Comments on: Growing Your Affiliate Income – Maximise Merchant Performance

By: Kirsty

Kirsty — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 06:12:52 +0000

@ Hamish… Actually the high energy work system gives me less time to think about things. Or so I thought. However you might just be right there, I have been able to think more clearly since starting it. Must be cos I’m feeling organisatory.

@ Edwin. Yeah it can be a pain, but when I was creating my current sites I made sure to create a link system that made it easy to update links in bulk over a site. Means I only have to update a single file, not wander long and weary page by page – that’d be bloody awful!

@ Sam – I’d just go to the merchant and say there are others who can provide a slightly higher EPC for your traffic but you’d really like to stay with them because you have a good relationship with them and would they mind considering giving you an enhanced commission level. If you’re one of their top affiliates they’ll seriously consider it and will probably award you more if they are able to!

By: Sam Sinton

Sam Sinton — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 02:49:37 +0000

Hi Kirsty, I am concerned that we have actually done the opposite with one of our sites. At what point can you ask a merchant for an increased commission?

We have spent so much time testing different merchants offers, in different orders with different tag lines etc that it did not occur to us (as we knew we were one of their top affiliates) to just approach the merchant for higher commission.

Is this something that you would do immediately if you realised you were performing very well? (they are on the phone all the time) or how would you approach this?

By: Edwin

Edwin — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:45:16 +0000

I think you have here a point that most of us know in the back of there head but never bother.
Testing, testing and some more testing is something we should do but how can you manage that if you build numorous sites? I have well over an hundred sites and going in every site and replace links is not a task i look forward to. But if it would mean i could multiply my income by taking the time I guess i should take the time.

By: Helen Hunt

Helen Hunt — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:20:14 +0000

Hi Kirsty,

First, I must say your site is awesome and very inspiring.
Having just started blogging myself, I think there’s no better way to earn and learn that to follow the masters. So, I will be subscribing to your RSS.

Great site

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:06:10 +0000

You bring up a great point about ongoing optimisations across your network, Kirsty. Some possible questions for everyone to ask themselves:

1) Are the merchants you’re driving traffic to performing worse than before because their products are less-relevant in this economy? Many people are “trading down” from a more-expensive product/service to a cheaper alternative. Sometimes the trade-offs are not obvious: for example, I’ve heard from one source that sales of sofas are increasing because people are traveling on holiday less (and want a comfy place to sit at home!)
2) Has the mix of traffic into your sites changed in a material way? This could be caused by the inevitable flux of G algos, your competitors, as well as topics coming into/out of fashion. What are the keywords that are driving traffic to your site? Have they shifted since your original site optimisations?

By: Hamish

Hamish — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 07:21:33 +0000

Great advice, Kirsty.

Do you not think it’s your new ‘high energy work system’ that has allowed you the free time to think about these things?

I have found some of my best ideas come to me when I am not spending time at my PC and since I have created and scheduled more ‘me’ time, I have had more of them.

Thanks for sharing.

Hamish