Link Building Campaign Imminent, Any pointers are appreciated Options

[1dmf]

Hi,

Well my affiliate program presentation went well and I got given the go ahead to launch, great!

I'm about to embark on my link building / affiliate program campaign and would appreciate any pointers you nice people could give.

Apart from the obvious (as long as they are relevant) what things should I consider / look for when deciding on a website to approach?

Who should I approach for this , enquiries@ , info@ , webmaster@ , CEO@, or should I ring and speak in person, and again who should I ask for?

And what angle should I come from?

is it the 'you could make a mint from our affiliate program' or 'we really like your site and would want to be apart of it, as well as offer a reward scheme'

Any pointers on how to approach this really is appreciated.

Regards,
1DMF.

[adybee]

Important that you get this right Idmf otherwise you'll waste a lot of time and effort - I know cause I've wasted lots of time and effort!! LOL. Seriously I would always go for a personal email and a phone call if necessary. The mail should come from you - a real person - not a "webmaster" or "enquiries" - if you put a human face on your emails and include a telephone number that you can be contacted on it will show that you are not spam mail.

Include a reason why you have chosen the particular site (not just PR), offer to discuss links, what benefits there are etc. and ask for a suitable time to contact the website owner. This will spur most webmasters to a) contact you for further info or contact you and say no. Either way you'll get some sort of response.

[1dmf]

Important that you get this right Idmf otherwise you'll waste a lot of time and effort - I know cause I've wasted lots of time and effort!! LOL

Exactly why I decided to ask you guys for some advice and pointers, I wan't to do it right and hopefully be successful, I can imagine the potential of wasting time and effort and so appreciate your response (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

P.S.

if you put a human face on your emails

are you suggesting I include a photo of myself?

[1dmf]

No one else got any advice?

[LinkDev]

Hi 1dmf,

Your pitch will change on the person and company you are initiating a handshake with. Some will be sole-proprietorships while others will be small to mid-sized outfits, etc. Definitely shy away from the "you will make bank" statements. Once you have some affiliates who are in the fold and successful promoting your service or product, then you can say you could have the potential to make this or that, based on real data.

Cheers,

Christian

[1dmf]

Thanks christian, appreciated.

[Randy]

Just to throw out the odd comment based upon a single common mistake I see too many make ...

Your greatest "selling" point to potential affiliates, as well as your best tool to actually getting them to sell stuff for you will be to offer some sort of help to them. In other words, don't sign 'em up and expect money to magically start rolling in because that just doesn't happen in the real world.

The way I've done that is to set up a separate Affiliates area on the site --sometimes password protected, many times not but just invisible to everybody but the affiliates-- that includes all sorts of marketing data I allow them to use. This includes graphics, text snippets that accurately describe what I'm selling that also contains a good call to action, information about any special deals, etc, etc. I've even gone so far as giving affiliates free run of my service-based subscription sites (password protected affiliates area then of course) so that they can get a first hand look at what paying subscribers actually get. It's not like this costs me anything, and has led many, many times to more affiliate sales.

My experience has been if you arm them with good information to use they'll use it. Which means more sales for both you and the affliates who are actually working. When they make money --and it doesn't even have to be a lot of money-- they'll keep working for you, getting the word out. Having such a line of communication is extremely important for the success of most affiliate marketing. Every bit as important as making sure you pay them in full and on time.

Conversely, if you just throw your offer out there but offer no support like so many do, the whole affiliate scheme is probably going to end up being endlessly frustrating for both you and your affiliates.

[1dmf]

Hey Randy, I appreciate your reply.

This affiliate program however does differ from many, as we are not offering a 'product' so to speak.

The affiliate program is more based around obtaining backlinks and relevant targeted traffic, not product sales persae.

I've PM'd you with the link, and would appreciate you checking it out and giving me your opinion.

I'd like to get everything right before the major launch, I'd like this to work and be successful from the off, so anything you can give in terms of pointers and valued experience is very much appreciated.

This is my first affiliate program and launch, so pretty green and wet behind the ears, so your learned experience is a god send.

[Jill]

The affiliate program is more based around obtaining backlinks and relevant targeted traffic, not product sales persae.

Then it's not an affiliate program, but a linking campaign, no?

[1dmf]

very astute of you Jill.

In essence 'yes' but that would indicate we are paying people for links, and that's not the case, yes i'm trying to link build, but not by paid links, that would be a breach of G! guidelines.

So I came up with the idea of the 'affiliate lead referral service' , by placing a link on their site and sending us targeted traffic. for all converted traffic into sales, we pay a referral fee for that conversion.

therefore we are not paying for links, but in order for the affiliate to obtain payment for successful referrals , they need to put a link on their website.

sound like a good idea to you?

Is this considered 'white hat' and acceptable practice?

[Jill]

I guess I'm still confused. So it IS an affiliate program. You are paying per referrals.

[daniel]

Like banners, but with text links. You get the referral and the SEO benefit, they get money in return?

Sounds like you're paying for the links, not that I have a problem with that - but I can't see a fundamental difference between that and paying them a flat fee for the link.

[Ahmed]

Well most if not all affiliates will endorse a product and try to sell it for you even if its not that great. So the link they're placing is not really a "vote". Its a business deal and is 100% a paid link -- there is no way around this. So yes I think you should not get any benefit from the search engines for this and you should put a "nofollow" tag on them. Why try to get benefit from the search engines anyway, just benefit from the affiliate program. Its simply not fair for everyone else.

[1dmf]

I guess it's all about perception.

I am not directly paying someone for a link, I am offer the ability to earn money for referring successful canditates to our services.

The way they refer people to our services is via a hyperlink coded to their affiate account.

The link is simply the mechanism used to take part in our affiiate program.

how on earth do you come to the conclusion that this is 'not fair' to anyone?

This service will add value to those websites taking part and offers additional services to the web visitor, did I miss something when I read it's all about giving added value and services to the visitor.

Of course it benefits us and the affiliate also, but at the end of the day we are all in business and need to earn money, but I hardly see this mechanism being 'unfair' to anyone, surely it's a win-win situation.

[Ahmed]

It’s a win win situation for you and your affiliates. As I said in the above post "not all affiliates will promote your program because they think it’s nice" -- some will add a link just to sell. You will get benefit from the good affiliates who actually know how to sell and shouldn’t get search engine benefit from all the random people who will link to you. I may be wrong but I do think that affiliates who write a personal review of a "product" will sell best and they will be giving you their "vote". BUT there will always be a ton of people who will just stick your link on their website not even knowing what you sell exactly.

So you are "paying" for links but how is google supposed to figure that out idk (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)