What comes first: building my site or joining an affiliate network?
Submitted by Larlox on Sun, 07/06/2008 - 06:19.
It's a chicken/egg thing which has me stumped.
I've come up with several ideas for niches using Jeremy's action guides. I even started the keyword research and scouted domain names. Now I want to see if there are any merchants in those niches that will make it worth my while to create my first affiliate site.
All my niche ideas are equal in terms of my interest and passion and about equal in their ability to get a decent volume of fairly cheap but targeted traffic. I went to OfferVault, which is an incredible tool, but their info is often incomplete. I went to CJ and some other networks linked from OfferVault, but can't get any actionable info on the merchants without applying, and every application asks me for my website which I don't have.
I just want to pick the niche that has the best shot at making money, but I don't want to build a site to only find out I should've picked the other niche.
Is there a way out of this conundrum?
Can I get a solid idea of what my earnings from merchants might be without joining an affiliate network?
Can I join an affiliate network without having a website?
If I have to have a website, what are they looking for? Will a simple 4 page microsite (Home, contact, about, privacy) be enough?
Is there a guide or tutorial on joining affiliate networks that I can turn to so as not to bother you all with these newbie questions?
aff network vs building site
Hi
Affiliate networks: some are easy to join, but it's the actual merchants that
may want to see a site So:
1- Write 4 - 6 unique articles and post them to a WP blog under a brandable domain name.
This should be good enough provided the template is professional looking enough. I would go with a paid template because you can't waste time setting up the freebie templates.
2. You want as many options (merchants) as possible because some of their sites
may look like they're not going to convert. So try and join all the relevant ones you can find
3- then start researching the merchants and weeding them out. You can't afford to send traffic to too many just for testing purposes.
Thanks dupatta
#2 and #3 make a lot of sense.
#1 seems do-able and not too time consuming, but I was hoping there might be an easier way and take even less time. and if it's what i've got to do to get approved by and investigate a particular merchant, then it's what i've got to do.
I'm not against generating content for an affiliate site. I just don't want to waste any time generating content for a site for which there are no good affiliate merchants.
Think outside the egg!
"Can I join an affiliate network without having a website?"
That depends on the network, some allow you to, others won't.
"If I have to have a website, what are they looking for? Will a simple 4 page microsite (Home, contact, about, privacy) be enough?"
If a website is required to become an affiliate, instead of creating one targeting the specific niche, create one to serve as your business site where you detail who you are and what you do etc. In time, you'll be able to list your existing sites thus giving affiliate managers all the information they need. Here's an example: http://imwave.com/
nice suggestion
kuproverto,
thanks for the suggestion to build a site for my affiliate business. that will be nice to have for the DL campaigns.
Website or Affilate Networks first?
Lariox -
I have a site that's only been up for a couple of months. When I was building it, I discovered that most networks want you to have a site before you join. You can get by on some by saying you have a newsletter.
The merchants, however, virtually ALL want to approve your site before allowing you to join. Most indicate that they cannot approve a site that is "under contruction" or otherwise not fully operational. This does make building, and monetizing, your site more difficult. It also, it seems to me, makes the concept of 'testing' a niche before going forward very tricky. This is a question I was going to pose to Jeremy myself.
To add to the pressure, many networks and merchants indicate that if you go thirty days without sales activity from your site, they will close your account. That means that you have to be up, running, and sending traffic within thirty days of joining the network/merchant. I purposely put off joining Commission Junctiion until the last possible minute, for this reason.
I will be interested to see if you get some sound advice regarding these issues.
Tejas
thanks for the heads up
I do want to be able to test the merchants in my niche before going full throttle on sending paid traffic. However, right now my aims are even more modest. I just want to see if there are any merchants in my niche (i.e. confirm that my niche isn't microscopic), and if so a rough idea of what sort of revenue a conversion would bring. I do SEO and PPC in my day job, so I can find and generate cheap traffic both paid and organic and can get a pretty decent idea of what my advertising expenses will be. I just want to get a rough idea of what my income might be to see if it's worth my time (which is at an extreme premium) to pursue the niche.
I was completely unaware that some networks required traffic to be sent within the first 30 days. Is there a way to see the agreement for each network before applying and setting the clock running?
I too will be interested to see if any experienced AMs have any advice regarding these issues.
I'd also love to hear if anyone has any recommendations on which networks a noob like me should goto first and which ones I should hold off on joining until I'm more established. And yes I know that it probably depends on my niche, but I'd still like to know which networks will be easier for me to join and remain in good standing with.
What happens if affiliate
What happens if affiliate networks close your account do to lack of activity? Can you reapply? Just curious because I joined the CJ network but I am currently doing some work with another network.
network is less likely to close your account than merchant
The thing is, networks are very unlikely to close your account if at all, i've been with many networks, some I have zero activity. However, it is the merchants who will terminate affiliation with you due to inactivity (Cj merchants do, but i dont know any other network much).
If thats the case, you can just write email to they and say that in your back in the game promoting their business, they usually friendly and will re-approve you.
Apply for the affiliate
Apply for the affiliate program first. If you are rejected, then do the following.
1. start a blog.
2. sign up for Amazon's affiliate program
3. amazon will usually approve your application even with just a simple blog.
4. Build your entire niche web site with
a. amazon products in mind, and
b. the affiliate network you want to join
5. apply for the affiliate network.
If you get rejected again, at least now you still have a web site that monetize through your amazon affiliate program.
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