Affiliate Marketing
Information and Best Practices
Denise Purtzer Channel Manager dpurtzer@digitalriver.com
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Affiliate Programs in Digital River
• Digital River provides different affiliate resources and opportunities across several platforms:
—RegNow —eSellerate —oneNetworkDirect —Element5 —Share*It
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Affiliate Statistics
• In 2007 Affiliates:
—Average Commission paid was between 37-42% (depending on platform) —Average commission for Top software titles (namebrand products like Norton/Symantec and CA) around 14.7% —Average Order Value (AOV) was $38.77 —Average Affiliate pay was around $16.28 per sale —83% of all affiliates actively selling —90/10 rule: 90% of a publisher’s sales will come from 10% of their affiliates
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More Affiliate Statistics
• Digital River has over 120,000 unique products available within it’s affiliate systems • Platforms included:
—Windows —Vista specific —Mac —Linux —Mobile —PDA —Other: ebook, etc.
• Publishers see an average of 12-33% of their total sales generated through affiliates (depending on platform, etc.)
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Affiliate Opportunities by Vertical
• Affiliates sell in a variety of ways including: • Paid Search • Coupon/Discounts • Content Sites • Review Sites
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Paid Search Considerations
For the Publisher/Merchant: —Put Terms in place to outline your rules for search —Your Trademark listings should be first (Google supports this) —Do not allow affiliates to drive up your paid pricing (competitors may do this) —Affiliates can handle “Long Tail” opportunities —Have resources to monitor search partners on regular basis (most do this daily) —Search partners good if you have the right ones —Limited number of search affiliates you can have (5-6 places above “fold”)
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Paid Search Considerations
For the Affiliate • Provide communication with Publisher so they are comfortable working with you • May request higher commissions than default if you prove your value • Consider “Long Tail” opportunities • Provide URL to publisher
—To be “Google Compatible” you must have site with content built out, refresh info on site
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Coupon Sites
—Generally need to provide coupon or discount to take part —Sometimes these sites offer “Free trial” as their offer —Affiliates like to have coupons assigned specifically to them —Bundles can also work well to keep AOV higher —If you own multiple products—give big discount to acquire customer and market other products
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Content Sites
—Provide Good content through affiliate interface
• • • • • • • Box Shot (min 200 wide) Short Description Long Description Trial Link trackable for affiliates Buy link (direct to cart) Screen shots (generally 2/minimum 700 wide) PAD files
– Only publisher/owner of product should submit to download sites (not affiliate)
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Review Sites
—Provide License key to reviewer —Check Top review sites to make sure they have latest version posted —Product update/new release
• Provide different features from previous product • Provide new screenshots • Check out competitive products and give summary on how your product compares
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Resources • http://www.developer-resource.com
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Questions?
Thank you!
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