Affiliate Marketing Forum

MysticKnight · Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 4

Do affiliate programs ever work? By "work" I mean make enough money to justify all the time that goes into building the website that generates the traffic.

In my case, no. Affiliate programs have NEVER worked.

However, I'm willing to admit that I may not have used the right techniques to seamlessly integrate the affiliates into my websites.

With that said, I have a relatively new website that's starting to generate some traffic. Can any of you take a look at it and tell me if I should be able to generate adequate revenue ($300-$500 a month) through affiliate programs...

http://www.allvegasguide.com/

If so, what steps should I take to be successful? For the record, we're already listed well in the search engines and I think the website looks professional. I just need to know how to integrate the affiliates correctly.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Best regards, Bill

charles · Joined: 13 Oct 2003 Posts: 243

I'm not qualified to critique anyone's site but as a average visitor your site looks well designed and easy to navigate. As far as affiliates earning money, I have the same delima. Other than 2 sizeable sales when we first started or site (we had about 5 visitors that month) our affiliate sales are zilch. I think we need to pay more attention to the referral search terms in order to optimize our products.

MysticKnight · Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 4

For the record, we're getting 500-700 unique visitors and around 1,000 page views each day at All Vegas Guide. Also, we're already listed pretty well in the search engines for related phrases such as "las vegas show" (#5 out of 6,420,000 results at Yahoo)...

http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=fp-pull-web-t&p=las+vegas+show

My point is we are getting targeted traffic which is supposedly the hardest part of having a successful website for affiliates. Now I just need to make sure I integrate the affiliate program correctly.

All feedback is welcome.

Best Regards, Bill

edburdo · Joined: 14 Jul 2003 Posts: 1761 Location: Bangor, Maine

If you want a review of the website, please request one in the "Review this site" forum.

Can affiliate programs make money? Ask Allan. Smile

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MysticKnight · Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 4

I don't really need a review of the website. I posted the address just so anyone that wants to can look and see if there are obvious problems with the design.

If there aren't obvious problems with the design, then I'm basically asking if it should be able to make money and, if so, how.

Bill

edburdo · Joined: 14 Jul 2003 Posts: 1761 Location: Bangor, Maine

That's what the review forum is for. Site reviews, how to improved your site, what changes to make, etc.
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Eric D. Burdo
They Made $6,513 a day With Clickbank Doing This...

MysticKnight · Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 4

edburdo and whoever moved this topic has missed the point...

The question is...

How do you correctly implement an affiliate program into a website that looks professional and is already getting targeted traffic?

I used All Vegas Guide because it happened to be a good example and not because I was looking for a review. Now this thread is buried in the review section when it really doesn't have anything to do with reviews.

Bill

edburdo · Joined: 14 Jul 2003 Posts: 1761 Location: Bangor, Maine

The review board is more than just review of a website. Its where you can post your site and get help about it. Such as how to integrate the affiliate program you asked about.

And I wouldn't consider it burried. This topic gets a lot of attention from people willing to help out those who ask for it. You might be suprised at the result...
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They Made $6,513 a day With Clickbank Doing This...

Debs · Joined: 16 Aug 2003 Posts: 4296 Location: NY

I would suggest you apply for Google Adsense and also join some affiliate programs that offer Las Vegas Discounts and coupons.

Debs
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thepoolroom · Joined: 11 Dec 2003 Posts: 89 Location: Australia

With that sort of traffic, you should be able to make some decent money out of Adsense. I think many of your keywords, being related to Las Vegas and gambling, would be pretty high-paying, too.
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administrator · Posted: Wed Mar 24, 2004 8:07 am Post subject:

Bill,
Give careful consideration to the above replies. Meanwhile, if you have a more specific question relevant to another forum on this Message Board, go ahead and ask it there.

Please check for existing threads you could add to, and refrain from URL's in the message body unless you are replying to an existing query. Even then, you must give a detailed explanation for the URL or it will be deleted.

I hope the willing voices out there can help you.

Wally Morgan - Moderator

AllanGardyne · Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2004 2:01 am Post subject:

Bill, I haven't researched what affiliate programs are available in the Las Vegas niche, but I've had a look at your site.

I wonder if you could achieve more by trying to view your site through the eyes of a visitor?

For example, I clicked on the link on the main page to "destination specialists". (It's very prominent, so I assume you want visitors to click on that link - and I was curious, anyway.)

I was interested to see that the top listed specialist - you - says his favorite hotel in Vegas is the Golden Nugget. If I'm about to visit Vegas, I'd like to know why - and I'd also like a link so that I can check it out and make a booking.

People are often in a hurry and are looking for an obvious expert - you - to point in them in the right direction. As an affiliate, that's what you can do.

Also, two of the specialists list the same restaurant as their favorite - but you don't tell me where it is or how to get there (or not on that page). You force your visitors to hunt for the info.

You could go through your whole site, seeing things through the eye of the visitor.

I know you didn't ask for a site review, but I can't resist pointing that on on this page http://www.allvegasguide.com/las_vegas_shows/ you list several shows and not only don't review them, but don't even tell us one sentence about each one!

I think that would annoy your visitors and put them in the wrong frame of mind while they're exploring the rest of your site.

In a similar fashion, only two of the hotels you list are reviewed. Again, you're annoying your visitors. Annoyed people are likely to leave. If they do click on an affiliate link, they aren't likely to buy.

The affiliate's job is to win them over and get them in a buying mood. You're doing the opposite.

One way to promote affiliate products very successfully is to write articles describing how you have used those products and how they have helped you, making sure you give specific details.

Are there Vegas products or services you can do that with?

For example, I did a quick search in the AssociatePrograms.com affiliate directory for "vegas" and found an affiliate merchant that has tours of the Grand Canyon. That's an awesome experience. You could describe what it's like in detail, and then tell people where to book.

Hope that helps.
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Guest · Posted: Thu Mar 25, 2004 5:33 am Post subject:

Hi Allan,

First, thank you very much for the very valuable feedback. I won't go into it here, but there "were" reasons why I didn't have reviews for most shows and hotels and there "were" reasons why I didn't post a single sentence describing most destinations.

Now that I've changed gears and I'm focusing on using affiliate programs to generate revenue, the reasons for those problems aren't signficant anymore.

With that said, I am going to go back through each page of the website and look at it through the eyes of a visitor and make the changes that you recommended and strengthen any other weak areas that I find.

I can say that I've already had some limited success with Google's AdSense program (thanks debs and thepoolroom). If I continue to have success, maybe there's something I can do to return the favor.

Best regards, Bill

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