Choosing a Merchant

Selecting a good converting, honest merchant with a good Web site (and who values great affiliate relationships) is very difficult to do. Here we will help you set out some basic criteria to wade through the ocean of possible merchants to narrow the field down to a few merchants that can make you money.

The Basics
Look for a merchant with a decent cookie duration - at least 30 days. Make sure that they allow multiple referrals (you get paid for more than one sale should the visitor come back later and buy more). Make sure that you are clear about what the visitor must do to earn you a commission. In some cases, this will mean completing an order or filling in information. You can increase your chances of making money buy sticking with merchants with higher commissions. I recommend 10% or more depending on how often they convert.

Earnings per hundred clicks (EPC)
Earnings per hundred clicks (EPC) is a great indicator of how well the merchant really performs. Try to use merchants with an EPC in the double or triple digit range. A figure like $34.95 per hundred clicks tells you that if you have to pay $10 for 100 clicks, you will probably earn $24.95 per hundred clicks. You can get this information from the Affiliate Network or directly from the Merchant. These numbers are often represented as an average over the past few days, past week or month. It is not a grantee but it is very useful in determining if a merchant has been converting for others affiliate marketers. Buried in this statistic is a little know fact. If none of the "pros" are using this merchant (and making money) then perhaps you should stay away too.

Word from the street
There is nothing better then hearing about a bad Merchant BEFORE you invest the time and money in promoting one. There are many great forums out there where you can read about other affiliate marketers experiences - good and bad. I highly recommend ABestweb.com forums. Here you will find tons of free info about who is having problems with who, what merchants pay and in general what to look out for. There is even a forum dedicated to test purchases - yes, unfortunately some merchant do not report sales!

Merchant Web sites
There are a few things to look out for when you are selecting a merchant. Take a look at their Web site. Would you feel comfortable buying something from them? If you are not willing to spend

Yes, unfortunately some merchant do not report sales!

your money at a Web site, do not expect to convince others to shop there either. Next, check the site for "leaks". A leaky Web site is one that has ways for the visitor (that you sent and paid for) to buy without paying you the commission. Some example would be 1-800 numbers that encourage the customer to buy over the phone - there are no cookies on the phone! Another leak are links to other non-affiliate sites. If you find something that could jeopardize your affiliate cookie - tell the Affiliate Manager. You are probably not alone. If they don't fix it, drop them. Some merchants will also set competing cookies to confuse the checkout software. You can find out about this by reading Affiliate Marketing forums. Other merchant leaks could be competing ads on television, radio or in the print media that lead the TV audience to a sub-domain or away from the main entry page. That way, if your cookie is present on the TV visitors computer when they visit again, you will not get the sale. Example: www.bigcomputercompany.com/TV

Creatives and Ads
What kind of ads does the Merchant offer? If they only provide banner ads - you may want to pass (the large banner is dead). If you only run 120X90 ads and the merchant does not (and refuses to create) an ad that fits your landing page of content needs - keep on looking for another Merchant. Select merchants with a wide variety of ad creatives.

Products
It is a no brainer that you should be looking at the products that any merchant offers. Some affiliates get so caught up in getting accepted by their favorite"bricks and mortar" merchant that they forget that the merchant in question may not convert on the Web or may not have products suitable to you campaign style or content specific site. Do not fall in love with your Merchants - this is cold hard business. Keep it at arms length. Better yet, stick to small merchants with unique products that only they can provide.

Branding
As mentioned above, if a prospective merchant is super well branded (is a house hold name), you may have difficulty getting them to convert and sell. When anyone can go to the mall and get immediate shopping gratification, why would they wait up to a week to get their shipment? Also, branded sites are often extremely leaky. What, you didn't think that things like Store Locator links were leaks? Think again.

Shipping and Regions
Where does this merchant ship? If you are in the continental USA, chances are you are okay. If you are any where else in the world, shipping and shipping fees are a definite sale killer. Regional shipping can work for you if it makes the merchant unique. If the product or service is only available in a certain geographical location, this can allow you to regionally target your ad campaigns - this will save you a bundle on click costs.

Affiliate Managers
If I had to choose between a Merchant that converted well and had a crumy Affiliate Manager (AM) and a poorly converting Merchant with Mother Teresa as the AM, bet you would choose the high converter too! I am not saying that having a good AM is not important but just keep in mind what is really important here.

Parasites, Cookie Stuffers and Scumware
They are out there. There are some sites that place code snippets and applications on the visitors PC in order to steal/overwrite your cookies or confuse the check out software into not paying you. They are well know and equally well documented in the forums...