I've been looking at different affiliate programs on the internet, mostly for sake of curiosity right now. It seems that communications, travel, webhosting :wink: --just about any service-based company is using affiliates to push customers to their sites. Are there any affiliate programs out there that are worth checking out? I've seen several where affiliates can have affiliates can have affiliates. Is this just a techno-rehashing of the old pyramid scheme? How is this affecting how business is done on the web? Any thoughts about this trend?
(or maybe you don't think it is a trend)
Tyger,
I believe you are correct; it is impossible with most of them to figure out what tier you are in, but more important is the fact that unless you run a site with the scope of E-bay or Yahoo they are just a flat waste of time. When you throw a bunch of banners and unrelated links on your website you end up with one ugly site. Nothing turns me off quicker than a page that looks like a banner farm. Many sites carry one product line but display banners and links to totally unrelated products. Basically this type-site is relying on untargeted traffic, which almost always results in a failure to make money. Several years ago it was possible for small site owners to find similar affiliates directly from the business, now the affiliate game has become big business when you sign on at an affiliate broker like CJ (Commission Junction) you are automatically on the second or possibley third tier. The Affiliate business itself has the stench of MLM, make sure you research them carefully if you decide to use one or more.
The benefits? I can’t think of any. Money? You are likely to see little or none. Traffic? you give them the traffic, they give you none. Nice clean web pages? Not if you fill it with crap. AH! Let me not forget my favorite subject. Your Affiliates will definitely sell your information SPAM, SPAM and more SPAM.
Johnie
Tyger,
I have looked at affiliate programs off and on thinking I may use them on some of my sites. I have always rejected them for many of the reasons that JDE gave. I really hate SPAM and I think they clutter the site.
That being said I have recently been looking at AdSense (http://www.google.com/adsense) at the moment this link is down but thier ads are still working so imagin it will be back up soon. The concept seems sound and the resulting ads that are displayed apear to match website content from the sites I have seen that use it. I have read some good and bad feedback on it. You can see one disscusion of it on the phpBB2 (http://www.phpbb.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?p=858966#858966) web site. The phpBB2 forum uses them and they can be seen at the bottom of thier pages. The ads are text based instead of images. I'm still not convinced but thought I would pass on my most recent exploration into the matter.
Affiliate Marketing is *Marketing*
Any successful marketing program must have a target market. If you try to sell to everyone, you will sell to no one.
After you identify your target market and "get into their heads" -- find out what they buy and why -- by doing *market research*, then you can go look for a product or service that meets their needs and offer it to them.
If you start with the product -- in this case, a particular affiliate program -- instead of the customer, you will have a struggle ahead of you. You probably will fail, unless you are humble enough to learn from your mistakes and persistent enough to correct them.
Here is something to shorten the learning curve. This is the best information resource I have found for those who want to succeed at affiliate marketing. It is a paid membership site, so the signal-to-noise ratio is higher than in free forums. If you are willing to work, these guys will teach you what to do.
http://terrel-recommends.com/affiliate-bootcamp/
I use adsense and its great, it places targeted ads, I can choose teh color scheme and its all text (unless you choose to use images) you wont make a living but you can offset yor hosting fee's and other costs of sites like mine wich are really just a hobby I have. I see websites as a big strategy game and the few dollars I make bonus points.
Yes I am now using AdSense on some of my sites and I like the results. Once the page is spidered it really well return ads that are targeted at the content of the page. You can even choose not to have certain ads display on your site. They seem to be adding more features and flexibility to it every month or so.
The best thing is its a cpc program, I've had a few affiliate programs that paid commission. With most other programs you don't make a dime unless they buy something. IMO if you get the people to the advertisers site, they have the responsibly to close the sale. I am just here to provide them with the leads.
Hello all,
I saw this post that had been started last year and thought that I should mention WestHost's new affiliate program that we recently launched. It really is a great new program which rewards affiliates that qualify with $25 for every referral.
To find out how to qualify for this affiliate program, please visit http://affiliates.westhost.com/. Whether you are a current WestHost client or not, this is a great way to refer a great service and make some extra cash.
Hi Mark,
Gee it is pretty bad when whe don't even mention a program that is associated with the Hosting company we use... :) ... and I am even a part of that program. It would be great if you could add some other campaings to the program that would maybe offer a lower rate for a simple click through. My concern is that someone clicks through to WestHost and sees the info but returns on a different day without going through my site and signs up. It might encourage others to sign up if they could get a few cents for each click then if that happened at least we would have gotten something out of the first click.
Not really complaining and I always had a link to WestHost on my site anyway so the current comapaign is really a step forward but was just something I happened to think of that might increase the use by others of the program.
Wildjokerdesign,
Thanks for the feedback, I am actually just about to meet with our marketing and sales director and I will make sure and mention this to him in our meeting.
As always, we appreciate your suggestions and feedback (and of course your tireless help to our other clients on these forums). We are very lucky to have your business.
Wildjoker,
Here's how the WestHost Affiliate Program works:
- You place a link to WestHost on your site (choose one of the pre-made banners, text links, or create your own link to WestHost (using the affiliate code).
- User goes to your site and clicks on link.
- User goes to WestHost and either signs up for hosting or doesn't.
- If they do, you get $25 (assuming they stay with us for at least 30 days).
- If they don't sign up, but come back within 90 days of that first click, and sign up, you get $25. This is because a cookie is stored on their computer for 90 days allowing the affiliate system to "remember" the user and who originally referred them.
Hopefully this helps,
Thank you both Mark and Bevan.
I didn't realize that a 45 day cookie was set on the persons computer. That is good to know. I must have missed that on the info page. The current campaign ends at the end of this year. I was wondering if at that time we will need to go in and choose an new campaign or am I getting ahead of things? :)
WJD,
We will most likely simply renew the campaign. If not, you will be notified of new campaigns and given ample time to change to the new ones.
Hope this helps,
To make any money with affiliates you really need to have 500+ unique visitors per day. One of my sites www.walkandshop.com takes a slightly different approach and passes back the sales commission to the consumer. Its a good idea and my customers are happy but its very hard to get people to visit my site. Marketing is not my strong point, but I have had some success with local flyers and advertising. Its very hard work and I barely break even.
I'm new to WH, so I'm very late coming into this topic. But I have lots of marketing experience, so I'll add this post for whatever it's worth.
Anyone interested in affiliate marketing programs should spend a couple of hours just reading the posts at http://forum.abestweb.com/. There are other forums you could join, but this is the best one I have found.
In addition to their conversation about specific affiliate programs, there is a lot of general education.
I'll warn you that many of these members are deadly serious about their business, and some of them can be rather vicious with their comments (and, in my opinion, not always fair). Still, you can learn a lot from these people.
As a general comment, I'd say anyone running a web site ought to at least be familiar with the various affiliate programs, especially the larger ones; you might make some money off collateral sales. Knowledge gained can also be used in reverse: You might learn how to start your own affiliate program and make money using your own affiliate network.
Good luck.
My god... its a whole other world over at 'abestweb.com'. Thanx for the link, when I have time I'll look around there.