Three experts answer 15 affiliate marketing questions

I had asked our readers a few months back what questions about affiliate marketing they’d like answered. After analyzing the submitted questions, I selected 15 of the most frequent ones. I then sent my questions out to three affiliate marketing superstars who were friends with me. You can find the results below.

The guys are well known, so we’ll just say a few words about them. Shawn Collins began affiliate marketing back in the 1990s and is now one of the biggest names in this industry. Jonathan Volk, the CEO at Surge Marketing (an affiliate marketing agency) generates millions in affiliate sales per year. Zac Johnson began earning money online at the age of 15 and is now one of most successful affiliate marketer. If you’re interested in affiliate marketing, make sure to sign up for all three sites. Here are the answers to your questions.

1. How can I start with affiliate marketing, if I’m a total newbie to the field?

ShawnI have created a short video that outlines the steps to setting up an affiliate website.

JonathanJoining some online communities and following blogs would be my first step. I think it’s a great idea to give you a head start. Additionally, on many of the blogs they have some “Getting started with affiliate marketing” type guides that can really help you to start your make money online journey.

ZacIt is best to familiarize yourself with all the terms and understand how social media, networks, CPA/CPC, and other aspects of marketing work. There are plenty of paid ebooks and “teaching” programs out there, but none of them are necessary. Google will bring up a number of blogs that offer the same information to newbies for free. If you search for information, you will find that everything you need is available for free.

2. Does affiliate marketing require me to invest money in paid advertisements, PPCs, or other forms of advertising?

ShawnAs an affiliate, you can make money through many methods. If you have money to invest, and you’re willing to put a lot of time into testing, you can make money fairly fast with PPC. But if you have more time than money, and you want to build a long-term site, I’d suggest focusing on building a blog on a topic that interests you. It is possible to do so for a very small cost.

Jonathan: Yes. Yes, there will always be a minimum investment required. You’ll need a website, domain, etc. You don’t have to pay for traffic but it’s the FASTEST way to begin to earn a living online. You can start by buying PPC traffic, and then set your daily budget to what the affiliate’s commission is. Let’s say you earn $20 bucks per lead for an offer. You can set your budget for the day at $20, and then see if anything happens.

ZacYou can find everything online. To make money on the internet, you DO NOT have to spend any money. It is important to consider how quickly and how much you wish to earn. In the early days of making money online, over a decade before I started to make any real income from it, I made five figures per year without paying a penny in advertising. This took much longer to build up content and get search traffic… but didn’t cost any money.

3. Let’s say I have an existing website or blog that has a decent amount of traffic. What are the best ways to use affiliate marketing for monetizing my website?

ShawnSearch for affiliate programs in the companies you are interested in and submit an application. Comparing them, you can see which has the highest payouts, longest cookie periods, and best EPC. Test creative from each company to collect data, and then determine which works best for you.

JonathanYou need to first understand your audience. What demographic visits your site? Ask your affiliate manager what offers are working for that demographic. You might try weight-loss offers if you have a site that caters primarily to women between 35 and 50 years old.

ZacYou can blend a CPA with the content of your site, depending on what type of website you have. Google Adsense is always an option, but it’s usually the last resort for experienced marketers. It is important to blend in relevant ads and content while making them look authentic.

4. You can start with an offer and build your website, email list, PPC campaign, around that. Or, you can do it the other way round (i.e. first, create a site or list, then look for offers).

ShawnI select offers that are relevant to my websites, as I will be more inclined to maintain the site if it is something I’m interested in. There are many successful affiliates that are basically mercenaries who create websites to take advantage of whatever’s hot.

JonathanI am the one who finds the market. By this I mean that I look for areas where traffic is high and I cater to them. That way I know the traffic is there, it’s just a matter of finding out what will convert profitably for that particular area (or demographic).

ZacIf I’m selecting an offer through a network I look at their offers. Since I know what’s available on all networks and is likely to be saturated, I choose an offer that appears to be a little less crowded and hasn’t been heavily promoted by affiliates. Finding something like this is often difficult, but when you do, it’s much easier to market and earn money.

5. What are your thoughts on affiliate shaving/scrubbing?

Shawn: I focus on retail/revenue share and this hasn’t been an issue for me.

JonathanThis is called scrubbing, when the advertiser removes bad leads. You are not paid for these. The majority of advertisers do this. The lead could have fake information, like an email address or be from another nation when the advertiser wants only US-based leads. [email protected]).

Shaving is not the same. Shaving occurs when affiliate networks shave leads off your leads. One hundred of your leads may not be counted. This is not a problem for the network, as they still get paid by advertisers. However, you won’t see anything. Some shaving may be intentional, and some unintentional. Split testing an offer on multiple networks can help prevent this from happening.

You should never accuse anybody of shaving without a significant amount of data to back it up. If you only have 10 leads per day on average and one day you have 5, it doesn’t mean the advertiser is shaving. This could be a number of different things.

Zac: Since affiliate marketing first started online, it’s always been a scary issue and always in the back of our minds. In the past, it was difficult to compare stats between networks. But with advanced reporting and cookie/pixel tracking, this is now possible. There will always be people who are looking to cheat, snoop and take advantage. Make sure that the company’s statistics are reliable and you trust them.

6. You may be worried about web browsers that automatically delete cookies when a session ends. What happens if it becomes the default setting on all browsers?

ShawnEach six-months, affiliate marketers are frightened by a fresh threat. I just concentrate on producing quality content and don’t obsess about the threats. So long as my numbers are where I’d like them to be, the payout, conversion rate, etc. The payout, conversion rate etc. are all secondary.

Jonathan: No. It will not become standard. Many people prefer to log into Facebook, Myspace, Email, etc. without having to login every time. Plus some networks don’t even require cookies to track conversions.

Zac: I’m not concerned about individuals clearing out their cookies, but it would be interesting to see what happens if this was an automatic browser feature. I’m sure many of the bigger coupon sites and merchant networks would be affected heavily. The idea that whoever delivered the latest cookie gets credit was always appealing to me. The marketplace will find new ways to track sales leads.

7. Do you believe that PPC campaigns are necessary to super affiliates? Is it possible to earn big bucks with affiliate marketing even without PPC?

Shawn: PPC is just one area of affiliate marketing – there are plenty of affiliates using content sites, comparison shopping, email, coupons, etc. Results can be impressive.

JonathanPPC does not represent the only source of traffic. You can use many different traffic sources. Adwords is a great tool for finding traffic.

Zac: It’s definitely possible to make a massive amount of money without relying on pay per click. PPC always has a big appeal because it delivers fast results and large amounts. What most people aren’t discussing or thinking about is the big costs also involved. I’ve always been a fan of creating niche sites, building them up over time and having them earn thousands of dollars in profit month and month, without having to worry about PPC management or costs.

8. What are the best ways to find quality affiliates who will promote your products or services?

Shawn: That’s not really something that can be answered in a couple sentences. However, I’ve created a free video series that goes over the steps for companies to set up and run a successful affiliate program, based on my decade as an affiliate manager.

JonathanIt comes down to several things.

1. Relationship. – If you have a relationship with the affiliate, they are way more likely to promote your stuff although it does not guarantee it.

2. (Most important) Conversion rate. – If you spend the time optimizing your page over and over, you will have the best converting sales page. Numbers don’t lie and at the end of the day, super affiliates want to make the most for their investment into traffic costs.

ZacThe majority of affiliates want only to earn money. They don’t want to be bothered and pestered with what offers to run and why your network is better than others. Contact them and give your numbers.It is very simple to start the campaign. Nothing is worse then being pestered to run a campaign, then having to join a network, wait a couple days and so on… by then it’s already too late.

9. Clickbank appears to be the rage among affiliate marketers. Are you also a big user of Clickbank, or do you get most your offers from somewhere else?

ShawnClickBank’s popularity is high among affiliates who promote digital goods. Commission Junction is my preferred affiliate network. I also work with Google Affiliate Network, LinkShare, ShareASale, and Commission Junction to promote products.

JonathanClickbank was my first affiliate program. Now, my dad owns an item on Clickbank and makes a lot of money with it. Since then, I’ve shifted to CPA networks only with a couple of small marketing campaigns.

ZacClickBank’s payouts, and their entire backend are awesome. You don’t have to be concerned about advertisers screwing the network. They are paid only when sales occur. Affiliates can choose from a wide range of niche-specific offers with creatives that are well written and ads content. Advertisers can easily create a new account, upload a product and a few creatives. ClickBank is genius!

10. Your first success in affiliate marketing?

ShawnIn the 1990s I began paid search arbitrage even before it was called that. Back then there were many PPC programs, so I used to buy clicks targeted at a penny on GoTo.com. These would be funneled into affiliate links.

Jonathan: It’s been so long I cant even remember. It was probably a direct link from PPC to an ebook about golf on Clickbank. I made about $20 a day. After moving into different niches I was able to earn up $250 a day by simply linking straight from google PPC Campaigns.

ZacIt was the first time I made $100,000 with Amazon.com without any advertising. Although it may not appear to be much, this was a pretty impressive achievement for a high-school student. After promoting Amazon’s associate program for a while, I quickly got into CPA affiliate marketing, where things got even more exciting and fun.

11. Many offers are available to promote. What are the best offers for my audience/blog?

Shawn: It depends on why your audience is there – think about the top 3-5 keywords that describe your site and search in Google for affiliate programs that related to those keywords.

JonathanIt all comes back to your audience / demographic. Ask around to find out what converts well for this audience.

Zac: It’s all a game of testing. You can make your decision based on the profit potential of each offer, its quality and relevancy to your website. If you are selecting ads for your high quality/profile blog, you want to make sure you aren’t pushing crap off to your readers.

12. Do you feel that affiliate marketing can be promoted through social media? Do you know how to promote affiliate offers?

ShawnAffiliates use video, Twitter and social networks to promote affiliate links. Since years, affiliate links have been promoted.

Jonathan: You can promote affiliate offers through social media although it’s a lot more difficult. Referring friends to products and services you already use is the most effective way. Sure, you won’t become a millionaire from it, but you’ll make some extra coin!

ZacThere is no doubt. I’ve seen some great results with Facebook Fan Pages and Twitter for building up niche sites that people are really interested. Many people are happy to share articles on Twitter that interest them, or provide feedback for your blog.

13. Use pre-sell/reviews pages to promote affiliate offers or send traffic straight to the merchant’s sales page?

ShawnI send traffic to my site. I don’t think affiliates are bringing value to the table if they’re insinuating themselves into a search from a consumer for a product or service.

JonathanPre-selling my traffic is something I do almost every time before directing them to an offer from an affiliate. Profits are generally increased by doing so.

ZacI am going to test direct linking and landing pages. It is easy to link directly, but a landing-page can increase your conversions. It’s very easy to split test offers while advertising on solutions like Facebook Ads, because you can get a decent flow of traffic very fast and have an idea where/what people are clicking on.

14. You lose money trying to find lucrative offers. This process is inevitable.

Shawn: That’s the nature of testing – the key is to closely monitor things to limit losses and scale gains.

JonathanAlmost always. In fact I’ve lost more money this year than I ever have. Why? Because I’ve tested a TON of offers aggressively. You can’t make everything work and sometimes it takes a bit of money to figure that out.

Zac: It’s a good bet that you will lose money while testing out new campaigns. It’s also ok and expected, which is why it’s called testing. It’s like throwing lots of mud on the wall to see what sticks. After you filter out and find the keywords, offers, or ad copy that works, your profit margins will increase quickly.

15. How to test and track the best affiliate marketing offers.

ShawnThe CPM of all comparable offers will help you decide which one to keep and which to discard.

Jonathan: I think it’s always important to track what traffic source is converting best. If you’re promoting your site in multiple places, always make sure you know which site is bringing in what conversions. This can be done with a simple “subid” and helps dramatically.

My headlines are the most important thing that I use to test. Testing different headlines is essential for both ads and affiliate landing page.

ZacIt is obvious that you want to know the ROI and what advertising you should spend. Once you have a campaign setup, it’s easy to see your profits and sit there and relax. A few days/weeks pass and you are slowing losing profit margin, then before you know it… you are pushing even/loss numbers. It’s important to always be on top of your ad campaigns. Don’t forget to search for other relevant and competing offers to see which may convert best.