Shopping Comparison/Datafeed Website
One of the more complex promotion strategies is a shopping comparison or datafeed
website. A datafeed is an electronic product catalog that merchants provide their
affiliates. This datafeed allows affiliates to build a dynamic website featuring individual
products and services offered by their merchants.
A good shopping comparison website allows visitors to compare prices, features,
reviews, and merchants side by side. Building a shopping comparison website usually
requires you to have some programming knowledge, or to hire somebody that does.
However, there are three tools affiliates can use to simplify the process of building a
shopping comparison website. In most cases, it simply requires you to copy and paste
some code into your webpages. Below is an overview of these tools, and what they do:
GoldenCan (http://www.goldencan.com)
With GoldenCan, affiliates can easily add merchant datafeeds to their website. The
service features product datafeeds, coupon datafeeds, and product search capabilities.
Setup takes less than 5 minutes, and involves copying and pasting some code into your
webpage. GoldenCan charges affiliates for their service through a revenue sharing model.
Every 4th time somebody clicks on an affiliate link on your site, GoldenCan routes the
visitor through their affiliate link. This basically means that GoldenCan earns 25% of the
commissions you generate on pages you use their service.
DataFeedFile (http://www.datafeedfile.com/)
DataFeedFile works similar to GoldenCan, but has some additional functionality and
flexibility. Like GoldenCan they charge affiliates on a revenue sharing basis.
WebMerge by FourthWorld (http://www.fourthworld.com)
Webmerge is a datafeed tool that will allow you to turn any electronic product catalog
into static web pages. Anybody can learn how to use this tool, but it does have a slight
learning curve. It comes with a fully functional free trial. The full version retails for $99.
Suggestions for Building a Shopping Comparison/Datafeed Website:
• As mentioned in the previous examples, build a shopping comparison website
around a single product or service category. Don't try and create the next BizRate,
or Shopping.com. Unless you have hundreds of employees and millions of dollars
you'll never be able to match what they're doing. In order to be successful, you
need to narrow your focus.
• Make sure you update your website with the latest product catalog from your
merchant. Sometimes items go out of stock, or get discontinued.
Coupon/Deal Website
Another great way to monetize your website traffic is by offering coupons and
promotions to your visitors. Top merchants in Commission Junction, Azoogle and other
networks consistently update their affiliate coupons. Many of these coupons are exclusive
to their affiliate marketing channel, giving you a unique competitive advantage over other
online retailers.
Some merchants will provide coupon updates through an RSS update or e-mail
newsletter. Make sure that you are regularly checking your merchant partner’s links to
get the latest offers.
For an example of a popular coupon affiliate site visit Super Affiliate Connie Berg’s site
FlamingoWorld.com www.flamingoworld.com.
Saturday, 24 January 2009
Incentive/Rebate Website
Incentive/Rebate Website
One way to get visitors to buy products and services through your affiliate website is to
offer them some kind of financial incentive. Building a rebate site requires more work
than a typical affiliate site because you need to build some kind of tracking mechanism to
compensate people who buy through your affiliate links.
Most merchants who compensate affiliates for sending leads discourage incentivised
traffic because the quality of the lead tends to be lower than a lead without financial
motivation. For example, a visitor may happily accept your $5 offer to complete a car
insurance application – even though they have no intention of signing-up for car
insurance.
Another thing you need to be aware of is product returns. If you issue payments before
the affiliate commission is locked or paid to you, the customer could return the product,
cancelling out your commission.
For an example of a top affiliate rebate site visit Super Affiliate David Lewis’ site,
CashBaq.com – www.cashbaq.com
Hybrid Website
There are no hard and fast rules about what your website needs to look like, or what
content it should have. The examples above are merely suggestions. For example, you
could do a directory website that features reviews and product comparisons. Whatever
promotion strategy you use, just remember it needs to be focused on a single topic or
category.
One way to get visitors to buy products and services through your affiliate website is to
offer them some kind of financial incentive. Building a rebate site requires more work
than a typical affiliate site because you need to build some kind of tracking mechanism to
compensate people who buy through your affiliate links.
Most merchants who compensate affiliates for sending leads discourage incentivised
traffic because the quality of the lead tends to be lower than a lead without financial
motivation. For example, a visitor may happily accept your $5 offer to complete a car
insurance application – even though they have no intention of signing-up for car
insurance.
Another thing you need to be aware of is product returns. If you issue payments before
the affiliate commission is locked or paid to you, the customer could return the product,
cancelling out your commission.
For an example of a top affiliate rebate site visit Super Affiliate David Lewis’ site,
CashBaq.com – www.cashbaq.com
Hybrid Website
There are no hard and fast rules about what your website needs to look like, or what
content it should have. The examples above are merely suggestions. For example, you
could do a directory website that features reviews and product comparisons. Whatever
promotion strategy you use, just remember it needs to be focused on a single topic or
category.
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