David Fiske Affiliate Marketing & Web Development

I was approached a week ago by Affiliate Window who are running a section on Darwin in their forthcoming newsletter. For those not in the know, Darwin is the new Awin interface. Eventually it will be fully integrated with the existing Awin system but as it's such a mammoth task, for now it runs as its own platform and is being integrated in distinct sections.

Anyway, they liked the way in which I had written my profile and wanted to showcase it to the affiliate world as a best practise example. When I set up my profile, I just wrote what I thought merchants would want/need to read but as it turns out, I did quite a good job on it!

I thought it may help some of you who are a bit stuck on what to write to know what I wrote and why Awin seem to like it :-)
 
The problem with Darwin is there's a big box that reads "Description". That's a bit ominous and a little scary and probably not the smartest thing Awin could have done. However, the up side to having one large empty box is that it allows affiliates to demonstrate their personality without the confines of specific questions. You can write about anything you like. For some though, this freedom makes it more difficult to write meaningfully. After all, what do you write here? What do they want to know or more specifically, what do they need to know?

I'm quite meticulous and this shows in the way I set my profile up - A bullet pointed list of what I do and don't using bold headings. The form accepts basic HTML code so I used this to generate my formatting:

<b>This is a bold item</b>
<ul><li>This is a list item</li></ul>

I asked myself what I would want to read if I were a merchant. Long blocks of boring text is a bit of a turn off hence the fancy formatting. In terms of content, I decided that if I were a merchant, I'd like to know what this affiliate can and cannot do. What does (s)he do and not do? Is this affiliate a voucher code/incentive/cashback affiliate or not? All basic questions that form the skeleton of my affiliate profile.

So, after that long introduction, here's a walk through of what I wrote about.

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Introduction

A quick one-liner that summarises who you are and what you do is all that's needed here (e.g. I'm Dave and have been doing affiliate marketing for 5 years). It's the first thing a merchant will read and will give them a clue about who you are. Essentially, it's like meeting a merchant in real life for the first time. What would (ahem, perhaps should) you say?

Why not add a bit about whether you are a lone affiliate, part of a small company or part of a global enterprise? Also, why not state whether you are a full-time or part-time affiliate? All this information helps merchants understand you better and understand how you work. If you're a part-time affiliate you may be less contactable than a full-time counterpart. Unless you state this, they have no clue.

What I Do

Tell them what pies you have your fingers in. Half a dozen points is all it takes. Mention the types of sites (e.g. content, nice, price comparison) as well as some of the niches you work in.

You don't need too many specifics and you don't need to divulge your business plan, strategy or inner most secrets. Just let them know what type of areas you work in. If a fashion merchant stumbles across your profile and sees that you don't have fashion listed as a niche, they're less likely to contact you which saves you both time and effort in the long run. That said, if you are a fashion guru, it's probably best to mention this as it'll help generate new useful relationships :-)

What I Don't Do

I thought it would be useful to distance myself from various areas I'm not involved in. For example, if you don't do cashback or generate incentivised traffic, why not state this? Merchants can then have a much better idea of what it is you do do and which areas you wouldn't touch with a bargepole.

What I Can Do

Here I listed things I could do if asked. This section is more about how I deal with merchants rather than how I promote them. Here I've let them know how I promote their brands in context as well as the type/volume of traffic they can expect to receive.

What I Can't Do

Similar to the last section, here I've listed things I cannot do. It may be obvious to me that I'm no Quidco or MyVoucherCodes but it might not be to the merchants reading my profile (who knows?).

I'd rather we didn't form a relationship based on sky high expectations of theirs only to end up being disappointed with my performance a few months in. By stating this, I can limit expectations from the start.

I generally find that if you under-promise and over-deliver, you'll generate stronger relationships.

Incentives

Finally, I just wrote a short piece on what my opinion is on incentives and those I'd be interested in. Many merchants are always looking to run various incentives either as a group or as an individual. If they find out through your profile that your favourite food is chocolate, they may be able to offer you a chocolate hamper if you can generate 10 extra sales this month. You never know.

Likewise, if you state that your sales volumes are low but steady and that performance related incentives are not going to make you work any harder, they'd be less likely to keep emailing you about the extra 0.5% commission you could earn if you generate an extra 100 sales this month! OK, maybe not less likely to email you but at least they'd know from the outset that this doesn't motivate you.

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So Why Bother with Darwin?

There are two schools of thought when it comes to Darwin. Some jump in with both feet (me) and others are more sceptical. As it's a new system and a new way of working, affiliates (and merchants) will have to get used to working with it. Eventually Darwin will become the standard Awin interface so there's only one direction the project is going in.

My belief is that Darwin will make life easier, and somewhat better. Merchants can see exactly what I do and they can understand what it is that I do (and don't do). They have a better understanding of how and where their brand will be promoted and are therefore less likely to reject an application due to a lack of information.

Darwin should also help merchants understand their affiliate base a little better. They can read the profiles and can work out where they can offer assistance. They can see what motivates their affiliates and can offer services that may be useful to individual affiliates.

This new level of transparency is certainly something that takes a bit of getting used to but it'll be worth it in the long run I reckon.

Quick Incentive

Readers know I love my freebies. Awin's Christmas Competition Prize this year consist of the chance to win a luxury holiday in the New Year.

If you complete your Darwin profile by 30th November, you'll get double the amount of entries into the grand prize draw. Not bad for doing something now that you will probably end up doing later anyway.