Affiliate Manager is on Twitter


In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 3% responded with “Affiliate Manager is on Twitter.”

Affiliate Manager on Twitter

I am sort of surprised by the low percentage who find affiliate programs this way, but perhaps it's because I'm more apt to follow OPMs, and I see all of their new program announcements on Twitter.

I find it helpful to not only discover affiliate programs on Twitter, because an affiliate manager is proactive there, but also it's a great too to follow affiliate programs you've joined.

The affiliate managers and affiliate programs I follow on Twitter will regularly post information on limited time coupons, special deals, etc., as well as linking to recent blog posts about the affiliate program.

Plus, it's nice to have access to an affiliate manager on Twitter for quick questions about their program(s).

Message Boards or Forums


In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 7% responded with “Affiliate manager is active on message boards.”

Affiliate manager on message boards

The responsiveness of an affiliate manager is key, and affiliate marketing message boards or forums provide a great opportunity to ask any question to a given affiliate manager.

There are a handful of affiliate marketing forums, and the active presence of affiliate managers at them is a good indicator of how accessible they will be when you need them.

In the example above, you can see how affiliate manager Evan Weber announced that he was re-launching the affiliate program for BaronBob.com, and shortly after his post, there was a response from an affiliate.

And then Evan quickly circled back to the affiliate, and his forum signature includes ways to reach him on Facebook and by email.

That's what I like to see in an affiliate manager for an affiliate program I'm considering promoting.

Affiliate Marketing Blogs


In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 6% responded with “Affiliate marketing blogs.”

blogFinding out about affiliate programs through affiliate marketing blogs can happen in a couple of different ways.

But first you need to find the blogs – that's easy. Just go to Google and search for affiliate marketing blogs.

The quickest and easiest way to discover affiliate programs from an affiliate marketing blog is to simply scan their advertisers.

Blogs will typically run ads in the header or side columns, and often the ads running in those spots are for affiliate programs or affiliate networks.

Also, you ought to read the blogs, because some of their posts will typically be about new affiliate programs, case studies featuring affiliate programs, news on unique technology or features being offered by affiliate programs, etc.

Affiliate Manager Contacts Affiliates


In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 15% responded with “Affiliate Manager contacts you.”

Affiliate Manager phone call

This method could include a variety of techniques for contact, such as direct mail, email, phone, and IM.

The favored techniques will vary with each affiliate program, as will the effectiveness.

As an affiliate, I prefer to not be interrupted, so contacts by phone and IM aren't typically welcomed. Both are certainly good if you want to ask a lot of questions, but I don't often want conversations when I select affiliate programs – I just want to test first and talk later.

Email works for me if it's an individual pitch, based on how a given affiliate program can benefit me and my site(s).

Mass email with general attributes of an affiliate program usually gets a quick delete from me.

I prefer direct mail as an affiliate, too, but rarely get anything in the mail from an affiliate manager.

Affiliate Networks


In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 5% responded with “Affiliate network.”

Affiliate networks are companies that provide affiliate tracking and reporting for affiliate programs. When affiliates join an affiliate network, they are typically able to search the network by names of merchants, keywords, or categories of affiliate program.

ShareASaleAn example of an affiliate network is ShareASale.

Other affiliate networks I currently use are Affiliate Window, Commission Junction, and LinkShare. There are many others out there, but these are the networks I am currently active in, as their merchants are most relevant to my affiliate sites.

In the case of ShareASale, there is an option to search with a keyword for either merchants or products; advanced search, which has a variety of parameters to choose; and dozens of categories, many of which have a number of sub-categories.

There are also options to view only those merchants with datafeeds, as well as viewing which merchants have current coupons/deals.

So, if I am looking for merchants and/or products for an affiliate site focused on gifts, I would search for gifts and see what was available to me.

ShareASale affiliate programs with gifts

When I find an affiliate program that fits my needs, I would click “Join Program”.

I prefer to promote affiliate programs within affiliate networks, so I can consolidate my logins, reporting, and payments, so this is one of the ways I like to search for affiliate programs.

Affiliate Directories


In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 25% responded with “Affiliate Directory.”

Refer-itThe affiliate directory played a big role in my affiliate marketing history, as I worked for the first affiliate program directory, Refer-it, back in 1999-2000.

Back then, affiliate directories were a needed resource, because there were fewer ways to find affiliate programs at the time.

But now it surprises me that many affiliates still rely on the directories. I started up an affiliate directory called Affiliate Thing years ago, but killed it in 2009, because I found it to be unnecessary.

Additionally, I didn't like where they were heading with a great many of them featuring affiliate programs, because they were two-tiers (they were getting a piece of the affiliates joining under them) or the spaces on lists of the top affiliate programs were being sold.

However, affiliates are clearly still using what I consider to be the equivalent of Yellow Pages for affiliate programs.

So which is the best affiliate directory?

Well, I took a look at those ranking best in Google, and there isn't one I'd recommend for affiliates to use.

But for merchants, I'd suggest submitting your details to the affiliate directories that are ranking well, but don't pay for placement.

Advertising in Print Publications


In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”, and 7% responded with “Advertising in print publications.”

FeedFront MagazineIt may seem backwards to look offline for affiliate programs, since they are based online, but it's a great way to discover new affiliate programs and networks.

Affiliates can find affiliate programs in a couple of ways with print publications – affiliate marketing industry magazines, like FeedFront, or titles specific to their niche or vertical.

Here is a magazine ad for the SeaWorld affiliate program.

SeaWorld affiiate program magazine ad

And here is another magazine ad from cpa network Commission Empire.

Commission Empire magazine ad

For any merchants reading, you should have a unique call to action or url, so you can track the performance.

Finding Affiliate Programs


Now that you've got things set with your site, you're producing content, and driving some traffic, it's time to find some affiliate programs to monetize your site.

finding-affiliate-programsBut where do you find the right affiliate programs for your site?

In the 2011 Affiliate Summit AffStat Report, where over fourteen-hundred affiliates were surveyed, we asked, “How do you most often find out about an affiliate program and then join?”

The affiliates responded with a wide variety of methods for finding affiliate programs to promote, including affiliate directories, search engines, and being contacted by affiliate managers.

I will go through all of the ways mentioned by affiliates, so you can experiment and find out which is most useful for you.

Find affiliate programs

Before you start trying to find affiliate programs, be sure to focus on those that are relevant to the topic of your site.

Don't be seduced by high commissions. You will want to test ads for products and services that make sense for your audience.

Here are the most popular methods for affiliates to find affiliate programs:

In addition to focusing on relevance for your affiliate ads, you don't want to put too many ads up on your site. Less is more!

Facebook Ads


Facebook Ads can be a great way to reach your niche audience, as they provide a variety of categories to target.

Facebook ads

You can choose your audience by location, age and interests, and test both image and text-based ads to figure out what works.

There is the option to promote a Facebook Page or your own site – you'll want to send the traffic to your site. Why? Because this section is all about techniques to drive traffic to your site, that's why!

Also, Facebook Ads enable you to set the daily budget for your ads, and you can adjust your daily budget anytime. And you can choose to pay either when people click (CPC) or see your ad (CPM).

I've used Facebook Ads for affiliate sites, but easily my most import campaign to date was one where I was trying to accelerate the same of my house in August 2010. I ran a number of different ads to test elements of the ads, as well as the target audiences.

This one here, which used the real estate short-hand language from my house listing, was the best performer and ended up reaching the buyer.

Facebook Ads to sell a house

I combined targeting an area my real estate agent said was the source of most of her sales in my town, as well as testing a theory that the best prospects would be folks married in their 30's, since they would be family-minded and looking for more space.

The overall Facebook campaign cost about $1,000 and the offer came in a week after we listed. I did some research at the time and houses in our range were selling in about six weeks or so.

I run a number of small campaigns currently for affiliate sites with a budget around $5/day.

An important thing to point out – be sure you use a unique link for the traffic to your site and monitor it, so you can track the effectiveness.

More details on Facebook ads at http://www.facebook.com/advertising/.

Podcasting


Podcasting is a great way to reach a niche audience, and to drive traffic to your site. But wait… podcasts are audio, so how can they drive traffic?

Affiliate Summit West 2011 Blogger Lounge

Well, one of the ways people listen to podcasts is by streaming them from a blog or other website.

And the posts for podcast episodes typically include podcast notes, which recap the show and include links to items mentioned on the podcast.

I use a WordPress plugin called PowerPress to incorporate podcasts into blog posts, and the plugin includes stats of where people are listening to the podcasts.

When I take a look at a sampling of podcasts on GeekCast.fm, a network of business podcasts I started years ago with Missy Ward, 75% of people are listening to the shows on the site, and the balance are using their iPods or other devices to hear the shows offline.

So anyway, is the amount of traffic from podcasts worthwhile?

Well, I've been podcasting weekly since 2006 – sometimes more than one show a week. If I wasn't seeing a benefit in doing it, I would have stopped long ago.

Check out 7 Minutes in Affiliate Heaven, which I record solo every week.

And have a look at GeekCast.fm to see a variety of podcasts and how they work out their podcast notes.