Q: I am reasonably new to the affiliates market but the website I work for has a great affiliates programme I want to promote. We have around 80 affiliates now but only 10 really sell. I was initially told that affiliate directories were the way forward but have since read a blog by you thats suggests otherwise. You said at one point that ranking highly in a google search for keywords for your website and the word affiliates is best. How exactly do you achieve this? Our PR rank is 5 which is similar to our competitors yet they rank alot higher than us on these searches.
A: For that particular issue, it’s more an SEO thing than an affiliate thing.
Anyhow, one thing I did in the past to enhance the presence of affiliate programs I managed in search results was to create a standalone site dedicated to each affiliate program.
For instance, if the company for the affiliate program is Acme.com, go out and get AcmeAffiliate.com and build it into a resource for that affiliate program.
What I would do was to make the site in the same look and feel of the main site, but the site is all about the affiliate program with details on applying, examples of create, FAQ.
Also, it’s good to include a blog with the latest information on the affiliate program to keep the site fresh and useful.
The naturally keyword rich original content will help you with your search engine marketing efforts.
Another search related technique, though not SEO, is to use Google AdWords or other paid search options to advertise to prospective affiliates.