October 28, 2007 18:14
Category: Other Information
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It is no secret that a vast number of websites have affiliate revenue as their main income. In some cases, where a website is run by no more than the owner himself, the earnings from affiliate programs amount to several thousands of dollars every month.
The prospect is lucrative enough for hundreds of websites to join the bandwagon every single day.
Not all of them succeed despite trying their best. Or may be they don't try that hard that will see them earning fabulous affiliate revenue.
Affiliate opportunity is in fact dated as old as the Internet's coming into being. If you ask me I'll say the search giant Google's lion's share of its blockbuster earnings is from affiliate revenue. Don't be alarmed. After all what else is AdWords than Google selling space in its pages to advertisers? And isn't that affiliate earning?
If you're a website owner and have run affiliate ads in your site for a while, you'd know there are certain steps you need to take to maximize your affiliate revenue. This is important because the amount of labor you put in your site cannot justify loss in affiliate earning, at least to the extent feasible.
Let's find out what as a website owner you can do to enhance your revenue as an affiliate. Here is a list, but do understand that this is not exhaustive. Conditions differ from site to site, and so not all steps apply to every site. On the flip side there can very well be other steps not covered here.
Choose Relevant Programs
There is no dearth of companies with affiliate programs. Would you select them at random, or would you like to exercise caution doing so? It will be sensible to take caution.
The first step is that you need to opt for those affiliate programs that are relevant to your site. There is little point in having a spa company's affiliate ad when your site deals on say selling second-hand books and periodicals. If the affiliate program and the topic of your site do not match with each other, it's likely that you're loosing affiliate revenue.
Seen from this angle, Google AdSense perfectly fits the bill. It not only shows the most relevant ads after scanning the page content, AdSense also has the largest repository of ads that helps it to rotate different targeted ads. Further, the AdSense typically show country-specific ads. In either case the chance of clickthroughs increases.
I'll mention one more reason here to use AdSense. Since it pays you, the website owner, for each click on the ads displayed, you've chance of making money even if you've few visitors.
Choose Your Partner With Care
Not all companies that have affiliate programs are sages. There are quite a few that can be doubted to have a penchant to suppress your legitimate share of a sale by not disclosing data like page impressions, clickthroughs, and sales if any.
How do you know which are the good ones? Once again I cite AdSense as an example. The reporting of statistics like the page views and clickthrough is impeccable leaving no doubt in siteowner's mind.
Like AdSense, Microsoft's adCenter, Yahoo! Publisher Network, and Amazon Associates are good choices. Other affiliate revenue programs that come to mind are LinkShare
Why Not High Paying Affiliates?
One strategy I like following is including 'low-paying' AdSense ads with high-paying ads to maximize the chance of affiliate revenue. Here again you have to be diligent to choose your partner keeping in mind whether the entity offers transparency in reporting.
In this regard I hold SiteSell in high esteem because not only they invoke trust in the way the reporting is done, you also earn generous amount as affiliate revenue should a sale occur through your affiliate link.
SiteSell: One of the high-paying affiliate programsAre You Getting Help To Promote?
A major hallmark of all great affiliate programs is that you receive continuous help in order to succeed. How to plan campaigns, where to place ads, how to effectively promote - questions such as these are readily answered so that you succeed.
Of all the affiliate programs that I've tried thus far, I'd like to single out SiteSell, AWeber, Amazon, and of course Google AdSense. They appreciate not all affiliates are tech-savvy, and so you can avail ready help that will guide you to do your best to more affiliate revenue.
Tools To Succeed
A quality affiliate revenue site will ensure that as a siteowner you have a variety of advertising methods available for use. Some sites will provide only one or two advertising banners, which needless to say get stale pretty fast. Things like rotating banners mean that the ads look fresh each time a page is displayed.
The one that excels in supplying you nearly endless variety of tools is Amazon Associates. It now gives widgets to affiliates for displaying in their websites - including even a full-fledged store widget. Simply pick the ones that suit your site and you can get going.
The advantage with Amazon is that virtually any website can be its affiliate since there is something for every type of website one can think of.
Amazon offers many affiliate tools like widgetsSumming Up
I've deliberately left out a few cases of excellent affiliate opportunity like ClickBank, Chitika, and others because if your site can really attract decent amount traffic, it won't matter much if you don't have them at the initial stage.
But yes, as time passes and your site is frequently visited, you may need to take a hard look at which ads are faring well, which aren't, and which ads earn money more than others. At that time you may think of replacing one affiliate program with another, and so on.
In the ultimate analysis what really matters is driving quality traffic to your site through unique content. As long as that remains the mainstay of your site, and you're willing to stick to it, you are likely to see a gradual increase in traffic to your site, which can then be used to boost your affiliate revenue.
