The Future Of Affiliate Programs

I tell myself on a daily basis to be positive, unfortunately I'm seeing too many changes, happening a little too fast, and I think it spells a rough road ahead for affiliate marketers. The internet is not immune to the troubles in the US and foreign economy, therefore we should start preparing for trends in online businesses just as we have seen them in 'brick 'n mortar'. I'm referring to cut-backs, lower wages (see affiliate commissions), and less accessibility.

First let's look at what companies must do to become more profitable in a failing economy. Consumer confidence is way down, so even fewer people will be buying online, therefore less impulse buying. The less impulse buying the less companies will need to rely on affiliates to bring in the long tail consumers. Either a consumer will know what they want and go to the source, or they won't be interested at all. Expect companies to withdraw existing affiliate programs and even more will wait to enter the market place with programs in place.

Lowering wages is a great way to pad your profit margin and in our case it means lower commissions. Lowering a commission on a program becomes much easier when it's spread out over thousands of affiliates, instead of just a handful of employees. Expect large cuts in commissions and new offers looking flatter than usual. I've actually lost track of how many programs are actually adjusting their commission rates from MaxBounty, luckily these have yet to effect me personally. One only needs to look at eBay for another example of 'cutting commissions', in regards to their recent hack of affiliates and the reorganization of their ACRU tiers.

Lastly, accessibility in regards to the ease of joining an affiliate program. At one time even larger affiliate managers accepted almost anyone into their programs, no matter traffic, or even visitor quality. Now things are getting tighter and bandwidth costs money, the days of sending traffic that doesn't convert to affiliate sites may be over. Expect to not be allowed to sign up unless you have a record of targeted traffic, or existing affiliates should start taking steps to record where and how their traffic is arriving on their site and where they are being sent to the affiliate sites. Finding the fine line in fewer affiliates and higher quality converting traffic will save a company countless dollars on less man power, for managing worthless affiliates(in their eyes) and remove thin affiliate competition from search engines.

The moral of this story is to start diversifying now, so if one revenue stream starts failing or making cuts you're not left out to dry. To an extent I'm speaking from experience and to another I'm kicking myself in the ass. Good luck and happy earning.

NewEgg Mall Affiliate Program

I'm not sure about you, but I am a massive fan of anything NewEgg. It seems like no matter what I am buying, if NewEgg.com had it, it was cheaper even with freight. The only problem was that their inventory of items was limited to electronics, but now they've got a whole line of products similar to Amazon at the NewEggMall. I've been biting the bullet waiting for them to release an affiliate program and now it looks like they are offering one through Commission Junction.

NeweggMall.com, a subsidiary of Newegg Inc., is a premier online shopping destination for general merchandise. Launched in 2008, this elegant e-commerce site boasts a wide-ranging selection of apparel, accessories, auto, home living, jewelry & watches, and outdoor & garden products to meet the demands of the most selective customers.

Building on the success of newegg.com, the second-largest online-only retailer in the United States and preferred destination for technology enthusiasts, NeweggMall.com brings the same customer-centric principles to the broader market: great product selection and pricing, fast delivery and outstanding customer service. With more than 15,000 unique products available on the site, NeweggMall.com continues to seek out, evaluate and add merchant partners who can deliver the high quality e-commerce shopping experience customers have come to associate with the Newegg brand.

Looks like the NewEggMall affiliate program will drop a 30 day cookie and earn you a 4% flat commission on whatever is purchased. This is lower than what you can get through Amazon, but a much better cookie length. Furthermore the regular NewEgg.com affiliate program only offers a 3 day cookie length, so you better get while the getting is good. Affiliate programs like Amazon only offer a 1 day action period and I think we will see NewEgg drop the length of their cookie after this site kick off as well.

Affiliate Incentives

It's important, as in any business, to familiarize yourself with the companies that you affiliate with. Knowing their business practices and strategies will help you become a better affiliate for them and also give warning to things you may want to step away from. By becoming entrenched with a certain company though, blinders can be put on to similar affiliate programs that may offer some nice incentives.

I operate a number of automotive themed websites and blogs, which I affiliate for parts warehouses and places like eBay. While eBay is my primary source of affiliate income I also subscribe to affiliate program updates in my reader from the operating affiliate network. This means that whenever an affiliate incentive is being offered by another affiliate, in this example AutoPartsWarehouse.com, I can take advantage of the bonuses they offer. Often these bonuses are time sensitive so staying on top of an offer is important.

Currently AutoPartsWarehouse.com is offering affiliates a $50 or $100 activation bonus. This means that for an accumulated sales amount of $300 or more, you will receive a one-time cash reward of $50. If you generate an accumulated sales amount of $500 or more, you receive a one-time $100 cash out reward. Obviously this can really add to a monthly income for affiliate beginners or long term marketers alike. Had I not been attentive to the updates from my Affiliate Network I would not have been privy to this great lil bonus that should be easy to accumulate for the month of July.

In addition to staying up to date with bonuses and incentives, often times companies will provide seasonal promotional material. Web graphics and banners for affiliate programs will be updated during the holidays for special promotions that the company may be running. Being July and the 4th is around the corner make sure you are using all methods possible to promote your niche and make those extra affiliate sales.

Trying To Earn A Penny

It's not traditional affiliate marketing, but a new source of income for bloggers has surfaced that allows you to make some pretty good money just writing posts. There is a huge market now of companies that pay you to blog about certain sites, products, etc... as a form of advertisement for it's customers. The services differ, in regards to blog requirements and placements, but below is a list of places that pay bloggers to blog, so surely you can find one to work for you.

• V7N Contextual
• Sponsored Reviews
• ReviewMe
• Blogitive
• PayPerPost
• Blogvertise
• Smorty
• LinkWorth

Thanks to the members of v7n for coming up with the list of places that pay bloggers to blog. I'm sure as new companies arrive this thread will be updated and the potential for earning revenue while blogging will increase. I myself have had limited success with PayerPerPost, but after several frustrations and poor management in the beginning I abandoned it. But, if you are looking for a little extra filler in your blog and earn a few dollars on the side, you should definitely check out one or all of these services.

P.S. I should also note that not all of these companies will allow BlogSpot blogs and require that a blog be hosted on it's own domain. This is not a blanket statement, but be prepared to run into low paying offers and possible non-acceptance into a service using a Blogger blog.

Free Affiliate Link Masking WP Plugin

It's not cloaking, but it is masking, to make your affiliate links look like there are sub folders or your site. Often times it can be a turn off to a visitor to see a big nasty non-sense redirect url, but if you can make that url pretty and look like it's tied to your site, expect higher click through's. There are paid scripts out there that will allow you to mask your affiliate links, but believe it or not there is a free Wordpress plugin that will do the same thing.

Take your affiliate link from this :
http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-2982118-5655490

To:
http://used-golf-cart.net/used-golf-cart/used-callaway

Of course the url would be redirected to your affiliate landing page, cookie intact. Studies have shown that a better looking url will result in higher click throughs and ultimately better conversions for you.

WP-Affiliate is the free plugin that automatically converts these urls for you to a more manageable and better looking link. The latest version of WP-Affiliate will allow you to search through CJ products and manage all your masked links.

WP-Affiliate on WordPress.org
WP-Affiliate Developer Page

Why Affiliates Complain About Amazon

I see it on a daily basis, affiliates complaining about Amazon.com's affiliate program. The majority of Amazon.com affiliate complaints are that they have very low payouts, but really they are above others in the same categories. While your affiliate commission for an electronics product may only be 4% that's still 1% higher than the leading electronics e-merchant on the net, NewEgg. NewEgg.com offers only 3% commissions on their entire inventory of electronics, except for cell phone plans, in which they can offer up to $25 per contract.

So, lets say you stay away from electronics on Amazon and focus on marketing other products, well then you should be earning a minimum of 6% on all sales. Furthermore this percentage will fluctuate fast, depending on how many orders you get your percentage of commission can jump up to 6.5%-8%. What's great about Amazon's commission tier is that dollars don't play a part, they simply go by the amount of items sold. That means you will increase your commission percentage if you sell 50 couches or 50 pens.

How To Get Around Low Percentage Electronic Commissions

There is an affiliate trick that I use with Amazon to maximize my commissions when dealing with electronic items. I try to focus on those sold by 3rd party members of Amazon, instead of Amazon.com's inventory. All sales through 3rd party sellers on Amazon will result in your tier commission, meaning it's possible to sell electronics and earn only as low as 6%.

Using the method above I was able to earn a staggering 8% on all the Nintendo Wii's I sold. I was able to earn that high percentage on an electronic item because Amazon did not have them in stock, all went through 3rd parties and because I was able to push more than 600 per month.

So, next time you see someone complaining about Amazon.com's affiliate program, remember the real bread winners in affiliate marketing aren't the loud ones on the forums.

Affiliate News From The Web

What is my greatest tool in my arsenal of affiliate marketing endeavors, reading what others have done! That's right, take in every biscuit of knowledge you can from leading bloggers, newbies trial and erroring, anything. Just remember to apply what you know to what you read and don't expect someone to show you the Yellow Brick Road of affiliate marketing either, the best secrets are kept that way, secret.

I came across a great blog post by Dave Martinez that broke down the top 7 things to look for in an Affiliate Program. Believe it or not it's not just how much it pays and what he covers could save you some serious head aches in the long run. Furthermore, some of the topics he covers will make you more affiliate commissions than just going after something you know nothing about.

Check out 7 Things To Look For In An Affiliate Program

Affiliate Programs I Use

I'm often asked where I get access to all my affiliate programs and generally there is no one answer. I stick with a handful of companies that allow me to build partnerships and affiliate for a large number of programs. Below is a breakdown of which companies I'm signed up with and why i use them to affiliate.

• Commission Junction - They have a crazy amount of companies signed up that you can affiliate for. I originally signed up for eBay, but since then have been accepted into the NewEgg.com affiliate program and others. Many of the programs require you to signup individually for which program matches your website content, so you are not automatically accepted into their inventory of clients.
• Max Bounty - Generally speaking, they have the largest number of affiliate programs aimed at the simple 1 form, email gathering, affiliate programs. Meaning they have the $1 to $2 payouts for leading a visitor to submit their email for potential freebies and surveys.
• ebay Partner Network - They pay some of the highest commissions of any program I affiliate for. Their lowest tier of earnings makes you 50% of whatever eBay makes off an auction that ends with your affiliate cookie attached. Plus there are a lot of plugins and scripts to make building sites easy.
• Amazon - Who hasn't heard of Amazon? Some of their payouts are pretty low, but it's easily made up with the amount of volume that's possible. They also offer plenty of affiliate widgets, feeds, and store builder options.
• ClickBank - If it's a digital download, ebook, or some sort of online subscription service you can find it on ClickBank. They offer a huge inventory of these types of products that you can affiliate for with an even larger number of payout options. While I've only had limited success with this affiliate program, the potential is there if you can find a good niche.

Well, those are the affiliate programs I use in a nut shell. They have allowed me to eliminate Adsense on a number of my sites or at least not rely on the revenue from Adsense to earn a living. But remember, now matter how good a product or service may be, if you are not focusing on quality marketing you may just be wasting your time.