Are Your Affiliates Adding Value?

By: Adam RiemerAdamR@adamriemer.mehttp://www.AdamRiemer.me@Rollerblader on Twitter

Are Your Affiliates Adding Value

Traffic Patterns & Coupon Sites Trademark Bidders Adware Managers and OPMs Cashback & Loyalty Sites Self Shoppers SEO Branding

Traffic Patterns & Coupon Sites

Affiliates are supposed to have their own traffic. Independent Does not rely on your site or your own efforts

Do your Affiliate sales match your own site’s sales? Test the traffic:

Coupons – remove the box, place coupons next to the box, use multiple cookies, only show box when referred from coupon sites, etc…

Host Separate Sales – before or after official sales Seasonal sites and niche sites can be an exception

Extra pushes

Your TrafficYour Traffic

Affiliate Traffic

Trademark Bidders

The bad: Bidding on your domain Bidding on your trademark (Brand name vs. general

name) Bidding on your domain + modifiers Direct linking

The good You get more coverage on general names Block your competitors on your domains

Coupon Sites

http://bit.ly/dhPLoj Coupon specific searches

Adware

The good: Showing over a competitors site (Good?) Large communities Showing ads in the SERPs (Good or Bad?)

The bad: Showing ads over your own site Replacing other channels and Affiliate’s cookies Lawsuits

Lets see what it looks like:

http://www.affiliatesummit.com/adam-asw12

Managers and OPMs

What are you paying them to do? Auto approve Monitor and manage Ensure extra promotions Ensure compliance

Program FTC Nexus

Adware monitoring Recruitment Activation campaigns

Cashback and Loyalty Sites

The Bad: Adware Audit your sales

30, 60, 90 & 120 days. Return period. No customer acquisition (This is not always true) Fraud orders Profitability measures

Margins – discount, commission and no acquisition SEO for your name

Lose a customer’s margin for life when they discover cash back The Good:

Move old inventory Great exposure for new or small brands New customers via media buys

You have to go around the network and directly with the Affiliate

Self Shoppers

Ask yourself Is the goal customer acquisition What are my margins Testing the user experience and product for reviews A Non-Affiliate, current customer who knows what

Affiliate Marketing is Testing your tracking How valuable is this customer?

SEO

The Bad: Are Affiliate links backlinks Do Affiliates take away from our internal efforts Showing up organically for trademarks Should we provide a keyword list

Benefits Negatives

Should we pay on sales that come off trademarks only

Questions?

@Rollerblader on TwitterAdamR@adamriemer.mehttp://www.adamriemer.meAdam Riemer Marketing, LLC.