by SHAWN COLLINS
www.clubmom.com
Recently, affiliates of the ClubMom affiliate program were
asked what advice they wish they had been given when they first
started in affiliate marketing. Being the altruistic sort that I
am, I'd like to share with you what they said, this week and
next. Consider this a two-part interactive article.
No Free Lunch
There is a common misconception that it is easy to make money
with affiliate programs. Sorry, but it involves a lot more than
just putting up a few banners and links. It takes hard work,
dedication, and a lot of patience.
You will have to work at frequently updating your site and
your affiliate links. In order to attract new visitors and bring
people back to your site for a second, third, and tenth time, you
have to make your site a destination. Your visitors are not
coming to your site to click on affiliate links. Keep your site
evergreen (i.e., update it often), and don't expect to make money
right away. If you build and market it well, the commission
checks will come.
Participate in the
Community
Share your knowledge, spout your opinions, and ask questions. The
collective knowledge of the affiliates for any given program is a
great natural resource. Yahoo! Groups hosts community sites for a
number of affiliate programs and enables a community of
affiliates to participate in chats, an email discussion list,
polls, calendars, and more. If your favorite affiliate programs
do not have a community set up, suggest it to the affiliate
manager.
Test and Test Again
Did you ever give prominent placement to an affiliate program and
wonder why the money was not flowing into your account? It may be
that the offer is simply not attractive to your visitors, but it
also may be that the link is not functioning correctly. Test
every link you place on your site to be sure the links direct
your visitors to the correct page or product offering. Some HTML
editors alter part of an affiliate link, which ends up scrubbing
away your affiliate ID when the link is clicked. FrontPage 2000
is one of the biggest culprits, as it often converts the "&"
in your affiliate URL into "&." This feature was designed to
make somebody's life easier, but it's a headache for many
affiliates.
Webs
Unlimited has developed Channel Cash, a free add-in for
FrontPage 2000, which allows you to insert affiliate links from
Be Free merchant partners directly within the FrontPage 2000
environment.
Increase Your Traffic
In order to achieve sustained success with an affiliate program,
you must drive a consistent stream of new traffic to your site.
Registering with the major search engines is a good first step.
Before submitting your site, be sure to optimize the code (title,
meta tags, etc.). Take a look at "Search
Engine School," a free e-book, to get an idea about the best
techniques for search engine optimization.
In addition to registering with search engines, there are also
pay-per-click search engines, such as Overture and FindWhat, where you can buy
low-cost, targeted placement in the search engines. Also, it's
very beneficial for your site to make friends and alliances with
other like-minded site owners. Swap site links and email
signature plugs to drive free, targeted traffic to one
another.
Contextual Is Effectual
You should select affiliate programs that tie in with your site's
content. If you have a site dedicated to automobile repair, a
link to a site for credit card sign-ups doesn't make a lot of
sense, even if it pays the highest commission of any affiliate
program around.
Visitors come to your site looking for a particular subject
matter, so you should take advantage of the targeted audience and
deliver offers for products, information, and services that are
relevant to your site. How likely would it be for you to be able
to buy a case of motor oil in the same place where you buy your
underwear? Odds are you wouldn't go back to that store again (at
least for underwear purchases). It's the same concept with your
site — give your visitors non sequiturs, and they will never give
you sales. Your affiliate programs and content should be
difficult to distinguish from each other.
Also, don't try to sell the product, or the merchant's site
where you are an affiliate. That is the merchant's job. Your job
is to entice your visitors to click on the links.
Shawn Collins is the
Affiliate Manager for ClubMom
Inc., the Founder of the United States Affiliate Manager
Coalition, and the Co-founder of affiliate metrix. Shawn's first
book, "Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants," was
published in April 2001.
