Much has been written about that mythical creature the “Super Affiliate” however Affiliate Marketing is a partnership and everyone involved should be working towards a common goal to this end I am going to look at:

6 Effective Habits Of Super Merchants*

*Some of the activities mentioned may have been outsourced to Affiliate management companies and agency’s but for continuity I am going to bracket everything under the “merchant” banner.

1) Improve Conversion Rates

Affiliates can get the prospective customers to merchant websites, often this traffic will be pre-qualified and highly targeted, however, it is up to the merchant website to make the sale.

Usabilty tests, eye-tracking, multivariate tests are all ways of identifying problems and the results can be used to improve conversion rates, not only of affiliate traffic but natural traffic too.

Resources: Pick up a copy of Don’t Make Me Think!: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability by Steve Krug and read Google Website Optimizer – 108 Free Tips | Conversion Rate Experts for some fabulous ideas on the subject, inncidently I recommend affiliates read these to as the methods can be used to improve click through rates.

2) Affiliate Friendly Website Updates

A massive bugbear of mine is when a merchant announces their great new website and then ends with “our url structure has changed please amend ALL your affiliate links”, don’t get me wrong I am all for merchants improving their site navigation to make it more user friendly but if the coder can’t add a simple line to the .htaccess file which puts in 301 redirects from the old structure to the new its a bad job.

By the way having redirects in place makes sense as it is also search engine friendly, Google may have indexed your old page but without a redirect to the new one it will just hitting a whole load of broken links and 404 pages which isn’t going to do your rankings a lot of good. Effective 301 redirects can only be good for sales.

This article on the Blue Chip Vacations Affiliate Blog Site relaunched after usability study covers a few of the things I have mentioned on site usability and affiliate friendly website updates.

3) Effective Communication

We live in the communication age, Email, Phone, Text, instant messenger, Twitter, Facebook and Skype are just some of the methods that merchants can use to get in touch with their affiliate, a word of warning do not swamp your affiliates with a constant barrage unless that’s what they have asked you for.

Do your homework, does the affiliate what updates from you daily, weekly, monthly or just whenever something of interest crops up, do find out how the affiliate likes to be contacted, I personally prefer email with a quick convo on messenger just to make me aware if the content of the email warrants it.

Categorise affiliates too some want voucher and offer information, while others want content ideas, some require both. Have separate mailing lists.

Oh and when sending emails avoid the big graphical ones where the text is on an image as they are impossible for affiliates to work with. Also deep link emails where possible and add the affiliate tracking if you can, most UK affiliate networks have provision for this just ask them if you don’t know how.

4) Provide Useful Content

Content affiliates are always on the look out for fresh content, while it is logistically impossible to provide every affiliate with bespoke content it often pays to look after your top performers.

Super merchants also let affiliates know about new products, best sellers, press coverage, press releases anything really that can get the creative juices flowing.

Oh and when sending emails avoid the big graphical ones where the text is on an image as they are impossible for affiliates to work with. Also deep link emails where possible and add the affiliate tracking if you can, most UK affiliate networks have provision for this just ask them if you don’t know how. (yes I know I wrote this twice it’s important for affiliate productivity).

5) Keep Product Feeds Up To Date

More and more affiliates are using product feeds thanks to services such as the fabulous Easy Content Units, I could rabbit on all day about the reasons for keeping them up to date but it has been covered by Jason Dale here Merchants, Are Your Product Feeds Leaving Affiliates Hungry? very wise words, I have a lot of respect for Jason and he is a live contender for affiliate blog of the year at the a4uawards.

6) Make Your Affiliate Incentives Winnable

Affiliate incentives which reward your top performers are all well and good but they are not going to get you new affiliates, from time to time introduce an incentive that anyone can win, put everyone in to the draw that makes a sale, puts up a banner, writes an article etc., this may well motivate new affiliates, stagnant affiliates and fringe players as well as your good performers too.

This article isn’t about teaching merchants to suck eggs I wrote it purely as an exercise in pointing out that affiliate marketing is a two way street, simply having an affiliate programme will not make you an instant millionaire, but being proactive and helping affiliates to help you will set you well on the road, just ask some of the merchants who swear by the affiliate channel.

Update 10/02/10:

A great blog response to this from Matt Bailey of i-level Can we all become Super Merchants?

And thanks to Linda Buquet at 5 Star Affiliate Programs for helping to spread the word 6 Habits Of Highly Effective Affiliate Managers and Merchants

6 Effective Habits Of Super Merchants

Only 40 or so days left of what is widely predicted to be the biggest online spending spree ever so if you are an online retailer make sure you get your fair share of the bootee.

Make it easy for your customers to buy from you…

I realise as an affiliate its not my place to teach merchants how to do their jobs however as a shopper who buys a fair bit over the internet I’d like to make a few suggestions.

1. Ensure that your shopping cart process is not too complicated. Christmas is probably the wrong time for usability testing but grab a random person and ask them to buy something.
2. Make sure ALL your payment methods work, you can guarantee the one method on the blink is the one everyone is trying to use
3. Do you really need your customers to register. Christmas is a time of impulse buying and many customers will never ever return, insist on them registering and you may just drive them away, no need to switch off registration completely, just offer a quick checkout route.
4. Make the most of your 404 and search traffic. If a user arrives at a page on your site which doesn’t exist or looks for a product you don’t sell, give them a few suggestions rather than a blank page to stare at.
5. Remember to up sell to your customers. Make suggestions which compliment the original purchase, McDonalds do it (you want large fries with that) and online Amazon are the masters of the up sell with every page having “Frequently Bought Together” and “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought”

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Merchant 404 Pages

Merchants make the most of your traffic and nail that sale

Last week I mentioned how I like affiliate incentives which give everyone a chance to win well here is another from fashion merchant Blue Inc, (aff link) so if you are an affiliate no matter who you are, big or small, get a banner up, get creative and make some sales, you gotta be in it to win it.

INCENTIVE

Blue Inc Clothing have announced an Autumn 2009 affiliate incentive which gives everyone a chance. There are two chances to win – each with £100 prizes.

Prize 1

You very simply have to run some Blue Inc creative on the homepage of your site or review one of our products.

All you have to do is e-mail them (alex.h (@) p-media.co.uk) a screen grab and the url. Each e-mail they receive will get 1 entry into prize draw 1.

Prize 2

Drive over 4 sales across the months of October and November to gain entry into prize draw 2.

ABOUT BLUE INC

They are a fast growing fashion retailer – they have gone from 50 stores to just under 80 over the course of the year.

They have a full womenswear range being launched online during October 2009 and are evaluating stock market floatation in 2010.

Their affiliate programme is managed by Perception Media and available through Linkshare (aff link).

2 chances for any affiliate to win with Blue Inc

Filed away on this blog under good practices DFDS Seaways have recently launched an affiliate incentive which gives everyone a chance.

The first part is DOUBLE COMMISSION for all DFDS sales between now and 1st November 2009.

Secondly to add icing on the cake there is also an opportunity to win a fabulous Supercar experience day, where you petrol heads get the opportunity to drive Aston Martins, Ferraris, Lamborghinis and more.

Whats more its a competition that anyone can win not just the super affiliates (what ever one of them is).

How to win:
Position 1 – Affiliate that generates the most revenue during the incentive period
Position 2 – Every 1 sale = 1 Entry into draw to win
Position 3 – Best Content on 241 Mini Cruises (Follow Link Below to Submit URL)
Position 4 – 1 Place will be given away at a4uexpo on 14 October 2009

>> Click here for full details…

DFDS Seaways Double Commission + Supercar Challenge

Friday was a good post day I received a couple of bottles of wine from my good friend and affiliate podcaster extraordinaire Fraser Edwards.

Fraser has recently acquired the websites www.redwine.co.uk and www.whitewine.co.uk in order to get the word out rather than mess about with business cards he decided to get a few bottles of Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc printed up instead and distribute them throughout the internet community.

So far I have enjoyed the Merlot here is my short review.

The dominant features of this wine are black cherry, blackberry, a trace of vanilla and just a hint of nutmeg, all in a well structured wine with soft tannins. It is the ideal type of wine to age, because it has a great deal of character plus satisfactory structure for lengthy development over time. You could if you wanted drink it directly with food, or lay it down for a few years to mature.

Actually those tasting notes are complete bollocks partly made up and partly plagiarism, while some of it may be true and it was an excellent bottle of red I’m no wine connoisseur more Ozzy Osborne than Oz Clarke in my drinking habits.

Incidentally Fraser is currently running a competition where you can win a case of wine this closes at the end of July 2009, look on the sites for more details or follow @whiteandred on twitter and re-tweet to enter.

Thank you www.redwine.co.uk and www.whitewine.co.uk

Those of you who work with me and a few of you that don’t are probably aware that my main area is fashion, as you may appreciate there are a lot of fashion merchants out there and its a often a case of me picking the easy options when choosing what to write about, if I have content about a merchant I am more likely to give them prominence than if I have to do my own research and totally write articles from scratch.

Don’t get me wrong I am not against writing stuff from the ground up and probably between 6 and 12 articles daily are all my own work.

So what do I require to push your programme?

In a word CONTENT!!!

Unique content is best and it will push you to the top of the pile, I have a wonderful agency person who sends me 3 unique articles a week for one of the merchants she looks after, consequently 3 articles a week get published for that merchant.

So what kind of stuff am I looking for?

Well the answer is absolutely anything fashion related, short articles work best for me in the 150 – 200 word region.

One article will get you exposure, one a month gets you regular exposure, one a week… etc you get the picture.

Tell me and my users about your brands, your ranges, your new stuff, your best sellers, your clearance department, celebrities that use your products, media attention they have gained, anything really, it is all useful.

If you send me unique content I will use it.

If you send me generic content I may use it.

If you send me nothing I don’t have a starting point.

What else can you do?

Let me know when your products have been on TV or in the papers and magazines, the fresher the better, I got a heads up about a range of products that were featured on a Channel 4 programme recently, so I wrote a short piece about them, it wasn’t fashion incidentally but a health product which I could use on the main fashion site, from the moment I published they literally started flying off the shelves and I know for a fact a lot more publishers than me benefited, as the product was not unique to one merchant, a few more sales were diverted in the direction of the one I promoted thanks to being guided by the agency looking after them.

I have just realised it is a year as of yesterday that I wrote about this very same subject How To Push My Buttons And Get Me To Promote Your Wares just shows not a lot has changed.

A big thank you to everyone who sends me content, has already sent me content and is about to send me content.

An open letter to affiliate managers and merchants How to get me promoting you

Being a bit of a lazy blogger its unusual for me to post more than 3 or 4 times a month on Keith’s Affiliate Marketing Blog often its a lot less, so it takes something special to make me do two posts in one day.

I had just hit publish on the Hootsuite article when my daughter told me Interlink had left a package for me, think she was a bit disappointed it wasn’t for her as she is 18 tomorrow and covered in chicken pox so not able to celebrate with her mates.

Well the mystery package turned out to be my prize from The All Up And On What Would You Buy Challenge run by Existem Affiliate Management.

I have always been of the mindset that you have to be in it to win it although with this one it was a little different, I had been looking for an angle to promote all-up-and-on and here was the perfect hook 3 products from their range in 3 different price bands, so I spent a little time sifting through the site and couldn’t come up with inspiration for a single post, no it spawned two The All Up And On Challenge and In the Kitchen with All Up And On.

Anyway come judgment day I was lucky enough to be one of the winners and today took delivery of the awesome Hucks designchain™ which you can see below stuffed with a few affiliate essentials.

Thanks to @allupandon and @Existem_AM for this fabulous prize and for running such a fantastic winnable incentive.

Thanks to all-up-and-on for my Hucks DesignChain

Just like Willy Wonker in Charlie and the Chocolate factory, Books Direct are giving away ‘Golden Tickets’ and just like Charlie Bucket I have got my grubby affiliate mits on one.

“So whats the point?” I hear you say, well there could be up to 15,000 points.

Books Direct are currently running a brand bidding funded incentive prize draw.

Based on a suggestion by two affiliates Fraser Edwards and Paul Wheatley Books Direct stopped their privately run PPC activity and instead these two affiliates now run the campaign at no profit to themselves. All commissions that are generated through this activity is being put into a prize pool and this money is to be re-distributed to active affiliates on the Books Direct programme.  This experiment has now generated over £12,000 and the final pool could be as much as £15,000.

When the draw takes place 2 lucky golden ticket holders will share the pot, definitely an affiliate prize worth winning.

Full details of how to get your self your very own golden ticket can be seen on the a4uforum in the article Books Direct Brand Bidding – Prize Pool

Don’t miss out on the Books Direct Golden Ticket Prize Draw

404

Page not found

The page you requested cannot be found on the server

Basically its an invite to the user to hit the back button and disappear from the website, also its a potential sale lost.

On the high street if a product is sold out its place on the shelf is soon filled by something else, so why not on the web.

Simply revamp the 404 page to say something like:

We are sorry but the product you are looking for is currently not available,

however here are some similar items.

Then list a few items from the same category, this will make your site more sticky and improve the chances of converting the visitor to being a customer.

The potential of 404 pages is limitless, you could add a search box, a full list of departments, brands, ranges etc etc.

Take a look at your site statistics how many 404′s are you generating?

What if just 1% of them was converted to a sale?

Merchant 404 Pages – Get Creative and Increase sales

Yesterday Affiliate Future launched their voucher manager you can read more about it here Our new Voucher Code system is live

Tools like this make life easier for all affiliates not just ones with specific voucher code sites, even though I do run a voucher site myself (all be it very lazily) I also operate in several niches and the Affiliate Future Voucher Manager will come in handy for finding codes to use in those specific areas, a quick glance at the voucher directory tells me that 6 codes are available for fashion (some which i never knew about), Clothing 2, Footwear 1, Lingerie 1 and Outdoor Clothing 2, these warrant further investigation as content fillers for my fashion blog, drilling down further into the subcategories reveals the merchant, the offer and the link url, if you have joined said merchant, if not you get the join programme button.

Early days yet and I’ve not had a chance to play properly with the Affiliate Future Voucher Manager, but its arrived and it will be useful.

Affiliate Future Voucher Manager