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AFFILIATE MARKETING NETWORKS AND AFFILIATE MERCHANTS
Affiliate marketing networks and affiliate merchants explained, how to make money from affiliate marketing and how to increase sales using affiliate networks and merchants Via the affiliate networks, merchants offer various ways that you can promote their products and advertise their services. The most common method is a banner that you place on your own website. Let's work this through with an example. Suppose Mark has a website about his hobby, which happens to be fishing. His site has lots of good content and advice about fishing and gets a decent number of visitors each day. Mark decides he wants to be an affiliate of PC World because they are paying a 5% commission on all sales. So Mark signs up to the programme (which doesn't cost him anything) and puts a PC World banner (supplied by the affiliate network) on his website about fishing. Whenever a visitor to Mark's site clicks on that PC World banner, they will be taken to the PC World site. The affiliate network will use a cookie or some other method to track the fact that the click through from Mark's site to the merchant's site has taken place. Then, if the visitor goes on to actually buy something on the merchant's website then the affiliate network will also track that. They will then credit the affiliate's account with the appropriate commission - in this example 5% of the order value - which they in turn will collect from the merchant (plus an extra percentage for themselves for acting as the middle man). Sounds pretty simple, doesn't it? Well, yes - but I've deliberately kept it simple for this initial example. The truth is that, whilst there is nothing disastrous about what Mark has done in the example above, he certainly couldn't expect to get rich that way. To have any hope of making a decent income out of affiliate marketing, you need to put in a lot more time, effort and planning than simply sticking a banner on your website and waiting for the commissions to come rolling in. AFFILIATE MERCHANTS I've been making money through affiliate marketing for some time now. I've tried some affiliate programmes that have done quite nicely and brought me a steady profit each month and I've tried others that have been a waste of time - either because the programme wasn't up to much or because I made mistakes. As far as I'm concerned there are ten golden rules when it comes to making money on the internet through affiliate marketing schemes. HOW TO INCREASE SALES USING AFFILIATE NETWORKS Rule #1: Keep it relevant One of the mistakes that our man Mark made in the example above was that he chose to promote a merchant that was nothing to do with the content of his site. If your site is about fishing then the people who visit your site are going to be doing so because they are interested in fishing and looking for information related to fishing. So, if they see a banner on your site advertising a company that sells computers then it is highly unlikely that they will have any interest in clicking on it. If however, they come to your site and read an article you have written which reviews different types of fishing rods and then whilst reading that see a banner for a merchant that sells fishing equipment, then there is a much greater chance that they will click on that banner. To put this into non-internet marketing terms, imagine you had a little market stall where you sold football memorabilia and souvenirs. Given the choice, where would you be better off pitching your stall: outside Wembley stadium on FA Cup final day where pretty much everyone who walks past is going to be interested in football, or outside Lord's where everyone's mind is going to be focused on cricket rather than football? HOW TO MAKE MONEY FROM AFFILIATE MARKETING Rule #2: Don't use banners But I thought you said that putting merchants' banners on your website was what affiliate marketing was all about?! No - I just said that was one way for an affiliate to advertise a merchant's website; but I never said it was the best way or even a half decent way. The problem with banners is that everyone is wise to them. They've been around a long while and everyone recognises them as adverts right away - and, worse still, as a particularly brash and unsubtle form of advertising. They are the online equivalent of the guys who stand around on Oxford Street holding those big homemade placards that advertise golf sales.... The Golden Web - The Internet Entrepreneur's Definitive Guide to Making Money Online To buy your copy click here Affiliate marketing networks and affiliate merchants explained, how to make money from affiliate marketing and how to increase sales using affiliate networks and merchants |
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