of the networks require applying and/or signing a special agreement to do Sub IDs.
2. Know the Rules of Each Affiliate Program – Some affiliate programs will forbid any sort of incentive for their click, lead, or sale. And some networks will ask you in your application whether you are an incentive site.

In general, merchants do not like incentive sites. Sure, they’d rather have the sale over seeing their competitor get it, but when a transaction is incentivized, the customer or user is being loyal to the deal, not to the merchant.

As far as eBay in particular, they do not allow affiliates to offer any sort of incentives without prior permission:

“Terms Governing Incentive Sites. You will not directly or indirectly offer any consideration or incentive for any Commission-Earning Activity or for clicking on an affiliate program-coded link unless expressly authorized to do so in writing by CJ. Each such written authorization will authorize only one specific incentive.”

Last time I checked, Amazon did not permit incentives, either. It’s a tricky landscape, so be sure to to clear things with merchants in advance.

Q: What can you do/give besides increasing commission to make affiliates happy?

A: There isn’t one solution for every affiliate program, so the first thing I would suggest would be to ask your affiliates what they want.

As far as components of your affiliate program that will make affiliates happy, and increase the chances that they will actively promote your affiliate program, consider the following feedback from affiliates in the AffStat Report:

• Length of Time for Return Day Cookies
  87% of affiliates want the cookies for return days to be active for 30 days or more.
• E-mail Creative and Suppression Lists
  60% of affiliates maintain an opt-in list for their site(s). Many of these affiliates are interested in running your offers in an HTML solo e-mail. But to do so, they will need quality, tested creative, as well as a mechanism like UnsubCentral to scrub their e-mail suppression list(s) against yours.
• Promoting your Company with Pay Per Click Search Engines
  33% of affiliates are promoting their affiliate links through pay per click search engines. And if you are ok with it, many affiliates would like to bid on your brand name. David Lewis makes a compelling argument for this practice in his ReveNews blog, “PPC Bidding by Affiliates: It’s about Controlling Your Brand.” Either way, let your affiliates know your rules, and provide them with keywords that convert well for your program.
• Offer a Variety of Linking Types
  Affiliates need you to provide them with the tools they need to promote your company. That means a couple 468×60 banners and a text link that’s simply your company name will not suffice. As you can see from the chart below, affiliates want banners, dynamic rich media, data feeds, text links, storefronts, HTML for solo e-mails, pop-ups, and individual product links. You might be surprised to see that 37% of affiliates want text links. I know I’m surprised at how many affiliate programs don’t provide text links of different lengths for e-mail newsletters and such. Like I said earlier, ask them what they want.
• The Face of Your Affiliate Program
  When affiliates were asked about the most important factor in choosing a merchant, 22% cited the affiliate management of the program. Affiliates want to know who to contact if they have a problem or question, so make this as easy as possible. Do this, and word of mouth spreads that you’re an accessible affiliate manager – buzz marketing is a great affiliate recruitment tool.
• Competitive Commission Structure
  In addition to affiliate management, affiliates are also choosing the programs they join based on payout amount and history (18%) and EPC (20%). If your commission structure falls below your competitors, you’re going to have an awfully hard time making your affiliates happy, or retaining them for that matter.
• Commission Frequency
  The frequency that you issue commission payments will have an impact on your ability to recruit and retain affiliates. 68% of affiliates polled said that this is a factor when they are deciding which programs to join. The standard is net 30 days from the end of each month.
• Methods of Commission Payment
  Affiliates want options for the way they receive their commission checks from you. While 45% are content with a check, 39% prefer direct deposit, and 13% want their funds via PayPal. Also, 2% of affiliates (generally the bigger players) wish to receive commissions by wire, and 1% (popular with casino affiliate programs) prefer NETeller.
• VIP Commissions
  In your question, you mentioned increasing commissions, but there are various ways to do it. I would suggest publishing a base commission rate, but being prepared to pay a VIP commission rate to the higher volume affiliates from the start. Or at least make a tiered reward structure available to all of the affiliates.
• Communicating With Your Affiliates
  Affiliates want to hear from you, but not too often. Bear in mind that they belong to dozens or hundred of affiliate programs. More than half think that a monthly communication (i.e. affiliate program newsletter) is sufficient. And the vast majority want to hear from you by e-mail, rather than IM or phone.

So how you structure your affiliate program and run it day to day will have a significant impact on the happiness of your affiliates. Treat them like respected partners, ask them what they want, and then do your best to give it to them. Good luck.