Archives for February 2006

Q: I have been running a couple of PPC campaigns via Google Adwords with mixed success. I do not own a Web site and hence I have been trying my luck as an affiliate via Google Adwords. Having read some advice on clixGalore, I am aware that it is more profitable to own a Web site and promote merchants via the Web site. I have not the faintest clue how to go about this. I would like to create a Web site through which I could promote merchants. Any pointers with regards to resources I could use to help me achieve this wish? Also just wondered if you had any tips regards choosing a successful merchant to run an Adwords campaign for and advice regards which affiliate network hosts the most profitable merchants.

A: Wow – you squeezed a lot of questions in there. I’m not sure who’s giving the advice at clixGalore, but you should take it with a grain of salt. There is no absolute rule on a Web site being more profitable than PPC arbitrage for affiliate marketers.

In my opinion, running a Web site is certainly more of a long-term play, and can net a steadier income than PPC, but like working with Adwords, you’ll need to invest time, strategy and money into a site to realize a profit.

Figure out a niche that really interests you, and work up a marketing plan to build a site around it. There are many ways to build a successful affiliate site, including the cultivation of a community, authoring unique content, and leveraging data feeds.

However you do it, you will need to add in your own unique value proposition to make your site a destination.

As far as getting started, I’d suggest checking out the Affiliate Classroom. This is a great resource for learning the ropes.

After you’ve gotten your affiliate site established, I’ve posted dozens of affiliate tips to market your site.

With regards to the merchants best suited to being promoted through Adwords and which affiliate network hosts the most profitable merchants, there is no black and white answer.

Any merchant that is selling a popular, desirable product or service can be worked successfully through PPC arbitrage. It’s all a matter of testing. Also, your results can vary based on the rules for any given merchant – be sure to read the terms to avoid violating the agreement.

There are many networks out there, and they all have their share of fantastic affiliate programs and dogs. My personal experience has been that programs that pay per lead work better for PPCs than those that pay per sale. But again – test all sorts of programs, copy, etc. to determine what’s best for you.

Q: I’ve been reading a lot lately about affiliate link hijacking and link cloaking. Do you recommend any particular link cloaking software or technique and/or are there any particular ones to steer clear of? I saw one ‘Covert Affiliate’ that in addition to cloaking affiliate links puts a tracking cookie on the visitors computer even if they don’t click on the link. They talk about having the ‘unfair advantage’… that concerns me that if you’re doing something ‘sneaky’ that it could actually bite you in the butt down the road.

A: There are two ways you can go about cloaking your links: set them up yourself or buy a program to automate the process.

Personally, I do it myself. In some cases, I use a little mouseover script, but that’s just to trick the casual observer – it won’t beat the schemers and spiders.

In the past, I’ve also used frames to cloak affiliate links. This has it’s limitations, but it’s quick and easy.

Another method is to purchase a domain and use the domain registrars forwarding service (free with most domain registrars) to have the domain redirect to your affiliate link.

The technique I use most often is the .htaccess redirect. An .htaccess file is a plain ASCII text file you place in the root directory of a Unix server.

The .htaccess technique is much easier than using other redirects, because there’s no HTML required. All of your redirects are in one text file.

One thing to bear in mind when cloaking your links is that you should add the afsrc parameter, so legitimate adware affiliates will recognize that you are an affiliate and not overwrite your cookie.

If you want to get a program that will help you set up the cloaked links, check out CBmall and search for cloaker or cloaking, and you will see lots of programs to consider.

As far as that program you mentioned that “puts a tracking cookie on the visitors computer even if they don’t click on the link” – stay far away from that one.

That is known as cookie stuffing, and it’s a big taboo. By doing that sort of thing, you’re no better than the thieves you’re trying to beat in the first place.

Q: I would like to ask a couple questions about affiliate recruiting software: have you used them and what kind of results can I expect? I hear these are the top solutions: Affiliate Finder Pro, Super Affiliate Tracker, Internet Success Spider, and Link Capture. The prices are all very different, there seems to be no gauge in quality based on price here, so I am looking for a recommendation based on any knowledge you may have of the software/program itself–not based on “friendships” with any of the developers. I appreciate it.

A: I’ve personally used the Internet Success Spider and Link Capture, and settled on Link Capture as my tool of choice.

The reason for these choices is that they were the products available years ago when I was looking for something. Link Capture cost more than the Internet Success Spider, but it’s also more robust.

I’d urge you to take the free trial for any of these products to get a better idea about which suits you best. I know Link Capture has a free trial – can’t say for sure about all of the competing products.

Another tool to consider is ARELIS. It’s a good affiliate prospecting tool with competitive pricing and a free trial.

As far as the results you can expect, I would liken these affiliate recruiting tools to a hammer that you’re going to use to hang up a picture. It’s not up to the hammer as to how well you do it, rather it’s your use of the hammer that will dictate the results.

Each of the products out there will help you generate lists of prospective affiliates – it’s just a matter of how much data you are hoping to gather on each prospect. In general, the more you want, the more the affiliate recruiting tool costs.

One word of warning – many of these tools offer the ability to e-mail these sites that come up in your queries. Unless they offer functionality to send out e-mail that is CAN-SPAM compliant, I would not suggest mailing from any of the products.

Personally, I use them to build target lists that I then approach either by phone or direct mail.