AFFILIATE DATAFEEDS
What is an Affiliate Data feed ?
An Affiliate Datafeed can best be described as a file full of product information provided by an online merchant via an affiliate network to any affiliate who is a member of that network.
Typical networks that provide datafeeds are Commission Junction, Linkshare and ShareASale, but today you will find that most networks do have merchants that provide a data feed of their products for affiliates to promote.
A data feed file will have a standard format such as CSV (comma separated values) or more recently XML, which can be read by a standard RSS reader.
It will be down to the affiliate once he or she receives the datafeed file to convert that file in to a custom format that the affiliate can use on their website. The format of the data feed provided and the way in which the affiliate wants the products to be displayed will determine how much work the affiliate will need to do to get them displayed on a website.
Some affiliates may just want a few pages of products to be displayed or as in most cases the affiliate will want to build an online ecommerce store from the products in the datafeed, thus allowing the affiliate to get a commission from the sale of any product in the store.
There are many different scripts to help with this so that the traditional method of pure programming to get this job done is now no longer a burden.
BUILD AFFILIATE NICHE STORES
What is the Best Affiliate Software Tool to Build A Niche Store?
Today can get Wordpress plugins that will do all the technical stuff for you, so that all you have to do is get one or more datafeeds from a merchant and then just by clicking on options you can build a niche store of products in just a few minutes without any programming at all!
Affiliate Marketing
How affiliate marketing works
Within this example a 'merchant' is an online retailer with a transactional website where you can buy products or services. An 'affiliate' is an online publisher or partner who has access to traffic.
Affiliates are traditionally website owners who can send traffic, via links to your site. They do this on the basis that any sales generated from this traffic will earn them an agreed commission. This reward model is commonly known as Cost Per Action (CPA) and is more transparent and accountable than the older Cost Per Click (CPC) model.
There are many different affiliate types to work with and these relationships are facilitated by a merchant joining the network and using the promotion tools available. In every case the affiliate takes the risk of sending you traffic at no cost to you as you only have to reward them if their traffic completes a purchase.
1. A consumer visits an affiliate's website (for example a shopping portal or directory)
2. The customer finds a product (or retailer) and clicks the link to be taken to the merchant's site to review or purchase (this click-through stores a network cookie on their PC). *
3. The customer completes the sale online. Tracking software records the key purchase data such as sale amount, IP, date and time, etc and reports this to Affiliate Window. The customer journey has now concluded.
4. The merchant is able to allow a period of 'grace' to consider the sale complete and pays commission due to the affiliate for sales generated.
* This cookie lasts for a predetermined period set by the merchant allowing any sale to be attributed to the referring affiliate as long as the unique visitor completes a transaction within this cookie period.
Affiliate Marketing
No risk marketing - paying only on confirmed sales makes Affiliate Marketing a cost effective way to generate new busines online. It has the added benefit of building brand awareness of your product or service at exceptionally low cost. With your banners and links showing over many affiliate sites you can really elevate your sites exposure without spending money.
With your adverts being shown on sites whose owners have decided that your products fit with their audience, or, more importantly, who feel they can sell your service to their user base means that conversions from curious visitors tend to be far higher.
Why is Affiliate Marketing so cost effective?
People who run popular and niche sites are often in a unique position to influence their audience as independents, experts or enthusiasts in a particular sphere of interest. This can make them an ideal outlet for Online Merchants to advertise. By joining Paid On Results, affiliates are able to select appropriate banner adverts from a selection of merchants and easily insert them into their site. Once inserted, any visitor to these sites that clicks on the banner, and then goes on to make a sale, generates a commission for the affiliate.
How do we know?
Using Paid On Results means that all clicks are tracked and commission paid on all resulting sales an affiliate makes. This allows you to monitor, in detail, all interest in your product or service. This information is invaluable for marketing as it allows you to see things such as which banners are attracting the most clicks/leads, where your prospects originate and who your top affiliates are.
