A conversation with Paul Nichols of PublisherFocus.com.

Today I spoke with Paul Nichols, you may remember him from his eBates days.  Paul now owns and operates PublisherFocus, a consulting agency geared to help affiliates grow their business.  So in a lot of ways, he provides services similar to JEBCommerce, but to affiliates not merchants.

Paul and I discussed the problem affiliates have in scheduling short term promotions and other functions on their site and the need for a good CMS system.  We also discussed how affiliates can get more sales out of smaller niche merchants.

JEBCommerce Question of the Week - How do I get started in affiliate marketing and make money online?

This week an old friend of mine asked me the following question: “We talked years ago about starting a retail business online and dropshipping.  I’m now in a place I want to get started making money online as an affiliate.  Where do you suggest I get started?”

That is a great question with a ton of opportunity.  In the video above I answer her as best I can.  I lay out three steps:

• Start with what you are passionate about
• Determine what you have expertise in
• Then figure out a way to monetize it

There are so many different ways to get started in affiliate marketing, but the most successful affiliates start out with doing what they love doing.  I hope this helps.

Got a question - email me at Jamie AT JEBCommerce.com

The information you put in your affiliate account is represented in your application to each program.  As I laid out in the previous posts in this series, you need to apply to each affiliate program in order to promote them.  But before I show you how to evaluate which affiliate programs to work with, we need to talk about your affiliate account.

Why?  Without good and complete information, your application will be denied.

When filling in your account information in each of the networks, don’t leave blanks.  Look at your account through the eyes of the merchant.  Do you show them what your site is about?  Do you give full contact info?  Do you describe your site and how you plan to promote that merchant in a way that the merchant can understand?  Be complete.

I wrote a few blogs about the affiliate application process.  It would be a good idea for you to read them as they are written from the perspective of a merchant going through affiliate applications.

Why aren’t they accepting my affiliate applications?

So again, it’s taken me way too long to get back to this series.  I plan to go over a few more things before I consider this series complete (is one ever?):

• Choosing a network and getting started
• Your affiliate account - what you should do to get accepted
• Choosing merchants to work with
• Promoting your merchant partners
• Advanced tools and tips to make affiliate marketing work for you

With that being said, I’ll give my disclaimer.  If you are a seasoned affiliate, this series isn’t for you.  This series is meant for bloggers who are either just getting into affiliate marketing, or know nothing about it but are looking to monetize their blog and want to learn more.

Ok, now onto the meat of today’s message - choosing a network.  In my previous post on this series, The Affiliate Networks, I introduced you to each of the main networks.  By no means is that list complete, but it is a great place for you to start.  But which one do you start with?  It’s both a great question and one I think is relatively un important when you start.  Odd statement for a post about choosing a network isn’t it.  Let me explain.

It used to be that Linkshare was the place to be for big retail merchants and the CJ was the place for lead generation type program (mortgage, debt consolidation).  That’s not really the case anymore.  Each of the big three networks (LS, CJ and Google) has a pretty broad range of merchant programs.  I would just choose one to get familiar with the process.  I have been told that CJ is the easiest for affiliates.  But Linkshare and Google have great programs as well.  Not much help am I? lol

One thing to note - each network refers to merchants and affiliates differently.  Merchant = advertiser, affiliate=publisher.  You may see those terms used interchangebly so don’t be too surprised.

The main thing isn’t so much the networks, and maybe that is what I’m trying to get across to you.  The main thing will be the partnerships you form with merchants and selecting the right ones to work with.  One of the most important things to do right when you are looking for these successful partnerships is your affiliate account.  Without the right information in your account, merchants won’t be able to effectively evaluate your application. That is what I’ll cover in my next episode.

It took a bit of time to get back to this series, but I’m hoping that the research we did on coupon sites was well worth it. This series is meant as a primer for bloggers and anyone else who is just starting out in affiliate marketing. As I said in my first post in this series, this is not meant to be a series for the experienced affiliate marketer, but is a high level introduction to our industry. So if you have been around for a while, you may not get much out of this one either.

Ok, so for those of you still sticking around, let’s go over the networks. Networks basically provide a marketplace where affiliates (you) and merchants (Zappos, Luggagepoint.com and others) can connect, form partnerships and be successful together. The networks act as trusted 3rd parties that track each transaction and provide the technology and distribution tools needed by both merchants and affiliates. If there were no networks, you would over 8,000 affiliate programs with different tracking systems, different logins and different accounts. Most of your time would be spent simply logging in to check your stats. Networks consolidate all of this so you can concentrate on selling.

So let’s give a brief run down of each of the major networks and some of the up and coming ones:

• Linkshare - “LinkShare Corporation provides ecommerce businesses with a wide range of online marketing services including Search Marketing (SEM), Lead Generation and Affiliate Marketing.  LinkShare clients include Fortune 500 and other prominent and emerging companies doing business online, including J.C. Penney, 1-800-Flowers.com, American Express, and Avon Products. LinkShare was founded in 1996  headquartered in New York City, with offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Tampa, London and Tokyo.” That is from their website.  Linkshare does have an awful lot of those Fortune 500 companies, so if you think that your audience wants those big brands, I’d definitely look here first.  They do have some advanced linking and distribution tools available, one of their newest being their wordpress plugin.  Signup here is free and pretty easy.  Their reporting is ok and grabbing links is pretty easy.
• Commission Junction - “Founded in 1998, Commission Junction, a ValueClick company, is based in Santa Barbara, California and has offices around the world. Since our inception, we have taken great pride in being customer service fanatics while establishing ourselves as a global leader in the online advertising channels of affiliate marketing and managed search.” That is also from their site.  CJ used to be the network to go to if you were looking to promote lead generation programs.  Programs such as LowerMyBills.com and other finance type lead programs could be found there.  They are still available, but CJ has made large gains into the retail space the last few years.  You can’t really go wrong and if you created an account in Linkshare, you should create one here as well.  I believe there are many more companies within CJ and you may find the interface and reporting a little easier to use.
• Google (formerly Performics) - “Google Affiliate Network connects advertisers and publishers who want to increase sales and drive leads through affiliate marketing.  As an advertiser using Google Affiliate Network, you’ll discover pre-screened publishers who can refer consumer traffic to you. As a publisher, you can market your site to advertisers in the network; if selected to participate in an advertiser’s program, you’ll earn a percent of sales or a referral bounty.” Again from their site.  I haven’t had much experience with this network from the affiliate side.  They do have many big merchants, so if you had to join 3, I would add this to my list.  Companies such as Barnes & Noble, Kohls, Circuit City and other brands are on this platform.  It’s also now owned by Google, so expect more interfacing with the other google tools and services.
• ShareASale - “There are currently over 2,000 Merchants plugged in to the ShareASale Network. Each of these merchants has a different type of product that they are selling - and each is ready to commission you on that sale if you bring a customer to them. The idea - and the implementation - are simple. You decide which merchants to promote and how to promote them, and when commissions are generated, you can see your stats in real-time. All payments are consolidated from the programs you participate in, and are paid with one check or direct deposit by ShareASale.” ShareASale is rapidly become one of the top networks to work with.  I know many of the people there personally and can attest to their professionalisms, ethics, turnaround and innovation.  With over 2,000 merchants, you are sure to find one that fits your audience here.  They also have many unique tools available.  Sign up with them and check out their merchant list.
• AvantLink - “We’ve created a unique, open environment for Cost Per Sale Affiliate marketers. One reason we’re unique is because we only work with high-value merchants with substantial catalogspercentage of sale. This particular advertiser segment can best utilize the industry leading Affiliate tools AvantLink is known for. Tools that are free to qualified Affiliates.” I’ve only recently been exposed to AvantLink, but all I can say is Wow!  They have a tool called the Affiliate Link Encoder that is really a must have for any blogging affiliate.   You basically put a small snippet of code in your footer files of your blog.  You then configure it to code certain words and domains in the copy of your posts to go to a certain trackable link of a merchant within the AvantLink network.  This means that you don’t necessarily need to make each post that contains the word “ski”, for example, link to a ski merchant.  You simply set the tool to encode certain words to go to certain merchants.  And it does it all for you in your entire blog, even archived content.  Becoming an affiliate of AvantLink is a little more difficult than the other networks.  They don’t accept downloads of any kind or affiliates that are considered parasitic in any way.  This only ends up protecting the affiliates the do get in.

There are a lot of other CPA (cost per action) networks that are considered to be in the group above.  I won’t really talk about them too much here as I think that is a pretty good list to get started with.  For each of the networks I did discuss, joining is the first step.  You’ll need to apply to become an affiliate. If you want to know what to put in your affiliate application, check out my blog post on the subject.  Make sure you avoid some of those mistakes so you can get past this first step.

After that, you’ll need to spend some time identifying who you want to work with.  Each merchant and each network requires that you apply to join their program, then you are either approved or denied.  When you are approved you’ll have access to all their links, banners and other distribution methods, I’ll outline some of the neat tools that are available in my next post.

So that is pretty much my brief run down of the networks I think you should get started with.  I do recommend you working with all of them as they do have different merchants in each and each one offers something different than the other.

I’m sure I’m missing some things, so if you are an experienced affiliate marketer reading this post, please feel free to add anything in the comments section that you think a blogger getting started in AM will need to know.

In October I was fortunate enough to attend one of the most informative and fun conferences I have been to in several years - BlogWorld.  The conference overall was fantastic. They had an affiliate track for the first time and it was very well attended.  Many of us in the affiliate community noticed that “affiliate marketing” was relatively new to this audience of bloggers.  Some even said that 90% of the attendees had no idea what affiliate marketing is and how to get involved, let alone that they can use these relationships to monitize their blogs.

Because of this, I wanted to put together a very top level run down of what it is and how they can get started.  NOTE: if you are a seasoned affiliate marketer, then you won’t get much from this article.  This is intended for those that are completely new to this area of performance marketing.  It is meant as a primer into the world of affiliate marketing and doesn’t demonstrate any advanced practices.

Ok, now that that is out of the way, let’s get going.  I’ll start at the beginning.  Wikipedia definition: “Affiliate marketing is an Internet-based marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s marketing efforts.”

Here is my definition:  Affiliate marketing is an internet-based marketing practice where businesses reward partners for a required action.  These actions may be clicks, impressions, sales, email signups, lead form completions, RSS subscriptions and more.  It is a performanced based relationship, the business only pays when something is performed.

Retailers typically reward affiliates for a sale.  For example:  Customer John Doe comes to your blog and reads your newest post.  You have a banner (ad) on your website for Zappos.com Shoes.  John clicks on that banner, goes to Zappos and purchases a $100 pair of shoes.  Zappos then rewards you a % of that $100 for referring that sale.  Most retailers work that way.

Mortgage companies, debt consolidation and other types of companies offer a bounty for referring someone who becomes a lead.  That typically means they fill out a form to get more information, sign up for the site, become a member of a site or other lead generation activities.  The bounties can range from $1 to $300 depending on the industry and the company offering it.

Make sense?  It’s pretty simple, instead of paying for impressions up front, the affiliate (you) doesn’t get paid until something happens (a purchase, signup, click). At first you may be thinking, well I won’t get paid unless something happens, but that is out of my control.  Correct, but after doing this for 10 years and managing over 35 programs, I can tell you that many affiliates make hundreds of thousands of dollars through affiliate programs.  The money is there and it the opportunity can be much higher with affiliate programs if you are able to match the affiliate program with what your users are looking for.

Why is this so much easier, at times, then finding your own advertisers?

Affiliate Networks.

Companies such as Commission Junction, Linkshare, Google Affiliate Network, Share A Sale and AvantLink provide a marketplace where affiliates (bloggers, content developers, web site creators) can partner with many different businesses (merchants).  These networks also provide a method to track any transactions that may result from you working with a merchant.

Basically, here is how it works:

You join the network, apply to the programs you think will be successful on your site, and then grab some links.  You will be able to grab banners and text links and many merchants and networks provide some advanced linking that I will talk about in another post in this series.  The code you grab for your banners or links contains all the necessary tracking information to associate that user to your account.  Any purchases that user makes will be registered into your account.

That is basically it.

Here are some things to look at when you are evaluating an affiliate program:

• Commission Rate - each network will allow you to see the commission rates for similar programs.  Use this as one way to evaluate the programs you want to work with.
• EPC - this is earnings per one hundred clicks and reflects the amount you can expect to earn from a program for each set of 100 clicks you send.  This is a good way to see how they are converting, but not all merchants show this.
• Tools - look at the set of distribution tools they offer.  Do they offer a datafeed, any contextual tools?
• Return Days/Cookie Days - The more of these the better.  These are the number of days from the initial visit to the merchant’s site from yours, that you will get credit if that user makes a purchase.  Wow, a mouthful huh? For example, John from our previous example, clicks on a Zappos.com (a new client of JEBCommerce ), on Monday.  Zappos.com, for this example, has a cookie day of 3.  John doesn’t purchase until Wednesday.  Because they offer 3 cookie days, you will get credit for that sale

There are many other things you need to look at when evaluating a partner to work with and promote through their affiliate program.  I want to take a more in depth look into each affiliate network.  I’ll do that in my second post of this series.

Don’t forget to subscribe to our feed!

Read more in #2 of our Series - The Affiliate Networks.

This one gets me every time.  Your watching your Twitter stream, maybe on the web or through Tweetdeck or some other tool, and all of a sudden you get bombarded with 10 or more tweets from a corporate account, newspaper or other organization.  I’ve seen affiliates blast 15 in the space of 10 seconds and one of our local Idaho newspapers launch 5 or more.

By doing this you are very likely reducing the chance that those tweets will actually be read.  if there is a potential action solicited from your tweet, your followers are less likely to take that action.  You may also be annoying your followers, have you noticed many un-following you?  Many Twitterers use other tools to follow their friends and you, and often it only displays a few at a time, so many of your posts are most likely not even seen.

There are man Twitter plugins, if you are using a blog, that allows you to automatically update your Twitter account as posts are posted.  These may help you to update your account on the fly and without your intervention.

• Twitter Updater
• Twitter Tools

I’ve used both and they work great.  I highly recommend if you can’t use those tools to update your account as new information becomes available.  Users are more likely to ready what you have to say when there is one at a time.

In August, JEBCommerce launched the Plan, Do, Check, Act! blog for a national Continuous Improvement consultancy, BCG.  BCG contracted with JEBCommerce this summer to provide them with a strategic marketing plan to expand their digital footprint.  This blog is the first step in an integrated plan whose purpose is to get more exposure for BCG and it’s principals.  JEBCommerce is very excited to be working with this cutting age consultant and helping them establish themselves as the experts in continuous improvement online.