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If you have a Web site or blog
and are looking for a way to earn income from your online property, consider
affiliate
marketing programs.
Affiliate
marketing is the term used to describe a revenue-sharing plan where
an online automated marketing program lets Webmasters place an
advertiser's banner ads or buttons on their own Web site. Webmasters
will receive a referral fee or commission from
conversions when a customer
has clicked the
affiliate link and performs the desired action, such as make a purchase
or opt-in for
downloads or newsletters on the advertiser's site. Advertisers invest in
affiliate programs
for lead generation, and, of course, sales. Not all affiliate plans work
in the same way or pay
the same rates. Some enable you to place text or image hyperlinks to products or a Web site,
others allow you to set up a shopping or store page that offers
products related to the content of your Web site, and others require
you to simply place general advertising banners or buttons.
The
payouts for Webmasters also varies, but in the most common forms the affiliate is paid per click, each
time a person clicks the ad (pay-per-click) or you may be paid a commission
when a sale is made (pay-per-sale)
or you might be paid by lead (pay-per-lead). Getting Started: Know The Lingo
If you're in affiliate marketing, here's a quick
reference of some of the more common terms used in conjunction with
affiliate marketing. By familiarizing yourself with the terminology you'll
be better able to understand the affiliate agreement, how different
programs work, and how you can earn money. Below you'll find direct links to
common affiliate marketing terms from Webopedia.com. |
Key Terms To
Understanding Storage Servers:
advertiser
The advertiser is the Web site owner or merchant who pays affiliates
for sending traffic to their site to make purchases or generate leads.
Also called merchant.
affiliate
The Webmaster or site owner who earns revenue, usually
commission-based, for conversion of leads, clicks or sales on the
advertiser's site.
affiliate program
An automated marketing
program where a Web advertiser recruits Webmasters to place the
merchant's banner ads or buttons on their own Web site. Webmasters
will receive a referral fee or commission from sales when the
customer has clicked the affiliate link to get to the merchant's Web
site to make the purchase. |
Types of Affiliate Programs
Different advertisers offer different types of affiliate programs. If you
join a search engine affiliate program you most likely will be placing text
links or banners to their advertisers and you'll work on a pay-per-click fee.
E-mail list affiliates promote e-mail newsletters and are usually paid when a person
joins the advertised opt-in e-mail list. Being an affiliate of any merchant
usually means you are paid a commission per sale on the advertiser's Web
site. Generally speaking, pay-per-click affiliate programs pay the least
amount, as affiliates are often paid per thousands clicks (CPC).
Pay-per-lead
programs are when you you provide the links to downloads, trial offers, e-mail
opt-in lists and so on. Depending on the advertiser you may be paid per
lead generation or you may not be paid unless the user subscribes and pays
for a full service from the advertiser. Again, you may also receive fees for
both instances. Pay-per-sale affiliate programs (also called revenue
sharing) usually offer the highest commissions, and you'll typically receive
a set dollar amount per sale or a straight percentage of the total sale. Because a user has to
purchase something, you may find this program best-suited to high-traffic
affiliate sites.
How Does it Work?
Knowing what ads to place and what revenue your Web site generates
isn't magic. Once you join an affiliate program you then are able to
choose the products or banners you want to include on your Web site, and
then receive the code you will need to insert on specific Web page or
throughout your Web site. This changes, however, when you select an ad
revenue partnership, such as Google AdSense, for example where you have little
or no control over the advertisement displayed. In joining the affiliate
program, you will agree to their terms of service, called an
affiliate
agreement, which will tell you what
requirements you must meet and how the
click-through, lead generation or sales are tracked.
Here is an example of one affiliate
program, how it works and the requirements of the affiliate:
WorldWinner is an online "Pay to Play"
online game Web site that offers a revenue-sharing affiliate program. From the WorldWinner Web site
(the advertiser in this case), you would first fill out an application to become
an affiliate by providing basic information about yourself and your Web
site through a Web-based sign up form. If you're
accepted as an affiliate, WorldWinner will provide you with an affiliate
ID as well as the address to a Web page where you can generate the code
to place different
links advertising WorldWinner on your own site. They offer rotating or
static text links, banners or buttons, and co-brand Web sites are also
allowed. When you generate the code to place on your own Web site, it
will contain your unique affiliate ID. Any user who clicks a link to
WorldWinner that contains your ID is tracked by WorldWinner via
cookies. If they become a paying player and deposit money to their
account and play games for cash, you then earn money yourself; it will
be a percentage of that user's deposits for as long as you remain an
affiliate (this particular affiliate program offers a 25 percent share in Net Applicable
Revenue). WorldWinner also hosts and provides you with all the
statistics
and information you need to determine how many users your are sending to
their Web site, if they are depositing funds, and also provide you with your revenue and
payout information.
For the most part, affiliate programs work by using a combination of a unique user ID and
cookies
to track your leads and subsequent revenues. Most will offer a private affiliate
section on their Web site where you can get your
HTML code and also check your affiliate
account status and information. Through the use of browser cookies, any
person who uses your link to make the desired action within a set amount of
time contributes to your affiliate revenue.
For example if a user follows
your link and looks through an online software store they are tracked as "your referral"
by the browser cookie. If the person makes the purchase before the
cookie expires,
you get the referral commission. So even if a user sits with items in their
shopping cart but doesn't go back and make the purchase for two weeks, you
can still get the commission, provided the cookie is still active.
For the Webmaster, one of the the hardest
things about using
an affiliate program to earn money is finding a good one that will actually
produce results for you. To better your chances of earning revenue from
affiliate marketing here are some tips to get you started;
- Always read the fine print. Make
sure you understand how the payouts are structured, if you need to earn
a minimum dollar amount before a payout, and, of course, compare
commissions between similar affiliate programs.
- Once you have narrowed down your options
to a handful of possibilities, take a look at the merchant or marketers'
Web site rankings and traffic. If, for example, you have your choice
narrowed down to three computer software e-tailers, you can use Google
and Alexa rankings to help you determine which may have a better volume
of traffic. While their Web site traffic won't directly help you promote
their products, this may tell you which company has a larger
customer-base (more traffic). A well-known name that your Web site
visitors may be familiar with might encourage them to
click the advertising links on your own site.
- Choose affiliate programs that
complement your Web site content. If your site is all about sports,
then chances are you'll want to skip on setting up a co-branded Web
store for cartoon themed car accessories, for example. Also, if affiliate programs offer
customizable banners, buttons or splash pages that can be edited to
reflect elements of your own site design, be sure to take advantage of
those options.
- Don't be afraid to play the field and
try a couple affiliate programs, or opt out of one and choose another if
you're not seeing any results after time. Results are going to be based
on how much traffic your own Web site gets. If your site serves only a
couple visitors a day, you can't expect high click-through numbers.
Choosing an Affiliate Program
Because there are such a large number of affiliate programs to choose from
and many are structured differently, here are some tips to keep in mind while
looking for a good match.
First, you need to be sure you are comfortable
with the product you're promoting or selling and you have confidence in
the advertiser you are linking to. Check the pages on the advertiser's Web
site. If it's something you yourself would never consider purchasing, or it
possibly looks a bit unreliable, then chances are your visitors won't be
interested in it either. If you're running a content-based site, you
don't want to sell anything that might offend visitors or lower their
opinion of your site.
The best rule of thumb is to pick affiliate programs
that offer something that's relevant to your site. For example, if your Web site is about registering
domain names, look for affiliate programs that are related to the topic such
as Web site hosting, Webmaster tools and software, Web site templates and
so on. There is nothing worse than advertisements that stand out like
a sore thumb on your pages (e.g., online casino ads placed on a Web site
about elementary school math tutorials). Even niche sites can find affiliate
programs that are a good match.
What is the Advertiser really offering its
affiliates? Make sure you really understand the affiliate agreement and that
you'll be able to comply with it. Take the time to check out the
advertiser before joining to ensure they really do pay out to affiliates and
that their program is not a scam. Look at what the advertiser is offering in
terms of tracking and reporting tools for affiliates. Good programs will
provide you with a way to access real-time automated statistics to view
conversions, sales and commissions. Be sure you have ad and product display
options to integrate the advertising into your Web site. Can you change the
colors, themes and choose from a selection of different sized banners and
buttons? With this type of service it means a little less work for
you, the affiliate, and it also means your affiliate program meshes with
your site. Some higher-pay programs may look attractive, but may offer
a higher commission because they might not provide support and
tools to their affiliates. If this is the case, make sure you determine if
this program will be too high-maintenance for you before joining.
Generally
speaking pay-per-click programs offer the lowest dollar value for
conversions, and you'll need a higher click through rate to earn money.
Pay-per-lead and pay-per-sale programs will usually offer a higher
commission, but you'll have less visitors clicking through to complete the
transactions, so you need to have a lot of unique visitors. Use your own
traffic and reporting tools to determine which type of program will have a
better chance of success on your own site.
Resources
To get started with finding a good affiliate program, we suggest you
start with the Affiliate Reviews on
Ecommerce-Guide (you'll find
them listed in the Related Links section below), or visit the
Refer-It.com Web site, which provides
ratings and details on over six thousand online affiliate programs.
