Affiliate Marketing FAQ
Affiliate
marketing has been a popular method for companies to sell their
products and services online, and for bloggers and webmasters to make
profit. The idea has been around for many years now, but a lot of people
dismiss it as not worth their attention, while others are simply not
sure about the exact meaning of the term and the idea behind it. Here
are the answers to some frequently asked questions on affiliate
marketing to either help you better understand the concept or make
better use of it.
FAQ: On The Affiliate Side
Let’s start with top questions on the affiliate side of things, then we’ll look briefly at the merchant’s side as well.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate
marketing is a performance-driven marketing technique, where a company
gives part of its revenue to its affiliates as a reward for bringing in
new visitors or customers.
Several
participants are involved in the process. The merchant is the company
that utilizes the affiliate marketing strategy to boost its sales. The
affiliate or publisher is a person or business that promotes the
merchant, getting paid by the latter when such promotion brings results.
Another entity involved in the deal, in some cases, is the network,
which is an intermediate link between the merchant and affiliate,
processing payments, providing offers that the affiliate can choose from
and affiliate management tools for the merchant.
Lastly,
there is the customer, who buys the merchant’s product after reading a
review or clicking an ad on the affiliate’s website (or wherever he/she
happens to be running ads).
One
of the biggest benefits drawing many publishers to affiliate marketing
is the fact that you don’t need to start your own business, launch a
product or develop a service to be able to generate revenue. Your
practically have no overhead costs and can do all the work from the
comfort of your home. All you need to have is a website or blog with
quality content, that you can use as a platform to promote the
merchant’s products and services for monetary compensation.
From
the merchant’s perspective, some of the advantages of affiliate
marketing include the ability to increase their conversion rates and
gain repeat customers, and do all that by using methods that are cheaper
and more effective than traditional advertising.
What Types of Products Can Be Promoted?
While
affiliate marketing isn’t always the best choice for brick-and-mortar
business, it does work great for any types of online services, as well
as for companies who heavily rely on the Internet to sell their
products.
One
of the first rules in choosing the types of products you should promote
involves following your passions. If you like writing about e-books,
for example, and are already publishing their reviews on your website,
why not sign up for several affiliate marketing programs in that niche?
If you have a culinary blog, you can promote cookbooks, recipe websites
and even restaurants with strong online presence. Some other popular
services that rely on affiliate marketing are Web hosting, online
training programs and webinars, various types of software, paid
subscription services and other virtual products.
If
you don’t have a strong preference on the subject you’d like to write
about, but need to start somewhere, try thinking of unique niches that
don’t have a lot of affiliates promoting them yet. You might, for
instance, dismiss promoting online dog training classes, but instead
venture into sub-niches such as training equipment, books for dog
owners, pet id tags, or best vet services in your area.
Self-defense training and products, such as pepper spray, could be another interesting niche to try out.
What Types of Affiliate Promotions Are There?
Pay-per-lead
is a oft-used affiliate marketing method. When using such a program,
the merchant pays the publisher for any leads the latter generates. The
affiliate in this case uses links to refer customers to such things as
trial offers, promotions and downloads, to name a few. While in some
cases you get paid for sending visitors to the site, with other
merchants you only get paid if the customer actually signs up for the
service.
Pay-per-sale
is one of the most profitable affiliate marketing techniques, where you
get a certain percentage of the sale for every referral you make to the
product. This is the mott common.
There
are many variations of these programs, such as pay-per-install, where
the publishers get connected to software developers and receives a set
amount for every product installation. In most cases this involves
promoting free software that has adware attached to it. With
pay-per-call, the promoter gets paid for every phone call a potential
customer makes based on this affiliate’s leads. With cost-per-action,
the publisher is paid based on the agreed upon action, such as
newsletter sign sup, impression or click.
What Are Some Major Online Merchants with In-house Affiliate Programs?
Amazon
has one of the biggest in-house affiliate programs out there. Its
performance-based fee structure allows promoters to receive anywhere
from 4% to 15% of the revenue for the qualifying items shipped to the
customers.
Another
in-house affiliate program leader is eBay, paying publishers for banner
views and link clicks. The program has also introduced a couple of
innovative affiliate marketing techniques, such as the Editor’s Kit,
which allows eBay sellers to cross-promote other sellers’ items, earning
commissions for them.
Canadian Tire is another player in the field, along with Walmart and other popular retailers.
What Are Some of the Major Affiliate Networks?
ClickBank, LinkShare, Share-A-Sale and Commission Junction are some of the more popular networks.
ClickBank
provides its users with access to thousands of affiliate programs in
almost any niche you can think of. The network is partially popular
because of its high commissions, many of them ranging between 50% and
75%.
LinkShare
gives publishers access to a number of popular affiliate programs,
including the one by Buy.com. The network promises commissions of up to
20% and gives affiliates a lot of useful tools. It provides you with
real-time access to payout data, for instance, and gives you a great
overview of the latest merchant offers from your dashboard.
What Are Some of the General Affiliate Marketing Rules?
Some
of the legal requirements that affiliates need to be aware of include
providing a disclosure about their marketing activities on the website,
to make sure that the users know that the blogger gets paid to write
product reviews or conduct similar activities. The reviews cannot be
misleading, so if you were paid to try a product and it didn’t work
well, you are not supposed to write a positive review about it just to
get paid. You have to make sure that the product links are described as
such in simple language, so that your average website user does not
mistakenly take them for information as opposed to advertising. Avoiding
any type of deceit of the customer is key here.
FAQ: On The Merchant Side
Many
affiliate marketers become merchants even while staying as affiliate
marketers. Here are some answers to some questions about being a
merchant in this game.
What Are Some Popular Tools to Manage Affiliates?
WP
Affiliate is a great plugin for managing all your affiliate program
needs in one place. It allows for automatic affiliate registration,
management and payments. What makes it so attractive to merchants is its
integration with WooCommerce, WP Shopping Cart, eShop and a number of
other e-commerce platforms. E-junkie is another popular alternative,
providing several payment options, autoresponder, newsletter and
updates, customized emails and thank-you pages, and a lot of other
options. You might also want to check out other popular management tools
such iDevDirect, JROX and Clickbank.
What are the Typical Methods to Pay Affiliates?
These
usually include wire transfer, checks or money orders. PayPal is one of
the most popular and convenient methods for both sides. Keep in mind
though that a lot of the affiliate networks have their own payment tools
in place, so you should weigh that into your options when choosing a
network to work with.
What Are Some Good Affiliate Networks with Built-In Payment Solutions?
The
previously mentioned ClickBank has a great user-friendly interface and
takes care of all the payments for you. There is a one-time $50
activation fee for merchants to start selling through the network and
several minor ongoing charges. MyCommerce, formerly RegNow, provides
another convenient e-commerce solution for businesses seeking to work
with affiliate marketers. It has no start-up fee, but charges merchants a
small per-transaction fee.
What Are Some Good Assets to Provide for your Affiliates?
Some
of the popular assets for affiliates include Facebook messages, tweets,
banners, blog posts and how-to articles. Videos and images are great
options, as the Web audience is becoming increasingly visual these days.
Autoresponders for e-mails work well, and so do podcasts. It is also
easy to engage the customer with interactive asset ideas, such as
surveys and quizzes.
Do the heavy lifting and provide all of these options for your affiliates.
What are Some Places to Outsource Asset Creation?
The
beauty of affiliate marketing lies in the fact that you are not only
able to outsource the advertising itself, but also the creation of the
content you provide to your affiliates, completely eliminating the need
to run your own expensive marketing department.
Some
of the great places to hire freelancers for asset creation include
Elance, oDesk and Freelancer.com. You should also check out Fiverr,
where you can purchase all types of content for as little as $5. And if
off-shore outsourcing is your preferred method, check out Onlinejobs.ph
and EasyOutsource.com.
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