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The
Advantages of Pay-per-Email Programs
Most
of us have heard about pay-per-sale and pay-per-click, two different
types of affiliate programs. Most of us also know about pay-per-lead,
and the advantages it offers (if not see a previous
Free Help Desk article). So, what exactly is pay-per-email?
Pay-per-email is a spin on the standard pay-per-lead program,
where you receive a commission for each person's email address
you refer to a mailing list or newsletter.
Like
pay-per-lead programs, there are no costs involved for your visitors
before you can earn a commission. They don't need to buy anything,
and you don't need to try to sell them anything. Even better,
sometimes they don't even have to leave your web site for you
to be able to earn a commission. Best of all, every visitor that
comes to your web site has an email address, and represents potential
income.
There are a variety of pay-per-email programs available, each
offering different advantages and benefits. Most pay-per-email
programs average between $0.10 and $0.25, with an exceptional
few paying up to double of these rates (we will take a look at
those below). All of these programs can be promoted directly from
your web site, usually using text links (leaving banner inventory
available for other uses), but there are a few other strategies
that will make them more profitable for your site.
First of all, we should note that nearly ANY type of web site,
no matter the topic or category, could probably add a pay-per-email
program to their web site, and earn incremental income. However,
like all affiliate programs, it will be important to try to match
the offerings of the pay-per-email program with the interests
of your visitors. A perfect example would be a humor web site.
Perhaps you create online cartoons or animated stories. You could
easily refer many of your visitors to subscribe to a 'joke of
the day' email newsletter, earning a respectable commission for
each. Luckily, many of the larger pay-per-email address programs
offer a huge variety of potential topics that you can try to match
to your visitors.
A second strategy would be to promote pay-per-email programs to
your existing mail list. If you already run your own email newsletter
or send out email notices when your site is updated, you have
an excellent resource to begin with. Every person on your mail
list has already proven that they are willing to subscribe to
email newsletters when they subscribed to yours. There is a good
possibility that many of your subscribers will be interested in
other email newsletters or lists, especially if they are related
to a topic they are interested.
A
third strategy, and one that I have seen employed to considerable
success on many web sites, including my own, is to add a pay-per-email
program to the confirmation page on your web site when someone
subscribes to your newsletter or list. Most form handling scripts
allow you to set a confirmation page, which generally says something
along the lines of "Thank you for subscribing, you will receive
your first issue shortly". Adding a pay-per-email program
to this page would be quite simple, suggesting that your visitor
also subscribe to the pay-per-email program offering. You might
just be able to catch your visitors in that 'subscribing mood'
and earn a tidy commission in the meantime.
So, now that we know some ways to promote these types of programs,
what programs are available? I will look at four of the top programs
today, although there surely are others available. However, I
feel that the programs listed below are of the highest quality,
and all have received excellent feedback from ClickQuick visitors
that they offer the highest income potential.
Mailbits.com: Mailbits.com has been rated a Top
Rated Program at ClickQuick for the longest period of time
of the four programs we are looking at today. Their program has
been continuously improved, and now offers the highest commissions
per email (now up to $0.50 per email address referred) and is
run in an incredibly professional manner. You may have heard of
Mailbits.com from this newsletter earlier when I ran an update
on them. At the time, Mailbits.com experienced two technical outages,
neither really their fault (one was the result of a hurricane
knocking out their ISP, the other was the result of slow service
from their telecom company). Yet, Mailbits.com set an example
for the affiliate program industry by not only apologizing for
the outages of their web site, but by actually compensating all
affiliates in the form of pro-rated commissions and monthly commission
bonuses. In the end, all Mailbits.com affiliates actually made
more as of a result of the outages than they would have had the
problems not occurred. Read the full
review for Mailbits.com.
Z Media: Z Media is a recent addition to the Top Rated
Program section at ClickQuick. You may be familiar with them through
their old ClickTrade program, one of the first to offer pay-per-email
commissions. They recently updated their program, bringing it
in-house to offer more features and benefits to affiliates. Some
of these improvements include higher commission rates of $0.40
per email, a wider selection of email topics (now over 35) and
perhaps the first infinitely-tiered affiliate program (see the
full review for details). Z Media also has an outstanding reputation
for working with and helping affiliates to achieve the most that
they can from their web sites.
NetEzines: NetEzines is an Advertising.com program, from
the same reliable people that bring us their pay-per-click network.
The NetEzines program has also recently undergone improvements,
and has also been added to the Top Opportunities section at ClickQuick.
Like ZMedia, they pay $0.40 per referred subscriber to one of
their 13 newsletters. Like Mailbits.com and Z Media, they also
offer a multi-tier program, giving you an incentive to recruit
other webmasters into the program, and share in their success.
One of NetEzines unique features is that your visitors do not
even need to leave your web site to subscribe to one of their
newsletters (and earn you a commission). Instead, you can add
the NetEzines subscription form right to your web site, encouraging
people to not only subscribe, but then stay at your site to continue
browsing. Check out the full
review for NetEzines.
Focalex: Focalex offers a per-per-email program that differs
slightly from the others listed here. Instead of referring your
visitors to email newsletters operated by that program, Focalex
develops targeted mailing lists that other companies can then
'purchase' to send out commercial mailings. Since Focalex is completely
opt-in, this is not spam email, but rather email sent to people
that have requested to be kept up to date on new products or service
(for example, the latest computer technology or telecom offerings).
Focalex pays $0.35 per unique subscriber that your refer, and
offers not only simple affiliate sign-up, but also easy integration
into your existing web site. View the full
review for Focalex.
All four of these programs have several benefits in common. First,
they give you the opportunity to add additional, incremental income
to nearly any type of web site. All can be promoted in a wide
variety of ways, and don't require banner ad inventory, allowing
you to focus you inventory on other uses.
Second, they don't require your visitors to make a purchase or
fill out a lengthy survey for you to be able to earn a commission.
It will only take your visitors about 5-10 seconds to type in
their email addresses and hit submit. Some don't even require
your visitors to leave your web site, or provide a way for your
visitors to easily return once they have subscribed.
Lastly, all four of these programs pay above-average commissions
compared to other pay-per-email programs, and all four represent
reliable, tested income sources for your web site. ClickQuick
visitors have provided a lot of excellent feedback about all four
of these programs.
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