Finding the right Affiliate Program - Getting Started - Page 2

cmac100 · #51 (**permalink**) 05-16-2005, 09:50 AM

Thank you Mystic for the info, I will definitely check the links out. If I can get something up and running, I don't mind waiting 3-6 months to see some results. I guess I just want to make sure that I'm doing it right so that i'm not spinning my wheels for 6 months with nothing coming in. Like I said $300-500 month would be great. Is that a reasonable goal? I see so many ads for ebooks and other membership sites (Submission Magic), that say you can make $7,000 in 2 weeks. And I'm the type , "If it sounds to good to be true...". Mystic, thanks again for your help.

cmac100

mystic · #52 (**permalink**) 05-16-2005, 05:17 PM

no problem cmac100. Once you have your site up put a link to it on your signature line when posting on forums that gets links to your site as well and helps your seo a little.

kgun · #53 (**permalink**) 05-18-2005, 09:26 AM

My experience:

You do much work for the merchants and somtimes get broken links in return (reduced value for your brand). The best one is in my opionion:
https://www.cj.com/index.jsp

1. Encrypted links.
2. Smart zones (rotating banners).
3. Excellent reporting (eg. on broken links not
generating traffic.)
4. Very stable site. 100 % up time.

But they pay by checque. The checque were not accepted by the bank, here in Norway. It is not a Norwegian bank. Why not direct electronic payment to my account in 2005? Is there any security problems?

So most of the affiliate proveders out there are for the US, Canada and UK.

And it is very much about generating traffic to your site. This W3Schools Online Web Tutorials site developed / driven by a family in Norway gives free education and certification. The site is driven by ad and generates less than a million USD with more than 30 million visitors / month.

Now I am looking for financial institutions / banks / fund managers to brand their logo on my site. I think that is better. I may also try a PayPal donation, but prefer doing business.

A company operating in Norway with heavy traffic takes nearly USD 7000 / 24 hours for a dominating logo. So for sites with heavy traffic this is big business.

Never have som many alliliates done som much for so many companies in return for so little.

It may take years. You eat a Big Mach in the same way as an elephant, bite by bite.

Kbleivik

[Links deleted by Mod Webnauts]

cmac100 · #54 (**permalink**) 05-18-2005, 12:22 PM

Thanks Kgun, and Mystic for you info.
Sometimes it seems overwhelming. How long have you guys been doing affiliate marketing? Is it making you some decent money? I have heard alot about SiteBuild!(Ken Evoy) have you guys heard of it and is it legit? Any ideas on some inexpensive hosting? My whole problem is that I don't have $200 a month to host, market, SEO, a site that will take 6 months to break even. Budget is definitely an issue. Any low cost suggestions would be very helpful. Thank again for your help.

cmac100

mystic · #55 (**permalink**) 05-18-2005, 02:31 PM

np cmac! btw where did you hear that it costs $200 to host a site? hosting usually costs about 5 bucks per month, that's pretty much your only cost. seo you can do by hand don't pay ppl to do it for u. Read about google page ranks etc. and you'll know that its all about gettng links to your site just visit the link i gave you b4 with a bunch of directories to list in that will get your page ranked almost for sure. so the only cost u'll have to have a website is $5 but it is very time consuming for seo. I'm going ot start making my own site selling stuff using drop shipping with my cousin if you'd like to find some good dropshippers u can use my wholesale directory at www.wholesalespotter.com to find a good one and also make sure there a good one research abou them and talk to them.

cmac100 · #56 (**permalink**) 05-20-2005, 05:11 PM

Thanks Mystic.
The $200 I was talking about was to include hosting, ezine marketing, PPC campaign, maybe paying for SEO, and website dev. Like I said, I am on a limited budget and didn't know the cost to get started, but you have enlightened me,Thnx. I here SiteBuiltIt(Ken Evoy) is a good start. Have you heard of him? With the dropshipping idea, Is opening a yahoo store, or ebay store good way to go? Thanks in advance for any and all help. Are there any other good forums to get some help?

-cmac100

mystic · #57 (**permalink**) 05-20-2005, 05:53 PM

theres lots of webmaster forums like www.bandofgonzos.com www.webmaster-talk.com etc. Also if you want a good forum to get help about wholesale, ebay, ecommerce, dropshipping, etc. stuff you may visit my forum at www.wholesalespotter.com/forum/ me and a few other ppl in that forum will be glad to give you any advice! Please ask your ebay and wholesale questions there and i will be glad to help you all u want!

Kwabble · #58 (**permalink**) 05-31-2005, 03:10 PM

I would stay away from sitesell and James Marshal's strategy. The recent shakeups in Google and Yahoo have pretty much wiped out all those type of sites. In fact Marshal's sites have been banned from Google alltogether. Sitesell sites also leave a footprint that Google and Yahoo have adjusted their algorithms for. The search engines have no interest in anyone gaming their results, even if the content is relevant and it's explicitly a violation of both of their publisher guidelines to say "we can get you to the top of the results" and charge for it. As well, anything on sitesell's hosting network has been blackholed by the many SPAM listing services because they deem all the email generated by them SPAM rather than real email. If you have signed up for sitesell, you can expect an email a day pushing some form of addon or affiliate link from ken envoy.

The best strategy today is build web pages with an editor, not some form of SEO optimized service that leaves a footprint, do basic SEO, get decent incoming links (avoid directories unless it's yahoo or dmoz). Make sure the incoming links have different titles so it looks natural. Add content daily. Make sure it's original and relevent. While your waiting to be indexed and to start climbing the ladder, use SEM/PPC via Adwords or Yahoo (avoid 2nd level PPC companies, it's mainly fake traffic). It will not happen overnight but if you are patient, you sure can make a good living.

Linda Buquet · #59 (**permalink**) 05-31-2005, 03:53 PM

Quote:

I would stay away from sitesell and James Marshal's strategy. The recent shakeups in Google and Yahoo have pretty much wiped out all those type of sites. In fact Marshal's sites have been banned from Google alltogether.

Whoa I had not heard that. I assume you meant Martell??? Got more info or a link to other forums discussing? If so please PM me.

fariha · #60 (**permalink**) 08-09-2005, 11:13 PM

Thank you for the informations I learned a lot
i think finding an affiliates programms only half the job the second half is finding the right people looking for the product you are showing it take lot of time and effort to do it. i hope the best luck with your programms.
www.getnowdomains.com

ambassador · #61 (**permalink**) 11-03-2005, 10:28 AM

-------
Nov 2, 2005

If a person were to endeavor to try their first online affiliate/dropshipping business, and the person knows what they want to sell:

1. What is the most proper way to ask a business like; for example, a manufacturer of deer hunting guns, if they are willing to provide the datafeed thing that seems to be necessary?

2. Are there "canned" programs available that one can use to receive the datafeed?

3. Is it even possible to operate an online affiliate/dropshipping business wherein the billing AND the shipping are performed by the manufacturer/company whose products you are selling?

4. Having already obained a domain name, a hosting service, a website (simple XHTML and CSS, no programming like PHP), and some very basic knowledge of SEO, what exactly are the additional mechanics needed?

Ambassador
-------

connoisseurs · #62 (**permalink**) 11-26-2005, 01:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sangiovesse

Note from Catalyst (your friendly mod). I decided to make this topic a sticky as it has so much good advice for newbies. Thanks to all that contributed.

Here's where the post starts

==================================================

Hello all ive been trying at affiliate marketing for a couple months now and havent really found anything that works. I first signed up with commission juntion but didnt make any commissions. After doing this for about 3 months i got discouraged and went to mlm and learnt how to build a mediocre website and took a crack at the "send $5 to these 5 people on the list" thing which was a total waste of time and energy. Im back to square one basically with Affiliate Marketing but i want to learn how to do it right instead of just jumping in. If anybody out there can make any suggestions to what programs are legit and have good payment plans please let me know. I am soooo willing to learn this industry and invest alot of my time into this. If i could eat, sleep, and breath this stuff i would but it gets discouraging when you try something and it doesnt work no matter how hard you work at it. So if anyone can tell me how they first got started i would be happy. Im not looking for hand-outs, i expect to pay my dues.
V/R
Chris

Guess enough time has passed since your original post that I can ask this:

What program/s did you decide on?
How pleased are you with the results of your efforts?
Do you think you'll eventually be able to leave your day job?

It would be interesting to hear the answers before I add my 2 cents...

Bidera · #63 (**permalink**) 12-15-2005, 11:52 AM

Good amount of quality info in this thread. Learned a lot on what makes a good affiliate program.
Will have to see what adjustments need to be made to our own program, since we do not have too many active affiliates yet.

abuthepooh · #64 (**permalink**) 12-21-2005, 12:33 AM

thank you linda for not only answering the first of the critical questions but your support through out this thread, which i have just spent an hour reading.
it has been fascinating.
although i am not associated with any affiliate marketing, i would still like to make a late addition:
in my country (india), huge population and less internet dependency, it is easier to sell web affiliate products as your own for a subsidised profit. for eg: the mumbai mirror, the mumbai middday etc have been carrying ads about clickbank products, herbalife, other high selling internet brands, dish tv etc. the math is also positive as you one not only gets buyer as well as develops a locally selling network .
i know it might be applicable to the developed nations , but hope some body profits.
mazhar

abuthepooh · #65 (**permalink**) 12-21-2005, 12:35 AM

thank you linda for not only answering the first of the critical questions but your appreciable support through out this thread, which i have just spent an hour reading.
it has been fascinating.
although i am not associated with any affiliate marketing, i would still like to make a late addition:
in my country (india), huge population and less internet dependency, it is easier to sell web affiliate products as your own for a subsidised profit. for eg: the mumbai mirror, the mumbai middday etc have been carrying ads about clickbank products, herbalife, other high selling internet brands, dish tv etc. the math is also positive as you not only get buyers but you also develop a locally selling network .
i know it mightnot be applicable to the developed nations , but hope some body profits.
Mazhar

FighterSpirit · #66 (**permalink**) 12-21-2005, 11:07 AM

I must say that this is Great Tread :)

OneMoreBite · #67 (**permalink**) 12-26-2005, 11:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FighterSpirit

I must say that this is Great Tread :)

LOL, and sometimes it gets great traction too! LOL

Sorry, just making a silly reference to your goof of saying "tread," which is what tires have (the depth of their grooves is called their tread) rather than thread (same word as used in sewing, "my thread is too short). A simple missing "h" makes all the difference in English.

It's so fun to read the words of non-native English speakers because they are so good at getting across their meaning, even with goofups on occasions, and most Americans can't say more than two words in another language.

This is a great thread though, so point well taken. Sometimes it is so worth simply reading through an entire thread to see what's been said before and learn something. The bottom line with affiliate marketing is if you have a website that has a niche, and you find an affiliate product or products that serve that niche, then you have a winning combination. Traffic plus products = sales.

If you just want to pull something out of a hat and sell it, you'll have a bit more trouble. Far better to find something you actually like or have an interest in. Something weird or off the beaten path perhaps? Something very few others are addressing? Find your niche, then you'll find liquid gold in affiliate marketing.

Kathryn

Linda Buquet · #68 (**permalink**) 01-03-2006, 07:56 PM

Kathryn

Quote:

and sometimes it gets great traction too!

LOL!!! Good one!

We're just razzing you FighterSpirit. ;-)

FighterSpirit · #69 (**permalink**) 01-12-2006, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OneMoreBite

Quote:

Originally Posted by FighterSpirit

I must say that this is Great Tread :)

LOL, and sometimes it gets great traction too! LOL

Sorry, just making a silly reference to your goof of saying "tread," which is what tires have (the depth of their grooves is called their tread) rather than thread (same word as used in sewing, "my thread is too short). A simple missing "h" makes all the difference in English.

It's so fun to read the words of non-native English speakers because they are so good at getting across their meaning, even with goofups on occasions, and most Americans can't say more than two words in another language.

This is a great thread though, so point well taken. Sometimes it is so worth simply reading through an entire thread to see what's been said before and learn something. The bottom line with affiliate marketing is if you have a website that has a niche, and you find an affiliate product or products that serve that niche, then you have a winning combination. Traffic plus products = sales.

If you just want to pull something out of a hat and sell it, you'll have a bit more trouble. Far better to find something you actually like or have an interest in. Something weird or off the beaten path perhaps? Something very few others are addressing? Find your niche, then you'll find liquid gold in affiliate marketing.

Kathryn

You are Funny :)