PC Doctor+ Guide 20 How To Make Money From Your Web Site (Part
3) Affiliates
How To Make Money from Your Website (3) Let's deal now with
Affiliate advertisements. What Is An Affiliate Program? In part
1, we discussed how a web site that is popular and has lots of
visitors has an important asset - the attention of people.
Companies will pay to have people's attention because they can
then show them advertisements. Even the largest of companies
have recognised the opportunities the Internet presents for
advertising. So how does a large company feed advertisements to
other people's web sites? It could maintain a dedicated section
or department whose sole function was to promote and maintain
accounts for individual web site owners who had signed up with
them as affiliates and indeed some companies do just that. The
administration costs to themselves though are quite high. The
more common approach is to use a third party Affiliate Company
to administer the process such as Commission Junction. This is a
sensible approach. The third party company can then work on
developing the efficiency of the process itself while the
advertising company can concentrate on the actual marketing of
their products. They do this by producing eye-catching ads which
are fresh and keep pace with product cycles, promotions and the
like. The range of companies using Affiliate programs is
extensive and includes everyone from high street banks and
retailers to specialist web-based companies who have no
traditional high street presence. I can think of few high street
retailers in the UK who are not also running concurrent
affiliate programs on the Internet. There are quite a few
Affiliate Companies. The majority have an American slant. It's
easy enough to search for Affiliate Companies on the Internet
but make a large cup of coffee before hand as you may be there
for some time! Why Become An Affiliate? At the simplest level it
is an additional source of advertisement revenue. The
advertisement banners and links produced by the advertisers are
almost invariably of very good quality. Their presence on your
site actually adds to the professional look and overall feel of
it. By using advertisements from well known companies you become
associated, albeit in a small way, with quality brands. Remember
if an advertiser accepts you as an affiliate they are giving a
stamp of approval to your site - always reassuring! So How Do
Affiliate Programs Work? In essence there are three parties
involved: The Advertiser who supplies the graphics to the
Affiliate Company and determines commission rate policy. The Web
Site Owner who adds the HTML code to his site which will display
the ads. He also looks after the site content. The Affiliate
Company who administers everything collecting payments from
advertisers and collating them into web site owner accounts.
Each party has specific roles in the relationship and if
everyone does their bit effectively everyone benefits. Register
Firstly, you need to register with the Affiliate Company and
create an account. To do this simply visit the appropriate web
site. (listed below) The registration procedure seems to vary
little between Affiliate Companies. The details you need to
supply are: Your name and address Other contact details The URL
of your web site Details of your bank The Affiliate Company
looks after collecting payments from advertisers and collating
these to your account. When the amount in your account reaches a
threshold level it is transferred into your bank account. Select
Your Advertisers To select advertisers scan through those
available. It's best to pick only those that comply with the
overall context of your web site. So for example, if you run a
site providing DIY tips and instructions you may sign up with B
& Q or on-line Garden Centres. You can sign up for the more
general advertisers but keep those to a minimum. Be smart. In
our DIY example, the site will attract visitors interested in
that subject so DIY advertisements will work best for both you
and the advertising company. Apply Once you have selected your
advertiser you will have to apply to that company