Hi there,
One of my websites gets all of its income from affiliate schemes. Due
to the large number of different topics it encompasses, I belong to
several hundred affiliate schemes. Approximately half of them are via
a service such as Commission Junction, ClickBank or Linkshare. The
rest run their own scheme. There are three ways of finding an
individual affiliate scheme to join...
1. Browsing
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Webmasters tend to be interested in the general topic of their
website, and they tend to visit other websites which are connected to
that topic. If they are looking for a means of income, and they are at
a site they like, smart webmasters look for a link that says
Affiliates or Partners or Earn Money. This is quite easy, your friend
just needs a link on the home page, or less commonly on the about us
page, that leads to details of the scheme.
The hard part is promotion. To get webmasters visiting your site is
just as difficult as attracting regular surfers. So, as well as the
obvious link, he or she will need to promote their site the normal
way, via search engines, press releases, distributed articles,
directory listings etc.
In my own experience, I find affiliate schemes through browsing.
Others might find them by:
2a. Affiliate Directories
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Google Directory lists many of them - sites that list affiliate
schemes. The idea is that a webmaster merely has to browse through
them to find an appropriate scheme to join.
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Authoring/Webmaster_Resources/Affiliate_Programs/Resources/Directories/
The downside is I have yet to see an all-encompassing, quality,
unbiased site that lists affiliate schemes. However, I'm fussy, and
getting listed at most of these services would surely be beneficial.
2b. Yahoo / Open Directory
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A good way to find affiliate schemes is to visit a directory category
on the topic, and visit each site listed, and check if they ave a
scheme running.
3. Search Results
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On occassion I have said to myself, I need some income from this page
about widgets. So I go to Google and search for:
widgets affiliate
And it usually works out quite well, and I end up joining a scheme
that sells widgets.
So, I suggest to your friend
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Have a subtle link on the home page, and the about us page. It needs
to be seen by those who are looking for it, and not by those who
aren't (because I feel it could negatively affect the customers
opinion). It leads to a very detailed explanation of the scheme, and
an easy sign-up procedure.
Don't just rely on affiliates bringing you customers, at least not in
the early days. You need to get as many folk visiting your site as
possible, because many will be webmasters. Pay-per-click is an option.
If it is technically possible, consider a two-tier scheme, where
affiliates are given an incentive to promote the scheme, as well as
the product.
Optimize the affiliate scheme info page so that it ranks highly when
the topic and the word affiliate are searched for.
Get listed in Open Directory and Yahoo. Not only will this help with
2b, it will also greatly increase regular search traffic.
If the other websites he owns are on a similar topic, he could offer
his new scheme to those who are in the pre-existing schemes.
Search strategy: personal experience
Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga |
