How affiliate marketing works and how to get started with it (for publishers)

How affiliate marketing works and how to get started with it (for publishers)

How to get started with affiliate marketing? How affiliate marketing works? Complete information on what affiliate marketing is, for whom it is intended, how to get started, and many other useful pieces of information for beginners.

1. What is that affiliate?

If you have a website or a site on social networks and you want to start making money on it, affiliate marketing is a great opportunity for you.

 

What is actually that affiliate marketing?

Imagine two people – Zuzka who has a shoe shore and Peter, a male friend of hers. Zuzka wants more people to come over to her store and so she asks Peter to reach out for his male and female friends. When he brings to the store a friend who buys something, Peter will get a commission.

And this is exactly what affiliate marketing is about. You have a website (space) through which you “carry” people to the store. If those people buy anything, you have a commission on them.

 

 

A complex video guide to working with the Dognet administration

 

 

Fundamental terms

  • Advertiser – a firm/company that wants to increase its sales. It may be an e-shop, provision of loans, or other internet services. For example 4home.sk.
  • Campaign – an advertiser has own affiliate campaign where there is information on the advertiser, the commission amount, and other campaign promotion conditions. For example the campaign 4home.sk
  • Publisher – a person or a firm that wants to makey money on the internet by promoting other firms/services. It may be a blogger, a website owner or influencer who has own sites on social networks.
  • Affiliate link– a unique URL which a publisher gets in a campaign. Using this link the publisher brings visits to the advertiser´s website and gets commissions. This is a unique “address” which a visitor clicks through and both an e-shop and Dognet know that the visitor comes from a particular publisher and it can attribute a commission to him/her.
  • Affiliate network – an affiliate network brings together a number of various campaigns in a single system. It is sort of a flowline between the affiliate publisher and the advertiser. We, Dognet, are an affiliate network. You´ll find with us hundreds of various campaigns.
  • Cookies –  Cookies is an indication that idenifies both a website visitor and the publisher who´s brought him/her there. This is a temporary file that is stored in the visitor´s browser. We therefore can attribute a commission to the visitor. Cookies also make sure that a publisher gets a commission even though a visitor comes back to the website after several days.

Imagine cookies as a sticker. When you bring a visitor to a store, then you get a temporary invisible “sticker”. It is written on it that you have brought him/her. If he/she buys, the store will know by the sticker as to whom to attribute a reward – commission.
  • Commission (conversion) – Conversion means meeting of the goal that a site has. It can be shopping, filling in a form, downloading a brochure, and so on. A publisher gets a financial commission for any conversion. The commission amount is established in the conditions of a particular campaign.

 

Knižka o affiliate marketingu pre začiatočníkov

Dali sme dokopy 30 najlepších autorov, expertov na online marketing, aby sme pripravili 500 stranovú knihu o online a affiliate marketingu. Chcete ju zadarmo? Napíšte nám na info@dognet.sk, prečo by ste ju mali dostať úplne grátis a je veľká šanca, že ju dostanete. 

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How affiliate marketing works in practice

  1. A publisher (an owner of website(s) on social networks) signs up in an affiliate network.(signing up as well as Dognet use is free of charge)
  2. The publisher selects from administration those advertising  elements ,that contain his identifier (identifiers are added automatically)
  3. The publisher places  the advertising elements on his site at his own discretion (banners, links, products, etc.)
  4. The publisher can also create alternative sources of income in the shape of  newsletters and so on
  5. As soon as a user clicks through from a banner or another element to an advertiser´s website (e.g. an e-shop) and makes an action (e.g. he/she buys goods), a commission will be attributed to the publisher based on what link the customer has come conversion

If someone “clicks through and buys” via a link, the publisher gets a commission.

 

Campaign technical functioning

As already mentioned a couple of times, every affiliate publisher has his unique link (unique URL) in which his publisher ID is given. A publisher promotes a campaign with his unique link thanks to which we can identify who has brought a visitor to a campaign/e-shop´s site.

Coping with the technical functioning of affiliate marketing is key for your to know how it works and how to get properly started with it.

 

Let´s take a look at an example of it:

  • you intend to promote the e-shop inSportline.sk. Without affiliate marketing you would create, for instance, a post on Facebook and add there the link https://www.insportline.sk/. Though for such a promotion you´ll get no reward
  • if you used in that Facebook post your unique URL from the Dognet administration, e.g. https://www.insportline.sk?utm_source=dgt&a_aid=55d1e5e96f49d&a_bid=90f09bde, however, if any visitor clicks through this link and buys, you get a commission

All clickthroughs and sales/commissions are automatically recorded in administration (with a delay up to 5-15 minutes). You can immediately keep track of and evaluate your effiectiveness.

 

Frequently asked questions

What reward will I get?

This depends on a number of factors. Take a look at our list of campaigns  and note the column commssion. For example in 4home.sk the commission is 7%. This means that you´ll get 7% off the value of shopping excl. VAT and the shipping fee. If you brings a customer who buys for €135 (€112.50 excl. VAT) with free shipping, you get a commission up to €7.875.

Can I promote a number of campaigns/e-shops?

It goes without saying. If you want to, you can easily promote all of the campaigns we have with us. We recommend you from practice, however, to promote those campaigns that suit the topics of your site.

Must a visitor buy immediately?

 No, he/she doesn´t have to. By a clickthrough the cookies file is generated in the visitor´s browser. Cookies ensure that a publisher gets a commission even though a visitor comes back to the website after several days. Make sure to take a look at the duration of cookies in the campaign you´re promoting. This duration defines the greatest possible spacing between the clickthrough and the sale for which you´re entitled to a commission.

What if I´m promoting product A but a customer buys product B?

You´ll get a commission nevertheless. Yiu´re entitled to a commission off the whole purchase regardelss of whether a customer bought the product you were promoting.

 

2. How to deploy and make use of an affiliate campaign

Deploying a campaign on your project is key. This is not just about deploying a banner. It will probably not work for you this way. The best way of promoting an affiliate campaign is to recommend a product / advertiser category to visitors. Finding the problem that visitors are dealing with and offering a way out. It is important for how to get started with affiliate marketing.

 

Product recommendation with a clickthrough on an advertiser

Do you write about handbags or cosmetics? Simply add in the text of clickthrough to a picture, on the button, or just in the text. Ideally, choose products for a thematic article and simply communicate them. If one reads your article, he/she often tackles an issue. Give him/her a way out in the shape of a product and get a sales commission.

You must show a product to people, describe and recommend it. Get them prepared for shopping.

Thematic articles on products

A super strategy is to open a topic and directly recommend solutions. Thus, for example, write an article on how to choose pillows for your household. Choose some, recommend an advertiser. You will not only bring an interesting content but you can also win over those Google readers who are searching for your topic and are ready to shop. 

It is ideal to look for those readers who are ready to shop. Then the probability of getting a commission rises dramatically.

 

Sharing on social networks

Do you have your sites? Profiles? Groups? Share a product including an affiliate link via social networks. Whether as a proof or add a picture and clickthrough via a shortener such as bit.ly. Be careful, however, not to be throught of as spamers. 

 

Banners

Banners as such are available in any campaign. Though these are not highly effective. Rather, we therefore recommend that banners be deployed directly into thematic articles. If you want to put them “in a side panel”, this will have almost no effectiveness.

 

Knižka o affiliate marketingu pre začiatočníkov

Dali sme dokopy 30 najlepších autorov, expertov na online marketing, aby sme pripravili 500 stranovú knihu o online a affiliate marketingu. Chcete ju zadarmo? Napíšte nám na info@dognet.sk, prečo by ste ju mali dostať úplne grátis a je veľká šanca, že ju dostanete. 

Získať knižku!

 

3. Working with Dognet administration

How and where to get a link to an e-shop and how to modify it? You will learn this in this section.

In brief:

  1. Sign up in the network
  2. Add yourself to a campaign (ask for your addition)
  3. Once approved, select your affiliate link from the campaign
  4. Modify it (if you want a clickthrough to a particular product or category)
  5. Add it to your website/share it
  6. You´ll win over visitors for the e-shop
  7. If somebody buys, you have a commission

It is really important to be able to operate the network administration. It is key for a good start and later functioning.

 

Logging into administration

Upon signing up and signup approval, you´ll receive an e-mail with your user name and password. You´ll find the link to administration in this e-mail and also on our site in the right-hand upper corner under “Login – Publisher”.

Administration URL: https://login.dognet.sk/affiliates/panel.php

 

An overview of administration campaigns

In the list of campaigns (side panel) you can see whether or not you´re approved in a campaign. If not, it suffices to click and ask for addition to the campaign. Without being approved in the campaign your record of conversions will not work.

 

Getting a link to an e-shop/campaign

You´ll find a link to a campaign in administration under Promotion – Baners and Links . We recommend you to use a filter for finding more quickly of the link.

 

Link modification to a particular product

You can have a link to a subsite generated directly in administration. If you´re writing a review on a particular product, it will be definitely better also for your readers to link directly to such particular product. To generate a link to a particular product, use the button Dynamic Link , located directly beneath the link.

In the field Target URLenter the product URL and press the button Getting the Code . The generated code directs to the subsite entered by you and contains the necessary parameters.

Links can be changed manually as well. Read the guide to how to do it.

 

Inserting a link to a subsite

Links to a site are inserted really simply. Below are shown screenshots from the CMS system WordPress. Simply it suffices to select the text in which the link is to be, click on the link icon, and insert the link URL.

A link can also be added to a picture in your article. If, for example, you´re writing a review on lipsticks and take a photo of respective lipsticks, you can add own link to every single photo which will direct to the e-shop.

 

Promotion on social networks

We ran a separate article about promotion on social networks. Read how to do affiliate marketing on Facebook.

 

Inserting a banner in an article or on a subsite

You can enrich your article or a particular site on your web with a banner from our administration. Follow the same procedure as when you want to get a link to a campaign. Beneath the banner you´ll find banners available for that campaign.

 

In the first step it is necessary to Get the banner code and copy it. ho.

 

Then this code needs to be inserted via the article/page editor as an HTML code. .

 

 

4. Banned practices in affiliate marketing

 

Factitiously filling in forms or orders

  • Most paid actions are manually approved and checked
  • Once it is found out that a publisher manipulates the results, all of his commissions (including correct ones) will be rejected and the publisher will be disqualified from the program. Therefore do not even try to simulate the results or cheat.

Sending out SPAM or undertaking other activities which might be thought of as SPAM

  • Various mail databases can be purchased on the internet that could theoretically be used for advertising purposes. This is, however, strictly prohibited and made punishable also under Slovak legislation.
  • Such mail databases cannot be used.

Bothering in foras and comments

  • While affiliate campaigns can be used in certain foras, other forum discussants cannot be bothered
  • A link is used to the point, topic – then it may not be thought of as an ad
  • Though it depends on a particular forum, discussion or portal whether it permits such activities

Using brand campaigns in PPC ads

  • A campaign brand name must not be used in targeted Google Adwords, Sklik and other PPC campaigns
  • We recommend to set up brand campaigns as excluding a keyword
  • One faces a penalty up to €500 for breaking this condition
  • Example: for the campaign 4home.sk your ad must not be displayed on Google in search of the phrase “discount coupon 4home”

Redirecting whole domains

  • Automatic domain redirecting to campaign pages is prohibited. E.g. https://vasadomena.sk would be automatically redirected to https://4home.sk
  • One faces a penalty up to €500 for breaking this condition

 

Avoid unfair practices in promoting Dognet campaigns. For breaking one faces penalties, expulsion from a campaign and, as a last resort, expulsion from the entire Dognet.

 

 

Knižka o affiliate a online marketingu od 30 expertov!

Dali sme dokopy najlepších autorov, expertov na online marketing, aby sme pripravili 500 stranovú knihu o online a affiliate marketingu. Chcete ju zadarmo? Napíšte nám na info@dognet.sk, prečo by ste ju mali dostať úplne grátis a je veľká šanca, že ju dostanete. 

Získať knižku!

Katka Novotná

Viac ako dva roky som pracovala na pozícií e-commerce marketér a zvyšovala som obraty rôznym eshopom. Niektoré z nich sa vyšplhali až na Shop Roku (ocenenie od Heureka.sk). Mám skúsenosti s PPC Adwords aj Facebook. Analytics mi je veľmi blízky. Pre reklamnú agentúru Wiktor Leo Burnett som pomáhala s UX/UI webových projektov a aplikácií pre veľkých klientov. Vo voľnom čase tvorím webové stránky založené prevažne na WordPresse.

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