Now 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.
4.1.7. Grow Through Back Links
Remember that CONTENT site, modaitalia·net? You can find the sites that link
to 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)
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.
And you can use this Search It! link-finder technique for all of your POSSIBLE
PARTNERS for all of your keywords!
4.2. Reduce Risk by Diversifying
One of the major attractions of becoming an affiliate is the small amount of risk
involved. As an affiliate, you have little or no...
- product development expenses
- advertising costs
- inventory to maintain
- overhead expenses (salaries, physical location, etc.)
In other words, affiliates do not have millions at stake.
But you do have one big risk...
If a merchant or backend provider goes out of business, it takes you with it. Let's
talk briefly about how to minimize this risk...
After you review the affiliate directories and backend providers, you should have
a good selection of programs. How many programs should you choose? How
do you know which ones are solid?
You don't, really. Yes, you can weed out the dogs by doing the basic research
outlined below. But most of us just don't have the ability or time to thoroughly
analyze a company, its financials, and its business model... and then predict
success or failure.
So your best bet is to spread your business among as many programs as
possible that fit with your Site Concept. But there are some important
qualifiers to this policy...
1) If you represent 10 programs, don't put them all on the same Keyword-
Focused Content Page. Work in only the few that are tightly relevant to the
content of each page.
2) Pick the best-of-breed from each category of merchant. For example, if you
plan on representing a Net marketing company, SiteSell would be the obvious
choice (ahem!).
If you plan unusually heavy support for a given category of product, you might
want to represent the best two merchants. For example, suppose you foresee
hundreds of book links on your site. It might be a good idea to choose the best 2
online bookstores -- if Bookstore A and Bookstore B fit with your concept and
both seem to be stable companies, then use these two. No more, though...
3) Don't choose too many programs. Tracking each program takes time, so 10
programs is probably a good balance. If any one of them dies, you don't lose too
much.
4) Your best results will come from focusing on a smaller group of quality
programs (from within the 10). Their products must...
- be excellent
- be complementary with, even enhance, each other
- fit your concept
and...
- be from a rock-solid company. Since you will give these companies more
attention than the others, you must feel very comfortable with their business
prospects.
Here's the bottom line...
Don't give too much emphasis to any single program, unless you have some
special reason to feel unusually comfortable with it.
Things happen. So protect yourself by choosing a variety of affiliate partners.
Of course, you can also reduce your risk by weeding out the dogs through some
basic research...