Will I offend my affilates with this strategy?

[denemante]

I've tweaked my new affilate program so all affilates link to me at the same URL (my home page). On my end, the system sees who the referring site was, and gives them credit/tracks the user, just like a standard affilate program.

I did this so all my affilates will be "voting" for the same page, in a plan to boost PR.

Affilates simply must tell me the domain they'll be placing my banner on, and I can track it. Again, there is no www.example.com/?affiliateID=12. They all link to www.example.com/index.htm.

However, I obviously want to make sales from and for affiliates, and I'm not sure of what their strategies are. Perhaps there are programs/affilates out there who have dozens or hundreds of optimized sites whose sole purpose is to feature banners and ads. They might have content management where they place one ad, and it populates to all their various sites.

They might want to go hog-wild and place my banner anywhere they can (within my moral guidelines).

Thus, my system would not work because some of my banners would end up on URLs I don't know about. And of course, an affiliate would know this and might not want to work with me. Or, they'd have to tell me the URLs of all these sites, which might be a pain for them, especially if they rotate stuff.

Can anyone shed some light on this topic, and give me some insight about how pro-level affilates work their success?

[seomike]

Kiss the smart ones good-bye...

Not all users will pass a referrer. You can turn it on and off like a switch. Also some anti virus programs will disable browsers from passing referrers.

You should stick to passing variables even though you don't get that extra umph on your home page. If you do want those home pages links then make it part of your affiliate agreement that they need to link to your home page normally from their home page or something like that.

[ShoeMoney]

I've tweaked my new affilate program so all affilates link to me at the same URL (my home page). On my end, the system sees who the referring site was, and gives them credit/tracks the user, just like a standard affilate program.

I did this so all my affilates will be "voting" for the same page, in a plan to boost PR.

Affilates simply must tell me the domain they'll be placing my banner on, and I can track it. Again, there is no www.foo.com/?affiliateID=12. They all link to www.foo.com/index.htm.

However, I obviously want to make sales from and for affiliates, and I'm not sure of what their strategies are. Perhaps there are programs/affilates out there who have dozens or hundreds of optimized sites whose sole purpose is to feature banners and ads. They might have content management where they place one ad, and it populates to all their various sites.

They might want to go hog-wild and place my banner anywhere they can (within my moral guidelines).

Thus, my system would not work because some of my banners would end up on URLs I don't know about. And of course, an affiliate would know this and might not want to work with me. Or, they'd have to tell me the URLs of all these sites, which might be a pain for them, especially if they rotate stuff.

Can anyone shed some light on this topic, and give me some insight about how pro-level affilates work their success?

I am a bit confused. Your title asks if you will offend your affiliates with your strategy then your strategy does not work?

EDIT: Ok I get it... yes if your affiliates think there stats are not being tracked by people not using referals then they will get pissy... also some proxies block referals too

[g7submit]

You can't eat your cake and have it, friend. I know you want to kill two birds with one stone, but in this case, you will scare both off.

One thing you need to know is that some affiliate links that remain, even deep, in their owner's (affiliate) website, after some years, pay you back with rich PR links like an aged wine.

Let it go, if you want to make money and keep your affiliates smiling to the banks as well. Visited those links and didn't see any product or do I need some special glasses to see?

Wishing you all the best! :)

[Marcia]

g7, that isn't the site in question. foo was just used as a "generic" (which is actually a site, just not this one) so I changed it to example.com which was set up for just this type of usage.

Banners are the poorest performing type of affiliate link. It's ok if it's just for link-pop, but this kind of set-up, while it might fool some, will turn off people who know what they're doing and have the better sites. They won't be offended, they just won't sign up.

[g7submit]

Oops, I guess I need to go and visit my optician quickly!

[Marcia]

Which affiliate will get the commission, the one who first sent a particular customer, or the last one who sent the customer? With cookies, it's generally last one gets paid. How are you intending to handle it when there are several referrers?

sole purpose is to feature banners and ads.You mean coupon sites?

[huebdoo]

One thing you forgetting with your strategy is the Google adwords will punt either you or your affiliates if either of you plan to use a Google ad word campaign to the desired page you are presenting.
(Remember 2 men enter – 1 man leave with Google ad words campaigns directing to the same url)

Take it from me... I am talking from experience here

You need to create multiple landing pages for your affiliates with different copy + images (especially if Google Adwords is used)

There is nothing better to start an affiliate plan only to have your affiliates compete with your CPC campaign and cannibalize 60% of your online sales

It’s the best feeling in the World... like stepping on a rake and having the handle come up and hit your naughty bits


:eek:

[Marcia]

It’s the best feeling in the World... like stepping on a rake and having the handle come up and hit your naughty bitsROFLMAOOOO.... that is a classic, worth a million bucks!

Yah, then just wait until the parasites start working commissions over with BHOs and PPC. Woohoo, fun and games!

[huebdoo]

Yes there is nothing better than your own affiliates eating your online sales, downloads and profits.

Consider creating separate landing pages for the top 3-5 producers and giving them higher commissions if they focus on competitive terms (rather than brand terms) - This also gave my affiliate marketing a good bump in sales

When you go from 20 - 40% affiliate cut for going after expensive CPC terms it is amazing the response you get.

Get them to focus on the other CPC engines (you take Google - they have Yahoo + Enhance etc)

This way you keep out of each others lunch and become kings / Queens of each domain.

This will avoid the rake handle - naughty bits clash from happening (unless you like that sort of thing) - then rock on

:rolleyes:

[Marcia]

>banners

BTW, banners have absolutely the WORST conversion and clickthrough rate of any type of links.

Thinking that putting banners up is worth anything is a fallacy believed only by those who know absolutely nothing about affiliate marketing. Or they're pushed by merchants who don't care JS about affiliates (who might even prefer to avoid paying commissions), and are only looking for free branding.

[denemante]

What are better choices than banners, and where can they be found?

[huebdoo]

CPC marketing is by far better than ad banners... Only use Ad Banners for Branding...

CPC has way better ROI than Ad Banners