Rookie's Guide to Becoming a Successful Affiliate
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Commissions
by Shawn Collins
Affiliate programs are an excellent way to generate
revenue from any Web site. Simply join a program; add their banners
or text links to your site, and the checks start filling up the mailbox.
Well actually, it's a little more complicated than throwing up a banner.
Affiliate programs come in a lot of different flavors...
some will pay a percentage of the sale, others pay a flat fee per
transaction, and still others will pay you for every click of the
mouse that brings somebody from your site to theirs.
An affiliate program by many other names is still an
affiliate program. You may have heard about partner, revenue sharing,
affinity, bounty, and associate programs. All of these are affiliate
programs.
In essence, affiliate programs are partnerships between
merchants and Webmasters. Webster's Dictionary defines affiliate as
"to take in as in a member or branch." This member or branch of the
merchant company benefits by earning income through the sale of products
or services, and the merchant benefits by having the extended reach
of their products in the marketplace.
The affiliate programs operate by the "Law of Reciprocity,"
where people are paid for their performance, like the familiar "one
good turn deserves another." The merchant pitches in their good turn
by providing a product or service, accompanied by an infrastructure
for tracking sales and issuing payments to the affiliates.
In turn, it is the responsibility of the affiliate
to make a concerted effort to sell the product or service of the merchant.
This cannot be accomplished merely by posting a banner or text link
to a personal homepage.
In order for the affiliate program to become a "win-win"
tool for both the merchant and affiliate, the affiliate must have
a Web site with more than a jumble of affiliate links, and the Web
site must generate some traffic.
If you hope to get rich quick, there is no need to
read on.
The "80/20 Principle" is the popular expression of
a rule of economics that describes the typical imbalance that exists
between efforts and rewards. When applied to affiliate programs, the
"80/20 Principle," also known as the "Pareto Principle" after Italian
economist Vilfredo Pareto, dictates that 80% of affiliate sales are
generated by 20% of the affiliates.
But industry guru and founder of Refer-it.com, James
Marciano, sees an even bigger imbalance. "I would say that affiliate
space is governed by a tiny minority of people that have optimized
their Web sites for maximum salability. Rather than the '80/20 Principle,'
it's more like the '98/2 Principle,'" according to Marciano.
So how do you become a part of that elite 2%? If you
build it and promote it, they will buy. It's just a matter of applying
yourself and taking care to create a quality site that attracts traffic.
Content is King
Why did you create your Web site? If you launched a site merely because
you have dollar signs in your eyes, your intentions are going to be
evident to everybody that accidentally lands at your site, and then
quickly leaves.
Find a niche and work hard to be the best in your space.
What interests you... the New York Yankees... kids... drive-in movies?
Create a site that you care about and it will be a lot easier turning
your passion into profit.
Below are some components you should try to implement
into your site in order to generate interest and traffic:
- Feature niche specific content. iSyndicate (iSyndicate.com)
and Excite (affiliate.excite.com)
provide a wide variety of choices for syndicated content that
you can add to your site for free.
- Many Web hosts supply discussion forums that you can customize
and add to your site. If your host does not provide these services,
BeSeen (beseen.com)
and My Forum (myforum.net)
provide free forums for your site.
- Write a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page that answers questions
about the focus of your Web site.
- Opinion polls are great for generating data to publish at a
later date, and also to add some interactivity to your site. FreePolls.com
(freepolls.com)
and Pollit (pollit.com)
are two great, easy to use sites that will add a free poll to
your site.
- Publish an e-mail newsletter on a regular schedule that informs
subscribers about updates to your site, new about the topic of
your site and pretty much anything you care to write about from
month to month. ListBot (listbot.com)
offers both a free and paid mailing list that includes stats and
an easy to use interface.
- Word of mouth is a very effective method to market your site.
If you're not utilizing this tactic yet, you should be. Every
page on your site should have a link where visitors can click
to tell a friend about your great site. Check out eBoz's Recommend
& Win (eboz.com/tools/recommend_and_win/)
or Recommend-It (recommend-it.com/)
to add this tool to your site.
- Testimonials are very persuasive and effective. What do your
visitors think of your site? If they're not telling you, just
ask them. Add a short survey to you site and solicit comments.
Be sure to get their permission and publish the flattering remarks
on your site.
- If you have a flair for writing, or even if you don't, do some
research and author articles and reviews that pertain to the focus
of your site.
Create a Traffic Jam
Okay, you've created a great site, but nobody is coming to visit.
Don't worry, they will come, but only if you tell them where to find
you.
Follow the guidelines below and you're sure to develop
a steady stream of traffic in no time. And where there's traffic,
there's an affiliate revenue stream.
- Know the Search Engines. All search engines are not created
equal, so you are going to have to know what to do in order to
achieve optimal positioning. Go to Search Engine Watch (searchenginewatch.com/)
for vital information on optimizing your Web site and achieving
search engine success.
- Mailing lists and Newsgroups are the ideal spots to target your
niche audience. Search the Liszt (liszt.com/)
mailing list directory and subscribe to mailing lists that reach
the people that you want to reach. The same goes for Deja.com
(deja.com/),
where you can subscribe to numerous newsgroups on specific topics.
Be sure to spend some time assimilating into the culture of the
mailing lists and newsgroups before posting any sort of solicitations.
Even then, post it one time and one time only - if they are interested
they will respond to it.
- How's your John Hancock? An e-mail signature is a very useful
tool for providing your contact information and URL to the people
that you correspond with for your Web site. E-mail signatures
usually include your name, company or Web site name, e-mail address,
URL, and any other relevant information. You can also add a signature
to any posts on Deja.com.
- Where do you get most of your traffic? Which of your pages are
most/least often visited? When do your visitors tend to visit
the site? Who is visiting? Do you have broken links? There are
a lot of vital pieces of information that are out there about
your site, and if you are not receiving this information, you
are missing out on some key information that should dictate your
site development and marketing methods. Visit HitBox (hitbox.com)
for a fantastic (and free) Web site traffic counter and analysis
tool.
Affiliate programs are a great way to generate revenue from your Web
site. You just have to be willing to work hard in order to become
part of the 2% of affiliates that reap the benefits of 98% of the
revenues.
