Affiliate Marketing - How to Deal with Online Merchants when Creating Partnerships
When you decide to become an affiliate marketer, you are basically just asking another
web host to add a link to your website to theirs which will bring your website more traffic
and hopefully generate more sales for them, which gives you a commission sale. Of course, there are some things that affiliates look for in a website before they will sign you on as
an affiliate. Before you even consider signing on as an affiliate, you should make sure that
your website has something to offer that theirs doesn’t.
To be more specific, even if you are going to a “like” website as an affiliate, you don’t
want to approach a site that is selling the exact same thing as you because that makes
you direct competition with you. For example, if you are selling designer clothing of a
particular label, you do not want to try to go to a site that is selling the exact same
items as you, but a like site that may offer the same brand, but not the same items.
That way, both sites are selling the same label, but can push each other’s sites for the
items that they don’t carry.
Once you know exactly what type of website you want to run and which web companies
are actually offering you the right revenue sharing opportunities for products and services
that complement your web site genre, you can’t just offer to put up banners and buttons
on their behalf. It is best to begin by writing up a review page of the product or service
and how it will definitely help boost sales, especially if you are recognized as being knowledgeable in your field.
One of the best ways to show that you know what you are doing is to offer articles and reviews on your website about your items for sale. Keyword articles are best for getting
search engine to come calling. You can also put in a brief history of the product’s
inception etc. Basically just put in as much information as you can about your product or service so that visitors and merchants will know that you are on top of things and know
what you are doing. Here are some more things that you should do when dealing with
potential affiliates that you are trying to get in with.
Talk to People
Talking to people could not only increase your sales, but also save you some heartache
in the long run. It is very easy to talk to an affiliate company, and you can start by
contacting the merchant, let them know what you are doing to promote their product
and ask their advice as to how you could improve your marketing technique. Think
about it, it is always best to approach a potential affiliate with a standing technique in
mind as well as an outline of what you plan to do to help them. If you have the means,
try it out for a while so that you can approach a merchant with solid facts backing you
up.
When you ask the merchant for advice you are setting yourself in great standing with
them and showing them that you understand their knowledge. After all, the merchant
knows their product best right?
They would also have a very good idea of the strategies that are used by other affiliates
to boost sales. Don’t bother checking for this information on an affiliate site because you
will not be getting to the nitty gritty of it.
By contacting the merchant yourself, you are also showing your enthusiasm for marketing
their products and services and that you are working to become known as a “power” or
“super” affiliate! Any merchant who understands affiliate marketing knows that over
90% of sales are generated by less than 5% of their affiliates. A good merchant will see
your efforts and give you further information and resources and may even boost your commission fees as a result of your efforts and success. All of this means more money for
you both!
Dealing with merchants directly
When you are dealing directly with a merchant, there are some things that you have to
realize. You need to know how to deal with them but also what to expect to encounter
from the as well. That is what this section is going to help you with. Let’s take a look at
some of the various things that you can expect to hear and deal with when going through
a merchant.
a) If you are going to go to the trouble of emailing a merchant and they don’t respond the
first time, do not worry about it, be persistent because many merchants receive countless numbers of emails daily and take time to sift through them and weed out the spam. If they
still fail to respond to your, think twice about continuing promotion on their behalf because
a lack of communication can also be indicative of other problems such as payment or just
plain disinterest. You should also bear in mind that some merchants work on the shotgun principle. What this means is that they make big promises, set a high payouts knowing full
well that few affiliates will ever reach it. Next thing you know, they get as many affiliates promoting their products and services as possible which will give them the maximum exposure, with the minimum cost and effort on their part. It’s not a good business model for them to
use in the long term and after a while affiliates drop away, but not before the company
has raked in thousands. Many MLM (multi-level marketing) programs also work on this
principle and only the guys at the top generate any serious revenue so you need to expect
this and watch out for it.
A good way to protect your payments from merchants is to sign up for affiliate programs
that are extremely well established ad networks such as Offers Quest or FastClick if you
want to get paid for your work. When you are working with a major ad network means that even if you only make a few dollars from each program, those dollars that are generated will
all feed a common account, accumulate rapidly which will allow you to reach the payout threshold in a shorter time period. Most ad networks work with merchants on a “money up front” or monthly “pay as you go” basis because this decreases the risk of those merchants who are suddenly disappearing with your hard earned commissions. For this to work,
you need to demonstrate your web marketing prowess.
b) Unless you have a web site that already generates high traffic, don’t ask the merchant
for higher commissions in the first communication. So many affiliates do this and end up
being totally ignored because most affiliates probably can’t deliver on their promises due to
the fact that too many of their claims are unachievable. If you don’t have a solid sales
record for the product or service you are promoting, you’ll need to prove yourself to
merchants off the bat and put some thought into your promotion and rack up a few sales before attempting to secure higher payout rates. Be professional in your communications
c) When you are communicating with merchants, you have to make sure that you use a professional manner not the laid back style that you use when talking toy our friends.
If you have suggestions of how a merchant could improve an offer that would convert
into more sales, let them know, but be very polite and constructive in your feedback –
not insulting by saying things like: “Your banners suck” because this will alienate them.
d) You have to remember that the Internet as a trading place is still very new in comparison
to the business platforms of the last few millennia like regular advertising through television
or newspaper ads. Some of the quality companies that are offering an affiliate program may
be just breaking into this side of marketing and will appreciate any feedback you can give
them.
e) A smart merchant understands that good affiliates can’t be found everywhere as is often assumed and hoped. Merchants need someone that acts business like and treats them with respect, assists with resources and provides prompt payments. Smarter affiliates understand that a merchant wants quality promotion and sales performance for minimum outlay.
Successful merchant/affiliate partnerships happen when both parties understand these
points and work together because that is when the money starts rolling in.
Nowadays, you can get millions of different goods and services on the Internet, advertisers look to individuals and companies to help them sell their products by using webmasters and others to spread the word. These advertisements can come in the form of banner advertising on affiliate sites, text links, reviews written by affiliates, direct email, blogs etc.
How it works is that the advertisers pay webmasters for displaying the ads, or for click
throughs that are sent to them, (Called pay per click) which is a commission that is paid
on any sales that happen as a direct result of a referral from their web site or email message
or during each visit. I will explain more on this in a later section.
The fact of the matter is that you will likely not need to be bothered with a merchant at all
if it weren’t for the money involved. The fact that affiliations can be used as a mass promotional opportunity for both sides that results in more money for both just adds icing to the cake. That is why the next section is about mass promotion through affiliation.
Tags: affiliate+marketing
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