Identifying and Joining the Right Affiliate Programs
Okay, let’s get started. You’ve learned some best practices for vetting the affiliate programs before promoting them; now it’s time to roll up our sleeves and actually start looking for some programs to sign up with. As promised, I’ll walk you through the process with some of the affiliate networks you joined in Chapter 4.

Commission Junction
Commission Junction is a great network to start off with, as it offers hundreds of affiliate programs, an intuitive interface, and a variety of methods that you can use to compare programs against each other. After logging into the CJ Account Manager, with the e-mail address and password you provided during the registration process, you’ll be taken to the CJ Marketplace home page (see Figure 5.1).

Figure 5.1 CJ Marketplace’s Home Page

This page can provide you with a lot of useful and customizable statistics once you are in business for a while, but for now you’ll notice it doesn’t have much to offer. Let’s just move straight ahead to the affiliate programs by clicking on the Get Links tab beneath the Commission Junction logo. This should bring you to the General Categories page (Figure 5.2), where you will see Commission Junction’s affiliate programs broken out into different categories and subcategories.

Figure 5.2 Commission Junction’s General Categories Page

There are lots of different categories to explore, and based on some of the advice I’ve given you earlier in this chapter you should be ready to explore this list. Since I don’t know which of these categories might hold the most interest for you, I will select one with broad appeal for the purposes of moving forward with my example. I recommend clicking on the Commerce category in the first column to begin. This should take you to an Advertiser Search Results page (see Figure 5.3).

Figure 5.3 Commission Junction’s Advertiser Search Results Page

This page lists all the affiliate programs Commission Junction has categorized as commerce sites. The first thing you might notice is that each of these programs can be measured against the others by three different performance metrics. These performance metrics are “3 Month EPC,” “7 Day EPC,” and “Network Earnings.” At first glance, the earnings per hundred clicks (EPC) metrics might look the most finely grained and therefore the most useful, but as a search marketer with no way of knowing how much these clicks cost to generate, this metric is not particularly helpful in selecting programs. A more useful metric for selecting programs is network earnings. A sliding scale of one to five bars (look under the Network Earnings column in Figure 5.3), with five being the highest, indicates which programs are generating the most earnings. The bigger the pie, after all, the easier it is to cut yourself a slice.

Notice that the top honors in the Network Earnings column in Figure 5.3 go to an superb affiliate program with a five-bar rating: eBay! This is an excellent program to join, as it offers an unlimited variety of products to promote, has a competitive commission structure, and holds unparalleled name recognition. Let’s investigate this program further, proceeding as though I were not recommending it.

By clicking on the advertiser’s name or image in the Advertiser column on the results page, you can open the Advertiser Detail page shown in Figure 5.4.

Figure 5.4 Advertiser Detail Page for eBay

Be sure to read all the details of the affiliate program, especially regarding the commissions and referral periods. In eBay’s case, you are offered a twofold commission structure, one that pays commissions on a revenue-sharing basis and one that pays commissions based on the number of active registered users (ACRUs) your ads generate. Both commission structures have performance tiers that allow you to earn higher commissions if you generate more revenue or more ACRUs.

Another important consideration is the Get Links section in the upper right portion of the Advertiser Detail page. Here you will find hyperlinks to each of the different kinds of links the advertiser (in this case eBay) offers. If you own a web site of your own, you might use any number of these links – and I would encourage you to explore them – but as a search marketer, your primary concern is to make sure that the Keyword Link type is active (blue). This informs you that search marketing is allowed. If the Keyword Link type is not active, you may not be able to advertise that affiliate program directly on search engines – although you can always e-mail Commission Junction or the advertiser for clarification.

Finally, to join the program you must scroll through the Advertiser Detail page, reading and accepting any special terms and conditions that may apply, and then clicking on Accept at the bottom of the page. Some advertisers will accept you immediately; some may deny you immediately; others may take hours or even days to review your application.

Once you are approved, you will need to return to the Advertiser Detail page and click on the Keyword Link hyperlink in order to continue. This will open the Keyword Link page (see Figure 5.5).

Figure 5.5 Keyword Link Page

On the right-hand side of the Keyword Link page, click Get HTML to take yourself to the Get HTML page shown in Figure 5.6. Pay special attention to the Usage Recommendation, Protected Keywords, and Non-compete Keywords when you place your ads for this program in the next chapter. Any violation of the affiliate program’s keyword policy could result in nonpayment of commissions, meaning you will have spent money running ads and will earn nothing in return.

Figure 5.6 Get HTML Page

At the bottom of the page is the tracking code you will need to use as your destination when you create your ads in the next chapter. This code will direct those who click on your ads to the eBay home page and will also alert eBay to the fact that it was you who sent them (thus eBay can track the results to determine your commission). You may select this code and copy it yourself. Alternatively, you can click on the Highlight Code / Copy Code button to copy it automatically. Either way, you will then paste the tracking code – making sure to label which affiliate program the code is for – in a document and save it to use when you create your ads in Chapter 6.

Caution: Please do not use the tracking code in the example in Figure 5.6. You want to generate this code yourself, so that Commission Junction can imbed it with your own PID. If you use the code above, you will not earn commissions.

Now that you have your tracking code saved, you are ready to start signing up with search engines and running ads.

Identifying and Joining the Right Affiliate Programs
Okay, let’s get started. You’ve learned some best practices for vetting the affiliate programs before promoting them; now it’s time to roll up our sleeves and actually start looking for some programs to sign up with. As promised, I’ll walk you through the process with some of the affiliate networks you joined in Chapter 4.

Commission Junction
Commission Junction is a great network to start off with, as it offers hundreds of affiliate programs, an intuitive interface, and a variety of methods that you can use to compare programs against each other. After logging into the CJ Account Manager, with the e-mail address and password you provided during the registration process, you’ll be taken to the CJ Marketplace home page (see Figure 5.1).

Figure 5.1 CJ Marketplace’s Home Page

This page can provide you with a lot of useful and customizable statistics once you are in business for a while, but for now you’ll notice it doesn’t have much to offer. Let’s just move straight ahead to the affiliate programs by clicking on the Get Links tab beneath the Commission Junction logo. This should bring you to the General Categories page (Figure 5.2), where you will see Commission Junction’s affiliate programs broken out into different categories and subcategories.

Figure 5.2 Commission Junction’s General Categories Page

There are lots of different categories to explore, and based on some of the advice I’ve given you earlier in this chapter you should be ready to explore this list. Since I don’t know which of these categories might hold the most interest for you, I will select one with broad appeal for the purposes of moving forward with my example. I recommend clicking on the Commerce category in the first column to begin. This should take you to an Advertiser Search Results page (see Figure 5.3).

Figure 5.3 Commission Junction’s Advertiser Search Results Page

This page lists all the affiliate programs Commission Junction has categorized as commerce sites. The first thing you might notice is that each of these programs can be measured against the others by three different performance metrics. These performance metrics are “3 Month EPC,” “7 Day EPC,” and “Network Earnings.” At first glance, the earnings per hundred clicks (EPC) metrics might look the most finely grained and therefore the most useful, but as a search marketer with no way of knowing how much these clicks cost to generate, this metric is not particularly helpful in selecting programs. A more useful metric for selecting programs is network earnings. A sliding scale of one to five bars (look under the Network Earnings column in Figure 5.3), with five being the highest, indicates which programs are generating the most earnings. The bigger the pie, after all, the easier it is to cut yourself a slice.

Notice that the top honors in the Network Earnings column in Figure 5.3 go to an superb affiliate program with a five-bar rating: eBay! This is an excellent program to join, as it offers an unlimited variety of products to promote, has a competitive commission structure, and holds unparalleled name recognition. Let’s investigate this program further, proceeding as though I were not recommending it.

By clicking on the advertiser’s name or image in the Advertiser column on the results page, you can open the Advertiser Detail page shown in Figure 5.4.

Figure 5.4 Advertiser Detail Page for eBay

Be sure to read all the details of the affiliate program, especially regarding the commissions and referral periods. In eBay’s case, you are offered a twofold commission structure, one that pays commissions on a revenue-sharing basis and one that pays commissions based on the number of active registered users (ACRUs) your ads generate. Both commission structures have performance tiers that allow you to earn higher commissions if you generate more revenue or more ACRUs.

Another important consideration is the Get Links section in the upper right portion of the Advertiser Detail page. Here you will find hyperlinks to each of the different kinds of links the advertiser (in this case eBay) offers. If you own a web site of your own, you might use any number of these links – and I would encourage you to explore them – but as a search marketer, your primary concern is to make sure that the Keyword Link type is active (blue). This informs you that search marketing is allowed. If the Keyword Link type is not active, you may not be able to advertise that affiliate program directly on search engines – although you can always e-mail Commission Junction or the advertiser for clarification.

Finally, to join the program you must scroll through the Advertiser Detail page, reading and accepting any special terms and conditions that may apply, and then clicking on Accept at the bottom of the page. Some advertisers will accept you immediately; some may deny you immediately; others may take hours or even days to review your application.

Once you are approved, you will need to return to the Advertiser Detail page and click on the Keyword Link hyperlink in order to continue. This will open the Keyword Link page (see Figure 5.5).

Figure 5.5 Keyword Link Page

On the right-hand side of the Keyword Link page, click Get HTML to take yourself to the Get HTML page shown in Figure 5.6. Pay special attention to the Usage Recommendation, Protected Keywords, and Non-compete Keywords when you place your ads for this program in the next chapter. Any violation of the affiliate program’s keyword policy could result in nonpayment of commissions, meaning you will have spent money running ads and will earn nothing in return.

Figure 5.6 Get HTML Page

At the bottom of the page is the tracking code you will need to use as your destination when you create your ads in the next chapter. This code will direct those who click on your ads to the eBay home page and will also alert eBay to the fact that it was you who sent them (thus eBay can track the results to determine your commission). You may select this code and copy it yourself. Alternatively, you can click on the Highlight Code / Copy Code button to copy it automatically. Either way, you will then paste the tracking code – making sure to label which affiliate program the code is for – in a document and save it to use when you create your ads in Chapter 6.

Caution: Please do not use the tracking code in the example in Figure 5.6. You want to generate this code yourself, so that Commission Junction can imbed it with your own PID. If you use the code above, you will not earn commissions.

Now that you have your tracking code saved, you are ready to start signing up with search engines and running ads.