Affiliate Revenue Information

Affiliate Income Optimization


In my time researching the search engines, I've noticed something rather strange. Literally millions of searches are made each month for "brand names" and actual site names. For example, on Overture alone, last month, there were millions of queries made for the term "internet explorer". Having been on the internet for around seven years (running sites for over five), I've naturally assumed that people use it the same way I do. So, I know that internet explorer is a Microsoft product so I just type http://www.microsoft.com into my browser.

Apparently, that's not what everyone does. Here are some other examples from Overture: eBay - over 7 million searches, Google - over 9 million searches, Amazon - Over 800 thousand searches (OK, lots will be for the river or the forest but still ...), PayPal over 340 thousand searches and so on. Considering that Overture has only about 5% of the search engine market, you can see that there are millions and millions of people who actually use search engines to find sites when they could just type the name in their browser and slap a .com on the end.

Now, on to the good stuff. Of those companies that I mentioned, all but Google have an affiliate program. For example, PayPal pays $5.00 for every person who signs up. 340 000 x $5.00= $1 700 000. Interesting!

So, what can we do to make the most of this opportunity? Well, it's easier than you would think. Obviously, trying to get traffic from people searching for eBay or PayPal would be very difficult but there are literally thousands of other companies that people search for. For example, I just checked the three best known British sports betting companies - about 20 000 searches are made each month on Overture for these companies.

I have noticed that without any effort whatsoever, I am actually getting a lot of traffic from people searching for company names and script names. This is because they are listed in my Affiliate and Script directories. An example of the process is - people search for a particular merchant, come to my affiliate directory and click on the link to get to the merchant. Therefore, even though they have no interest in the affiliate program, I'm making money just by linking to merchants who's content is completely unrelated to mine.

Remember, this is without even trying. When I do try, I'm getting even more traffic. For example, I have a review of the FastClick ad network on my site. I get 10+ visitors each day from people searching for phrases that include the word fastclick. That's 300+ visitors per month, 15 000 per year. As you could imagine, due to the fact that FastClick pay a lifetime 5% commission on referred earnings, this is quite lucrative.

So, what do you need to do? Well, you probably already use affiliate programs in some form on your site - either as a major source of revenue or to make "backend" sales. I went for years just linking to them with banners, buttons and text links. The odd short recommendation here and there proved to be the best way to get the most out of them.

The problem, from a search engine perspective, is that just linking to them from your site will generally not get your page up high in the search engine rankings. A link to merchant "Acme Corp." just blends in to the text on your page and is assigned no real relevance. Therefore, you should put up an individual page on your site for each merchant that you are an affiliate of. This page could just be a review of the products or services that they offer.

Just the fact that you have a content rich page about a specific merchant will almost automatically get you traffic from the search engines (once you are listed). The main point is "content rich". Also, write it yourself, do not copy content from the merchants site. Why? Well, even if they let you copy their content (lots do), Google has ways of finding duplicate content. In fact, they will usually ban the page that they believe is less important if two have the same information on them. So, write it yourself.

Remember that if the merchant sells products that have gained recognition from the public, make sure you list their products.

If you already have a successful site, the search engines will actually view your "review" of a merchant as being important and it is no harder to get that page in to the top 10 listings than it is for any other page on your site.

Often, the difference between doing well and being truly successful online is just the ability to grab opportunities when they appear. You could find that spending just 10 minutes to set up a couple of new pages on your site could actually result in thousands of dollars in extra income each year.

Remember, there are close to 600 million queries made on search engines each day - this is an opportunity! Don't let it pass you by.

About The Author

Sean Burns is the author of the eBook Rankings Revealed which gives you a step by step guide to obtaining top 10 rankings on the major search engines - http://www.webmastersreference.com/rankings_revealed


MORE RESOURCES:

Disney's Earnings Beat; CEO Bob Iger Talks Piracy, Parks
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Increased guest spending and attendance at the parks, and higher advertising rates and affiliate revenue at the media networks drove the earnings upside. The revenue fell short of analyst expectations (Disney doesn't provide guidance) – at $10.779 ...

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Globe and Mail

Disney derring-do
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Affiliate revenue will kick up due to Comcast and other deals that will be negotiated,” Disney CEO Bob Iger said yesterday on a conference call with analysts to discuss first-quarter results. Iger noted the Mouse House doesn't yet have deals with ...
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Telegraph.co.uk

News Corp. Earnings Jump in Second Quarter
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Affiliate revenue rose 9% at the domestic cable channels. Operating income for the television unit, which includes Fox Broadcasting, rose 25% to $189 million from $151 million. The company said the growth was the result of increased broadcast network ...
News Corporation Reports Second Quarter Net Income of $1.06 BillionMarketWatch (press release)
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AMD, Nike, Disney, Panera Bread Among Stocks Driving Big News Feb. 7th
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The increase at ESPN was driven by higher affiliate revenue reflecting contractual rate increases and a reduction in revenue deferrals related to annual program commitments. During the quarter, ESPN deferred $190M of revenue compared to $266M in the ...

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Fox Studio, TV Divisions Boost News Corp. Q2 Profits Despite Hacking Investigation
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A little bit of everything contributed to the higher figures, from a nine percent growth in affiliate revenue to a six percent increase in advertising revenue. FX in particular continued to stand out as a top performer, while the NBA lockout both ...

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Fox on Top
Multichannel News
SNL Kagan calculates FNC's affiliate revenue at $985.3 million in 2012, based on 82 cents per sub each month. “The network is getting strong monthly subscriber fee increases, up from 58 cents in 2009,” according to Baine, who projects average license ...

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TIME

Skimlinks is the real story behind Pinterest's success
eu.techcrunch
Anyone making a purchase from that click through sends affiliate revenue, via Skimlinks, back to Pinterest. Kerching, everyone benefits. This is very old news in the word of affiliate schemes. What is getting some people hot under the collar is that ...
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Viacom's CEO Discusses Q1 2012 Results - Earnings Call Transcript
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We expect our affiliate revenue to grow on an annualized basis in the high-single to low-double digit for the foreseeable future. As we unlock value for our content across platform, we're unlocking growth potential across global markets as well, ...

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Cruise line, theme parks propel Disney profit
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Operating income at Disney's media networks rose 12 percent for the quarter to $1.2 billion, as higher affiliate revenue at ESPN and the Disney Channel cable stations more than offset declines at broadcast station ABC. Operating income at Disney's ...

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Fortune

It's time for Disney to cut ABC loose
Fortune
Disney (DIS) blamed the poor showing at ABC on lower affiliate revenue following the end of Oprah Winfrey's popular talk show and a decrease in political ad spending, as it was not an election year. While both may explain a decrease in revenue, ...

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