Affiliate Marketing is fast becoming the No.1 online marketing strategy for thousands of online businesses worldwide. Reaching out to affiliates on a UK or global market, you as a Merchant only pay affiliates on performance when they generate a sale for you by promoting your products and services on there very own website and refer their visitors to your site. For there efforts, Merchants will pay them commission from each sale they are responsible for.
Affiliates, also known as publisher play a vital role in the affiliate marketing industry, responsible for generating more than £10 billion pounds in 2005 and with sales continue to rise, affiliate marketing looks very bright for the future. There are thousands of UK affiliates who may potentially join your own affiliate program, its whether you are able to commit the time and develop a long and established relationship with them. Treat them well and they are sure to do an exceptional job for you promoting your products and services.
Merchants, also known as advertisers to affiliates, can take many steps to expose there affiliate program to affiliates. You may like to get your site signed up with an Affiliate Network and instantly introduce your business to possibly thousands of affiliates who may wish to join your affiliate program on any given network. However, if you have a fair knowledge how affiliate marketing works, developing an Independent Affiliate Program with the use of Affiliate Software may be a great option for you, this way it may be in your budget with no third parties to pay.
We have provided many useful resources for affiliates, you will find a selection of interesting articles to read including top UK Affiliate Networks. If you have just started up an affiliate website, our Affiliate Learning Centre below may be the place for you, listing many affiliate marketing related words and terms you will need to no in the near future to develop your skills. Merchants will discover tons of UK based Affiliate Networks that may consider joining and compare set-up costs with others. If you haven't started your own affiliate programs just yet, then please take the time to visit our Merchant Learning Centre, filled with detailed information to help you build a successful affiliate program and better ways to attract top affiliates into your program.
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2nd Tier: A word usually associated with Affiliate Referral Programs. If you as an affiliate refer another affiliates, you will receive a percentage of that affiliates commission for as long as they are with the network, or the affiliate program you referred them too.
Affiliates, also known as publisher play a vital role in the affiliate marketing industry, responsible for generating more than £10 billion pounds in 2005 and with sales continue to rise, affiliate marketing looks very bright for the future. There are thousands of UK affiliates who may potentially join your own affiliate program, its whether you are able to commit the time and develop a long and established relationship with them. Treat them well and they are sure to do an exceptional job for you promoting your products and services.
Merchants, also known as advertisers to affiliates, can take many steps to expose there affiliate program to affiliates. You may like to get your site signed up with an Affiliate Network and instantly introduce your business to possibly thousands of affiliates who may wish to join your affiliate program on any given network. However, if you have a fair knowledge how affiliate marketing works, developing an Independent Affiliate Program with the use of Affiliate Software may be a great option for you, this way it may be in your budget with no third parties to pay.
We have provided many useful resources for affiliates, you will find a selection of interesting articles to read including top UK Affiliate Networks. If you have just started up an affiliate website, our Affiliate Learning Centre below may be the place for you, listing many affiliate marketing related words and terms you will need to no in the near future to develop your skills. Merchants will discover tons of UK based Affiliate Networks that may consider joining and compare set-up costs with others. If you haven't started your own affiliate programs just yet, then please take the time to visit our Merchant Learning Centre, filled with detailed information to help you build a successful affiliate program and better ways to attract top affiliates into your program.
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2nd Tier: A word usually associated with Affiliate Referral Programs. If you as an affiliate refer another affiliates, you will receive a percentage of that affiliates commission for as long as they are with the network, or the affiliate program you referred them too.
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Account: An account is a secure page where you as an affiliate apply all your personal information: such as your home address, billing information, your commission earnings, invoice details, payment history and your website details.
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Advertiser/Merchant: A Merchant, also known as an Advertiser, are the companies that operate an affiliate program. These companies are signed-up with an Affiliate Network so you can easily access them and join there programs from categories including shopping, real estate, internet and much more.
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Affiliate ID: Every affiliate that signs-up to either an Affiliate Network or affiliate program are instantly issued with an affiliate ID. This ID code is usually made up of several numbers issued to your account so your commission will be tracked and rewarded to you. Your affiliate code will look something like this link in red:
http://www.affiliatenetworkname
.com/click/affiliattracking03939/
039393
Most Affiliate Networks you join automatically provide your affiliate ID into your tracking URL for each affiliate program you join. This will save you a lot of time when adding each affiliate program to your web pages and of course you will be less likely to make errors.
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Affiliate Marketing: Allowing small, medium to large size businesses to promote there products and services to a target audience. They can pay affiliates to promote there affiliate program and reward them with commission if the affiliate generates a sale for them with either a sale, lead, and pay-per-click.
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Affiliate Network: An Affiliate Network is a where affiliates join and select from 10 to 100's of affiliate programs that Affiliate Networks operate for the Merchant. The advantage of an Affiliate Network is that the affiliate as the pleasure of joining new affiliate programs from a single account rather than joining tons of programs that require you to login into each and every program at a time.
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Affiliate Programme: A company operates an affiliate program where they will pay there affiliates commission if they send a customer to there site, and if the customer makes a sale, the company, known as a Merchant or advertiser in the affiliate marketing business, will send a share of that sale into you affiliate account.
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Affiliates: Also known as a Publisher, an affiliate is someone who owns or operates a website and is willing to place advertisement on their site such as a banner or text link and if they send one of their site visitors to that advertisers site by clicking through on the banner, text link or other linking methods provided by the advertiser they will give the affiliate a percentage of the sale made.
Account: An account is a secure page where you as an affiliate apply all your personal information: such as your home address, billing information, your commission earnings, invoice details, payment history and your website details.
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Advertiser/Merchant: A Merchant, also known as an Advertiser, are the companies that operate an affiliate program. These companies are signed-up with an Affiliate Network so you can easily access them and join there programs from categories including shopping, real estate, internet and much more.
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Affiliate ID: Every affiliate that signs-up to either an Affiliate Network or affiliate program are instantly issued with an affiliate ID. This ID code is usually made up of several numbers issued to your account so your commission will be tracked and rewarded to you. Your affiliate code will look something like this link in red:
http://www.affiliatenetworkname
.com/click/affiliattracking03939/
039393
Most Affiliate Networks you join automatically provide your affiliate ID into your tracking URL for each affiliate program you join. This will save you a lot of time when adding each affiliate program to your web pages and of course you will be less likely to make errors.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Affiliate Marketing: Allowing small, medium to large size businesses to promote there products and services to a target audience. They can pay affiliates to promote there affiliate program and reward them with commission if the affiliate generates a sale for them with either a sale, lead, and pay-per-click.
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Affiliate Network: An Affiliate Network is a where affiliates join and select from 10 to 100's of affiliate programs that Affiliate Networks operate for the Merchant. The advantage of an Affiliate Network is that the affiliate as the pleasure of joining new affiliate programs from a single account rather than joining tons of programs that require you to login into each and every program at a time.
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Affiliate Programme: A company operates an affiliate program where they will pay there affiliates commission if they send a customer to there site, and if the customer makes a sale, the company, known as a Merchant or advertiser in the affiliate marketing business, will send a share of that sale into you affiliate account.
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Affiliates: Also known as a Publisher, an affiliate is someone who owns or operates a website and is willing to place advertisement on their site such as a banner or text link and if they send one of their site visitors to that advertisers site by clicking through on the banner, text link or other linking methods provided by the advertiser they will give the affiliate a percentage of the sale made.
An affiliate is also referred by the following names: Associate, Publisher, Referrer and Partner, but most commonly they are known as an affiliate in the Affiliate Marketing Industry. So, if you are thinking about starting your very own affiliate program, it may be a good idea to refer to your affiliates; as affiliates, as it may course a little confusing to newbies.
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Application: As an affiliate, you will be required to fill in an online affiliate application with either an Affiliate Network or independent affiliate program. You will be required to give your full name and address, telephone number, a valid email address and the information of the site you plan on promoting the affiliate programs on. But what ever you do, you must provide accurate information if you want your application to be accepted.
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Banners & Text Links: All affiliate programs you join you will be provided a selection of very attractive banners in all shapes and sizes. The most commonly used banner size is 460x60, a horizontal banner that is suited to fit on the top of your web page. Other popular banner sizes include buttons 120x60 which compliments your site very well when placed next to a description of the Merchant. And not forgetting the skyscraper, a 120x600 size banner ideal for the side of your web page out of the way of your page content but can be visibly seen for longer on the page as the user scrolls up and down the web page.
A text link is a simple little text description that fits well into your page content and is often seen as a blue hyperlink that is often underlined and looks like this. If you don’t have room for a banner then text links may be your best choice. But keep in mind, try to provide a very descriptive text around it as this will be very beneficial to search engines rather than a piece of text they can’t read.
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Clicks: A click is what appears in your reports statistics, from there you can see how many times a user as clicked on your affiliate links. The clicks will hopefully turn in to sales and earn you commission.
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Commission: Every time you make a sale for a Merchant resulting from the click through from one of the links on your site, you will be entitled to a share of that money earned. If the Merchant offers 10% for each sale: if the customer buys a new DVD player for £10.00, you will be credited £1 into your affiliate account.
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Cookies: If your site visitor follows your link to a Merchants website, but does not buy anything right away. You can still receive commission if the same person on their computer buys something on that Merchants site up to 30 days later. Each affiliate program gives you up to 30 day cookie expiry date, although it does very depending on the Merchant.
The piece of cookie code that is stored on the site visitors computers can keep track of there sales and it is even possible for the cookie length to run for a lifetime. Though, it is possible that user would of brought a dozen new computers buy then, but at least you have a chance with users who look after there computers well.
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Creative: Most affiliate programs provide you with text links and of course a selection of banners also known as Graphic Design. These banners come in all shapes, sizes and colour themes so you as an affiliate can choose the one that best fits the style of your website. You may like to learn more about Banner Designers as it may be possible in the near future you may require one for your very own website promotional needs.
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Currency: As an UK affiliate, you would probably be preferred to be paid your commission in UK Pounds. But if you lived in the United States, the Americans would prefer to be paid in US Dollars. Often, it is possible to select in your affiliate account what currency your would prefer to be paid in. But it is possible the affiliate program/affiliate network will send your cheque in there own countries currency, so you will have to change the payment your self. You will be charged a small fee for the exchange rate.
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Denied & Accepted: Once you sign-up to any Affiliate Network or affiliate program, there will be one of two outcomes. You will be accepted as an affiliate and be able to login to your account and get started right away. However, it may be possible you will be denied, most obviously this could be coursed from you giving the wrong information on your affiliate application and may be seen as fraud, so they would prefer not to accept you in to the program. To completely avoid this, give all the details that is asked from you, and be as accurate as you possibly can. Another way you may be denied from individual affiliate programs, they may feel your site is not suitable for there program as you don't receive the right kind of visitor for there affiliate program.
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Earnings: All the commission you receive from each sale you are responsible for the payment will moved into your account. You can see how much you have earned by looking at your total earnings, you may like to do a report and see which affiliate programs are making you the most commission to make improvements.
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EPC: This Means "Earning Per Hundred Clicks." Now lets get one thing straight, this is not an indication how much money you will receive once your link has been clicked on 100 times. This simply allows you to compare what kind of commission you can receive from individual affiliate programs once the link as been clicked on 100 times if you used it through a Search Engine.
This comes in handy when you use search engines such as Google, Yahoo, & MSN Search Pay-Per-Click Advertising to promote the Merchant and allow users to be redirected straight through to the Merchants website using your affiliate tracking code without stopping by your own website first.
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Impression: An impression is how many times the Merchants banners and text links have been displayed to your site visitors on each web page. When a visitor clicks on to one of your web pages where you have a banner displayed, that will count as 1 impression. Many times many impressions can be shown in your account with only a few clicks on your banner, but be assured this is normal. You may like to think about moving your banner to a better location on your page so the visitor can see it clearer and have a better chance of clicking onto it.
To get a better click through of a banner, you must make sure that banner is in theme of your website, or at least the theme of the page it is displayed on if its different from the rest of your site content. For instance, If John is looking to find a new gift for his girlfriend Emma on your site, he won't be really bothered about a banner advertising Casinos. John would however, be more interested clicking on to a banner advertising florists, beauty and fashion retailers. Remember people are there looking for specific information and products, and won't be to interested learning about something they didn't set out to find on the web.
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Incentives: Advertisers will reward affiliates with special incentives such as if you make the most sales in a month, they will give you anything from $100, a brand new car, to entering you into a competition for free. This is to keep interest to affiliates so they will continue to push sales.
You can also receive special offers with incentive related sites. Some affiliate sites give cash back to users if they use there affiliate links but required to be a registered user so they can be tracked. However, many affiliate programs out there will reject you to become an affiliate if your site is incentive and offer cash back to customers.
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Leads: Not like a commission percentage you receive from Merchants, a lead is more like a set price given to you from a Merchant. You will not receive a percentage of a sale, but a set free for any sign-ups and enquires the user makes on the Merchants website. Merchants who usually offer this way of payment are competition and survey related sites as they don't actually sell products themselves.
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Linking: To place a Merchants banner on your site, you may need to know a little bit about HTML. You don't need to know a lot, just how to place a little bit of HTML code on your page. Which ever site building tool you use, every one of them should allow you to add HTML to any page you wish. If you are unsure, please ask your web hosting provider for help.
But not to worry there are alternatives, many banners you are provided you can save them to your own computer then upload them to your own server, copy it into your web page, and place the basic affiliate tracking URL as the hyperlink. It is possible impressions may not be counted, but sales will be tracked and you will receive the commission.
Affiliate Networks and affiliate programs provide all the linking methods in your affiliate account. All banners they provide you have there own HTML code next to it or on a “Get Links” button. But quite often now you can just use the basic affiliate URL so placing site titles and descriptions is as easy as adding your normal website addresses to your site. This method is ideal for directory/shopping portal sites. Please check with your Merchant or Affiliate Network if this is allowed and your commission will still be tracked just in case.
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Login & Password: Once you sign-up to any Affiliate Network or a single affiliate program, you will be asked to provide a username and password. Although it is not important about the privacy of your username, you still must try to keep it as top secret as your password, do not show anyone your login details and try to remember your password and delete any documentation (such as: Word Documents, Email, etc.) completely of your computer. You can always receive this information back to your email address if you've forgotten it.
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Payment: You can see how much you have earned on your payment history on your affiliate account. You can only receive your payment from the Merchant or Affiliate Network once your payment as reached a certain amount. This usually starts from £25.00 to £30.00 and you will receive your payment on the end of each month as most Merchants do prefer to pay you then.
If you haven't reached the amount that is required for payment, the Affiliate Network or Merchant will roll on the payment until the next month, but again if you are still under that amount, it will be carried onto the next month again until your have reach the amount required.
You can receive your payment by all types of methods including, Wire Transfer (straight into your bank account), PayPal, and most commonly by Chequek. So be sure you have your correct address down where you wish for the check to be sent.
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Pending: When you receive commission in your affiliate account, it will not be approved right away. This is because the customer may return the item they brought and will receive a refund. But once the Merchant is sure the transaction is completed and everything is fine, they will make sure the pending commission is transferred to your approved sales in your affiliate account.
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PPC Restrictions: If you plan on promoting any affiliate program in search engines Pay-Per-Click programs, the Merchant may set a PPC restriction on certain keywords that you can't use as they may feel will mislead or possible interrupt there own PPC Campaign (why would they want to bid on there own keywords and brand names). So, be sure you checkout there affiliate program rules and restrictions by reading the program details carefully.
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Pools/Banner Rotation: Pools, also known as Banner Rotation is a clever bit of technology that allows you to show several banners on your page from a single location. Showing a single banner a page may lose interest for your site visitors if they see the same old banner every time they visit that page, and will be a waste of resource if they find no interest what that banner is advertising.
Instead, set up a banner rotation on your affiliate account where you can then place the HTML code on your site and will automatically rotate the banner. It's up to you what Merchants banners you can place in the rotation, you just have to make sure all the banners are the same size to fit in the unit.
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Product Feeds: You can display your Merchants products on your web pages with a system called Product Feeds. You can take your affiliate tracking code, and set it up to link to a certain product on the Merchants site. But most importantly, you can allow for the product, including the product image, price, description and shipping price to display on your own site. Some affiliate programs and Affiliate Networks allow you to create a gallery, add a search box, set your own prices and then place it all onto your site with a simple piece of HTML code.
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Referral: Unlike an affiliate programme, a Referral Programme refers to an affiliate type programme where you as an affiliate, refer other affiliates to the Affiliate Networks or independent affiliate programs. You will then receive commission for your effects. Because it is FREE to become an affiliate 99.9% of the time, the Merchant won't receive a payment from each affiliate when they sign up. So many will pay you a percentage of what the affiliate you referred earns. This is a terrific way of making more money as it can add up to much more than what you would get for a lead.
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Reports: A report is a feature every affiliate will find in there account once they login. From the report, usually named "My Report" allows you to breakdown your statistics by days, months and years and see a total number of times your affiliate links have been clicked on and how much you have earned in that time period you set. You will also be able to see your reports in a feature called statistics.
Every Affiliate Network has there own special affiliate account area, and quite honestly some can be very tricky to use, so a bit of practice on your account may be a good idea. But there are a few affiliate accounts out there where you can't breakdown your reports to daily and weekly statistics, this can be annoying especially when you want to find out which Merchants are generating commission for you. But it is possible you can see your reports on a monthly basis instead, so at least there's something you can do rather than nothing.
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Tracking: A simple term used to describe your affiliate tracking code you use to place on your site. Without this tracking code your sales won't be tracked and you will receive no commission. So it is very important you do not modify your tracking code once inserted into your site.
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Unique Visitor: When someone clicks on your affiliate link on your site, it will be counted at 1 Clicks. However this doesn't mean the person had a good look around on that Merchants website. A Unique Visitor counts as 1 when they visit another page on the Merchants website or performs a special task on that website.
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Application: As an affiliate, you will be required to fill in an online affiliate application with either an Affiliate Network or independent affiliate program. You will be required to give your full name and address, telephone number, a valid email address and the information of the site you plan on promoting the affiliate programs on. But what ever you do, you must provide accurate information if you want your application to be accepted.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Banners & Text Links: All affiliate programs you join you will be provided a selection of very attractive banners in all shapes and sizes. The most commonly used banner size is 460x60, a horizontal banner that is suited to fit on the top of your web page. Other popular banner sizes include buttons 120x60 which compliments your site very well when placed next to a description of the Merchant. And not forgetting the skyscraper, a 120x600 size banner ideal for the side of your web page out of the way of your page content but can be visibly seen for longer on the page as the user scrolls up and down the web page.
A text link is a simple little text description that fits well into your page content and is often seen as a blue hyperlink that is often underlined and looks like this. If you don’t have room for a banner then text links may be your best choice. But keep in mind, try to provide a very descriptive text around it as this will be very beneficial to search engines rather than a piece of text they can’t read.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clicks: A click is what appears in your reports statistics, from there you can see how many times a user as clicked on your affiliate links. The clicks will hopefully turn in to sales and earn you commission.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Commission: Every time you make a sale for a Merchant resulting from the click through from one of the links on your site, you will be entitled to a share of that money earned. If the Merchant offers 10% for each sale: if the customer buys a new DVD player for £10.00, you will be credited £1 into your affiliate account.
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Cookies: If your site visitor follows your link to a Merchants website, but does not buy anything right away. You can still receive commission if the same person on their computer buys something on that Merchants site up to 30 days later. Each affiliate program gives you up to 30 day cookie expiry date, although it does very depending on the Merchant.
The piece of cookie code that is stored on the site visitors computers can keep track of there sales and it is even possible for the cookie length to run for a lifetime. Though, it is possible that user would of brought a dozen new computers buy then, but at least you have a chance with users who look after there computers well.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Creative: Most affiliate programs provide you with text links and of course a selection of banners also known as Graphic Design. These banners come in all shapes, sizes and colour themes so you as an affiliate can choose the one that best fits the style of your website. You may like to learn more about Banner Designers as it may be possible in the near future you may require one for your very own website promotional needs.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Currency: As an UK affiliate, you would probably be preferred to be paid your commission in UK Pounds. But if you lived in the United States, the Americans would prefer to be paid in US Dollars. Often, it is possible to select in your affiliate account what currency your would prefer to be paid in. But it is possible the affiliate program/affiliate network will send your cheque in there own countries currency, so you will have to change the payment your self. You will be charged a small fee for the exchange rate.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Denied & Accepted: Once you sign-up to any Affiliate Network or affiliate program, there will be one of two outcomes. You will be accepted as an affiliate and be able to login to your account and get started right away. However, it may be possible you will be denied, most obviously this could be coursed from you giving the wrong information on your affiliate application and may be seen as fraud, so they would prefer not to accept you in to the program. To completely avoid this, give all the details that is asked from you, and be as accurate as you possibly can. Another way you may be denied from individual affiliate programs, they may feel your site is not suitable for there program as you don't receive the right kind of visitor for there affiliate program.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Earnings: All the commission you receive from each sale you are responsible for the payment will moved into your account. You can see how much you have earned by looking at your total earnings, you may like to do a report and see which affiliate programs are making you the most commission to make improvements.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EPC: This Means "Earning Per Hundred Clicks." Now lets get one thing straight, this is not an indication how much money you will receive once your link has been clicked on 100 times. This simply allows you to compare what kind of commission you can receive from individual affiliate programs once the link as been clicked on 100 times if you used it through a Search Engine.
This comes in handy when you use search engines such as Google, Yahoo, & MSN Search Pay-Per-Click Advertising to promote the Merchant and allow users to be redirected straight through to the Merchants website using your affiliate tracking code without stopping by your own website first.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Impression: An impression is how many times the Merchants banners and text links have been displayed to your site visitors on each web page. When a visitor clicks on to one of your web pages where you have a banner displayed, that will count as 1 impression. Many times many impressions can be shown in your account with only a few clicks on your banner, but be assured this is normal. You may like to think about moving your banner to a better location on your page so the visitor can see it clearer and have a better chance of clicking onto it.
To get a better click through of a banner, you must make sure that banner is in theme of your website, or at least the theme of the page it is displayed on if its different from the rest of your site content. For instance, If John is looking to find a new gift for his girlfriend Emma on your site, he won't be really bothered about a banner advertising Casinos. John would however, be more interested clicking on to a banner advertising florists, beauty and fashion retailers. Remember people are there looking for specific information and products, and won't be to interested learning about something they didn't set out to find on the web.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Incentives: Advertisers will reward affiliates with special incentives such as if you make the most sales in a month, they will give you anything from $100, a brand new car, to entering you into a competition for free. This is to keep interest to affiliates so they will continue to push sales.
You can also receive special offers with incentive related sites. Some affiliate sites give cash back to users if they use there affiliate links but required to be a registered user so they can be tracked. However, many affiliate programs out there will reject you to become an affiliate if your site is incentive and offer cash back to customers.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leads: Not like a commission percentage you receive from Merchants, a lead is more like a set price given to you from a Merchant. You will not receive a percentage of a sale, but a set free for any sign-ups and enquires the user makes on the Merchants website. Merchants who usually offer this way of payment are competition and survey related sites as they don't actually sell products themselves.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Linking: To place a Merchants banner on your site, you may need to know a little bit about HTML. You don't need to know a lot, just how to place a little bit of HTML code on your page. Which ever site building tool you use, every one of them should allow you to add HTML to any page you wish. If you are unsure, please ask your web hosting provider for help.
But not to worry there are alternatives, many banners you are provided you can save them to your own computer then upload them to your own server, copy it into your web page, and place the basic affiliate tracking URL as the hyperlink. It is possible impressions may not be counted, but sales will be tracked and you will receive the commission.
Affiliate Networks and affiliate programs provide all the linking methods in your affiliate account. All banners they provide you have there own HTML code next to it or on a “Get Links” button. But quite often now you can just use the basic affiliate URL so placing site titles and descriptions is as easy as adding your normal website addresses to your site. This method is ideal for directory/shopping portal sites. Please check with your Merchant or Affiliate Network if this is allowed and your commission will still be tracked just in case.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Login & Password: Once you sign-up to any Affiliate Network or a single affiliate program, you will be asked to provide a username and password. Although it is not important about the privacy of your username, you still must try to keep it as top secret as your password, do not show anyone your login details and try to remember your password and delete any documentation (such as: Word Documents, Email, etc.) completely of your computer. You can always receive this information back to your email address if you've forgotten it.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Payment: You can see how much you have earned on your payment history on your affiliate account. You can only receive your payment from the Merchant or Affiliate Network once your payment as reached a certain amount. This usually starts from £25.00 to £30.00 and you will receive your payment on the end of each month as most Merchants do prefer to pay you then.
If you haven't reached the amount that is required for payment, the Affiliate Network or Merchant will roll on the payment until the next month, but again if you are still under that amount, it will be carried onto the next month again until your have reach the amount required.
You can receive your payment by all types of methods including, Wire Transfer (straight into your bank account), PayPal, and most commonly by Chequek. So be sure you have your correct address down where you wish for the check to be sent.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pending: When you receive commission in your affiliate account, it will not be approved right away. This is because the customer may return the item they brought and will receive a refund. But once the Merchant is sure the transaction is completed and everything is fine, they will make sure the pending commission is transferred to your approved sales in your affiliate account.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PPC Restrictions: If you plan on promoting any affiliate program in search engines Pay-Per-Click programs, the Merchant may set a PPC restriction on certain keywords that you can't use as they may feel will mislead or possible interrupt there own PPC Campaign (why would they want to bid on there own keywords and brand names). So, be sure you checkout there affiliate program rules and restrictions by reading the program details carefully.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pools/Banner Rotation: Pools, also known as Banner Rotation is a clever bit of technology that allows you to show several banners on your page from a single location. Showing a single banner a page may lose interest for your site visitors if they see the same old banner every time they visit that page, and will be a waste of resource if they find no interest what that banner is advertising.
Instead, set up a banner rotation on your affiliate account where you can then place the HTML code on your site and will automatically rotate the banner. It's up to you what Merchants banners you can place in the rotation, you just have to make sure all the banners are the same size to fit in the unit.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Product Feeds: You can display your Merchants products on your web pages with a system called Product Feeds. You can take your affiliate tracking code, and set it up to link to a certain product on the Merchants site. But most importantly, you can allow for the product, including the product image, price, description and shipping price to display on your own site. Some affiliate programs and Affiliate Networks allow you to create a gallery, add a search box, set your own prices and then place it all onto your site with a simple piece of HTML code.
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Referral: Unlike an affiliate programme, a Referral Programme refers to an affiliate type programme where you as an affiliate, refer other affiliates to the Affiliate Networks or independent affiliate programs. You will then receive commission for your effects. Because it is FREE to become an affiliate 99.9% of the time, the Merchant won't receive a payment from each affiliate when they sign up. So many will pay you a percentage of what the affiliate you referred earns. This is a terrific way of making more money as it can add up to much more than what you would get for a lead.
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Reports: A report is a feature every affiliate will find in there account once they login. From the report, usually named "My Report" allows you to breakdown your statistics by days, months and years and see a total number of times your affiliate links have been clicked on and how much you have earned in that time period you set. You will also be able to see your reports in a feature called statistics.
Every Affiliate Network has there own special affiliate account area, and quite honestly some can be very tricky to use, so a bit of practice on your account may be a good idea. But there are a few affiliate accounts out there where you can't breakdown your reports to daily and weekly statistics, this can be annoying especially when you want to find out which Merchants are generating commission for you. But it is possible you can see your reports on a monthly basis instead, so at least there's something you can do rather than nothing.
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Tracking: A simple term used to describe your affiliate tracking code you use to place on your site. Without this tracking code your sales won't be tracked and you will receive no commission. So it is very important you do not modify your tracking code once inserted into your site.
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Unique Visitor: When someone clicks on your affiliate link on your site, it will be counted at 1 Clicks. However this doesn't mean the person had a good look around on that Merchants website. A Unique Visitor counts as 1 when they visit another page on the Merchants website or performs a special task on that website.
