Affiliate Marketing
There are several companies who bring together dozens, even hundreds of companies that offer affiliate programs that you can use. SBI! owners shared the following "user feedback" about some of the larger aggregators...
Commission Junction (CJ)
Commission Junction is one of the global, very large companies that some SBI! owners like, and others don't. Here's the good and the bad...
- CJ has a low monthly payout threshold ($100), along with a choice of direct deposit or check, but they have long wait times for payments (60 days or longer). They'll also drop you if you don't have a sale in 6 months.
- Searching for products is easy, but you can't add additional search parameters. You can search for individual products, even ones in companies you aren't affiliated with yet. But you can't find particular products from any one merchant if that merchant has over 1000 products.
- You have to find product links and add the code separately for each product you want to promote. You are limited to text links and image banners, which are very time consuming to use. The graphics are poor for many products. You might want to get the graphics from the affiliate company's site, as they often create low-resolution graphics for the aggregator's site.
- The reporting systems are fairly good, making it easy to track performance. It also has an immediate summary of money earned since your last payment.
- There are very few options to adjust the formatting of affiliate links.
- There are lots of affiliate companies but no way to easily sort by currency or country. It's easy to add more companies, but you need to remember to use different ID codes per company, especially if you plan to use PopShops.
- There is a good mix of advertisers that approve immediately and others that approve manually. Some advertisers take a long time to approve you as an affiliate.
Continue reading "Affiliate Marketing and Aggregators II" »
Article Marketing
A low-maintenance income stream for e-business owners is affiliate marketing. Combine it with the Google AdSense Program and you have 2 solid cornerstones for your diversified Monetization Plan.
Affiliate marketing involves aggregators. Use this article (and the upcoming series) to get up to speed about the advantages and disadvantages of aggregators. Let's start with these 5 points...
1) Most small affiliate companies these days use an aggregator to manage their affiliate program. If you experience problems, they tend to happen with the smaller companies, not the aggregator. Many of the problems are the result of companies forgetting to update the links and banners after deleting a product or ending a special.
2) Using an aggregator means you'll be paid sooner (if you use more than one company associated with that aggregator). You'll reach the minimum payment threshold faster when you combine earnings from two or more companies.
Three more points to go...
Continue reading "Affiliate Marketing and Aggregators I" »
Affiliate Marketing
A sale via any "affiliate program" is really a two-step process. It requires the
delivery of two "Most Wanted Responses," yours and your merchant's.
As an affiliate, what is your Most Wanted Response ("MWR")? No, it's not to get the sale. That's the second step and it's also your merchant's MWR. Your MWR
is to "get the open-to-buy click" (i.e., your visitor clicks through to your merchant
with an open-to-buy mindset).
Writing to PREsell does not require genetic talent. It's not a "gift." Writing
to PREsell is a skill you can acquire. Make Your Content PREsell!
(MYCPS!), the only book of its kind on the Net, shows you exactly how to
do it. Learn how to...
Continue reading "Affiliate Marketing - Get Your "Most Wanted Response"" »
Affiliate Marketing
Your visitors may not respond to your primary "Most Wanted Response," but they may be attracted to
one of your secondary offerings if you diversify.
The key is to never be dependent on any one income source -- "all your eggs
in one basket" is a high-risk strategy. By diversifying, you increase your revenue,
stabilize your business, and take charge of your own business destiny.
With monetizing in mind, let's look first at the affiliate marketing model, assuming that
this will be your primary model...
Continue reading "Affiliate Marketing With Search It!'s Help" »