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Affiliate Overview
First, just a few questions all potential affiliates need to ask themselves.
1) Do you already have a working website on which you want to display affiliate ads?
If you do then you should have already signed up to one of the networks by now and placed your first test ads on your site.
Does your site have Traffic? If it already has good traffic then you want to be tweaking those ads fast right now to try and get the highest quality combination of revenue and user relevance. Because of this direct editorial choice of ads when compared to, say, remotely chosen contextual advertising you should find that these are attractive to the publisher for that exact reason. Both forms sit happily together on many large, good quality sites that are frequently enjoyed by their users.
2) Do you have no site or traffic, but the skills to create new HTML pages and websites?
If you can code great pages but don't yet have any online marketing experience then AM has a lot to offer. It is applicable to the good designer or site publisher who can create a site or landing page that users enjoy visiting and exploring, passing through your ads because you have chosen relevant merchants to advertise on the page. You need to promote and market it, obviously, and whereas new community sites may be better suited to word of mouth traffic, small sites, product or information pages are a good choice if you are new to exploring Pay per Click driven traffic. [more on sample PPC campaign]
If you don't already have a site and can't create one yet, this naturally limits the type of affiliate activity you are able to engage in. It is not, however, impossible for those with applicable marketing talents to generate traffic and revenue. Pay per Click (PPC) specialists with skills garnered within another company may choose to specialise in campaigns for merchants who allow 'direct to merchant' linking from Search or Content network Ads placed by the affiliate. Each merchant has a specific PPC policy and you should fully understand their terms and be able to abide by domain, subdomain, Display URL, Ad Copy, Landing Page and Keyword Bidding Terms stipulated by a merchant. For those without previous experience of PPC this is strongly discouraged. It can prove extremely costly to get wrong. For those with general marketing skills a number of merchants in various sectors offer 'white label' sites, usually for a fee of £25-125 that you are able to promote and market. These are available in diverse forms from merchants in the travel and mobile telephony sectors to mention just two of the biggest. HTML skills are still recommended with these, however, as it is still highly advisable to customise these and add original content where possible or else they may well peform poorly in the search engines if they perceive them to have no unique and distinguishing content.
3) Are you comfortable working with PHP / ASP and databases?
If so then you've got some great talents that you can combine with the creative and marketing skills you may have or are prepared to learn. Working with Product Data Feeds gives you, the webmaster, greater control over the presentation of dynamically generated and comprehensive merchant information. This enables you to give your own visitor a more rewarding and interactive experience when viewing AM driven feeds or database information.
4) What extra programming talents, skills and online experience do you intend to apply to your Affiliate Marketing endeavours
Background in Search Engine Optimisation or PPC Search Marketing? Your talents are naturally greatly beneficial to you in this marketing channel. Print and traditional media experience can be drawn upon when learning. Don't forget though that for any online project to work, good knowledge of your sector, enthusiasm and communication skills will be just as important in creating a sustainable business.
5) How much time and money can you commit to developing your business?
Pages need coding, content needs writing and domains need hosting. There's any other expenses you incur on top and do you need to be realistic about how much time you can commit to your sites. Although the ideal site would be swift to maintain, with high traffic, low overheads and good revenue this is rarely easy to create. Real world websites need time, enthusiasm and financing in equal measures to make them work well for you and your visitor. Look at creating something attainable. Niche really is best for a first site. Do it well and learn. That great first idea you have for a global shopping portal isn't practical or going to have the slightest impact on the internet. Keep it to something specific that is achievable by you on your own and, just as importantly, is enjoyable and unique for the visitor. It won't threaten to cost the earth if you fail to earn from your publishing but if you concentrate on an interest that you enjoy covering and learn whilst promoting it. Highly focused your site may be, technically simple perhaps, but working on a genuinely useful and interesting site means your own experience will be far more rewarding.
You also need to consider
What type of affiliates there are : Site Publishers, PPC Only Specialists, EMail Marketing. Online methods affiliates use to generate commissions.
Beginner's Strategies : Starting Out, Creating Niche Sites and going for Longtail Searches
Optimising the Merchant Content : Content Units, Data Feeds, White Label Branding
Issues that may arise for the Publisher : Untracked transactions, Denied / Reversed Transactions, Sales waiting to be validated, Non-paying merchants, Technical and communication problems with a network, Misidentification of ads by AV software, End of session cookie clearing installations
What Merchants may dictate in their Terms & Conditions : PPC Brand / Keyword Restrictions, Brand use, Closed Groups
Activity that's Strictly Forbidden : Parasiteware, Pop Up / Under Advertising, Domain Name Abuse / Passing Off
Process Downtime Issues : Site / PPC landing page downtime results, Network tracking downtime, Merchant site unavailable. Impact on visitor experience, loyalty / stickiness and site revenue
Increasing Ad Revenue : Things that affiliates can do to improve conversions, sales and revenue
Types of Search and Site Optimisation, Promotion and Online Advertising : PPC, EMail Marketing, SEO, PR (Press Reslease), Text Link Purchase, Sig Links etc
Types of Site : Content Site, Products Site, Blog, Single Product, Transition Page, Lead Capture, Rewards / Cashback Sites, Referral Sites. Non affiliate led but equally suited to AM : Auction Sites, Community Sites and Forums
FSA and other Regulated Marketing Sectors : Restricted Areas and Considerations
Choice of UK Networks
Various UK networks from an affiliate's position. What Networks are out there? Affiliate Future, Paid on Results etc
Choice of UK Merchants
Overview of the wide choice of UK merchants available
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