Promoting
Affiliate Programs Through Dedicated Web Sites
This
is the third in a series of articles looking at some exciting
alternative means to promoting affiliate programs. In the two
previous articles we looked at how to promote affiliate programs
through GoTo.com and through
banner exchanges. This article focuses on how to specifically
promote an affiliate program through a dedicated web site. Read
on for what is involved, and how you could use this method to
successfully promote you favorite affiliate program.
The
traditional method (if there is tradition for a concept that is
only about 2 years old) of marketing affiliate programs has been
to find programs that fit the interests of your site's visitors,
sign-up, and promote them on your site through banner ads, text
links, or personal testiomials. Many sites which operate email
newsletters have also found text ads to their subscribers to be
particularly successful.
But,
what about instead of targeting affiliate programs to your site's
visitors, you target a web site to an affiliate program? With
the low prices of domain name registration ($70 for 2 years) and
web hosting (as low as $6 per month for very basic service - emphasis
on 'very') the option of designing a web site for which the sole
purpose is to promote an affiliate program is now a distinct possibility.
The
idea is quite simple. Start with a good, well-proven affiliate
program (such as those listed in the Top
Rated Programs section at ClickQuick) and select a domain
name that contributes to the marketing appeal of your site to
visitors. For example, you could join a program such as One and
Only, promoting online personals ads, and then choose a domain
name such as www.theromantique.com. Then, rather than simply running
ads for One and Only, you make One and Only's services the focus
of your new web site.
A
real world example of this is Scott Dieken's http://www.submit-it-machine.com/
. Scott has long been a WebPosition affiliate, referring sales
to FirstPlace Software for their leading web site promotion tool.
However, Scott took the program a bit further than using banners
or text ads on an existing site, by creating a new site, Submit-it-Machine.com,
for the sole intention of promoting the WebPosition affiliate
program. He combines promotion of the WebPosition affiliate program
with product reviews and links to direct downloads, creating a
successful sales vehicle for the product.
The
obvious advantage of this type of strategy is that you have the
opportunity to present a much more comprehensive sales message
to your visitors than any individual banner, or even a testimonial,
could provide. It also lends a level of professionalism above
and beyond standard affiliate-code links, and, if executed correctly,
could even help to win the visitor's trust by providing additional
information resources.
One
thing to keep in mind is that the site will not become a gold
mine all on its own. Like all sites, promotion will be the key.
However, combining this method with the previous strategy of using
GoTo.com to literally buy traffic, could be a powerful combination
since GoTo.com can deliver a highly targeted audience right to
your highly-targeted web site.
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