Internet Marketing Blog » Affiliate Marketing

BuyWithGoogle?

John — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 12:20:14 +0000

With Groupon rejecting Google’s advances, the search giants are now reportedly looking to purchase BuyWithMe.

If true then it shows that Google are paying more attention to the social sides of search marketing, and want to offer its users something more than search results. But what is BuyWithMe, and how does it work?

BuyWithMe is a discount site that lists exclusive details in the area, but takes a ‘safety in numbers’ approach. Each deal has to have a minimum amount of people signed up before it expires, and a voucher is distributed to the group when the target is reached.

An interesting form of eCommerce web development. It’s a social way of finding discounts, and encourages users to interact with each other. The principle is entirely word of mouth, with like-minded people telling each other about an amazing discount they’ve found online in the hope of it spreading and attracting new shoppers.

If this were to take off it’d be incredibly beneficial to those who have employed regional SEO services. BuyWithMe is currently only available across the US, but it would be interesting to see the impact it would have on local SEO if Google took it on and rolled it out on a global scale.

BuyWithMe is essentially a local service, helping people to find discounts near to their location. So will regional SEO services have to change to accommodate BuyWithMe if Google take it on? Or would it be an entirely optional service and would local SEO not influence it at all?

All speculation at the moment of course, but we are interested to see how Google would integrate it with their shopping feed system and other services, such as pay per click management. Whatever happens though, it highlights the importance of local SEO and how local business need to optimise for their area to keep sales high in and around the community.

Will a service such as BuyWithMe be of use to your loyal local populace if you already provide them with the best discounts, incredible service and are easy to find on search engines? Probably not…

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Why You Should Retain Inactive Affiliates

Click Consult — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 08:05:02 +0000

Many merchants will consider deactivating affiliates who aren’t active, but you could be losing potential top affiliates. There are reasons why an affiliate may not be active and they should be considered carefully before deactivating. An affiliate may be new to affiliate marketing, which requires time for search engine optimisation and to build web pages with links. This takes time to build a decent amount of visitors, and can take a couple of years or more to attract high traffic volumes.

Some affiliates sign up with your programme and then realise that they don’t know anything about affiliate marketing. They will need time to learn how to build a website and marketing methods before they can become successful. As inactive affiliates don’t cost anything, you should keep them for a set amount of time before considering deactivating them. You have a list of people who have shown an interest in your programme, so try to encourage them to become active.

Look at the resources you provide to ensure that you provide everything an affiliate will require. If an affiliate signs up with your affiliate programme but then realises that you don’t have the necessary tools, they will sign up with someone else.

Outsourcing your affiliate marketing programme to a professional web advertising company such as here at Click Consult will enable you to rely on good quality promotional tools, data feeds and the latest technology. Affiliates will have all the tools required to build their own successful business and encouragement to become active.

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What Affiliates Really Want

Click Consult — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 08:02:52 +0000

The success of affiliate marketing depends largely upon the performance of the affiliates. For affiliates to be successful, they will require suitable resources from the merchant. A merchant who doesn’t provide effective tools for affiliates is not giving them a chance to succeed, and will therefore lose his affiliates. Listening to affiliates is important as this will enable you to provide the tools that they need to achieve high sales, maximising your income.

Affiliates appreciate communication from a merchant, as long as it is relevant. For instance, if you are deleting a page or moving it, let your affiliates know the new link so that they don’t continue to send customers to a broken link. Data feeds are useful for affiliates but not all merchants provide them.

Prompt validation of sales and payment is required by many affiliates, both to help with their own budgeting and so that they aren’t waiting for months at a time for payments due. Some merchants pay monthly which is acceptable to most people. Promotional media is another area where improvements can be made, with banners being updated frequently and the latest technology being implemented to stay current. When creative media is updated, affiliates should be informed so that they can replace the media on their website.

Here at expert SEO and PPC company Click Consult, we take care of all the affiliate communication, creative media and payments to affiliates. Accurate tracking and payment is necessary to retain your affiliate network, which we deal with using relevant technology.

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Outsourcing To An Affiliate Management Company

Click Consult — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 08:04:33 +0000

It is the belief of many merchants who are thinking of launching an affiliate marketing programme that affiliate marketing is a simple process where you join a network of affiliates and watch the sales roll in. In reality many merchants discover that the management of a successful affiliate marketing programme involves time, dedication and hard work as well as a financial investment.

Running your own in-house affiliate marketing campaign will require software for the management of affiliates which is expensive and requires an expert to manage the system. Without adequate knowledge of affiliate marketing, you will encounter affiliates who have illegal and unethical practices which could result in your business being blacklisted. As well as the potential problems you may encounter, you will require knowledge of affiliates and how they operate. This will enable you to have a better understanding of their requirements and how to encourage successful results in your affiliate programme

Here at web advertising company Click Consult we have experts in affiliate marketing who have the technology and knowledge to create and manage an effective affiliate marketing programme. Outsourcing will help you to achieve success while becoming an expert in affiliate marketing. Successful affiliate marketing depends on careful and thorough planning with accurate reporting and tracking. Outsourcing will help to build your affiliate marketing business without the need for financing an Information Technology team, a management team and other costly additions to your business. Let a professional affiliate marketing company use the techniques that have been perfected over many years to build a successful business for you.

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How To Motivate Your Affiliates

Click Consult — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 09:13:25 +0000

Keeping affiliates happy and motivated will ensure a high level of sales, benefiting all parties. The most obvious way to motivate affiliates is to provide a high commission percentage, but there are other ways to keep everyone happy. Treating your affiliates with respect will help to keep morale boosted, motivation levels high and therefore, healthy sales. Consider the effect of any decisions you make on the affiliate network, as many affiliates may be depending upon the sales they make for their livelihood. Before cutting the rate of commission or reducing cookies, consider the effect it will have on affiliates, and your reputation.

Offering the latest technology available such as RSS feeds seems to be logical, but many merchants cut costs in this area. Affiliates will be attracted to the merchants who are willing to invest in their business. Technology is a huge drain on resources which is why many merchants outsource their affiliate marketing programme. Here at internet marketing company Click Consult we offer the latest technology including RSS feeds and video ads.

Outsourcing your affiliate marketing programme allows you to concentrate on other areas of your business, as affiliate management is a huge responsibility. A professional company spends many years gaining experience and can implement an affiliate programme immediately which will maximise your return on investment.

Perform a regular analysis of your affiliate programme to check the progress of affiliates. Consider whether you need to make updates to your programme or promotional media. If your affiliates are performing well, a raise in commission levels will boost morale and keep affiliates happy.

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Use Marketing Tools To Attract Affiliates

Click Consult — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 08:00:25 +0000

Creating an affiliate marketing campaign is often discussed as being a simple method of building a business. The fact that affiliate marketing is a simple concept gives the impression that little or no effort is required to manage an affiliate programme. There are many aspects of affiliate marketing that require huge amounts of time, which can place pressure on merchants. Just one of the many areas which can be time consuming is the promotional material. Providing marketing resources is a merchant’s responsibility, attracting affiliates and giving them the tools to make sales.

Many affiliates will look to join the merchants who provide a comprehensive range of promotional tools and give assistance to affiliates. Banners are a popular marketing tool, with many merchants offering varied images and slogans. Affiliates expect you to provide banners that will fit on to their websites, complementing their site and being easy to add. A merchant has to consider the sizes which are available, providing a large variety of sizes to ensure that affiliates can find the size that they require. The design also has to vary to complement a wide variety of websites.

Managing an affiliate marketing programme requires a large amount of valuable resources, and if all aspects of the programme aren’t satisfactory this can lead to affiliates leaving the programme. Outsourcing to a professional internet marketing company such as here at Click Consult can ensure that all aspects of an affiliate marketing programme are attractive to affiliates and provide the support required from affiliates.

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How To Keep Affiliates Interested

Click Consult — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 09:02:10 +0000

It is the practice for many merchants to remove an affiliate from their affiliate marketing programme if they are not active over a long period of time. Before taking this action, it may be worth considering why the affiliate hasn’t made a sale and whether you can offer assistance or encouragement.

For many affiliates, affiliate marketing is an option to start a business without a huge outlay and virtually instant results. However, without knowledge of search engine optimisation, how to build an effective website and building an online reputation, an affiliate will never become successful. Even with this knowledge it takes to time, usually a period of six to twelve months to become effective. It may be that your affiliates are lacking the resources for optimising their website which is where you could offer assistance.

Managing a database of affiliates takes time and money, which is why many merchants only retain affiliates who are making sales, removing anyone who has been inactive. Consider whether it is worthwhile offering some coaching or mentoring to help you to gain some affiliates who become experienced and successful over time. Contacting the affiliate is also proactive, discovering the reason why no sales have been made.

For many merchants, outsourcing their affiliate marketing programme to a professional internet marketing company such as here at Click Consult allows the affiliates to be managed effectively, giving all affiliates a chance to become active within the network. Outsourcing your affiliate marketing programme will allow you to maximise your return on investment whilst concentrating on other aspects of your business.

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Which Type Of Affiliate Do You Want?

Click Consult — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 09:00:10 +0000

There are two main types of affiliates for you to recruit. Business partners run their own successful businesses and conduct themselves accordingly, acting in a professional and ethical manner. On the other hand, a commission-based sales team will differ n the way they do business with you. There will be affiliates who want to be successful in affiliate marketing but are not sure how, welcoming correspondence from the merchant. You will also find affiliates who keep their identity a secret and don’t wish to receive any communication from you at all. Some affiliates just want to make sales at any cost, which may entail the use of unethical, unprofessional methods.

The affiliates that you select will ultimately have an effect on your business brand, whether good or bad. Any unprofessional behaviour will reflect upon you and will require constant monitoring. A business partner will be more likely to be familiar with acceptable business practice and run his business in an organised manner.

You could have a mixture of both types of affiliate; a group of business partners and a group of affiliates acting as a sales team. The turnover of affiliates in this second group can sometimes prove to be steady, as many affiliates enter into affiliate marketing with the belief that it will provide instant rewards. When they discover that it takes persistence, hard work and effort, many affiliates will move on to something else.

Here at web marketing company Click Consult, we will recruit affiliates who are going to be beneficial to your business, whilst monitoring for inappropriate behaviours and managing the whole team effectively.

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Skills You Need To Be A Successful Merchant

Click Consult — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 08:06:15 +0000

If you already have an online business you may be considering becoming involved in affiliate marketing. Everywhere you look there are stories of how easy it is to build an affiliate marketing programme and have a virtual sales team making huge amounts of money. In reality affiliate marketing is hard work with many skills to learn.

If you have your own marketing business you will probably possess many of the skills required such as ecommerce, how to process orders online and payment methods. You will also know how to successfully market your business and ideally, have high traffic volumes.

To become an affiliate merchant you will have to concentrate on recruitment skills, management skills, tracking sales and knowledge of necessary software required for your affiliate programme. Although you won’t have a physical sales team, your affiliates are effectively making sales for you and you will want to ensure they are happy in order to produce higher sales figures.

Purchasing a software package for your affiliate business is a huge expense, as well as having to become experienced in its operation. Outsourcing your affiliate programme to an experienced internet marketing company such as here at Click Consult will help you to reduce the initial outlay and manage your affiliate network.

There are many skills required to be a successful affiliate marketing merchant and a huge amount of tasks to deal with on a daily basis, which doesn’t leave much time for other business duties. A company with the necessary skills and software will save you time and money.

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Top Tips To Recruit And Keep Affiliates

Click Consult — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 09:01:54 +0000

Affiliate marketing has become a popular business model resulting in a large number of affiliate merchants. For new merchants this makes it much more difficult to catch the attention of affiliate marketers wanting to promote your merchandise, unless you have a product which stands out. This means that you will have to reach out to affiliates in a different way.

One of the easiest ways to connect with potential affiliates is to simply send emails giving information about your affiliate programme and your contact details. You could also ask your existing affiliates to give you some feedback. This will enable you to make improvements to your programme which will appeal to affiliates. You are also showing that you have an interest in the opinions of your affiliates, as they are an integral part of your business.

Your affiliate tracking system is extremely important in order to pay your affiliates promptly and accurately. You will lose affiliates rapidly if you don’t pay the correct amounts on time, and you will soon become known as unreliable. When you recruit affiliates you will want to make constant improvements to your conversion rates. This is the ultimate goal for you and your affiliates and means you have to spend time improving landing pages and testing results of your campaign. This is an ongoing task as high conversion rates will result in the increased interest of new affiliates.

Here at internet marketing company Click Consult we will take care of all aspects of affiliate recruiting for you, with the testing and tracking of sales. We will engage your affiliates in the whole process, acting on feedback provided.

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