2. (C)ookies – When you are searching for affiliate programs that are related to, or complement, your excellent content, one thing any savvy affiliate marketer evaluates is the cookie length of the program(s) he or she chooses to promote. In affiliate marketing, a cookie is something that ‘tags’ any website visitor who arrives at an affiliate site via an affiliate link. This is so the affiliate who was responsible for sending the visitor will ultimately be credited for any sale. Different affiliate programs have cookies of varying lengths. Ideally, you want to choose a program that uses the longest length cookies. This way, even if a visitor who you sent to the affiliate website doesn’t make a purchase today, you will still get credit as long as they make a purchase before the cookie expires. The longer the cookie length, the greater amount of time that visitor has to come back to the affiliate website and make a purchase for which you will receive your affiliate commission.

3. (C)lick-through-rate – Also abbreviated CTR, this is a measure of how well your content, combined with the affiliate program’s creatives (i.e. text links, banners, search boxes, videos, etc.) entices a visitor to actually ‘click through’ to the affiliate website. Your CTR for each different ad campaign is obtained by dividing the number of users who clicked on the ad by the number of times the ad was delivered (also called ad impressions). CTR is a way of measuring how effective your advertisements are. The higher the CTR, the more effective your content, combined with your ad placement, is at convincing your visitors to visit the affiliate site via one of your affiliate links. But getting your visitors through your affiliate links to your affiliate program’s website is only half the battle.

4. (C)onversions – As mentioned above, getting visitors to whichever affiliate programs you are promoting is only half the battle. They must also become customers (i.e. make a purchasing decision and buy something) in order for you to get paid. When a visitor actually buys something, this is known as a conversion. How well any affiliate program converts is a combination of how effectively you were able to presell your website visitors, as well as how effective the affiliate program’s landing page is at convincing them to purchase the product or service the program is advertising. Understand that many visitors to the affiliate program’s website may not buy on their first visit. This is why cookie length is important. In addition, the sales process that the affiliate program utilizes to keep in contact with that visitor and ultimately turn them into a customer is very important. Keep an eye on your conversions for each different affiliate program you belong to. The higher the conversion rate of a program, the better they are at converting the visitors you send into customers that ultimately make them (and you) money.

5. (C)alls to Action – Throughout your content, and especially towards the end of any write-up, you want to take the opportunity to encourage your visitors to visit the affiliate program’s site or purchase a product, or sign up for a free membership. Whatever action you need a visitor to take in order to get them ‘tagged’ with your affiliate cookie is what you need to tell them to do. Tell them (in a nice way of course) what you would like them to do, don’t ask them. For example, at the end of a thorough write-up about an online service for which you are an affiliate, say something like, “Take the next step and join XYZ service to see for yourself. Membership is free…” and hyperlink that phrase using your affiliate link to direct your visitors to the program. Notice that the visitor was not asked, but rather given a simple command, or a call-to-action. Pepper your content with a few different calls to action in logical places and this will increase the number of your visitors who end up clicking through to the affiliate site (i.e. your CTR will increase!).

So remember the five C’s of affiliate marketing to improve your odds of success. Begin with great content to encourage backlinks and gain exposure through the search engines. Find affiliate programs that offer products or services related to your content, which your visitors will find interesting. Evaluate the cookie length’s of each of these affiliates. In general, try to join affiliate programs offering the greatest cookie lengths. Next, once you have joined some programs and placed their banners and text links throughout your content, keep an eye on how many visitors actually click through to the affiliate site using your affiliate links. This is called your click through rate, or CTR, and is a measure of how well you are doing with your affiliate ad placements. Remember, the higher the CTR for any ads or creatives you have on your sites, the better. Keep an eye on conversions, which are how many of the people you send to the affiliate program actually make a purchase. This is one of the most important affiliate statistics to keep track of because, ultimately, this will tell you how effective your affiliate programs are at making the sale. Conversions are the most important ‘C’ for any affiliate marketer to monitor because they are directly responsible for how much money you will earn as an affiliate of that program. Finally, use ‘calls-to-action’ in order to convince your visitors to take whatever action is required for you to benefit. Whether you want them to join something, buy something, or click a particular link, use a simple command to tell them what it is you would like them to do. If your content was helpful and you structure your calls to action in an affirmative, but friendly, manner your visitors should be more than receptive to these simple commands. Ultimately, it is up to you to constantly monitor your five C’s of affiliate marketing to measure how well the affiliate programs you are promoting are performing.

Affiliate marketing is a promotion and income generating system where you, as an affiliate marketer, earn a commission for promoting a product or service.  The most frequently used payment arrangements include pay-per-sale, pay-per-lead, or pay-per-click compensations.  Affiliate marketers generally operate by owning a website where they drive traffic and sales to their represented companies.

For example, if you represent a clothing manufacturer like L.L. Bean you would have a website dedicated to clothing or outdoor wear.  Your website could use a number of tools including content with embedded links, banner advertising, and promotional content to encourage your website visitors to click your designated link through to L.L. Bean.  Depending on how you’re compensated, if the visitor then makes a purchase at L.L. Bean you are compensated a percentage of the sale.

Affiliate marketing is credited to have been developed by CDNow.com and Amazon.com.  Experts were initially critical of the programs however Amazon claims more than 1 million affiliates worldwide.

2. What can I expect to make as an affiliate marketer?

There are many naysayers popping up who say that affiliate marketing is on the decline.  However, many affiliate marketers will tell you this just isn’t the case.  There is still a tremendous amount of money to be made as an affiliate marketer.  How much you make is largely dependent on your compensation agreement, your chosen niche, how much work you put into your business, and your competition.  Experts agree that the key to affiliate marketing is to stick with it.  Profits will increase as your business and website grow.

3. What are expected start-up costs?

One of the benefits of being an affiliate marketer is that there are very few startup costs.  Basic startup costs include a:

• Website• Domain name• Computer• Phone• Fax/efax

If you already have a computer, then the startup costs are extremely minimal.  Other costs will include writing copy for your website.  You can write your own copy to minimize these costs.  Advertising, including Pay-Per-Click campaigns and placing banner ads in ezines and relevant websites is a great way to send traffic to your websites, however it can be costly.  When placing ads or using PPC, consider starting small to keep costs low and test your campaigns to optimize return on investment.

4. What skills do I need to be successful?

To be a successful, and profitable, affiliate marketer will want to have some basic research skills.  What are you researching?  Plenty!  Obtaining the keywords that will generate the most profit, the products that will sell the best and pay well, which advertising and marketing means will work best for your products, and most importantly…who your target market is and what they want.  

5. How do I choose affiliate marketing programs?

You can find appropriate affiliate marketing programs online via search engines, by visiting companies you’re familiar with and respect, and by searching affiliate directories.  Before you sign up with a company here’s what to look for:

• High quality products and services.  Respect your customers and only endorse products you believe in.  If you endorse an inferior product, you will lose the respect of your customer.  There are thousands of quality companies available, there’s no reason to endorse an inferior product.

• Look at the merchant’s side and make sure ordering and fulfillment processes are handled professionally.

• Ask the merchant about their conversion ratio and investigate their sales copy.  Your time, you’re your customer’s time is valuable.  You want to send customers to merchants who are able to close the deal.

• Commissions.  How will you get paid?  Do you get paid per sale or paid per lead?

• Support.  All affiliate support will be detailed in the company’s affiliate guide.

• Look for companies that provide sales and marketing materials for you to use in your promotions.

• Tiered Commission.  Do you get paid for recruiting affiliates?  Some companies pay you if you send them affiliates.  This is called a two tiered commission and it can generate tremendous profits.

• Cookies.  How long will your cookies last?  Generally, most companies offer cookies that last 30 to 90 days.  A 60 day cookie means that if your customer visits a company website and then comes back 59 days later and makes a purchase, you get the commission.   

6. What is an affiliate network?

An affiliate network is a company that essentially works as the mediator between the company offering the product or service and the affiliate marketer.  An affiliate network company will provide sales tracking, click through rates, conversion statistics, and will often issue checks and handle payments.

7. What are cookies and why are they important?

Cookies are small text files set up on a user’s computer.  How long they stay on the computer is called the cookie life.  If you’re an affiliate marketer, cookies are important because they determine if you are paid for a visitor’s purchase or not.  When a visitor comes to your affiliate website, a cookie is placed on their computer.  If they then visit the merchant site during the life of the cookie you, as the affiliate, get the commission. If they visit the merchant site after the cookie has expired then no commission is paid.  This is why lifetime cookies are valuable to an affiliate marketer.

8. What are text links and why are they important?

Text links are the hyperlinks to the product or service you’re promoting. They only have text in the body of the link, rather than a graphic.  They’re generally embedded in your copy.  I’m sure you’ve read an article and there are several links scattered throughout.  These are text links and they have proven to work significantly better for click through rates and conversions than banner advertisements.  Banner ads, while they are still effective, are not as effective as text links.

9. How do I make more profits?

One of the absolute best tools to make profits as an affiliate marketer is content.  Advertising is important, a niche market is important, quality products are important, tiered affiliate programs are important, and a portfolio of a variety of products is helpful but the number one tool for more affiliate profits is content.  Content drives traffic to your website.  Content provides value to your visitors.  Content helps your website get ranked on the search engines.  Content sells your products and services and drives traffic to the companies you represent.  Content gives you profits!

What kind of content works best?

• Articles• Blogs• Reviews• E-books• Reports• E-Zines

10. What are banners and why are they important?

Banners are the graphic advertisements you see on many websites.  Most companies will provide you with banners of a variety of size, design, and with varying copy.  For example, when you join an affiliate program you will often receive an basic affiliate link which may simply advertise the company logo and have the words “Click Here” or “Buy Now.”  You’ll also likely receive a promotional banner which may have a discount off of the product, free shipping, or highlight a new product.

Banner ads are excellent resources as advertisements in e-zines and relevant websites.