Hi All,

I have some general questions regarding affiliates.

I'm currently using Commission Junction (as there seems to be a lot of UK based afilliate programs on there).

Anyway, I am stuck when it comes to "keywords". Does this mean I can chose what word I want to go there, that will link to their website, and still get paid per click?

The reason I ask is because a lot of the affiliate links are pre-set such as "Visit blabla.com and get 50% off today". If I chose the "Keywords" link, does that mean I can put in what I want?

When the merchants add their affiliate program to CJ, they are asked to put in keywords to help their program get found. So if I was a company selling sporting goods on CJ, I would add keywords affiliated with my company so when you, the affiliate, does a search in CJ, my program would come up.

So say you are looking for affiliate programs related to sports, you would type in "sports" in the keyword list and all the companies that have affiliate programs related to that keyword would ideally show up.

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Hi Lisa,

Sorry, I don't think I quite wrote what I meant to say properly.

When clicking an affiliate (for isntance.. sports then).

A football selling company might come up, but it has lots of banners, and lots of "links". The links sometimes say "50% off if you buy today". I get the code, it will add that text as a link.

But on nearly EVERY affiliate I see, it says "Keywords". If I get the code for that, can I replace it with any word I like?

I gotcha. A Keyword link is a link that the merchant has attached some good PPC bidding keywords to them.

So if you wanted to advertise a particular merchant's products in AdWords for example, you'd click the Keyword link and notice the merchant has suggested keywords you can bid on. This is also where they tell you which keywords you cannot bid on, non-compete keywords (keywords the merchant won't let you bid on), etc.

I know, it's not very clear and the only reason I know this is when I was an affiliate manager, my company used CJ to promote their affiliate program and I had the Account Manager explain it to me. Very strange way of setting that up if you ask me.

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Don't put the cart before the horse.
Plan your website, then create it.

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To add to what Lisa said, the reason why the "keyword affiliate link" option is available is if an affiliate wanted to link his/her CPC ads directly to the merchant.

Most of the links available, ones that say "Visit Blabblah.com today and get 50% off" are meant for an affiliate to put on the affiliate's website.

But if you wanted to set up an affiliate link that directly links to the merchant's website, then you can use the "keyword link".

This link, then, would be entered in the the "destination url" of your CPC ad.

I know it sounds a little confusing, but hopefully it makes sense.

Sherif

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