Make Money Online

When it comes to best blogging practices, one of my favourite resources is Copyblogger. In fact, I took the format of this headline from some of their blog-writing tips: “[Fill in the Blank] That Everyone Ought to Know About”, because I trust that since it came from them, it might help my blog get some extra attention.

And that’s really the goal, isn’t it? Getting the most eyes on your blog, the most comments—and of course, ‘going viral’.

A lot of the affiliates that we work with in the Share Results network use blogs to generate traffic, and create a buzz around the product that they’re promoting.

We love blogging at Share Results, and because it’s a team effort, it’s always a lot of fun to bounce ideas off each other, and come up with some pieces that we feel are really going to be effective for our readers.

Most recently, our writing team teamed up with our SEO experts to present a training seminar on Best Blogging Practices. We got a lot of great feedback on this training, so we thought we’d include these tips on our blog to help out some of our blogging affiliates, and anyone else involved in blogging.

1. Make Sure Your Headline Rocks
In a world of RSS and Twitter feeds, where the headline of your blog is all you have to pique a reader’s attention, it’s so important that it be a good one. Take one of Copyblogger’s most recent blogs, for example: The Mr. Rogers Guide to Blogging from the Heart. I mean, as a blogger, I could barely click on the link fast enough. (Not to mention, I have a bit of special spot in my heart for Mr. Rogers). And really, that’s the effect you want to have every time.

A tip that I recommend when it comes to writing great headlines is, summarize your wow-factor. If one of the merchants you are promoting has a product that you have tried and made you look ten years younger, I suggest you get that in your headline—it’s your wow factor!

2. Hook Your Reader with a Great Lead
Ok. So you’ve managed to garner some reader excitement with your great wow-factor headline; next in line is your lead paragraph. In terms of best blogging practices, after the headline, your lead paragraph is the second most important element of your post. Readers are busy, and there is an abundance of really great blogs out there, so if they’ve given your blog a chance, based on your great headline, then the goal of your lead is to hook them into reading your whole blog.

Say something bold, get personal, expand on your wow-factor, but at all costs, engage your reader. Report on some unbelievable new research that is affecting the industry, the most interesting aspect of a product you’re promoting or state a product benefit that you know will be of interest to them. Whether you like to use humor, or prefer a more serious approach, be like Mr. Rogers, and convince your reader that what you’re about to share in your blog has real value, and that you care.

3. Keywords, Anchor Texting and Inter-Linking
Keywords are essential for obtaining blog traffic from search engines. Keywords should be incorporated into your headline, and then every 75-100 words in the blog post. In this blog, for example, I am using the keyword, “Best Blogging Practices”. You will find that keyword as part of my headline, and then I have used it throughout the rest of my blog. For best blogging practices, you also should bold your keyword on the second mention.

In addition to using keywords, interlinking to other blog posts should be done with every entry. You can use your own blog for this, and even link out to other blogs. You want to use an anchor text to link to the blog that uses your keyword from your article title, or if not, then a related keyword to the text of the entry.

4. Closing with a Strong Call to Action
A good call to action will not only prompt a reader to take the steps you are suggesting, but will get them to take that action NOW. You may want a reader to visit a merchant’s website, sign up to your newsletter, take a demo of your affiliate marketing software solution, or simply provide their feedback. Whatever it is, make it ridiculously clear what they are suppose to do, and what will happen when they do so.

Statistics show that incorporating “Click Here” into your Call to Action is the most effective way of getting readers to take the step you are suggesting. It’s even better if “click here” is at the end of the sentence, like this: “To sign up to my affiliate newsletter, click here.” But here’s the trick. Whatever link you use in your “Click Here” link in your Call to Action, HAS to also be used in the body of your blog, and must also be relevant to the page you are linking to. And a final word of caution here, I don’t recommend using this approach each and every time, as it can get a bit dry and predictable. So make sure to switch it up!

These are some of the best blogging practices that we try hard to incorporate into our Share Results blog. We’d love to know what practices have worked best for your blog. Tell us about them here! (That’s your cue to take action now!).

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Best Blogging Practices That Everyone Ought to Know About

Earlier this blog series, we discussed effective text and image creatives and how to use them to most efficiently promote products and services. In this post we’re going to look at monitoring the efficiency of your campaigns and some strategies for going about it.

At Share Results, we believe strongly that relationships are the basis for effective affiliate marketing programs. Strong bonds between affiliates and merchants are the foundation for any effective affiliate marketing program. With this in mind, we’ve created an affiliate marketing software solutionthat not only enhances transparency between the two entities, but also allows them to work together closely by using in-depth tracking and reporting features that monitor how well your creatives are performing.

In order for affiliates to be successful, the merchants whose products they are promoting must provide effective creatives to their affiliates. Knowing which creatives are going to be most successful requires some information:

1. The number of impressions must be tracked. How many viewers saw the page where this ad was located? Knowing how your traffic got there, and who they are is also a big part of this equation. It’s very important to understand who your visitors are. Did they get there via a search engine result, or were they recommended by someone else’s site? These differences should play a part in directing your campaigns.
2. Then, the click through rate must be examined. How many people who saw the ad clicked on it and went to the landing page (the page where the item can be purchased?
3. And lastly, the conversion rate: how many people who clicked through to the landing page actually made purchases?

If an ad is getting a high volume of impressions, but very few clicks, then there are several questions that you can ask. It could be that the ad’s placement on the page needs to be adjusted.  And it could be that the ad itself, be it a text or image creative, needs to be reworked.

Ask Yourself

Are you reaching the consumers you want to reach? Is this the right page for this ad? Does that ad have a strong call to action?

Use rotating ads with different images and text to test these until you find the one that works best.

If your ads are attaining a decent amount of clicks per impressions, but visitors are not converting into sales, then it is up to the merchant to look at the efficacy of the landing page. Also, it could be that the creative is misleading in some way, or has not effectively targeted the individuals who are most likely to convert into a sale upon arrival at the purchase page. There are many variables, so it is worth trying many different tactics to reach potential purchasers, and follow the results closely.

Merchants have the ability to see which affiliates are sending traffic to these landing pages, plus their URL, by using the ACID report in Share Results. With this information, they can discover the top performers and what kind of website works best for their product or service.

A great way to achieve success in this area is to constantly be testing and refining your campaigns as well as the creatives you are using to run them. Using a software system that can track all of this information for you will put you miles ahead of your competitors who may not be armed with the same information that you have at your fingertips. Merchants and affiliates must work together to ensure the success of affiliate marketing programs and the reports available in the Share Results software solution help them to do exactly that.

Once again—and there is no way we can stress this enough—always be testing your creatives.

A better understanding of how your creatives are performing = the ability to tailor campaigns based on top performing creatives = the ability to make more money from your affiliate marketing campaigns.

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Zoobooks has become quite the popular kids education affiliate program in Share Results. This is not only because of their coupon offers, and dual CPA and rev share commission models. But they are also right up there with The CuteKid.com and Sittercity, as programs that are perfect for affiliates that specialize in online retail offers for families. That being said, there’s more to a merchant like Zoobooks than first glance. Their audience is a little more comprehensive than most affiliates think. For instance, ever take into consideration the language of those customers, the education, the number of children they have, and what age their kids are? This family audience is not a one-size-fits-all type of demographic. Let’s break down the family audience a little more for a merchant like Zoobooks.

Firstly, families interested in Zoobooks are interested in promoting reading in their homes. With this in mind, it may be a good idea to look at offering their educational products to a more multilingual audience. Perhaps it’s not a bad idea to promote to families that don’t speak English as their first language and may want to help their kids further their knowledge of the English language.

In addition to language enhancement, more than 50% of customers for this product have homes run by college-educated parents. Most of those purchasing products are female and to be more specific, they range between 35 and 50 years of age. It also shouldn’t be surprising that grandmothers make for great potential customers of Zoobooks products. They’re as much invested in the education of their grandchildren as the parents are.

The range of products available from this online retailer include animal-themed magazine subscriptions, as well as DVD sets. The reason for this (besides branding) is the fact that families will have an average of 1.5 children with most averaging around 7 years old. The Zootles group (parents with kids two to 6 years) is also a popular audience.

Also, the average Zoobooks customer not only has college education, but they also have a higher income bracket. Besides 95% of Zoobooks customers owning their own home, they also earn on average $65,000 or more annually. This is a great shopping opportunity for affiliates that cater to this audience of online users.

Furthermore, paid search (with restrictions) is a highly popular method of promotion in this program as is email marketing. Evaluate how to carefully tailor your campaigns, especially when it comes to keywords for PPC. Bidding on keywords like “zoo animals” will be costly, so try using more distinct words or variations, such as “zoo” in tandem with other terms. Some examples are “zoo magazine”, “zoölogy”, “zoo hippos”, “zoo animal education”, “animal education for kids”, and “zoo monkeys”.

Because Zoobooks has a wide variety of products and subscriptions, it presents a unique opportunity for affiliates to cater to a niche market looking for unique educational products for their kids age two to 12. If you would like to learn more about Zoobooks or their affiliate program, feel free to view more details via their merchant co-branded page.

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A Closer look at Tailoring Campaigns for Zoobooks

Whether you’re an existing affiliate looking to optimize your campaigns, or just getting started in the industry, here are some the most important tools you need to succeed in the upcoming holiday season.

Optimize Search Campaigns
Online customer acquisition strategies expert NetElixir predicts a 7-10% increase in search campaigns this holiday season. That’s a lot of potential for new sales, and affiliates will want to make sure they’re in a position to capitalize on this opportunity. PPC affiliates wanting to make sure their campaigns are running smoothly should be constantly testing their campaigns, running keyword reports, running promotions early and getting ready for Cyber Monday. Affiliates can also take advantage of SR tools such as the ACID feature which the affiliate can use to track the performance of any keyword for their campaign.

Join Programs
Affiliates looking to maximize sales will want to seek out the best product and program offerings. After all, even the most savvyaffiliate will fall short without teaming up with the right merchants and programs. Affiliates looking for new advertisers or products to promote in Q4, should check out the merchants in the Share Results network such as Imaginary Greetings, UnderGroundHipHop.com, Tundra Gear and Cute Kid, all of whom provide products that can be extremely popular for the holidays. Affiliates can browse a full list of our partners by visiting the Share Results website.

Securing High Converting Offers from your merchants
The months leading up to the holiday are important for setting up the promotions necessary to have a successful season. Affiliates should be using this time to get high performing coupons and deals from their top merchants. An excellent example is a free shipping offer. Shoppers flock to free shipping offers around the holidays, so affiliaters who have taken the time to set up these promotions in high visiblity areas on their sites are likely to reap the benefits.

Highlight Shipping Policies and Deadlines
Last minute shoppers are in abundance the last week before Christmas, and a lot of merchants have extended shipping deadlines. It’s important for savvy affiliates to stay on top of shifting deadlines, and to update promotions accordingly. During the Christmas rush, a few days can make the difference between a sale, and a lost sale.

Coupons
According to a recent survey commissioned by Retail Me Not, 62% of online adults look for coupons for online stores and more merchants are embracing coupons as a way to connect with their budget-conscious shoppers. Affiliates looking to capitalize on this trend should be sure to partner with merchants who have coupon offers. Like other offers, affiliaters who have taken the time to set up these promotions in high visiblity areas on their sites are likely to reap the benefits.

For more techniques, tools, tips and great resources to make sure you’re getting every last drop out of your affiliate marketing campaigns, be sure to come back to the Share Results blog. Until November 27, Share Results is throwing a big Holiday Blogging Event, packed with all kinds of seasonal information regarding trends for Q4, tips to get the best deals, consumer trends and how best optimize your affiliate marketing campaigns.

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What Tools Do Affiliates Need to Succeed?

Share Results is excited to announce that we now have three employees who have received Google Analytics accreditation. This means that businesses can work with Share Results to maximize SEM efforts and set up analytics campaigns- as well as growing a company’s business through Google and other search marketing opportunities.

The Analytics accreditation is proof of proficiency in using Google Analytics, and qualification remains current for 18 months. In order to receive the accreditation, individuals must complete the mandated Google training sessions and score 75% or higher in the Analytics exam. Receiving the Google Analytics accreditation means that Share Results is now qualified to set up Google Analytics for client websites, offer in depth analysis of statistics and set up conversion tracking and goals on client websites.

If you’re seeking out opportunities for branding and acquisition though paid search, contact Share Results to develop an online strategy.

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Share Results receives Google Analytics accreditation

If PPC is part of your affiliate marketing campaigns, (and it should be!) then the Affiliate Custom ID (ACID) Tool is a great feature of the Share Results software that you should become familiar with.

What is the ACID Tool?
The ACID Tool is a Share Results software feature that allows you to add a custom parameter to your links to enable more detailed tracking at the transaction level, and to track the traffic that you are generating directly to a merchant’s website.

What is the Benefit of Using the ACID Tool?
The great thing about using the ACID Tool is that you will be able to instantly identify which keywords are working for you. This information will allow you to tweak your future PPC campaigns, ensuring that you are getting the greatest return on your investment.

Where Do I Access the ACID Tool?
To access the ACID tracking, (1) go to the Share Results Banner Manager, (2) select your campaign, (3) select your creative and (4) add a unique identifier in the addACID text box and click on update.

How Do I Implement the ACID Tool?
Implementing the ACID requires that the additional parameter and value be added at the end of the standard affiliate link.

1) When you create your ACID link in Share Results, it will look like this:

http://www.shareresults.com/t/url.php/cid/[cid]/sid/[sid]/acid/[ACIDtracking]

[cid] = is the banner id generated automatically by Share Results
[sid] = is the site ID supplied by Share Results that identifies the affiliate
[acid] = can be your keyword or an alphanumeric value supplied by the affiliate

2) For the tracking to be PPC compliant, you need to modify the tracking to the following:
http://www.shareresults.com/t/url.php?cid=[cid]&sid=[sid]&acid=[ACIDtracking]
And note, when you are tweaking your tracking (in point 2 above), that you are adding “?”, “=” and “&”. This will ensure that your tracking is PPC compliant.

I Have my Affiliate Custom ID, Now What?
Once you’ve created your ACID, you need to add this URL to the destination URL in your PPC campaign. The keyword that generated the sale will now show up in the Transaction Report of Share Results. To view the ACID, look at your Affiliate CID column, shown below.

Are you getting ready for Q4… and the upcoming holiday season? It’s the perfect opportunity to start using the ACID tool. Log into your Share Results account and get set up with the ACID Tool by implementing this tracking to your PPC campaigns today! Have questions, need assistance getting started? Contact jamie at shareresults.com—he’d be pleased to help!

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How To Use the Share Results ACID Tool in a PPC Campaign

With our recent affiliate dashboard makeover, we couldn’t let our merchants go without a new dashboard makeover as well.

Here now, are a few of our merchant interface changes in a little more detail.

New Welcome Dashboard: The redesigned merchant interface allows our clients to get more information, with less effort. Merchants can immediately see their KPIs, allowing them to quickly change their marketing campaigns in response. This new interface reduces the number of clicks, and more importantly the time spent searching. So with new graphical reporting, merchants can analyze their program performance from the moment they log into the Share Results system.

Top Performing Affiliates: Displays in descending order the top 10 affiliates earning commissions in the merchant’s program for the current month. Includes quick links to affiliate details such as IDs, username and website URL. Other info in this section includes impressions, clicks, click-through-ratio, registrations, approved transactions, total commissions earned for the current month.

Top Banners: Displays the best performing creative by EPC for the merchant’s affiliate program. Includes thumb nail version of creative where applicable. This includes creative by type such as banner, flash, text link, coupon and widgets.

Period Comparison: Displays a graphical trend of the overall program stats over a specific period. Compares stats by number of transactions, impressions, clicks, number of affiliates generating clicks, amount of revenue share commission generated, amount of CPA commission generated, total program commissions and program EPC (earnings per click).

Reports: Allows merchants to quickly access top-level reports directly from the welcome dashboard. Reports include Quick Summary, Traffic, Earnings, Transactions and showing results month-to-date.

If you are a merchant of Share Results we encourage you to take some time to log into your account and provide us your feedback about the new appearance. Email us at: merchants@shareresults.com

Originally posted here:
New Look for Share Results Merchant Dashboard

We announced a few weeks ago that we had unveiled a completely new look of our affiliate interface.

We wanted to take the opportunity to share with everyone in more detail a few of these new changes.

New Welcome Dashboard: The simple and easy-to-read design of the new welcome dashboard provides affiliates with instant access to critical account information and a list of the top performing creative along with important message alerts from the network. This new dashboard reduces the number of clicks and time spent searching; and with new graphical reporting, affiliates can analyze their campaign performances from the moment they log into their account.

Quick Stats: Displays vital program stats based on all the merchants whose programs an affiliate is subscribed to and for whom they are generating stats. This includes impressions, clicks, approved transactions, commission by percentage, commission by CPA, commissions by referral and total commission.

Period Comparison Chart: Displays a graphical trend of an affiliates ‘campaign stats over a specific period. Affiliates can view period trends for all merchants they promote or just one program.

Commission Breakdown: Graphical display of the commissions affiliates have earned for the total approved transactions for the current month. By hovering over the pie chart with the mouse, affiliates are able to see a breakdown of the amount of commissions earned from each merchant they are promoting.

This fall, we plan to continue developing the look of the Share Results software and various tools within the system to help affiliates navigate and manage their affiliate account more efficiently.

If you are an affiliate of Share Results we encourage you to take some time to log into your account and give us your feedback about the revamped appearance. Email us at: affliates@shareresults.com

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Share Results Affiliate Interface Gets a Makeover

Are you on the BAMroll? Then don’t forget a badge. Do you like the BAMroll? Then don’t forget the OPML file that can be found on the BAMroll page.

Here is the weekly update of the Big Affiliate Marketing blogroll. This Thursday, it’s short and sweet.

• Schaaf Consulting has a blog in addition to their affiliate marketing and consultation enterprise. The blog is a good example of a certain style of communicating with affiliates, and they explain merchant specials and coupons.
• Trisha Lyn blogs about where she’s going–career-wise, and conference-wise. As a current Affiliate Manager for an outsourced program management firm, she has lots of opportunities to participate at affiliate-marketing-minded conferences.

Happy reading!

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BAMroll Update: May 7, 2009

It’s not secret that the print publishing industry is in trouble: several newspaper have recently gone bust. But the magazine industry might be in even worst shape. Like newspapers, circulation and advertising are down, but even moreso because magazines are seen more as a luxury purchase than are newspapers. But is it possible that magazines (and newspapers) should be considering affiliate marketing as a way to boost their ad revenues and maybe even their subscriptions?

Granted, it would considerably unconventional for a print reliant industry to turn to affiliate marketing. But as AdAge reports, marketers are warning magazines to innovate before it’s too late:

LONDON (AdAge.com)–Unilever Chief Marketing Officer Simon Clift and Publicis Groupe CEO Maurice Levy gave a stark warning to an international gathering of magazine publishing executives today, urging the industry to innovate and to be more creative.
[...]
Mr. Levy [told the audience] that magazines must “shatter traditional standpoints” if they are to escape the current cycle of “despair, doom and demise.”
[...]
For Mr. Clift, the selling point of magazines is the opportunity for “symbiotic editorial.” “If the [marketer] information is useful, relevant and interesting there’s no reason why it should be inconsistent with the magazine brand. It can build the magazine’s brand equity rather than compromising it,” he said.

Between offline affilaite marketing and traditional online offers, affiliate marketing may just allow the print-based publishing industry to “shatter” those “traditional standpoints,” and offer advertisers a more “symbiotic editorial.”

First, whatever adspace that print-based operations are unable to sell could be filled in with affiliate offers. In fact, print-based operations may find that they can maximize their ad revenues by regularly featuring a blend of the two — especially on their online properties.

Second, by runing affiliate offers based on the kinds of products that their readers are actually likely to buy (rather than waiting for advertisers to come to them), and producing better-targeted content around that demographic, print-based publications can offer a kind of “symbiotic editorial.”

Third, print-based publications may even consider a kind of “hot deals” section or newsletter around that demographic. If properly targeted, this might not only boost their conversions, but actually help generate and retain subscriptions as readers start wanting access to such attractive offers.

Of course, affiliate marketing isn’t going to save the print-based publishing industry. It’s facing several challenges, of which only one is falling ad revenues. It must, therefore, innovate in a number of areas.

Affiliate marketing, however, could help it innovate in the ad-sales department. By diversifying its ad-model to include sponsorships, impressions, and performance-based ads, print-based publishing might just be able to bolster its revenues long enough to innovate in other critical areas, and weather the storm that’s pounding it right now.

Originally posted here:
Should Magazines Consider Affiliate Marketing?

With Twitter having exploded that way it has over the last few months, it’s not just the web-savvy brands who “get it” that have jumped on the bandwagon. Now, brands from all walks and industries are having to consider the medium as a way to reach out to an interact with its target market.

Well, our CEO, Nicky Senyard, touches on what Twitter means for brands in the latest episode of her video blog Coffee with Nicky. But why take our word for it when you can hear it from Nicky directly?

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Nicky on Brands and Twitter

Whether you’re an affiliate marketing trying to drive traffic to your site, a brand trying to reach out to your target market, or just an overage Joe/Jane looking to connect with like-minded people, social media can be an incredibly powerful tool. And the reason behind the potential of social media is, well, it’s social — it allows you to build real relationships with real people.

That being said, a lot of people fall short of that mark. And you can’t really blame them: with examples like Tila Tequila who just “added” or “friended” everyone they can find, it’s easy to make the mistake of trying to emulate that approach. But we’re not all Tila Tequila, and most of us don’t have any hope of landing a reality show gig from our presence on MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter.

Well, if you have your sights set on some kind of social media success, Jake from 10e20 has some advice on how to go about it. In a post called called Social Networking 101, Jake offers 12 basic tips for social networking online or off — and part of the point is that you shouldn’t act any differently online than you would in the real world. Here’s an overview of Jake’s tips:

1. Know the organizer
2. Offer assistance
3. Be polite
4. Smile
5. Meet the influencers
6. Meet the newcomers
7. Follow up
8. Don’t sell and don’t spam
9. Bring a gift
10. Find new events
11. Introduce a new person
12. Relate

Of course, Jake goes into a bit more detail on each of these points in the original post. And if you go to check it out, you’ll very quickly realize that the most effective way to use social media is to be social in the exact same way as you would offline, when you’re face-to-face with someone.

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12 Tips for Social Media Newbies

This week’s BAMroll additions are sure to improve your ROI if you read and follow their experiences of doing the same. Between a DIYer who was dissatisfied with the resources available, and an engaged conference-goer with strong industry connections, these bloggers offer credible recommendations. If you would like to get alerts every time a BAMroller posts, we offer an OPML file on our BAMroll page. If you are new to OPML files, this tutorial might help.

• Ben Pei used his experience of being disappointed by get-rich-quick schemes to develop his own, and now has Pei Profit. The primary focus is blogging, but is a resource for anyone interested in SEO, social media, and insightful commentary about what’s going on in the wide world of the internet.
• CPA Affiliates is a blog written by an anonymous author. While we don’t know his or her name, the author(s?) has plenty of experience attending high profile conferences, and interviewing top affiliates. Check it out and let us know what you think.

If you are on the BAMroll, you’re entitled to a badge!

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BAMroll Update: April 30, 2009

Affiliate Marketing may be very much and online industry, but it’s also all about relationships, and there’s no better way to build a relationship than face-time over a drink or two.

So the good news for any Montrealers in the world of Affiliate Marketing is that the “Spring Affiliate Networking Get Together” takes place this coming Thursday, April 30th, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the Plateau Lounge of the “W Hotel” in Old Montreal. (901 Square Victoria).

It will be a great chance to meet-up and share a drink with other locals working in business.

See you there!

The Spring Affiliate Networking Get Together in Montreal

As a merchant, you have certain goals and priorities that are dictated by a pre-existing business model. These goals and priorities play a vital role in determining what counts towards affiliate marketing success. To that extent, your affiliate marketing approach should complement your pre-existing business model, and not dictate it.

When it comes to managing your affiliate program, then, it’s important that you do so in a way that’s in line with your over-arching business model. Some questions you should ask yourself, then, are:

• What is your retail philosophy?
• What are your priorities?
• Why did you choose affiliate marketing?
• What kind of affiliates are you looking to partner with?

Depending on how you answer these questions, chances are your philosophy of affiliate marketing fits into one of three general categories. Here’s an overview of what those three different philosophies are.

Affiliate Philosophy 1: Hey Big Spender

You’re a big spenders when you focus on working with so-called super affiliates. You want to maximize results fast, and focus on creating buzz around your affiliate program to do so. This might include elaborate booth set-ups at industry conferences such as Affiliate Summit, and sponsoring parties at these events.

If this is you, then you’re prepared to spend significant funds to get top affiliates into your program, and might do so by offering affiliates high commissions, gifts, and other incentives.

Affiliate Philosophy 2: Relationship Focus

This is your approach when you have the long-term optimization of your program in mind. You’ll focus on ensuring that affiliates have the tools and resources they need to promote your products effectively, and become better affiliates over time.

Through your program, you will also reach out to affiliates to offer support and tips, as well as a variety of marketing tools, such as banners and widgets.

Part of a relationship-focus is also a measured approach, where trial periods are used to evaluate affiliate performance, and high performers are rewarded with better commissions. This requires more advance affiliate tracking software and account management, but such software also helps maintain the faith that affiliates have in the program.

Affiliate Philosophy 3: A Necessary Evil

This is when you see affiliate marketing as just another sales tactic (rather than a marketing strategy), and you decide to launch a program because your competitors have done so — hence, a necessary evil. You’re not going to invest much in the relationship with your affiliates, and you consider them little more than freelance salespeople.

The result is that your program will have a simpler commission structures for all affiliates, and your affiliate tracking software will be basic.

The Gist of Affiliate Management

Affiliate marketing can be a very cost effective way to drive online sales. The only catch is there are a lot of different products and services that can be sold online.

The nature of the online market that you compete in is going to influence much of your business model and, consequently, your online marketing philosophy.

The way you structure your affiliate program, then, should reflect that philosophy. If it doesn’t, you’re probably going to experience inefficiencies at the organizational level because you’ll constantly be struggling to fit a square peg into a round hole.

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3 Affiliate Management Philosophies