Does Your Affiliate Program Pay?

There are many top affiliates who make a killing from top networks such as CJ and LinkShare. Those affiliate networks have tons of programs and give marketers the chance to develop highly sophisticated affiliate websites and campaigns. The same applies to Clickbank and other similar networks. But there are affiliates who make a living off of working with smaller networks. The good thing about using smaller networks is that you don’t have as much competition as you do with the top ones. The products that are being promoted through those networks are often niche products, and you’ll have less competition over those than you would over an iPad or a computer.

The problem with working with such networks is figuring out whether they will get you paid after you have delivered your end of the bargain. There are many affiliate programs that talk about how great their products are, but they fail to pay their partners on time. If you notice, most third party networks don’t take any responsibility for affiliate partners’ payments. After all, your specific merchant partner is responsible for paying your commission. That’s a scary thought if you think about it. You work and deliver thousands of leads to a merchant only to realize they never had any intention of paying you. (more…)

Should Affiliates Disclose Affiliate Links?

There has been a lot of talks about how affiliates need to be more transparent in the affiliate marketing world. In case you missed it, the FTC did ask advertisers and bloggers to become more transparent and disclose monetary gains when adding advertising links to their websites. While the FTC’s main focus was on fake testimonials, its guidelines will cover affiliate marketing as well. Whether you are reviewing affiliate products or just linking to affiliate products on your website, you will need to disclose your relationship with your advertisers.

Anybody who expected the FTC to be clear with its guidelines was mistaken. That’s not how the FTC does its business. The vagueness does give marketers some room to maneuver, but one shouldn’t mistake that for not having any rules. Just because the FTC is not clear about how you need to disclose doesn’t mean you should not. (more…)

How To Make Money with Amazon Affiliate Program – Part I: Tracking

Amazon Associates Program is still one of the best affiliate programs on the market. It may not have the longest cookie duration, but the program converts very well. In fact, if you play your cards right, there is no reason you shouldn’t be able to make a living out of Amazon. The company has put some restrictions on its program as far as SEO and paid search results are concerned, but it’s too popular of a retailer to ignore. The program has some of the best affiliate tools you can find online. Commission Junction, LinkShare, and Shareasale can’t even come close in that regard. The program enables you to implement rotating banners, submit your links to the social media and bring Amazon links to your blog fast.

If you want to make money from Amazon affiliate program, you need to treat your Amazon campaigns seriously. I have seen too many people who use one tracking ID for all their links and just look at their total commission to measure their success. But not all websites convert the same. That’s why all Amazon Associates need to create multiple tracking IDs to make sure they have a way to measure their success with the program on multiple websites. How many tracking IDs? It depends on how many landing pages you want to track. While I only use one tracking ID per website, sometimes it may be necessary to use multiple ones to be able to do a deeper level of analysis. (more…)

Top 5 Best Affiliate Keyword Research Tools

Affiliate marketing is more than just playing with your landing pages and finding the right offers. Sure. Finding products that people can actually buy and get value from is a part of the process. But you want to make sure people can get to your landing pages and get connected with what you are trying to convey. That’s why you need to invest in a premium keyword research tool to help you with your affiliate campaigns.

You can always get away with using free keyword tools when you are starting, but if you want to expand your business, you are going to need the right tools. With that in mind, here are top 5 best affiliate keyword tools that can help you take your campaign to the next level:

Keyword Country: The ultimate tool for affiliate marketers that often goes unnoticed. It’s used by both Adwords and Adsense experts. Great way to put the right foot forward in a new niche. It can help you discover new markets too.

Keyword Spy: one of the most powerful keyword spying tools on the market. Whether you are interested in spying on your competitors or just want to figure out what markets can be lucrative for you to enter, Keyword Spy comes handy.

SpyFu: another one of those top spying tools that helps you develop long keyword lists, spy on your competitors, and find out new markets to enter to. You can use Kombat feature to compare your campaigns against your competitors. (more…)