Forum Moderators: skibum
#1 - You own a website that sells products/services. Your search engine traffic is only so-so and just about maxed out. PPC is getting expensive, and you want sales without spending the cash.
You get yourself some affiliate software and stay up at night with the burning question...
How am I going to get affiliates to sign up for my program?
The first thing a newbie thinks of is to find all the related websites that he/she can, contact them with a proposal:
You send me customers and you keep a % of their sales.
Sounds easy...and it is easy...
But what's the best way to approach future cash registers? Just send them an unsolicited email out of the blue "Hi I'm Joe with JoeJoeJoe.com and i think your traffic could make me money. If it does I'll gave you some. Click here to sign up."?
I'm sure there are some tried and true successful campaigns in building your affiliate tree from scratch. We could all learn a lot from the different strategies.
#2 You have a successful content site and want it to make money for you.
Adsense clicks arent paying like they used to and even though your traffic is growing your revenue isnt.
You have a really strong user base and you're in a specific niche industry.
Your best bet is to use your expertise by pointing your users in the right direction in regards to products/services they might find useful.
Going through every site you think is relative would take forever, and finding that usually small and hidden "Affiliate Program" link on a site can be difficult enough. Most of the time your on a wild goose chase on a site with products, but no affiliate program whatsoever.
Amazon's commission rates are a joke.
Where do you turn to now?
I'll sit back, relax, and enjoy the replies...
Hubes
Many affiliate schemes are far more generous, but don't actually pay up.
You need to combine an attractive offer with some certainty.
Therein lies your problem. Spam emails don't build trust; OK, if you mail two million, you may get a few - but for how long?
You'll need to offer a very good support system, with personal input, at least at first, if you intend to build a system that will last.
Before, I simply inluded a statement on a page saying: "Send us an email if you wish to advertise."
Still not sure how to approach businesses about advertising on my site though. The cold approach doesn't seem to work that well, and I would probably have to contact hundreds of potential advertisers.
What are you referring to? Someone with an affiliate program asking you to take a look, or regular spam mail that you then send back a spam? I would think it's the former as this is what the topic is about, but it sure doesn't make sense to me because sometimes someone asking you to take a look is well worth it.
