So far this week, Ecommerce-Guide.com has brought you profiles of some of the most well-known and potentially high income-producing affiliate programs available today. Amazon Associates allows you to create links to any product or product category in its gargantuan inventory. eBay Affiliates thrive on driving new registered users to the auction giant's site and generating new bids. While Google's AdSense allows anyone with a web site to include content-related keyword advertisements that generate steady cash flows if utilized correctly.

Today and tomorrow, we look at two leading affiliate marketing programs that allow you to earn income by placing banner or text ads on your site - Linkshare and Commission Junction. Linkshare and CJ both have a large selection of online retailers to choose from allowing you to market certain merchants and products to your site's audience.

Getting Started
Signing up with Linkshare is a simple four-step process. You begin by defining what type of business your site is associated with (LLC, partnership, individual, etc.), providing contact information, creating a username and password, where and how you will be promoting Linkshare affiliates, a standard user agreement form, payee information (so you can receive your money) and, if necessary, a W-8 or W-9 form. Once your application is complete, you must login and fill out a profile of your site. It's important to know how many unique visitors and page views you have per month, as that is one of the many criteria advertisers use in determining whether or not to accept you as an affiliate.

Getting Advertisers
Building a bank of advertisers to promote on your site is a straightforward process. First, it's important to know what your target audience is. For instance, if you run a music-based site, it's unlikely your visitors will be interested in bed and bath items or children's clothing.

If you operate an e-commerce site, choose merchants that are selling related goods and services your customers/visitors would also consider without directly competing with you. For instance, if you sell jewelry on your site, linking to advertisers selling women's clothing or accessories would be a good match.

Linkshare has a broad selection of advertisers to choose from. It has large, popular companies like Apple, Match.com and Priceline.com, but also features smaller merchants like Mrs. Field's Gifts, KegWorks and Batteries.com. You shouldn't have a problem picking advertisers that would click with your visitors.

Linkshare's main merchant directory contains categories almost guaranteed to appeal to your site's audience. Site navigation is easy using the tabs at the top. (Click for larger image)

Applying to a merchant program requires you to click on the "Join Programs" tab located at the top of each page on Linkshare.com. You can either search for a specific company or narrow down advertisers based on pre-defined categories Linkshare has already set up.

Depending on a merchant's terms, you may be accepted as a partner immediately or you may have to wait until the merchant reviews your site.

If you have even a basic knowledge of HTML, you will have no problems inserting text links or banners into your Web site. Click on the "Create Links" tab, select an advertiser and choose which ads you want. The code is provided for you to cut and paste. Some merchants also take advantage of Linkshare's Dynamic Rich Media (DRM) links, which allows you to create interactive ads and full-page mini-stores.

Linkshare says its DRM links are important because "you'll save time, and as the saying goes, time is money. Second, and perhaps more important, if you use LinkShare DRM links, the promotions will be up to date with the merchants' latest site updates. You won't have to worry about expired offers, coupons, sales, or other promotions. You won't have to worry if a page no longer exists or if a product has sold out."

For any Webmaster, the less maintenance a program needs, the better.

One feature I found annoying is the very limited ability to create banks of banners or text ads on Linkshare which enable the ads to randomly rotate on a web page. For example, with Commission Junction, you can create a "SmartZone" which allows you to group up to 25 ads from all your advertisers. You only have to place one chunk of code on your page and the ads will rotate. Google AdSense banners also rotate advertisers randomly.

Linkshare provides only a limited banner rotation tool that is confusing to use, quirky and it not easily found.

Most merchants on the Linkshare Network offer a variety of text and banner links. (Click for larger image)

Show Me the Money
As with most affiliate programs, you only earn money when a visitor clicks on a sponsored link and makes a purchase. Linkshare, unfortunately, does not provide detailed merchant data, so it's impossible to see which programs are doing well and which ones may be floundering overall.

Linkshare's reporting system is on par with most other programs. Although, I prefer sites that update statistics in near real-time, like Google and Commission Junction. Linkshare reports are updated only once per day, containing data through the previous day. Standard impression, click-through, order and commission counts are provided.

The merchants you choose will depend on the payout you receive. Some merchants like Apple's popular iTunes pay out .50 cents per album order or 5% on any order. While others like dating service Match.com pay out a generous 75% commission on all orders, ranging from $22.49 to $58.56 per subscription. Again, it's all about volume and order frequency depending on the interests of your audience.

Most merchants pay out after an affiliate's earnings have reached $20 for the month. One drawback of Linkshare's payment system is that checks are sent directly from the merchants. This means you could theoretically have $15 in earnings from ten different merchants and you would not receive a check from any of them until you hit the $20 mark. Other affiliate programs require merchants to pay a significant amount up front to pay affiliates with one monthly check instead.

The good news is that beginning in April 2005, payments will be consolidated.

Building Relationships
Linkshare encourages its affiliates to develop relationships with its merchants. Each merchant has an email address, contact person and sometimes a phone number specifically for Linkshare customers. If you have any problems, complaints or questions about a particular program, you can contact the merchant easily.

My one experience contacting a merchant was with Apple as a result of a limited selection of banners for its iTunes program. There was a certain band and album I wanted to place on one of my personal sites, but they didn't have it available. I emailed the iTunes rep and received a response within 30 minutes. In less than two hours, they created a banner for me. That is great customer service.

Keep Up the Good Fight
Chances are, when you become an affiliate, the money isn't going to start rolling in right away unless you are incredibly lucky. Discovering what merchants draw traffic and sales through your Web site is a constant trial and error process. Pick the merchants you think will convert and see what happens. Monitor your reports daily. The numbers will tell you right away which links or merchants aren't working for you. Test different size graphic ads and use text links, which aren't as intrusive and are believed to attract more click-throughs than banners.

Once you find a recipe for success, you can sit back and watch the dollars come in.

Resources:
Linkshare Resource Center

Devin Comiskey is the Managing Editor for ECommerce-Guide.com.