(by 31 people)
Affiliate marketing, the art of doing a merchants marketing better than they can and profiting from it.
This Lens looks at a range of ways to learn about Affiliate Marketing and Affiliate Management, with a range of links to resources, blogs, books and training materials.
Q2 is a big time for people to start looking at their cars, homes and houses. It's a good time to be promoting related products that focus on home improvements and repairs.
The next affiliate event coming up is the CAC Amsterdam 2008 in April.
Video is still hotting up and we've been playing with it on order to get our WaterFront Media and Panda Security videos up and running and easy for Affiliates to use, see the section below on learning more on using video.
There are always bonuses bouncing around in Affiliate Marketing, some are very easy to win, some just fail badly because they get launched on a day when no one is reading their email , this great Affiliate Program Bonus site should help out everyone!
Affiliate Marketing Articles
Adsense vs Affiliate Links
Mark over at 45n5.com asks a very common question we hear; which is better, having Adsense on a page or utilizing affiliate links? My advice would be that it completely depends on the type of page you are designing. If it's a topic that people are gathering information, or doing some research, then Adsense would seem to fit.
One of Mark's commenter's noted that they had a luxury homes page up where affiliate links didn't do very well, however Adsense earned quite a bit of money. This would make sense, as I don't imagine many people would click on an affiliate link and make any purchase related to luxury homes just from a website.
Read the rest of this article here
One of Mark's commenter's noted that they had a luxury homes page up where affiliate links didn't do very well, however Adsense earned quite a bit of money. This would make sense, as I don't imagine many people would click on an affiliate link and make any purchase related to luxury homes just from a website.
Read the rest of this article here
How I got started in Affiliate Marketing
...and does it really make people money?
I first "knowingly" ** got involved in affiliate marketing in 2001 while working for Mondera.com I stumbled upon their affiliate program, which seemed to have all kinds of potential but was doing very poorly. Taking it over and learning as I managed it we were able to drive up to 35% of the companies total revenue from affiliate Partners.
Since then I've been involved in fair few other programs through AMWSO, and two things continue to strike me.
1. That so many people fail to get rolling.
2. That some people do make a heck of a lot of money from affiliate marketing.
Like most things, in affiliate marketing "you get out, what you put in", and yet with the vast potential to make serious money, the overwhelming majority of people in affiliate marketing, just do nothing, a small percent "dabble" and very small percent make good money.
A common question I hear and get asked is "Can one make money in affiliate marketing"...to which the answer is a resounding "Heck yes!"
** :- I say knowingly because like a lot of people I signed up for a few programs by accident in 98/99 while just looking for tools to add to a site I was building, my first check for $4.55 had me more confused than anything when it came. So I have to wonder, how many other people end up in the same situation, of not being sure what they did to earn money... after all, all they really wanted was a cool tool, or a few links for their site!
Since then I've been involved in fair few other programs through AMWSO, and two things continue to strike me.
1. That so many people fail to get rolling.
2. That some people do make a heck of a lot of money from affiliate marketing.
Like most things, in affiliate marketing "you get out, what you put in", and yet with the vast potential to make serious money, the overwhelming majority of people in affiliate marketing, just do nothing, a small percent "dabble" and very small percent make good money.
A common question I hear and get asked is "Can one make money in affiliate marketing"...to which the answer is a resounding "Heck yes!"
** :- I say knowingly because like a lot of people I signed up for a few programs by accident in 98/99 while just looking for tools to add to a site I was building, my first check for $4.55 had me more confused than anything when it came. So I have to wonder, how many other people end up in the same situation, of not being sure what they did to earn money... after all, all they really wanted was a cool tool, or a few links for their site!
New Affiliate Programs
Here a range of new affiliate programs that I am working or consulting on.
- glenny's
- Running on LinkShare this is a great program to promote, not only because they have a good pay out, but also because the products are great and good for you. Buy some and try them, you'll love them and nothing beats promoting a product that you truly like yourself! This is a great program to promote side by side with any other fitness, wellness, diet or weight loss product or offer.
You can get more info on glenny's here. - eToro Forex
- eToro Affiliate is offering affiliates the chance to maximise their earning potential by promoting their unique brand of Forex games. You can Earn 25% of the revenue that your players generate for life or earn $2 per fun player, or their newest option; a flat $100 commission for any user who makes a deposit with eToro.
You can get more info on eToro Forex here. - GoodOrient
- Running on ShareAsale and Commission Junction, GoodOrient is now the leading Asian Specialty E-store bringing traditional and modern Asian-inspired apparel, exotic home decor and unique gifts onto the Internet.
You can get more info on GoodOrient here. - Hypnosis Network
- Yes it's easy to scoff at the idea of Hypnosis, we used to. But after doing our research we found that there are legitimate firms offering real solutions via hypnosis. The Hypnosis Network is one such firm, if not the leading firm in this area. This program can be promoted in areas that focus on self improvement, be it weight loss, public speaking, stopping smoking and much more. Check it out, ask for a demo and give this program some slots on your site(s).
You can get more info on the Hypnosis Network here. - Gaiam
- Also on LinkShare, Gaiam sell a wide range of fitness, lifestyle and environmentally friendly products. Again a great program to promote, not only due to the great product range, but because they have a great ethos towards personal and global wellness.
You can get more info on Gaiam here.
Why Adware is bad for your Affiliate Program
There are many kinds and I've yet to find one that adds any real value..
The way that Adware operates is to cannibalize brand, trademarks, domain and other marketing channels to create an impression of business generation where none really exists. This leads to three core issues :
* Loss of revenue : by paying out to Adware for them targeting your brand, trademarks, domain and other marketing channels you are in effect paying for them to insert a level of zero value added distraction between you and your customers. You pay them to target your domain and push a pop up or redirect after that customer has already arrived at your site.
* Loss of Real Source Data : Because Adware inserts itself into the referral path, the information on where that customer really came from is lost, they may have clicked an organic link, a CPM ad run an d PPC link, but that info is lost as the Adware inserts itself into the referral path to make it appear that they referred the business
* Triple up costs and damage to marketing partnerships : With Adware being so effective at what it does, the end results can be devastating, instead of paying just for an ad run or a commission, you pay for both. Worse because referral data is lost you can even be fooled into thinking that other ad channels are not working, resulting in the loss of marketing partners or the classification of effective channels as ineffective. On top of this Adware ads to the cost of retaining a customer, by targeting loyal customers through domain targeting you continue to pay for customers you gave already acquired for no reason at all!
* Loss of revenue : by paying out to Adware for them targeting your brand, trademarks, domain and other marketing channels you are in effect paying for them to insert a level of zero value added distraction between you and your customers. You pay them to target your domain and push a pop up or redirect after that customer has already arrived at your site.
* Loss of Real Source Data : Because Adware inserts itself into the referral path, the information on where that customer really came from is lost, they may have clicked an organic link, a CPM ad run an d PPC link, but that info is lost as the Adware inserts itself into the referral path to make it appear that they referred the business
* Triple up costs and damage to marketing partnerships : With Adware being so effective at what it does, the end results can be devastating, instead of paying just for an ad run or a commission, you pay for both. Worse because referral data is lost you can even be fooled into thinking that other ad channels are not working, resulting in the loss of marketing partners or the classification of effective channels as ineffective. On top of this Adware ads to the cost of retaining a customer, by targeting loyal customers through domain targeting you continue to pay for customers you gave already acquired for no reason at all!
Affiliate Marketing through Video
How to set up videos on yourn site for affiliate marketing
If you're not using video on your website yet, you're missing out on a huge opportunity to increase your customer's responsiveness to targeted offers.
With the ever growing population of broadband users in the United States, video has become mainstream. If you look for the most popular sites on the Internet you'll see that YouTube.com is the 8th most popular website in the world. It is estimated that 65% of Internet users in the United Stateshave broadband access, and that number is expected to grow to 80% by 2010.
Video is an extremely powerful medium. If you use eye-catching videos on your website chances are you will capture your website visitor's interest. Also, if you put video on your webpages, search engines will love you and will push your website up their rankings. There are a lot of ways to implement videos on your website, but first let's quickly go through some benefits of adding video to your website:
With the ever growing population of broadband users in the United States, video has become mainstream. If you look for the most popular sites on the Internet you'll see that YouTube.com is the 8th most popular website in the world. It is estimated that 65% of Internet users in the United Stateshave broadband access, and that number is expected to grow to 80% by 2010.
Video is an extremely powerful medium. If you use eye-catching videos on your website chances are you will capture your website visitor's interest. Also, if you put video on your webpages, search engines will love you and will push your website up their rankings. There are a lot of ways to implement videos on your website, but first let's quickly go through some benefits of adding video to your website:
- Video creates an instant connection with people. It puts a human face on the proposition. Sure, blogs can do this, but video REALLY does this. Would you rather look at a screenshot of Rodney Yee doing a yoga move, or see a 5 minute clip of Rodney doing some of his yoga sets before you buy his DVD?
- Video increases visitor's confidence in your services/products. In the case of Gaiam DVD's for example, they'll see exactly what they're going to get with their purchase.
- Video can be streamed and almost instantly viewed by visitor. Broadband penetration makes consuming video 'just part of the Internet usage' for the average consumer.
- Video is an inexpensive way to personalize your website and stand out from the crowd.
AMWSO Affiliate Marketing Blog
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byAffiliate Classroom Magazine
February 2008
The February 2008 issue looks at what affiliates really want from networks and merchants.Cover Story - What Affiliates Really Want.
10 Ways Merchants Can Communicate with Affiliates
Announcing Affiliate Manager Certification
The Plight of International Affiliates
Featured Affiliate Programs.
Grab a free copy here
Revenue Magazine Latest Edition
What's new in the latest copy of Revenue Magazine
Revenue is a magazine, dedicated to all aspects of the affiliate marketing business model and to raising industry standards. Revenue features the distilled knowledge of the industry at large, in the form of featured columnists and articles on all aspects of the affiliate marketing industry.November/December 2007 Cover story : Searching for Alternatives
To find information online, users are increasingly going to sites that are alternatives to traditional search engines. It was a cold night in Pennsylvania when Leila Crooks was on Digg.com, the community-based popularity site, and came across a story about a "slanket" - a fleece blanket with sleeves that offers the freedom of arm movement so people can play video games or surf computers while snuggling under a blanket. ... Continue with the Cover Story
US Affiliate Marketing Networks
A selection of US focused affiliate marketing networks that provide tracking, payment and management solutions for affiliate programs.
- LinkShare
- One of the top tier affiliate marketing networks, owned by the Japanese firm Rakuten.
- Commission Junction
- Another of the top tier affiliate marketing networks. The CJ group includes the BeFree.com netwwork
- Performics
- Performics, the performance-based marketing division of DoubleClick, provides online marketing services and technologies for leading multi-channel marketers.
- ShareaSale
- Shareasale.com runs on the premise that they can provide any merchant - large or small - with high quality, reliable tracking software - at a lower cost than the industry norm - with the added benefit of being plugged into a large network of quality affiliate sites.
- ShareResults
- One of the newer affiliate networks on the market, ShareResults is managed by a team that also manage the gaming Network Income Access. Following in the footsteps of ShareASale, their aim is to grow a network based around supporting ethical marketing by protecting their merchants and affiliates from bad business.">
- AvantLink
- A fairly new network that offers an excellent range of tools to support affiliates and merchants in getting the best from each other.
Affiliate Marketing Guides
Where to learn about affiliate marketing
There are several hundred so called gurus out there all trying to sell their books or courses that will tell you "how to succeed". Most are total trash, others are selling based on a persons success back in the early days of affiliate marketing and have no relation to todays affiliate marketing business and others live off their second tier commissions created years ago, still making them a lot of money, but something that is very difficult to repeat now a days. Below I list some of the courses, books and people I know offer great help and training in how to succeed and make money.
- Affiliate Marketers Handbook and Boot Camp - James Martell
- One of the few affiliate marketing gurus who actually practices what he preaches, and makes a good living doing it. One of the best courses around following a solid methodology for developing affiliate marketing based revenue.
- Site Sell : Site Build It - Ken Evoy
- Ken Evoy, with his Site Sell course teaches a very structured method for creating. maitaining and marketing affiliate marketing focused sites. A good course with excellent support and tools too.
Affiliate Marketing Tools
Tools that help affiliate partners and managers
There are a range of tools on the market to help affiliates and affiliate managers alike, some are free and some have purchase or subscription costs.
- Syntryx
- An amazing tool for tracking down site source traffic, seo tactics and top affiliates. While it's an expensive product, the value that can be extracted is well worth the price.
- APB
- APB is a free site that lists affiliate bonuses covering all networks, industries and programs. A great place to find out how to pick up some easy money.
- WordTracker
- WordTracker is a subscription (yearly) tool that helps affiliates (and SEO marketers) find the key words that are most likely to bring about the results and targeted traffic they are looking for by sampling searches across a range of search engines and providing data about the frequency of key word / phrase based searches. Costs around $200 per year
- GoldenCAN
- Use GoldenCAN to display affiliate data feed products, coupons, recent price drop products, product search and price comparison on on your web site within minutes. Easy to set up with simple scripts and custom selection of merchants.
Affiliate Marketing Forums
Discussion forms for merchants, affiliates and affiliate managers
A selection of forums that engage in discussions focused on affiliate marketing, many forums have sub sections devoted to the business, but the below are forums with a primary focus on affiliate marketing
- ABW
- With out a doubt the largest and most active affiliate marketing forum. Open to merchants, affiliates, OPMs and affiliate managers.
- Affiliate Manager Forums
- The Aff Manager forums is for affiliate managers, it is a private forum where affiliate managers can discuss day to day business topics as well as exchange ideas and concepts.
- 5 Star Affiliate Forums
- An affiliate marketing forum run by "5 Star", the focus is on programs they promote but also adds wide range of topical articles and discussions from general affiliate and search marketing
- A4U
- The largest UK based affiliate marketing forum with a core focus on UK affiliate programs with some discussions on European affiliate marketing.
- Revenue Source
- A sizeable forum dedicated to affiliate marketing, seo, and affiliate program discussions. Shares AdSense revenue with registered users.
Affiliate promotion tips and news
Affiliate program news from the industry as a whole, merchant affiliate programs managed by Chris Sanderson and the AMWSO Affiliate marketing team and other general AM updates
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byReveNews
Comments and articles from a range of marketers.
ReveNews is a trusted, unbiased source focusing on Internet related industries such as online marketing, SEM, affiliate marketing, retail (e-commerce), analytics, spyware, blogging and much more. ReveNews authors consist of highly respected thinkers, commentators and business people who have real experience and insight.
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byRandom news and posts from the social networks
Discussions and Links I see around the web on the social networks related to affiliate marketing
- Affiliate Marketing Blog by AMWSO: Duplicate Content Search Engine Penalties and Affiliate Marketing - Affiliate Marketing Blog
- Affiliate Marketing Blog with articles, news and insight into affiliate marketing, affiliate programs, and affiliate management.
