Dissecting Affiliate Marketing

Ok - this is an attempt to sum up all the ways affiliates make money and my take on them.

1. PPC
   Pretty damn obvious what this is, but there are so many flavours of affiliate ppc'ing.
   
   a. First off you've got the traditional PPC'ing using landing pages on your site which you expect people to use fully. With this you have to make the offer and call to action extremely compelling to prevent users being distracted by your content. There are advantages of this form off PPC as search providers don't particularly like "Made For Adwords sites". But there is the advantage of allowing users a true alternative to the merchant or product you're offering.
   
   b. "Made for Adwords" Sites, I know a number of highly successful affiliates that do this they'll create landing pages that don't offer any other content than to get the user to click on the affiliate link. They're successful for now, but I see the SE's putting pressure on to make the site's more useful.
   
   c. "Mimic-sites". I've seen this recently with Virgin Atlantic on Affiliate Future where someone bought a domain similar to the virgin-atlantic.com one and copied the site and then ppc'd. I'm not sure how long it lasted, but I can't see it now. This is a risky approach as you pick a merchant that is hot on it's brand you could be in hot water.
   
   d. "Direct-to-merchant". This approach has variable results and 90% dependent on the products you choose to promote, 10% general merchant factors such as the buying process etc. It is crucial to talk to the merchant or network first to find out what is selling and jump on it ASAP.
   
   e. "Brand-bidding". Awe "brand bidding", many have made a nice mint out of it (I've made a few quid too), but it's slowly unravelling. Merchants are getting more clued up about it. It's always worth giving it a go when you're allowed, but don't be stupid. Be careful with your budget before you get too far out of pocket. Know who you're up against and get to know their tactics. Each affiliate competitor has their own approach and when you've got enough experience you'll know how to beat them.
   
   f. "Arbitrage". This is where you pay say 5p per click and hopefully earn multiples per click on your own site. I don't like these sites as they generally don't ad value to the user.
   
   
2. Respectable SEO
   
   This is my preferred route, there's so much to write about it that'll have to a full-length post to get my thoughts across.
   
   But the basics entail:
   
   a. Start off by working out if you want to create a site around a topic, product or merchant.
   
   b. Look ahead for what's going to be big in the next year, 2 years, 3 years etc and get building.
   
   c. Think about your hosting, 1&1 has it's hosting in Germany think about how this will affect your GEO-location in the search engines.
   
   d. Think about how you're going to create it. Do you need a CMS, will a Dreamweaver site do the job? Will you need a bespoke solution created for a price comparison site?
   
   e. How much competition is there?
   
   f. How much work will you have to put in?
   
   g. How much do you expect to earn per visitor? Will the site make money for a week, a month or for ever?
   
   etc. etc.
   
   
3. Community Sites
   
   a) Work out what software you'll need? Blogger, WordPress or Drupal.
   
   b) Can you really create "buzz" about your site?
   
   c) Do you have the features to create a community site?
   
   d) Do you really have what it takes to spend hours with no return for the first few months?
   
   e) Can you keep it going?
   
   I love these sites when they're done right, if not, they just end up being the belly-button fluff of the Internet.
   
   
4. Web Spam / Made for AdSense / Blog spam
   
   Ooh this used to be good for me. I used to earn shed loads knocking up thousands of pages a day and waiting a few days for the Google listings. Now I suppose its a case of "Poacher turned Game-keeper" as they really annoy me now. There are still way too many of these, create some good content and you'll be loved for ever! Well nearly!
   
   
5. Email Spam
   
   Will you bugger off now please! I've had my main Hotmail account for 10 years now and it's just bombarded with spam now that I've moved over to Gmail. But it does pay! There's a serious amount of cash to be made if you've got the data and the technology. If you can sleep at night knowing you're sending lonely, single men adverts for Viagra then good for you. Just leave it.
   
   
6. Spyware / adware / malware
   
   It's been many a year since I got vocal about affiliates fighting together against spyware. And today we've seen a massive improvement. But I do think we're due another audit on spyware and how/if merchants are working with those companies. Cue Fraser ...
   
   
7. Affiliate Referral
   
   This where you get loads of affiliates into your second tier and let them earn for you. This reminds me to get my backside in gear over my "affiliate marketing India" site. I've even got a kick-ass domain for South Africa for the World Cup and must get round to setting something up.

So the basics are:

• think months and years ahead,
• think about creating sites that you can easily manage,
• think about SEO from the outset,
• think about playing by the rules - there are advantages in it,
• think about listening to sucessful affiliates,
• think about creating an affiliate business built to last.

What I'm listening to: Fasten Seatbelts - Space

So how do you start a new site?

There's so much talk about this and an interesting thread has been started about this topic at the A4U Forum.

It all started from a comment reportedly from Mike Grehan which was:

"Sit down, look at your site. Write down 10 reasons why people would want to link to your Web site. If you can’t get past 5, you’ve created your own sandbox."

Totally right! This is what you need to do before you do anything else. I'd say even ignore your design and usability. Look at your site content in Word, Open office, TextPad form or whatever you use.

Don't even have your pc connected to the internet and think, "is this content useful to anyone?"

I'm saying you have to do anything totally unique or even substantially better than your competitors. Just find some USP's (unique selling points).

Find out what you offer that is different to others:

• Is it the tone and the humour which you deliver your message?
• Do you mix various forms of information in a manner that others don't?
• Do you have knowledge or understanding of your topic that is in demand and you have the ability to communicate it effectively?
• Do you offer others the ability to interact on the subject matter that others don't.

So the first stage would be to start off thinking about do you have great content?

If the answer to that question is affirmative, then move on to the next question, are you displaying the content in a format that is consistent with the subject? Make the people feel at home. Some game review sites would be dark - it's the audience you're catering for. If you're targeting a family audience make things bold, bright and clear.

So you've matched your content to a design that makes your audience feel comfortable think about how you offer interaction.

If it's right for your audience add a detailed and structured forum. If your users are less likely to register then create a simple comment form.

Offer your audience the opportunity to market your site for you - but in a manner in which they'll like. Some site's it'll be completely useless to add digg and furl links - your audience may not use them. But a "send this article to a friend" form may work for them, or a some quirky game/humour/voucher code stuff would work for a different audience.

One thing that is consistent: capture user email addresses. Some may expect a big hefty form that asks them about their interests but another group of visitors may only fill in a quick name + email addy form.

Some types of audience would expect regular contact, others may one expect an email/broadcast a couple of times a year.

So when you've really nailed your audience, you've got the content, design and interaction matched tightly with your target audience what should you do next?

Well link-building is so old hat. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't seek links. Find relevant directories and submit your sight. There is nothing wrong with submitting your site to generalist and niche directories.

Second. Contact those that you know and see if they have a site on similar topic. Ask them if a link to your site would benefit their users? If so, ask them to do it, ideally ask for a paragraph or two about your site.

Third. Go back to your USP's, think about what makes your site different, think about is there a news story here? Don't worry about getting on the front page of The Times. Just think about your niche and if it is of worth to them knowing about it. Think about what your niche's reaction would be if they saw your site mentioned somewhere and what they'll think about the news story and your site. If you think they'll turn their noses up at either then work out another story.

When you've got a story sorted then you've got two choices:

1. Create your own press release and send it to PRWeb and niche syndication services;
2. Pay a PR agency to do it.

It's your call but be prepared to take questions via phone and/or email. You need to be confident about your offering.

Create some buzz. But if you've got a MFA site, another clone shopping directory or price comparison service and you're actually adding no value to the world or the Internet - go back to bed and come up with something useful.

Unless you don't really "give a" about if you make a mint out of SEO, e-PR, SEM or anything. You may just create a site for a laugh, posterity or whatever. But if you do want to make a pile, then do it right from the start!

What I'm listening to: Here I go again - Whitesnake