Affiliate Ad Networks -vs- Individual Affiliate Programs for Small and Intermediate Websites

If you are looking to fully monetize your website...this may be the most important article you will ever read. We have been developing, promoting and maintaining websites since 1998. In all that time (an eternity in cyberspace terms) we've found that one of the most misunderstood concepts regarding the operation of a web property is the ability to correctly determine the right affiliate relationships to maximize it's revenue potential. Trust me when I say that we have "been there...done that" when it comes to this issue. Our experience comes through agonizing stretches of trial and error (most times error) and we have come to one immutable conclusion. Using individual affiliate programs on a small or intermediate sized website is like throwing money down the drain! Why is that you ask? Read on....

The One Against The Many...

So what is the difference between affiliate advertising networks and individual affiliate programs like Amazon, e-Bay etc.? The simple and obvious answer is that individual affiliate programs are usually only for one offer or product. Affiliate advertising networks on the other hand serve up a multitude of ads for products and offers, sometimes numbering in the hundreds. Ads on affiliate networks can cover a huge range of product and offer categories. This means the biggest differences between the two are choice and flexibility. These two important feature differences can be a virtual gold mine for small to intermediate sized web properties. The difference between the two does not stop there however and I will go into more detail about this later in this article.

Before I go on, let me clarify what I mean by a small to intermediate web property. Without rambling on, they are very simply sites with with daily traffic totals of between 100 and 5,000 unique visitors and usually maintained by one person. For these sites, individual affiliate programs can be a revenue albatross!

Sometimes Size Does Make a Difference...

So what type of affiliate program is right for you? It really depends on the size of your website. If you own a million dollar web property, then individual affiliate programs make sense because of the amount of traffic you can drive to them. Individual programs that run their own affiliate system may payout a little more commission than networks. But how do you know which one, or ones, will convert the best on your site? Finding the right individual affiliate program for your website is a lot like shopping for the right pair of shoes. You try them on, take them for walk, squeeze them, pinch them at the toes and view them in a mirror...all to find the perfect fit. Most million dollar sites have whole departments dedicated to maximizing advertising revenue through painstaking analysis. This analysis includes placement, testing, replacement, more testing and so on. The process can take weeks or even months before they settle on the perfect fit. Only then, do they move forward with a full fledged placement strategy for an individual affiliate campaign. These huge web properties then have numerous other departments for collecting ad revenue and so on. However, if you are a small or intermediate sized site, (95% of all sites online fall into this category), and you decide to promote individual affiliate campaigns, you are most likely committing valuable ad revenue space and not seeing much of a return. This happens because most smaller sites do not have enough traffic, manpower or time to properly test, analyze, drive traffic to, or collect commissions from, these programs. The biggest mistake we see from smaller web properties, is placing loads of individual affiliate campaigns on their sites and then forgetting about them. They do this in the hope that they have made the right choices or because they believe the hype the affiliate program spews out regarding historical conversions and revenue. This is the exact reason why most smaller sites never reach their income potential. Smaller sites need concise advice, scientific statistical analysis and commission collection help to boost their revenue. Not a hype a hope and a prayer.

Time Wasted...Money Lost...

Time is what makes affiliate advertising networks so valuable for smaller web properties. Networks do all of the hard work for you. They search out the products and offers, negotiate payouts, constantly communicate with advertisers, host the offer or product creatives (links banners etc..), track the clicks coming from your site and record them, analyze click data from across the network and report it in an easy to understand format, calculate your commissions from offer clicks, tabulate your earnings, pay you monthly and most importantly... collect the commissions from advertisers to pay you! To do all of this, networks generally payout a little less commission per offer than individual affiliate programs. The small cut they take is payment for the services listed above and is well worth the cost. Think for a moment how much time you spend on your website developing, promoting, researching etc... Now consider how much time you would expend trying to do just a portion of what an affiliate network does. Most small site owners would not have time to do anything else.

Affiliate Ad Networks - The Best of All Worlds...

If you are like us, you get a warm cushy feeling when you find the perfect revenue ad to place on your website. Visions of dollars jumping into your bank account race through your head. Great feeling isn't it? How would you like to feel that fifty, maybe even a hundred times. That is what good affiliate advertising networks are like. Instead of slogging through a ton of individual affiliate programs to find what you want (not to mention the hassle of singing up for, giving out your sensitive personal information 20 or 30 times and the painstaking analytical work mentioned above ) networks allow you to cherry pick the best offers that perfectly fit your site content. Imagine signing up for a good ad network and then casually scrolling through a list of 50, 100 or even 500 product offers that range anywhere from free samples to big ticket items. Imagine having tons of data on every campaign at your fingertips to analyze. Imagine having a personal account rep at your beckon call to answer any questions you may have or walk you through a difficult task. Imagine getting paid on time...every time and getting that payment on a net-15 basis. Imagine that all of this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to features and benefits. Now you have a sense of what affiliate advertising networks can do for you. Why on earth would you not consider affiliate ad networks as your primary source of advertising revenue? Oh, and by the way, lest we forget, signing up for any affiliate advertising network is 100% FREE!

Success Stories...

I'm not going to try and blow sunshine up your you know what here. I'll leave that to the hype pros and spin doctors. What I will tell you is that we, and a lot of other web developers we know, have had true, verifiable success using affiliate advertising networks. I can also tell you hundreds of horror stories about lost revenue realized by small web properties trying to make a living by just promoting individual affiliate programs on their sites. Including many of our own. The real truth here is that even very small traffic sites can, and have, earned a substantial yearly income from the best affiliate ad networks. We have known sites with as little as 500 unique visitors a day that have earned as much as $1,000 a month. That pays a lot of light, heat and internet access bills! Though the 1k example is absolutely not meant to be a typical scenario, it does show that it can be done. Like anything else in life, the effort you put into your web property, and a good ad network, will dictate what you take out in monetary value. As for the mid-range and top tier of intermediate web properties, we know of many that earn as much as 150 to 200k a year. We also know of many who have quit their regular day jobs to entirely concentrate their efforts on web property development. There are many BS work at home schemes out there. You probably know of...or have heard about them. Pay us this...and you will earn that, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah. What a joke! The only people that make any substantial money from these scams are the people selling them. Web development and advertising revenue is one of a very few proven work at home gold mines that we know of. Any average Joe or Mary, given enough time and effort can succeed in this business. If that is, they have the right tools. One of those tools is a couple of good reputable affiliate advertising networks.

Last But Not Least - Some Shameless Referral Promotion ...

If you are convinced that affiliate advertising networks would be right for you, we have put together a page of what we feel are the best programs. We list them with extensive reviews that include features and benefits. Also, we have personal experience and history with all of them, so we are 100% confident that they are top notch programs. There are also sign-up links for all of the programs. Since we are completely honest souls, we must tell you that the sign-up links are referrals. That means we get a small bounty for sending you to them. The bounty is NOT deducted from any earnings you receive from the program and never will be. If you would like to visit that page, you can do so via this link:
Best Website Affiliate Advertising Network Programs

What ever you decide your advertising cup of tea is...we truly wish you great success...now and in the future!

Affiliate Ad Networks -vs- Individual Affiliate Programs for Small and Intermediate Websites

An Article By CoolFreebieLinks
Copyright July 2007
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