Entrepreneurship

Pondering Affiliate Marketing: Tiers, low-hanging fruit, and who to go after

By Johnny Fuery ⋅ February 20, 2007 ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

In thinking about affiliates, there’s several different tiers. This is only my initial guesswork. I may update this as I learn more moving forward. All estimates are assuming that the content producer owns content that is at least loosely related to your product.

• The chaff. These guys are just hobbyists at best. They have an alexa rating (a measure of web site rankings based on traffic) below 6mm. Or, more likely, they’re not even rated by alexa (picture a myspace member with a keen interest in music or gadgets, but less than 200 friends and a seldom-updated blog). I should spend some time at some point thinking about this group, because if I can reach these folks through some form of automation, they’re worth going after. Manually (even just email), forget it. We’re talking less than 5 referrals per month per affiliate, if that. Many of them would yield zero.
• The fans. These guys are rated by alexa and are already making some pocket change from at least google adsense, if not other affiliate programs. Alexa ranking of 3mm to 6mm. Worth casting a wide net for and emailing twice. We should see a half-dozen referrals per month if we achieve prominent placement. High level of adoption, however — these folks aren’t making much money (but want to) in the first place, so they’re eager to join up.
• Benchwarmers. 1mm to 3mm on Alexa. Worth identifying and phoning at least once with a follow up email (more if interest is present, obviously). This is still pretty low on the tail, but the person in charge is still accessible. Real promotion by these folks would pretty easily yield 10 referrals per month per affiliate. This is where I’d focus my efforts, because they’re low-hanging fruit, but still worthwhile signing up en masse. Interestinglu, my own site falls into this category based on traffic, and I happen to know an awful lot of my traffic comes from the same repeat visitors.
• The players. 200K to 1mm on Alexa. There are some players here who are still accessible, but the sales cycle, generally speaking, grows exponentially here. I think that this is inappropriate for now (I might close only 1 or 2 in a whole month, based on a part time effort of about an hour a day), but should be gone after with a vengeance once you’ve nailed a few dozen benchwarmers. This is also such a wide demographic — the difference between 1mm and 2mm in traffic terms is small, but 200K and 1mm is huge — that estimates on referrals are difficult.
• The big boys. 200K and less on Alexa. These are off my radar. One probably has to pay to join this group, a strategy that seems inappropriate at the early stages of an affiliate marketing program.