I program for a fairly large ecommerce site.
We are looking to employ some new SEO techniques, but only through straight methods. We've improved site content, title tags, urls.
We are thinking of listing with linkshare or commissionjunction.
Will they help us get more sales?
The reason that manufacturers/service providers list with affiliate managers like cj is precisely to get more sales. How many more you get or whether you get any more at all depends on thousands of factors, but generally if your affiliate strategy takes into acccount the nature and dynamics of your category and your standing in the category, etc., and your program is structured well, then yes it should produce incremental sales results. This is a massively large subject and you should pursue more detailed questions about whether and how to launch an affiliate program in our
Ad Sales and Affiliate Programs Forum [webmasterworld.com]
We are thinking of listing with linkshare or commissionjunction.
Will they help us get more sales?
Will it help improve our natural search results?
If you are wanting to run a straight program I would not spend much time thinking about using affiliates to build link popularity. The use of affiliates to build link pop is by definition manipulated by the affiliate marketer's efforts, i.e., those links are not real "votes" for your site. Don't get me wrong, there are ways that affiliate links can count towards a site's rankings, but IMO, that's dangerous ground and you're better off managing an affiliate program for sales and distribution and brand awareness, and running your link dev campaign separately. This is an admittedly conservative point of view, FYI. Others may differ.
Is one more recommended than the other?
Per our TOS, we don't allow recommendations for specific services here. The potential for spam, vendettas, and a whole category of shady activity is far too great.
Are there any downsides to listing with them?
This is another question best pursued in detail over in the Aff Forum, but my 2 cents just to get you started is that there are always differences between providers, and there are also huge differences betweeen running your own affiilate program and outsourcing it. Running your own affords total control but far more work and a steep learning curve if you know little about it. Outsourcing brings in the expertise and marketing power to run and get your program noticed, but you'll have less control, and be one of many competing for attention.
