>My question: from a business model perspective, if I set up a web
site that consists mainly of searchable links to commission paying
merchants and/or products they offer, would that website make much
money?<
The short answer -- probably not, but that's not necessarily a
knock-out punch. It simply means that particular model has been found
to be ineffective, but there are alternative approaches to affiliate
revenue that work better. As a long time website owner and affiliate
myself, I'll try point you in a profitable direction.
Flea Market Disadvantages
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One of the biggest obstacles with an internet flea market approach is
the difficulty of multiple purchases. Each link leads to a different
merchant and in order to buy more than one item, or without a high-end
shopping cart that can overcome this problem, most people won't go
through purchase process over and over.
A second problem is findability. With a portal and wide variety of
items for sale you'll have a difficult time obtaining search engine
placement that will bring in customers. Search engines rank sites by
content, and most have the ability to recognize and filter out
affiliate generated content. You'd need to drive traffic almost
exclusively through the pay-per-click search engines, and select
products that sell for a price that will cover the cost of all the
clicks (an average of less than 5% of visitors become customers), and
make a profit on top of it.
Specialize
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The alternative is to specialize, rather than generalize. Create a
website dedicated to a single product or product line, or narrow area.
Link to and publish as much information as possible about that single
product. Include affiliate links -- use a single affiliate partner per
site for content/product portion -- and publish related advertising.
Nothing says you can't have a dozen or more different sites for
different products. Domain names are inexpensive these days, a small
investment.
Down to Details -- Here's an example of one success affiliate model:
One domain name, one product. "As the internet continues to explode,
you will no doubt find more of these "malls" creeping up. If you are
serious about making money with affiliate programs, you need to
separate yourself from the pack. People generally surf the internet
with a goal. They are looking to solve a problem. It could be to lose
weight, make more money or make new friends.
Find a product or service that helps solve that problem and you will
be successful!"
Formula for Affiliate Success
http://www.associateprograms.com/search/domain-names.shtml
Advertising
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Search engines provide free advertising. The more specific your
content, the more useful it is to humans (rather than search engine
spiders) the better free advertising and referrals you'll receive.
When creating your site, follow the guidelines offered by each search
engine. You don't want your site to be banned due to breach of terms.
Search Engine Guidelines
Google: ://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
Yahoo: http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp
Select Products Wisely
----------------------------------------------------------------------
It'll cost you just as much in terms of time investment, to market an
inexpensive product as a more expensive one. Choose products that
offer a good return on your investment. For instance, with a $9.95
item and a 5% commission rate, it'll require 2,010 sales to achieve
$1,000 in commission. If you promote an item worth $24.95 instead,
it'll take only 800 sales to generate the same amount of commission.
Selecting Affiliate Programs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Whether you choose a product to sell, then find the best affiliate
program to join, or choose your products after joining a particular
program, make sure it IS a choice, rather than just a random
selection. Chosing wisely is the subject of this E-Commerce Guide
article. Cynthia Acko recommends a few basic selection criteria:
-- the amount of revenue share
-- ease of implementation
-- e-mail response time
-- online reporting capabilities
-- customer service
-- clarity of the terms and conditions
-- availability of free content
Read the full article at:
E-Commerce Guide - Internet.com
Insights - ECTips - How to Identify Quality Affiliate Programs
http://ecommerce.internet.com/news/insights/ectips/article/0,,6311_739951,00.html
Selection - Too Many Choices
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sometimes lots of choice is not necessarily a good thing. Shoppers are
most likely to select a well-known or already trusted store for many
purchases. They'll go directly to the store itself, rather than
search. Even if they do search, if results are sorted by price, your
general store might be far down in those results. You'll need to
achieve top ten placement in search engine results in order to
generate the sort of traffic you need for lots of sales (and their
commissions).
If you concentrate on several items, or a group of items, it is much
easier to market to the subset of shoppers who are seeking that exact
item. Declan Dunn, one of the Internet's affiliate selling gurus,
speaks about product selection:
"Think of it this way; if you have ever been in a restaurant with
children, you will notice that waiters often approach them
differently. Instead of showing them a whole slew of choices on a
menu, they point the children to one or two choices. The parents are
happy, and the child can make a simple choice. Apply this same
approach to your Web Site; focus your visitors on just one or two
products, and sell them very well. Do not confuse the issue by trying
to sell them everything on one visit. People simply do not buy things
that way."
See the full excerpt from Dunn's book, "Winning the Affiliate Game" at:
The Seven Keys to Affiliate Success
http://activemarketplace.com/w.cgi?winning_seven-18725
Stickiness - Content Sells
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Top affiliates use many strategies to retain visitors and encourage
them to make purchases. The E-Commerce Guide offers advice on website
content to affiliates seeking to increase sales:
"Not only does content create stickiness; it may just help your
ranking in the search engines. Search engines frequently sift through
millions of pages to find relevant information for indexing of a
particular topic. A page full of flashy banners will get poor results
while a site rich with articles, product descriptions, news and
information will have a good chance of ranking high in the search
engine. Although, no search engine uses the same search mentality,
it's likely that your content rich site will be more attractive to the
vast majority. "
E-Commerce Guide - Internet.com
Insights - ECTips - Content Sells
http://ecommerce.internet.com/news/insights/ectips/article/0,,6311_752491,00.html
Learning the Field
----------------------------------------------------------------------
One of the first steps in building a success web site from which to
earn affiliate income is to learn as much as you can about the field.
There are many sources, including books, eBooks, websites,
advertisements. It may be difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff.
Start free. Here's a listing of some of the better affiliate
resources.
Affiliate Marketing eBook Directory
http://www.selling-it.com/eBook_Directory/Affiliates.htm
12 Mistakes Affiliates Make
---------------------------
"Affiliates struggling to earn $100 a month often find it hard to
believe that other people could possibly earn as much as $10,000 or
even $100,000 a month in commissions."
"Forrester Research predicts that affiliate programs and affiliate
networks will represent 20%, or $53 billion, of e-commerce sales by
2005."
"In most programs, 5% of the affiliates generate the vast majority of the sales."
12 Mistakes Affiliates Make - and How to Fix Them
http://www.associateprograms.com/search/mistakes.shtml
A Beginner's Guide
------------------
Single article quick start - a beginner's guide to affiliate, revenue
sharing, reseller, partner, bounty, associate programs. 32 useful
hints.
Beginner's Guide
http://www.associateprograms.com/search/guide.shtml
Identify Excellent Associate Programs
-------------------------------------
"There are literally thousands of affiliate programs to choose from.
Program features and support vary tremendously. The 10 essentials
[here] are designed to streamline the search process and help you
distinguish an excellent program from an average one."
10 Essentials Required To Identify An Excellent Affiliate Program
http://www.associateprograms.com/search/10essential.shtml
One Affiliate's Success Story
-----------------------------
"[In the Spring of] 1999, ChildFun.com was rolling along at the rate
of 100K page views per month. In just half a year's time, site traffic
has increased ten-fold. And the site's affiliate revenues? Let's just
say that Jenny's happy to be a work-at-home Internet entrepreneur and
mother of three, with nary a thought of returning to the drudgery of
the 9-5 world (not to mention a grueling commute through the Minnesota
winter)."
Affiliate Marketing Isn't Child's Play
http://www.associateprograms.com/search/childfun.shtml
ChildFun.com
http://childfun.com/
Refer-It
--------
Refer-It is Internet.com's portal to affiliate and associate
marketing. The Webmaster's Channel offers up-to-date news about the
industry and programs available.
Refer-It
http://www.refer-it.com/webmasters/
Affiliate Marketing Tutorial
----------------------------
This short tutorial introduces key concepts in affiliate marketing. Topics include:
Introduction
Who is best suited to Affiliate Marketing?
Outline
What do I need to start?
How do I start?
Techniques
Search Engine Positioning
Selling and Affiliate Marketing
Pay Per Click Advertising
Traffic Building
Further Reading
Resources
Short Free Affiliate Marketing Tutorial
http://www.affiliatee.com/affiliatemarketingtutorial.html
What Do Top Affiliates Earn?
----------------------------
There are only a few published figures about actual affiliate
earnings. This site collects those claims and presents them on a
single page.
Top Affiliates
http://www.affilimate.com/top-affiliates.htm
Additional Affiliate Programs
----------------------------------------------------------------------
In addition to Linkshare, check out Commission Junction as well.
Also investigate the Barnes & Noble program for book sakes. Barnes &
Noble University offers a number of free courses that are excellent
draws for visitors in their areas of interest, plus provides affiliate
income. Everybody loves something for nothing.
Barnes & Noble University
http://university.barnesandnoble.com/
Affiliate Program
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/affiliate/intro.asp
Commission Junction
http://www.cj.com/
Content-Based Program
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Another reason to entertain the idea of content based marketing is
Google AdSense. This program place text advertisements on your site,
and pays per click(through). The site must have content, however, more
than just affiliate links, in order to qualify for the program. The
revenue for niche publishers can be quite substantial.
Google AdSense
https://www.google.com/adsense/
Learn from the Pros
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If you'd like to learn the Internet Affiliate business from the inside
out, Webmaster World is one of the best resources around. By
webmasters, for webmasters, you can find answers direct from
affiliate performers. Free membership is required. Especially of
interest are:
Advertising Sales and Affiliate Programs
Google AdSense
Pay Per Click Engines
Google News
Webmaster World also offers premium membership and insider forums.
WebmasterWorld
http://www.webmasterworld.com
Resource Directory
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A hype-free directory of over 500 links to affiliate resources is
available from the Google Web Directory. The directory is sorted into
categories, plus a Resources category of its own.
Affiliate Programs Category
http://directory.google.com/Top/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Authoring/Webmaster_Resources/Affiliate_Programs/
Search Strategy
---------------------------------------------------------------------
I used personal experience, bookmarks and the following Google Search
terms to locate the information in this Answer.
"affiliate resources"
"affiliate programs"
"affiliate advice"
"affiliate articles"
"associate programs"
"internet revenue programs"
"pay per click"
I hope you find this information useful. If you have questions about
any of the links offered, please, feel free to ask for clarification.
Best regards,
---larre |
