All Posts Tagged With: "affiliates"

Cookies are of paramount importance in the internet advetising space, in fact, I would go so far as to say advertising on the internet could not exist without them. Why? Glad you asked! Cookies are little files of data that get set when you visit a site and are accessible when you return to the site that set them, maybe they do something as innoculous as automatically log you in upon return or maybe they store other information, such as what link you clicked to get there. Regardless, they are there to store bits of data about your browsing history. Alarmed? Probably not if you are reading this blog bug but if you are, as Sun’s Scott McNealy said way back in 1999, “get over it“.

While cookies can help sites track things such as visitation frequency and demographic data they are even more important in the context of affiliate marketing. The cookie indicates which affiliate the visitor arrived through and consequently, who get’s paid if/when the visitor converts. Since visitors may not necessarily convert (buy, sign up, whatever) on the initial visit the affiliate marketer needs window of time with which they can be credited for the action. Typical affiliate ranges could be anywhere from 7 to 90 days or more.

I was browsing the digitalpoint forums and found a user asking about the duration of the eBay Partner Network cookie. I couldn’t find this in their documentation so I did a little experiment. I cleared my browser cookies and went to discountroombas.com, the niche eBay site I plan on experimenting with. I had already implement the RSS widget that populates a list of sales meeting certain keword requirements, in my case roombas.

Anyway the intial niche site set cookies under two domains, with dates ranging from end of session (when I leave the site) all the way through 6/24/2010. It wasn’t until I clicked on an auction link that a cookie corresponding to my affiliate status was set (highlighted in the picture above). In this case the eBay Partner Network cookies was set to expire after 30 days. That meant that if the user that clicked arrived to eBay through my site and either signed up for a new account or placed the winning bid on auction link they clicked on would end up netting me X dollars. Had this visitor joined or won an auction after 31 days I would not get get anything.

Bottom line, if you are working with an affiliate program, check the terms of service. The longer the cookie duration for conversion tracking the better.

Popularity: 32% [?]

In my previous article I added “(af)” after some of the links. If you are wondering what that means, it means that those links utilize my affiliate code for whatever affiliate program I happen to be referring to. My intention with this blog is to be transparent when it seems appropriate, if I have an interest in somebody taking action off a link or recommendation I make it should be disclosed. Some people don’t like signing up under other’s affiliate codes despite their interest, I for one feel it’s a validation of the entire business model I and my readers are trying to leverage. If somebody doesn’t like affiliates, then fine, I can’t control it anyway so I may as well make it easy for them to see so they see me as an honest authority on a subject rather than as some kind of huckster looking to sign people up to various programs.

Popularity: 19% [?]

WordPress is a near ubiquitous blogging and content management systems out there. Not only do some of the biggest blogs out there like techcrunch utilize it but so do small niche sites that end up with a few pages before whithering into the ether, and everything in between, including NicheBuilder.net. But while ubiquitey makes WordPress platform a reliable proven choice it also means there are literally dozens, if not hundreds, of sites that look just like yours. If you want to spend the money or you have the time and expertise you can contract out or develop a custom one off theme yourself. Since my expertise isn’t in PHP/CSS but rather .NET I decided I would purchase a theme. Why didn’t hire a developer to create a custom theme for me so the site would really stand out? Three reasons. One, I could still get a very clean, professional looking theme without spending a few thousand dollars. Two, if I want to start other niche WordPress sites, I would need a theme that I could use over and over as a starting point. Three, the theme developer I settled on offered an affiliate program (af).

Why was an affiliate program a factor in where I purchase my theme from? Simple, were I to ignore a potential revenue stream through the referral of new customers to the theme developer would be contrary to the whole point of this blog. Affilates programs are what are referred to as PPA/CPA programs, Pay Per Action or Cost Per Action depending on whether you are the publisher (affilate) or the advertiser (seller). I’ll be discussing affiliate programs and CPAs in great depth in future articles.

I settled on a theme from solostream (af), specifically, the Solostream 3-Column theme. Solostream utilizes e-junkie.com for their affiliate program. The sign up was easy but they don’t offer creatives for their various sellers which puts additional work on the affilate if they want to use more than text links, it’s not a huge issue but it would be nice and it highlights the differences between e-junkie and some of the big boys like Commission Junction. Regardless of where you get your theme from, search google there are numerous sources, take the time to get a good theme as the base for your site, you won’t regret it.

Popularity: 39% [?]