Rookie's Guide to Becoming a Successful Affiliate

Affiliate programs are an excellent way to generate revenue from any Web site. Simply join a program, add their banners or text links to your site, and the checks start filling up the mailbox. Well actually, it's a little more complicated than throwing up a banner.

Affiliate programs come in a lot of different flavors� some will pay a percentage of the sale, others pay a flat fee per transaction, and still others will pay you for every click of the mouse that brings somebody from your site to theirs. An affiliate program by many other names is still an affiliate program. You may have heard about partner, revenue sharing, affinity, bounty, and associate programs. All of these are affiliate programs.

In essence, affiliate programs are partnerships between merchants and Web masters. Webster's Dictionary defines affiliate as "to take in as in a member or branch." This member or branch of the merchant company benefits by earning income through the sale of products or services, and the merchant benefits by having the extended reach of their products in the marketplace.

The affiliate programs operate by the "Law of Reciprocity," where people are paid for their performance, like the familiar "one good turn deserves another." The merchant pitches in their good turn by providing a product or service, accompanied by an infrastructure for tracking sales and issuing payments to the affiliates. In turn, it is the responsibility of the affiliate to make a concerted effort to sell the product or service of the merchant. This cannot be accomplished merely by posting a banner or text link to a personal homepage.

In order for the affiliate program to become a "win-win" tool for both the merchant and affiliate, the affiliate must have a Web site with more than a jumble of affiliate links, and the Web site must generate some traffic. If you hope to get rich quick, there is no need to read on.

The "80/20 Principle" is the popular expression of a rule of economics that describes the typical imbalance that exists between efforts and rewards. When applied to affiliate programs, the "80/20 Principle," also known as the "Pareto Principle" after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, dictates that 80% of affiliate sales are generated by 20% of the affiliates.

But industry guru and founder of Refer-it.com, James Marciano, sees an even bigger imbalance. "I would say that affiliate space is governed by a tiny minority of people that have optimized their Web sites for maximum salability. Rather than the '80/20 Principle,' it's more like the '98/2 Principle,'" according to Marciano.

So how do you become a part of that elite 2%? If you build it and promote it, they will buy. It's just a matter of applying yourself and taking care to create a quality site that attracts traffic.

Content is King
Why did you create your Web site? If you launched a site merely because you have dollar signs in your eyes, your intentions are going to be evident to everybody that accidentally lands at your site, and then quickly leaves. Find a niche and work hard to be the best in your space. What interests you... the New York Yankees... kids... drive-in movies? Create a site that you care about and it will be a lot easier turning your passion into profit.

Below are some components you should try to implement into your site in order to generate interest and traffic:

		Feature niche specific content. iSyndicate and Excite provide a wide variety of choices for syndicated content that you can add to your site for free.
		Many Web hosts supply discussion forums that you can customize and add to your site. If your host does not provide these services, BeSeen and My Forum provide free forums for your site.
		Write a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page that answers questions about the focus of your Web site.
		Opinion polls are great for generating data to publish at a later date, and also to add some interactivity to your site. FreePolls.com and Pollit are two great, easy to use sites that will add a free poll to your site.
		Publish an e-mail newsletter on a regular schedule that informs subscribers about updates to your site, new about the topic of your site and pretty much anything you care to write about from month to month. ListBot offers both a free and paid mailing list that includes stats and an easy to use interface.
		Word of mouth is a very effective method to market your site. If you're not utilizing this tactic yet, you should be. Every page on your site should have a link where visitors can click to tell a friend about your great site. Check out eBoz's Recommend & Win or Recommend-It to add this tool to your site.
		Testimonials are very persuasive and effective. What do your visitors think of your site? If they're not telling you, just ask them. Add a short survey to you site and solicit comments. Be sure to get their permission and publish the flattering remarks on your site.
		If you have a flair for writing, or even if you don't, do some research and author articles and reviews that pertain to the focus of your site.

Create a Traffic Jam
Okay, you've created a great site, but nobody is coming to visit. Don't worry, they will come, but only if you tell them where to find you. Follow the guidelines below and you're sure to develop a steady stream of traffic in no time. And where there's traffic, there's an affiliate revenue stream.

		Know the Search Engines. All search engines are not created equal, so you are going to have to know what to do in order to achieve optimal positioning. Go to Search Engine Watch for vital information on optimizing your Web site and achieving search engine success.
		Mailing lists and Newsgroups are the ideal spots to target your niche audience. Search the Liszt mailing list directory and subscribe to mailing lists that reach the people that you want to reach. The same goes for Deja.com, where you can subscribe to numerous newsgroups on specific topics. Be sure to spend some time assimilating into the culture of the mailing lists and newsgroups before posting any sort of solicitations. Even then, post it one time and one time only — if they are interested they will respond to it.
		How's your John Hancock? An e-mail signature is a very useful tool for providing your contact information and URL to the people that you correspond with for your Web site. E-mail signatures usually include your name, company or Web site name, e-mail address, URL, and any other relevant information. You can also add a signature to any posts on Deja.com.
		Back to the Search Engines. You researched the engines, created Meta tags, and submitted your site. But where is it? Of course, you could manually go through the main search engines and conduct searches for each of your keywords. Or you could go the easy and time-effective route and sign up for the free Did-it Detective, which will check the popular search engines and directories to determine if and where your site has been indexed. This research is then e-mailed to you monthly.
		Where do you get most of your traffic? Which of your pages are most/least often visited? When do your visitors tend to visit the site? Who is visiting? Do you have broken links? There are a lot of vital pieces of information that are out there about your site, and if you are not receiving this information, you are missing out on some key information that should dictate your site development and marketing methods. Visit HitBox for a fantastic (and free) Web site traffic counter and analysis tool.

Affiliate programs are a great way to generate revenue from your Web site. You just have to be willing to work hard in order to become part of the 2% of affiliates that reap the benefits of 98% of the revenues.

Shawn Collins is currently the Affiliate Manager for ClubMom Inc., the Founder of the United States Affiliate Manager Coalition, and the Co-founder of affiliate metrix. Shawn is a former employee of Refer-it.com and frequent columnist for Click Z. Shawn's first book, "Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants," was published in April 2001.