What does an affiliate site look like?

[crabjack]

Next question - Would someone please give me some examples of good, profitable affiliate sites? I can design and develop Websites, but some of the mechanics of this particular form of eBus are eluding me, and I think some good examples would be meaningful. I learn well from examples.

[Linda Buquet]

Well.... that's sort of asking what a web site looks like - there are all different kinds. Plus we can't let anyone post link's to an affiliate site due to site copiers and idea stealers. Not you - but some scammer that could be reading the board. Although it's TOTALLY valid for you to ask and want examples and I'll give you the best way to get some.

Think of it this way. If you worked 3 years to build a good model and I posted your link as a good example and 3 sites scraped your content and took your search rankings, causing your earnings to drop, you'd be pretty ticked at me right? It's happened that way to so many affiliates, that it's sort of an unspoken industry rule.

There are so many different types of affiliate sites and business models: datafeed sites, coupon sites, review sites, affiliate blogs... I could go on and on.

So the best thing to do - is if you have an idea about the niche you are interested in, then do a Google search for some product or merchant names and a bunch of the top results are probably affiliate sites. Then you can get a good cross section of the type of site that may work for that niche.

If you're not sure you are on an affiliate site some hints are if the banner, link or buy now button takes you to another site and not to the shopping cart on that same site. If you get stuck holler and I'll try to give you more specifics but I think you can get what you need by what I've told you so far.

[Linda Buquet]

We are often asked what affiliates sites look like. crabjack is not the 1st to ask the question.

Here's a great resource for not only seeing seeing super successful affiliate sites, but understanding their model and what makes it work.

It's a feature over at Target Marketing Magazine by Dan Chiss from DoubleClick Performics.

"Affiliate Spotlight will introduce you to a variety of players on the affiliate marketing scene. Check back monthly for the lowdown from Chiss on the fastest-growing and top-performing affiliates around."

http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/st...9104&var=story
Click at the bottom of the page for several more pages of affiliates that have been featured.

Note: these are bigger sometimes even corporate affiliate sites, some with lots of money behind them. So they aren't representative of an 'average' or newbie affiliate site. However most of them probably started as a mom and pop site and built up from there. Most probably took several years to get where they are today. Also warning to n00bs - many are coupon or rebate sites which are not a good place to start. Just look at the designs and get some ideas.

I meant to post about this when I 1st saw it and
then was reminded of it today when Shawn blogged about it.

Dan left this comment over at Shawn's blog.

Between print and online, there have been some great publishers featured, including:

Keycode/Nuuvy
Kaboodle
Mall Networks
ShopStyle
BillMeLater
StyleHive
ShopDiscover
Working Advantage
CouponCabin

It’s been a great way to feature a diverse set of publishers (proven performers and rising stars) and business models to an audience of readers who may not (yet) be participating in the affiliate channel.

[HL08]

Go to Clickbank.com/marketplace and check out all of the different websites

[Linda Buquet]

I think he wants to see affiliate sites, not merchant sites. Plus a large majority of CB sites are going to be the long hype filled sales letter type sites. Traditional affiliate programs with real products, as opposed to info products, don't look like that or sell that way.

[crabjack]

You're right, Linda. I have found some sites to give me an idea of what I should be doing, and I have some experience with marketing (more traditional) and Web development, so I have got a start building the site. I also have found some merchants w/ affiliate pgms. that carry a few things that I am looking to sell. I haven't contacted them yet - waiting 'till I have a site to show. I am moving along, but it seems like a slow process. I do think that I (we) will eventually be a more traditional eCommerce site with stock, a shopping cart, etc. as well as have affiliate offerings, but if we can start as an affiliate site it will sure make initial funding easier.

Crabjack