Q: Do affiliates have an advocate? I feel that advertisers and networks egregiously take advantage of publishers and I want to know if we have any recourse.

A: I guess in days past in affiliate marketing the promise of the networks was to be an impartial middleman if there were any disputes between affiliates and merchants.

But I guess, in your experience, the networks and merchants have colluded against you? If that’s the case, it’s certainly a shame.

How about turning to the Performance Marketing Association (PMA) to see if they could advocate on your behalf?

According to the PMA site…

“The PMA’s mission is to champion and protect accountable performance marketing. Our main goals are:

• To promote the growth of the industry,
• Help model standards and best-practices and
• Advocate on behalf of the businesses that comprise the performance marketing industry”

I think it would be worth the effort to go to the PMA to see if there is some way they could help you.

Q: I own a niche website that generates affiliate income. About 70% comes from a service-based business. I have had a great relationship with the owner of the company and they have really treated me well over the past 3 years that we have worked together. I recently discovered that the company created a content-rich website very similar to my own. What do you think of merchants competing with their affiliates in this way?

A: Besides the fact that I think it sucks, I think it’s a total violation, because they have the intel about your stats, and what works and what doesn’t.

I think you ought to bring it up with them and say, “what’s going on here, because this is very uncool.”

And if they are part of an affiliate network, you should go up the ladder there, and let them know that you feel like this company has totally betrayed your trust, and has potentially stolen your intellectual property.

I’d really push it, because I think this is pretty messed up, and if I were you, I would be furious about it.

Unfortunately, this does happen, but the only way to put a stop to it is to fight it. Good luck.

Video: Is it OK for Merchants to Compete with Their Affiliates?

Ask Shawn Collins your affiliate marketing question and it will be added on the affiliate blog.

Q: I would like to ask you about affiliate marketing in the USA, how does it function in the USA and Australia? For example in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and CIS states 70% of offers are generated in partner networks. Top affiliates make about 1000 offers on CPA model per day and the most of affiliates make about 100 offers on CPA model per day as well. They buy the traffic (offers) on CPC model in the advertising networks for, let’s say, 2 USD and sell this traffic (offers) on CPA model for 3 USD. They have the profit of about 50% out of it. We have in these countries such offers, as mail items, online games, mobile installation. 70% of these offers are generated by affiliates and 30% of them are made by publishers. And what is the affiliate marketing structure in the USA and Australia, could you please let me know?

A: I do not do anything in the Australian market, so I am not sure if there are nuances there in affiliate marketing, but I can help with the US.

One part of your question that confuses me is the part about 70% of leads being generated by affiliates and 30% by publishers. In the US, those two terms are synonymous.

There is no standard structure in the US for affiliate marketing, as there are a few different areas in the industry and different models being used.

The “traditional” cost per sale or revenue share model gives the affiliate a percent of the sale, such as 2% for a computer, 5% for clothing, or 50% for downloadable software.

Like you mentioned, there are the CPA offers here, where the affiliate earns a fee per lead for referring customers for online games, mobile services, nutraceuticals, etc.

And then there are the infomarketing or Internet marketing products or services that are popular on networks like ClickBank. In this case, the payouts are typically high for the digital products.

There are lots of variables with the way affiliate programs are structured, including the margins, availability, and brand.

Affiliates are using any online marketing methods to promote their affiliate links, including paid search, email, social media, and SEO.

I saw some CPC affiliate programs back when I was getting started, in the late 90’s, but they seemed to have disappeared, because of fraud.

I hope that helps.

Video: How is Affiliate Marketing Structured in the US?

Ask Shawn Collins your affiliate marketing question and it will be added on the affiliate blog.

Q: What is the best way for a fairly new company to get started in a successful affiliate marketing program? I understand this maybe a big question so I would say if you were able to identify the most important way to begin. Thank you for your time!

A: Since this is a new company, I would urge you to get everything established and functioning well with your site before considering an affiliate program.

Analyze your conversion ratio, landing page performance, etc., so that you are sure everything is optimized and working fantastically before you even think about an affiliate program.

It can take a month or more to implement an affiliate program, but a motivated team can get it setup and tested way faster.

One thing I’ve seen happen over and over is that a company launches an affiliate program before they are ready for it – the site isn’t solid and already generating success, and they hope an affiliate program will get things moving.

But affiliates rely on a fully functioning, easy customer experience to make it worthwhile for them. They are paid on performance, and they will flee if your site does not close the deal. Not only would you be doing a disservice to the affiliates, but you’re likely alienating them for the future.

However, if you’re already seeing good conversion rates and things are all locked down, then you are probably ready to implement an affiliate program.

When you are ready for an affiliate program, seek out the affiliate networks (just search affiliate network on Google) and ask for a demo, as well as pricing and testimonials.

Also, unless you have somebody in-house who is an experienced affiliate manager, reach out to the OPM (outsourced program management companies) by searching for affiliate manager in Google. Outsourcing the management of your affiliate program will enable you to hit the ground running.

Good luck with your affiliate program.

Video: How Do I Start an Affiliate Program?

Ask Shawn Collins your affiliate marketing question and it will be added on the affiliate blog.

Q: I am on my way to launch the affiliate program and looking for new ways of recruiting affiliates. I’ll be more than honoured if you share your mind concerning the below question. As an affiliate guru would you recommend to use such tool as Internet Success Spider to recruit affiliates? Is it worth using?

A: Many years ago I recommended the Internet Success Spider as a recruitment device for affiliate managers. But that was probably 8 or more years ago.

I haven’t touched it in many years, so I can’t personally recommend it. I am not sure if it is still updated or even available to purchase.

One thing I would recommend is a book I wrote on recruiting affiliates called Affiliate Manager Boot Camp.

It is available for cheap on both iTunes and Amazon Kindle, and it provides a quick overview on how to recruiting, educate, and retain affiliates.

So many affiliate managers are hyper-focused on recruiting, and they don’t bother with education or retention, and that’s a big weakness for their affiliate program.

Good luck with your affiliate program.

Video: How Do You Recruit Affiliates?

Ask Shawn Collins your affiliate marketing question and it will be added on the affiliate blog.

Q: What is the meaning of an affiliate?

A: An affiliate is somebody who sells products and services for other companies online for a commission, whether it be a percentage of a sale or a flat fee.

An example would be a big fan of the New York Yankees who creates a fan site for the Yankees. They might write blog posts, recaps of games, and share photos.

And then they could have a link to Fanatics.com, where their readers could buy a jersey for one of the stars on the team, a ball cap, and other products related to the team, such as throwback jerseys for legends like Derek Jeter, Mickey Mantle, and Joe DiMaggio.

So, an affiliate would have some themed site for the topic they want to cover, and they monetize it with links to relevant products and services for their visitors to buy.

It’s just commissioned based selling, like years ago when women would go door to door to sell Tupperware products. They would get a commission on the sales they generated.

Affiliate marketing is the same, except it’s taking place online, instead of in a neighborhood.

In the ecosystem of affiliate marketing, you’ve got a few players, the affiliates, which are also know as publishers; merchants/advertisers, who have the products or services that affiliates promote; and then the affiliate networks, who provide reporting and tracking for affiliates and merchants.

An affiliate will apply through the affiliate networks to the various merchants, and if/when they are accepted into a given affiliate program, they will grab some unique tracking code, and add it to their blog, newsletter, paid search campaign, social media, or wherever else they are promoting their affiliate links.

Good luck as an affiliate.

Video: What is an Affiliate?

Ask Shawn Collins your affiliate marketing question and it will be added on the affiliate blog.

Q: with an average CTR of 1.5% and a good conversion rate being around 2% I need to drive insane traffic to a site for it to be profitabel, or so it seems. Obviously, “insane” traffic is the goal, but realistically speaking, how hard is to make affiliate marketing a profitable venture. I read that 39.9% of affiliate marketers profit less than $5,000/year. It certainly depends on the person, but I would still like to know some honest and realistic figures that are hype-free. Thanks!

A: I am not sure of the source of the 39.9% figure, but in the AffStat 2014 survey that we conducted and published last year, the closest data point we had was that 46% of affiliate marketers made less than $20,000 the previous year. That data was compiled from surveys with over 1,800 affiliates.

That said, it’s certainly very common for many affiliates to make little to no money from their efforts, due to a variety of factors, including a lack of time invested, or a site that really doesn’t provide value.

Some factors that will play a role in your success or failure include…

• your topic or niche
• the network or technology used to track and report, and likelihood you will receive earned commission (I have a bias against in-house tracking)
• products or services being promoted, as conversions and commissions vary greatly
• target audience, which could dictate the amount of disposable income
• the average order value (AOV) of the products or services you are promoting
• the competition and level of saturation in the marketplace
• the destination of your traffic: homepage vs. deep links
• the creative being used
• the support and resources from the affiliate program, which could be intelligence on best sellers

Hopefully that helps you get some clarity on your question.

Q: Any downside to starting with a Facebook page vs. blog? We have a following of animal lovers and want to create a place consumers can go to purchase products that give back to animals and their environment. Been advised to create an MVP (minimum viable product) and if that does well, we can expand to a more sophisticated website. Bought your Extra Money book and looking forward to reading it. Helpful to hear if you would recommend or dissuade us from STARTING with a Facebook page to post affiliate links and easy ways to help animals. Thanks!

A: You should definitely create a Facebook page, but it doesn’t have to be Facebook page vs. blog.

Make your blog the main home for information, a place where you collect leads by building an email list. Then also have a Facebook page, as well as a Twitter account, Instagram, Tumblr, YouTube, etc.

Think of all of those as traffic sources for your blog. You can syndicate your content to a lot of these third party sites, so people can consume it in the places they prefer.

Not everybody will come back to your site for updates. Some would rather see them on Facebook or Twitter, so you can reach them there and lead them back to your blog.

I am not familiar with the term MVP (minimum viable product), so I can’t comment on that.

Focus on creating quality content and sharing offers that are relevant to your audience. And build an email list from your blog and funnel those people from your newsletters and social media back to your blog.