Affiliate programs are best for merchants because they only pay for results. Only bloggers who can actually convert their traffic into sales will benefit from them. That means the blogger is in control of what drives their income and can directly increase it.
How an affiliate program is structured affects which sales will be attributed to your traffic – and only those will generate commissions. How repeat visitors are tracked will have a definite impact on your potential earnings.
Most affiliate management companies use cookies to track referrals. When someone clicks on your affiliate link the cookie is stored on their PC and identifies them as a repeat visitor if they return to make a purchase later. While that sounds simple it is not. There are many ways for cookies to drop sales.
- Cookies have an expiration date. They are only good for a limited period of time with 60 days being the most common time period I’ve noticed in affiliate programs.
- Cookies are specific to a particular computer. If your potential buyer clicks on your affiliate link while they’re at work and then buy from a different PC you won’t get credit for the sale.
- Cookies can be deleted by PC users. Some have their PCs set up to delete them whenever they close their browser or shut down their PCs. Others delete them manually or have software that deletes cookies – usually spyware programs.
- Cookies can be overwritten. What happens if someone visits an online store by clicking on your affiliate link and then visits it again later using another affiliate link elsewhere? Which affiliate gets credit for the sale?
- Some online retailers ask if someone referred the buyer. If the buyer names one person and the cookie indicates another who gets credit for the sale?
When selecting an affiliate program these are the factors to keep in mind:
- Who tracks the sales and sends payment? Many prefer to use a third party service so they only have to meet one minimum amount and can rely on that service to collect their earnings and send them payment.
- How often do they pay? Most third party affiliate management companies pay monthly when you reach a payout amount which is often $25 but can be higher. Some affiliate programs only pay quarterly and most pay only after you reach a minimum amount.
- Do they use cookies to track return visits? Many buyers don’t buy right away and with cookie tracking you will still be compensated for later purchases. This is the standard so you may want to avoid any affiliate programs that do not pay for residual sales.
- The length of time before the cookies expire. The longer the cookie persists the more likely you will be credited with future purchases. Sixty days is fairly standard and some last as long as a year.
- What happens if the buyer visits another affiliate between clicking on your link and making a purchase? This is the most challenging information to obtain as it is not always readily available.
- What percentage of each sale you earn. This can be only 5% at Amazon (although that page says up to 15% it primarily pays out only 5%). I recommend focusing on programs that pay at least 10%. The Executive Gift Shoppe affiliate program pays 12% and you can make up to 30% for magazines to 65% or even 100% for ebooks.
- How dependable is the seller? Your reputation is affected if you’re recommending them so do some research and make sure. Search for reviews, testimonials, and complaints before you start promoting.
- Are their prices competitive? This is more important in some niches than others. You can use product price comparison sites to find out how easy it is to compare prices. If the products are easily researched and their prices are much higher your sales will be lower than normal.
Long time readers of GrowMap know that a friend of ours owns Executive Gift Shoppe, an online gift store that offers an affiliate program. Since almost any blog could offer gifts I’ll use their program in future posts containing tips on using images and how to pre-sell affiliate offerings.
Be sure to read about pre-selling in my next post in this series as it is the most important difference between those who make money with affiliate programs and those who do not.
If you’re already familiar with affiliate programs I can strongly recommend the high quality personalized and engraved gifts ExecutiveGiftShoppe offers as well worth promoting. Visit the next link for all the reasons I recommend their business, personal and groomsmen gifts.
Here is a win/win for bloggers. Join their affiliate program, write a creative post about their store or any of their products, and enter it in their Blogging Contest. Even if you aren’t a $50 gift certificate winner your blog will receive traffic from other entrants and be heavily promoted by us. Any blogger who enters will be linked from this blog too AND many will be featured in specific posts and recommended at Twitter and FriendFeed.
This is one of the chances to maximize your visibility and online exposure by participating when someone else wants to promote your links for you. Now is the perfect time to learn how to monetize your blog with affiliate products because we will personally assist you. Ask any questions you have in the comments of this post or contact us at Twitter.
There are NO dumb questions. Not sure how to insert an image? Need assistance finding an angle that fits your niche? Want to know more about pre-selling? Not sure how to use an affiliate link? No matter how inexperienced you are we encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity for free personal assistance to take your skills to the next level and start earning money in your blog.
AFFILIATE MARKETING RESOURCES:
- Top Ways to Increase Success with Affiliate Marketing
AFFILIATE PROGRAM RECOMMENDATIONS:
- Derek Semmler (Twitter) How the Bridaluxe Wedding Affiliate Program Hits the Affiliate Network Nail on the Head
- Weddex (Twitter) Bridaluxe: Wedding Affiliate Program for Wedding Pros
- GrowMap (Twitter) How to Evaluate a Gift Affiliate Program
- ExecGiftsBlog (ExecGifts) Executive Gift Shoppe Gift Affiliate Program
AFFILIATE MARKETING for AFFILIATES:
- Derek Semmler (Twitter) Case Study: Getting Started with Affiliate Marketing
- AffiliateXFiles (Ron Cripps) How to Become an Affiliate Marketer
- AffiliateXFiles (Ron Cripps) How to Create a Product Review Site That Sells
- Derek Semmler (Twitter) Building Affiliate Stores
- Adam Riemer (Rollerblader) How to Pick Merchants to Promote
- Derek Semmler (Twitter)How to Add Affiliate Products to Your Site
- AffiliateXFiles (Ron Cripps) Affiliate Marketing Tips For Long Term Results
- AffiliateXFiles (Ron Cripps) Affiliate Marketing FAQs – Ask your questions here and get answers from successful affiliate with 9+ years experience
AFFILIATE MARKETING FOR MERCHANTS:
- Murray Newlands (Twitter) Affiliate Marketing for Merchants
- Adam Riemer (Rollerblader) What You Should Expect from your Affiliate Management Company aka OPM
- Adam Riemer (Rollerblader) Common Mistakes When Hiring an Affiliate Manager
- Adam Riemer (Rollerblader) How to Select an Affiliate Management Company
- Adam Riemer (Rollerblader) How Small Businesses Can Compete for Affiliates
- Adam Riemer (Rollerblader) Why Merchants Should Offer Affiliate Commissions on Gift Certificates
Related articles by Zemanta
- Wedding Boom Predicted for Next 22 Years (growmap.com)
- How to Evaluate a Merchant Gift Affiliate Program (growmap.com)
- How to Attract Affiliates to Your Program (marketersdaily.com)
- The Way I See It: State of Affiliate Marketing Part 1 (revenews.com)
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Twitter: dhruvbhagat2
August 1, 2012 at 9:43 pm
I was so confused about their way that how they really judge people that buys the product from some of their affiliates. I clicked on my affiliate link from my PC and buy a hosting using another email. They said that the sale made was invalid. I was like “HOW” ??
But from now, I will promote my affiliates and will engage on writing. Thanks for the real facts !!
Dhruv Bhagat would love you to read ..First Step In Blogging – Choosing Domain Name For Website
Great Job Creating huge business opportunities and economic ventures online is really hard especially when you have commence the business. But this blog is really helped us a lot by providing such a useful information. Thanks for the information that I got because they are in fact supportive.
Hold any possible chance on your business way until you get a real success. Thank you very much for sharing this wonderful post, and it is pretty helpful to anybody wanting to seeking success in business.
Very informative and trustworthy blog. it’s playing a key point to seize the opportunity if you wanna to win in your business. anyways, thanks for sharing us such helpful information.
business opportunity plays an important part in the success of your business. anyways, your blog is very informative, thanks for sharing
prospective business opportunity is a very important to make money. thank you very much for sharing us scuh useful information.
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ARTICLE is very informative. Finding great business opportunities and money-making ventures online is really hard especially when you are a first-timer. But what I learned in this blog is really helpful. Thanks really for the information that I got because they are really helpful. I love the blog and hope to read more of these from the author! Nice job!
Twitter: techlasers
November 16, 2009 at 12:41 pm
I also making money on affiliate programs.
I think a key thing is choosing good quality products to promote.
A lot of products on the smaller affiliate networks you wouldn’t buy yourself or recommend to friends, ever.
Twitter: DennisEdell
November 13, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Still being a newbie affiliate (sorta), this may be a dumb question – how does the size of the network fit in, do smaller ones just give garbage?
Frankly, I’ve found some real garbage and good ones on big or small…
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..He/She Has Unsubscribed – Should You Ask Why? =-.
I like making money with affiliate programs, but the new ftc guidelines affecting affiliate and bloggers both.
Twitter: GrowMap
March 19, 2009 at 11:17 pm
@Mirjam Thank you for commenting and that IS an excellent point. It DOES take just as much time to promote a product you love that makes you $40 a sale as it does to promote one that makes only $10 or less.
I usually focus on programs that pay at least 10%; however, I do know someone who made a good income from Amazon.com (only 5% on most products) because she focused on only high dollar items. I have suggested that off and on since she told me.
Until I get that pre-selling post written the most important point is to answer WHY you recommend it and WHY they would want to buy it.
Answering what’s in it for the buyer makes ALL the difference! How does that product or service BENEFIT them? (Anyone who knows anything about sales has heard about focusing on benefits instead of features.)
Many stores offer affiliate programs and have weak product information. Research and feature their more expensive products and you are very likely to close the sale before they head over to the merchant’s site to buy.
InternetStrategist’s last blog post..Blog Traffic Up 54.87% in the Last 30 Days: Our Proven Traffic Improvement Strategy
very interesting, looking forward to reading your post on pre-selling and seeing what you have to say on that
As to the percentages of commission you get, I think it is more important to actually look at how much you´d make per sale. I mean, 50% might sound great, but if it would only give you $10, I´d rather go for 10% of higher priced items and earn more.
Cause in the end… the work involved selling something that gives you $10 in commission could very well be almost the same as it takes to land you $50 or more in commission on one sale ….
Mirjam’s last blog post..Using Massive Traffic Techniques – a Long Shot or Big Money Maker?
Twitter: GrowMap
March 3, 2009 at 10:49 pm
@Dennis LOL! Also what I tell people when they run small to very small businesses and think market research done on Fortune 500 companies applies to them. It usually doesn’t.
Twitter: DennisEdell
March 3, 2009 at 7:51 pm
“and making decisions based on bad data is very dangerous”
Almost my exact words when people ask me why I don’t follow “guru” newsletters. LOL!
Just a little levity…
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..Best “Blog Improvement Review” Contest – 1 Winner – $100 via Paypal
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