Q. What is an affiliate programme?
A.
Affiliate marketing, or 'revenue-sharing', as it is often referred to,
is a marketing strategy used by website owners to increase traffic
and, hopefully, sales by paying other website owners a commission when
they refer visitors, who then make a purchase.
The affiliate can earn
significant commission revenue from a well-placed link, as well as
content for his site, usually in the form of banner ads.
Please see the
Directory
for details on all current UK affiliate programmes.
Q. What is an Affiliate Network
A. Affiliate networks act as the
middle-man between the affiliate and the merchant. They remove the
burden from the merchant of managing the affiliate programme, which
can be time-consuming and troublesome. In return the network receives
a commission on top of that paid to the affiliate. The added and main
benefit of the network, as far as the merchant is concerned, is that
they will have many thousands of members waiting to sign-up and begin
generating traffic, which can hopefully be converted into sales. For
information on the top UK networks, please see the
Networks
section.
Q. What is a two-tier programme?
A. As an affiliate, you
can recruit other affiliates beneath you (sub-affiliates). These will
then earn you a percentage of sales as well as your first tier
revenue. Affiliates recruited beneath your sub-affiliates will not
earn you commission however, as three tier networks are at present not
permitted in the UK.
Q. What does payment threshold and frequency mean?
A. The threshold of
an affiliate programme is the minimum amount of commission an
affiliate is required to earn before a merchant will issue a payment.
e.g. if a merchant sets a payment frequency of monthly and a threshold
of £50 and the affiliate earns £30 in month one, he would not receive
a commission payment at the end of month one. The commission would be
rolled over. If the affiliate then earns a further £30 commission in
month two, he would receive a commission payment of £60 at the end of
month two.
Q. How are cookies used in
affiliate marketing?
A. When a visitor
clicks-through to a merchant from your site, a 'cookie' is placed on
their PC. If the same visitor then returns to the merchant site within
the cookie duration period and makes a purchase, you will still be
credited with the commission, providing they have not deleted the
cookie from their machine in the meantime! The cookie duration period
varies from programme to programme, generally 30 days, but many
merchants are now increasing this.
Q. How do I link to a merchant?
A. When you join an
affiliate programme, the merchant will usually provide a selection of
banners in various sizes, together with the HTML code containing your
unique identifier. You can then select an appropriate banner to be
placed on your site and insert a hyperlink using the HTML code.
Do not, however, underestimate
the use of text links. They can be just as effective as banners,
providing they are strategically placed.
Q. How do you determine the ratings?
A. Each programme
is rated according to the following criteria, consisting of five
elements. As you can see, the maximum available rating is 10.
1. Corporate Image
Blue Chip Merchant - 3 Points
Established Merchant - 2 Points
Relatively Unknown - 1 Point
2. Commission Level
Above Average Commission - 3 Points
Average Commission - 2 Points
Below Average Commission - 1 Point
3. Cookie Length
365 days plus - 3 Points
30 to 364 days - 2 Points
Less than 30 days - 1 Point
4. Deep-Linking and/or 2nd
Tier Commission
Deep-Linking/2nd Tier Available - 1 Point
No deep-linking/2nd Tier - 0 Point
5. Programme Issues
Points may be deducted if there are known issues with the operation
of the programme, e.g. reporting or conversion problems.
Frequently Asked Questions