Promoting Affiliate Programs through Banner Exchanges
This is the second in
a series of articles looking at some exciting alternative means to promoting affiliate
programs. Last issue we looked at how GoTo.com could be cost-effectively used to promote
affiliate programs by targeting keywords (view this article). This
issue we look at a unique way to use banner exchanges.
As most web marketers are
aware, banner exchanges are a form of Internet barter allowing you to basically trade ads
displayed on your web site for your ads being displayed on other sites. Banner exchanges
have been both highly praised and criticized by web marketers. They are regarded by some
as any easy, free means of promoting your site and developing extra traffic. Others
denounce them for making web sites appear unprofessional and for adding extra download
time to web pages.
Whatever the case, combining
affiliate programs with banner exchanges can possibly add to your revenues and offer an
alternative means to promote programs other than on your web site. The concept is that you
use a banner exchange on your web site to generate 'credits' for displaying your own ads.
But, rather than using a banner linking back to your web site to promote it, you use an
affiliate program's banner and your uniqueaffiliate URL to promote the program on other
banner network sites. This provides several main advantages:
-you can generate additional revenue from your existing visitor base
-you can potentially increase the number of ad displays you give to the programs you promote
-you can promote programs without possibly cluttering your own web site with banners
-you can reach a more diverse audience
However, there are several things
that you should keep in mind. First, with most banner exchanges, you are very limited in
how your ads are targeted. Many don't offer any type of targeting at all. For this reason,
affiliate programs of a more general nature, that appeal to a wide variety of people on a
wide variety of sites, will work best.
Second, by running banner
exchange ads on your site, you are potentially giving up ad displays that you could have
used to promote affiliate programs. One way around this is to place banner exchange ads in
places on your site that normally would not receive much attention, such as the bottom of
long pages, or on form submit confirmation pages. Of course, realize that other sites in
the banner network may do the same.
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