Comments on: Ask Kirsty – What Do Affiliates Look For In A Merchant?

By: MALCOM

MALCOM — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:46:11 +0000

March 4th, 2009 at 10:43 pm
When i do affliate marketing I find the merchants that offer a bit more work best.Ones that may offer discount vouchers for example or will use cookies to go back to people that used the afliate link but didnt buy the first time. In case you dont know the cookie shows it will the merchant that someone has looked at the linked item but not bought it,therfore they can contact the prospective buyer with a discount voucher or a discount code at a later date.

By: Karl Foxley

Karl Foxley — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 13:03:53 +0000

Great info Kirsty. Also wishing Dave Bunyan the best of luck and every success with Haiths.

By: Craig

Craig — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 16:00:19 +0000

“The other things are pretty obvious, regular newsletters, banners updated, good and useful product feed that is easy for affiliates to manipulate. ”

- I’d disagree completely with the “pretty obvious” bit Most merchants struggle with all of the above. So, I’d make my personal list:

1. Tell us when you change stuff, add stuff or do stuff that might make us all money
2. Update your banners. It is NOT Christmas in February. And have different sizes – I like Leaderboards, Wide Skys and big 300px wide numbers. Others have different prefs.
3. Have a great product feed. Update it nightly, ensure that all products have images, descriptions, accurate prices, etc.
(4. Don’t let a certain category of blood-sucking affiliates join your programme and certainly don’t give them anything exclusive…)

By: Jason

Jason — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 10:16:25 +0000

Thanks for the tips Kirsty; this is great information.

I would be interested if any of your other regular readers have any other examples of good, responsive affiliate programs in addition to Prezziebox, Buyagift, and DeadGoodUndies?

Anybody else have anything to comment?

By: Kate

Kate — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 10:03:43 +0000

Good reply and help, bird food is a huge market which you stand to do really well at. On top of Kirsty’s awesome suggestions, you could also review the econsultancy review on the uk affiliate market. The questions were answered by UK affiliates sharing their opinions on what they look for in a merchant. It is a really good read.

By: Dave Bunyan

Dave Bunyan — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 19:47:11 +0000

Hi All,

Firstly thanks Kirsty for such a great reply. If anyone has any ideas as to how we can help you convert, I’m all ears.

Andy, great to have you onboard!

Whats everyones thoughts on prezziebox’s video ads?

Have a good weekend,

Dave

By: Andy

Andy — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 15:11:34 +0000

Well, whatever else he got from asking the question, he’s got one new affiliate here… we’ll add the feed to foodforthebirds.org.uk this weekend. Thanks David, and thanks Kirsty!