September 15th, 2006
I would not call my cooperation with CPA (CJ, LinkShare, Performics) affiliate networks successful (a good list of aff. networks is posted here). It is my fault, no doubt.
At the start of my online career I have started a project doomed to fail – a jewelry website. At that time I had no idea that this way to promote merchants’ offers is completely inefficient, it does not work. But the project is online and the results are miserable.
Time and experience are good teachers. First months I was disappointed with no sale from the website. Then I realized that the project (with its concept; in fact with no concept at all) is a failure as a revenue source from CPA networks.
I have learned that lead generation programs work much better than product sales – especially in the financial sector.
Another type of websites that do quite well with CPA affiliate networks are
- comparison shopping;
- loyalty and rewards;
- shopping promotions.
Recently Performics have published a nice guide: Best Practices of this type of affiliate websites (pdf) I find it really useful. It is a sort of introduction to this type of websites. I wished I read it a year back.
Summary: I think (to tell the truth, I know) that these niches (comparison shopping, bargains, promotions, etc) are also overcrowded – the only road to success with such an affiliate website is innovations (as always).
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[tags]cpa, affiliate networks, social bookmarking, web 2.0, domain names, links buying, myspace, seo, internet marketing, affiliate marketing, blogs, content generation, make money online, work from home, home based job, earn your living online[/tags]