[Editor's Note: The affiliate program described in this article may have closed, but the affiliate marketing lessons mentioned are still valuable. Note how Jenny gets gifts from merchants for her contests.]

If you've read my latest book, The Complete Guide to Associate and Affiliate Programs on the Net (11/99 - McGraw-Hill), you already know that Jenny Wanderschied's family-centric ChildFun.com is one of the most successful affiliate-driven community sites on the Net today.

When Jenny and I first spoke, back in the spring of 1999, ChildFun.com was rolling along at the rate of 100K page views per month. In just half a year's time, site traffic has increased ten-fold.

And the site's affiliate revenues? Let's just say that Jenny's happy to be a work-at-home Internet entrepreneur and mother of three, with nary a thought of returning to the drudgery of the 9-5 world (not to mention a grueling commute through the Minnesota winter).

The site may be named ChildFun.com, but Jenny doesn't fool around. She's extremely selective about her featured merchants.

PlanetRx.com - a market-leading Net pharmacy - has proven itself as a top program and a marvelous match for ChildFun.com. The Be Free enabled PlanetRx.com affiliate program is well run and highly rewarding. (This I know, first hand, as I'm a happy and successful PlanetRx.com affiliate myself.) I fondly recall mentioning the PlanetRx.com program to Jenny, some time over the summer. Jenny signed up for the program and turned into an overnight success story.

There are a number of keys to the program's triumphant performance. "PlanetRx.com's affiliate support service is wonderful!" Jenny exclaims. "Their response time is almost instantaneous. The newsletters are filled with timesaving features, easy-to-use links, and useful content."

Links in newsletters

While Jenny links to PlanetRx.com using buttons on the Web pages, it's the text links in her own weekly Childfun.com newsletters that have been the most effective revenue generator. In fact, Childfun.com referred a whopping 36 PlanetRx.com orders in one day after sending out a newsletter with a mention of a special PlanetRx.com promotion.

The PlanetRx.com program is especially rewarding for the affiliate, as it offers not just a generous 15% commission, but a $5 bounty per new customer as well. The new customer bounties can add up quickly, as Jenny can attest. "In my first quarter with PlanetRx.com, I made more in customer bounties than commissions!"

Contests increase traffic

Jenny uses themed contests to increase traffic and revenue. ChildFun.com holiday themes have established themselves as a fun and dynamic way to boost the number of page views. For instance, contestants scour the site collecting playful GIF images, such as Easter eggs or Halloween pumpkins.

"The Halloween contest generated an extra 700,000 page views," Jenny explains. "The first day of a contest is always nuts. We had 100,000 page views on the first day of the last contest."

As we spoke, Jenny was gearing up for a fabulous Valentine's Day 2000 contest, with over a thousand dollars in prizes. In the past, Childfun.com has given away merchant-donated prizes including quilt kits, software, potty training charts, a window garden kit, gift certificates, and magazine subscriptions.

The Valentine's Day contest will feature an anti-stress kit and a cosmetics kit from PlanetRx.com, as well as a copy of "The Complete Guide to Associate and Affiliate Programs on the Net" from yours truly.

Not only is Jenny a successful PlanetRx.com affiliate, she's a happy customer, as well. "I order all of our drugstore stuff from PlanetRx.com," Jenny says. "I get all of our prescriptions there, as well as gifts, and household items like toothpaste and shampoo. Once the kids go to bed, I check the cabinets, make a list, and place an order. It's easier than dragging the kids to the store."

In the Minnesota winter, what could make more sense?

Cheers,
Dan

PS: To sign up for Be Free tracked affiliate programs, click here.

Daniel Gray is the owner of geekbooks.com and author of "The Complete Guide to Associate and Affiliate Programs on the Net - Turning Clicks Into Cash" (McGraw-Hill), "Looking Good on the Web" and "Adobe ImageStyler In Depth" (The Coriolis Group), and a host of other books on graphics- and Internet-related topics. He's been honored as an Amazon.com Featured Computer Book Associate, PlanetRx Affiliate of the Month, and Refer-It Affiliate of the Month.

Click here to get Dan's book now