8 questions and answers for Affiliate Marketing beginners

I quite often get beginners to affiliate marketing asking me questions via MSN, email or on various forums. Now I don’t mind this at all. Here is my top 8 questions and answers that I get asked most often.

1. What is the best affiliate program?
Now how am I supposed to answer this? The “best” affiliate program will differ from site to site. Lets say that my best performing affiliate program right now is William Hill Bingo, because I feature it heavily on my bingo site. Does that mean you should promote it on your blog for digital cameras? Of course not! Instead try asking these questions…”What is the best performing affiliate program in the electrical sector, specifically digital cameras”. Then drill down and ask why, does the program offer a high CPA? Maybe it has a zero reversal policy or just converts damn well. This is the information you need to find out.

2. What is the best affiliate network?
As above, impossible to answer. If I was a finance affiliate for example then I would maybe pick OMG who are pretty much a niche network working in the financial sector. So great if you are in finance, but not so great for my bingo site. Again ask which network is the best for say high street brands, Buy.at is the answer btw. Or maybe the best network for a wide range of smaller merchants and a very proactive staff? Webgains. What about a mix of the above 2? Affiliate Window.

3. What is a good CTR for Google AdWords?
As long as you are making money it doesn’t really matter. Seriously, people obsess about this but at the end of the day if you are making money then that’s what counts. I have some campaigns that have CTR rates at 70% but earn very little, some at 2% that earn me enough for a new car. It doesn’t matter.

4. How many clicks should I send to a merchant to see if they convert?
500. Not 10, not 100 but 500. Some people will argue that it should be lower but I always send at least 500 very targeted clicks via a ppc campaign before I give it a hit/miss.

5. Are there any eBooks I should read to learn about affiliate marketing/PPC/SEO?
No, none. I’ve never read any and don’t know any successful affiliate marketeers who have either. Instead read blogs and forums and most of all, just do it! Nothing beats good old fashioned trial and error.

6. What is the best niche to promote? What makes the most money?
Again, impossible to answer. I operate in a few niches now that are very profitable to me - but only because I have been here for years and have a loyal user base, established sites and good traffic. For a newbie to enter would be very hard and would involve a lot of cash - for ppc. Even then there are no guarantees. Instead, don’t pick a market to promote just because you think you can coin it in. Instead build a site about something you are passionate about and knowledgeable about. Thats all it takes.

7. I don’t know anything about HTML, PHP, coding, web design, graphic design, datafeeds or anything remotely technical. So how can I build a website and make money?
Neither do I! Thanks to Blogger, and Wordpressyou can now have a site up and running in literally minutes. Yes you young ‘uns have it easy. Back in the day, I had to learn how to use MS FrontPage and hard code my sites from scratch.

8. Should I pay for a SEO company to optimise my site?
No. Waste of money in my opinion. I think on-page SEO just isn’t that important at all. Instead trawl the web and find out what makes a site rank well. Learn about link building, directory and article submissions. But more importantly just build a good site that people will *want* to link to. Thats all there is to it.

Anybody got any more questions?

What I’m listening to right now: Prince - “Sometimes it Snows in April” I’m going to see him again tomorrow!

Topics: Affiliate Marketing | 26 comments so far
Friday, August 3rd, 2007 at 1:00 am and is filed under Affiliate Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.