We've discussed the importance of focus and the need to define a niche market to help ensure affiliate marketing success. It is important to promote select quality merchants with a proven payment history. Be sure to create a strong desire for visitors to return by creating stickiness and frequently updating content and affiliate links.
For more information
about affiliate programs, check out these other articles from Cynthia Arko's ongoing weekly series:
Getting Started in Affiliate Marketing
Revenue Sharing
101 In this first in a series of weekly articles, Cynthia Arko, Product Director for internet.com's Refer-it.com affiliate
directory, presents a no-nonsense approach to generating revenue from your Web site.
How to Indentify Quality
Affiliate Programs With literally thousands of affiliate programs available on the Internet, it could be difficult to determine which ones
are high quality. However, the process could be made easier when using some basic criteria.
Understanding Affiliate
Commission Structures If you want to get paid, you need to understand affiliate commission payments and the many different commission
structures that exist.
Content
Sells Making money with affiliate programs requires much hard work and continued attention to developing and retaining visitor
traffic.
Search Engine Tips, Part
I For affiliates, it is important to be listed with the major search engines because they can potentially generate much
needed traffic.
Search Engine Tips, Part
II Cynthia Arko explores the impact search engines have on affiliate programs in this second article of a two-part series.
Develop an Opt-in E-mail
List Mailing lists are a very popular way to create traffic and generate repeat visitors to a Web site, often leading to
additional affiliate sales and referrals.
Common Mistakes of
Affiliates If you're not generating much revenue from your affiliates, it could be due to some common errors.
Profiting from Seasonal Coupons and Hot Deals! Now is a great time to increase affiliate commissions by offering your visitors seasonal coupons, special offers and deals available exclusively to the Internet bargain hunter.
Helpful Affiliate Terms: Part One It's not easy to understand the many terms associated with doing business online. We've put together a list of terms to help guide your affiliate marketing efforts.
Helpful Affiliate Terms: Part Two To be a pro, you have to sound like a pro. Cynthia Arko concludes her glossary for affiliate marketers.
Typically, merchants offer a variety of affiliate linking options:
Home page banners and links:
Affiliate banners and text links directed only to the merchant home page in a variety of standard sizes (468x60, 120x60, 234x60, 125x125). Plastering hundreds of home page merchant banners and links all over your site is distracting and will deter visitors from returning to your site.
Category links:
Affiliate banners and text links to more generic categories within a merchant site. enews.com offers links to a wide selection of magazine categories such as: automotive, bridal, computers, education, fashion, health, music, news and travel.
Individual page links:
Affiliate banners and text links to specific pages on a merchant site.
Ashford.com offers links to the following individual Web pages: Men's shop, women's shops, vintage watches, jewelry, clocks, outlet store, sunglasses and more.
Storefronts:
Affiliate links to a virtual mini shopping area featuring a selection of merchant products. Often times these storefronts are easily co-branded with the look and feel of the affiliate site. Rematch.com offers virtual affiliate storefront for One and Only internet personals.
Content pages:
Free articles and information provided by a merchant designed to enhance Web site content; affiliate commissions are not earned. BabyLounge.com features pregnancy articles from ClubMom.
Promotions and sweepstakes links:
Links to specific time sensitive promotions and special offers. Typically pulling higher conversion rates, affiliates must remember to remove expired promotions.
Shoppingbookmarks.com features special offers and deals from hundreds of online merchants.
The above-mentioned merchant linking options are fairly standard and may bring in affiliate sales; but individual product links help maintain a tighter focus and can significantly increase your conversion rate — resulting in more affiliate commissions in your pocket.
The increased flexibility of individual product links allows affiliates to target specific product offers. Setting up individual product links can be a daunting task but finding merchant programs that offer individual product linking is equally important as spending a few hours a week monitoring your search engine positioning. Unfortunately not all merchants offer product links.
I am amazed at the number of children's e-tailers that do not offer affiliate individual product links. Oriental Trading, Sensational Beginnings, DiscoveryStore.com, ZanyBrainy, delias.com and DisneyStore.com are all guilty — to name a few.
DisneyStore.com offers a nice selection of category links that work just fine if the site is geared towards generic children's toys. But a site targeted specifically towards a particular character such as Barney, Barbie or Thomas the Tank Engine would be out of luck. A site such as 4Barbies.com would have a hard time creating individual links out of the hundreds of Barbie dolls and accessories available online. As a result, the focus of the site is blurred when a visitor is sent to generic merchant homepage. The visitor may lose interest or become distracted by the extra steps needed to find the Barbie merchandise.
Commission Junction offers a fairly sophisticated product linking system for affiliates. A "Barbie" search came up with an aggregated list of 273 products offered through a wide selection of merchant sites. This search is however limited to merchants participating in the Commission Junction network.
Offered through Linkshare, The Right Start offers a modest selection of 48 ready-to-go product links. SmarterKids.com offers only 25 individual product links. KBKids.com and TheRight Start however, offer advanced users the option to link to multiple products using the Linkshare interface.
In an effort to provide affiliates with greater flexibility, TheBabyoutlet.com recently introduced individual product links to over 600 items including strollers, car seats, baby toys, baby care products, baby wear and much more. TheBabyoutlet.com affiliates can link to specific products or create an online baby store. This move helps TheBabyOutlet.com to maintain a competitive advantage over merchants still offering a limited selection of banners and text links. MommyRx.com offers a large selection of direct product links available through CVS.com.
Speak up.
Don't be afraid to e-mail your affiliate managers and tell them how individual product links can help boost affiliate sales. You may even be able to negotiate a better commission rate while you are at it!
Stay focused and concentrate on those programs that create an easy user experience. The fewer steps involved in making an affiliate purchase, the faster commission checks will arrive in your mailbox.
Cynthia A. Arko is the Product Director for internet.com's Refer-it.com (Refer-it.com) affiliate directory. She coordinates advertising, site development, and conference planning. Cynthia helped grow Refer-it.com from a small directory of Affiliate Programs to the Web's leading resource for information about affiliate programs. She also currently maintains KidsTown Direct, a shopping portal for parents and young families. Cynthia can be reached at carko@internet.com.
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We've discussed the importance of focus and the need to define a niche market to help ensure affiliate marketing success. It is important to promote select quality merchants with a proven payment history. Be sure to create a strong desire for visitors to return by creating stickiness and frequently updating content and affiliate links.
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