How to Evaluate a Merchant Gift Affiliate Program

October 23, 2009 · 98 comments

Image credit: Most Cool Media Web Development

Image credit: Most Cool Media Inc. ~ Web Development and Ecommerce Web Design

I just found a great post on Beginner Basics of Affiliate Marketing by SugarRae (SugarRae)  while doing research for a post on affiliate marketing experts similar to yesterday’s Top How to Make Money Blogging Resources.

Some of the things I learned during my years of managing AdWords accounts are effective for evaluating merchant affiliate programs too. If you are a merchant you can also use this list to evaluate and improve your ecommerce store.

When it comes to conversion rates check for these specific attributes on the merchant’s site:

  1. An improved search function: search for several words related to their products and make sure you get relevant results. No results or page after page of results that are not specific will cost them sales and you commissions.  Most users will only make one search and leave if they don’t find what they’re seeking. Use a color plus the product, or material plus product, or brand name and product name, etc.
  2. Make sure shipping costs are easy to find; the earlier they are displayed during the shopping process the better. Free shipping increases conversions more than any other factor because high shipping costs (even when they aren’t) is the number one complaint of online buyers.
  3. If the site requires potential buyers to register or create an account before they can shop don’t bother promoting that site. Conversions will be dismal. If they require registering or creating an account prior to checkout but after putting items into the cart that is still bad but will not depress sales nearly as much as not even being able to shop first. Buyers will give you personal information AFTER they’ve decided to buy – but rarely before. Most will just leave.
  4. So many common shopping cart solutions don’t work consistently that I started accepting only stores built at Yahoo! Stores, Volusion or ProStores or using Google checkout. If they use anything else you need to know how to test the shopping cart – it won’t matter how well you pre-sell or advertise if good sales are rejected because the merchant account has fraud controls that are set too aggressively or the cart returns errors the buyer can not figure out how to fix!
  5. Look for additional store upgrades such as shop by brand, search by price range, add to a wish list function (either in-house or WishPot) and upsell tools that suggest related products
  6. What payment options do they offer and do they display icons indicating their store has been Security Verified? The more methods of payment available the more likely visitors are to buy.
  7. Look for and subscribe to their mailing list function to see what and how often they send newsletters with sales offers. Email is very beneficial to increasing sales – and your commissions if the cookie duration is long enough.

When I managed pay per click (ppc) accounts I knew that it did not matter how well my ads brought merchants traffic if their sites would not convert. Having access to Yahoo! Store data plus analytics plus AdWords made it easy to test changes to an etail store and see how they affected sales and conversions. Wise online retailers quickly learn that improving their store increases their profits.


RECOMMENDED AFFILIATE MARKETING PROGRAM:

Follow @ExecGifts at Twitter

Follow @ExecGifts at Twitter

One of the stores I’ve worked with the longest is Executive Gift Shoppe, a Yahoo! Store offering a huge selection of personalized gifts including business card holders, Official Sports Team Logo Memorabilia, Corporate Gifts and groomsmen gifts. I manage the Executive Gift Shoppe gift affiliate program for them and am seeking affiliates who would like free consulting and personal assistance sending them traffic.

Their affiliate program provides these advantages to affiliates:

  1. Two affiliate programs: ShareASale paying 12% with 60 day cookies plus an in-house program paying 20%
  2. Conversion rates between 2-3% and an average sale value of $60-$70 – very large sales are not unusual
  3. The ExecGifts data feed is available at DataFeedFile, DataFeedr, PopShops and Bridaluxe
  4. Over 6,000 products in stock; I provide custom spreadsheets of their top selling products by type on request
  5. Fast, accurate engraving
  6. Enhanced site search including search by brand, by gift recipient, and by price range plus an upsell upgrade that suggests related products on each product page.
  7. Expanded product descriptions with reviews
  8. Regular mailing list specials
  9. Discount coupons
  10. Free shipping on all sales over $75
  11. Their shopping cart is 128 bit SSL secure and verfied by both TrustGuard and ShopperScanned.
  12. They accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express and PayPal
  13. An exceptional guarantee – they replace products and deal with the manufacturer’s warranty themselves
  14. Excellent reviews and an A+ BBB rating
  15. An active ExecGifts Twitter account with 1,252 followers
  16. We provide personal free advice and one-on-one assistance to affiliates via email, chat, phone or in the comments
  17. We teach affiliates how to promote their sites, build links, generate traffic, comment and share on Social Networking sites and will personally send them traffic and link to them from our blogs

We hope you’ll check out their store and seriously consider collaborating with us. The holiday season is already upon us and their inventory is perfect for many niche sites and holiday shopping. Be sure to read The Top 7 Reasons Why Your Blog Still Isn’t Making Money for some great tips on writing better product reviews and best blog design for higher earnings that you can immediately implement.

If you love creating content and do not have the skills to build your own site our Joint Venture partner Derek at Threaded Web (@dereksemmler) can build one for you. If you do not have the funds to pay up front he may be interested in collaborating with you for a percentage of sales IF you are very serious and will work with us to make sure you make money. Read our post How to Create a Successful Blog Based Business for more details.


THE Premier Affiliate Marketing Conference

Click for Details on THE Premier Affiliate Marketing Conference in Jan 2010 in Las Vegas

AFFILIATE MARKETING EXPERTS ON TWITTER:

  • TweepML has many Affiliate Marketing Twitter users. Easily select those you wish to follow and click once for each list to follow everyone you leave checked.
  • To follow all the Twitter users mentioned on this page use this button:

EXPERT AFFILIATE ADVICE:

LOCATING BEST AFFILIATE PROGRAMS:

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AFFILIATE BLOGS:

SUPER AFFILIATES:

AFFILIATE MARKETING FORUMS:

Which forums do you use most or like best? Tell us in the comments? Read what forums the readers of Direct Sales Web Marketing prefer. Wanda and Paula at AffiliateBlogOnline highly recommend WealthyAffiliateUniversity and the forum there.

AFFILIATE TRAINING:

AFFILIATE MARKETING FOR MERCHANTS:

AFFILIATE MARKETING DATA FEED SOLUTIONS:

  • DataFeedr – Quickly and easily feeds products into WordPress blogs
  • DataFeedFile – Free affiliate feeds with price comparisons
  • PopShops – Winner Best Affiliate Marketing Tool 2007-2008
  • Bridaluxe – Higher commissions and WordPress plugin for Wedding related bloggers

AFFILIATE COMPETITIONS:

  • Publisher Challenge – runs competitions for various affiliate networks by giving away great prizes to the top new and/or highest earning publishers – they have generated over $1 million in sales and given away $30.000+ to affiliates.

TOP INTERNET MARKETING BLOGS:

** Special thanks to Murray Newlands for providing recommendations on great affiliate related resources to include. **


PREMIER AFFILIATE SITES:

Visit our Favorite Shopping Comparison Site

Visit our Favorite Shopping Comparison Site

ShopWiki is our best current affiliate and a great example of a really useful shopping comparison site. I’m including my ShopWiki review at StumbleUpon because I consider them very useful and a great role model for other affiliates:

The best thing about ShopWiki is you can use it to quickly find exactly what you want and I just found additional ShopWiki sites for the U.K., France and Germany. If there are others I will find out and add them. (Links to each of these at the bottom of this review.)

ShopWiki crawls over 200,000 online retailers and manufacturers so the selection is huge. No wonder they are such a popular shopping portal.

They have a really useful and powerful search tool that allows you to search for a very specific range of products. You can specify a price range, only see items with specific features or only those products in your favorite store.

They also feature a number of tools to help you find exactly what you’re looking for, including search by color and brand.

They also have some very useful ShopWiki buying and gift guides to help shoppers through the research stage of shopping.

From the site: “For example, if you’re interested in a digital camera, but you don’t know a megapixel from a memory stick, the digital cameras guide outlines what you need to know to make a smart purchase.

Or maybe you’ve been invited to your old college roommate’s brand new house and are stumped on what to buy. The housewarming gift guide helps you decide between the traditional options and something more Feng Shui.”

Additional ShopWiki sites specifically for other countries:

U.S. ShopWiki
U.K. ShopWiki
ShopWiki France
ShopWiki Germany

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AFFILIATE PROGRAM RECOMMENDATIONS:

AFFILIATE MARKETING for AFFILIATES:

AFFILIATE MARKETING FOR MERCHANTS:

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{ 63 comments… read them below or add one }

affiliate associate marketing program August 15, 2010 at 4:24 pm

Great post! I?m looking for an easy but lucrative affiliate program to get the hang of since I?m new to affiliate marketing. Is this a good choice to begin my affiliate marketing endeavors with?

Reply

Rachel who writes about merchant processing July 27, 2010 at 1:10 pm

Great advice to show the payment options so that it makes it easy for customers to find. Also, good idea to keep improving search functioning.

Reply

louis vuitton July 17, 2010 at 9:39 pm

Hi, I love your blog. This is a good site and I wanted to post a note to tell you, nice job!
Chao,
Cathy

Reply

Danny who writes about lifttop-coffeetable.com July 13, 2010 at 12:18 am

I am a starter when it comes to marketing. This will really help me increase my marketing knowledge.

Reply

Austin Cosmetic Dentist July 8, 2010 at 4:20 am

Affiliate marketing is a very smooth way to make money but it is challenging to get the most profit from it.

Reply

affiliate associate marketing program July 3, 2010 at 9:20 am

Great post! I?m looking for an easy but lucrative affiliate program to get the hang of since I?m new to affiliate marketing. Is this a good choice to begin my affiliate marketing endeavors with?

Reply

top affiliate June 24, 2010 at 7:32 pm

Great post! I?m looking for an easy but lucrative affiliate program to get the hang of since I?m new to affiliate marketing. Is this a good choice to begin my affiliate marketing endeavors with?

Reply

essay topics June 18, 2010 at 1:23 am

thanks for sharing these tips. :)

Reply

travel guide June 14, 2010 at 4:32 am

I have developed a couple of “Christmas gift” themed sites over the past few years. One of them has a particulary good level of organic search engine visibility & does receive a good flow of targeted traffic during the holiday season. The 1 negative point is that the revenue coming back the the site/s could certainly be a lot more. I only rely on cpc ads, so I assume that going into more advanced affiliate programs would be the direction to go.

Reply

dharma who writes about bali villas
Twitter:
April 14, 2010 at 7:56 am

Twitter: @bali villa

wow..i just love this post. thank you.this is just what i’m looking for..thanks

Reply

growmap
Twitter:
May 30, 2010 at 4:19 pm

Twitter: @GrowMap

Hi Dharma,

When you comment be sure to include something specific to the post in which you’re commenting. Otherwise most will assume your comments are spam. That was my first thought but since your comment does not show up in the search engines anywhere else (at least not yet) I am giving it the benefit of the doubt.
.-= growmap´s featured blog ..Father’s Day Word of Mouth Gift Card Giveaway =-.

Reply

Ben who writes about Auto Content Cash Review February 28, 2010 at 2:31 am

Another thing that can really raise conversion rates is to constantly split test webpages. I use Google Analytics to split test and I can see at a glance which page is converting better. Best of all, its Free!
.-= Ben @ Auto Content Cash Review´s last blog ..Auto Content Cash Bonus =-.

Reply

growmap
Twitter:
April 10, 2010 at 1:45 pm

Twitter: @GrowMap

Hi Ben,

Yes, split-testing is an excellent way to find out for sure which pages or which titles, images and text on each page convert best. It is an advanced skill every ecommerce site and ideally all sites should learn. I haven’t posts about it in this blog yet.

Have you ever used your experience to promote quality products and services for small local and online businesses? I know the commissions for downloadable products are much higher but I believe that experienced online marketers could greatly benefit the economy by focusing at least some of their efforts on promoting small businesses.

You might want to read the post about Merchant Affiliate Management Tips because it includes information on Adam Riemer aka Rollerblader. Any affiliate program he manages is clean of parasites and he really works to make sure affiliates have new creatives, promotional ideas and get paid.

I work with him on the Executive Gift Shoppe’s Gift Affiliate Program and we just credited one of our affiliates for sales we saw in Google Analytics the did not get tracked properly.

He is working with them to correct the cause and we (the owner of Executive Gift Shoppe, Adam and I) made sure the affiliate got paid even though they did not have their linksworking on their site.
.-= growmap´s last blog ..Merchant Affiliate Management Tips =-.

Reply

Gail who writes about Social Media Marketing
Twitter:
January 28, 2010 at 2:09 pm

Twitter: @GrowMap

Welcome Meka,

The How to Make Money Blogging niche is so saturated that you may find it challenging to make much money advertising that type of products.

I do hope you will consider promoting businesses that sell products and services. If you’re looking for a growing niche read the Wedding Boom post I featured in CommentLuv below.

Adam Riemer and I are collaborating on this gift affiliate program. You can learn much from him and we both work one-on-one with affiliates interested in learning more about affiliate marketing management.
.-= Gail @ Social Media Marketing´s last blog ..Wedding Boom Predicted for Next 22 Years =-.

Reply

Meka who writes about earning money online
Twitter:
January 23, 2010 at 6:54 pm

Twitter: @onlinemoneybuzz

I don’t know too much about merchant type affiliate marketing but I do have experience with affiliate programs like Clickbank. I want to grasp the smaller concepts first and then move on to more things like whats mentioned in your article. From the resources you provided, I think I have some good information I can read over to learn more.
.-= Meka@earning money online´s last blog ..30 Ways to Earn Money Online =-.

Reply

Sandesh Mascarenhas
Twitter:
December 21, 2009 at 10:17 am

Twitter: @sandeshtkm

Your website looks informative but reading your blog is bit difficult………. :)

Reply

GrowMap
Twitter:
December 25, 2009 at 3:52 pm

Twitter: @GrowMap

Hi Sandesh,

Do you mean that my posts are difficult for you to understand? The good news is I will personally answer any questions you may have.
.-= GrowMap´s last blog ..MEME: Share What Makes You Feel Thankful =-.

Reply

online shopping cart solutions December 17, 2009 at 1:51 am

A reliable shopping cart website is PCI compliance, fast in speed, has maximum payment acceptability, supports offline payment, supports coupons, supports multiple shipping methods.

Reply

Internet Strategist who writes about GrowMap
Twitter:
December 9, 2009 at 2:16 pm

Twitter: @GrowMap

Hello Tanmay.

While I know that many focus on digital products what would really create a much better economy for all would be affiliates willing to research, review and promote products and services offered by small businesses.

Consumers who aren’t bloggers or affiliate marketers can contribute to an improved global community by supporting their favorite businesses. The best thing you can do is recommend them online and off.

Write reviews on sites like Google Maps, Yahoo Local and other Local Search Directories and online communities like Yelp and Merchant Circle. Recommend them to your friends and share your reviews in your Social Networking accounts.

Every decision we make every day affects the affluence and even survival of everyone else on planet Earth. When everyone insists on being greedy we ALL lose. We have to start being generous – it is essential!
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..MEME: LinkLuv to My Fav Bloggers Favs =-.

Reply

Tanmay who writes about thinkgeek coupons
Twitter:
November 30, 2009 at 12:13 pm

Twitter: @tanmay2346

Affiliate Programs like ClickBank are the best ways of get an extra income every month without spend money. You can join for free in just minutes with ClickBank and start offering Digital Products to your customers.

Reply

Increase Web Traffic - Affiliate X Files
Twitter:
November 6, 2009 at 10:04 pm

Twitter: @affiliatexfiles

Hi Growmap thought I pay your site a visit and also let you know that the report we spoke about on increasing web traffic has been posted. Just follow the link in my post name to have a read.

Everything posted is verifiable and it really does work…

Affiliate X
.-= Increase Web Traffic – Affiliate X Files´s last blog ..How To Make Money With Your Blog =-.

Reply

Internet Strategist who writes about GrowMap
Twitter:
November 7, 2009 at 3:47 pm

Twitter: @GrowMap

Welcome AffiliateXFiles,

Thank you for taking the time to let me know you have published that information. I will return the favor by linking to it from several posts here and sharing it across Social Networks.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Best of GrowMap: Our Pillar Foundation Content =-.

Reply

ANSH who writes about walmart black friday ad
Twitter:
November 2, 2009 at 3:47 am

Twitter: @sachinansh

I was great to know about the Merchant Gift Affiliate Program, but here i have a problem, Actually i am getting it exactly. So can you give a detailed information about the Merchant Gift Affiliate Program.
.-= ANSH@walmart black friday ad´s last blog ..2009 Cyber Monday Ads, Sales, Deals Specials =-.

Reply

Internet Strategist who writes about GrowMap
Twitter:
November 6, 2009 at 9:44 pm

Twitter: @GrowMap

There are more details on how we are assisting affiliates interested in the blog specifically for the Gift Affiliate Program.

We are even creating posts for our Top 99 Best Selling Holiday Gifts that can be reblogged and edited so those affiliates whose native language is not English or who have limited time or copywriting skills can just use or edit them.

When we’ve done those we’ll keep writing blog posts and put them in categories so any blogger has a ready source of products to suggest in their own blog. We take requests so if there are specific products any affiliate wants we will create posts for them.

For those who have the skills we do recommend editing the posts so that they have more unique content and are more likely to be indexed well. We’ll even teach one-on-one on request – no obligation at no charge.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Gift Affiliate Programs Make Dollars and Sense =-.

Reply

monika who writes about Marketing Company October 30, 2009 at 7:53 am

your seems very useful for me as i am new in this program and really good content on your blog.thanks for posting it.keep sharing.

Reply

Internet Strategist who writes about GrowMap
Twitter:
November 1, 2009 at 10:38 pm

Twitter: @GrowMap

Welcome Monika,

Everyone starts out new and we are all always still learning. We are providing individual assistance to anyone interested in promoting this gift affiliate program . We’ll even send your sites traffic. We hope you’ll consider joining.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Best of GrowMap: Our Pillar Foundation Content =-.

Reply

best affiliates October 29, 2009 at 8:04 am

Hi! Thanks for the information.. I enjoy reading articles like this one. I want to gather ideas and information regarding on affiliate marketing.

Reply

Internet Strategist who writes about GrowMap
Twitter:
November 1, 2009 at 10:36 pm

Twitter: @GrowMap

Hello,

This post has links to all the affiliate marketing information you’re likely to ever need; however, the best thing to do is jump in with both feet and start promoting affiliate products. We’re making that easier this holiday season by counting down the top selling gifts from last year.

Join the Executive Gift Shoppe gift affiliate program and we’ll personally assist you at absolutely no cost.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Gift Affiliate Programs Fit Any Niche =-.

Reply

jim who writes about Short term rental new york
Twitter:
October 28, 2009 at 6:05 am

Twitter: @saurabhsnv

i am really curious to know about affiliate programs . this is really gonna help me out.i am actually new in affiliate marketing.thanks for such useful one.

Reply

Internet Strategist who writes about GrowMap
Twitter:
November 1, 2009 at 10:33 pm

Twitter: @GrowMap

Hi Jim,

We will personally assist anyone interested in learning affiliate marketing. Join the gift affiliate program and you could be making money selling holiday gifts.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Social Networking is NOT Chat =-.

Reply

Dave Sappers who writes about Web Design October 24, 2009 at 5:37 am

yes absolutely, you need to learn from seniors, and i m sure beginners won’t know anything about evaluation of e-commerce sites, which is very important if you want your site to be ranked.

Reply

Internet Strategist who writes about GrowMap
Twitter:
October 24, 2009 at 4:40 pm

Twitter: @GrowMap

Hi Dave,

I sincerely hope affiliates get serious about studying what really works and applying it to what they do. Merchants can improve their stores and increase their conversions using the tips I’ve included here as well. Besides this post I encourage them to check out the How to Make Money Blogging post featured in the CommentLuv link in this comment.

There are many similarities to growing businesses whether they are online or offline. Driving traffic and increasing conversions is similar for ecommerce stores and blogs. Applying what is proven to work can greatly increase profits and sales.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Top How to Make Money Blogging Resources =-.

Reply

mark who writes about Commercial Coffee Makers
Twitter:
October 23, 2009 at 3:55 pm

Twitter: @ChugginMcCoffee

Free shipping is so essential to high conversions! I have spent some time switching around the shipping method to my products to see if people preferred a higher price with lower shipping, or vice versa. It seems that many people would prefer lower shipping, even if they were paying a higher price.

Reply

Internet Strategist who writes about GrowMap
Twitter:
October 24, 2009 at 4:37 pm

Twitter: @GrowMap

Hi again Mark,

Shipping is consistently the number one complaint of online buyers according to market researchers. I suspect some of that goes back to infomercials selling cheap products and then overcharging for the shipping. Even etailers who only charge actual cost get regular complaints about the cost of shipping in the comments of their stores so making that disappear by including it in the price can make sense for many sellers.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..Local Search Directory Taps the Power of Television =-.

Reply

Girish who writes about Car Rental Auckland October 23, 2009 at 11:23 am

This is awesome. Evaluation of affiliates is something totally new to me. I normally presume whatever my friends say and now I can do it myself. People who want to get into affiliate marketing should read the basics of affiliate marketing written by Suggarae. She is an excellent author, I have read her blog posts in the past. Thanks for sharing this with us buddy.
.-= Girish@Car Rental Auckland´s last blog ..Rugby World Cup Car Rentals =-.

Reply

Internet Strategist who writes about GrowMap
Twitter:
October 23, 2009 at 12:11 pm

Twitter: @GrowMap

Welcome Girish,

I suspect that few affiliates know how to evaluate ecommerce sites. Many store owners don’t even know why their sites convert – or more frequently do NOT convert! By having a way to measure changes as they happened I was able to see what really affects sales and what doesn’t.

You are absolutely correct that if you want to be successful at affiliate marketing you simply must learn from those who are ALREADY making money. Only about 1% of affiliates make good money and only 10% at most make any money at all! That is one reason I provided so many resources on how to learn to do it better in this post.
.-= Internet Strategist @GrowMap´s last blog ..How to Evaluate Your AdWords Accounts =-.

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