Monetize Your Site

Becoming an affiliate for suppliers of products and services that fit with your site's niche market and utilizing Google's Adsense program are two of the easiest ways to monetize your website.

As An Affiliate ...

There are several companies that provide the tools, technology and services that online businesses need to register, track, report and pay affiliates. In other words, merchants don’t have to “do it themselves” because these companies
provide all the backend functionality necessary to run an affiliate program. The “backend providers” prefer to call themselves “affiliate networks.” Why? Because they do more than just provide merchants with affiliate software. They
also provide merchants with affiliates, and vice-versa. Since they have a pool of hundreds of thousands of affiliates, a merchant’s program gets instant exposure to potentially interested affiliates.

And affiliates get exposure to a wide variety of merchants. It’s a good idea to join each of these backend providers. For more information on affiliates visit Understanding Affiliates and be sure to check out our FREE downloads area for registered members of this site for an incredible eBook titled The Affiliate Masters Course.

The Affiliate Masters Course is an intensive 10-DAY course on becoming a high-earning affiliate champion. How? By “building income through content,” the proven, C T P M way! (register and get the eBook to learn what CTPM is all about)

An affiliate business is one of the easiest ways to get your feet wet in e-commerce. You send visitors (i.e., potential customers) to a merchant’s Web site that you are representing. If they buy or complete a required action (for example, fill in a form), the merchant pays you a commission. Simple, right? That, in essence, is the beauty of the affiliate concept. You can be up and building a business in record time, at minimal risk. Top-notch merchants supply everything (i.e., excellent products, ordering, credit card processing, and delivery). All you need to do is to put yourself in the path between customers and quality merchants... and earn a commission for your efforts. So what’s the best way to put yourself on that critical pathway? You'll find out how in the eBook The Affiliate Masters Course.

One of the major attractions of becoming an affiliate is the small amount of risk involved. As an affiliate, you have little or no...

In other words, affiliates do not have millions at stake. But you do have one big risk... if a merchant or backend provider goes out of business, it takes you with it. Let’s talk briefly about how to minimize this risk... after you review the affiliate directories and backend providers, you should have a good selection of programs. How many programs should you choose? How do you know which ones are solid? You don’t, really. Yes, you can weed out the dogs by doing the basic research outlined below. But most of us just don’t have the ability or time to thoroughly analyze a company, its financials, and its business model… and then predict success or failure.

So your best bet is to spread your business among as many programs as possible that fit with your Site Concept. But there are some important qualifiers to this policy...

If you plan unusually heavy support for a given category of product, you might want to represent the best two merchants. For example, suppose you foresee hundreds of book links on your site. It might be a good idea to choose the best 2 online bookstores -- if Bookstore A and Bookstore B fit with your concept and both seem to be stable companies, then use these two. No more, though... 3) Don’t choose too many programs. Tracking each program takes time, so 10 programs is probably a good balance. If any one of them dies, you don’t lose too much.

Your best results will come from focusing on a smaller group of quality programs (from within the 10). Their products must...

The bottom line is don’t give too much emphasis to any single program, unless you have some special reason to feel unusually comfortable with it. Things happen. So protect yourself by choosing a variety of affiliate partners. Of course, you can also reduce your risk by weeding out the dogs through some basic research.

Find the good programs and eliminate the dogs by considering the following plus signs, minus signs, and red flags. Let’s start with the plus signs, signified by + (which means “good things to look for”). Here they are, in the approximate order of importance...

+ High quality product or service -- Remember, it’s your reputation that is on the line (and online!). Don’t recommend products that UNDERdeliver.
+ Merchant has a good site that sells effectively.
+ Ability for affiliate to link straight to individual products, rather than just to the home page. (If the visitor has to find the product that you recommend, your Conversion Rate plummets.)
+ Type of payment model... Pay-per-sale and pay-per-lead are good. This is true “performance marketing.” If your referred visitor delivers the desired response, you get paid. What about “pay-per-click?” See red flags below.
+ Affiliate Support...

+ Pays good commission -- Hard goods have lower margins than digital ones so their commissions will be lower. Still, you should make at least 10% (hard goods) or 20% (digital goods) on any product that you recommend. Don’t bescared off by low-priced products if they offer a good % commission -- the lower dollar value per sale is offset by the higher sales volume.
+ Must be free (no charge) to join, no need to buy the product.
+ Lifetime commission -- If the program pays a commission on future sales of other products to customers that you refer, this is a huge plus.
+ Two-tier commission -- If the program pays a commission on affiliates who join because of you, this is also great.
+ Lifetime cookie -- Do you receive a commission if the person you referred returns and buys within one month? Three months? The cookie that tracks this should not expire.
+ Restriction on number of affiliates -- You won’t find many of these. But if you do find one, grab it.
+ Monthly payment, with reasonable minimum.

Do all those plus signs have to be present? No. But the more, the merrier. Minus signs are definite detractors. Naturally, if you are unable to give a + to any of the criteria listed just above, consider its absence to be a minus. And
watch out for these negative factors...

Example -- If lifetime customers are important to you, then a clause that allows unilateral termination or modification of the agreement at any time by the company without just cause effectively makes the lifetime commitment of no
value.

Example -- No exclusivity (i.e., you should be allowed to represent more than one book vendor).

And perhaps the most worrisome factor of all…
“The dark side” of affiliate programs. Is the program really just a way to legally bribe folks to recommend overpriced, UNDERdelivering products in order to collect excessive commissions? There is a commission that is “just right” for each product. If the commission is too low, it is not interesting enough for affiliates. If it is too high, it’s a consumer
rip-off. (Excessive commissions also push the price of the product up to levels that cannot survive for long in the competitive Net marketplace.)

Your job as an affiliate is an important one. You deliver high-value content that gains the confidence and trust of your visitor/reader. You include recommendations and referrals to your new friends as part of your service and content. Recommending anything less than sterling products is simply sophisticated, subtle fraud.

If you find products that fit your theme but that don’t deliver quality, sell the distributor advertising on your site. This way, you don’t compromise your ethics or your reputation because the customer recognizes advertising for what it is... a promotion. Nothing wrong with that at all, because her “guard is up.” Bottom line... Don’t allow yourself to be bribed into recommending such products -- in the long run, your reputation will be ruined. And so will your business.

On the other hand, when your visitors are rewarded repeatedly by your rich recommendations, they will increasingly like you and respect your judgment and they'll keep coming back for more!

Your Most Wanted Response may be to have your visitor buy from one of your merchants. But what if you visitor doesn't want that product today? Instead she notices another one of your offerings. This is a WIN-WIN situation -- your visitor is happy and your Web site is steadily bringing you a stable income. Some of the following monetization models will be as low-maintenance as affiliate programs are (i.e., no product to develop, store, ship, support, etc.). Others will take more of your time.

with Google’s AdSense Program...

AdSense is tailor-made for Theme-Based Content Sites. Combine participation in the AdSense Program with membership in two or three quality affiliate programs and you have a solid monetization base in place. How does AdSense work? Upon acceptance in the program, Google selects relevant ads for you to place on your Web pages. You are paid for every ad clicked upon. For complete details about the program, visit… http://adsense.sitesell.com/
And for a real world example check out Make Beer At Home, a site that monetizes by using the principals outlined on this website. Also be sure to check out Understanding Adsense.

Create high-value content for a variety of keywords. Solid keyword research, also right up SBI!'s alley, is a key part of building targeted traffic through excellent content. With that most important consideration understood as the absolute prerequisite, here are several strategies to help you maximize your income from Google and turn (ad)cents into dollars...