Stay true to your website's purpose...
As your website starts to grow and gain exposure you will start to get propositioned by various companies. A lot of them want to sell you junk that you most likely don’t need.
But you will also start to attract propositions from online businesses looking to “partner up” with you and offer you what seems to be win-win deals…
This week I wanted to cover the importance of remaining true to your website’s purpose/revenue model to help you avoid taking up a deal that steers your online business in the wrong direction which will ultimately harm your website and brand.
Now I’m not saying that all online propositions are bad… it’s just extremely important that these deals work for you WITHOUT you having to change your website to suit someone else’s revenue model. The most common propositions that business owners receive and fall for are affiliate programs because of the “high commissions” they can offer you.
The way online business owners typically look at this is “If my website is getting traffic and I can make some extra money out of it by taking part in this program then great!” But this is far from what’s actually going to happen!
If your core business is NOT affiliate marketing, don’t expect much of a return if any… You’ll need a high volume of traffic to make even the smallest commissions and the entire process is going to cost you. Say for example, you run a product based website that’s revenue model is derived from selling products through an actual transaction on your website. Your website gets a lot of traffic; this traffic ultimately turns into first transactions and repeat transactions.
A business then comes along and offers to create thousands of listings on your website. They tell you that people will click on these listings then go to their website instead, buy something and you’ll get a great commission.
Here are the specifically how this will cost you:
- The moment you start sending this traffic away from your website through an affiliate program, you’ll receive less transactions and make less money.
- Your customers will see that you’re not all about the best/cheapest/smartest etc. products and that you’re just trying to make a quick buck and your brand will loose credibility.
In the example of a product based website, the only way to have a beneficial outcome for your business through someone else’s affiliate program is to stay true to your website’s revenue model and make sure the transaction actually takes place on your website.
If their affiliate program doesn’t support this and they ask you to change your website to cater to it… give it a miss!
For advice on what you should do to make your website a success, enter your details below for a free copy of our website advice pack or call (02) 4704 8505 for more information.
