Affiliate Direct Linking through PPC??

[nky84]

First off, i'd like to say big hello and that im new to the forum. From what i've read so far, the information and advice given seems excellent and there are some very clever people on here :-).

As the title suggests, i am planning to give IM a go via PPC as i am most familiar with this area.

I have built and run campaigns for small companies in the past, however these opportunities seem few and far between and im looking for a more scalable revenue stream.

I realise there are some risks involved using PPC to drive affiliate traffic however i would like to test and learn some markets / products in the short term.

To begin with, i would like to use adwords and focus on the long tail to keep costs down and traffic quality up. I would also like to direct link to product sites initially, to get round buying domains and creating landing pages. Is this a viable option?

From reading some of the threads on here, i have signed up to clickbank but im unsure how hoplinks work with ppc ads? Are there any other networks that people recommend i should sign up to?

Basically im after some confirmation that my initial plan is either worth the blood, sweat and tears that im about to put in, or that this kind of thing just doesnt work anymore and i should focus efforts elsewhere.

Thanks for reading.

Nick

[GarryMSayer]

Hi Nick,

A warm welcome to the Warrior Forum from a fellow warrior south of the border.

I don't know a great deal about ppc to be honest because I only use it very occasionally for my own products - I tend to rely more on affiliates, forum marketing, twitter and SEO/backlinking for traffic in my chosen niches.

What I have discovered though is you can direct link with any ppc engine still, even adwords.

The only downside is they will only display one ad per display url so you may be competing with the actual owner of the product. That's not good. Landing pages allow for a bit of a presell and may end up getting you cheaper clicks from one of your ads.

I suspect you'll get a lot more experienced ppc advice elsewhere on this thread.

Link-cloaking software eh?

I use this Randys Easy Cloaking Software (MODS its NOT an affiliate link). It does what it says on the tin and it's free, the only thing it costs you is your email address but the English guy who created the software doesn't bug you with tons of emails.

However, you will need a domain name and hosting for this to work.

Hope this helps.

Garry.

[tryinhere]

I think you will need to test and be a judge if its worth your time in tears and blood.

What i can tell you is yes you can direct link with CB products and adwords, is it worth it ? school is out for me as i am also building sites as well,

With direct linking and CB you will find now many sites fail to gain a high quality score and as such you are paying higher prices than you need to and many sites are simply hopeless altogether and need to be dumped as a waste of time (direct linking method)

building your own land page now is more so getting to build your own site as well, slap stick throw them up here is my page really does not cut the mustard to much these days as well.

The good news is that put the effort in and you can run a quality score of 10 / 10 no problems. best of luck with your venture.

[DogScout]

each ad group should go to a different landing page to better optimize for a sale. Impossible to do if you direct link to a vendor's sales page.

Also, good PPC requires continual testing of landing pages, meaning you should always be testing two for each ad group with half the click throughs going to each page. When one out performs the other, throw away the loser and write another to try and beat the winner. As soon as you stop testing, you stop growing and the chances of the market moving away from you without your knowledge increase.

None of that can be done when you rely on just direct linking to a vendor's sales page unless they are continually testing their sales pages. Even if they are, you will find some keywords convert better, not because they are better keywords, but because the 'conversation' on the sales page better flows with the 'conversation in the client's head who puts in those keywords.

[nky84]

thanks for the comments chaps.

Its looking more and more like i will have to setup landing pages :-(. I realise that this is probably best practice, but i really think i could add value to vendors by sending hihg quality traffic fromt he long tail that they are not currently bidding on.

I get how PPC works, so im not really after advice on running campaigns, its more how the affiliate marketing side of things fits around it.

What networks should i join? i have joined click bank, but what about AW, AF WG etc?
Is it obvious which vendors allow direct linking?
Do many vendors allow brand bidding?
Does anyone operate as an affilaite for well known brands or is it primarily small markets niches / products?
Google display url / destination url regulations seem to spoil this to an extent. Is it the same with yahoo and msn?


If i was to go down the creating landing page route is this all i need to do?

Purchase a domain name
pay for Hosting
create page
setup adwords account and assign some credit
join an affiliate network
pick a vendor
create campaign, ads, keywords around vendor product
send traffic to either my landing page or direct to site
watch the commission roll in.....

anything steps ive missed?

Again, thanks for reading

Nick

[nky84]

Originally Posted by GarryMSayer

Hi Nick,
Link-cloaking software eh?

I use randys easy clocking software (MODS its NOT an affiliate link). It does what it says on the tin and it's free, the only thing it costs you is your email address but the English guy who created the software doesn't bug you with tons of emails.

However, you will need a domain name and hosting for this to work.

Hope this helps.

Garry.

Thanks for this Gary, one thing im not entirely clear on, how does commision theft occur if you dont have cloaking?

[nky84]

anyone out there able to answer some of my q's?

[tryinhere]

Originally Posted by nky84

anyone out there able to answer some of my q's?

I will have a go for you, but please adjust to suit / take or leave it.

What networks should i join? i have joined click bank, but what about AW, AF WG etc?

You have joined here so i would say stop there , and make a campaign work for you, if you go joining 100 affiliate networks all at once you are bombarded with what i call Internet chatter, and where they all want you to sell the product, it get such a noise coming in you loose focus, jump from one thing to another and at best get confused.

Yes join another one later and so on but for now avoid to many networks.

Is it obvious which vendors allow direct linking?

Yes in most cases vendors will have this as part of the terms if it is implied. if unsure ask your am.

Do many vendors allow brand bidding?

again each vendor / product will in most cases have terms that will display what can and can not be done and again if unsure ask.

Does anyone operate as an affiliate for well known brands or is it primarily small markets niches / products?

each to their own, it does not matter what another person does to me in a broad sense, it matters what i do and thats where i keep my focus.

Google display url / destination url regulations seem to spoil this to an extent. Is it the same with yahoo and msn?

lost in translation google spoils what how ?

If i was to go down the creating landing page route is this all i need to do?

your call on these

Purchase a domain name

yes

pay for Hosting

if needed and depends on how you are doing things

create page

most will tell you page is out mini site is in but that is more of a G thing and a site may not be needed if your using the other ad networks

setup adwords account and assign some credit
join an affiliate network
pick a vendor

sounds good

create campaign, ads, keywords around vendor product
send traffic to either my landing page or direct to site
watch the commission roll in.....

now there you go, if it all were just that easy i would be sitting on a beach right now, but yes in general you have it, so now its test it time, walk slow and i am sure you will be OK

anything steps Ive missed?

continue to study these forums and read as much as you can, it is like a live classroom of rowdy kids when the teacher walks out of the room, but some very clever people here for sure.

[GarryMSayer]

Originally Posted by nky84

Thanks for this Gary, one thing im not entirely clear on, how does commision theft occur if you dont have cloaking?

If you are marketing in a niche outside of the make money online niche then it is unlikely, but not improbable, that some anodyne browser would buy through their own clickbank / paydotcom link.

However, if you plan to market in the make money online niche then it is wise to cloak your affiliate links, this will help to prevent unethically frugal marketers from buying through their own links.

Hope this helps.

Garry.

[Catalyst eMarketing]

Originally Posted by nky84

Thanks for this Gary, one thing im not entirely clear on, how does commision theft occur if you dont have cloaking?

Originally Posted by GarryMSayer

If you are marketing in a niche outside of the make money online niche then it is unlikely, but not improbable, that some anodyne browser would buy through their own clickbank / paydotcom link.

However, if you plan to market in the make money online niche then it is wise to cloak your affiliate links, this will help to prevent unethically frugal marketers from buying through their own links.

Well even if you cloak or don't market MMO products other affiliates can steal your commissions using adware which now has been cleverly rebranded around here as CPV (PPV).

Originally Posted by nky84

If i was to go down the creating landing page route is this all i need to do?

Purchase a domain name
pay for Hosting
create page
setup adwords account and assign some credit
join an affiliate network
pick a vendor
create campaign, ads, keywords around vendor product
send traffic to either my landing page or direct to site
watch the commission roll in.....

anything steps ive missed?

Nick additionally with Adwords, a landing page isn't really enough any more. You need a landing SITE with a privacy policy, about us page, contact us page and some other content pages to get a decent quality score with Adwords these days. You still drive the traffic to your landing page, but you need more supporting content to satisfy Google.

[GeorgR.]

I dont think its worth it AT ALL. It's a sloppy, quick "solution" but quality score will bite you in the **** sooner or later.

You would be surprised how many clickbank etc. products are out there which actually offer "ready made" landing pages for download. All you need then is a domain and upload the landing pages to your site.

Furthermore...if you are just beginning...be careful with adwords and clickbank. It can be TOUGH, to say the least. Bidding is through the roof. Unless you found a really good niche with good keywords and you really get good conversions, you might want to consider article marketing instead. It works way better for me than Adwords/Clickbank.

[Cory_Williamson]

Direct linking is achievable through adwords. The problem with this compared to having your own landing page is the cost is generally higher per click. If other affiliates are direct linking the same product/keyword the market is shared through your competition and thus also increasing your price per click. This also means that your campaign will only be shown at certain times so adwords can distribute the share.

As with any business adwords likes to take the highest price (ppc) which in some cases will decrease your ROI (return on investment) - to the point that you lose money not gain!

[AffiliateUrge]

Simple and straight to the point.. don't direct link. You can make money with it but you have so much more power and control (not to mention more profit potential) with your own site and landing pages.