AD PROGRAMS
With all the affiliate/sponsorship programs out there, how do you find the best one for you, your site, and most importantly, your traffic? We all know that affiliate programs are a great way to make money, but what’s the use of them if you are not seeing the results? After all of the effort you put into getting the program set up, results are a necessity.
The first thing to remember is that earning money is not necessarily as easy as it may appear.AD PROGRAMS
With all the affiliate/sponsorship programs out there, how do you find the best one for you, your site, and most importantly, your traffic? We all know that affiliate programs are a great way to make money, but what’s the use of them if you are not seeing the results? After all of the effort you put into getting the program set up, results are a necessity.
The first thing to remember is that earning money is not necessarily as easy as it may appear. You cannot simply slap up a link and wait for the checks to roll in. There is work involved. You will first need to do some research into which programs could potentially work best for you. Then, after your links are set up in such a way that your surfers will be enticed to click on your ads, you will have to get traffic to your site – and make it convert.
There are a number of ways to find your ideal affiliate program. As a general rule, you should always make sure that your sponsor offers sites or advertising that matches both your content and your traffic. For example, you will see better results by advertising teen banners on a teen site than you would advertising interracial banners on the same site. Your surfers know what they are looking for – if they don’t see it, odds are they’ll leave before buying anything.
Check out the sites the affiliate programs advertise. If it’s an option, ask for access and check out the back end of the site (this may not be an option for most affiliates, but it doesn’t hurt to ask). See what your surfers will be looking at. At the very least, find out as much as you can about the sites you will be advertising and make sure they will work for you! You know your surfers better than anyone; you cannot expect your affiliates to miraculously know what your surfers are looking for. If you see content your surfers would enjoy, try it out. You’ll know soon enough if it works or not.
There should be no frustration or anger toward any affiliate program that doesn’t give you the return you were hoping for. There are plenty out there – just move on to the next. Simply because it didn’t work for you or your traffic does not mean the program “sucks” or that it wouldn’t work well for other webmasters. The only time to really be upset is if the program drops off the face of the earth or fails to pay you when they say they will.
Another option is to ask other webmasters with similar sites. For example, if you have an amateur site, find another amateur site that has a similar traffic stream to yours and find out what affiliate programs they use. It doesn’t take more than a quick visit to their site to know whom they are using as an affiliate program. Word of mouth in this industry is a very powerful tool. Asking around for information on affiliate programs is a great way to find out who pays the best, has great sites, and converts. See who’s talking about whom.
If you are truly uncertain about who is who in the affiliate world, try a number of programs at once. You could sign up for a few of them and eliminate certain ones that are not giving you the return you are looking for. Just as you are looking for the perfect affiliate program to work with, affiliate programs are looking for the perfect webmasters to use their programs. It works best that way!
Know how your affiliate operates. Understand what they do with the traffic you send them. Are they giving credit to you in the back path? If so, that’s great. If not, find out what concessions they make. For example, do they offer a higher payout? Are they able to pay you weekly rather than bi-weekly? All of these things make a difference to you and your visitors. These are all things that should be public knowledge to webmasters who use different programs and could potentially make or break your decision to use them.
Every affiliate program should offer a customer support feature. If you’re confused about something it is important that you know who to talk to. Many of us are on ICQ in this industry, and all of us can be reached on email. Any solid and reliable affiliate program will have a customer support contact – use it! It’s what they are there for! You may not be seeing the results you want because something may have gone haywire along the way, or they may have some suggestions you hadn’t thought about.
I work for SexTracker’s MoneyTree and our staff spends a good part of their day working with all types of webmasters, helping them come up with the best solution possible for their traffic. It is in our best interest to get each webmaster making as much money as possible, so we quickly respond to any requests for help, tips or special situations – working with webmasters to improve revenue across the board.
