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Do you think it is the affiliate provider? The selecton of merchandise? The relevance to your subject matter? The nature of your audience? The popularity of your site or the niche your site fits into?
Has your program been successful? Pitiful? Satisfactory? Glitch-ridden?
Any input would be extremely appreciated:)
[edited by: rcjordan at 3:35 pm (utc) on June 30, 2002]
Affiliate marketing, like so many features of e-commerce, is in a state of extreme flux. I think the field is beginning to move away from its early concept as offering merely a vehicle for free or very low cost advertising for merchants. In this model, the affiliate has been viewed as a creature of low degree, worthy of no respect to be paid only grudgingly, if at all. Many merchants still harbor this mindset.
There is, however, a growing cadre of affiliates actually making a decent, and, in some cases, a handsome living as affiliates. This can be attributed to the fact that there are emerging a significant number of merchants who have adopted a business model wherein the affiliate is seen as a true partner, to be well compensated and well supported. Affiliate marketing is an important and integral part of the merchant's business plan.
One of the tasks in operating as an affiliate is to identify these affiliate friendly merchants as well as product categories that convert well on the internet. Personally, I stay away from CPM, PPL, etc. in favor of selling products of various types for a commission. This has worked well for me.
As mentioned, focused selling works. Simply scattering banners around your site will not. Affiliates who operate as though they are value added resellers are much more likely to succeed. It takes a great deal of hard work, experimentation, patience and just plain luck. All of the SEO skills you can learn on this and some of the other boards need to be put into play.
YES but direct "partner" relationships work BETTER.
I'll add that I have several good friends here at wmw that are currently averaging anywhere from $100 to $1000 per day as affiliates. They are following the tenets listed in this thread; concentrating on promoting specific products or services, developing sites centered around making the conversion, and applying the best-of-the-best seo techniques.
>It takes a great deal of hard work
It isn't a coincidence that the ones putting 90-hr weeks are also the ones that are the highest earners.
1) An affiliate manager who can be either called up on the phone, or be within a 2-3 hour email away.
2) Some sort of forum where the affiliates can interact with other affiliates, as well as the company.
3) Contests and incentives to progressively develop more sales.
4) Tools to make the affiliates conversions easier whether this be an XML feed or something else to allow for affiliates to personalize sites.
5) Prompt payment-preferable direct deposit.
The unsuccessful programs tend to not put in the time nor effort to communicate with their affiliate partners and expect the sales to be on auto-pilot.
RcJordan: $1,000/day?!?!? Can you offer any examples, by forum or sticky mail? Maybe by studying some of them I'll get a better understanding of what I'm doing wrong.
You contact a merchant that you feel would convert for you.
You tell that merchant what % you want and the degree of co-branding it will take to get past directory editors.
It is a yes or no propsition.
can you name some examples online?
NO
sorry
YES but direct "partner" relationships work BETTER.
I couldn't agree more. There are plenty of deals to be made out there - practically everything is negotiable.
Affiliate marketing definitely works if you put the time and effort into it and follow tried and true direct marketing principles.
Affiliate programs and relationships take a lot of time. The people who are successful make sure that they nurture these relationships.
The site I work for is a good example of this - when we just let the program stagnate, the number of customers we get from affiliates drops. When we put time and effort into the program and relationships we really see the benefit.
But once you get over the start-up hurdles, you should be able work you way into six-figure income in a couple of years.
The business is very volitile, so be sure to diversify among merchants, websites, and search engines (assuming you use search engines as a targeted traffic source).
Be ready to accept some failures along the way ... expect to loose some battles in order to win the war.
Problems to expect include:
1. Key merchant decides to drop their affiliate program, or goes belly-up.
2. Key search engine boots your site just when traffic was really building up.
3. You find a merchant whith whom you earn great commissions, but then won't pay until you threaten law suits.
4. Competitors find ways to screw you that you never imagined.
zeus
1) Figure out what works, and keep doing it.
2) Figure out what doesn't work, and stop doing it.
#2 is more difficult by far!
Okay guys, what exactly do you mean?
Approach a 'bricks and mortar' wholesaler and set up all the ecommerce yourself or do you mean someone already selling online but offer to also sell their stuff?
Nick
I know of very successful examples of both of those partnership methods. Another option is to negotiate a special affiliate status with a merchant that already has a "standard" program. This might include higher payouts, co-branded screens, special product links, etc. This often develops for affiliate sites that have a proven track record -particularly if the merchant contacts you with a plan competitive with one you are already promoting.
[edited by: rcjordan at 7:09 pm (utc) on July 4, 2002]
I feel that tingly excitement of a new project ;)
Nick
With all the problems of affiliates getting paid what they have earned, I'm wondering if it wouldn't be better to go after some sort of drop ship deal -- in essence *be* the merchant.
It seems that would leverage a lot of the strenghts of folks here.
I've noticed an increase in problems reported by affiliates having trouble with merchants paying for various reasons. Also troubles with merchants making it harder to earn commisions from the converted traffic that does come thru to them from affiliates via various policies they "adjust", like cookie expirations or various "hoops" the traffic has to go thru before the affiliate is credited.
Amazons rules for getting 15 .vs 5 percent commision is an example. If I read their referral fees section (link below) correctly, the affiliate doesn't earn commission *at all* if the visitors they send to Amazon's site doesn't buy the book during *that* online session (or another session originating directly from the affiliate's link).
Link:
I recently had to do my first RMA of a computer part. The company I sent the RMA package to was different than the company I bought the item from.
The company I bought the item from had a full scale online ecommerce enabled store with up to date inventory levels.
I'm thinking this outfit must be doing a front end store from which they just funnel orders to another company that wholesales to them -- and maybe drop ships to customers. They must have automated tie ins to their supplier's/wholesaler's inventory and fulfillment system.
Seems sad for talented people to pour their time and energies into affiliate projects with merchants that chisel or stiff them. Or are fine today and rotten tomorrow.
Anyone have opinions or experiences on *being* the merchant and doing drop ship deals instead of being an affiliate?
Thanks,
Louis
Exactly! I was approached by a merchant just recently who offered a substantial increase in the commission rate over the competition. Besides, this merchant converts better than the competition. They're providing other types of support as well.
Again -- Sure there are dishonest merchants out there. They are quickly identified. Persistance will identify merchants who truly want to work with affiliates and have a sincere interest in seeing them succeed.
As for fickle SEs, stick with the tried and true SEO techniques covered so masterfully on this board. That will minimize the risk of being dumped by the Googles of the World.
Drop shipping has its attractions, but one enormous drawback, namely, customer support. As an affiliate, that headache is eliminated.
I can't stress enough that being a successful affiliate takes a tremendous amount of hard work. And - You must (emphasize must) Target, Target, Target!!!
I signed with CJ becuase they've been around for a while and have already plumbed something like 24000 impressions their way. I'm trying to build up a long list of mixed advertisers that I can refine down once I see what people are clicking on. Sound like a smart approach?
I'd probably prefer being in a CPM program even if the returns are lower becuase I know that my sites collect say 80000 page views a month... even at US$0.20 CPM it's better than having nothing ;)
