How To Make More Money With Affiliate Programs

Affiliate programs are one of the web's most effective marketing techniques. They create a win-win situation by which site A refers a visitor to site B, and site B pays site A a commission if that visitor purchases something. If you are the referrer site (affiliate), you can make money with no overhead (no product, no warehouse, no collection risk). On the other hand, the destination site receives a steady stream of qualified leads from hundreds, maybe thousands of affiliate sites, and doesn't have to spend a dime unless a visitor purchases something.

To maximize effectiveness, affiliate sites need to keep in mind some common sense suggestions:

1) Resist the temptation to add too many affiliate links. Affiliate link overkill confuses visitors and hurts credibility. You want your visitors to view your site as a value-adding destination and not just a cheesy sales site. Recommend links to products you have tried, or that come from good, solid companies. Don't recommend something you don't know just because you're getting paid. Give your visitors the best advice and they will reward you.

2) If you write articles for your website, try not to include the affiliate links in the body of your articles: it will give the impression that you have a vested interest in recommending them. You want your visitors to trust your advice, so don't turn your article into an excuse to promote products and make a commission. It's OK to include affiliate links, but do it on a side bar or on a resource table. Whenever possible, link to your affiliate partners with text links (since banner ad click-through is at its lower rate ever, and people tend to ignore banners).

3) Include only affiliate links that are related to your business and the topic of interest to your visitors. Links to unrelated products will not generate good leads for the destination sites (and therefore won't be a source of significant commissions for you), so they are best avoided.

4) Managing your affiliate programs can be a hassle if you have to deal with many different companies. Try to sign up with a site that administers many affiliate programs to chose from (one of the best out there are Commission Junction [www.cj.com] and Befree.com [www.befree.com]). These sites give you hundreds of affiliate programs to chose from, and act as a one-stop shop where you can sign up with multiple vendors using only one account and receiving one consolidated commission check.

5) Chose affiliate partners that offer long term cookies. A cookie is a mechanism that allows the destination site to know when a visitor is referred by your site. A long term cookie (for example, a three months cookie) means that a visitor who follows a link to one of your affiliate partners today but doesn't purchase anything, can come back and purchase at anytime during the next three months and you will still be paid a commission. The best programs are those who offer unlimited cookies (although there are not so many of them around). However, a 90-day cookie or more is very good.

6) Link directly to the product page and not to the main page of the destination site. If you link to the main page, the visitor will have to find its way to the product and may not find it, making you lose commissions. By linking directly to the product, you will increase the prospects of the visitor buying the product (and of you making a commission). Many destination sites, like Amazon, recognize this fact and offer a higher commission to affiliates that link directly to the product pages than to those who only link to the main page.

Follow these simple guidelines and you will improve your chances of success with all your affiliate programs.

Mario Sanchez publishes The Internet Digest ( http://www.theinternetdigest.net ) a collection of tips and suggestions to help you design a better website and market it more effectively.

Branding Your Business To Make More Money!

Branding your comapny should be the first thing a company does. You have to convince potential customers to buy from you. Very few people have a monopoly like Microsoft or Ebay, Everyone else need to steer business to their company or product. When people think about your company, what is their impression. For my company, Solutions Ink, I wanted to portray a fresh, professional, ease of use type of company whoose product meets their quality needs while helping their business. I wanted to portray Solutions Ink as always on the fore front of the printing and promotional product industry's.

To achieve this I needed to tell potential customers of new and innovative products for the printing industry. Variable data, large format digital printing, digital printing with pantone colors, label and form combinations, magnet and form combinations and e-commerce ordering systems. How best to show customers then actually devise a campaign where the product you are trying to educate your customers about is sent out to them to give them ideas how to use this product to help their businesses. One campaign I organised was to compile a list of fashion retailers whoose logo's were specific pantone colors that are not reproduced well in 4 color process printing. Today with 6,8 and 10 color presses you can print in 4 color process and 2 pantone colors quite easily. This keeps the integrity of the company's logo intact in their big marketing or flyer campaigns. This is OK for large run printing jobs. The problem is that even for large chains, you tend to have regional sales in a small amount of stores. In store displays usually are done in small numbers and are printed digitally. Today there are certain digital presses that can insert pantone colors on top of the 4 color process printing. After devising a mock up campaign and targetting by variable data the buyers of these retail fashion chains, I was able to secure 2 large accounts for present and future business.

This technique can be applied to any industry. The key is to really now your product and the strengths of your company. The next step is to educate your customers on your company's merits. Then you must reinforce your image constantly to stay in your existing customers mind, as well as peak the curiousity of potential new customers.

Once you have achieved this, giving out promotional products is a useful way of staying on their minds. The trick is to find a great promotional product, that fits you budget, is useful to the end user and doesn't shout your name too boldly. Humour is a great way to have your customers keep your stuff. The items seen most times for an office person are calendars and coffee mugs. To be different in the Montreal Promotional Product market, Solutions Ink sent out to all existing customers a 14 ounze special mug which was imprinted with thermochromic ink. The ink is heat sensitive and evaporates on heat and returns on cold. With this you can print something underneath the thermochromic ink which is revealed when cold. On the outside we simply put the word STRESS in red over a black background. Most people who work know about stress. The humour side was that when you poured your hot coffee the message turned into stress free at Solutions Ink. A simple inexpensive idea that our customers really enjoyed and every time I stop at one of their offices I readily spot our mugs. On top of this I received 4 orders from these customers for these mugs with a different message for their customers.

Another great way for your company to be branded positively is to become associated with a worth while charity. Today we must give back to those less fortunate. Sponsering an event gives your company great exposure but the real treat is in knowing that you've helped others. Money is not the end all, all the time. A funny thing, helping others usually rewards yourself if not immediately some time in the future.

The trick is to plan out your actions. Research the market, research your company's attributes and brand your company's image positively and constantly. Following these steps should help your company stand out from the competition and make yourself more successful Best of luck.

Steven Schneidman

About the Author: Steven Schneidman owns a successful printing and promotional product company. He started off teaching finance at a Canadian University and working at the head office of the secong largest bank in Canada. Solutions Ink works to help all size comapnies grow and prosper. If you need help you can contact me at 514-337-2238 or visit us on the webb at www.solutionsink4u.com