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One way to bring customers to your site is to give a percentage of sales to other sites that link to you.

For example, if your site sells products for show dogs, you can ask show dog related sites to link to you, and offer them 10% of any sales that come through that link. You'll find that they go out of their way to send visitors to you, and that those visitors will probably spend more per capita than visitors you get from search engines.

Leaders like Amazon.com have used this technique with great results. It works for small merchants too, if they have the tools. And as a Merchant Solutions merchant, you have the tools.

With Merchant Solutions Track Links, you can assign a special code to each site that links to yours. Then both you and the referring site can track how many visitors, and how many sales, came from that link.

You decide how big a percentage to give, and whether to pay in cash or store credit. You can make different deals with different sites. Whatever deal you make, Merchant Solutions Link Tracker makes it easy for you to administer, and also gives the referring site confidence that they will get the cut they're entitled to.

Find Related Sites

Encourage related sites to approach you. Put a link on your front page saying something like Link to us and get a cut, and have it lead to a page saying, for example:

Don't offer a cut to everyone. Check each site first, and only get links from the ones you like.

Be sure to specify some time limit on the agreement. You may want to renegotiate the percentage when you renew it, or even not renew, if they don't send you a significant amount of traffic.

You may want to ask in advance how many page views the referring site gets, so that you don't waste time getting links from sites with little or no traffic.

Establish Links for Each Site

Once you've agreed to give a cut to a number of sites, you should set up trackable links for each affiliate.

Once you've established trackable links, you will be able to see a summary of traffic and sales from them by signing in to the Store Manager and clicking Trackable Links, under Promote.

Cash or Credit?

Should you pay referring sites in cash or give them a merchandise credit? Giving a merchandise credit is obviously less expensive for you. On the other hand, referring sites may work harder to promote you for cash - especially after they receive the first check.

If the referring site is a business, you should probably offer cash. What is a company going to do with merchandise? But for links from personal sites, it may be enough to offer merchandise. Experiment, and see what works best.

How Big a Cut?

How big a cut should you give? You may want to consider giving quite a big one, at least 10%, and maybe as much as 20%.

Right now, online commerce is in its growth phase. Smart merchants are working to increase their traffic, not to squeeze every penny out of the traffic they have. So anything you can do to increase your customer base is a good investment.

Even if you give such a large cut that you make no profit on the first order, it could be a smart move. A customer who has ordered from you should come back and order again. And when they come back they will probably come back directly to you. A repeat customer can generate many orders, but you will probably only have to pay the percentage the first time.

If you're not sure, experiment. Try giving different percentages to different partners, and see what number makes them really work hard to send traffic to you.

How often should you pay? Quarterly, or twice yearly, might be better than monthly. The amount of traffic will vary a lot between sites, and if you pay too often, you may waste time writing a lot of checks for small amounts.

Note: This page is only intended to suggest some general ideas about arrangements you might make to promote your site. It is not complete legal advice about the matter, and Turbify will not be liable for any damages that result from following the suggestions outlined here. Consult your lawyer before entering into an agreement with anyone.

See Also:

• Set up trackable links for an affiliate
• Pay an affiliate with cash
• Pay an affiliate with store credit