Who paid my mortgage this year
HAPPY NEW YEAR !
As promised when I did the snapshot of a months affiliate earnings by network here is the % breakdown for my sites for the full year 2009.
Non Network – 42% – A whole mix of things ( including some non travel stuff ). Bit of an eye opener it is such a high percentage. The downside with affiliate schemes that are run in house and not via a network is that you have to reach the payment freshold before you can start to cash out, also can mean more messing about with invoices but the upside can be that you earn more when the network isn’t taking a cut!
Commission Junction – 18% – Mostly thanks to TUI Travel Companies but a range of stuff including skyscanner which is small amounts each day but all adds up!.
Affiliate Future – 14% – Mostly thanks to the Sunshine affiliate scheme which is off to a blinder already for 2010.
Euroads – 11% – Mostly thanks to Cimber Sterling. This will probably be less important next year as they have cut their UK capacity a lot.
Affiliate Window – 6% – Diverse earnings. Nothing stands out.
Tradedoubler – 6% – Mostly thanks to First Choice which is now at CJ.
Adsense – 2% – Don’t do much of this as have tested versus earnings via affiliate schemes.
Amazon – 1% – Don’t do much of this but I wish travel sites could convert like this one !
Which Affiliate Networks Pay My Mortgage?
As I am sometimes asked which of UK affiliate networks are best I thought this might be interesting for some people. Just a snapshot but here are my confirmed earnings from my websites for the month of September by source. I will try and do another at the end of 2009.
Affiliate Window – 27%
Affiliate Future – 24%
CJ – 19%
Non Network -12%
Euroads – 6%
Tradedoubler – 4%
Amazon – 4%
Buy.At -2%
Adsense - 1%
Other – 1%
Free hosting from Affiliate Network
Nice idea from the moreniche network. They have free web hosting packages available as part of a package for new affiliates which also includes html and wordpress templates plus the chance to win prizes ranging from a wallet to an all inclusive cruise.
The basic idea is that you get a small hosting package which lets you manage a small HMTL site with enough bandwidth to start up a small website (incudes 5mb disk space and 250mb traffic per month).
If you want to upgrade, you can purchase an upgrade package. You can take up the free hosting when you buy a domain or just take the hosting.
The account also comes with 1 pop3 email account with a mailbox limit of 10mb.
The offer is open to all moreniche affiliates and those that use the hosting must be actively promoting MoreNiche products/programmes via their account. Find out more / sign up at moreniche.com
Affiliate Window Firefox Plugin
Been doing a lot of blog posts on some travel niche areas recently and have found the deep link builder firefox plugin from Affiliate Window to be an invaluable time saver.
To build a deep link there is no need to login to the affiliate window website, one click does it all. Once you have the free plugin installed, when you are on the web page that you want to deep link to you simply have to click the aw logo on your toolbar and you get a pop up with the deep link ready to implement. From the popup you can choose whether you want to have html or just the url to paste, you can also add a click reference and if using the html option you can choose your anchor text and if you want to open in a new window.
A real time saver, and makes it much more likely that I will be implementing text links from Affiliate Window than any other network. The only thing I have seen close to this is when I get an email from a merchant /network with deeplinks ready to use with my affiliate id already apended. Love it.
More info at AffiliateWindow Or go straight to Mozilla to install
UK affiliate marketing networks
The affiliate networks I have joined so far
Affiliate Future - Feature RIU, Jet2, Virgin Atlantic, Monarch, Sunshine, LowCostHolidays and many more. so clearly very strong on travel. They also have some integrated tools so you can have a holiday search box on your site which searches through a variety of different holiday websites to increase your chances of getting a conversion.
AffiliateWindow – I was a bit put off by the £5 joining fee but you get that added to your account so it’s not really a fee if you do some business with them. Plenty of travel companies here including British Airways, National Express, BAA parking and lonely planet (books)
Commission Junction – Run an affiliate scheme with many of the TUI Travel brands including Thomson and Portland, CJ also have affiliate programmes with bmi and lastminute.com
LinkShare -Big in the states but fairly new to the UK. They have so far signed up niche operator Intrepid Travel, as well as Radisson Edwardian
Paid On Results – Not so strong on travel but plenty of other e-tailers and have recently added Barcelo Hotels affliate programme. Nice and clean control panel and I also like that they email you a daily summary of activity on your account. Also their site is a good learning resource with pages like this glossary.
Tradedoubler -Strong on travel. Tradedoubler run affiliate schemes with lots of big travel industry players including BA, Thomas Cook, First Choice, Kelkoo, and KLM.
Webgains – Nice control panel makes it easy to switch between multiple websites you may run but keep it all under one account. Travel businesses with affiliate schemes at Webgains include Hotel Connect, Carrentals and also GoAmerica.
Things you should have to hand when you join the affiliate networks:
1) Website details – normally site must be up and running, doesn’t have to be “finished” though.
2) Your bank details – sort code & account number.
