Monday, January 03, 2005
What are Affiliate Programs and can they help your business?
Think of Affiliate Programs as providing your business with a web-based sales team. Businesses with successful affiliate programs have hundreds, or even thousands, of other businesses promoting their products and services on the Internet. Affiliate programs are easy to set-up, proven to work, and best of all…cost-effective. With the exception of some set-up fees, you only spend money if you make money. Are you interested? I thought so, let me explain how they work.
There are two parties involved in any Affiliate program, the Publisher, and the Advertiser. Advertisers are usually businesses that sell a product or service and want to increase traffic and sales on their website. Publishers are businesses that are willing to promote Advertisers products and services in exchange for commissions earned on website traffic and revenue they generate for the Advertiser. Think of Publishers as a commission-based sales team that only gets paid if they sell your products and/or services.
For the remainder of this article I am going to discuss ways to make an Affiliate Program work for your business from the Advertiser’s perspective. (How to successfully have other websites promoting your business to generate you more traffic and revenue)
To start, you need to set up a commission structure that works for both you and your publishers to have a successful Affiliate Program. Once you have established a commission that makes sense, you need to create banner and text links that other websites can use to promote you business. The most complicated part of Affiliate Programs is tracking where traffic and sales are coming from. If you have numerous affiliates, you need to be able to pinpoint who is sending you traffic and who needs to get paid. Luckily, there are several companies dedicated to providing these services so you can concentrate on your core business and let them worry about the technology.
Commission Junction (cj.com) provides the largest affiliate network on the web. They have thousands of Publishers supporting more than 550 Advertisers. They provide the tracking, reporting, and payment services for Advertisers. They will also promote your program to potential Publishers in their network. As they are the largest, they charge a premium for their services ($3,000 set-up fee to begin). Don't get too put off by the price because there are several other companies that provide similar services and they charge significantly less. I chose to highlight Commission Junction because the are the largest and most established. In fact several companies do not charge a set-up fee and you only pay once you have sold something from an affiliate website. I have provided a list of companies at the end of this article that provide Affiliate Program services.
The best tip I can give if you decide to pursue an Affiliate Program for your website is to spend time promoting the program on your own. You should create a page on your website dedicated to the program and submit that page to each major Search Engine and Directory. There are also several sites dedicated to just listing Affiliate Programs. You should submit your program to as many of these as you can. Finally, determine what types of websites cater to your target market and contact them directly to sign-up for your program.
Affiliate Program Service Providers:
Commission Junction (cj.com)
ClixGalore (http://www.clixgalore.com
LinkShare (http://www.linkshare.com
Affiliate Network (http://www.affiliatenetwork.com)
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Can You Still Successfully Market Your Website in Search Engines for Free?
The bad news...all of these search engines employ one of two business models to make money, and in some cases both. They charge for inclusion into their directory or they charge for specific search terms and keywords.
The good news...there are still ways to get your site listed in all of these search engines for free, you just have to be creative.
One of the best ways to get your site listed in the majority of high-traffic search engines is by getting your site added to DMOZ, http://www.dmoz.com. DMOZ, or the Open Directory Project is the largest human-edited directory of websites on the Internet and powers listings for the majority of high-traffic search engines. Each website submission is reviewed by a real person and cataloged in the most appropriate category. Search engines recognize the value of providing their visitors the most relevant search results and depend on the DMOZ for these accurate rankings.
Submitting your website to DMOZ is completely free, but there are several things to consider before you submit. Make sure you choose the appropriate category within DMOZ to submit your site. The more specific the category, the better chance you have of getting listed. Make sure your site is completely functional. DMOZ will not accept sites with broken links or images. Make sure your site is optimized for search engines prior to submission. Once your site is listed, it will appear in search results for AOL Search, Google, Lycos, Netscape, and many more. Without the proper code that search engines use to display listings, your site may never be seen!
In addition to submitting your site to DMOZ, you should submit your website individually to as many search engines as you can. Don't be discouraged by submission charges on the major search engines because most of them still offer free submission, they just make it difficult to find. I have provided a list of URL's below of major search engines that still accept free submission.
Finally, be weary of submission services that offer submission to "hundreds or thousands of search engines." While there are thousands of search engines on the web, only a few receive any substantial traffic. It is much more valuable to be listed in 5-10 search engines that receive millions of visitors a day versus a thousand search engines that receive only a few visitors each day.
Major Search Engines & Directories that still accept free submissions:
http://www.google.com
http://www.yahoo.com
http://www.dmoz.com
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Internet Marketing Goals for the New Year
by Neal St. Clair
nstclair@idesignbusiness.com
This year I want everyone to make a resolution to improve their Internet Marketing programs. To help you achieve this goal I have provided a summary of the most effective Online Marketing Programs I have come across. I know that not all of this techniques may be relevant to your specific business, but I guarantee that at least a couple are.
For any business that utilizes a website Search Engine Optimization and Submission should be a regular activity. If you are not regularly monitoring and tweaking your website for Search Engines now is a great time to start. Receiving quality traffic from Search Engines requires more than just submitting your site. Re-examine your Search Engine Strategy and keep the following points in mind:
- Research websites that are achieving high rankings for search terms you desire.
- Develop unique META Tags, Titles, and Content for each significant page of your website.
- Work on improving your Link Popularity by actively contacting websites that compliment your business.
- REVISIT THESE TECHNIQUES EVERY MONTH!!!
Create an Affiliate Program for your Business
If you sell a product or service from your website then you can benefit from an affiliate program. You simply provide cash incentive to others to promote your product and you pay them every time they refer you a new sale or lead. The great thing about Affiliate programs is that you don‘t have to spend money unless you make money. Affiliate programs are a proven marketing and sales tool on the Internet. Companies like Amazon.com have thrived using the Affiliate Model for years.
There are several companies that provide the billing and technology infrastructure you need to efficiently manage a program. I have included a few companies to research below:
- Commission Junction (www.cj.com)
- Clixgalore (www.clixgalore.com)
Re-Evaluate Your Website‘s Design & Navigation
You may be asking, what does design have to do with marketing? The answer is simple - usability. You can have the best marketing programs in place and if your website is confusing or hard to navigate they will do no good.
Slick design may be appealing to the eye, but does it concisely and clearly convey your message? Make sure your design leads people to the pages on your site that you want them to find. Sometimes less can be more when it comes to website design. If you have a business website then your message should be more important then everything else. When looking at your site make sure your current design is more than just eye candy, consider the following:
- Do your pages load quickly?
- Is your navigation clear?
- Can people easily FIND any page on your site FROM any page on your site?
- Are you conveying a consistent brand image across all pages of your site?
Email Marketing for Your Business
Let me start this section by stating I am NOT talking about SPAM! There are several legitimate and effective email marketing techniques you should be using for your website. Not only can you sell products directly from email but you can build relationships with email and bring people back to your site for repeat visits. Here are a few ideas for your business:
- Build an OPT-IN email list from your website
- Implement an online Newsletter relating to your business
- Add a signature to every email you send out that includes links to your website
- Add email auto-responders to your website to regularly stay in touch with website visitors.
I hope you found these ideas useful and can apply at least one of them to your business. It‘s a new year and time to jump start your business.
I would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!
