Affiliate Selling: Building Revenue on the Web

Affiliate Selling tells you all you need to get going. (And if you happen to be an e-commerce site, you'll also learn how to start your own program. By one estimate, 17% of e-commerce sales are already driven by affiliate programs, and it may be 25% in a year or two. You need to glom onto that revenue stream!)

The authors start by comparing several leading types of affiliate programs. You'll review the advantages and disadvantages of each, and discover how to estimate the potential value of these programs to your site.

Learn about some of the problems with traditional affiliate programs, and what can be done about them. For example, once you refer a customer to an e-commerce site, will they go straight there in the future, cutting you out? (Some enlightened affiliate programs now offer residual payments for those future purchases.) You'll also learn the technical details (Job #1: Make absolutely sure your HTML links include your affiliate ID!)

There's detailed coverage managing your site organization and content development to smoothly integrate affiliate links (including how to design your store's "shelf space"). You'll learn how toanalyzetraffic and maximize it (co-author Greg Helmstetter previously wrote Increasing Hits & Selling More On Your Web Site). There's even a detailed chapter on refining your product mix, placement, and display to maximize commissions.

Affiliate programs may not make you wealthy overnight. But significant numbers of affiliate sites are earning over $500 a month—not too shabby. It can be done, and Affiliate Selling shows you how.
—Bill Camardabncom editor