More annoying affiliate-marketing news: I’m giving REI a try
June 20th, 2009
This is all Ralph Alcorn’s fault: He urged me to get on board with REI so the next time he buys something there, I can have a small cut of the proceeds (5 percent, to be exact). Please, Ralph, you really, truly need an ArcTeryx Pack for that Antarctic expedition you’ve been dreaming of). It’s also Climb_CA of GoBlog’s fault: he told me Amazon is worthless for driving revenue to an outdoor site (only a slight exaggeration: I’ve made 30 bucks so far!); place to be is Avantlink.com; a couple weeks back, Philip Werner at Sectionhiker.com told me the same thing.
I’m also down with Backcountry.com and Campsaver.com.
Click on the links and do some shopping if you’re in the mood; this sets a cookie in your browser that tells ‘em you came from here; the cookies are good for up to four months (REI’s is only 30 days), so even if you don’t buy anything today, you might still be able to help me out down the road.
Just so’s you’ll know: it’s been confirmed by everybody trying to shake loose a few bucks by affiliate links that the only way to build revenue is to create interesting, unique content related to the products being advertised. Product reviews are especially effective, but summaries of multiple products can get a bit of traction.
Case in point: My survey of hiking camera bags sold two bags in two weeks.
You’ll never get a thin dime from banner ads sitting over in your rail somewhere. I had these up for months and netted zilch. About the only upside is they give your site the appearance of having actual advertisers.
Something else I’ve learned: You have no right to expect your readers to buy anything just because you’ve gone to all the trouble of setting up all these affiliate links. If you help people find stuff they’re looking for and help them make up their mind about what they want to buy, the rewards’ll come naturally.
When I first started looking into these commission schemes, it seemed that the urge to sugar-coat the facts to drive more revenue would trump everything else, but I’ve since realized that anything people buy based on your recommendation is a function of trust — which cannot be built on piles of steaming marketing bullshit.
Philip Werner’s strategy is simple: he links to stuff he’s actually used. That narrows his options but strengthens the foundation his site is built on. A good starting point, for sure.
Tags: ecommerce
