What You Need in an Affiliate Program - Detail & Control

I have been affiliate marketing since the dawn of time; at least it feels that way. 

I literally made my first money online back in 2002ish with affiliate marketing.  And it's been my primary business model and focus since using a variety of models.

I have also learned over the years what makes a good program and what an affiliate needs to succeed.

There are millions of merchants with affiliate programs.  They are in large networks or stand alone mom and pops (in-house programs).  Merchants (and brands) sell their products on their own sites or on sites like eBay or Amazon.  It's HUGE.

And there's a TON of information and help online for affiliates.  Much of it you'll find after a while follow the same themes and advice.

Yet, affiliates still struggle.

Of course, there's a lot to it including targeting the right market etc..

But what I want to talk about here is what contributes to getting MORE out of an already potential profit situation.

Detail and Control - Who are These Visitors?

What do I mean by that.

First of all this can be applied to digital and physical products.  I'm hugely focused on physical product niche sites these days and I find this is even more important. 

Some affiliate programs give you a link, some banners and say, get to it!

ok, good.. you have the traffic, targeted visitors (you think) and a good landing page.

But do you 'know' what's really happening?

Because here's the thing.  The more you know about your traffic, the more profits you can squeeze out of your operation.

What are people doing on your site?

What actions are they taking?  or not taking?

Who are they really?  Where do they come from?

Track it all and analyze it.  Use the intelligence to improve your funnel and methods.

Detail and Control - Filtering the Source

We all know as affiliates that targeting the right people is important to make conversions. 

If we are sending someone from a list, they are likely pre-qualified and will be interested in the offer.  We know who they are.

But if it's free, organic traffic from search engines, not only do the keywords they are finding your site with matter, but the source and profile of that traffic. 

This year I decided to really ramp up my eBay efforts and have been really focused on their affiliate program.  I decided I was going to really go at it and learn everything I could - and do it until I was successful with it.  Whatever it takes!

And the thing with eBay is they have something called, "Quality Click Pricing".

And as you dig into the methods out there and the various tools available to you to improve that quality, you suddenly realize why many struggle.

I had quite the Ah-Ha moment at one stage.  I'm getting traffic from countries that eBay doesn't even serve!  There are countries that are known to be the source of bad clicks in general.  There are things you can do to filter those out and boom!  Quality is up.

That's just one example.  There are many other things you can do to improve that quality and thus make more money.

Detail and Control - The More You Can Track the Better

Track clicks..

The source of your traffic..

Keep an eye on your analytics..

What people are doing on your site..

And act on it!  Get tools, addons or whatever it takes to improve.  Test new things.  Try new things.

The worst thing you can do is throw up a site(s) and just let it sit there plain jane with no more effort.

The worst thing you can do is lazily put up a bunch of sites and accept the results. 

Track your actions..  conversions..

Track on-site, off-site..

Track everything.. and improve on what you are doing over time!  Go back and work on sites that aren't performing well.. or improve the performance on sites in your network.

A Good Affiliate Program

A good affiliate program will (either through themselves or 3rd parties) have available to you a great number of tools to help you succeed.  Or you'll be able to integrate solutions with that program to help you scale, control and track your efforts.

At the very least you should be able to create tracking IDs..  so you know what's converting and where.

But having tools to filter and analyze traffic further can go a long ways.  Especially with programs like EPN (ebay).

And don't just throw up a site and whine when you don't make money.

Figure out why! Learn more.

When I first started out early this year with this idea to build out a network of eBay sites to diversify, my first efforts (50 sites) made me money.

But, not as much as I'd hoped.

Did I go to a different model?  Quit!?

Of course not!

I learned more..

I learned what others were doing..

I picked up some new tools and techniques to  improve the quality of my traffic and sites.

I found better ways to develop my sites.

I didn't just flush my efforts down the toilet.  I found a way to make those efforts BETTER.

Find a way.

Who knows!  Maybe your model requires a different merchant or affiliate program; maybe that's the source of the conversion problem.. you won't know until you do some testing!

Gravitate to programs that give you the support and tools to help you get more out of your traffic and efforts.  And never give up.  Keep testing, tweaking and you will find great profits!

-Matt Levenhagen

Affiliate Marketing - Affiliate Programs