Getting Started in Affiliate Marketing (part 2)

by Ian Mugridge

Review

In the last article we learnt how to set up a site for Affiliate Marketing and the types of advertising media that are available. This time we're going to look at finding the correct merchants for your site and how to include the linking code in your page.

Finding Merchants

Merchants can offer an affiliate marketing scheme in one of two ways -

By setting up their own independent affiliate scheme.
By joining one (or more) of the Affiliate Networks and offering their scheme through the network.

Independent Schemes
Merchants offering independent schemes are usually more difficult to find as they are normally only advertised on the merchant's own site and in some affiliate directories.

Independent schemes will often pay higher rates of commission than similar merchants that are part of a network as they won't have to pay the network's charges. However, as most schemes (including the networks) have a payment threshold you will have to work harder to get paid your money. It is a lot easier to earn £25 from a number of merchants in a network than from one individual merchant.

So how do you find the independent schemes (apart from through a directory)? Well if you are interested in one merchant in particular then visit their site and look around for a link advertising an affiliate program, if you can't find on - try emailing them to ask if they offer a scheme. If you are looking for a particular type of product and none of the networked merchants offer it then try searching for the product on Google with the additional term affiliate (i.e. "green widgets affiliate"). If results appear then these will normally be either a merchant with an affiliate scheme or an affiliate linking to a merchant.

Affiliate Networks
The Affiliate Networks act as a middleman between their merchants and the affiliates. An affiliate will sign up to the programs that they want to join using the network's system rather than that of the individual merchant.

The schemes that are operated through the networks are a lot easier to find than those that are operated independently. All you need to do is join the networks and then look through their lists of merchants.

You will be paid by the network (normally on a monthly basis) for all the commission that you have earned from the merchants you have joined.

Including the Affiliate Code

The actions required to add in affiliate related code to your web site are the same regardless of whether the merchant is independent or through a network.

Within the administration are of the particular merchant (or their area on the network's system) select the type of link that you want and you will be provided with a set of linking code. This code will have the following elements to it -

The affiliate link - a standard HREF link
The content of the link - either an image or the suggested text
Possibly a tracking image if the link is a text link

Some examples of the code that is provided can be seen here -

A text link	`<A href="http://www.dgm2.com/m/boys/t.asp?A=9999&I=276"> YOUR TEXT HERE </A>` This link is the same as any other text link on your web page - the only difference is you are linking to the merchant/network and the link will contain your affiliate code (9999 in this case).
A text link with a tracking code	`<a href="http://www.qksrv.net/click-999999-5472106"> YOUR TEXT HERE </a> <img src="http://www.qksrv.net/image-999999-5472106" width="1" height="1" border="0">` The format of this link is identical to the basic text link, with the exception of the tracking code (a 1x1 pixel image).
A banner link	`<a href="http://tracker.tradedoubler.com/click?p=842&a=999999&g=8132"> <img src="http://impgb.tradedoubler.com/imp/img/8132/999999" border=0> </a>` Here again, we have a standard <A> tag linking to the merchant/network - again with our affiliate ID. The text has been replaced by an <IMG> tag that displays the banner.

All of the code above could be copied from the admin system and simply pasted into your HTML. Some schemes (from networks in particular) may make use of JavaScript and IFrames to display content from the merchants - here again you will be provided with code that can be copied and pasted into your web page.

In the banner link and the text link with tracking code, the merchant's system will be able to track how many times a link is displayed and show you more detailed statistics about the performance of your links.

The links shown above are basic links and will take you to a pre-determined page on the merchant's site. In future articles, we will look additional codes that allow deep-linking to individual pages and enhanced tracking of sales.

About the Author
Ian Mugridge is a freelance IT Consultant with 10 years experience in industry. In addition to general IT consultancy, Ian has been advising clients on Internet marketing for the last 5 years.
This article was originally published on "Out of the Rat Race".

Articles

Introduction to Affiliate Marketing
Getting Started in Affiliate Marketing
Getting Started in Affiliate Marketing (part 2)
Affiliate Marketing Glossary

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