Affiliate marketing has been hailed as the ‘next big thing’ in promoting online business, but whilst the affiliate networks lure you on board with the promise of a commission-only sales force of thousands, the marketing press still hypes the danger of a shadowy world of parasites, eager to make a living off your brand.As experienced affiliates and affiliate merchants, we provide a balanced view of where to find the ‘right’ type of affiliate for your business.

The basics – how affiliate marketing works

Affiliate marketing is a broad term meaning the use of third parties to promote your product as as partnership with your business. In an online context, this usually means other websites that promote your site, and are paid on a percentage or fixed cost per sale.

Affiliates are hard to pigeon-hole as they use all the same methods to drive traffic as you use yourself: Email marketing, SEO, PPC and many may even run affiliate programs themselves to generate leads which they send to many businesses.

This article describes some of the most common types of affiliate and how they can benefit your business.

PPC and search specialists

The massive power of Google to drive traffic means that many affiliates use search engines, and Google in particular to drive traffic to your site. By bidding on similar terms to yours, they can drive out your competition and give you enormous reach to broadcast tactical messages about your business.PPC affiliates do particularly well in 2 scenarios:
1) By listing you alongside other similar products or services for ease of comparison for the searcher. Often using very simple landing pages such as this one to help you choose online DVD rental services
2) By bidding on your brand name and providing ads on many different services of tactical promotions than your own ad can achieve. This area can be very contentious and further advice should be sought by your affiliate network on the best affiliates to work with in this area. The majority of new programmes begin with brand-name bidding excluded by default.

Make no mistake, the individuals involved in this area are exceptionally skilled in PPC copy-writing, PPC bidding and keyword research, and a select few have 7 figure ad budgets. This skill also makes them very choosy about who they work with and a genuine commitment to the partnership is needed to get them to take the risk of testing your programme.

Price Comparison sites

Whilst Kelkoo still rules the roost in this sector, many affiliates are able to make use of your product data in comparison sites, and are paid on a percentage of sale, rather than a cost-per-click.These can be broad portals covering many sectors such as Compare Your Prices or sector specialists such as DJ Gear .

Success in this area is obviously dependent on keen pricing, but also in making sure that your product feeds are well prepared and frequently updated.

Loyalty and cash back sites

Loyalty and cash back sites thrive on building member bases of their own, sharing part of their commission with them to encourage the members to keep shopping via their sites. Whilst this might seem to cannibalise your sales from existing customers, the largest of these sites such as GreasyPalm, ipoints and Nectar have sizeable databases that they can switch in your direction if the right deal can be struck.These sites are rarely beneficial to market leaders, but can provide a good base of shoppers to newcomers.

Conclusion

The affiliate community have some of the brightest technical and marketing minds in the online industry and there are as many models as there are merchants to supply them. Our advice is to choose an appropriate network, then spend your effort seeking out, recruiting and rewarding the best affiliates for your model.

Shine Marketing can help you with both choosing a network, and recruiting and motivating the right affiliates.

Affiliates may be a commission only sales force, but never forget that they have as much option to walk away from a merchant that’s not right for you, as you have from them.