article on affiliate programs

[beeman81]

I've just written an article on affiliate programs

You can read the article at http://www.appsoftheweb.com/articles/understanding_affiliate_programs.htm

Hope you enjoy it!
Views/comments always welcome!

[Dani]

Nice article. I'm not so sure if I agree with you, though. I seem to think that CPA affiliates never work for me. I can generate a decent amount of revenue due to banner/text link clicks, but not when it comes to my visitors actually having to sign up for something or buy something (cost per action or cost per lead) on a merchant's site, I never generate anything.

I took a look at LinkShare and it seems like it has good possibilities. Does it support CPC or CPM as well, however? If so, how much do you earn per click?

My favorite program (for now, anyways) is Google AdSense.

[subtronic]

Nice article. I'm not so sure if I agree with you, though. I seem to think that CPA affiliates never work for me. I can generate a decent amount of revenue due to banner/text link clicks, but not when it comes to my visitors actually having to sign up for something or buy something (cost per action or cost per lead) on a merchant's site, I never generate anything.

I took a look at LinkShare and it seems like it has good possibilities. Does it support CPC or CPM as well, however? If so, how much do you earn per click?

My favorite program (for now, anyways) is Google AdSense.

I disagree completely. I don't like advertisements of any kind on any website, but I understand the reality of a monthly bill ;P I'm currently working a project (its on my linux machine right now, uwn.homelinux.net) where I'm going to donate all my own money into it just because I love hip hop and drum and bass and downtempo music and wish to give other such people a place to meet; even if that means I eat 33 cent macoroni ;)

[Dani]

I think you might've misunderstood, subtronic? I see nothing wrong with advertisements if they're necessary to offset costs to keep a site running. However, I was just commenting that CPC banners seem to work a lot better for me than CPA banners. beeman stated multiple times in his article that CPA banners made more money for small sites than CPC banners did, and I feel that's the opposite.

[beeman81]

Sorry it took so long for me to answer...

I just had a look at linkshare, and they dont seem to offer anything else than CPA. The reason I like this program is that it offers brand names which people recognize, and its the first program that has actually made me any money (ok, this is atarting to sound like advertising... :)).
I am also signed up with amazon, but I really don't know why I haven't removed their banners yet (too lazy I guess). I can't believe they just pay around 5% of the sales. You'd have to make a bunch of sales just to get the minimum $50

Just curious. I guess I should have interviewed a few webmasters before writing the article. You don't have to tell me how much you make - but - how much can a webmaster who recieves - let's say... 100 visitors/day make by signing up for CPC or CPM?

[Gainer101]

I partially agree with Dani's argument regarding CPA, but I think if your going to have affiliate advertising on a page, you have approuch it alittle differently than CPC. With a CPC banner, one simply needs to leave it there, and results will likely occur as long as you're getting sufficient traffic. With an affiliate (excuse me if I'm repeating some of my recent posts), the only way one can generate revenue is if you're willing to endorse the product directly on your site. What I mean is you may have to give it some editorial buzz. Obviously you don't want to kill your editorial integrety by whoring yourself out to every company out there, but if you've found an online service that works and you think your readers would appreciate it, tell your readers.

Jesse Gainer
Business Development