As I mentioned in Part One of this series, affiliate programs can be good way to make money, but it doesn’t work for everyone. There are a few ways that you can potentially optimize your earnings, however. Keep in mind that it’s important for you to constantly monitor how these programs are working – results can vary significantly depending on your blog and audience, and with a little extra work you can optimize all of the revenue generation methods of your site.
Affiliate programs work best when you promote a specific product, rather than the store.
If you are already talking about a product, and can find it within one of your affiliate programs, link it up (disclosing, of course)! That way, you’ve discussed why a reader should buy the product, and with just a few clicks they can own it.
It’s all about the cookie!
Each affiliate program offers a different cookie time frame. This is the single-most important differentiator within affiliate programs. The cookie time frame essentially sets the terms for how long your reader has to make a purchase decision.
Here’s an example:
Your affiliate program for XYZ Printing has a 120-day cookie. Jane reader clicks the link and bookmarks the site for a purchase later that month when she needs invitations printed. When she goes back 30 days later to make a purchase, you’ll get paid because the cookie is still valid.
In general, look for longer duration cookies for stores such as the example above where your reader may not make the purchase immediately. Amazon’s affiliate program has a terrible cookie (24 hours), along with awful payout (starting at 4%) so keep that in mind when selecting affiliate programs.
Not all creates are created equally
When you choose which ads to display, seriously look at the banners offered from the perspective of a reader/potential buyer. Think about what would make you click to the page. Coupons are especially attractive, because they encourage the buyer to purchase immediately. Keep in mind that you can switch out creatives that aren’t working.
Consider using an ad server
If you have a reader that visits everyday, and they don’t click that affiliate banner the first few times they see it, they probably aren’t going to click it the 15th time you see it. If you use an ad server, you can set a maximum amount of times a reader will see a specific affiliate. This is a great way to maximize earnings.
More on ad servers in a future post.
Photo credit: Jen DeCesari
