Archives for August 2006

Q: We have traditionally put affiliate sales on the back burner, but as our market matures, and we try to squeeze more profit, we have started looking to attract more affiliates. We currently use Commission Junction to handle our sales, and that is where most of our affiliates have come from. I am working on attracting more affiliates, and have been just searching online for sites that would be a match for our affiliate program. However, the response has been pretty low. I was wondering if there is a more efficient way to get more affiliates?

A: I’m not sure from your question how you are soliciting your affiliate prospects, but if you’re like most affiliate managers, you’re using e-mail.

If that’s the case, it’s time for a paradigm shift. Yes, e-mail is easy and low-cost (especially if you aren’t investing in CAN-SPAM compliance – which you must for unsolicited e-mail), but the results stink.

Since you’re already spending the time to identify these potential affiliates, utilize an approach with more impact, such as a piece of direct mail about your affiliate program followed by a telephone call.

Also, try some targeted recruiting via paid search and ads on blogs.

If you don’t have the time and resources for ongoing affiliate recruitment, check out the affiliate recruiting services from Syntryx.

If a merchant has affiliates who don’t have Web sites, but they want to refer people to the merchant’s site via e-mail or offline methods, how can their referrals be tracked so they’re paid for sales?

The merchant will provide you with a unique affiliate link to use. That link will identify you as the referrer of a given sale or lead that you send over irregardless of whether you send the traffic from a Web site, e-mail, paid search, etc.

A typical affiliate link will be somewhat unmarketable offline and too long for text e-mail.

So what you might want to do is use redirects or domain forwarding to shorten your links and make them easier to remember.

Q: I recently joined a program that supplied me with three Web sites with affiliate links. What is the best strategy to start promoting traffic to these sites?

A: The key to driving targeted traffic to your sites is to diversify the sources of your traffic.

In general, I’d say to start off with SEO, but that’s not an option in your case, since the affiliate program is providing you with the pages.

So let’s move on to other methods to help you drive traffic. If you have some money to invest in bringing visitors to your site, you should try using paid search to get targeted visitors to your sites.

Also, if you have a main site with the same theme as the affiliate pages, start up an e-mail newsletter that mixes content and information about the products or services on your affiliate pages.

You should also look into starting up a blog to get eyeballs to your affiliate sites. Just like a newsletter, focus on providing quality content to your visitors – if you focus on pushing affiliate ads, you’re not going to get much interest.

Consider trying direct mail, too.

You’ll find that most any methods for driving traffic are going to require some cash. When spending money to advertise your sites, keep an eye on which ad spends are panning out and which others are a waste.

Q: I want to create and offer an affiliate program to select partners that link to my site. I just need just an affiliate broker service and technology that will manage the program and track and distribute the commissions. I don’t want or need a full service company like LinkShare. Who are brokers that offer just the technology and service?

A: I think you may be confused about the services available from affiliate solution providers, such as LinkShare.

If you want tracking, commission checks issued, etc., a simple ASP solution for your affiliate program is not going to cut it.

I am not sure which vertical is yours, but I would suggest having a look at Commission Junction, LinkShare, MyAffiliateProgram, Performics, and zanox for what you need.

If budget is a problem for you, have a look at Affiliate Clicks, Fusion Quest, and shareasale.

Try out a demo for all of the affiliate solution providers you are considering to get a first hand feel for their functionality and usability.