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Making Affiliate Marketing Easier! -It's the Data Stupid!

by David McKee
10 replies
How Important is Good Data for Affiliate Marketing?

What is Good Data for Affiliate Marketing?

I have pondered these questions for some time as I attempt to determine how to make my sites convert better, and how to make my content, reviews, etc. more appealing to potential customers.

For those of you in Affiliate Marketing, what have you found to be the most important pieces of information as you build pages, discover new products to promote, and Drive traffic to your sites?

Are there two or three most important bits of data that simply are the linch-pins for affiliate marketers?

Here is my 2 cents, and I would love to hear your comments:

1.) How popular is the product or the category of product itself?
2.) What niches does this product fit in and how can it be positioned for other niches?
3.) The product providers sales page - is it good enough, and does it contain text, images, videos, audios, etc. that I can use to build a string affiliate page?
4.) Are there articles promoting this product that I can get additional content ideas from to strengthen my sites ability to pull traffic and get better SEO?
5.) Does the affiliate site (if the product is under a site) offer single sign on (like Clickbank) or is it more like a Linkshare where you need permission from each vendor? Or does the vendor use their own stand alone affiliate system?
6.) If the product is under a site like Clickbank or Linkshare or similar, do they provide accurate and useful statistics?

These are just 6 I put out there, but I wold love to hear other Affiliate marketers take on how and what they consider to be essential data for building and promoting affiliate sites.

To all of you...stay thirsty my friends!

David T. McKee
III
#affiliate #data #good #important #marketing
  • Profile picture of the author David McKee
    I left off Testing but that would also be excellent data - however, how do you use data to create your sites and pages in the first place?
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  • Profile picture of the author elyshemer
    Hi David,

    Those are excellent questions and I for one would love to see what people would reply.
    I just saw a great video presentation and I think it's relevant. It's 18 minutes long and it sells nothing... I highly recommend watching: Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action | Video on TED.com

    Ely
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  • Profile picture of the author elyshemer
    My pleasure!
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    "One can not learn when one thinks they already know" [Epictetus]
    http://recommendedtoolsformarketers.com/

    I'm also active on - Twitter - Facebook
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  • Profile picture of the author David McKee
    How close do you get to the products that you promote via Affiliate marketing? Do you always buy a copy, or do you just read other reviews and articles and base you own review on that?

    What are the key metrics that you measure when you do promote a product?

    I think having a basic set of principles and data needed is the place you have to start to create affiliate sites that work. Just slapping anything up with a link is not going to produce traffic or conversions.

    That is why I asked the original question.
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    Are you an affiliate marketer? My site has tons of free stuff and 14,000 pages of Clickbank research. www.affiliatesledgehammer.com
    Buy a Freedom Bulb! Don't let the government tell you what kind of light bulb you can use!
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  • Profile picture of the author David McKee
    The most advanced form of data that an affiliate marketer can get is by actually using the product or doing interviews of users of the product or both. Then by packaging these interviews as videos, audios, and text/picture data on their sites they can draw out the potential customer who are indeed interested in those products.

    This is a lot of leg-work, and is the reason that, while the concept of Affiliate marketing is simple, it is really not easy to draw highly converting traffic.

    It can be done - and as new social networking applications, and new techniques are developed it does get easier, but only if you have the data you need and act on it as quickly as you can.

    -DTM
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    • Profile picture of the author Suka
      I don’t have any IM experience (yet), but in my opinion, the no1 objective is to put the potential customer first, think about what their problem is and solve it for them, make the path they want to follow easier to get to (point them in the right direction) be there friend ! looking back at all the landing pages I have seen, all they want is your money they don’t care about helping you (truly) and this could make a big difference. that’s my definition of "good data" (helping somebody get to where they want to be and not just a sales pitch)
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      • Profile picture of the author David McKee
        Originally Posted by Suka View Post

        I don't have any IM experience (yet), but in my opinion, the no1 objective is to put the potential customer first, think about what their problem is and solve it for them, make the path they want to follow easier to get to (point them in the right direction) be there friend ! looking back at all the landing pages I have seen, all they want is your money they don't care about helping you (truly) and this could make a big difference. that's my definition of "good data" (helping somebody get to where they want to be and not just a sales pitch)
        You are right of course, putting the customer first and making sure that you are providing the highest service is essential to success. To do that, I once again state that the fact is that you must have excellent data.

        In affiliate marketing you really don't have much control over the quality of the products, the websites, or anything else you are promoting so you had better be on top of those things and make sure that the merchants you represent have the best products. If you promote crap, it makes you look bad, and kills your traffic.

        -DTM
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  • Profile picture of the author madison_avenue
    David McKee...The most advanced form of data that an affiliate marketer can get is by actually using the product or doing interviews of users of the product or both. Then by packaging these interviews as videos, audios, and text/picture data on their sites they can draw out the potential customer who are indeed interested in those products.
    Do you mean using the interviews as testimonials, so providing social proof, on your affiliate site?

    As well as interviewing products buyers you can also interview the product creator
    and ask them the questions which a potential buyer would ask.
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    • Profile picture of the author David McKee
      Originally Posted by madison_avenue View Post

      Do you mean using the interviews as testimonials, so providing social proof, on your affiliate site?

      As well as interviewing products buyers you can also interview the product creator
      and ask them the questions which a potential buyer would ask.
      Excellent point! By interviewing the product creator you get the reasons he or she had for creating the product in the first place. In many instances, it is because they had a problem of their own to solve, and it turned out to be a problem that lots of people had as well.

      -DTM
      Signature
      Are you an affiliate marketer? My site has tons of free stuff and 14,000 pages of Clickbank research. www.affiliatesledgehammer.com
      Buy a Freedom Bulb! Don't let the government tell you what kind of light bulb you can use!
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