[vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Getting Started
Affiliate Networks
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What is affiliate marketing?
Affiliate marketing is the process of allowing publishers to gain commission from promoting a companies products and services. To make money as as an individual or web property owner, you will need to become an affiliate publisher and sign up to a company’s affiliate program. Anyone can make money with affiliate marketing, you just need to find the right product and channel to promote it.
You will want to start out slow if you are new to affiliate marketing, because overwhelming yourself by joining numerous networks can be a very bad idea. Take the time to learn as much as possible about this type of marketing and advertise for just one company before you consider expanding your online endeavor.
What is a Super Affiliate?
You will see many ‘make money online’ bloggers call themselves ‘Super Affiliates’. They are NOT! These people have over inflated egos and want people to read more of their crap blog. Super affiliates are huge sites that dominate niches, think Moneysupermarket, Lastminute and Google. Yes Google is a super affiliate, as they have rolled out their comparison engines which drive them referral commissions.
How Do I Get Started in Affiliate Marketing
Finding good niches for affiliate programs need not be an arduous task. At the crux of it all, you need to ensure that you are finding an affiliate program that resonates with your passions.
While Google is in the midst of trying to clamp down on these sites, it’s not impossible to make these sites work for you. You can make money and have long lived success in the online world. But, you need to consider your niche. That way, you can strive for longevity.
Make a Decision: Choose Your Niche Carefully
Deciding upon your niche is imperative. But, you need to make sure that you are choosing something that you are happy to be associated with. That way, you can ensure that you are making the most from your project. After all, you will be the authoritative voice on the subject. So, you need to have an underlying passion for your chosen area. You can choose an affiliate program that echoes with your interests. Of course, having passion is one thing. You need to make sure that you are in a good place to make money from this too. So, pick a broad subject that you can expand on as your business grows. After all, you don’t want to become too specific. You will never have the chance to flourish!
Making Sense of the Target Audience
Of course, you cannot leap into this journey of affiliate programs without doing some research. Firstly, you need to ensure that there is an engaged audience for your topic of choice. After all, you need to make sure that there is a big enough market for people to buy from your site. Check out the competition. What is happening in the world of PPC? Make sure that you are looking for keywords from big brands. That way, you can ensure that you have the right site in place. What’s more, you need to make sure that you are finding a niche that has not been over-exploited. If this is the case, you will discover that your turnover is pretty low.
Making Your Affiliate Program Work
You cannot expect your site to be a resounding success if you put minimal work into it. You need to make sure that you are committed to all aspects of the affiliate program. You will need to write content, add images and spend days honing your site. That way, you can maximise your sales potential.
Revenue Streams: How Many Are There?
Making money means having to look at the ways in which you can do so. Yes, that may seem commonsensical, but think about it logically. If you only have two or three opportunities to make money on your site, you won’t get very far. You need to ensure that you pick a niche that has multiple revenue streams. As a result, you can ensure that you are not pigeon holing yourself into a niche that has very little room for scope. After all, you need to make sure that there are masses of potential for revenue.
The Last Word…
Finding a good niche is important. Aside from personal interest, you have to ensure that you have a high traffic, low competition option. That way, you can make the most revenue from your incredible new venture.
Build your own site
The overall quality of your website will ultimately determine how successful you are with affiliate marketing, which is why it is so important that build one that visitors will genuinely be interested in.
When it comes to popular blogging platforms, WordPress.org is arguably the best. You will find that there are many different WordPress themes to choose from, and you will need to take an adequate amount of time to look through some of them before deciding which one fits your needs best.
Tumblr is one of the most popular blogging platforms on the web, and it has a lot to offer for those who want to get involved in affiliate marketing. This particular blogging platform allows you to submit content to your Tumblr blog from anywhere you want, and customization is very easy. Considering how ridiculously popular this website is right now, there are definitely some great affiliate marketing opportunities to explore.
Blogger is a nice free blogging service that you can take advantage of as well. You will be able to sign it with your Google ID and get your new blog up and running within a matter of seconds. You will be able to customize your blog with all kinds of themes, though this is not the very best option that exists for those who are looking to start a blog for affiliate marketing purposes.
You will also need to find reliable hosting services for your website or blog. There are many different paid hosting solutions available, but you will need to find one in particular that you can depend on for consist, high quality service.
Bluehost is one of the more reputable hosting companies on the internet and it is an especially good choice for WordPress Users. DreamHost and Laughing Squid are two other hosts which come highly recommended by WordPress, but it is important that you see what some of these companies have to offer in terms of service details and pricing.
Affiliate Marketing Networks
Whether you have your own website and want to find affiliates to promote your own products or you are interested in promoting someone else’s, this type of marketing can be very profitable, but you will need to know everything there is about it before getting started.
The following affiliate networks are highly recommended for those who are just starting out with this type of marketing:
1. Affilinet (affili.net)
Affilinet is widely regarded as being one of the best affiliate networks around, with a secure platform that provides those who are looking to advertise with a number of different brands to choose from. There are also lots of great opportunities for advertisers and agencies that are looking to expand their business. This affiliate network offers many different programs and advertising solutions for publishers, so they can select what exactly they want to get involved in. If you are looking for an affiliate network that provides you with everything you need and always pays a fair commission on time, this is definitely one to consider.
2. Affiliatefuture.co.uk
Affiliate Future will allow you to significantly increase revenue from your current website and offers a wide range of advertisers. This network provides advertisers with two commission payments a month and offers real-time tracking and reporting. You won’t have to deal with any set-up fees when becoming an affiliate with this network, and getting started is very easy. There is a comprehensive range of merchants with Affiliate Future, so you will not be limited when it comes to choosing which products you want to spend your time advertising. Membership with this network is free and there are absolutely no obligations.
3. Affiliatewindow.com
Affiliate Window offers a number of things that you will most likely be interested in, including some great affiliate marketing opportunities as well as mobile solutions, product feeds, and brand protection. As an advertiser, you will have access to a variety of useful tools that will help you to generate as many sales as possible. If you are a publisher, you will find that this network has a huge directory of advertisers for you to choose from so you can find one you want to work with. Affiliate Window’s product feed platform is also highly useful, as it offers detailed information on products.
4. Commission Junction (uk.cj.com)
Commission Junction has a lot of great opportunities for both advertisers and publishers. If you are planning to advertise for a company, you will definitely be interested in everything this network has to offer. Signing up to be a publisher is completely free and there are no fees whatsoever. Whether it is lead generation or pay-per-call, you have the chance to monetize your website and make a significant amount of money with this network. Commission Junction offers publishers the chance to advertise the global brands of reputable international companies.
5. LinkShare UK (marketing.rakuten.co.uk)
The affiliate network you join is incredibly important, and the Rakuten Affiliate Network exists for the sole purpose of helping to form long-term, profitable partnerships between advertisers and publishers. If you want to make as much money as possible advertising the products of companies as a publisher, this network is a great place to start. The Rakuten Affiliate Network will allow you to earn commission directly from your site each month and gain access to tools that will help to make the program as profitable as possible for you. This network’s online dashboard will provide you with everything you need for an effective affiliate program, which is exactly what every publisher wants.
6. PaidonResults.com
Paid on Results is an affiliate network that you can trust to provide you with the tools and resources you need to be a successful publisher or advertiser. Publishers on this network get paid quickly and appropriately with concise income reports and efficient technical support. As a publisher on this network, you will have access to all of the latest tools which will help you to advertise merchants’ products in a highly effective way. Merchants that want to find affiliates to advertise their products will find that Paid on Results has an expansive database of quality affiliates who are eager to get to work.
7. Tradedoubler.com
Tradedoubler allows publishers to optimize revenue with their websites by providing them with all of the tools and resources necessary for an effective affiliate program. This network enables all of their publishers to effectively manage their programs with the comprehensive Publisher Interface, providing you with access to an immediate overview of the commission you earn through affiliate programs, leads, clicks, sales, impressions, and everything else. Advertisers will also find this network to be highly efficient and very professional. If you want to increase your revenue stream, whether you want to be a publisher or an advertiser, Tradedoubler is one of the best affiliate network options you have.
8. Webgains.com
Merchants, affiliates, and agencies will find that Webgains.com is an excellent network for all aspects of affiliate marketing. Publishers that are part of this network can expect to get prompt weekly commission payments, role-based user access, a customizable user interface, industry leading tracking, multiple contact channels, an amazing level of support, and much more. Merchants will also be pleased with Webgains network because of all the top quality affiliates/publishers they have to offer. When it comes to increasing revenue, this network offers plenty of great solutions for people involved in every aspect of affiliate marketing.
ClickBank
ClickBank offers affiliate marketers over 46,000 different products to advertise as well as a variety of tools and resources to become as successful as possible. This affiliate network offers highly rated client support as well as the ability to promote products in almost any country around the world. Weekly or bi-weekly payments are made to affiliates every Wednesday once an account has sales exceeding five different credit card numbers. One of the best features that this affiliate network offers is a tool called HopAd Builder. You will be able to use certain tools in your ClickBank account to create an ad for the various products that are offered by this affiliate network.
Signing up with ClickBank is quick and easy and you will receive an email from this affiliate network with a confirmation code that will ask you to complete the verification process by simply clicking a link included in the email. Navigating through ClickBank’s website is also easy and there is absolutely no confusion as to where everything you need is located. Overall, this affiliate network offers many different merchants for registered affiliates as well as a huge selection of features and resources that you can utilize for maximizing your chances of success.
FlexOffers
While FlexOffers is a relatively small affiliate network with just 300 advertisers, it still has a lot to offer for those who are interested in becoming paid affiliates. FlexOffers has a total of 500 campaigns in-network and offers many of the advertisers that can be found on other affiliate marketing websites but with a much better chance of approval. This affiliate network has a few different features that provide users with crucial things they need to become successful marketers, including customizable templates. The templates that FlexOffers provides its users with easy affiliate integration into their websites.
FlexOffers also has a very useful feature called “Refer-A-Friend”, which allows affiliates to earn money when referring friends to the program. After the first referral you provide generates at least $2,000 in sales, you and the person you referred will receive $150. The reporting features that this affiliate network offers are easy to access and show the user overview details of their advertisements with details like earnings per 100 clicks, number of clicks, conversion rate, revenue, and sales. FlexOffers has a very user-friendly website interface and it is easy to sign up as well. While this affiliate network may not be among the biggest, it is still an excellent option if you are interested in promoting quality products from a variety of merchants.
RevenueWire
RevenueWire has become one of the most popular platform choices for aspiring and highly motivated affiliates, offering a number of high-selling products from many different merchants. With 75%+ commission rates and 3%+ conversion rates, this affiliate network is definitely worth checking out if you are trying to break into the world of affiliate marketing. RevenueWire pays its affiliates twice each month and offers support from a number of managers.
Affiliates that are registered members of RevenueWire can earn up to 99% commission on a variety of digital products with a high-converting shopping cart. The high conversion rates of this network’s products as well as the high commission percentages make it one of the top choices for affiliates. The different types of commission this affiliate network offers include CPA (Cost Per Action), CPL (Cost Per Lead), and CPS (Cost Per Sale).
The variety of high-quality digital products that affiliates have to choose from with this network makes marketing easier and more profitable at the same time. If you are currently looking for a reputable affiliate network that can offer you the best chances of success, RevenueWire is certainly one to consider. The tools are resources this network offers are also incredibly helpful when trying to become as successful as possible as an online marketer.
Link Connector
Link Connector offers those who want to become affiliates the opportunity to sell a variety of high quality products from numerous reputable merchants. If you want to establish a highly beneficial long-term relationship with a top affiliate network, this is certainly one that you should consider becoming a part of. This affiliate network offers in-depth support to help resolve any and all of your issues as a multitude of useful tools and resources for becoming a truly successful affiliate marketer.
The innovative technology that Link Connector uses makes it possible to track the progress of your marketing campaigns so you will get all of the details you need. Joining Link Connector is easy so you won’t have to worry about having to jump through a lot of hoops to become a member. All affiliates link directly to the merchants the “Affiliate Connections” feature allows you to pinpoint great offers that will convert with affiliate traffic. Link Connector has a zero tolerance fraud policy, which is definitely something you do not see with all of these networks. If you register as an affiliate with this network, you will receive weekly payments with a minimum amount of $100. This affiliate network uses an in-house proprietary platform for its tracking software to maximize efficiency and accuracy.
OneNetworkDirect
OneNetworkDirect offers affiliates the ability to automate and promote datafeed of thousands of different products, including games, consumer electronics, software, education products, and much more. The massive catalog of titles that includes top selling enterprise products is easy to integrate and offers a plethora of quality options. If you currently have a download site and wish to integrate into your content manager, you can quickly and easily import CSV formatted files into a majority of mainstream content management systems.
The official website of OneNetworkDirect is very user-friendly as is the account interface which will allow you to get all of the information you need on the products you are advertising. This network also offers advanced tracking, which is crucial for all serious affiliate marketers. Payments from this network are always made promptly, so you will never have to worry about not getting the money you have earned from advertising. The API tracking that OneNetworkDirect uses is extremely effective, which is one of the best things about this network. The conversion rates that you get as an affiliate with this network are also very impressive, making it easier than ever before to keep increasing your revenue on a consistent basis.
Health Trader Affiliate Network
Health Trader Affiliate Network offers a wide variety of practical tools and resources for affiliates who want to make the work they do easier and more profitable. This affiliate network’s tools and resources make it very easy to find the right banner, video, document, or widgets to promote your products as effectively as possible. Considering the sheer importance of all these things in advertising, it is important to find an affiliate network like this that will provide you with so many different things you actually need and use on a regular basis.
You can go on Health Trader’s official website to look at all of the different offers that are available and the commission you will get for selling each of the products listed. There are many different high quality healthcare products to choose from and each of them has a high conversion rate. Some of the offers that this affiliate network has available come with a 13-17% commission while others are 20-30%. The innovative tracking technologies that Health Trader uses is just one of the many benefits of signing up with them, offering accurate and reliable information on a consistent basis. The reporting and analytics for this network are transparent and detailed, so you can get the information you need to succeed as an affiliate marketer.
A2 Affiliate Network
The A2 Affiliate Network will provide you with access to some of the best performing CPA campaigns as well as high payouts and big bonuses. Joining this affiliate network is simple and easy so you will be able to get started right away. With a variety of attractive and potentially lucrative offers to choose from, you will be able to increase your chances of maximizing revenue with this affiliate network. Everyone who registers with A2 Affiliate Network will be assigned their own account manager who will sit down with you and learn about your company’s specific needs.
The overall quality of the offers that this type of network provides its affiliates is one of the most important things to consider when trying choosing the right one to sign up with, and A2 Affiliate Network has a number of great offers. There are also a number of tools and resources available for affiliates of the A2 network, including Traffivance, which is a highly effective and useful contextual textlink and display advertising system. The 500NRED, which is this network’s CPC & CPV traffic platform, is another example of the great tools they offer affiliates to make their efforts more profitable and successful overall.
Monetise UK Performance Marketing
Monetise is yet another great option for people who want to make as much money possible as an affiliate. This affiliate network allows its advertisers to begin their campaigns quickly after following certain steps to ensure that both sides are in complete agreement and understanding with each other. The advertiser control panel allows affiliates to monitor how every aspect of their campaign is performing in real-time, so you will be able to get the information you need to make any necessary changes to your marketing strategy.
When you become a registered affiliate with Monetise, you will gain access to many different leads within the UK to generate a maximum number of sales. This network is known for valuing lead generation and recognizing the massive importance of it, which is why so many of their affiliates are able to make a substantial and consistent stream of revenue. All of the data that you will get as an affiliate of this network will be targeted for accuracy, so you will be able to start making sales quickly and efficiently. Unlike certain other affiliate networks, Monetise takes care of their affiliates and publishers by providing them with all of the tools and resources they need to be successful.
Build your own site
The overall quality of your website will ultimately determine how successful you are with affiliate marketing, which is why it is so important that build one that visitors will genuinely be interested in.
When it comes to popular blogging platforms, WordPress.org is arguably the best. You will find that there are many different WordPress themes to choose from, and you will need to take an adequate amount of time to look through some of them before deciding which one fits your needs best.
Tumblr is one of the most popular blogging platforms on the web, and it has a lot to offer for those who want to get involved in affiliate marketing. This particular blogging platform allows you to submit content to your Tumblr blog from anywhere you want, and customization is very easy. Considering how ridiculously popular this website is right now, there are definitely some great affiliate marketing opportunities to explore.
Blogger is a nice free blogging service that you can take advantage of as well. You will be able to sign it with your Google ID and get your new blog up and running within a matter of seconds. You will be able to customize your blog with all kinds of themes, though this is not the very best option that exists for those who are looking to start a blog for affiliate marketing purposes.
You will also need to find reliable hosting services for your website or blog. There are many different paid hosting solutions available, but you will need to find one in particular that you can depend on for consist, high quality service.
Bluehost is one of the more reputable hosting companies on the internet and it is an especially good choice for WordPress Users. DreamHost and Laughing Squid are two other hosts which come highly recommended by WordPress, but it is important that you see what some of these companies have to offer in terms of service details and pricing.
Promoting Your Affiliate Stuff
Hiding your affiliate links
Affiliate links can be a blessing. But, they can also be a curse when it comes to ranking high within Google. This double edged conundrum is something that many people feel that they are in when it comes to affiliate links. When it comes to the online world, hiding affiliate links is a must. After all, you need to ensure that you are cloaking these links to prevent your sales from being ‘stolen’ by Google. Yes, it’s that serious.
Cloaking links is imperative. But, if you are not cloaking, you are leaving yourself wide open to a large number of issues. Namely, Google being disgruntled. And, that is putting it mildly.
So, How Can You Cloak Affiliate Links?
Cloaking, in its primitive form, is easy. You don’t have to employ fancy techniques and methods to ensure that this is done correctly.
Let’s take a look at the basics:
1. Make sure that you create a folder. This will serve as a redirect folder. You can call it whatever you want. Just make it memorable
2. Block the folder in your domains robots.txt file. You can do this by adding disallow: then the name of your file. Changing the robots.txt file can ensure that you have a subfolder for the affiliate links to ‘live in’. As such, these cannot be found by Google.
3. Use a script in your redirect folder to ensure that you are redirecting all of your affiliate links.
WordPress Plugins: The 302 Redirect Conundrums
302 redirects are an excellent way of ensuring that you are temporarily redirecting links. This means that you can avoid Google crawlers in a more detailed way. All you need to do is set up another folder. This can be set up with ease. Just create the redirect folder and ensure that you are changing the HTTP code. Change this from 301 to 302.
Paid Solutions
Of course, if you are not comfortable with undergoing manual processes yourself, you can ensure that you are cloaking affiliate links in other ways. Paid plugins are a good way of making sure that you are hiding these links that Google hates.
Plugins like Pretty Link, Link Tracker and Thirsty Affiliates can all ensure that you are hiding links. Some of these are better for link management. As such, this can stop Google crawlers from detecting them. You can opt for free plugins, but these are not as robust as the paid versions. The paid plugins can ensure that you are in receipt of advanced re-directs. As a result of this, it can edit your robot.txt to ensure that Google does not index your site.
The Last Word on Cloaking
Cloaking, in the main, is a good way of making sure that you are in a safe place to rank higher in search engine results. Stringent Google rules are ever changing. As a consequence of cloaking, crawlers can spot these links and remove them from your site.
Sure, this can be viewed as ‘sneaky. But, if you want to make sure that you are using affiliate links in the right way, you have to cloak them as a matter of protocol. That way, you can see your ranking soar without being penalised by Google.
Examples of Affiliate Marketing Done Well
marketing glossary
Examples of Affiliate Marketing Done Well
You can look at great sites Pat has built:
http://www.greenexamacademy.com/
There are many different terms you will need to know in the world of affiliate marketing, and the following are some of the more important ones you should be familiar with.
Base rate: The base rate is the standard commission rate for a full term of an affiliate program.
Click-through-rate (CTR): The click-through-rate is the total percentage of people visiting a website who click a certain link to an advertisement of some kind. A high click through rate means a better chance of making money, and it is a term that all affiliates should be aware of.
Commission: This is a fee that is paid to affiliates for generating leads or direct sales by advertising on their own website. Affiliates typically earn 60% commission for every sale they generate through their site, though this is not always the case.
CPA: The CPA or cost-per-action is the rate for every action that a user takes. This can be cost-per-click, cost-per-lead, and cost-per-sale.
CPC: Cost-per-click, referring to a setup wherein advertisers pay publishers a certain amount for every visitor that clicks through a link on the affiliate’s sales website. This is also sometimes referred to as pay-per-click.
CPL: Cost-per-lead. This is where a publisher is paid by an advertiser for every qualified customer lead they generate.
EPC: This term refers to average earnings per 100 clicks, and it illustrates the ability to turn clicks into commissions.
Event date: This is the date on which a transaction takes place on an affiliate’s advertisement website
IBC: Item-based-commissions. This is an advanced for of commission that allows advertisers to set custom commission rates for certain items that are associated with actions in their own program.
Landing page: This is a simple website consisting of one page that directs visitors to a sales page.
MAU: Monthly active users. This is the number of active users on a given website each month.
NIF: Network integration fee. This is a one-time fee that is charged to new affiliates when they are first joining a new network.
Performance incentive: This is when an advertiser rewards top publishers by paying them an additional amount, essentially a bonus, two months after the month that the transactions were initially generated. There are three different kinds of PI’s, including total commissions, total sales, and number of actions. In order to qualify for this type of incentive though, a publisher must generate a certain number of sales or leads.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Further Affiliate Resources[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][/vc_column][/vc_row]