Archive for May, 2009

Here are some basic things to look for affiliates:

Saturday, May 30th, 2009

* Linking Methods – Different types of affiliates will need different linking methods. Let’s use the example above where we had different groups based on sales. Your low sales group may be satisfied with a banner or two to place on their site. Your medium sales type may be interested in an article or two for added content on their site. Your high sales group will probably pass up banners for articles, guestbooks, email ads and signature files.

* Capturing visitors is what you want. In order to do so you have to know what they want. Visit your affiliates’ sites to see what visitors are looking at and looking for. Ask yourself, “How does my product relate to what I am seeing?”

* Different types of affiliates may expect different commissions. You’ll have some Affiliates that have joined your program “on the side” and others that plan on earning a substantial income from the program. Determine what effort they are putting into advertising, how much other programs in your industry are paying, and the amount of time they devote to your program.

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How to attract affiliates

Thursday, May 21st, 2009

One of the biggest fears new Affiliate managers have is in finding new affiliates. This fear is a stumbling block that stops many site owners from getting started with affiliate marketing. Interestingly, with a proper marketing strategy, getting affiliates may not be very difficult. Given below are some tips that may help in attracting new affiliates.

Find complimentary sites

“Complementary” sites are a sites that sell products or services that compliment your offerings. If you sell “gardening tools”, a site that sells books on “gardening tips” would be a perfect affiliate.

If you sell software, try looking for sites that sell computers or computer parts. Finding sites that already attract your target market, and can benefit from recommending your product or service to their visitors, is the goal.

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A few avoidable errors when promoting your affiliate program

Friday, May 15th, 2009

In this article, I have listed a quick and easy bulleted list of does and do not’s when trying to promote your affiliate program.

* Many affiliate marketers make a huge mistake of posting their ads on forums. Forums can be used to promote your affiliate programs and your website but in a proper manner. Posting banners is very similar to spamming and may easily upset forum administrators.

* Always do your research before promoting your affiliate program to a potential customer. Do not offer affiliate programs to visitors who are not at all interested in the products associated with the program. This is a futile endeavor.

* If you promote affiliate programs offered by other merchants, ensure that you develop your own advertising copy. Many websites commit a common mistake of using the same advertising copy as used by the merchant themselves.

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Setting up Your Own Affiliate Program (part two)

Saturday, May 9th, 2009

This article is the second of a two part series on setting up your own affiliate program. In addition to starting an affiliate program, you must manage it and keep track of it. The following information will show you how Managing and tracking your affiliate programs.

The key to any business is to promote your products and services to people who need them. Your affiliate business is no different. In order to earn commissions you must put your products in front of the people who need them. The beauty of marketing affiliate programs is that it is anybody’s ball game. This is the one place you can burrow deep into your own niche and stick it to the so-called ‘big wigs’.

You may create your own affiliate program or you may promote other popular affiliate programs that are related to your product or service. The best way to manage and track affiliate programs is by creating your own affiliate program website. This is where you can list all your affiliate programs.

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