Web Affiliate Marketing Blog

In the past, I’ve kept track as to the amount of sales I done on behalf of merchants purely out of interest. 2008 has been a good year mainly due to the introduction and focus on new sites, especially niche and seasonal ones, helping to bump up sales throughout the year.

Sadly the huge increase in sales, isn’t reflected in the same way when it comes to commissions. Trust me, I would be jumping for joy if I could say an average 10% commission was paid for each sale, and certainly would be giving up the day job!

Even so, it goes to show that us small affiliates (the ones that do it along side fulltime jobs, in our bedrooms) can still help companies achieve growths and profits.

So why the changes? Well once again a lot of it is down to my relationships with networks. CJ, who in the past I’ve found to be a bit of a faceless company, have made contact with me. Just having a contact on MSN (thanks Hildegunn) has driven me to look at and push their merchants a little more, resulting in a 426% increase.

Another possible reason is the introduction of a bi-weekly newsletter. After collecting email addresses since I care to remember, I never did a single thing with them. Now my newsletters are sent out every 2 weeks, pushing merchants who in turn offer me and my visitors something special.

All in all a good year, but I’m not holding out much hope for this year with the credit crunch, yet think Eco Friendly stuff maybe worth a punt.

How often do you find a site you like and then Google it to see if there’s an affiliate programme? Personally I do it maybe once a week, and in the lead up to seasonal sales, possibly twice a week! After using Marks new website, Affiliate Merchants for a number of days, I think it’s something all us affiliates should offer our support to.

It’s not a completely new idea, infact it WebAffiliate started off listing merchants way back in 2001. Due to the manual update required it was scrapped pretty quickly. Affiliate Bounty then emerged as a solution, but again over recent months, has been pulled. Now we have Affiliate Merchants, the latest attempt at informing affiliates of all the programmes in the UK, available on all networks.

The site makes use of feeds from networks, meaning the updating should be a breeze (in theory). Mark’s website is new, and so modifications and additions will take place over time. Currently Affiliate Merchants doesn’t list ever merchant, due to not all networks supplying him with the information, but as a starting point, it’s definately one to have in your favourites or bookmarks.

The site is very easy to navigate and allows you to search for a merchant by name or category, something Kieron could have used only a few days ago when Figleaves pulled the plug and he asked the question about alternatives lingerie merchants.

Currently the information provided on each merchant is minimal, which in one respect is a refreshing change. I don’t want to know the merchants history as I can often find this out from their network signup page. Straight to the point info such as which network their with, the category, whether they have a feed or allow PPC is whats relayed currently. I have fed back to Mark that it maybe useful to include the commission levels offered by the merchant too.

I know DGM are actively seeking representation on the Affiliate Merchant Directory website, and hope the remaining networks such TD, CJ, Paid on Results and Affiliate Future are quick to follow. This could prove to be an invaluable resource if all networks contribute.

Take a look at http://www.affiliatemerchants.org.uk

Yesterday Purple posted a comment against one of my blog entries that got me thinking. He’d done a mid year analysis of his affiliate activities, and found that his sales generated (or maybe its commission?) is up by 199% on two major networks and another has seen an increase of over 2000%! Those figures are brilliant to hear as I’m aware he’s been busier this year than ever before, and it’s always good to hear about other peoples success when they make the effort.

Purples effort and reward shows that given a bit of concentration and hard graft, increase can be achieved despite the ‘credit crunch’ no matter what size an affiliate you are :)

In the comments, Purple asked how my stats were shaping up. After a few simple calculations later, I was happy to find that for 7 out of the 8 major networks, my sales for the first 6 months of 2008 have already surpassed my TOTAL for 2007.

My projected 2008 increase is a simple x2 formula and doesn’t take into account Christmas which should hopefully push the increase higher still!

7 days have now passed since my feet once again touched British soil after spending a week with an eclectic mix of people on the beautiful island of Barbados. The group was made up of affiliates, merchants and a few Affiliate Future staff after they ran the 3rd successive affiliate incentive trip to Barbados. I was lucky enough to have once again won a place, this time courtesy of SunShine.co.uk, after they offered a number of prizes enticing affiliates to join and promote their new programme.

Due to SunShine.co.uk offering such a prize I decided to give it the competition a go, and as such entered a completely new vertical to me. However, it wasn’t purely because of the prize on offer, it was also down to SunShine.co.uk being a VERY approachable merchant, one that’s available on email, phone and MSN and one that constantly introduces new and innovative ways to help affiliates!

I appreciate that not all merchants would be willing to spend £’s in order to send someone to Barbados, especially an affiliate who may not yet have proved themselves. However, it’s worth looking at what you will get for the £’s you spend!

• In most cases, you will attract lots of new affiliates. Some of these will be new to the sector (like myself) and therefore won’t have forged relationships with your competitors, so you naturally have an edge already!
• Most affiliates will make extra effort and push a little harder to win a trip to Barbados than win a 1% commission increase.
• Receive plenty of exposure from affiliates, not only in way of affiliate promotion but blogging and general network.

I hope to see more merchants on the Affiliate Future network take part and offer even more places for next years trip. Come one… lets fill every room in the hotel! Apart from the obvious fun had by everyone, including scuba-diving, horse riding and jet-skiing, the trip was a fantastic opportunity for those lucky enough to have been present, to ‘do business’ in a very relaxed non-resitrictive atmosphere.

This year I’ve returned home completely refreshed and have a whole load of ideas ready to implement, mainly focusing around the merchants whom I met and those that put the prizes up for offer… so it really does work!

Hat off, and thanks to both SunShine.co.uk and to Affiliate Future for being a leading network when it comes to arranging such incentives for affiliates. I understand I already have a place reserved for next year, as the official Scuba Diving shaperone ;)

As some of you know, I’ve decided to cut back a bit on travel and stopped spending my affiliate earnings on general crap that I don’t really need, and for once, Im putting it to good use. Being a diver I fell in love with Egypt whilst there over Christmas and New Year and once back in the UK, suffering from the holiday blues, had a mad moment and bought a place in Egypt. As you can see from this picture, it’s really beginning to take shape ;)

Sadly, I’m not yet in the position where I plan to live out there permanently and due to previously arranged holidays, I’m not even sure if I’m going to manage a trip once the building is complete later this year. However the next best thing came courtsesy of Sunshine and Affiliate Future – Raga Raga!

Yup, I’m one of the lucky ones who is getting to go to Barbados with the Affiliate Future crew (again) for 7 days of… well I can’t remember what happened last time to be honest. I vaguely remember being kidnapped (a long story), seeing James Little winning Karaoke, scuba diving in the hotel swimming pool, Mary being so hungover she missed the WHOLE of Independence Day and getting Happy Gilmour (a jock) to cheer on England in the World Cup.

To be in with a chance to win a place this year, Sunshine.co.uk made it as easy as possible allowing all affiliates (new and old) to have a chance of grabbing a spot. One of the options, which resulted in me winning, was to simply use their deeplink RSS feeds which I blogged about in April. I know a few of the others that will be going and I’m sure, if its anything like 2006, it will certainly be an week to remember!

So I just wanted to say a big thankyou to the guys and Sunshine (Chris and Happy) and also those at Affiliate Future. Tell the Captain to crack open the MGR!