Affiliate Marketing Blog by Shawn Collins Affiliate marketing news and opinion from Shawn Collins, an affiliate marketer since 1997, co-founder of Affiliate Summit and author of Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants.

Thanks for visiting the Affiliate Tip blog. Subscribe to my RSS feed or enter your e-mail on the top left to get updates by e-mail.Mention “affiliate marketing” and many folks automatically will associate the term with Amazon.com’s Associates Program. Around since July 1996, the program uses specially formatted links on affiliate sites that drive traffic [...]

We often read about the best practices in the affiliate marketing industry, but much of what we read has come from the pages of textbooks rather than experience. Although there is certainly value to being book smart, it’s equally important to be affiliate smart.
Along those lines, the first industry-wide benchmarking study, Affiliate Metrix, was [...]

If I already have several established websites, how can I get started? Is affiliate marketing business specific? Meaning are there some businesses that would not benefit from this type of advertising program?
I touched on some early steps for being an affiliate and finding the best affiliate programs for your site(s) in recent posts: Becoming an [...]

If you are an affiliate manager, please complete the AffStat 2005 Affiliate Manager Survey now at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=21204771780
In appreciation for your input, you will receive an AffStat 2005 Report Executive Summary in early 2005.
I understand that this information is sensitive, and all data will be published in aggregate. No participating companies or their responses [...]

Our affiliate program requires affiliates to fill out a W-9 and fax it or mail it in. Since you operate several affiliate programs yourself, do you make affilates fill out a W-9 or is there something else you have implemented?
I require all affiliates to submit a W-9 Federal Tax form before I will issue a [...]

I was just reading the latest report from Neil Shearing, and it’s a very useful one that I was suggest reading.
It’s a free report called Gatecrashing Google.
He describes an easy technique that he used to get listed in Google in 48 hours. Get the free report, with step by step instructions and
screenshots at http://www.scamfreezone.com/.

How can you find out who your competitor’s affiliates are?
There are a few different software programs that can help to identify some affiliates of your competitors, as well as the sites that are placing well in the search engines for various keywords.
In the past, my two favorite, and pretty much comparable resources for identifying affiliates, [...]

Since launching in the first half 2003, Google AdSense has had a big impact on affiliate marketing. Primarily, it has taken over lots of Web site real estate that was formerly going to affiliate programs.
If you are not familiar with AdSense, it delivers relevant ads that are precisely targeted on a page-by-page basis to [...]

There is a popular urban myth about the origins of affiliate marketing. It goes something like this…
In July 1996, Amazon.com launched the first affiliate program on the Internet. That’s the story in the Amazon.com Associates Program Frequently Asked Questions, at least.
As legend has it, Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of Amazon.com, chatted with [...]

Is there any single site where virtually all sellers who have an affiliate program are listed, noting which major network they are associated with? In other words, does someone maintain a searchable list, or one in alpahbetical order, where one can look up, for example, which affiliate program Wal-mart, or Kmart, or any other seller [...]