Affiliate Classroom Magazine: March 2009

Volume 5 Number 4 March 2009 AffiliateClassroom.com The journal of affiliate marketing and management best practices Niche Markets and Targeted Big Do's (and Little Don'ts) Traffic Of Building Links Getting to Know Your Traffic Understanding Traffic 2 Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 Download the black and white version at AffiliateClassroom.com. Table of Contents Niche Markets and Targeted Traffic By Kathy Jackson COVER STORY Targeted traffic is what every affiliate marketer wants. The really successful super affiliates know how to get inside the heads of the niche market they want to reach. This article explains how to do this in three easy-to-follow steps. PAGE 3 7 Big Do’s (and Little Don’ts) of Building Links In general, the higher your website's rank on search listings, the better your odds of making a sale. However, a major factor in how high Google and Yahoo rank you depends on whether lots of other sites link to yours. Unfortunately, this is a slippery slope. This article examines some do’s and don’ts every affiliate should know to stay on level ground. 12 Getting to Know Your Traffic It’s easy to get wrapped up in the quantity of traffic to your site. If your site attracts thousands of visitors a day, it’s a sign that what you’re doing is being noticed. But what is the quality of that traffic? It doesn’t matter how much traffic you attract if that traffic merely clicks to your home page and then clicks back out. Learn how to get to know your traffic in this article. New to Affiliate Classroom? Click here now for a free introduction to affiliate marketing. This magazine is now brandable by our affiliates! To join our affiliate program and earn residual income by sharing this magazine with others, visit the Affiliate Classroom website and look for the link to our affiliate program. About Affiliate Classroom Magazine © Copyright 2009, Lurn, Inc.™ and the individual authors. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction of any portion of this publication is forbidden. Contact the Managing Editor to request permission to reprint articles. All contents of this issue, including design, photos, graphics, and text are copyrighted. All brand names and trademarks are the property of their respective holders. Staff, Helen Montgomery, Managing Editor Lurn, Inc.™ 387 Technology Drive, College Park, MD 20742 Affiliate Classroom Magazine is published monthly by Lurn, Inc.™ Back issues are available at AffiliateClassroom.com. Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 3 FEATURE STORY Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 Niche Markets and Targeted Traffic By Kathy Jackson jacksokathy@gmail.com Targeted traffic is what every affiliate marketer wants. But "targeted traffic" really means "visitors," real human beings who are looking for your products online. The really successful super affiliates know how to get inside the heads of the niche market they want to reach. They know the demographics of their target market so they can use PPC or SEO to capture the eyeballs of that market. They also know the psychological triggers that get those visitors to buy. Niches and Niche Markets First, let’s talk about what a “niche market” really is. A niche market is basically a subset of a broad market. For example: “dogs” is a broad market, but the broad dog market breaks down into smaller niche markets; dog houses, dog food, dog training, specific dog breeds, etc. The BNET Business Directory defines niche market as: “a very specific market segment within a broader segment. A niche market involves specialist goods or services with relatively few or no competitors. Niche consumers often look for exclusiveness or some other differentiating factor such as high status. Alternatively, they may have a specific requirement not satisfied by standard products. Allergy sufferers, for example, may require specially formulated soaps and detergents. Niche markets are often targeted by small companies that produce specialized goods and services.” And these niche markets can be broken down even further into “micro niche markets.” Staying with the dog market, doghouses can be broken down into large doghouses, or small doghouses, or wooden doghouses. Dog training can be broken down into clicker dog training, or training hunting dogs, or dog obedience training. You get the idea. Identifying your niche market tells you what your potential customers want. Step #1: Identify your niche and your niche market or micro niche market. Targeted Traffic The most desirable targeted traffic in your niche market or micro niche market consists of real people who have credit cards, who are interested specifically in the products that you are selling, and who are affluent enough to actually buy the products you are selling. These people make up the targeted traffic that you want to attract to your website, because these people are most likely to become paying customers. So how can you determine what segment of the population you should Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 4 NICHE MARKETS Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 target? Demographics! Example: you might be able to get a ton of traffic from advertisements aimed at 16-year-old boys, but how many of them have a credit card, or a PayPal account filled with cash? (I know, scary thought!) Targeting their parents (or their grandparents) might be better, since they will have the cash to buy gifts for those teen boys. Helpful Demographic Tools: Microsoft’s adCenter Labs Demographics Prediction tool (free at http://adlab.microsoft.com/DemographicsPrediction/DPUI.aspx) can be helpful when you are determining demographics. This tool can be used to predict a user’s age, gender, and other information based on their online behavior for specific keywords or even for specific website addresses. The Microsoft adLab Keyword Forecast tool (free at http://adlab.microsoft.com/Keyword-Forecast/) is also helpful. Also the Detecting Online Commercial Intention tool (also free at http:// adlab.microsoft.com/Online-Commercial-Intention/Default.aspx) can provide you with information about customer intent. Computer users search the Internet for one of two distinct purposes: they are looking for information, or they are looking for a specific product to buy. Last, a site that is as good as all of those listed above is called Quantcast (free at http://www.quantcast.com/). Here you can type in the website address of your largest competitor and find out what specific demographics his site is attracting. Step #2: Identify the demographics of your most likely customer base. Turning Demographic Information into Targeted Traffic Once you’ve determined the demographic you’ll be targeting by age, gender, race, level of education, income bracket, and/or other factors, you’ll need to use that information to get into the head of your typical paying customer and put your advertisements and promotions in front of them. Speaking the Customer’s Language: I know, you’re thinking that all your customers speak English, so what’s the big deal about speaking their language? We all speak English, right? Not exactly! People of specific age groups use words that people of other age groups don’t use. When you know the demographic of your most likely paying customer, you need to apply that information to the language that you use on your website and in your PPC advertising. • The Age Factor: If you’re advertising to a teenager, you might use the term “off the chain” to describe a good product; but if you’re trying to sell that same product to the teen’s grandmother as a gift for that teen, “off the chain” will not compute. She’ll have no clue whether you’re telling her that the product is good, bad, or dangerous. And if you throw a few obscenities into your copy, she’ll want to wash your mouth out with soap, and she most certainly will NOT buy anything that you recommend. Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 5 NICHE MARKETS • Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 The Level of Education Factor: The same thing is true of people with differing levels of education. If your typical customer has only a high school education and you insist on using a lot of big words in your advertising or on your website, your typical customer won’t “get it,” and they’ll find somebody who speaks in terms that they understand. You won’t astound them with your extensive vocabulary; you’ll send them straight to your competitor’s website. The Gender Factor: Men and women don’t use the same terms to describe the same object. The same words don’t cause them to buy products, either. If you’re selling a product to a woman, you must appeal to her sensibilities. If your copy talks “down” to her and assumes that she’s just not nearly as intelligent as a man, she won’t buy from you. Men respond better to “straight talk.” Stick to the facts. The Income Level Factor: People of different income levels view price in different ways. If you’re selling to an upper-income group, price shouldn’t be mentioned until the very end of your sales pitch. But if you’re selling to a lower income group, or to bargain hunters, it may be necessary to mention price sooner. In PPC advertising, you may need to mention discounts or prices in your ads to prequalify visitors, so you aren't paying for clicks from people who can't afford what you're selling. • Step #3: Apply the demographic information that you collect to your copy and advertising. • Advertisement Times and Locations: People of all ages, races, levels of education and income, and of both sexes use the Internet. They all use the search engines to find information that they want and need and to find products that they want to buy. But they don’t all search for the same information or the same products, and they don’t search at the same times of day. Now you’re using the correct language in your advertisements according to the demographics that best describe your customer base. So your next step is to put those advertisements where they’ll do the most good -- and run them during optimum hours according to the demographics that best describe your customer base. PPC marketers have learned that demographic information can help you determine, even in the testing stage, the best times to run your ads. And demographics can also help you decide on what websites or in which ezines you place advertisements. • The Time Factor: You should run your advertisements during the hours when your customers are most likely to be online. If you’re selling farm equipment, there’s not much point in running your advertisements after 9 PM. Farmers go to bed early. On the other hand, if you’re selling “off the chain” shoes, you might not want to start running your advertisements until kids get home from school. The Location Factor: Advertising on websites that attract your customer base is a good idea, but there’s no point in paying for Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 • 6 NICHE MARKETS Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 advertisements on sites that your customer base would never intentionally visit. Choose wisely. The same thing is true of ezine advertisements. They can be very effective, but only if you choose ezines that your customer base is likely to subscribe to. Use the demographic information you collect to determine when and where your advertisements should appear. In affiliate marketing circles, driving traffic is one of the most often discussed topics. That’s because without traffic, an affiliate marketer doesn’t have a business. But just any old traffic isn’t helpful. You might have 1,000 people visit your website, but if none of them buy anything, you’ve just wasted a lot of money on ineffective PPC advertising or SEO. On the other hand, if only 100 people visit your website and 20 of them make a purchase, you’ve spent very little on advertising but made a lot of sales. That difference is achieved by understanding your typical paying customer. Once again, demographics! When you know the age, sex, race, income level, level of education, etc., of your average customer, you can then determine exactly how to attract him to your website and then how to convince him to make a purchase. Follow the three steps outlined above — identifying your niche or micro niche market, identify the demographics of your customer base, and apply that demographic information to your copy and advertising — and you’ll be well on your way to increased sales. Follow the three steps outlined in this article and you’ll be well on your way to increased sales. About the Author Kathy Jackson is a Texas rancher and a contributing author for several farm and ranch publications. She is also an experienced freelance writer of email newsletters, review copy, educational materials, and blog posts on a wide variety of topics, including many aspects of online business and affiliate marketing. Internet marketing is one of Kathy’s burning interests. You can read some of Kathy's articles on the Affiliate Classroom Blog at http://blog.affiliateclassroom.com. She can be contacted via email at jacksokathy@gmail.com. Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 7 FEATURE STORY Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 Big Do’s (and Little Don’ts) of Building Links By David Long JDavidLong@gmail.com You might have heard that the way to get traffic to your site is to get links from other sites. So far, so good. You might also have been told that the more links, the better. Hmmm... we're starting to get on shaky ground here. Let's dig a little deeper into the big Do's (and a few little Don'ts) about linking. Vendors who sell link exchange software are naturally going to argue that their product is both ethical and practical. But the other side of that argument has something else on its side: Google's guidelines. A Linking Paradox In general, the higher your website's rank on search listings, the better your odds of a searcher clicking on your URL. That's obvious. The more visitors, the better your chances of making a sale. Also obvious. And, it's true that a major factor in how high Google and Yahoo rank you depends on whether lots of other sites link to yours. Not obvious, but true nonetheless. From that, you might conclude that if you could just get hundreds, even thousands of other sites to provide a link to you, the money will just flow into your bank account. Sounds easy, no? Unfortunately, there is more to the story than that. There are circumstances in which simply getting more links will actually get you a lower ranking. The key to unraveling that paradox is to realize that what counts as much if not more than quantity is quality, and quality — as we all know — is a little harder to judge. Don'ts (and Other Things) Opinions on the subject vary, but there is a school of thought (the school of hard knocks) that says don't buy links. That means: never pay a website owner for a link. (No, we're not talking about never using PPC; that's a different animal altogether.) But it also means don't pay a link farm for thousands of links, and that also includes not paying for software that automates link exchanges. All of those views are controversial to a degree, of course. (What isn't these days?) Vendors who sell link exchange software are naturally going to argue that their product is both ethical and practical. But apart from long experience, the other side of that argument has something else on its side: Google's guidelines. Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 8 BUILDING LINKS Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 According to the company's website: Some webmasters engage in link exchange schemes and build partner pages exclusively for the sake of cross-linking, disregarding the quality of the links, the sources, and the long-term impact it will have on their sites. This is in violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines and can negatively impact your site’s ranking in search results. We can set aside ethics for a moment and just be pragmatic. Can you get caught? Here again, opinions differ. But, Google claims: Keep in mind that our algorithms can distinguish natural links from unnatural links. Natural links to your site develop as part of the dynamic nature of the web when other sites find your content valuable and think it would be helpful for their visitors. Unnatural links to your site are placed there specifically to make your site look more popular to search engines. Some of these types of links (such as link schemes and doorway pages) are covered in our webmaster guidelines. Only natural links are useful for the indexing and ranking of your site. Deciding whether or not this is an empty threat will depend, in part, on whether you know people who have seen their high rank drop down to about page 30 on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Good statistics on the subject are a little scarce. It also depends on whether you think short term or long term. We're not here to wag a finger. In the end, you have to decide whether you want to take the risk. It's also helpful to think about whether this is a good use of your time and money. With so many safe, ethical, practical techniques to employ to get links, this author doesn't think so. One very good method for getting valuable links is to employ the same thinking you use to build your customer base in the first place. Give something to get something, and give large and freely. Do — By All Means, Do Give to Get One very good method for getting valuable links is to employ the same thinking you use to build your customer base in the first place. Give something to get something, and give large and freely. Business isn't charity (unless you happen to be in the business of charity). But every smart affiliate knows that giving away things for free often results in getting far more in return than the gift cost. That's smart business, right? That can be free content, free ebooks, and more. But links can be worth something, too, so give them away (to those that deserve them, naturally). You'll find that, as webmasters check where their traffic came from, they'll be favorably disposed to like you before they even know you. Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 9 BUILDING LINKS Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 Sometimes, those webmasters will place a link back to your site without asking. Other times, if you send a polite email later, they will be much more likely to say yes because you're not asking for something for nothing and you gave in advance. Focus on Quality As mentioned at the outset, though, don't make links to (or accept them from) just anyone. It's tempting to want as many links as you can possibly get, especially when first starting a new site. But quality counts. Just to give an exaggerated example, if you sell collectible dolls, but get links from hundreds of porn sites, does that help you? Only if you sell a very select type of doll…… Don't make links to (or accept them from) just anyone. It's tempting to want as many links as you can possibly get, especially when first starting a new site. But quality counts. Protect Your Brand It's a general marketing truth that you don't want to "pollute" your brand. That principle leads naturally to trying to get links that are, as Google calls them, "natural links." A natural link is one that comes from a site where its content would be judged by any fair person as relevant to the content of your site. Of course, "fair" and "relevant" are somewhat in the eye of the beholder. That's why, no matter how powerful or clever Google's algorithms may be, there is always some human judgment involved. Still, even in matters of judgment, there is a range from "clearly relevant" to "who are you trying to kid?" and everything in between. Quality Guidelines Quality includes things like whether the site that links to you looks professional. If you made serious efforts to produce a site that looks great, having hundreds of inbound links from sites that look cheesy is probably not helpful. Of course, you don't have control over whether or not other sites link to you (unless you take explicit action to block them). But you don't have to go looking for trouble, either. You want to seek out sites that have complimentary content. Getting links from exact competitors is counterproductive, usually. You want to give your customers (and theirs) a value-added experience. You want those coming to your site from elsewhere to be happy to have arrived. That spreads positive word of mouth. (Negative word of mouth exists, too, and it is worse than no word of mouth at all.) Be Worthy of a Link A modified Golden Rule applies in the world of website linking. You should be worth linking to yourself. That means producing valuable content, providing smooth navigation, and avoiding dirty tricks. "Dirty tricks" includes such things as firing off an ad when there's no good reason for your visitor to expect it as they go to the next page. It can also include making it very difficult for your visitor to leave other than Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 10 BUILDING LINKS Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 by closing his or her browser. Very rude. On the flip side, another trick would be shooting your visitor off to a merchant's site when they thought you were about to give some good content or a freebie. Bait and switch is a no-no. Bottom line: never abuse your visitors, especially those that arrive via a link from another site. You will spread negative word of mouth like wildfire, and your sales will tank. In short, if you go looking for sites to link to yours, make sure they're relevant along all the dimensions that concept covers. Then, be a good link partner and earn those links by providing a site that deserves one. Many successful websites have explicit policies against granting link requests. Still, you can motivate them to do so spontaneously. They want to offer their visitors valueadded experiences, too, after all. Be Prepared to Work Like every other aspect of building and growing an affiliate website, a lot of effort is involved. Novices often see ads or articles touting all the money to be made in affiliate marketing. And, even in these times, there certainly is, sometimes a great deal of it. But they quickly learn that it is almost always more difficult than they expected. That's life. Embrace it. How to Get Links Part of embracing life is being prepared to spend time and effort (but not money!) to get links from good sites. Sites that have high traffic are good. Sites that have a high page rank are also good (though not as good as some say). Sites that have complimentary content, products, and services are excellent. Sites run by webmasters who are professional, courteous, and generous with good advice are also very, very good and a pleasure to do business with. Look for them. Be one. Those sites are successful, so you can expect the webmasters to be busy. (See my point above about "lots of effort to make money.") Many of them have explicit policies against granting link requests. Still, you can sometimes motivate them to do so spontaneously. They want to offer their visitors value-added experiences, too, after all. That's part of how they became successful. Ask if they allow it, but avoid pushing. Above all, follow any posted guidelines. Blogs and Forums Post often on blogs and include your URL, but use good judgment. The practice is expected on certain kinds of blogs and forums, but don't abuse the site. It's rude (and counterproductive) to post a URL to your site advertising great home refinancing on a blog devoted to political discussions of the economy. At the very least, many owners will just delete your comment, wasting their time and yours. Worse, it encourages negative word of mouth about your site. Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 11 BUILDING LINKS Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 Article Directories Submit your URL to directories. One good way is to write an article and post it on EzineArticles.com, ArticleDashboard.com, and other popular article directory sites. (Be sure to follow the guidelines for where to put the link, though. Usually, it's limited to the Bio section at the bottom, rarely in the body. Also no funny business with HTML in headers, etc.) Social Bookmarking and Self-Promotions Touting your own website is not only good business, it's good manners. If you don't believe in what you sell, why should others? There are several ways to do that. One is to create a profile on FaceBook and other social networking sites. You have to be subtle (which is not the same thing as devious) to stay within the guidelines. Those sites don't exist for the purpose of advertising commercial sites. Still, a well-done profile allows you to create visibility and develop relationships, two keys to generating traffic and a mesh of new links. Also, any other sites you own can make perfect places for you to advertise your other ones. Even here the "relevant, professional, value-add" triad applies. It's pointless to link from a site that sells expensive jewelry to one that touts debt reduction services. But, that said, there's nothing wrong (and lots right) with promoting your wares. Cross-selling is as old as marketing. Touting your own website is not only good business, it's good manners. If you don't believe in what you sell, why should others? Summary Create a wise link strategy and be prepared to execute it with diligence over the long term. You'll see a steady rise in inbound links and the traffic that follows them. A rise in sales won't be far behind. About the Author David Long is a freelance writer and editor with over 20 years of experience. His PLR articles and eBooks have appeared on hundreds of websites. They cover topics that include Wine & Beer, Travel, Gardening, Health & Fitness, Pets, Stocks & Bonds, and dozens more subjects. He can be contacted for hire at JDavidLong@gmail.com. Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 12 FEATURE STORY Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 Getting to Know Your Traffic By Matt Van Atta matt@affiliateclassroom.com It’s a given that traffic serves as the lifeblood of any affiliate business. Traffic to your website directly impacts your revenue stream; without those visitors to your site, you have no revenue stream and eventually, no business. When you shop for a web hosting service, be sure to check whether that service allows you to access your traffic logs, and whether it does so at no extra charge. It’s also easy to get wrapped up in the quantity of traffic to your site. It’s hard not to smile at the sight of thousands of visitors a day visiting your site; it’s a sign that what you’re doing is being noticed, and that’s important. But what is the quality of that traffic? To what degree is that traffic generating sales for you? It doesn’t matter how much traffic you attract if that traffic merely clicks to your home page and then clicks back out. So, the name of the game is to create offers that appeal to your traffic — that make visitors want to answer your call to action, and that make them want to visit your site again. How do you do this? The first thing you need to do is to get to know the traffic that visits your site. When do they visit, and how often? What do they do when they visit your site? What do they look for on your site that you can craft into compelling offers to keep the traffic flowing and to drive business to the merchant? How to get to know who your customers are is the focus of this article. Meet Your Customers through the Traffic Logs As I mentioned earlier, getting traffic to convert requires knowing not only how many web visitors you attract to your site, but what kinds of people visit it. The first way to get to know your traffic is to check the traffic logs for your site. Web hosting services almost always provide traffic logs as part of their service. When you shop for a web hosting service, be sure to check whether that service allows you to access your traffic logs, and whether it does so at no extra charge. Reading through a traffic log for your website can be difficult enough without the knowledge that you had to pay for the privilege! While these logs serve primarily to display technical data about your website, they also provide essential statistics about your visitors that you can use in your marketing efforts. These statistics are collected as visitors enter and exit your site. Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 13 YOUR TRAFFIC Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 Here are some of the more important stats for affiliate marketers to note: Number of user sessions A user session is a measurement of a single web user’s time and level of activity spent on a website. Some affiliate marketers, and perhaps the general public, tend to think of a successful web promotion in terms of the number of “hits” the landing page receives. However, a user session is not the same thing as a hit. When a visitor accesses a web page, that person accesses every element associated with that page, including images; access to each element constitutes a hit. The number of hits on a web page can be misleading because a visitor can click on that page, click back out, and then click again later, thus inflating the hit numbers. Also, not all hits are intentional; a visitor could have clicked on the wrong link. User sessions give you a better idea of such data as when a visitor is more likely to access your site, how long a visitor stays on your site, and how often the visitor clicks on a page on your site from another page on your site. A user session online is a measurement of a single web user’s time and level of activity spent on a website. A user session is not the same thing as a hit. Number of page views In addition to the frequency with which a visitor accesses the various pages on your site, this also lets you know which pages are viewed most frequently and least frequently. This information is great for determining if a visitor to your site is finding his/her way to the link to the merchant’s site or to another call to action. If a dropoff takes place between the home page and the call to action, you can assess at which step along the way the visitor drops out. Obviously, your home page is likely at or near the top of the list of “entry pages” for your site, because the majority of visitors access your site through the home page. The home page is relevant, however, only if your other pages’ views are paling in comparison; it may be a sign that your home page is not compelling enough to retain your traffic. If your most viewed pages include the one containing your call to action, chances are you’re in good shape. Where did your traffic come from? From which sites did your visitors click on a link to your site? Search engines are a likely cause, and so are article directories if you’ve posted content to these sites. Of course, the best referral is no referral — in that case, the visitor knows your site and typed in your URL directly. The more that happens, the more likely it is that your marketing efforts work to at least some degree. Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 14 YOUR TRAFFIC How your traffic got there Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 Assuming visitors found your site via a search engine such as Google or Yahoo, what keywords did they use to call up your site? This is a good time to revisit that keyword list that you developed at the start of a campaign or upon the launch of your affiliate business. To offer a hypothetical example, let’s say you have a website devoted to used golf equipment. In this economy, fewer people may be golfing, but those who do may be looking for an affordable set of irons or their favorite golf balls at cheaper prices. Your traffic logs can tell you whether any product pages have experienced an increased volume of traffic. They can also detect patterns over time. Your traffic logs can tell you whether any product pages have experienced an increased volume of traffic. They can also detect patterns over time — perhaps there is unusually increased traffic in the spring, when the weather gets warmer and golfers start thinking about hitting the links, or maybe the economy has prompted an ongoing increase in traffic to that page. Perhaps also, keywords with brand names such as “Titleist golf balls” or “Callaway preowned clubs,” or keywords like “used irons” or “used golf balls” have increased in usage. Analyze Your Customers through Demographics A demographic is a statistical characteristic associated with a group of people. The most basic demographics are age and sex; other demographics can include geography, number of children (or no children) in the household, and other factors. Traditional marketers have for years based their ad efforts on demographics (for instance, males between the ages of 18 and 45 constitute an important demographic for radio and television stations). As the Internet has made lots of things easier, so it has helped to simplify data collection on potential customers. With that data and a little imagination, you can build one or more profiles of the average visitor to your website. Many niches have somewhat of a natural demographic — a person who enjoys scrapbooking is likely to differ from someone who plays video games or who is into rock climbing. But demographics are not always easy to detect. For example, golf is played by people of both sexes and multiple age groups, and at varying levels of interest. Plus, standard demographic data does not reflect the specific web behavior patterns of your customer base. So how do you drill down further? Demographic research websites are always a good place to start. For example, the U.S. Census Bureau (http://www.census.gov/) offers a wide variety of portals through which to analyze census data. And the Bureau of Economic Analysis (http://www.bea.gov) provides data relevant to the economic condition of the United States. However, such sources do not easily detect a critical aspect of this kind of demographic analysis – and that’s Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 15 YOUR TRAFFIC Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 what individuals do when they open a web browser. The best way to do this is through web traffic demographic analysis, and a number of companies offer this service for free. • Alexa (http://www.alexa.com) tracks daily web traffic and collects data on traffic distribution to websites over a three-month period. Compete.com (http://www.compete.com) provides an approximate number of U.S. visitors to the top one million U.S. websites; reviews the amount of time an average user spent on a particular site compared to the overall time that user spent on the Internet; and records the average number of pages visited per single site visit. Google Trends (http://www.google.com/trends) allows you to search by keywords, enabling you to see search volume for a particular keyword along with news results and geographic locations of users who search on that keyword. Quantcast (http://www.quantcast.com) may be the most complete demographics tool of all; it reports on users’ age, gender, household income level, ethnicity, geographic location, and level of education attained. • • This allows greater opportunity to market an offer for, say, golf clubs for women and have it reach a larger number of people. • Another tool that can be particularly helpful is the Demographics Prediction Tool from Microsoft adCenter (http://adlab.microsoft.com/ Demographics-Prediction/DPUI.aspx). This cool tool provides age and gender breakdowns of web users for each query submitted. Based on that information, it predicts their demographic information based on their online behavior. Just look up a keyword or a URL, and you get a breakdown of those who are most likely to search for that keyword or URL. To use the golf example once more, I did a search on three terms using the Demographics Prediction Tool: golf, golf balls, and golf clubs. The tool returned the following data: • • • Golf: Male 71%, Female 29%; primary orientation age 50+ Golf Clubs: Male 65%, Female 35%; primary orientation age 35-49 Golf Balls: Male 63%, Female 37%; primary orientation age 35 -49 In all three cases, the traffic consisted primarily of males at least 35 years of age. However, adding the extra search parameter in the other two cases (clubs and balls) showed that the primary demographic became somewhat younger, and that a larger number of women searched on these terms. This allows greater opportunity to market an offer for, say, golf clubs for women and have it reach a larger number of people. Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 16 YOUR TRAFFIC Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009 This data would be merely scratching the surface; other factors, particularly geography (one who lives in the Sunbelt states is more likely to play golf in January than one in the Northeast) and time of year, would also need to be considered. Conclusion Creating the right affiliate offer for your website traffic requires as full an understanding as possible of what that traffic is and what it does when it visits your site. Armed with this understanding, strengthened through the use of demographic tools as well as knowledge about your niche market and a little imagination, you’ll be able to get to know your visitors and their needs a little better—and to fulfill those needs in a way that is profitable for you. Creating the right affiliate offer for your website traffic requires as full an understanding as possible of what that traffic is and what it does About the Author Matt Van Atta is a freelance writer and copyeditor in both web-based and print publishing and an occasional contributor to Affiliate Classroom magazine. He has spent many years crafting the written word in both marketing communications and academia, and he strongly believes that working at home is better than driving to work and that a golf course is always better than a cubicle. Email him at matt@affiliateclassroom.com. when it visits your site. Thanks for reading! In our next issue, we’ll talk monetization! AC Magazine is always free—no squeeze page, no email address required! Download your copy at the Affiliate Classroom website: AffiliateClassroom.com. Affiliate Classroom Magazine, March 2009