5 Star Affiliate Programs

DreamPrints · #1 (**permalink**) 07-26-2006, 03:44 AM

Hello to everyone

I am rather new to the Affiliate business and have one question:

Our site IcePoster.com is focused on celebrity posters and photos. So it is rather specific and the IcePoster.com Affiliate Program needs targeted traffic to function.

I mean, people who adore some celebrity and visit her fan site wouldn't probably mind buying her posters.

So how do I recruit fan and celebrity sites webmasters? Most of them do not think about earning money, others already work with someone and do not look for other merchants. In this consideration submitting to Affiliate Program Directories is not very effective.

Thanks for your thoughts.
Your Program review will be also greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Ann

Linda Buquet · #2 (**permalink**) 07-26-2006, 08:48 AM

Hi Ann,

Have tried targeting music and DVD affiliates? Do you have a datafeed? I can see some affiliates that already have the above products wanting to add posters.

DreamPrints · #3 (**permalink**) 07-27-2006, 04:03 AM

Thanks, Linda

That's a great idea.
But what interests me, is how do I get in touch with them?

I was trying to send them an email describing my offer but most people consider it SPAM and even get annoyed.

Regards,

Ann

Jet01 · #4 (**permalink**) 09-28-2006, 10:56 AM

Hi, Sending an email to a potential website should not be considered spam. This is how sales work. It becomes spam when you send the exact same message to 5000 websites at one time.

What I would do is tailor the email message for that particular website. Make it more personal and you will increase your response rate. Secondly, do not make it very long. Grab attention, give reason, and get out. If they are interested, they will reply. If they are interested, they do not want to read a novel, and if they are uninterested, both A and B don't matter.

Try being different and ensure the recipient regards your message as genuine. Try sending it to a friend and see what their impression of the email is, and how it makes them feel. Also pay attention to the subject line, and your from address. Do not send from hotmail or yahoo etc. Plus your domain name shoudl not be a bunch of junk, the more professional you look the better. Include a call back number, all your details and give yourself a nice title. Make it up if you have to.

Secondly, you may not want to send to the support email on the website. Try doing a whois and find the owner of the website email addres. That person may not be the person dealing with it, but they will forwad it to the person who does.

If the website is a potential super affiliate, you may want to just call them. If the call is long distance, try using Skype or even MSN messenger now. Skype is free in North America for another year.

If all that doesn't work, the website is probably not being managed properly.
I would use Arelis to find potential sites to become your affiliate. Arelis is not a bulk emailed and you will be able to send out 1 email at a time, but you can take your time.

Affiliate acquisition takes time, but once its going, it goes..

Jason Tarter

P.S. It is a bit deceiving, but if you set up the message so it looks as though you may want to advertise on the website, it will be easier to get someone on the phone and they will probably call you.

Linda Buquet · #5 (**permalink**) 09-28-2006, 11:56 AM

All good point Jason.

HEY that's your 1st post. Welcome to 5 Star. Feel free to go up and introduce yourself.

DreamPrints · #6 (**permalink**) 09-29-2006, 03:41 AM

Thanks a lot, Jason.

Your advice is great.

JeffR · #7 (**permalink**) 09-29-2006, 02:43 PM

I know it's not quite on topic, but I think it relates. I've tried 4 times to signup as an affiliate and failed to get the signup page 4 times. It just sits and spins.

I use Firefox.

Just for kicks, I switched to IE and it loaded in a snap. So I immediately went to Firefox and tried again. 5 minutes later, nothing.

I know a lot of affiliates use FF to get past the problems in IE, so having a page that may not load properly in FF (or at all!) would hinder your efforts.

Now I can't say this happens for all FF users, but it's worth a look.

Oh yeah - and your PayPal email box is SHORT. I couldn't get my preferred address in there!

Jeff (about to join through IE)

StephenR · #8 (**permalink**) 10-01-2006, 09:14 PM

Excellent post Jason. Spot on.

Besides writing articles and syndicating them through the major directories you should get in contact with similar non=competing sites and offer to write them a cutom article that they alone can publish to their site. This gives you a solid one-way link back to your site and also increases exposure of your program to recruit affiliates.

In addition, you'll probably want to peruse Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants (or you can pay Shawn $10K to launch your program into the stratosphere. LOL.

DreamPrints · #9 (**permalink**) 10-02-2006, 02:32 AM

Thanks a lot, Jeff

I use FF myself and had never had any problems but we will have a look at it.

Jet01 · #10 (**permalink**) 10-03-2006, 08:05 AM

Hi, thanks for the positive feedback..

Another good idea is announcing your program by Press Releases too. There are a numbe r of companies who will send them out for free, and you can also pay for extra services. Even if you don't get many leads from the actual release, you will see other websites picking up the content, because most of it is syndicated to third party websites.