As internet marketing continues to grow and expand, the methods which its marketers use will also continue to adapt as well. From the once simple direct linking, now affiliates are building out highly efficient landing pages. The online advertising market has roared back to life after the dot-com boom and bust. To take advantage of this, publishers are adding more ad-supported content as well as looking at emerging media to engage their readers. For every dollar spent on advertising I typically see returns in the $1.50 to $2 range which is quite nice. So what tools exist for the affiliate advertiser to maximize their results? Let’s face it, the reason affiliates advertise is to make profit, and optimizing their efforts is key to effectively managing profitability. There are thousands upon thousands of tools on the internet, both paid and free. Let’s review a few of them.
Google Keyword Tool: is a free tool provided by Google which gives you search volumes (local and global), search trends, estimated average cost per click, advertiser competition, and also suggesting other keywords which may have relevance to your original keyword.
Wordpot: is a free tool (with an enhanced paid member options) that gives you ‘exact daily’ search volumes for specific keywords and suggestions that are close matches. You have the ability to refine your keyword searches to specific search engines, singular/plural, synonyms, relates, and associated search parameters. This site is very helpful when choose keywords.
Alexa: is a free tool which gives you useful information about specific websites. You can search for websites by keyword or URL. This site will return with traffic statistics about where the visitor came from, how much time they spent on the site, where they viewed on the specific website, etc.
Quantcast: is a free tool which continues where Alexa leaves off. It goes into demographic statistics and gives you the specifics on gender, age, ethnicity, kids, wage, education, and locale. In addition, it also gives you traffic and geographical data. By far one of the most useful features is the ‘Audience Also Visits’ data. This will give relevant information as to what additional websites the viewer ALSO visits. This is very key information for tying ad content and to relevant keyword searches.
Affiliate marketing is a method of promoting web businesses by supplying traffic to a website, which an affiliate is then rewarded for every visitor, subscriber, customer, and/or sale provided through his/her efforts. It is a modern variation of the practice of paying a finders fee for the introduction of new clients to a business. Like any other advertising method, it does not mean that pay per click will give you a sale or commission, unless your campaigns and websites are properly organized and laid out. What use is bringing a visitor to a site if they can’t find what they are looking for on your website? Traffic that isn’t properly matched to the right website is irrelevant and only costs you money. You want to bring the right traffic to website… then bring them in countless droves!
