There are several companies that provide the tools, technology and services that
online businesses need to register, track, report and pay affiliates. In other
words, merchants don’t have to “do it themselves” because these companies
provide all the backend functionality necessary to run an affiliate program.
The “backend providers” prefer to call themselves “affiliate networks.” Why?
Because they do more than just provide merchants with affiliate software. They
also provide merchants with affiliates, and vice-versa. Since they have a pool of
hundreds of thousands of affiliates, a merchant’s program gets instant exposure
to potentially interested affiliates.
And affiliates get exposure to a wide variety of merchants. It’s a good idea to join
each of these backend providers. You will likely come across many of the same
merchants that you found in the affiliate directories. But you will also find new
ones. So it is worth checking to see whether they feature any programs that fit
with your concept....
Commission Junction
http://www.cj.com/
BeFree
http://www.befree.com/
LinkShare
http://www.linkshare.com/
Quinstreet
http://www.quinstreet.com/
AffiliateCash
http://www.affiliatecash.com/
If you find merchants with products that fit, enter what kind of merchandise they
sell and also enter the URL of the “join page” to the POSSIBLE PARTNERS
column in your MASTER KEYWORD LIST for each keyword that is relevant.
Grow through Alexa
Do a search for the Web site you are evaluating. In this example, we are lookingat modaitalia.net . This was the first result in our Search Engine affiliate search.
Now it's time to use Alexa to find potential affiliates.
Search It! > Popularity (STEP 1) > Alexa Rankings and Review (STEP 2) >
modaitalia.net (STEP 3)
When the page opens, click on Related Links on the left of the page. Alexa also
displays traffic ranking, in-pointing links, and even visitor reviews!
Once you establish which sites in your niche are the big players, use the Related
Links tool from Alexa to expand your horizons!
Grow Through Search Engines & Directories...
Favorite TricksNow for a few of my favorite tricks...
How else can you find merchants through the Search Engines? Easy!...
1) Visit the advertisers!
2) Sniff affiliate sites. (They’ve already done the homework for you!)...
These “linked-to” merchants already have affiliate programs -- all you have to do
is check them out and see if they fit with your Site Concept! Add the ones that
do fit with your list of POSSIBLE PARTNERS.
Grow Through Back Links
Remember that CONTENT site, modaitalia.net? You can find the sites that linkto modaitalia.net (as outlined earlier).
Search It! > Back Links (STEP 1) > Back Links to Site (Yahoo! Search)
(STEP 2) > modaitalia.net (STEP 3)
This search yields a number of results. Let’s say your eye catches this site….
123world.com/fashions. From the list of designers, you find two that have
affiliate programs (Reebok and Liz Claiborne Inc.).
Liz Claiborne fits with an idea that you had added to the IDEAS FOR CONTENT
column. So you entered lizclaiborne.com into your list of POSSIBLE
PARTNERS for the keyword “fashion accessories.” (See how you can use the
MASTER KEYWORD LIST to group programs according to keywords?)
We’ll use lizclaiborne.com as our example of how to grow your list of
POSSIBLE PARTNERS for “fashion accessories”. Start by checking which
OTHER affiliates link to lizclaiborne.com! How? Simple. Go to…
Search It! > Competition (STEP 1) > Back Links to Site (Yahoo Search)
(STEP 2) > lizclaiborne.com (STEP 3)
 |
| Back Links |
At the time of writing, 12,600 pages linked to lizclaiborne.com. Many of these
sites will be CONTENT sites that also link to other fashion-related merchants as
affiliates (you can often tell by the linking URLs). More than likely, these linked-to
merchants already have affiliate programs -- all you have to do is check them out
and see if they fit! Add the acceptable ones to your list of POSSIBLE
PARTNERS for each keyword.
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