How Much Can an Internet Marketer Make With Affiliate Programs?
Read the revelations of a highly successful affiliate marketer making over $500k a year.
Be acquainted, UKoffer an Internet entrepreneur with a 10-year experience.
My Bank Statement - Monthly Earnings from AM
Following on from Mook-Jon's excellent thread I thought I'd post something similar but with a different slant.
Above is a picture taken of 1 of the 5 pages from my business bank statement that relates to late December 2005, early January 2006. Obviously I've used Photoshop to key out some banking reference codes. I've only posted a picture of 1 page instead of all 5 as I don't want to disclose exactly how much I earn in a month. (BTW the currency of my bank statement is ЈUK Pounds Sterling). As you can see the rough total on that 1 page alone is roughly Ј82,000 which works out at approx. $144,000.
For those of you in the US who aren't familiar with the UK affiliate networks or merchants here is a brief breakdown of the ones listed in my bank statement.
Tradedoubler: Affiliate Network
ADS Europe: Merchant
Affiliate Window: Affiliate Network
Tiscali Network: Merchant
Webgains: Affiliate Network
The purpose of this post is to hopefully inspire people that they too can earn money online through Affiliate Marketing. I am not bragging but merely illustrating the type of money that can be earned. For example I have 1 particular merchant who regular earns me over Ј100k per month. But don't get me wrong, my business hasn't been instant. Back in 2001 when I started I almost gave up after about 6 months as I hadn't earned a penny. It's only with lots of hard work and research that you can fully realise the potential that is out there. I do remember though that back when I first started out I used to read posts about affiliates earning big money and that really did motivate me. After all I think everyone longs for financial freedom.
About me: I've been an affiliate since late 2001 and my main site is at www.ukoffer.com . I run maybe another 20 or so sites, some of which are bookmarked in my blog (see signature). As well as that I run many short term ppc campaigns via custom landing pages. These can be live for only a number of weeks then taken down.
My main focus is about 80% PPC and 20% SEO. I'm not very good at SEO but still do alright for some key terms. My Monthly ppc budget is around US $300,000 which equates to roughly UK Ј170,000. Although when I first started out my budget was approx. $50 a month :-)
I'm happy to answer any kind of questions anyone may have as long as you don't ask me what my best converting keywords are etc.
Almost forgot - sure the image above could be a big fat fake but what would be the point? I've been around long enough now that I'm well known in the AM community in the UK so am sure I can be "vouched" for.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by marcel inspiring... what is your average profit percentage when using ppc ? |
It is very hard to say. I operate so many ppc programs that finding an average across all industries is impossible. Some may only earn me 10% whereas some may be up to 1000%. Sorry, I know that doesn't help.
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| Originally Posted by GeorgeB
UKoffer, what's the best comparison shopping software you'd recommend? |
To be honest guys I don't use any comparison shopping software or datafeeds. UKOffer.com is hard coded lovingly by hand! Mostly because I don't have the technical expertise to do otherwise!
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Originally Posted by Chromate222 I can see this thread going on for ages - I hope you know what you've let yourself in for! 
Do you have special direct relationships with certain merchants that pay you greater commission levels than publicly advertised?
If so, what proportion of the programs you promote have put you on a "hidden tier" of commission? In the majority of cases, do you think you would still be able to successfully promote these programs via PPC if it were not for the higher commissions, or are they simply like a performance bonus to you? |
Being honest, in the sectors which I am most active in I am on hidden tiers and performance bonuses for every merchant I promote. And yes some of these are direct relationships and some are through affiliate networks, about a 50/50 split.
Of course the higher commission rates do help me to be more aggressive with ppc ads. However, when a new merchant comes into play I have to promote them on the same CPA rate as everyone else. Only after I get a few sales under my belt does the negotiating begin and the possibility of increased commissions for increased CPA levels come into play.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stefan 55
Congratulation ukoffer!! your earnings are amazing. i'm very interested in promoting affiliate programs by using PPC. but i've read in other forums that it got too competitive (clickprices very high) nowadays and it's really hard to earn a profit with it. so would you mind telling which sectors work for you and how you find profitable niches? |
I'm afraid I don't want to divulge what sectors work for me best, for obvious reasons. And as for finding profitable niches I find that "first mover advantage" plays a big part in my experience. In other words when a new merchant launches an affiliate program I quickly research the sector, see of there is a revenue opportunity and if there is I get a landing page up ASAP and get some Google ads live. By doing this I often find I can get high conversion rates for my ads (as less competition) which helps me when all the other affiliates pile on board. By having a good conversion rate then my ads keep at the top of Google and are profitable.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JP Sauve
Those are awesome results. Surprised you would share such info, good for you for doing so.
Do you earn exclusively from UK networks/merchants, or do you work with any on this side of the world? |
No, I don't promote any American/Canadian merchants. The reason for this is that none of my sites get any traffic from your part of the world. Plus I don't really have any experience or knowledge of your markets/sectors. Well certainly not enough to launch some successful sites/campaigns.
Quote:
Originally Posted by scottyparks Congrats on your success.
One question if you have a second: In Adwords, do you stick with Google search /Search Network, or also run your campaigns on the content network? Which converts better?
Thanks! |
Hi, I always stick with the Google Search / Search Network option and never use their content network. I find conversions almost non-existant on the content network, in my experience.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Chromate222 Do you have any tips as to how you should go about negotiating with merchants to get to these hidden tiers? Is it basically a case of saying something along the lines of, "If I had 10% more commission, I could make 20% more sales for you" ... for example? |
Well as I mentioned earlier I always push programs on the same rate as other affiliates at first. This proves to the merchant that you are serious and can generate sales. I then send them an email or call them and say that their program is working well cut it could work better. I have a couple of ideas that can generate some more sales for you, in return for a higher CPA.
What's better is when you own a site that really dominates a particular niche. That's when you get merchants approaching you asking how much they need to pay to be given greater exposure.
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| Originally Posted by BeenThere How much of your revenue comes from the poker sites you are promoting? You don't have to give us an exact number, but just wondering if it is a large percentage. |
Not a lot is the honest answer, probably less than 10%. Poker is a new market to me and I haven't really had the time to give it a big push as yet. Also, competition is fierce and the Google ppc ban on gambling sites doesn't help.
Quote:
Originally Posted by tylercruz Very nice UKoffer,
A couple questions:
I noticed you had a little legal run in with Sony - seeing as you make millions a year, do you hire outside help, such as have a regularly-hired lawyer for such events, a team of programmers and designers, etc.? From the sounds of it, it doesn't sound like you do, and I was wondering why.
Cheers |
Touch wood I've not had to hire outside legal help as yet. I've managed to resolve any issues of that kind myself.
Yes I do outsource some bits of design and coding but not that much to be honest. I plan to outsource more this year though.
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| Originally Posted by BeenThere So, you are spending $10,000 a day on Google. What type of return do you get on that level of expenditure? |
I don't want to go into specifics on total profit levels. In any case it does differ wildly due to the fact that I am constantly promoting new programs/trying out new ideas/markets.
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Originally Posted by Ulchie While doing PPC marketing, do you strive to be in a particular position with your keywords? like 3rd place or better, or only 1st or second place? etc.
Also could you give us a little idea of how you worked your way up from $50 to today? Did one of your campaigns just hit the jackpot and you just kept raising the PPC budget? |
Yes I always aim to be in position 1, 2 or 3, the higher the better.
The rise from $50 a day to $10,000 a day was a very slow one. If memory serves it took almost 2 years. The biggest problem was cashflow, I'd spend $50 a day and make maybe $50 in profit. However I didn't see that profit until 3 months later due to the usual delay using an affiliate network. So by the time you receive your profit you find yourself re-investing it all by increasing your ppc spend in order to grow further.
Luckily along the way I found a few niches that were like striking gold and some very high profits were able to be realised.
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| Originally Posted by Ulchie While constructing landing pages, how much information do you try and put onto them to increase the CTR rate? Just a small bit? Or do you send them to the company's landing page immediately upon clicking the google ad, so you don't need to have a page at all? What method works best for you, and why? |
Without a shadow of a doubt sending users straight from Google to the merchants site is always best. That way you are ensured of a 100% click through rate. Whereby if you send them via a landing page you may only receive say a 75% ctr.
However with Google enforcing the 1 display URL rule it is becoming harder to do this all the time so landing pages have to be built when needed.
With regard to landing pages, in an ideal world I would like to have a few bullet points, a graphic and a strong call to action. In other words give the user a reason to click out of my site to the merchants site ASAP. But....Google are enforcing strict "Affiliate Bridge Page" rules, i.e. " Bridge Pages: Ads for webpages that act as an intermediary, whose sole purpose is to link or redirect traffic to the parent company ." This means that Bridge pages need to give a lot more detail about the product/service/market/economy etc etc etc! All good fun and keeps you on your toes!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ulchie Oh and I just thought of something else to ask!
The problem I was always wondering about is whether or not to try and get 10,000 different keywords for one product and try and find all those keywords for less than 5 cents or to go after the main keywords most people type and pay more than 50 cents or a dollar? DO you mainly try and get the cheaper keywords that other marketers have forgotten about or the main keywords? both? Which are more important... your bread and butter?
Basically, what do you suggest when creating a PPC campaign? What is your philosophy on the issue? |
I have to say it's the old 80/20 rule here. In my experience 80% of sales come from the top 20% of keywords. So if you are looking for big wins and big volumes go for the obvious.
But there are sometimes some hidden gems to be found when researching keywords and keyphrases. And sometimes I have come across terms that I thought would never ever get typed in that do and earn good money. Finding them however, is not that easy!
So whenever possible I try to have a go at the obvious keywords. But I also run campaigns for less popular words/phrases just to keep things balanced. What I would say though is to delete your non-performing keywords etc regularly as they can drag down your ctr.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bgray
Therefore, I'm satisfied spending an hour a day and watching my income grow every month. When I can steadily surpass my day job by at least 15% I'll do this full time. The only problem I'm having with that is that I've just as steadily gotten promotions. Not complaining.
In the meantime, I'll continue to gather inspiration from posts like this.
Thank You!
Bryan |
Thanks Bryan! Your approach is very sensible. When I was just starting out and working full time in a "real job" I ensured I had approx. 6 months worth of mortgage payments and bill payments stored in the bank so that if the worst happened I would have a 6 months cushion in which to find full time work again. Thankfully I never needed it and have never regretted going into business on my own once.
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Originally Posted by BeenThere Thanks for all your comments so far. But, I am having a bit of a problem understanding how this works.
I will take an example of one of the merchants you are promoting if I may. If I do a search on Google for chocolates, one of the merchants that comes up under the PPC listings is HotelChocolat. So how could you put out a Google PPC ad for the same merchant and actually make money doing it? From what you are saying, under Google rules you can't link directly to the merchant's page. But, if you bring them to your site and then send to the merchant, how much money can you really make? I don't know, maybe I am missing something...  |
OK using your example I could do this 2 ways.
The first way is that I put up a PPC ad for the term "chocolate" and I sent users direct to the HotelChocolat website, so the display URL would be www.hotelchocolat.co.uk and my (hidden) tracking URL would be my affiliate link to the Hotel Chocolat website. However, Google now only allow one display URL per search term. So if Hotel Chocolat were doing some ppc themselves I wouldn't be able to link to them via the method above.
The second way is via a landing page. So again I put up a ppc ad for the term "chocolate" and instead of sending visitors direct to the Hotel Chocolat website I send them to a specifically designed landing page on my site. I.e. something like www.ukoffer.com/hotelchocolat . The landing page will have some information on the products and offers that Hotel Chocolat have on at the moment and would then encourage users to click away straight to the actual Hotel Chocolat website via my affiliate links. Depending on how good your pre-selling techniques are and your landing page will increase your chances of a clickthrough to the merchant.
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| Originally Posted by Chromate222 I just wanted to chip in and say that higher is not always better. Quite often I've found that my greatest ROI happens around the 3 to 4 spot and it's not worth paying top dollar (or pound ) for the top spots. It varies from campaign to campaign. |
Indeed higher is not always better. Depending on the product/service commissions available and conversion rates etc. a position 4, 5 or 6 may work well.
BUT....across all my thousands of campaigns over the years I have to say that very generally speaking the higher positioned the ad the more clicks it will generate. And of course if you really know your stuff you can get to the top spot for some great keywords at a very low price!
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Originally Posted by AndyH But say, if you made the display URL www.example.com/chocolate/ and then still had your affiliate link there is that allowed? I heard about this but didn't read enough to understand it fully.
Does Overture/Yahoo have the same sort of restrictions in place? |
In theory you *could* do this and may or may not get away with it before your ad gets reviewed. However it is against Google's T's and C's, see below:
Your Display URL must accurately reflect the URL of your website. If your actual destination URL link is too long for your ad, use a shortened version (such as your homepage) that meets the character limit for this field
Yes, Overture/Yahoo do have similar but not identical restrictions in place. Mainly that you can't have a different display/actual URL.
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Originally Posted by Chromate222 Oh yeah, I completely agree. If you have the skills to get to the top, for a low price, that's always going to be better in terms of clicks. I guess the thing is to rely as much as possible on your skills rather than your wallet to get you there.
Speaking of getting to the top without paying so much - got any tips? Do you initially pay higher when you start a campaign to get it started with a higher CTR and then lower the bid price gradually as the good CTR takes up the slack in terms of holding the ads position? |
Indeed that is exactly how I do it. Start high and gradually lower your bid. However a key factor is the actual text in your ad. If you know what words "sell" then use them to increase CTR.
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Originally Posted by trivum Thanks for the thread, Kieron. Great stuff.
One thing about the higher position on ppc - even though you may have a higher roi with lower ads, that doesn't mean you'll have more profit. If you can afford it, why not go for more "real money" profit?
For example: you have a position 5 ad that brings you 50% roi, and you have a position 2 ad that brings you only 30% roi. But the position 2 ad may get so many more clicks that you end up making more REAL money even though your roi is less. Unless you've got somewhere else to put that money that you know will bring in even more profit, why not simply take more REAL money? |
Yes that is what I do. As I mentioned earlier I prefer the top slots on any ppc search engine.
But what I also do is in certain markets whereby the cost per click is just too high for a number 1 slot - especially when you have merchants brand building at number 1 and not working back to an ROI - is sit happily at number 4 or 5 with a lower volume of clicks.
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Originally Posted by xenotick Wow, amazing UKoffer, certainly gives me some form of drive to do better.  Do you make your sites completely by yourself from the ground up then? Or do you pay people for various parts? E.g. a designer, programmer, etc? |
I started off doing them by myself from the ground up but as time progressed and I had a bit more income I now outsource various parts to various people. However I do maintain them myself.
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Originally Posted by BeenThere Now, this is where I am getting confused. In such a situation, why would you even bother promoting this merchant? Whatever you do, your CTR is going to be less than that of the merchant's from the same Google search because the customer can directly click on HotelChocolat's ad to go to their page. You are going to lose a large percentage of customers by sending them to your landing page and then to your merchant's site. I would think that your google expense to send that customer over to the merchant's site will not be too far off what the merchant spent.
Also, let us say you get an average of 10% for each sale, which is what many merchants pay at least starting out. But, the merchant has maybe a 40% markup on the item. So, you make much less by spending the same amount of money then you would if you were the merchant yourself.
Two things:
1) Can you still make money doing it this way?
3) Why would you not become a drop ship merchant and sell the product yourself? |
OK yes you are right, my ctr won't be as good as the merchants and yes I will lose a percentage of visitors who don't bother clicking through from my landing page to the merchant.
In answer to your other questions, yes you can still make money from sending visitors to landing pages.
However to do this you need to concentrate on the right merchants and the right products. So in this example I probably wouldn't do it with a company that sells chocolates and has a small basket size. 10% of say an average $30 order isn't worth promoting via PPC in my opinion.
But if you instead concentrate of merchants selling products/services with much higher commission levels then it can work very well.
For example one major UK high street retailer isn't even running a ppc campaign at the moment, and hasn't done for a while. There are no other affiliates bidding on their terms so I am generating thousands of clicks per day (and very healthy commissions) at the lowest price possible. Oh, and they sell very high ticket items.
Granted the above scenario is out of the ordinary but if you look hard enough and do lots of research there are lots and lots of opportunities to promote merchants via landing pages.
And no I wouldn't want to go the drop shipping route as it's simply too much hassle.
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Originally Posted by BeenThere OK. I think that there is one of the keys to success in the affiliate game.
Another example, if I may. I don't think this is one of yours. When I do a search for the term "lingerie" on google.co.uk, of course figleaves.com comes up as one of the top PPC advertisers as expected.
But there is also this one:
http://www.figlingerie.co.uk/
If you go there, you can see that is basically nothing more than a landing page for figleaves.com products put up by an affiliate. Now, you mentioned earlier that Google doesn't like "bridge pages" that do nothing more than direct you to the end merchant. But, isn't that what this site is? Is something like this acceptable?
Thanks. |
The page you quoted does indeed look like a bridge page. The skill is in creating a page with enough unique content and text so that it can't be classed as a bridge page by Google.
The difficult part is the fact that there are no hard and fast rules or definitions put down by Google to say what constitutes a bridge page and what doesn't. Obvious bridge pages with nothing but a merchants banner on and a link will obviously be disallowed. However the example you posted may well have been deemed acceptable. Either that or it hasn't been reviewed by Google or it has slipped through the net.
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| Originally Posted by trivum Kieron, I noticed that you said that if possible, you link directly to the merchant. So what do you think about "pre-selling"? Do you ever decide to pre-sell even if you could link directly to the merchant, or is that just too much trouble when a direct link is possible? (link it, send 'em, and move on) ... I assume you must do a lot of landing pages/pre-selling because of the way google is set up now. Do you have any recommendations for copywriting and preselling? I'm assuming you must be pretty good at it, and I'm assume you must have learned a lot through experience, but I'm also assuming it can't all be natural talent and experience (maybe I'm wrong ). Any pointers or links for people looking to improve in this area? |
If a direct link is possible then I always take that route.
However if not then yes a landing page is needed. I have found that what works best is to find some sort of unique slant on the merchants product/service. For instance one particular merchant that I am promoting has a 20% offer for new customers. Now, unbelievably they don't mention that at all in their Google PPC ads, so naturally I do :-) I also ensure the content on my landing page (certainly the headline) clearly states what the consumer offer is in terms that the user will understand. Also, clear calls to action such as "click here for this offer", "click here to save 20%" and so on work very well.
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Originally Posted by e_phils Hi Kieron,
Thanks for posting, its great for us newbies.
Curious, did you study or work in sales / marketing, advertising before you started your affiliate network ?
Btw: I started following your blog after you posted on associateprograms.com
Thanks |
Yes I worked in sales roles pretty much all of my life.
However I learned most from a dot com startup company that I joined around 2000. The story is typical of a lot of dot com's around that time, they grew at a very fast rate then went bust. The reason they went down was (IMHO) that they didn't keep up with the market. The industry changed dramatically and they just didn't keep up in terms of price/products.
Anyway, this experience was invaluable to me as it showed me how *not* to do things. It was actually a very frustrating time as they wouldn't listen to my ideas and I had to sit there and watch the company go down the pan. However, as I say a great learning experience.
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Originally Posted by nwingate Quick Question: Why do you have multiple websites? Why not just link everything to ukoffer? I noticed you have a cell phone site, etc... Is there some advantage to consumers thinking that you are just a cell phone company and not selling everything or is this a SEO technique?
Also, do you think the professional look of your site (layout/graphics) lends to a higher CTR? So many of these affiliate sites I see look really bad but yours looks very nice.
Thanks. |
Yes I have multiple sites pretty much for SEO purposes. For instance I believe a user looking for "poker" will visit www.poker.org.uk over www.ukoffer.com/poker
Yes I think that looks do matter. More so now that I am working close with some major brands who want to ensure the integrity of their brand isn't misrepresented online. They now associate UKOffer as a brand in its own right and are happy to be feautured on the site and work with me.
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Originally Posted by Michel32
I have a few questions, as follows:
1. I couldn't find web address of "Ads Europe" when I was searching through Google! What is their exact web address? Thanks
2. You target especially UK market for your sites. What about Google? You showing your ads "worldwide" or maybe only "UK"?
3. Are you using other PPC programs besides Google Adwords? For example - Yahoo
4. Which tool are you using to determine your campaign "keywords"?
Do you use Google Adwords tool or maybe Overture, Wordtracker, DigitalPoint suggestion tool, etc.?
5. When it becomes interesting for you to set up a Google Adwords campaign, with other words above which amount CPA?
(for example: Smileys download pays CPA $1.60, free ringtones pays CPA $11 & Mortgage pays can pay CPA $30 per lead). Probably, also how higher the payout CPA, how more difficult to get leads. What is your tactic here in order still to profit after deducting cost for clicks (ppc)?
6. You mentioned that you do research to see if (new) campaign works out for you! Can you give us a general example what steps you take to do research on an offer?
7. Do you need to be an expert on Google Adwords in order to see what is working or not & if you can make enough profit to benefit?
8. My hesitation with Google from personal experience (offers I did!) is that in order to make few hundred dollars NET profit, I 1st have to spend $1000 per month!! What is your opinion here or advise?
Many thanks in advance! |
1. Advanced Data Services (Europe) Ltd. are the parent company of www.euro1net.com .
2. I target "UK only" when using Google AdWords.
3. Yes I use Overture/Yahoo! also.
4. I use Google AdWords search term suggestion tool as well as the Overture search term suggestions tool. I also use a couple of others that I pay to subscribe to. As well as good old fashioned detective work playing on the search engines!
5. To be honest it's not always a high CPA that attracts me to a particular campaign, it's how crowded the market is. For instance I have loan merchants contacting me all the time saying they will pay be hundreds of pounds per lead and so on. But because the market is so saturated and ppc costs are so high I don't even bother trying. But then again if a new merchant comes on board with a reasonably low CPA, say Ј2 or so and there is no competition then I will give it a go. I did very well out of the Crazy Frog ringtone a while ago, that only paid Ј3 CPA or similar. So I'm guess what I'm saying is be on the lookout for new programs/merchants and new niches.
6. Just basic stuff like searching on Google for search terms that relate to a new merchant. If their is strong competition and it is pretty sewn up then I won't bother. Or maybe I'll trial a ppc campaign for a few days, monitor ctr and commissions and see if I can find a way in.
7. No you don't need to be an expert but I think experience does help. After all it took me a couple of years and lots of trial and error.
8. Again it depends on your keyword/niche. I know what you are saying though and in some sectors I have to spend say Ј10,000 a month to make Ј600 or Ј700 profit. However sometimes this is worth doing as if you can push high volumes of sales through merchants then you can ask for a higher commission level. However there are still keywords out there that can generate you say a 200% profit instantly, it's just finding them that is a dark art!
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Originally Posted by Michel32 UK Offer thank you so much for your time & effort!!
1. But is UK Google Adwords giving you so much traffic on a daily basis?
My experience with eCards is not that great. The number of clicks I received per day wasn't that big!
2. You speak all the time about landingpages you especially create for Adwords. What about your 'UK Offer' site? It's getting mainly traffic from Search Engines or you also promoting it through Adwords?
3. You mentioned: "I also use a couple of others that I pay to subscribe to."
Are you willing to give names here?
4. You mentioned: "As well as good old fashioned detective work playing on the search engines!" Can you give us an example maybe?
5. You mentioned: "...lookout for new programs/merchants and new niches."
But a new ringtone offer (merchant) or new mortgage offer provided by advertising network will not change a lot regarding my opinion, it's just another offer within all ringtone or mortgage offers & the competition stays the same and fears for those offers!! Maybe I see it wrong?
To be honest (maybe I am a little bit pessimistic here) I think when there will be a totally new offer provided by advertising networks then Adword spots will be taken in NO TIME. I don't believe very much that there are profitable keywords with traffic still where not many Adword ads showing up! Everybody speaking about targeting keywords with (lots of) traffic but not much competition yet. I don't think this is realistic!
Maybe you can give a little bit more information what you mean by finding new programs/merchants & new niches after reading above?
Many thanks in advance for your help & assistance! |
1. Yes I get lots of traffic from UK Google AdWords. We're not just some tiny island you know, there's a population of 60.5 million people to market to ;-)
2. Ukoffer.com does get some traffic from SEO. But yes I also promote it via ppc as well as specific landing pages within the site.
3. Sorry as much as I'm willing to help where I can I still need to maintain a competitive advantage in some areas.
4. Nothing too technical just seeing what sites are out there already targetting the same area as you. check for backlinks, seo techniques etc.
5. Sure ringtones are ringtones and ppc costs for terms like "ringtones" will probably stay pretty constant. But suppose another crazy frog comes along? That's a niche term within the ringtone market. So although its a ringtone it can be promoted using non ringtone search terms.
6. That's your opinion. However I disagree, they are out there if you look hard enough. Trust me on this. However there is no simple way or quick method to find them. Just hard work and perseverance.
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| Originally Posted by Michel32 Though I fully agree, still it's a big question here if you are still able to get sufficient traffic in order to make leads through Adwords by using keywords less popular? |
Believe it or not there are words/phrases out there that are *very* popular, i.e. gets lots of searches-but are not being targetted by affiliates.
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Originally Posted by jamix
I don't get it.  |
I mean that the obvious keywords will generate a high number of clicks. But there are also less obvious high performance keywords/phrases available if you look hard enough. So while "loans" will always be the top performing keyword that people use when searching for loans, in terms of volume anyway; there are other terms to be found that aren't as obvious and still generate decent ctr's.
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| Originally Posted by Michel32 To double check: that means that those keywords/phrases showing no Adword ads yet or only a few? |
Most are only showing a couple, but they are not well targetted and 9 times out of 10 are there because of broad match only. To find good paying keywords with no ads these days is quite rare.
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| Originally Posted by Michel32 I am sorry to keep on going on this particular issue ....So, the very popular words/phrases which gets lots of searches & not being targetted by affiliates as you spoke about not long ago are "broad match"? And that's the reason why they are not targetted much by advertisers, but on the other hand still receiving lots of traffic ? Or I understood you wrongly? |
OK will try to make it crystal clear.
There are a number of search words/search phrases available if you are prepared to think oustide the box. Don't go for the obvious.
These search words/phrases have *some* ppc ads showing but these ads are showing almost by accident. I.e. the advertiser has lots of broad match terms in their Google account, hence their ads are showing. Think of all the eBay ads you see for every term on the planet.
Now because these ads are showing almost by accident they aren't really relevant to the users that are searching on Google. I.e. they don't have very targetted ad copy because the advertiser isn't actually aware they are being displayed - or for what terms they are being displayed for.
So the opportunity exists to target these search terms and write very targetted ads that get clicked on and convert better than the broad match ones showing by "accident".
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Originally Posted by scottyparks Hey Kieron,
I jus have one more question. When setting up your keywords for a campaign, do you typically use
keyword
"keyword"
or
[keyword]
? |
All of them!! :-)
Quote:
Originally Posted by e_phils Kieron,
Thanks for the thread.
Just curious is clickfraud a big issue for you ? Or do you think all the media coverage on clickfraud is overblown ?
Thanks |
It's certainly an issure that anybody into ppc marketing should be very much aware of. But it's just such an unknown quantity that it's impossible to gauge exactly how widespread it is and how badly it effects you. Obviously I protect myself as much as possible though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chromate222 Do you have any software in place to try and detect click fraud, such as tracking IP addresses etc?
Also, have you ever had problems with people stealing your commissions due to adware? |
Yes I have systems in place to prevent click fraud. As for Adware, its difficult to track down individual cases but there was 1 where my site was targetted. Luckily we shut the guy down quick.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nezter Hi
Great thread! congrats on the great success!!!!!!
If you only target to UK users, isn't the volume of traffic you get very small? |
Depends. Compared to what? What do you define as small?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nezter meaning 20% overall
also is click-fraud a make-or-break problem ? I know you specified that you have some sort of system in place for it but if you wouldn't have had it would it stop you from making a profit? |
Sorry I don't follow? 20% overall of what? 100% of my traffic is from the UK.
Click fraud is certainly an issue but in my experience it isn't make or break. Its still possible to make a profit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nezter meaning 20% of the overall traffic that you could have received had you not only targetted it to UK
but then again I guess it only makes sense to target your traffic to UK-only since your merchants are all UK-based? |
Exactly! Plus I don't know the US market at all so wouldn't even consider targetting merchants over there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nezter I think you answered this question already but not 100% sure
do you only promote programs that offer a minimum of 10% commission ? I mean even 10% is low... I personally never tried any merchants that offer such low rate and have only used programs pn google PPC that give 30%+ commission |
No. I'll look at any commission rates. What's more important to me is if there is an opportunity to market the program via ppc. If an opportunity exists and I believe I can make money on a program that pays 5% then I will give it a go.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Nezter by opportunity you mean little or no competition for those keywords on the ppc ? |
Indeed. Or maybe there is some competition but I think I can still have a go and target some keywords/phrases that aren't immediately obvious.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by BeenThere Also, when dealing with a merchant directly as an affiliate, how can you trust the merchant to be honest with the sales you send them? I would think that It would be quite easy for them to play with the numbers if they manage their own affiliate program. |
Sure trust plays a big part in pretty much every aspect of affiliate marketing. However most of my direct relationships with merchants involve using an independant 3rd party for tracking. So all is clear and transparent.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Nezter I have the same EXACT thought! I mean you look at almost every niche/market out there and it already has a ton of advertisers for it on google! it's unbelievable |
But have you really thought outside the box?
Sure if you are looking at say mortgages for example, then Google is flooded for terms like "mortgage" "property loan" etc. But have you thought about how you can target your ads to the same audience but using less obvious terms? Sometimes a bit of time spent brainstorming with a piece of paper and a pen and thinking of really off-the-wall terms you can use that won't be as expensive, can be very rewarding.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by PSPF Wow, Ј100k a month, that is very impressive. Would you call yourself a big spender? What have your most extravagant purchases been? |
Not really, although I did import a Cadillac Escalade from the US which meant that I ended up paying twice the price you guys pay!
Other than that I have invested in property a bit and have 2 houses in the UK (1 that I rent out) and 1 in Spain also.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by JamieJelly Hi Kieron, I know you from YCGIT forums, how you doing? Great thread btw. How does your newsletter perform for you? Do you receive many signups? |
To be honest I don't use it as much as I should. I have a few thousand subscribers but not nearly enough. Maybe I'll send out some newsletters soon.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by BeenThere Can anybody address my question regarding the qualification requirements for being accepted as a publisher for something like CJ or Tradedoubler? Are there any minimum traffic requirements or anything like that? |
In a word no. But you could look at the sites themselves to find out all the relevant information.
Quote:
Originally Posted by trivum Yet another question:
At what point do you go to the company and ask for a higher commission? I guess that can vary from industry to industry, but do you have any rough guidelines/examples? |
I don't think there is any hard and fast rule really. The best answer I can give is whenever you have generated a significant number of sales. It depends on the product/niche what a significant number is though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dolphin12 Hi,
Just wondering. With a website as big as Ukoffer.com, how much time is spent on keeping the content/offers fresh? |
A fair bit of time to be honest, probably too long. For instance I need to remove all the Valentines content for a start!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fender963 Good question Dolphin. Just a quick question UKoffer. Is it network specific or merchant specific whether or not you can use direct links?
- Kyle |
Its merchant specific. If they already have some ppc campaigns running then the merchant won't allow you to use direct links.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bboy Way to go UK Offer and Mook-Jon . Definitely an inspriration to us
up and comers! Can I ask, are either of you incorporated for tax/protection purposes? Thanks and keep it up! |
Yes, UK Offer Media is a Limited Company.
Quote:
Originally Posted by implinet Hey UkOffer,
This is a little off topic.
I see that you sell flowers from Bunches.co.uk?
I purchased some off their website for arrival today (valentines) and just checking that they are reliable?
Regards. |
Yes they are fine. I've had hundreds of happy customers and no complaints.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by bboy Thanks for the reply Kieron. How early in the game did you decide to form the company? Right from the beginning or only after you started generating an income? |
Only after I started earning serious money, as thats when the advantages of being a Ltd. Company start to kick in.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fender963 Hey Kieron,
I'm curious if you generate any income from SEO? i.e you have an article with affiliate links woven in for example. Or do you get teh majority of your traffic from CPC advertising?
Kyle |
Yes I do get some natural traffic , maybe 15% to 20% via SEO but that's a bit of a guess!
Quote:
Originally Posted by jamix Thanks, it's clear now. My hat goes off to you, Kieron.
Here are a couple more questions, if you don't mind:
1. How much passive is your income? In other words, if you took a one-year vacation, would you still be getting the same amount of income? Or you have to be working day to day researching new hot markets etc. in order to maintain your cashflow?
1a. How much time per day do you spend on your business? Can you describe your typical day?
2. Did you ever read the "Google Cash" e-book, or did you come up with the idea of hooking up PPC engines directly to affiliate programs youself? |
1. I honestly don't know. As I mentioned in my blog the other day I just discovered that one of my smaller sites has been making Ј2,000 per month even though it has been lying dormant for a year. I do know that I would definitely not be earning the same levels as ppc campaigns need to be managed full time in order to work. Also, as you say new markets need to be researched.
1a. A typical day is spent in front of the PC from say 9am to 2pm. Then its off to the gym and anything else that isn't work. Then I work again from say 7pm until early hours of the morning.
2. No I have never read any e-books. And lots of affiliates advertise from PPC engines directly to merchant, I never imvented it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by DewChugr Also spelling things wrong can often be good. For example lots of people spell pneumonia as pnuemonia so if you also key in on that it could help you.
Steve |
Indeed, hyphenating words can help too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BeenThere Kieron,
You don't seem to be concerned about attracting competitors or copy cat sites.
Why is that? Is it because you are so far ahead in the game? Or because you think that there is enough for everybody? |
Hi, as you can see from my blog entry http://www.here.org.uk/2006/02/anot...ed-by-mine.html my site has been copied more than once.
However I think that the key skill in Affiliate Marketing is the actual Marketing and not building/designing a website. Let's be honest, www.ukoffer.com is nothing special and anybody can knock up a similar site in an hour or two.
But I would like to think that my skill is actually in driving traffic to sites and not the design/building of them. In my opinion that is one of the keys to successful AM.
Besides, most of my revenue doesn't actually come from UKOffer.com
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michel32 Hi UK Offer ,
How are you?
Few more questions came up, as follows:
- Just wondering, you run a 'one man' business?
- How long did it take you (from the very beginning when you started off with Adwords) to make US$10,000 NET per month?
Thanks |
Yes I am a one-man show but I do outsource as and when the need arises.
I can't really remember, probably 18 month to 2 years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by optimus prime Thanks for all the great tips.
Would you mind offering a link to one of your landing pages (for ppc campaigns) so that we can get an idea of what you are talking about? |
Here you go http://www.robosapien2.co.uk
Slightly out of date but you get the idea.
Quote:
Originally Posted by nwingate I guess I missed that point... I thought UKOffer was where most of your income was coming from.
So, these types of sites are where most of your income is coming from... or direct CPC links to your affiliates?
One that that strikes me about your business is the amount of quality UK domains you own. Its amazing how many simple word domains you have. |
Hi, my earnings are split from landing pages and direct ppc links to merchants. Of course I have some ppc campaigns that link through to ukoffer.com too as well as my other sites. In other words, my income comes from lots of different areas.
Quote:
Originally Posted by hooperman Hi UKoffer, another question!
When you see an opportunity and you want to get a landing page/site up fast, do you buy a new domain or just use your existing one (use a subdomain perhaps?). |
Mostly sub domains or dedicated landing pages within UKOffer.com. For projects with a longer shelf live I will buy a new domain.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BeenThere Kieron,
Is this the landing page that somebody would get if they clicked your ad from google?
How did it work? My thoughts for a landing page were that they shouldn't be very cluttered and have a clear call to action.
It just seems to me that there is a lot of wording and other than the banner on the top, it is not very clear as to what you want from the customer.
With all the text, it would seem more suited to SEO than a PPC campaign.
I am just trying to understand what works and why.. thanks. |
Hi, as JoeCuk said the landing pages of "bridge pages" as Google call them do have to have a lot of content on in order from them to get passed. But also as the domain name for this project is very relevant and can be subject to type-ins I decided to put the site up and see if it got picked up by the search engines too.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zork How do you know which merchants will allow direct ppc links?
or is it the Adsense program that does not allow direct ppc links to some merchants? if that is the case how do you find out which ones are allowed and which ones are not? |
Well if you are using a merchant on an affiliate network they will ususally tell you the ppc guidelines in their terms of service that you need to accept.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michel32 UKOffer ,
- So, you maintain all your sites (= setting up landing pages for new offers, removing 'Valentine's Day' offers from your UKOffer site, etc.), manage your Adwords/Overture account, doing payments to Google, manage payments received from advertising networks, accounting, etc.?
- You have your office at home?
- Also wondering if you dress up nice when you start working at 9.00 AM or straight from bed in t-shirt with a cup of coffee sitting behind your labtop?
Thanks mate! |
Yes I have a home study and I always insist on full business dress when working in it! P.S. No, I don't really - does it matter??!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Stefan55 hey kieron,
i also have some questions for you
1. is it lucrative to promote books or music at amazon since you only start with 5 % commissions?
2. what are usual conversion rates for you? what are good/great conversion rates?
thank you!! |
1. Not using ppc. But if you have a high traffic site that gets hundreds of thousands of visitors then I guess you could. Although I would always much prefer to see out higher paying programs.
2. Again, depends on the program. But an acceptable conversion rate in terms of clicks to sales is say 3%. Some programs however convert at 40% for me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by penfold Hi Kieron
Very impressive figures there
I'm thinking of getting into UK affiliate marketing and after seeing what rewards can be reaped if you put the hard work in has even made me more determined.
I currently am self employed as an IT free lancer and have a LTD company as is the request of many agencies I work for. With regards payments from your networks, do you have to pay VAT on this? Hope it's not to a personal questions but as I'm VAT registered say if I earn Ј1000 in a month, do I have to pay 17.5% to the VAT man.
TIA |
Hi yes you do. But this will come from the affiliate networks and merchants. So if you make say Ј100 in commission they will pay you the Ј100 plus VAT which you simply pass on to the VAT man.
Quote:
Originally Posted by chatmasta I'm really new to the whole business side of the web, and I hope I can get started early. I'm especially unfamiliar with the terminology.
Do you think you could link me to some resources to get started?
Thanks.
milesrichardson [AT] gmail [DOT] com |
To be honest I just learned using forums like this one and lots of trial and error. I haven't read any ebooks or anything like that so I'm afraid I can't recommend any.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chef Hi Kieron (bit of Irish in you?)
Great thread and fair play for sharing. Quick query for you: have you done much CPM in the UK? Recommend any places with reasonable rates?
Oh.. and if you're looking for another UK merchant.... |
Hi, I've just recently signed up with 247 Real Media who are serving CPM ads on UKOffer as of now. Early days yet but they seem good.
Yes, Irish name but no direct Irish descendants.
Quote:
Originally Posted by e_phils Kieron,
Did you study marketing, sales in university / college ?
Or was it most on the job and trial and error ?
Thanks |
Hi, no I left school at 16 and went to work in a record shop earning Ј35 a week!
I'm all self tought and as you say learned on the job.
Quote:
Originally Posted by peach look you skipped a question^^  |
I certainly did. I'm sorry I will help where possible but won't share keywords or specific campaigns that I work with.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NY Express First - thanks UK Offer for sharing your knowledge.
"Mostly sub domains or dedicated landing pages" - What would be the difference?
When you create a landing page within a UKOffer.com subdomain, do you leave the UKOffer banner on top (or an other part of the tmeplate) and have the headline, copy and graphics about the specific product below? Or do you delete the UKOFFER banner (and any other elements of the template) and just have the headline, etc. about the specific product?
Can you show us a landing page within one of your subdomains? |
Hi, if I create a landing page within UKOffer I leave the header and side panels intact. This is because it then becomes another page of the site and links to all other pages, therefore boosting content.
I'm afraid I haven't got any sub domain landing pages live at the moment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael_Goldman excellent thread, thanks for the info ukoffer,
Just one simle questions, how do you find your keywords?
I mean there're lots of methods, software etc..
Can you share some tips?
thanks,Mike |
Well I've picked up lots of methods over the years and I hope you don't mind if I don't give away all my tricks of the trade :-)
What I will say is that I don't use any specific software, nor have I read any specific ebooks.
Yes I subscribe to one or two paid for services that help me along but other than that nothing special and no one particular "secret" method.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ferraristi Hi UKoffer, thanks for such an inspiring story and thanks for sharing your knowledge. In one of your posts to this thread you said that you deifnitely recommended going straight to the merchant's site from your adwords ad and you have an example of an online retailer with very large ticket items.
My question is, do you link direct to product pages from ads for particular products on adwords or do you write general ads and link the the retailer's main page? If you do both, which is the most successful?
I have recently been trying similar methods but I am only just about breaking even at the moment. Still testing though.
Thanks again |
I think the key is to be as specific as possible and to keep the number of clicks as low as possible.
So instead of an adwords ad targetting terms for "furniture" sending users to the storefront of a furniture retailer. Instead I would advertise "green sofas" and then send visitors to a page dedicated to sofas within the merchants site.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cutter I do have one question.. how do you keep things in order promoting so many different programs? I noticed you said you discovered a site thats been making 2,000 quid a month and you just noticed it.
Right now I'm only running 3 sites actively (the rest are sit n' earn), just Adsense and a few CPA programs, and I have a hell of a time keeping things in order. As I write this, I have 20 programs opened, over half of which are web browsers including firefox, many with multiple tabs open. I'm beginning to wonder how bad of a toll this multi-tasking is taking on my productivity. I've already stopped reading my e-mail regularly, now I check it once a day, and I rarely if ever have my IM open unless I need to talk to someone specific.
Am I just unusually messy? Any thoughts would be appreciated. |
To be honest I have exactly the same problem. I really need to hire people but I can't think of a way to do this without them learning exactly how I do things and then going off and doing it themselves.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dcgiants Hi UKoffer,
Thanks for posting replies to all of the questions! I am coming out of lurking mode to ask a couple:
1) For affiliates such as Amazon, is it better to have a landing page that has images of specific targeted products from the ppc campaign? Or, is it better to have lots of content about the product with just a link provided to the company?
2) I know you mentioned handcoding your pages - do you use Frontpage or Dreamweaver or other editors to help you with this?
3)Do you have multiple web hosts or do you have a primary favorite that is dedicated?
Thanks a lot!
DC |
1. "a landing page that has images of specific targeted products from the ppc campaign"
2. Frontpage
3. I use about 4 different hosts, Rackspace has to be the best though.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael_Goldman Yeah, thanks, I'm aware you can't share any specific tips 
So, generally do you think keywords are really important and you need to reseach them check competition etc.., or is it better just to pick some random keyword in froogle and build a site?
btw, is brainstorm generator one of your subscription services?
thanks |
Yes keywords are very important and I would never pick a random keyword from anywhere. I always look at affiliate programs and then see what keywords are suited and what the opportunity is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BigBerries.com UKoffer, BigBerries seems to be completely abused by The BIG search engine even though it's updated just about every day with unique information and often before similar sites.
My question:
Would it be beneficial to add subdomains based on each subject or would the subdomains suffer the same as BigBerries.com ?
Thank you for your time. |
Hi, I'm no SEO expert but in my experiece I can honestly say that subdomains make no difference whatsoever to the search engines.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nikolas
Also I think that in order to make money from affiliate programs, you should have :
1) Budget to promote those affiliates or landing pages that lead to them
2) or a site with thousands of daily visitors.
Do you agree with that?
Thanks in advance |
Yes. If you have no natural traffic or the budget for ppc then you won't be able to make money from affiliate programs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mderbyshire james_lee:
I'm rather intrigued by the 'search' facility on his site though. I'm guessing this must be some feature included with FrontPage? I really like how when you search for something, it shows an appropriate image right next to the search result. |
Miva.com provide the content for the search results. It is their feed that forms the results and I get a percentage of each cost per click.
Quote:
Originally Posted by james_lee Interesting.
What is the cms that you're using?
..or what is the best cms for this type of site.
thanks. |
Hi, as others as mentioned I don't use a CMS system for UKOffer.com.
However I will be using one for a future project as I want to give the ability to make changes to the site to people who don't have any knowledge of HTML.
Cheers!
Quote:
Originally Posted by dcgiants Kieron,
From your posts, I have a better understanding about direct linking to merchants and have a couple of related newbie questions:
When you find a keyword to use for ppc and the merchant is not bidding (thus permitting the direct link) does the link listed in the ppc ad reflect your site or the merchants? (i.e. (as an example): credit cards.....UKOffer.com). Or does it the ppc ad read: credit cards......americanexpress.com?
Also, does the merchant provide you with the code to insert into your direct link as with banners and other links?
Thanks,
DC |
Hi,
the display URL for the link will be americanexpress.com (to use your example). However the actual URL (which is hidden) will be your affiliate link to amercianexpress.com. Hope that is clear.
Cheers!
Quote:
Originally Posted by dcgiants Kieron,
Thanks for your info! I was just wondering the links were displayed when the ads were displayed under a keyword search under yahoo or google.
Also, I noticed during a keyword search with an item that art.com sells that under the view bids tool for yahoo there is what appears to be a direct link with ad copy that look like this: affiliates.art.com (which is located under the ad)
Is this a direct linking method as it does not link to an actual landing page other than art.com?
Regards,
DC |
Hi,
If I link to a merchant direct then their URL is displayed in the url field. If I am sending visitors to a landing page then the url will be something like www.ukoffer.com/merchantname .
I'm afraid I don't use art.com so can't comment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by daddyoh Hi Kieron,
Thank you so much for the help that you've given to all of us here at SP! I truly believe that the vibrations one sends out into the universe comes back to you. What comes back to you will be mammoth!
My question is this: can these techniques that you've been teaching be used with blogs or are they more useful with websites? I find that I don't have the time to build websites, but a blog is no problem. If you were to use your techniques with blogs, what is the basic strategy you would follow to monetize them?
Thanks a bunch,
Dan |
The ppc techniques I have described are what I use to link direct to a merchant or a dedicated landing page for a service/product.
I think if you were to link via ppc to a blog then I think the conversion rate would suffer. One way to find out would be to run a small ppc campaign to give it a try.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Michel32 UK Offer wondering if you still see potential (for certain search terms) through Adwords promoting 'hosting affiliate programs'?
Any tips how to tackle 'hosting affiliate programs' nowadays knowing that this market is quite satured & highly competitive?
Thanks a lot! |
Sorry but I have never dabbled in the hosting sector purely because as you say its very saturated.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by officer If you're spending Ј170k a month on PPC, according to your bank statement aren't you making a loss? |
No. As I said in the first post, I only showed 1 of the 5 pages that made up my total bank statement.
Quote:
Originally Posted by officer Sorry, I missed that. However without the other 4 pages, you'll have to forgive me if I'm a bit puzzled about where you are coming from. While it's great to see a fellow Brit working it, you seem to be skimming over an awful lot of questions which wouldn't hurt your earnings to answer. I used to lurk on a uk business forum where I remember seeing you post. You once stated your blog earned you money and new contacts for your business. You must be getting a fair bit of traffic via this thread. I haven't really read a single bit of information that would actually help someone in the same position you were in a few years ago (ie starting with Ј50). In your blog you say "Like I say I'm happy to help and offer advice but please don't ask for anything that will jeopardise my business interests." To me, that's a complete contradiction in terms! If you're going to make such a post here in the first place then surely you must have expected this? And with your background in sales you probably have a lot of skill which is second nature to you but not to others, so you've no need to fear others taking a slice of your earnings. This is not intended as a personal attack, I'm just trying to point out that for those of us without much money there's no hope of reaching your level, as the goalposts keep moving all the time for those at the bottom. I would absolutely love to hear about your early days and how you got the ball rolling (i.e. how much money it took to make a difference, how you funded it etc) But since I've probably pissed you off I won't be surprised if you don't want to answer  |
It has not been my intention to skim over any questions. I've answered quite a lot on this thread as well as on MSN Messenger, PM and email. I'm happy to answer specific questions where I can but not questions like "what keywords make you the most money" or "what specific tools do you use to research keywords and how do you find them". That is what I mean by jeapardising my business interests.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jigsawguy Let me join in and offer my thanks to UKOffer for some great posts and information.
I have a few questions which come from the merchant perspective. I run Jigsaw2order.com and currently working on setting up an affiliate program for my company which I hope to launch soon. I wonder if you could share your views on the following:
1. How do you go about finding appropriate affiliate programs to market? Do most of them come to you or you have to go out and find them? If the later, how do you search for them?
2. What criteria do you use to decide if an affiliate program will work for you? What "turns you off" an affiliate program?
3. How important is the merchant's choice of an Affiliate Network in your decision? Who do you recommend in the UK market?
4. As an experienced affiliate, can you give any advice to a new merchant starting out on the affiliate path?
Many Thanks,
Colin @ www.jigsaw2order.com |
1. If I'm looking for a particular affiliate program for a certain sector, then the first thing I do is look on all the affiliate networks that I am a member of. After that I do web searches to find if any merchants in that particular field offer independant affiliate programs.
2. My own personal criteria is that the program must offer a high CPA or a high percentage of a high value basket order. I also look for a program that has some sort of point if contact, i.e. an affiliate manager I can approach with any issues. Regularly updated creative, special offers, affiliate offers etc.
3.There are a couple of networks I won't work with so yes the decision is quite important. For your particular product I would probably recommend www.paidonresults.com , www.affiliatefuture.com or www.affiliatewindow.com .
4. Yes, listen to your affiliates as many of them may have years more experience than you. Also, as I mentioned above dedicate some resource to your program and work close with your affiliate partners. A lot of new merchants, sign up to an affiliate network, upload some banners and then just sit back and hope for the sales to come in. You will need to be proactive and search out websites that you think will be a good fit for your product.
Quote:
Originally Posted by scottyparks
The landing page i'm using is just a very simple page containing a graphical ad, and a "Click here to enter" type link. Is this sort of what you do, or do you usually make more complex landing pages filled with content?
Thanks! |
That sounds about right to be honest. One idea would be to give users multiple click options. By that I mean have a "click here for more information" as well as a "click here to buy" button. In other words give users a choice of different calls to action. That should hopefully increase your CTR.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Beejeebers Thanks for sharing all this great info, don't worry about the meatheads who get upset if you don't spill the beans on every single detail. (Like you owe them something...LOL) I cannot believe someone would ask for your keywords or be a j e r k when they think you didn't answer questions fully enough... Oh and for all the yankees on here, the Uk market is the most profitable ppc market in the world. Uk residents seem to be early adopters and are more comfortable using the internet and giving out personal information then the U.S. market or any other market. So if you think his traffic is low, you're dead wrong...
Anyhow, your ukoffer site was sent to me as an example from an adwords rep as an example of a "perfect landing page"! So the adwords guys really like that site.
My question is, when testing a new campaign, what are your rules for determining whether to keep at it or drop it? I use 100 clicks or Ј100 or 3 days. If it's not profitable after any one of those criteria is met, I drop it. How about you? |
Thanks for your comments, much appreciated.
I tend to go for at least 1000 clicks before I can make a decision on whether or not a campaign is working. Its also worth bearing in mind the cookie factor. In other words sometimes we need to allow a few days for cookie sales to kick in. In other words, for people who don't buy instantly but maybe a few days later.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lgtoday Incredible Knowledge! thanks a lot...
UKOffer..Trial and error question: After lining up the "trial" run with adwords/ppc keywords and landing page/direct link to merchant, do you adjust the keywords first; then monitor for higher payouts, or adjust the landing page and monitor for higher CTR?
It seems like making early corrections to either (adwords/ppc keywords or landing page/direct links) should be reflected in your bank statement?
thanks a million$$$$ |
Well I always give a new merchant at least 1000 very targetted clicks to see if it will convert. If it doesn't convert then I will possibly make some minor adjustments to the landing page and keywords. However my initial 1000 clicks is always a good indicator so if it doesn't convert after that then I let it go.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MoneyBusiness UKoffer, do you find that you get a lot of customers who purchase later (after visiting), rather than impulse purchases? If so, do you have an estimate at the percentage that returns to purchase?
Thanks! |
Yes a lot of customers do purchase after the initial visit to the merchants site via your affiliate link. The problem with this is that by the time they actually come to purchase (say 7 days later) they could have come across another affiliate link which replaces your cookie and therefor you lose the sale.
Some networks are offering cookie-less tracking now wich is better but I still don't believe there is a foolproof system.
In answer to your question I believe the percentage who return at a later date could be anywhere between 20% to 50%. Not a science but my best educated guess.
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Originally Posted by -Blade- I'm a new and young (20) member, and came across this thread. Impressive results. Living in the UK, I have some questions:
1) Do you employ any full time staff?
2) Why did you become an LTD? I'm wondering because, although it brings new obligations, perhaps you could have been quite risk free with unlimited liability? The extra obligations must be an impracticality, though future security is pertinent I guess.
3) Do you sell any products directly through any of your own ecommerce sites, to make a large chunk of your income? For example, you have your own site selling x content like an Amazon equivalent (even if smaller). Affiliate schemes seem more appealing than ecommerce sites to me.
4) What's hours of work like?
BTW I didn't read all of the thread as it is too long, but I did read quite a few of the beginning pages. If there was an "All" function I would have probably read more, so please excuse me if these questions have been asked. |
1. No, as one of the reasons I do this is so I can work from home and come and go as I please. I don't like me tied down in an office environment.
2. I became a .LTD as it has much better tax advantages compared to trading as a sole trader.
3. No I don't sell any physical products, I am purely an affiliate.
4. Weekdays are usually from 9am to about 2pm then maybe a couple of hours on a night too. Saturdays I usually spend all day working and then Sundays off. Of course this changes all the time dependant on what else is going on in my life.
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Originally Posted by -Blade- Two last questions:
1) How much money did it take in expenditure until you started earning a significant amount?
2) If you made more networks of sites with a similar or same concept to UKOffer, would your income increase significantly (i.e. if you earn 80k from one site a month, then if you make another site, you'll earn roughly 160k in total a month, given the assumption that the second site is a relative success)? |
Apologies - I've negelected this thread for a while.
1. Anyway, it actually took me about 12 months of really hard work before I started earning "proper money". The problem with using ppc with Affiliate Marketing is cashflow. You need to pay for your Google AdWords ads upfront but may not receive the revenue made from actual sales until 3 months later. This was why it took me so long to grow, because every time I was earning money I was ploughing it back into the business and my ppc campaigns.
2. Not really as the market is only so big. Don't get me wrong there are niches where I have 2 or 3 sites but as I'm still using ppc to promote them its not just a case or multiplying the income x 2 or 3.
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Originally Posted by Ian Cunningham This is a bit of a new question, but what do you plan to do in say 10 years time? Do you plan to move into physical investments if AM starts to dip in a few years?
Google and other large entities seem to be making strides to incorporate affiliate links into normal SERPs, which may have some large effects in years to come. I can't see adwords going anywhere for now, but 10 years is a long time away. |
Affiliate marketing will *never* die. Don't think of it as affiliate marketing, think of it as publishing. If you create a good enough website (s) that you can drive traffic to then you will *always* be able to attract advertisers to part with their money on your site. For example I have 1 site that earns about Ј15,000 per month just for paid placements. That is over and above the CPA's I earn from the said via Affiliate links which are worth many times that.
Obviously I can't see into the future but websites are just another advertising medium like radio, TV, magazines and newspapers. And as its the newest of them all I can't see it going anywhere soon. :-)
But to answer your question I already invest in property as its probably the safest type of investment you can find. I also hope to expand into a "real" traditional business sometime soon.
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Originally Posted by MoneyBusiness How many sites and pages do you suppose you had after that 12 month period? Just curious...
Also, with Google making all of it's supposedly good-intentioned changes, are you noticing an increase or decrease in business (or no change), specifically through Adwords? |
That was 1 site with about 20 pages that I concentrated on.
To be honest Google's changes (I take it you mean algorithm) don't effect me at all as I'm pretty much all ppc. However what has made it harder is the fact that blue chip companies are pouring more of their advertising budget into online. Also, there is more competition now as the web continues to expand.
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