Affiliate Advice- Moving past the banner farm
Jun 18, 2008 Become an Affiliate
I see it again and again; affiliates applying for an affiliate program of a merchant I work with. I go to the application and click on the link to their site that they submitted for review. I find…… a page full of banners and little or no content.
I do some homework with some cool little tools that I use to evaluate site’s traffic and I find very little or no traffic. I’m not surprised. Why would there be traffic?
Would you as a shopper knowingly seek out a page made up of just image ads?
The quality of the merchants you work with doesn’t even matter. If you don’t offer any reason for someone to find you, let alone spend some time on your site, why would you expect them to act on your ads?
To be a successful affiliate - and by this, I mean someone who makes more than occassional latte’ or beer money from affiliate marketing, you need to add something to the conversation. Better yet- why not start a conversation of your own?
“Banner farms” or sites made up of just a bunch of banner slapped up on a page - suck
Niche content pages are the way to go - find something you are passionate about, find a domain name that plays into your theme and start writing. Review products, share your thoughts, share your expertise, react to other people’s thoughts and content - generate CONTENT. Then, surround your content with ads targeting people who would be interested in your content.
Is your niche content page or blog about raising good Christian kids? The you should be working with Nest Entertainment and Family Christian and promoting products that help parents raise good Christian kids. Writing about Homeschooling from a Christian perspective? You had better be hooked up with and promoting Alpha Omega Publications or Sonlight.
Do you see what I am saying?
Affiliate Marketing has NEVER been about just slapping up some banners and making money. That is lazy.
Real affiliate marketing is about matching up people who are looking for a product with the product they want - and what better way to do that by giving your shoppers CONTENT to answer their questions and “pre-sell” them on the products that you would like them to buy.
You could also start a community based on your interest. Chances are that other people have the same interests and concerns. Let them start the conversations and suggests products and deals while you bring in the affiliate links. It worked pretty well for FatWallet.com
Affiliate success is work… it’s not overnight. But if you set out do do it the right way, you will be rewarded.
We’ll talk more tomorrow about pre-selling and reviews and the all important issue of INTEGRITY
God Bless,
Wade
Tags: affiliate education, affiliate marketing, banner farms, Christian Affiliate Programs, christian merchants, how to get started in affiliate marketing
