JoshWhen you first get started in affiliate marketing, it’s common to begin by focusing on getting new clicks or views, rather than analyzing those that you are already attracting. But one of the key ways that successful super affiliates make so much money is by using affiliate software to better understand what is drawing consumers to their material.
There are dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of affiliate software products out there. While all boast their own unique style, and many include features that are unique to their software, most do (or should) include the same basic features. These are the things you should look for, as a beginner in affiliate marketing, when choosing the best affiliate software.
- Multiple Tracking Methods
There are many types of tracking methods that affiliate software can use to help you understand where clicks or views came from, and what the end result of each click or view was. These include cookie tracking, sub domain tracking, URL query string tracking, and others. If your affiliate software does not offer multiple tracking methods, then you should consider how reliable the tracking method is, and how flexible. Does it allow you to see as much data as you need to truly analyze how well your marketing materials are working? You should also consider how the tracking method affects your website, or the website where the material is hosted. If it creates a slow website, or results in pop ups or other annoying features, it’s unlikely that consumers will click through.
- Fraud Protection
Affiliate marketing is filled with fraud, and it can hurt your business even if you are totally legitimate. Those businesses that make the product or deliver the service that you are marketing don’t want to work with fraudulent affiliates who will send consumers to false landing pages, or engage in other illegal or unethical behaviors. If a glitch, a hack, or anything else causes your affiliate links to appear fraudulent, you could be banned from working with that company as an affiliate marketing partner. In order to avoid this, choose an affiliate software that includes fraud protection.
- Real-time Analytics
The uses for an affiliate software with real-time analytics in an affiliate marketing business are endless. Let’s say you’re checking in with your affiliate software over your lunch break to see how the morning went, and you suddenly notice a real-time jump in clicks on a brand new marketing campaign. A small amount of fast research shows that you used a popular keyword you weren’t even aware of when creating the campaign – and now, before your lunch hour is even up, you can hurry to edit a few other campaigns with the same keyword. By the end of the day, you’ve tripled the sales that you would have gotten, all because you were able to take advantage of the immediate success of one campaign.
- Automation
One of the keys to the success of super affiliates such as John Crestani is automation. Being able to live as a traveler and adventurer while his business made hundreds of thousands of dollars was due largely in part to a team and software that could do as much of the work as possible. By choosing software products that update tracking, take care of payments, create reports, and automate contracting, all without the need for your presence, you can focus your energy elsewhere. Want to build a side business, travel, or just spend more time with your family? Automation is your friend.
By looking for software with these four features, you’ll be able to run your affiliate business and start generating the kind of income that you’ve always wanted.