Ezine and Affiliate Links

[nmh]

I see so much about promoting products via Ezine Articles BUT according to the guidelines on EZA you cannot link to an affiliate page in the the posting so what do you do? Thanks!

[arttse]

You need to link it to a pre-sell page.

[freudianslip27]

You can also purchase a top level domain and THEN redirect to an affiliate page.

For example:dogtrainingadvicetips.com could redirect to hoplink.dogtraining.clickbank.com or whatever you want.

Matt

[nmh]

Oh ok! I was just wondering b/c I think you used to be able to do it. thanks!!!

[binarykeys]

Originally Posted by freudianslip27

You can also purchase a top level domain and THEN redirect to an affiliate page.

For example:dogtrainingadvicetips.com could redirect to hoplink.dogtraining.clickbank.com or whatever you want.

Matt

Thanks Matt, as a new guy...it's always good to know these things!

[nmh]

Back to this again (sorry). If I redirect my link, does the main domain have to have anything on it or can it be a straight redirect?

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by nmh

Back to this again (sorry). If I redirect my link, does the main domain have to have anything on it or can it be a straight redirect?

It can be a straight redirect. But ...

(i) it needs to be a top-level domain, not a subdomain, and ...

(ii) EZA are also tightening up at the moment (according to their blog) on the combination of "obvious affiliate links" and "derivative content", and if they feel that your article comprises "derivative content" they can (and sometimes do) reject even a redirect to a sales page on the grounds that the site to which you're linking (i.e. the sales page) isn't "informative enough". They do this only if they don't like the article as well, though.

[markquinn]

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

It can be a straight redirect. But ...

(i) it needs to be a top-level domain, not a subdomain, and ...

(ii) EZA are also tightening up at the moment (according to their blog) on the combination of "obvious affiliate links" and "derivative content", and if they feel that your article comprises "derivative content" they can (and sometimes do) reject even a redirect to a sales page on the grounds that the site to which you're linking (i.e. the sales page) isn't "informative enough". They do this only if they don't like the article as well, though.

I would also think that the new FTC advertising and testimonial guidelines could come into play here depending on how the article is written. Another good reason to go to a presell page with proper disclosure.

[Wiggy0618]

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

(ii) EZA are also tightening up at the moment (according to their blog) on the combination of "obvious affiliate links" and "derivative content", and if they feel that your article comprises "derivative content" they can (and sometimes do) reject even a redirect to a sales page on the grounds that the site to which you're linking (i.e. the sales page) isn't "informative enough". They do this only if they don't like the article as well, though.

Ok, the unsilent minority is gonna pipe up here, but I have no idea what you mean about 'derivative content'. LOL.

And re the sales page isn't 'informative enough' - does the specific url itself have to be 'informative', or can it be associated urls? For example, if you link to site.com/index.shtml and it's a sales page and has no real 'info', yet site.com/article1.shtml is all content (as well as /article2.shtml, /article3.shtml, etc.) will that be Ok?

Thanks.

[Chris Stigson]

I say just try to build a list from your articles and you'll be fine. Don't go the "quick way" for a "quick buck", build a real business instead. You can spend a lot of time as an affiliate and get little or no return and if that product ever goes away you're doomed. or they change the payout or whatever.

That's why I prefer to link to a list that can be promoting various products in the niche.

- Chris

[SeanSupplee]

Link your articles over to your blog or a main lead capture page. however a blog seems to produce better results as that person is there reading your article already they are in the reading mood to read though your blog.

[JonMills]

Originally Posted by nmh

Back to this again (sorry). If I redirect my link, does the main domain have to have anything on it or can it be a straight redirect?

Are you relating it to your article or deceiving people into clicking through to an unrelated site? Nothing worse than that

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Wiggy0618

Ok, the unsilent minority is gonna pipe up here, but I have no idea what you mean about 'derivative content'. LOL.

They're not my words, Wiggy. They're EZA's. I'm quoting them. My own guess is that when they say "derivative" they mean more or less "glaringly unoriginal to the extent that it's widely available information and really doesn't tell the average person interested in that subject anything at all that they didn't already know". Obviously it's somewhat subjective.

Originally Posted by Wiggy0618

And re the sales page isn't 'informative enough' - does the specific url itself have to be 'informative', or can it be associated urls? For example, if you link to site.com/index.shtml and it's a sales page and has no real 'info', yet site.com/article1.shtml is all content (as well as /article2.shtml, /article3.shtml, etc.) will that be Ok?

I don't know.

I don't link to sales pages, never have done, and don't intend to (in my opinion it's a very poor way of doing article marketing because you can't use a pre-sell other than the article itself - which is pretty difficult at EZA - and you can't build a list either). Since in my opinion no sales page is really very "informative" and they sometimes allow it (with a redirect) and sometimes don't, my guess is that, at least to some extent, their editors use this reason as an excuse when they don't really like the article.

Having said all that, Chris Knight ("the EZA man") is both friendly and approachable, and you can ask him anything like this and get a pretty straight answer.

[nmh]

Originally Posted by JonMills

Are you relating it to your article or deceiving people into clicking through to an unrelated site? Nothing worse than that

I just meant say if you have an article about dog training and you redirect to dogtraining.com but you have not had time to build that up so you forward that .com to an affiliate product related to dog training. Will that get rejected?

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by nmh

Will that get rejected?

It depends on the article, I'm pretty sure.

If they like the article, they'll let it through with a redirected link to a sales-page (whether that will do you any good or not is a whole different matter).

If they don't, because they feel it's "derivative content", they'll reject it and tell you the reason for the rejection is that the site you've linked to (with your redirect) isn't "informative enough".

I suspect that you're (not unreasonably) looking for certainty in answers here, but you're not going to get it, because nobody can predict with certainty whether your article will pass muster. Especially not without seeing it. Sorry.

[Wiggy0618]

Originally Posted by Chris Stigson

That's why I prefer to link to a list that can be promoting various products in the niche.

That makes sense. Duh. ;-)

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

They're not my words, Wiggy. They're EZA's. I'm quoting them. My own guess is that when they say "derivative" they mean more or less "glaringly unoriginal to the extent that it's widely available information and really doesn't tell the average person interested in that subject anything at all that they didn't already know". Obviously it's somewhat subjective.

Thanks. I figured that's what it meant.

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

Since in my opinion no sales page is really very "informative" and they sometimes allow it (with a redirect) and sometimes don't, my guess is that, at least to some extent, their editors use this reason as an excuse when they don't really like the article.

I get that - could see how they could use it subjectively. Though that is kinda petty, IMO.

Originally Posted by Alexa Smith

I don't link to sales pages, never have done, and don't intend to (in my opinion it's a very poor way of doing article marketing because you can't use a pre-sell other than the article itself - which is pretty difficult at EZA - and you can't build a list either).

Ok, now I get this, but I gotta ask what might sound like a dumb question (and I apologize if this is hijacking the thread, b/c I don't mean to)...

If I'm getting into affiliate marketing, I'm going to pick a product that sells really well already - esp one with a high conversion %. Unless you're already a seasoned marketer (which I'm not), I'm going to assume that product seller is better at selling stuff than I am. Why not just leave the selling to them? I'm not (right now anyway) gonna be better at it than they are...

Now what Chris mentioned about the seller changing their payout or whatever makes sense, but if I'm trying to affiliate market the #1 selling diet ebook on clickbank, isn't kinda egotistical of me to think me that my pre-selling is gonna increase the conversion of an ebook that already does so well?

Thanks again for the help, y'all.

[nmh]

Originally Posted by Wiggy0618

That makes sense. Duh. ;-)



Thanks. I figured that's what it meant.



I get that - could see how they could use it subjectively. Though that is kinda petty, IMO.



Ok, now I get this, but I gotta ask what might sound like a dumb question (and I apologize if this is hijacking the thread, b/c I don't mean to)...

If I'm getting into affiliate marketing, I'm going to pick a product that sells really well already - esp one with a high conversion %. Unless you're already a seasoned marketer (which I'm not), I'm going to assume that product seller is better at selling stuff than I am. Why not just leave the selling to them? I'm not (right now anyway) gonna be better at it than they are...

Now what Chris mentioned about the seller changing their payout or whatever makes sense, but if I'm trying to affiliate market the #1 selling diet ebook on clickbank, isn't kinda egotistical of me to think me that my pre-selling is gonna increase the conversion of an ebook that already does so well?

Thanks again for the help, y'all.

You know what, I feel you!!! I have the same question.

[Alexa Smith]

Originally Posted by Wiggy0618

If I'm getting into affiliate marketing, I'm going to pick a product that sells really well already - esp one with a high conversion %.

Well, you're using Clickbank as an example (and I'll quickly take it up as the "context" because it's what I use as a supply-source for my own affiliate marketing, too), so let me ask you how you're going to know what's selling well already?

You certainly can't tell this from the gravity, and you can't really tell it from the other parameters disclosed by Clickbank. (Ok, arguably the "popularity" is an indication of what's currently selling, or at least the nearest approximation to it that's disclosed, but if you're not a seasoned marketer, you might want to avoid high-popularity products on the grounds that so many of them are being promoted by very seasoned marketers with big AdWords budgets and that's perhaps a market in which you might not want to compete?).

I understand and agree entirely that when you're deriving income from the sales of things, you'd better be making sure the attempted sales concerned are sales of in-demand products that people already want to buy. I'm just making the point that keyword research can (arguably) give the answer to that question more productively than Clickbank statistics can. That's how I've identified Clickbank products with really high conversion-rates, single-figures gravities, low popularity scores and so on. And like many others, I've found it ever so much easier to make a living promoting those rather than "evidently popular products", which I couldn't sell at all when I started off a year and a bit ago.

Originally Posted by Wiggy0618

Unless you're already a seasoned marketer (which I'm not), I'm going to assume that product seller is better at selling stuff than I am.

My own belief on this point is that some are, and others aren't. Differentiating between them takes judgment and experience.

Originally Posted by Wiggy0618

Why not just leave the selling to them?

I think that to some extent, you can leave the selling to them, but you have to do the "finding potential customers for them" yourself. (This is, after all, the underlying basis of affiliate marketing?). The extent to which targeting, identifying and attracting potential customers is "selling" is a moot and semantic point, perhaps!

A couple of things I'll tell you with certainty and confidence, though:-

(i) However good/bad your vendor is at selling his product (with his sales page, I mean), your conversion rates will be much higher if you do some "pre-selling" yourself than if you don't; and the sooner you learn how to do it the faster you'll start earning real money from it;

(ii) There's enormous variability between niches (and even between products) about how ready/willing to buy are the people one attracts. Some niches have very high search volumes and comparatively low numbers of SERP's for a reason: they're "browsing niches" rather than "buying niches". The extent to which vendors know this and have produced their products accordingly varies, in my opinion, more than one might assume!

Originally Posted by Wiggy0618

if I'm trying to affiliate market the #1 selling diet ebook on clickbank, isn't kinda egotistical of me to think me that my pre-selling is gonna increase the conversion of an ebook that already does so well?

In my opinion, it isn't necessarily egotistical of you. What you're saying will sometimes be true, and sometimes not. (I'm talking about the principle, not the individual example you're mentioned, about which I have no experience because I don't promote it and wouldn't want to).

There's a division of labour involved. However good the sales page is, you can still add a lot to your conversion-rate by "pre-selling". Vendors don't (always) do pre-selling. The ones who do, do it by promoting their own product with autoresponder email marketing, and in order to do that they're collecting your potential customers' email addresses with their sales-page opt-in. If you want to promote those products, good luck to you. Like many other affiliates, I started making a living, myself, the day I stopped doing that.

Selling is a process. The sales page conversion figures (difficult to know anyway) are just the very last stage of the process. Don't ignore the earlier parts of it. That's all I'm saying, really - I just fancied taking many paragraphs to say it, for some reason!

[Wiggy0618]

holy moses Alexa - thanks a lot for that detailed explanation. I'm gonna go back and re-read it now 4x to make sure I get it all down pat. ;-)