I’ve been receiving emails from people asking for my advice on which affiliate programs are the best, who pays the most and most often, and many other basic questions. I’d like to answer those questions on this forum, but I can only type so fast.
I went out this weekend looking for content that I could publish here temporarily while I got down to writing. I had a hard time finding unbiased content. Most of the so-called reviews out there are infomercials, and that’s not what I was looking for with this blog. So you’re going to have to bear with me. I’ve been looking and learning and reading and talking, and I’ve got a lot to say. I just need the time to write it down, and I will, starting tomorrow. No, really I will.
In the meantime, you need to ask yourself this — are you ready for an affiliate program, or Internet Advertising in general? I put together four questions you should ask before you embark on your affiliate program or any Internet advertising.
Before I get to the four questions you should ask before you enbark on your affiliate program, I am going to review two concepts that I use often here on Affiliateblog. The first is what I call the macro view of your Internet presence:
Incoming visitors - Internet Presence - Sales or Actions
You are really running two campaigns with your Internet presence -- the first campaign is concerned with getting visitors to the site, and the campaign is ongoing. The second campaign is to get those visitors to do something. That something may be just to spend more time at your site, or it may be to sign up for something or buy something.
The other represents the process of Internet advertising:
Impression - Click - Action
Most affiliate programs pay publishers in the last part of the process, the Action. I’ll be using both of these concepts in my questions. So here we go…
1. Do you know enough about your visitors?
There are literally thousands of affiliate programs out there. While some affiliate marketing hubs are experimenting with context-sensitive serving of affiliate banners and banner rotation on affiliate sites, YOU will be the one to decide what kind of products and services you want to offer your visitors. This seems like a minor detail, but it is a major factor in your success.
If you haven’t already, take a look at the stats for your web site over the past month or so. Where do your visitors come from? Have you paid for Google, Yahoo or other search engine traffic? What are the keywords that people used to get to you? More complex and specific search terms tend to result in more immediate conversions, while broader search terms may result in sales later. If people get to your site using what you believe to be broad search terms, you need to be sure that the cookie life (the amount of time that passes between someone from your site visiting the affiliate merchant’s site and the sale) is long.
Do you have textlinks or other advertising on other sites? Do you know the demographics of the visitors from those sites? Have you spoken to the webmaster, owner or manager of the sites on which you advertise and asked him or her about their visitors? Do you know the websites? Have you visited the sites that advertise on the same sites as you? When you investigate all of these things a profile of the visitors to your site should begin to emerge.
Which search engine brings you the most traffic? If it’s Google, the user is slightly more apt to be male, and in the middle (of MSN, Yahoo and Google) as far as propensity toward buying something (42% more likely than the average user). There’s a terrific article on marketingvox.com if you want to see more details. You can also find some interesting demographic info on the major search engines from AQABA.
You should pay particular attention to the domains of your visitors. If you have a lot of AOL traffic for example, you should consider that the profile of the average AOL user is 35 or older (77%) and married (62%).
If you have trouble with textual representation vs. graphical representation (as I do), there is a terrific product called VisitorVille that takes your web logs and animates them. The text is represented as pictures (buildings, people, buses for the search engines, etc). You can see it here. Disclaimer: I am a VisitorVille affiliate.
After all this you should be able to sit down and come up with the profile of a typical visitor. This profile should hopefully include estimates of age, country of origin, education and income.
Try to think like your visitors. Try to anticipate their interests and the products and services they might want to purchase. Affiliate programs raise the bar from PPC — your payment comes at the end of the Internet marketing process (the Action) rather than at the beginning (Impression or Click) like Google Adsense or Doubleclick. You need to apply more brainpower to the process, and you’ll make more money if you do it right.
2. Is your site perfect?
You’re asking someone to buy something from your site. If the pages have sloppy html code, broken links or instability from a bad Cascading Stylesheet, it makes you look cheesy. We’ve all been uncomfortable buying something off a cheesy website. You don’t want to be that website.
Let’s start with the html code. Are you sure there are no errors in it? Have you used an html checker like the one at W3C? I find mistakes in my code all the time. Unless you check your code on several browsers in several resolutions you might not catch an error. The validator will. If you use Cascading Stylesheets you should also visit the CSS Checker.
Speaking of validators, you should check your links often. W3.org also has a link validator.
The site should also be optimized for search engines, be easy to understand and navigate, and should have a sitemap for people (and spiders) to find their way around. You should have had ten of your closest friends take a look at the site and give you their feedback, and you should always listen to unsolicited comments from users with an open mind and place value on them. If someone takes the time from their busy day to send you an email about your site, they feel strongly about it and you should take a close look at what they’re talking about.
Understand that if your Incoming Visitors campaign is not working right, you’re wasting your time with your Sales or Action program.
3. Do you know what kind of ads you’re going to use, and where the ads are going to go?
People have been ignoring banners for ten years. That’s why they shake and make sounds (someday I’ll tell you about the screaming match I had with a creative director the day we put out the first talking banner ad) to try to get your attention. Where you put it on the page is going to make a huge difference. Briefly — banners need to go somewhere the eye naturally rests (next to the masthead, near the navigation, at the bottom of the page).
Placement of any ads is a huge part of getting them noticed or clicked.
A lot of people (including me) believe that text ads should be placed at natural breaks and be close to the same in text size and color as the text. You need to surf around and look at where people place their ads, and you need to figure out where you think they would work on your site.
If you plan to create pages for some of the products you endorse (a great idea), you need to figure out how prominently you want to place the advertising. Most people won’t buy something if they believe you’re shilling for a particular company. They will buy from someone they believe honestly endorses the product or service. You need to figure out how to keep the distinction.
4. What’s your hunch on the right kind of offers for your site?
I ask this question a lot. Now that you have a better idea of the demographics of your visitors, try to decide on which action you think they would be more apt to take — pay-per-lead, pay-per-sale or even pay-per-click (hard to come by) on your site.
If you have a general interest website that gives away free stuff it’s probably going to be difficult to sell people products from that website. It might be smarter to try to get them to sign up for a free products newsletter from one of the affiliate programs, or you may want to look for offers that target the age group of your site rather than offers that target a specific interest. You might be looking for smaller-ticket sales or only leads. Leads get the user to the end of the advertising process chain, but require less of a commitment.
Try to come up with the four, five, six or fifty ways to slice this all up, by type of action, by type of sale or lead, or any other way you can come up with. Then you can go out and find the different offers that might appeal to your visitors. When it comes time to place the ads, try to put different ads in similar spaces on the same pages, and see how they do.
Get your questions answered and you’re ready to take the plunge into affiliate marketing.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Four Common Affiliate Mistakes! Don't Make Them
Myths concerning affiliate marketing are appealing and attractive. People who do not know the entire system the wrong way round are prone to believing that it is something capable of giving them great fortune overnight. Stories concerning affiliates who earn tremendous amounts of money swim in their heads, and while these stories are as true as they can be, there are those who believe that they are going to have the same fortune once they indulge in this particular business.
It is true enough that affiliate marketing is financially rewarding. People who have gone through everything to be able to succeed in this business are reaping the seeds that they untiringly sowed. Many of them enjoy the kind of existence that was not possible for them to have had under ordinary circumstances. Having gone through the A-Z of affiliate marketing, however, these people are the ones who know that while such business is lucrative, there is absolutely no easy money in it.
Ignorance of this fact is one of the main reasons why there are people who fail miserably in the internet business. There are those who believe in myths concerning the easy money involved in systems such as affiliate marketing. They do not know that there are those who have wasted time, effort and too many resources in trying to pursue the life of ease that they believe this business will give them. And so they go into affiliate marketing armed with nothing but myths and fantastical notions of wealth swimming in their consciousness, never realizing that they bound to make mistakes that would prove to be their downfall.
What may be the reason why in businesses such as affiliate marketing, many are called but few are chosen? Perhaps the answer lies on the fact that many affiliates make mistakes that result from their ignorance of facts concerning how the entire business runs. Affiliate marketing is not as simple as an affiliate promoting a merchant’s wares through his website and getting paid for it. It is also about knowing the market and the customers at hand.
Discovering what the most common mistakes affiliates make can perhaps dispel the gloom about myths surrounding affiliate marketing by correcting some wrong notions about it. It might also be able to make those concerned understand that like any other business, there are dos and donts involved in this one if they want to make each of their steps count. The first common mistake affiliates make is their lack of knowledge concerning principles involved in their business. This refers to the affiliate’s knowledge of search engines in particular.
Affiliate marketing involves advertising, and advertising through the internet could not have been better without the existence of search engines. What every affiliate has to do is to make these search engines his best friend through studying search engine optimization closely. This way, he is able to know what to do in connection with building a better website to ultimately use for his business.
The second is that affiliates make the mistake of stuffing their sites with banners that do not provide enough information about the product at hand. The best way to battle this mistake is to provide good content hand-in-hand with such banners. It is important for customers to know and understand the features of a product, and good content will be able to help them realize this goal.
The third is that there are affiliates who make the mistake of promoting only one product. Consequently, customers are not given enough options to choose from. There is also the risk of generating fewer sales as compared to having more options for customers ponder about. It is always better to give them a few better alternatives than to give them only one.
The fourth is that there are affiliates who make the mistake of promoting too many products. As a result, customers are confused and end up beyond making a choice. It is perhaps good to give them only the best choices. This is because it is ultimately up to them to judge which one is the best for them to patronize.
All in all, affiliates that are doomed to fail in this business are those who do not exert enough effort to understand everything involved in the industry that they are in. Knowing their path step by careful step will prove to be beneficial to them, as there is no other way to succeed than to go through any path slowly but surely.
It is true enough that affiliate marketing is financially rewarding. People who have gone through everything to be able to succeed in this business are reaping the seeds that they untiringly sowed. Many of them enjoy the kind of existence that was not possible for them to have had under ordinary circumstances. Having gone through the A-Z of affiliate marketing, however, these people are the ones who know that while such business is lucrative, there is absolutely no easy money in it.
Ignorance of this fact is one of the main reasons why there are people who fail miserably in the internet business. There are those who believe in myths concerning the easy money involved in systems such as affiliate marketing. They do not know that there are those who have wasted time, effort and too many resources in trying to pursue the life of ease that they believe this business will give them. And so they go into affiliate marketing armed with nothing but myths and fantastical notions of wealth swimming in their consciousness, never realizing that they bound to make mistakes that would prove to be their downfall.
What may be the reason why in businesses such as affiliate marketing, many are called but few are chosen? Perhaps the answer lies on the fact that many affiliates make mistakes that result from their ignorance of facts concerning how the entire business runs. Affiliate marketing is not as simple as an affiliate promoting a merchant’s wares through his website and getting paid for it. It is also about knowing the market and the customers at hand.
Discovering what the most common mistakes affiliates make can perhaps dispel the gloom about myths surrounding affiliate marketing by correcting some wrong notions about it. It might also be able to make those concerned understand that like any other business, there are dos and donts involved in this one if they want to make each of their steps count. The first common mistake affiliates make is their lack of knowledge concerning principles involved in their business. This refers to the affiliate’s knowledge of search engines in particular.
Affiliate marketing involves advertising, and advertising through the internet could not have been better without the existence of search engines. What every affiliate has to do is to make these search engines his best friend through studying search engine optimization closely. This way, he is able to know what to do in connection with building a better website to ultimately use for his business.
The second is that affiliates make the mistake of stuffing their sites with banners that do not provide enough information about the product at hand. The best way to battle this mistake is to provide good content hand-in-hand with such banners. It is important for customers to know and understand the features of a product, and good content will be able to help them realize this goal.
The third is that there are affiliates who make the mistake of promoting only one product. Consequently, customers are not given enough options to choose from. There is also the risk of generating fewer sales as compared to having more options for customers ponder about. It is always better to give them a few better alternatives than to give them only one.
The fourth is that there are affiliates who make the mistake of promoting too many products. As a result, customers are confused and end up beyond making a choice. It is perhaps good to give them only the best choices. This is because it is ultimately up to them to judge which one is the best for them to patronize.
All in all, affiliates that are doomed to fail in this business are those who do not exert enough effort to understand everything involved in the industry that they are in. Knowing their path step by careful step will prove to be beneficial to them, as there is no other way to succeed than to go through any path slowly but surely.
Follow The Mentors!
To be triumphant in affiliate marketing business is not an easy task. It's just like an ongoing project where you need to find out and try different advertising strategies and tactics.
If you want to promote several affiliate programs in your website, make sure that they are full with the theme and topic of the rest of the content on your niche.
If you want to be involved or you've already joined an affiliate program, but you have misconceptions regarding affiliate marketing, then, you might need a mentor to help you figure out where to start and what to do in order to do well.
These persons are experts in the field they are into. They can give expert advice and guidance. Affiliate marketing mentors can be those persons that have already been successful in affiliate marketing and are always keen to share their experienced-based knowledge.
There are some articles on affiliate marketing that says in order to be successful in affiliate marketing business, you need to take in and develop these traits: persistence, patience and thirst for knowledge.
To be proficient in search engine optimization, link exchanges, email marketing, newsletter marketing, reciprocal exchanges and advertising in forums. You will surely find it hard to learn these things alone and without the supervision of a mentor.
If you want to promote several affiliate programs in your website, make sure that they are full with the theme and topic of the rest of the content on your niche.
If you want to be involved or you've already joined an affiliate program, but you have misconceptions regarding affiliate marketing, then, you might need a mentor to help you figure out where to start and what to do in order to do well.
These persons are experts in the field they are into. They can give expert advice and guidance. Affiliate marketing mentors can be those persons that have already been successful in affiliate marketing and are always keen to share their experienced-based knowledge.
There are some articles on affiliate marketing that says in order to be successful in affiliate marketing business, you need to take in and develop these traits: persistence, patience and thirst for knowledge.
To be proficient in search engine optimization, link exchanges, email marketing, newsletter marketing, reciprocal exchanges and advertising in forums. You will surely find it hard to learn these things alone and without the supervision of a mentor.
Five Ways to Increase Your Affiliate Sales
Most home business owners are involved with affiliate marketing. As an affiliate marketer, a combination of techniques can be used to promote your affiliate website and/or link. Here are five things you can do to help with your promotional efforts resulting in increased affiliate sales.
1. Become an “expert” on the product
The most successful affiliate marketers are “experts” on the products they promote. To become an expert, it’s highly recommended that you purchase the product yourself to gain first-hand experience using it. If you cannot purchase the product, you must thoroughly research it until you become familiar and knowledgeable enough to promote it.
2. Participate in chat rooms related to the product
You can start your own chat or join an existing one. Do not try to selling initially, but during your chat, mention the product you’re promoting and describe its benefits. If there is interest in your product, you can then refer them to the product through your affiliate link. The same concept holds true for forums and discussion boards.
3. Write your own affiliate program ads
Most merchants will provide pre-written ads for their affiliates to use. If you write your own ad, or make significant changes to the one that’s pre-written, your ad will stand out from the others. Done properly, this will give you a great advantage over those affiliates that are using the same ad as everyone else.
4. Create a free newsletter or ezine
Submit your newsletter to the ezine directories and promote it on your website. Keep in mind that most subscribers are interested in receiving “information” that can help them. If you use your mailing list solely for selling, you will never gain credibility and will end up with a high unsubscribe rate. After you’ve developed a relationship and the trust of your subscribers, you can then recommend the products you are promoting
5. Create a free ebook
As part of your ebook, include an advertisement and a link to your affiliate website. The ebook can be given away free or used as an incentive to sign up for your newsletter. Submit your ebook to the ebook directories and offer it to other webmasters for inclusion on their website. The more exposure your ebook receives, the more sales you can make.
By using the techniques outlined above and always striving to become an “expert” on the products you promote, you are sure to see an increase in your affiliate sales resulting in higher commission payments.
1. Become an “expert” on the product
The most successful affiliate marketers are “experts” on the products they promote. To become an expert, it’s highly recommended that you purchase the product yourself to gain first-hand experience using it. If you cannot purchase the product, you must thoroughly research it until you become familiar and knowledgeable enough to promote it.
2. Participate in chat rooms related to the product
You can start your own chat or join an existing one. Do not try to selling initially, but during your chat, mention the product you’re promoting and describe its benefits. If there is interest in your product, you can then refer them to the product through your affiliate link. The same concept holds true for forums and discussion boards.
3. Write your own affiliate program ads
Most merchants will provide pre-written ads for their affiliates to use. If you write your own ad, or make significant changes to the one that’s pre-written, your ad will stand out from the others. Done properly, this will give you a great advantage over those affiliates that are using the same ad as everyone else.
4. Create a free newsletter or ezine
Submit your newsletter to the ezine directories and promote it on your website. Keep in mind that most subscribers are interested in receiving “information” that can help them. If you use your mailing list solely for selling, you will never gain credibility and will end up with a high unsubscribe rate. After you’ve developed a relationship and the trust of your subscribers, you can then recommend the products you are promoting
5. Create a free ebook
As part of your ebook, include an advertisement and a link to your affiliate website. The ebook can be given away free or used as an incentive to sign up for your newsletter. Submit your ebook to the ebook directories and offer it to other webmasters for inclusion on their website. The more exposure your ebook receives, the more sales you can make.
By using the techniques outlined above and always striving to become an “expert” on the products you promote, you are sure to see an increase in your affiliate sales resulting in higher commission payments.
Five Quick Ways To Boost Your Affiliate Business
We all know that there is so much misinformation about the best strategies for affiliate marketing success. To level the playing field a bit, the following are five ways most experts would agree are the most cost effective ways to expeditiously boost your affiliate business pursuits. So, with no further ado, here they are!
1. HAVE VISITORS LINK TO YOUR WEBSITE
If you give visitors a good reason, they will actually work for you! Think of a product or service that you can offer for free or with a large discount, in exchange for them linking to your site. It is a very simple, yet effective way to recruit help in marketing your site!
2. PROMOTE USING SOME COUPONS
These coupons can be placed in ezines, emails, ad campaigns, forums and even newsletters. You can offer discounted merchandise and other various offers. It is a great way to add fresh content to the search engine and drive more traffic to your site. Be sure to update the codes, though!
3. HELP YOUR AFFILIATES BECOME A SUCCESS
Basically, the more successful your affiliates, the more successful you will be! Each and every dollar that your affiliates make, you will also make a profit from. The old saying You can use 100% of one man’s efforts, or 1% of 100 men’s efforts really comes into play here. The more affiliates that are successful, the more money you will have in your pocket! It has been reported that the top 20% of its affiliates generates 80% of a website’s sales. You have a vested interest in each affiliate’s success.
4. AFFILIATE MARKETING IS A COMPETITIVE WORLD
It is very important that you thoroughly think your marketing plan through. If it is helpful to you, learn from other successful affiliates! You may have a friend or someone that would be willing to help you establish a set of marketing tools. If not, then there are plenty of tips and guidance Online, if you do the research. Don't go into it blindly; learn some basics first!
6. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EVERY MARKETING TOOL YOU CAN
In the highly competitive world of Affiliate marketing, you will want to arm yourself with as many tools as possible. Don't leave any stone unturned! The name of the game is this: get as much traffic as you can, using whatever means necessary.
There are many ways to get traffic, including: recruiting other affiliates, taking advantage of ad campaigns, advertising in ezines or newsletters, joining many forums, having others market your link, using multiple ads, using banner ads, etc. If you have a good product/ service that is seen by many visitors, your chances of making a profit are that much better!
1. HAVE VISITORS LINK TO YOUR WEBSITE
If you give visitors a good reason, they will actually work for you! Think of a product or service that you can offer for free or with a large discount, in exchange for them linking to your site. It is a very simple, yet effective way to recruit help in marketing your site!
2. PROMOTE USING SOME COUPONS
These coupons can be placed in ezines, emails, ad campaigns, forums and even newsletters. You can offer discounted merchandise and other various offers. It is a great way to add fresh content to the search engine and drive more traffic to your site. Be sure to update the codes, though!
3. HELP YOUR AFFILIATES BECOME A SUCCESS
Basically, the more successful your affiliates, the more successful you will be! Each and every dollar that your affiliates make, you will also make a profit from. The old saying You can use 100% of one man’s efforts, or 1% of 100 men’s efforts really comes into play here. The more affiliates that are successful, the more money you will have in your pocket! It has been reported that the top 20% of its affiliates generates 80% of a website’s sales. You have a vested interest in each affiliate’s success.
4. AFFILIATE MARKETING IS A COMPETITIVE WORLD
It is very important that you thoroughly think your marketing plan through. If it is helpful to you, learn from other successful affiliates! You may have a friend or someone that would be willing to help you establish a set of marketing tools. If not, then there are plenty of tips and guidance Online, if you do the research. Don't go into it blindly; learn some basics first!
6. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EVERY MARKETING TOOL YOU CAN
In the highly competitive world of Affiliate marketing, you will want to arm yourself with as many tools as possible. Don't leave any stone unturned! The name of the game is this: get as much traffic as you can, using whatever means necessary.
There are many ways to get traffic, including: recruiting other affiliates, taking advantage of ad campaigns, advertising in ezines or newsletters, joining many forums, having others market your link, using multiple ads, using banner ads, etc. If you have a good product/ service that is seen by many visitors, your chances of making a profit are that much better!
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