Demons Lounge – Affiliate Marketing Blog!

I have never previously worked with the Amazon Associate Program, and admittedly the main reasons for this is the the low commission rate and bad reviews (even in the Amazon affiliate forum). Recently however i have tested the program because i could find no other well known high street brands selling the products i required and so far to be honest i have been pleasantly surprised at the results.

My new website only generates a trickle of traffic and is far from optimized, it is what i might call a future project that i may or may not get round to realizing. So far in 532 affiliate clicks i have generated 15 sales. Not amazing admittedly, however of these 15 sales only 4 were actually for products i am actively promoting. I have sold guitars, television equipment, sofa covers and the obvious books and stuff all from a website that is totally 100% not related to any of these- impressive.

The Pros

Amazon is a well known brand and i am not sure a person exists that has not bought something from them at one time or other, therefore the thought of purchasing from them again shouldn’t cause too much of a problem.  Amazon may also show them other products they may also require and wish to purchase.  My test as stated above (however limited) shows that people may browse for one thing but actually decide to purchase another adding to your revenue.

The Cons

Amazon is certainly not the best affiliate program out there, they offer you a starting commission rate of 5% and only provide a 24 hour cookie – very poor at best. The disappointment however does not end there, they also cap earnings per product at £7.

In my opinion there is a time and place for using the Amazon Associates Program. In my test as detailed above i was selling a pretty low priced product and the average commission rate offered by Amazons competitors was just 5% flat with no chance of increase. In this situation i am more than happy to sell for Amazon and count myself lucky that Amazon will up sell other products on my behalf with no extra work required.

Popularity: 13% [?]

As far as i know nobody enjoys building links! There is a certain 9 to 5 feeling about it- the repetitiveness, the feeling that you should be doing something more constructive with your time, and the personal rejection you feel when someone doesn’t reply. You are at work and don’t you know it.

Building links is tough and never more so than in the early days when you have no exchange capital ie. you have two websites that are PR F*ck all and it feels you cant give your links away. Fortunately this feeling will pass, how quickly depends on your approach.

If you are smart and you have used a ‘mapped approach‘ to your site building your link exchanges will get easier quickly, and maybe even to the point where you no longer have to hunt good exchanges down, you are now the prey (in this particular example that’s a good thing). If you are less smart (like me which is probably why i didn’t use the term stupid) you will have niche websites all over the place and the original problems will continue for some time longer. Just one reason you shouldn’t spread yourself too thin.

In my experience it is at this point (basically the second hurdle after building the website) that most affiliates will give up and move onto something else. Others will just watch their stats daily in the hope that as the website ages the traffic will come – sorry amigo this aint going to happen.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 10% [?]

I recently read Clarke Duncan’s post entitled Jason Manford could be an Affiliate! (Jason Manford is on 9 out of 10 cats and is a comedian for those not in the know).  In the post Clarke basically looks at Jason Manford’s  online presence and quite rightly establishes that what he does is in a sense affiliate marketing as he (Jason) is selling a product, albeit his own.Clarke then points out (as only a time served affiliate could) that Jason was missing a trick – he was sending all his traffic to Amazon, HMV & Play for free and receiving no commission for the referrals or for his endorsement of their shops.

Having read this article i bounced the ideas around in my head for a number of days and established almost nothing except an early thinking process reminding me somewhat of the conversation you would have as a child, but this time it was  not who would win in a fight between a shark & a polar bear? but who is the best celebrity affiliate? I have decided to put my early findings forward and beg you to ‘Top Trump’ me!

Everyone knows that Stephen Fry is a twitter freak and probably spends most of his life online, whether it be his i-pad, i-phone or any other means, so he seemed the obvious place to start, and guess what – he is an affiliate.

The New Adventures Of Mr Stephen Fry (his blog) not only contains advertisements served by Fox Networks, his store (which sells his products) is fully monetized with Amazon & Itunes affiliate links. Perhaps we may see Mr Stephen Fry at the A4U Expo yet (maybe an idea for a guest speaker).

Can you Top Trump Me? Do you know of any secret celebrity affiliates? Then get in touch with your stories!

Popularity: 6% [?]

This is a question that i have been trying to consider for quite sometime now. I have read many blogs, some i have enjoyed, some i have learned to love, others i have hated, but overall i have learned a lot! It takes a certain type of person to be able to create enough interest to keep readers over a long period of time, probably mainly due to the amount of choice available.

When considering blogs discussing affiliate marketing you would be excused for thinking that they must all be similar, however this could not be further from the truth. True they are all discussing, in one way or another, the same topic, but Affiliate Marketing is a wide and varied subject and cannot be summed up by one person. I am happy to link to other affiliate blogs on condition they compliment my writing. It is ideal for instance if they discuss techniques that i do not personally use, or if their approach towards their readers is different to my own. I like to introduce my readers to alternative affiliate blogs, this is but one reason that my readers may keep returning to read what i have got to say.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 52% [?]

Whilst reading the Affiliate Window blog i noticed a post with the above title and a link to a poll on the A4U forum. It appears that affiliates are consciously deciding not to use video banners and are opting instead to continue with both static and flash.

The poll conducted at A4U appears to have concluded that there are many reasons affiliates do not want to use these, however at no point does anyone mention the fear of being viewed as  ‘selling out’. I create and run my sites for a specific audience and am very conscious about my advertising- it is only this week that i have added any form of advertising to this site  and am still not 100% sure that i will keep it! I am worried that subconciously my readers will not trust my reviews and feel that i am only here for profit. Even without advertising i would still be writing my drivel.

Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 10% [?]

With sunshine.co.uk winning so many awards in the affiliate marketing stratosphere i am wondering how long it will be before other companies attempt to dominate their market using similar techniques and also whether other plugin coders may decide to take on the project themselves for a 2nd tier commission.

Having launched in May 2007 sunshine.co.uk set themselves ambitious targets in a fiercely competitive market and decided to host their affiliate program through Affiliate Future.

In an inspired move sunshine.co.uk decided to break with the norm and  provide affiliates with exceptional resources and tools to help them achieve their goals in a proactive manner. To start the program off with a bang they offered good incentives and commissions to get the affiliate community buzzing, many top affiliates saw this as a great challenge and an opportunity to compete with and against their fellow affiliates. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 28% [?]