As you’ll most likely know, affiliate programs are all about gaining advertisements (or links) from other websites through to your own to promote [...]]]> I’ve had some spare time while out of the office and have been reading a couple of interesting posts on work people have completed surrounding building affiliate programs that pass SEO weight.

As you’ll most likely know, affiliate programs are all about gaining advertisements (or links) from other websites through to your own to promote your product.

What you may not have considered is what affect this could have on the SEO for a company if the affiliate program is designed in such a way that all of the in-bound links to the website being promoted are also passing SEO weight.

As a side note, generally Google frowns on allowing advertising from one website to another to pass page rank (if you don’t know what that is, have a read about page rank although if you’re reading this I’m sure you do).

Here’s one post from 3DogMedia from some time ago that describes it quite well. Basically, if you give affiliates static URL’s that they can promote your product through (e.g. http://yoursite.com/affiliateid/) then they’re linking directly to your site on a link that Google can track and pass SEO weight for.

There’s also a post from Stephan Spencer around that describes this with the focus covering the need to make sure that the links used are also 301′s (permanent redirects) so that the search engines know the weight should pass to the resulting page (e.g. the homepage).

Overall the above posts cover some good advice if you’re looking at running your own affiliate program and have the ability to select the URL structure that the program runs on. It’ll help pass SEO weight to your site and is a more user-friendly structure anyway.

The affiliate newsletter is commonly under-utilised when, done well, it can be one of the better means [...]]]> The most regular means of communication between affiliate managers and the wider group of affiliates in their program is generally going to be the affiliate newsletter, otherwise known as CRM (customer relationship management) if you’re the affiliate manager.

The affiliate newsletter is commonly under-utilised when, done well, it can be one of the better means of building a community around a program.

If your an affiliate, it is important to make sure you’re signed up to the affiliate newsletter for your best performing (or most sophisticated) programs as this is going to be your quickest way of keeping up to date with whatever is new in the program and potentially give you tips and insights into what is going to perform best for you as you work with the program.

Affiliate managers should understand that the affiliate newsletter is the second most important tool in keeping an affiliate community up to date with what’s happening in the business. The first is, without doubt, shouting the affiliate a beer at the bar during an affiliate conference

Affiliate managers who are looking to build a community will often find a way to get more into the newsletter than just the latest promotion. Whether it’s a featured piece about a top affiliate, the best performing product that they have or ideas surrounding the next meet up of like-minded internet geeks, you should be receiving a newsletter that helps you interact with the program and learn ways of improving the ROI of your time spent promoting their program.

If you’re not receiving tips from your most preferred or profitable affiliate program (they’re not always the same) then you should be talking to your affiliate manager to start getting them more involved with building your community and potentially even offering to help.

Who knows, you may get some good contacts out of helping out.

As much as affiliates can feel like they’re out on their own in the world and don’t want to pass on any secrets of their performance, there are many situations where getting involved and helping the community as a whole will help lift the affiliate program you’re working with thereby improving your bottom line and hopefully enhancing your affiliate knowledge.

The main purpose of the survey was to find out what the most important things an affiliate was looking at when joining an affiliate program. They came in the following order;

This appears to work exceptionally well from the feedback I’ve seen on it.

It is an on-going challenge for affiliate companies to find [...]]]> Recently I came across an international affiliate network that is working with a pre-paid MasterCard company offering their affiliates a pre-paid credit card that can be used around the world for payments.

This appears to work exceptionally well from the feedback I’ve seen on it.

It is an on-going challenge for affiliate companies to find just the right way to pay affiliates. In New Zealand at least, it’s quite common for direct online bank-to-bank transfers to take place and it’s usually considered to be ok to pass your bank account details to a trusted affiliate company.

The idea of a pre-paid credit card that is sent directly to an affiliate on their first payment (especially for an affiliate network) is brilliant. It circumvents all the transfer issues a company would usually have, including extra costs associated with online payment wallet systems like PayPal, Neteller and the like and it allows the network to have the funds available immediately for the affiliate.

Hopefully we’ll see this implemented in a few more of the affiliate programs and networks both internationally and within New Zealand as the technology becomes easier to integrate with online administration systems.

Kotitihaere, a poster in our forums, has come up with some brilliant feedback to both affiliates [...]]]> One of the great things about working online from New Zealand is that we’re already in a local community that’s small and isolated enough from the rest of the world that we’re usually happy to help each other out.

Kotitihaere, a poster in our forums, has come up with some brilliant feedback to both affiliates and affiliate managers in what they, as an experienced affiliate, are looking for when searching around the web trying to find the right affiliate program to promote.

I like the start;

Nothing is more annoying than finding a site in a search engine that has an affiliate program then finding the link to it is a mission in searching!

You can read more on their Guideline for Good Affiliate Programs to sign up to.

Great feedback…

Usually, if you have an affiliate program that’s doing the job right for you there will be an option for a specific rotating banner campaign that will switch between the time dependent campaign and a default advertising campaign [...]]]> It’s an on-going mission for an affiliate to deal with time dependent banner campaigns on their website.

Usually, if you have an affiliate program that’s doing the job right for you there will be an option for a specific rotating banner campaign that will switch between the time dependent campaign and a default advertising campaign for the product or website you’re promoting.

There are plenty of situations where this is not particularly well implemented and often it’s forgotten about or put in the too-hard basket (by both the affiliate and the program). It can be particularly difficult to implement text based campaigns like this. I can’t think of many sites that offer this.

As an affiliate, if you’re using rotating banner campaigns, the key thing to be aware of is what banners are going to be displayed in the campaign. You’re the one your viewers are going to turn on if something in-appropriate turns up, not the program who put the banner in there. Usually this isn’t a large problem but I have seen it as an issue design wise where a refreshed rotating banner campaign just looked plain bad on a particular site design.

In a recent affiliate newsletter sent out by Commission Monster, they appear to have spent some time on the issue and after listening to feedback they have come up with this;

Commission Monster is pleased to announce that as a result of consultation with Affiliates, we have implemented a new banner display solution for all inactive banners or campaigns. When a campaign becomes inactive, any remaining banners on Affiliate sites will become invisible. The website’s natural background will appear. Consumers that click through the invisible banner will be redirected to a Commission Monster page advising the promotion has finished, and providing alternative campaigns to click on.

Seems like a good implementation to me, good on you Commission Monster.

Where to find NZ Affliates

As a merchant you need to make it very easy for NZ [...]]]> The second in a series of four articles on New Zealand affiliate marketing from a merchant perspective by Antony Ellis (Affiliate Manager for NZ Fine Prints, New Zealand’s largest retailer of art prints and posters; www.prints.co.nz.)

Where to find NZ Affliates

As a merchant you need to make it very easy for NZ websites looking for affiliate programs to both find and sign up to your program. You should also reach out pro-actively to sign-up affiliates who don’t know about your program yet.

Immediate Steps:

Your first step should be to promote your affiliate program to your website’s visitors. Do it today. Place a link to a page describing the benefits of your affiliate program on your main navigation. Add a sign up button that works. Measure the effectiveness of your sign up page as a key conversion goal.

Next use your precious email list of customers – very cautiously (but see big exception below). Don’t erode the magic of your product in your customers’ minds by making your business sound like a multi-level marketing scheme! Add a subtle link to your affiliate program information page to your email newsletters (e.g. in the footer). Don’t promote your affiliate program brashly to existing customers – nobody likes the suggestion that you may have margin to spare…

The big exception to a softly, softly approach to promotion of your affiliate program to your email list is if your business wholesales products or services to other New Zealand business’ for resale. Promote your affiliate program in your emails to your wholesale customers prominently. This is a fantastic opportunity to extend your business relationship online. Be generous! Offer your wholesale customers the same percentage they would get if they purchased product or your services wholesale and added their markup. Because they will be getting traffic from customers who are looking for products in a similar industry to yours you should find that traffic from wholesale customers’ websites converts very well.

Then Go Forth and Actively Promote:

Affiliate Networks for New Zealand Websites
You will be tempted to promote your affiliate program through an affiliate network (of which there are thousands). However with steep non-refundable sign up fees (or the requirement for a large deposit to be used for as yet unproven commission payments in the future required upfront) and/or combined with commissions on top of what gets paid to the affiliates you can quickly chew through your budget without being able to test the effectiveness of the network first. Be especially aware that because 99% of the affiliates signed up to most affiliate networks are not New Zealand sites they aren’t going to be worth signing up to anyway (who is going to bother promoting your Matariki tablecloth range on their American website?). The exception may be Australian based ClixGalore which could be worth checking out as it has quite a few NZ publishers. (Please post a comment below if you know about a New Zealand affiliate network working with NZ based merchants and publishers or if you have had a good experience with a particular affiliate network promoting your New Zealand store.)

My Favourite Strategy for Finding New Zealand Affiliates for your Merchant Program
By far the most successful long term strategy to find profitable New Zealand affiliates is to research your market looking for websites that will deliver pre-qualified traffic (customers looking for what you offer). Budget at least ten hours to do this initially and a few hours a month long term (you will learn a lot about your market at the same time!). You need to find websites that attract your kind of visitors in good volume because they will typically need to send dozens of visitors to your site for each sale. If websites are not getting high levels of traffic they won’t deliver the volume of clickthroughs you need to make a conversion – leading to disappointment for both merchant and affiliate.

Start searching for websites in your industry, widen your search to related industries, then widen your search to general interest sites with good quality New Zealand content and websites that already participate in New Zealand affiliate programs.

Initially find websites in your industry that complement rather than compete directly your product range (you sell bookcases, they sell books) – direct competitors make lousy prospects. Widen your search to related industries (home decorating sites for your bookcase store). Then look for general interest sites that accept advertising (try searching their site for a ratecard), they may be happy to offer you an advertising deal on a pay per sale basis. An excellent pool of potential affiliates are sites with links to other merchants’ affiliate programs. Find out who is linking to other New Zealand retailers who have affiliate programs using Google’s link tool – these site-owners just need to be convinced about the saleability of your product or service as they know the benefits of New Zealand affiliate programs already! One NZ online retailer helpfully publishes a full list of their current affiliates!

Tread carefully with non-New Zealand sites (see previous article) as you don’t want signs for your business hanging in a dodgy part of town. They can also be a hassle to pay – consider using Paypal or post them a cheque as international bank transfer is expensive.

How to contact potential affiliates and what to say:

Contact by phone first to see if they are interested then send an email giving details – or send one polite email if they don’t list a contact other than an online form. Be prepared to share your statistics. For example know your conversion rate and average sale amount and use this information to build trust. Do all the work for your potential affiliates if your program needs forms completed – so all they have to do is add the code to their site to get started. Have some templates of successful ads and product links showing how to link to your site that they can copy. The ease with which a website owner can add links to your site is a very important factor in whether the affiliate relationship will get off the ground.

Once they have signed up:
Each new affiliate is a special relationship with a real person. Check that the links they are adding are working correctly. Check the statistics are recording what they should (eg clickthroughs). Encourage links to the most popular products so the new affiliate gets some sales as soon as possible to build your reputation. Their screen space is valuable and they want to promote only the most profitable links. Celebrate with them when the first sale is made. Create an email list of affiliates and help them with seasonal ads and news of new or hot-selling products.

In my next article I will discuss the key factors in a successful affiliate-merchant relationship from a merchant’s perspective.

I think Antony has really hit the nail on the head in his article where he says;

…know your conversion rate and average sale amount and use this information to build trust…

There’s nothing better than being contacted by an affiliate manager who can tell you their direct conversions therefore giving you the estimated value for the traffic you’re going to send their way.

If all of the affiliate managers understood the affiliate world as well as Antony the industry would be a thriving one in NZ!

Sound familiar?

This is a reason why some affiliates prefer to [...]]]> If you’ve been an affiliate for a while or are an affiliate on any of the major networks, you can start to feel like you have username or account number stamped in your forehead because that’s all your affiliate manager ever actually considers you.

Sound familiar?

This is a reason why some affiliates prefer to work with smaller programs only. It’s not the answer to the best ROI (return on investment) you can get from your traffic but over the long-term this can be a way to help you stay sane and connected with real people.

Smaller affiliate programs are usually run by the main marketing people for the team and (assuming they know anything about affiliate marketing) this gives them the opportunity to get to know the affiliate a little better and build a bit more of a relationship.

If you manage to find a program like this, stick with it!

You’ll find that having that personal contact with the affiliate manager is gold when there’s something you need sorted out that’s specific to your website or business. Although it’s not always possible, nothing beats meeting and affiliate manager face-to-face. They then understand where you’re coming from and potential conflicts (where you both lose out because something wasn’t dealt with well) are reduced or even avoided completely.

I haven’t heard of any form of affiliate marketing meetings going on in New Zealand but if anyone else has let me know.

I was talking to [...]]]> As businesses progress through their usual cycle, many end up going under or need to change their business model and invariably the affiliate is the one left in the lurch when the contract terms they agreed to at the start of the relationship with the program turn into something completely different.

I was talking to a website owner recently and his argument for not launching an affiliate program was that a potential purchaser would not be interested (or at least would frown on) contracts that exist with publishers (the affiliates) that are based on a lifetime revenue model.

Most affiliates who have been around the block before have had a relationship with an affiliate program cut off early due to some form of sale, merger or change in management where the affiliate program is no longer seen as a good idea and the clause in their agreement which usually says something like “we can do what we want to these contract terms” gets used and the affiliate looses all of the hard-earned and built “lifetime revenue”.

It would be great to say that there is an easy answer to this issue for the affiliate but there just isn’t. Trust is the single most important thing in an affiliate relationship as it’s the only thing that’s keeping the affiliate promoting the brand. When this trust is broken for business reasons there’s little re-dress.

The best an affiliate can do is to make sure they are not putting all their eggs in one basket so that their entire revenue stream is not dependent on one particular affiliate program. Letting other affiliates know through forums and posting around the web about their experience and what has happened is a positive thing for the community as well.

If you have some experience you’d like to share about an NZ affiliate program feel free to post it in the comments here.