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.

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