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Hi,
I'm as new as they come with regards to actually making a website.
So would someone be nice enough to pardon my ignorance and explain how an Afiliate Site works?
How do you make money from that (sounds as shallow as it comes! lol - but i saw it mentioned and curiosity hit)
Thanks guys,
Rich.
Welcome to the wonderful world of Web design/development! If you use the search tool near the top of these forums, and enter "affiliate sites" you should be able to find a lot of answers that should help you out.
Thanks LeeU.
Loadsa stuff came up, so found out a fair bit. Only problem is mostly all threads addressing it that came up, contained content written by someone who already understands what affiliates are. So whilst they talk of issues within affiliate programs, i can't find a decent (understandable to a noob) definition of what they are/do.
I can kinda get the jist of what they are from the what i've read, and from some Google searching, but sometimes you think one thing and weeks down the road you find out you were around 80% wrong!
Cud anyone quickly put it in Lamen's terms for me, just so I can get outta your hair on this one!
thanks, rich.
PS: I've kinda sussed it from some Googling fun. But isn't this a form of 'traffic buying' or 'link buying'? If so, isn't that 'frowned' upon??
I mean, i know it can't be 'bad', as lotsa sights use Afilliates all the time. But I thought I read somewhere Google (and the like) doesn't like it all that much ('traffic buying' i'm reffering too). Maybe i've misinterpreted it...
RegDCP
06-26-2007, 01:04 PM
Hi,
I'm as new as they come with regards to actually making a website.
So would someone be nice enough to pardon my ignorance and explain how an Afiliate Site works?
How do you make money from that (sounds as shallow as it comes! lol - but i saw it mentioned and curiosity hit)
Thanks guys,
Rich.
PS: I've kinda sussed it from some Googling fun. But isn't this a form of 'traffic buying' or 'link buying'? If so, isn't that 'frowned' upon??
I mean, i know it can't be 'bad', as lotsa sights use Afilliates all the time. But I thought I read somewhere Google (and the like) doesn't like it all that much ('traffic buying' i'm reffering too). Maybe i've misinterpreted it...
Hi Rich,
The simple explanation is:
Affiliate sales are sales done by you on the behalf of another business.
You sign up as an affiliate with a business that offers you a commission on sales, and you setup web pages and/or links to promote their products/services.
They track all the traffic and sales you send them and pay you accordingly.
Hope this helped.
Reg
Thanks RegDCP for the reply.
Would you say this form of advertising is more profortable than a regular advertising mehtod (i.e. selling space on your site to interested advertisers and being payed on impressions/views of ad)?
I can see the benefits of Afilates, but i'm assuming then that with afiliates, you'd still obviously have to use your web space to advertise to the merchant site? Then you get paid if an action is made by a vistor on the merchant site via your site (a pay that has a cut taken from the network 'organisers' i assume aswel)
So don't you have more chance of making money if you're getting paid just for impressions/visits to your site (i.e. the ad), rather than the tightened probabilities of a visitor actually going to the merchant site and buying a product? Do you get payed a higher ammount for an action, than you would for impressions or something?
I can see the definate benefits of afiliate's if you're for example writing content on a product/service already - and have a simple text link/suggestion or something to a site that offers that service/product you're writing about. That way it's a subtle form of advertising that a vistor may think is more informative than 'in your face - buy this now' big brand banner's! but for general advertising, like a Skyscraper banner that is an afiliate ad, over an ad that is paying for impressions*, is there a benefit?
*Note: i don't think i'd ever advertise stuff irrelevant to my site anyway, so i would always aim for relevant to the content ad's whatever advertising method (i think it's just more effective) - so i don't think afiliate's would ever have too much of a benefit that way over normal ads.
I reckon i've overlooked something here, so any help you can give is appreciated.
Thanks guys,
Rich.
(Sorry 'bout that, Rich. I didn't realize you were looking for a basic definition.)
You mentioned "I don't think I'd ever advertise stuff irrelevant to my site anyway." I don't know about others but when I see the "Ads by Google" on a Web site, I steer clear of that section of the page because, for one, I'm not buying anything, and two, they're pretty random sometimes. So, in that way, you don't even get the click.
Now, if you have an affiliate program, you can usually control exactly what will be placed there. Then, if I am on your site, and you have a section titled, "Recommend reading", then I might check it out and buy something. Plus, I know with Amazon.com, for instance, you get credit for whatever I purchase, so long as I came to the site through one of your referral links. So even if I don;t buy the book you recommended, I might buy something else, that you will get credit for.
Crucial
06-26-2007, 04:15 PM
I've been investigating the affiliates thing too - wondering how much I could actually make without falling into temptation, if you know what I mean...
It seems to me the best approach is to find something truly of value to your audience and offer it without extreme interuption.
Amazon Book referrals would be a good example. Or if I'm working a site on small business practices, then referring (affiliating) particular services, software or subscriptions that my small business audience would really benefit from would promise the best results I would think.
Yeah, i completley understand what your saying. Before I considered making my own website (i.e. just an average web broswer fairly unaware of all the ins-and-outs of how things work on the web) i viewed Adwords as a large annoyance. They are, in my opinion (from a Design perspective) completley unattarctive and uninviting, and i can't recall ever personally clicking on one. But after I started looking into actually making sites, a whole new world opened up. I realised perhaps it's the way they are incorporated in sites that make them unattractive to me. I know they get clicked on by many people, else Google wouldn't be as big! But i always say, if i don't like it - that's a good starting indication whether other people don't like it aswel. And standard banners - don't get me started! To me they are almost like ghosts when viewing a page!
So, when designing my site, i'm really gonna sit and think about ways to make advertising 'attractive' and atleast a possibilty to the visitor, rather than an annoyance. They are after all just 'extras' to the site, rather than the most important aspect, but that doesn't mean they have to be ignored. That's what i'm gonna try and achieve anyway!
Are you allowed to set rules like ' all ads must be approved by webmaster before being deployed to site space'? That way reviewing what's actually gonna be put on your site?
On afiliates, i really like the idea that ads are of benefit to the visitor, not a 'buy this now' kinda thing (like you mentioned).
As an afiliate (i doubt i'd have the resources to become any sort of merchant in the network) is it easy to get out there? Do you just apply to a suiting network, and let the course happen as it does (i.e. your site is put under a relevant catergory to be reviewd by potential merchants - who then get hold of you if they want to). Or do you actively have to find merchants?
I see Amazon.com really has this afiliate stuff sussed! So maybe i could do some research into them & how they do it so well?
Crucial
06-26-2007, 04:54 PM
I've been investigating signing up with Commission Junction
http://www.cj.com/
Looks to be used by many fairly reputable companies, such as Yahoo!.
Any thoughts on this affiliate co?
Crucial, I just had a quick shifty at that link and it looks pretty good. Admittidley, i'm completley new to this so i wouldn't go taking my advice whole heartedley on that just yet! lol.
One thing tho, it says publishers have to proove they have taken £10,000+ every month for the past three months to apply to it. That means your making a Gross profit of around $120,000 a/yr from your website already. That's a fair bit. I daren't look at what the merchant/advertisers have to pay!