Affiliate Programs

Posted by Colin

October 2, 2007

A good affiliate marketing article can be found at www.Wikipedia.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_marketing

One of the hardest things I think about blogging apart from writing good quality and plentiful content is picking the best affiliates to use on your site. The number of ad partners out there is unbelievable just take a look at this site to see the shear number you can choose from. http://www.affiliate-programs.com/

I think the key is finding a partner with a high pay out not just from a PPC (Pay Per Click) but also when a reader then goes on to buy a product or service from that link.

I have spent a lot of time looking around for the best ones to use on this blog and sometimes it is very easy to just pick one that has a high payout rate. This is not always the best thing to do as the ads displayed might not be related to your site content. If the ads do not represent the content then they will not appeal for readers to click them. Some ad placements programs like www.widgetbucks.com are geared directly mostly to content that is product based so would not be beneficial if you write about setting up a blog like this site.

The best thing I have found is to use a combination of partners as long as each one does not interfere with each other or violates the others terms and conditions.

My main ad display partners are:

1. AdBrite – This highlights and underlines words within your post and when you place your move cursor over them they bring up a box that displays an ad. You have to place a code within your main body template but full instructions are given.

2. Google Adsense – I have set up Google ads to appear at the base of each post. I use this in conjunction with AdsenseDeluxe Wordpress Plugin. http://presentia.net/didzis/wordpress-plugins/adsense-deluxe/ so that the ad is only displayed three times per page as per Googles T&C’s.

I do use other partners but these are mostly just referrals and I display them in the side bar. Some more information about these in a later post.

I have a lot of referrals in my side bar some are to generate money others for traffic, my plan is to reduce the number over time. Maybe people are put off by the high number of them and also it takes me a bit of time to check each one to see how they are performing.

What’s your experience for views on this subject, please leave me a comment or even start a new discussion area in the forum.