Affiliate Programs?

[rintrah]

Wouldn't creating an affiliate program be a great way for link development?

[Dayo_UK]

Hi

I assume you mean link popularity as far as SE are concerned - it is good for link development as that is sort of the point :)

I always thought - But correct me if I am wrong - that the tracking codes in affiliate urls mean that they dont count much to link pop...

[rintrah]

Ah, but you could include a standard text link in all affiliate ads.

[Marcia]

rintrah, how would the clickthroughs be recorded so the affiliate would get proper credit for purchases with plain text links?

[rintrah]

We're marketing two similar services with distinctly different price points.

Have a standard text link go to a landing page - which is where the affiliate tracking URL will be.

Labor intensive - as each affiliate needs their own page, but methinks it may work - the affiliate $$$ will keep flowing, and now there is the added benefit of link popularity as well.

[Dayo_UK]

Surely you will still need a standard link on that landing page back to the main site - otherwise all you will get is PR passed to the landing page.

[rintrah]

Absolutely, it could be placed at the bottom of the page.

This idea is still half-baked, which is why I brought it up - was hoping the WebmasterWorld community can add to it or find the fatal flaw in my logic so I don't waste time coding up a billion pages.

;P

[Dayo_UK]

I would assume that all these pages would have unique content?

Also not sure how many advertiser would be happy with the idea that there would be a standard link (I mean OK - Bottom of the page - but you cant/souldnt really hide it)

[Hawkgirl]

Have a standard text link go to a landing page - which is where the affiliate tracking URL will be.

We've done a lot with landing pages in this manner (not for affiliates but for different advertising partners) and some of my landing pages rank higher than my main site. It's maddening. :)

[olwen]

THe customised landing pages just need some code, they need not be labour intensive. They could even redirect to your home page

[wackybrit]

I knew of one ISP that has an incredible number of backlinks because of their affiliate scheme. (I've just been checking it out again and it seems like their numbers have gone down.. although I'd need to research further). My research shows you don't need 'direct links' for it to count. If your site is PHP enabled, you could do things like:

[somesite.com...]

And so it counts as a link to the site's front page, but your script can make sure it's tagged for an affiliate sale. Do bear in mind, however, that Google probably will (or has), quite rightly, penalised this sort of activity.

Or, even if you have to link elsewhere, as long as it's on the same domain.. your domain gets the overall PR improvement.. which is pretty much why most people are interested in backlinks anyway ;-)

[dmorison]

You can identify affiliates via referrer.

Of course there are people that blank out referrer through privacy concerns, but the same people are generally funny about cookies as well - so not really a problem.

[Mike_Mackin]

The affiliate management software that is out there comes in 2 colors.

One type runs on your server.
The other runs on their server keeps the records and redirects to your site.

We prefer the first type ;)

[Catalyst]

There is an affiliate program out there that helps build link pop, tracks well and has good reporting features.
Also alot more reasonably priced than most.

The sufer goes straight to the home page of the merchant (or landing page) instead of going to the tracking domain and then being redirected. So intead of affiliate links looking like:
[qksrv.net...] or
[clickserve.cc-dt.com...] (which don't help link pop.)

They look like this: [merchant.com...]

Even though this is a software program, not a network - they do list your affiliate program in their directory and have a decent affiliate base - so this can help you get new affiliates.

The SUPER cool thing for affiliates that sign up for programs that use this software is you decide what you want your affiliate id to be - instead of having it be a number or gibberish. So if you're smart, you can have your affiliate ID be homepage, FAQ, productinfo or something similar.

Then you can have an affiliate link that looks like:
[merchant.com...]
or [merchant.com...]
So your affiliate links don't even look like an affiliate link. Pretty cool for affiliates! Better than cloaking if you pick a good generic affiliate Id.