Using Affiliate Programs
August 29, 2005
Because affiliate programs can be a good way of adding interesting revenue to a blog, I thought that the recent post Darren Rowse made at ProBlogger (definitely an excellent blog) would be worth a little exposure here. 10 good tips for using affiliate programs is in my opinion a good review, not too lengthy but giving enough details, about how to consider and use such programs. While it’s not about precisely detailing each of them—he does that for a few in other entries—the advice is worth being kept in mind, and can likely be used on more websites than “just” blogs.
Here’s Darren’s little list (more details available, of course, in his own entry):
1. Consider your Audience. It’s worth putting yourself in your readers shoes and consider what they might be looking for as they surf by your blog.
2. Genuine Recommendations and personal endorsements always work best. Your blog’s readers come back to your blog day after day because something about you resonates with them - they have at least some level of trust and respect for you and perhaps the quickest way to destroy this is to recommend that they buy something that you don’t fully believe will benefit them.
3. Link to Quality Products. Choose products and companies with good reputations and quality sales pages.
4. Contextual Deep Links work Best.
5. Consider positioning of links.
6. Traffic levels are Important. The more people that see your well placed, relevant and well designed affiliate links the more likely it is that one of them will make a purchase. So don’t just work on your links - work on building a readership.
7. Diversify without Clutter. Don’t put all your affiliate efforts into one basket. There are plenty of products out there to link to so there is no need to just work on one.
8. Be Transparent. Don’t try to fool your readers into clicking links that could make you money.
9. Combine with other Revenue Stream. Affiliate programs and advertising programs are not mutually exclusive things.
10. Track results. Watching your results can help you plan future affiliate efforts. Keep track of what positions for links work well, which products sell, what wording around links works well etc and use the information that you collect as you work plan future affiliate strategies.
AdSense Optimization: Case Study at ProBlogger
August 23, 2005
Well, Darren Rowse doesn’t offer this to anyone, that is—only to Jeff Jarvis. I however feel that it’s a great, great post he makes here, since a lot of us bloggers who’re trying their hand at AdSense (or plan to) probably fall in this category of “not placing our ads efficiently enough”.
So what can be obtained from Darren’s post, given that it’s targeted at a specific blog and not at everyone? Comparison, folks. Compare. See if your own blog shows similarities with the one featured in this case study. See if what Darren describes is somewhat representative of your site. See if the advice he gives on improving ads placement can also be applied to your blog, or at least to a part of it. It’s not about following blindly, but about extracting what pieces of advice we may need from the biggest plan, so to say.
I know of a few people who’d have given a hand to read such advice when they started using AdSense. Well, let’s say I’d have given something as well myself (even if not a body part—I still need them).
Insight on Amazon Affiliates Program
August 23, 2005
This is a program I’m using myself on two of my blogs. While it doesn’t add as near revenue as, say, AdSense blocks, it can be an interesting feature to peruse—with the added bonus that, when used properly, it can actually enhance your posts through clever use of images (book covers…), rather than just look like “some other kind of ugly banners”.
On this matter, Darren Rowse at ProBlogger has put up an interesting entry a few days ago, detailing the pros and cons of the affiliates system:
Amazon’s Associate Program is perhaps one of the most popular ones for bloggers because it is pretty simple to use and has such a wide range of products in their system ranging from books, to electronics, to jewelry, to CDs and DVDs etc. It’s also great because there are many tools that can be used to integrate it into your blog including WordPress Plug ins. Some bloggers even integrate Amazon stores into their blogs (something I need to get set up).
Another beauty of the Amazon program is the variety of ways that they give you to link to their products. Even using just their basic tools on the Associates page you have the option to link to products using text links, pictures, buttons and a variety of keyword triggered techniques.
WordPress users, I would also highly advise to have a look at the WP plugins allowing you to insert affiliate links into your posts (Darren links to wp-amazon, and one of his commenters mentioned another one: AMM).
I’ve tried the wp-amazon one so far, and I have to say, it’s been a real lifesaver, compared to the (long) process of logging into Amazon and setting up the link you want for one item. it includes easy switching from Amazon.com to Amazon.fr or Amazon.co.uk products: this will avoid you even more hassle if, like me, your audience is based in one of these countries, and you want to make it easier on them by not “only” offering links to the US version of the service. However, if you decide to use it, don’t forget to edit both .php files in order to replace the associate ID by your own (the default ID being the one from the person who coded the plugin), else you”ll have to replace it yourself in the generated links.
How To Avoid AdSense Account Cancellation
August 20, 2005
Even though this is already contained in the AdSense terms and policies themselves, it seems that many people don’t read them carefully enough at times (yes, this includes me as well, I’m a champ for that). This is why JenSense has put up an article about how to ensure your AdSense account won’t be cancelled:
Since more and more publishers are worried about being suspended from AdSense, and it seems like even more publishers claim they “didn’t know” the rules because they didn’t read the terms and/or policies, the AdSense team has created a brand new top ten list of what to do (and not to do!) to ensure your AdSense account remains in good standing.
The quick rundown of the top ten, as well as some of my personal comments in italics with each.
The personal comments mentioned in this excerpt are worth the read just as well as the guidelines themselves, by the way.
Now we don’t have any excuses anymore for not following them, do we?
AdSense Official Blog
August 17, 2005
Rumor had it for quite some time, and it wasn’t a mystery that the URL was somehow “reserved”. Well, the veil is now lifted: Inside AdSense has gone live.
Of course, the blog being brand new, there isn’t much on it yet. Let’s hope that we’ll however soon see posts and useful tips flourish on it!
Simple AdSense Tips
August 4, 2005
“Simple” as in “written in a very clear way”, not as in “simplistic. The Record Card has just added a list of 16 solid tips that proove to be pretty useful to anyone starting out with AdSense. If the confirmed AdSense user probably knows them all already, the starting one can no doubt make much use of them.
Here are a few examples:
Add to your site often
larger sites which cover more ground are going to do better; write a quality new article a day and in a year’s time you’ll have loads of stuff behind you!Diversify your subject
don’t be afraid to expand and explore your niche.One topic = one page
where you can, this will increase the targeting of the ads and make clickthroughs more likely.
Yahoo! Blog Ad Network
August 3, 2005
The rumor had been on it for some time already, yet it was still more done in terms of speculations than of real confirmations. Now, if this article at C.Net is right, it seems that Yahoo is indeed about to launch its own blog ads network on Wednesday:
Yahoo is planning to launch on Wednesday an ad network for small Web publishers intended to strengthen its hand against rival Google, a source familiar with the plan told CNET News.com.
As previously reported, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company has been working for months on a self-serve advertising service tailored to bloggers and other small Web publishers, a move that homes in on Google’s territory.
While Yahoo and Google already go head-to-head serving major search-advertising partners such as America Online, Google has largely enjoyed a monopoly delivering its signature text-only ads to smaller content sites, including blogs.
Now Yahoo will play to that constituency and challenge Google’s pricing power in one of the fastest-growing online mediums: blogging. Like Google’s service, Yahoo’s self-serve product will display text ads deemed relevant to the content of specific Web pages. Advertisers pay only when a reader clicks on their ads. Yahoo and publishers will split the fees.
Let’s keep a close eye on that, for it can very well add one more string to our already existing pool of resources.
