The Value of Testing
The 5 Top Reasons why Affiliates join an Affiliate Network
2 Tier Affiliate Programs Explained
Affiliate Network - Do I Need One?
Preparing Your Website For Visitors
By Shelly Levin One of the most important aspects of affiliate marketing is testing. This allows you to know what works best for your particular website and gives you the warning signs that you are possibly going down the wrong route. Testing gives you the ability to build the optimal website on which every space is filled in the most profitable way. It is vital that you have access to Real Time stats if you want to be able to test out your ideas. Most affiliate networks offer this feature for free, and there are plenty software packages on the market which will track this for you. In this way, you will be able to see straight away if the change you have made has had any benefit to your online business. Sometimes the crucial make break changes, do not immediately track a huge turn around of your business, but often there will be some hint which gives you the hope that you are moving in the right direction. What exactly is testing? It can be as small as moving a banner from the top right hand corner to the top left. It can be as huge as rethinking your whole model of how you will get traffic to your site. It could simply mean you need to replace the campaigns you are currently running. Whether your goal is to get visitors to your site, give your visitors a wonderful time or it is to make money from every visitor that enters your site, testing will give you the tools to spot what is working and what needs to be rethought. Let us look at an example. Trevor is running a website on Disney World. He joins an affiliate network and picks 3 offers which he will run on his Disney World website. They include an email submit campaign, a zip code campaign and a shopping site where his visitors can purchase Disney goods. He also puts a bit of adsense on the top and left hand side of his website. The rest of the site is filled with content and pictures. At these early stages of the website, Trevor already needs to start testing. The first and most important goal for Trevor is to get traffic to his site. Without traffic, this website is as good as your personal hand written diary. Traffic encourages an excitement about your website and will ultimately make you money. There are hundreds if not thousands of different ways to get traffic to your site. Each feature you add or remove from your site, could change your daily ratio from 10 to 1 visitor or just as easily, from 10 to 10000 visitors. The beauty about testing is it never ends. Once Trevor has sufficient traffic visiting and revisiting his site, he needs to work a way that encourages the visitors to stay and browse. Through informative articles or interesting campaigns, Trevor is now able to test what works for his visitors and what does not work. As Trevor gains knowledge in the power of testing, he will look for the hidden, less obvious changes to test. A good example of this, is the difference it can make whether the name of the website is displayed at the top middle, top left or top right of the page. The importance of this decision can have a significant impact on the amount of type-in-traffic Trevor will receive to his site. One of the most important parts of affiliate marketing is testing. This allows the affiliates to know the impact of each new idea and determine whether every change made will benefit or improve their site. Testing hints or spells out exactly what works and what needs to be rethought. Thus, if you are interested in affiliate marketing, make it a goal to be interested in testing. Testing is not restricted to websites. It is just as effective if you want to improve your mailers or blogs as well. Don't hold back on testing, it is one of the most powerful tools for success, and vital if you want to succeed. From the moment you decide to build a website, start a mailing list or write a blog, testing each step can only be of benefit to you and help you succeed. By Shelly Levin An affiliate network is a meeting ground for advertisers and affiliates to "meet". There are possibly 100's of good reasons why both advertisers and affiliates can benefit from signing up to a network, but in this article we will focus solely on the 5 top reasons why affiliates benefit from being part of an affiliate network. 1. Campaign Selection: An affiliate network gives affiliates access to 100's of niche merchant's products and services. The network uses it's time and resources to find the clever publishers who have figured out new ways to drive converting traffic. It also provides a greater variety of top performing, reputable campaigns. In this way, affiliates will easily get exposed to upmarket products such as banner rotations. With a single affiliate network, affiliates can easily work with multiple advertisers, multiple offers and multiple payment style options such as pay per click, pay per lead, pay per impression, etc. all under one umbrella, the affiliate network. 2. One Single Relationship: The relationship between the advertiser and the affiliate is of utmost importance. These relationships are necessary for structuring increased commissions (if the affiliates volume increases), in advertisers delivering affiliate-specific content, and in the advertiser and affiliate working together to assist the affiliate in maximizing the traffic to his site. The affiliate only deals with one advertiser, namely the affiliate network, rather than each of the merchants individually. This frees up a lot of space on the affiliates calendar since the affiliate does not have to use any time building relationships with anyone except their affiliate network manager. Affiliate marketing is about relationships, and that is then all taken care of by the affiliate network. The affiliate network will provide top quality support and a great training area for the affiliate to build up their skills, learn and grow. 3. Real Time Tracking: Testing and comparing each and every change and idea is fundamental for taking an affiliate's business from strength to strength. The most important tool for testing is real time tracking. This allows the affiliate to know immediately how their new idea is translating and helps to guide the affiliate as to whether it is an idea worth pursuing. The software to track impressions, clicks, leads and sales for each campaign can be both pricey and require a lot of upkeep. The network will provide this service for free to their affiliates. The network will also provide affiliate with advanced reporting tools for checking their stats, graphs for analyzing trends, and even cookie testing capabilities for monitoring fraud. 4. Risk of Payment: Every advertiser has an element of risk as to whether you will actually receive the payments from them. As many companies can be virtual or on the opposite side of the world from where the affiliate is based, it is often very difficult to avoid doing business with dishonest advertisers. This means that no matter how much revenue the affiliate generates, some advertisers will never pay the affiliates. Joining an affiliate network gives the affiliate much stronger protection. The network will have built strong relationships with a number of the advertisers it works with and thus there is minimal chance the affiliate will not get paid. 5. Monthly, Correct Payments: Affiliate networks ensure all payments are checked and paid monthly (or as alternatively agreed). This means that the affiliate does not have to waste valuable time checking and reconciling the advertisers' figures. The role of an affiliate is to maximize the traffic to their site and provide rich and useful content to their site. This keeps an ever growing visitor base arriving at their site, and ensures the visitors look around the site before exiting the site. An affiliate network encourages the affiliates to concentrate on these vital functions by assisting the affiliate in maximizing the spend of each visitor the affiliate attracts. By Eric Edelstein How will refering new affiliates to an affiliate program make me money in the future? Thats where a 2 tier affiliate program works like magic! Affiliates are getting cleverer by the day. So these days, affiliates know the difference between the different types of traffic they can get paid for. There are a lot of definitions though – CPM, CPC, CPA, CPL, CPD and many more. CPM is impressions, when the publisher (the website owner) gets paid every time a banner is shown. CPC is clicks, where the publisher (or email marketer and other marketers) gets paid every time a banner or text link is clicked upon. The other ways of getting paid are grouped together under the term performance marketing – and this is where the term affiliate is most commonly used as well. An affiliate is a marketer who sends visitors to another site using a variety of methods (such as placing banners or text links on their own site, buying sponsored listings on search engines, email marketing and many other different methods) and gets paid when an action happens. This action can be a lead (CPL stands for Cost per Lead), a Sale (CPS stands for Cost per Sale), a download (CPD stands for Cost per download) and many other variations. Some in the Internet industry refer to performance based marketing as CPA (cost per acquisition), although the term is also sometimes used for specific types of campaigns such as leads or sales. Now that we’ve got over the hard part, the rest is easy to understand. The affiliate gets paid for sending visitors to a specific landing page where an action happens – either a lead, a sale, a download or some other sort of action that the advertiser requires. As an example, some advertisers are looking to build up their databases, so they pay for each opt in email address they receive, others want leads from specific locations, so they pay for zip codes, and then try convince the visitors after they fill in their zip code, to fill in a more detailed lead form. The common denominator is that the affiliate gets paid when an action happens. A 2 Tier affiliate program is simply finding new marketers to sign up under you to do EXACTLY what you are doing – sending visitors to different offers and getting paid when the visitors perform some sort of action. So why would you want other marketers to sign up under you to promote the same offers? Simple – you get paid a percentage of the amount the affiliate you refer gets paid? Sounds complicated? Don’t worry, it’s not hard to understand. As an example, say John promotes 5 different offers on a single affiliate network. He gets paid for every lead, sale, email and zip code he generates from these different offers. John now tells Mark about the Network and gets Mark to sign up using a banner or text link that has John’s referral code built into it. Mark now signs up to the Affiliate Network under John and starts promoting various offers and advertisers from the Affiliate Network. These offers DON’T have to be the same offers that John is promoting. Mark can promote ANY of the offers on the Affiliate Network. And this is the best part… For any amounts that Mark gets paid, John receives a percentage of the amount over and above what Mark gets paid. So if Mark gets paid $1000 in Month 1, and the 2 Tier Affiliate program is paying 5%, then John would receive $50 just for referring Mark. But it gets even better… Some 2 Tier Affiliate Networks pay LIFETIME commissions. So John wouldn’t get a referral commission just for a month or a year – he receives it FOR ALL TIME. If Mark becomes a super affiliate and starts generating HUGE commissions every month, John can just sit back and collect the checks as he referred him. There are 3 important things to know when finding affiliates to sign up under you on 2 Tier Affiliate Programs: Is the affiliate program or affiliate network credible, has proper tracking so your referrals are correctly tracked, has good campaigns and offers for the affiliates to promote so they actually do make money, and do they pay timeously? Assuming that the affiliate program or network is good, what percentage do they pay you on amounts that your referrals get paid? All programs vary so compare different programs to see what the industry standard is. How long do you continue receiving referral commissions for? Some pay for a month, some for the lifetime, and of course there are many variations in between. So do your homework and find a 2 Tier program that can make you money long in the future for the work you’re doing today. By Shelly Levin The affiliate has a choice. They can either work with multiple merchants, or they can work with an affiliate network. So why should a marketer want to work with an Affiliate Network? I remember a friend told me a story awhile back. He had built a small website and had signed up to become an affiliate at a stack of different affiliate programs related to the topic of that site. A few weeks after he had set up the site including links and banners from multiple affiliate programs, he turned his attention to other business interests and lost interest in the site. A few months later, he noticed that a few checks had started arriving from the affiliate programs he had joined up with. Not large checks, but amounts for a few dollars here and there. That was his first problem – as he was living outside of the USA, lots of small amounts result in lots of bank charges. (Which makes me ask - Why can’t all countries allow affiliates to bank checks at NO CHARGE?) Nevertheless,
the checks continued to come in, and although some of them were posted on his wall as they were so small he couldn't bank them, he wasn't complaining as he was making money he hadn't expected. It turned out that his site had ranked high up on specific keywords in a major search engine, and he was receiving a fair amount of targeted traffic for free. A few months after that he decided to log into all the affiliate accounts he had registered with, and noticed that some of them had not paid him as the amounts were too small, some of them hadn't paid although they should have, and some even showed that they had sent him amounts that he didn't recall receiving checks or EFT or paypal or any other payments for! So how does working with an affiliate network prevent this from happening, and is this the only reason to work with an affiliate network? A good affiliate network has a number of different offers which the affiliates can promote, and nearly all the affiliate networks consolidate the amounts the affiliates earn from the various campaigns. This means that the affiliates receive a CONSOLIDATED payment rather than many smaller ones. It also makes reconciling the payments easier, as you simply log into one affiliate network, and can see a summary of each of the campaigns you have promoted, how much you have earned from them, a summary of how much you have earned overall, and how much the affiliate network has paid you to date. Also, once you work with one campaign in an affiliate network, the other campaigns work in a similar if not identical way – the tracking is the same method, the place you pull the creatives from is the same, the way you check your stats is the same – and nearly always, all of this can be achieved by logging into one backend site rather than many different sites. So now you are working with one log-in, where you can really get to understand the system. However, even with the best of affiliate networks, things go wrong – but with an affiliate network, you would be allocated an affiliate manager, who will help you sort out any issues you encounter. Not 50 different affiliate managers – one for each campaign you are running, as would be the case if each merchant was a standalone merchant with their own affiliate program – but one affiliate manager for all the campaigns. And by building up a relationship with your affiliate manager, when you do need answers, you have one person to turn to. Of course, once you become a professional super whaling affiliate (the type that lies on the beach while the money pours in – HAS ANYONE REALLY ACHIEVED THIS? Watch this space for a future story about the affiliate beach goers!), you'll need specific campaigns to promote, and that is why, even the best of affiliates belong to multiple affiliate programs and affiliate networks. But this presents even more problems. So my advice when starting out is to choose one or 2 affiliate networks, become familiar with their system, build up a relationship with the affiliate manager, test out the different campaigns they have, and let them help you achieve the success and results you want to achieve. By Christine Stander Designing and developing a website today is not as easy as it was let's say four years ago. There are so many elements to take into consideration and various media strategies to contend with. Color, technology, screen resolutions and cross browser compatibility are but only a few of them. Lately you also have to contend with and create instinctive navigation, search engine optimize your site effectively and ensure that all action pages are merely three clicks away from any given landing page to ensure effective conversion. With all these considerations, where does one start? Starting Out Right I have always been one to believe that if you spend enough time planning your site upfront, you will definitely reap the rewards upon its launch. Prior to jumping straight into the development of the website, you would have Only once you have established these points you turn to design. Designing an effective yet attractive site is the most time consuming part within the production process. Assisting the Process It is very important that the initiator work closely with the designer(s), copywriter(s) and developer(s) ensuring that they have access to all information regarding the project, including: Once an initial design has been produced it is advisable that a web analytics or user behavior expert be brought into the discussion to ensure that the proposed design will convert as expected. Visitors do not like to think when they are on a website. Present them with the content that they are looking for and make it easy for them to find related information or make the desired action such as purchasing, downloading or signing up to whatever it is that you wish them to do. There are a few generic details to look out for to ensure that the design is on the right track, including: During a page heat map research project, it was proven that the most attention lies on the right hand side of the page. The top right corner being the most effective area for actions to take place. The design is one of the first, but none the least the most important area of site production that needs to be taken into consideration. Equal parts of design, development and content are needed to effectively prepare your site for visitors. Having previously dabbled in all three of these areas myself, I can appreciatively say that developers prefer to be handed an accurate story board of the site that they are intended to build, including a detailed page by page briefing. Just like site visitors, it is not in the developer's job description to determine where design meets copy or the initial ideas of the initiator of the project. Ensuring that the various departments converse at least once pre-site design is vital, and will ensure that the website launched will depict the story board initially requested. It was quite a change for me as a previous “old school” developer to change to the W3 Standards, but I must admit that it really is the best way to ensure cross browser compatibility. No more having multiple browsers open to ensure the design is always standard. I will recommend this to anyone still developing “old school”. Ensuring content delivers the most effective message, capturing the audience whilst still enticing the search engines is the third part to the equation. Also confirm that your page titles accurately convey the message of the page. Gone are the days or writing M-amount of key-words within content to try and push your pages higher. Content is king in the land of search engine optimization. You will often find that just by writing relevant, on-topic content the copy is optimized by default. Both spiders and visitors will appreciate this from your site. Bring on the Traffic It is great watching these areas coming together and preparing for the website launch. Now that your site is built as optimally as it could be: great design, relevant persuasive content and development strategy that reaches all markets, all you require is the traffic. Consulting with a media strategist at this time is definitely recommended. They would be able to confirm the best methods for your niche of the market. Whether you should concentrate solely on natural search or tie in with a paid search marketing campaign. A mail shot is always a good idea – especially if the site has been revamped. The latest craze is Affiliate Marketing, a very effective way to market your website with proven returns on investment. A media strategist would be able to confirm whether your site needs all four or if one of these areas would suffice. Follow Through Your site is launched, you have an effective media strategy in place and traffic is booming. Is this the end of the site lifecycle, certainly not! Don't let the attention of your site slip merely because it has launched and expect it to fend for itself on the World Wide Web. Acquire a good log file analyzer program and keep tracking and measuring the performance of your site. To ensure that your site stays at peak performance you will constantly be required to analyze the traffic, visitor navigation through the site as well as your search engine optimization levels. Involve your visitors. Place feedback forms on your site and request that visitors tell you where, or if they require more detailed information, or have suggestions for improvement of the experience. It is for them that you have built this site, and without them, your site would be a lonely satellite in a populated galaxy. The Value of Testing
The 5 Top Reasons why Affiliates join an Affiliate Network
2 Tier Affiliate Programs Explained
Affiliate Network - Do I Need One?
Preparing Your Website For Visitors
Affiliates
- FREE Quick sign up - start earning right away.
- CPM, CPC, CPL, CPA campaigns
- High Commissions & Fast, Ontime payments
Advertisers
- Performance based marketing.
- Promote your campaign to thousands of our affiliates.
- We handle the tracking and payment to affiliates.
