affiliate marketing blog  

Have you noticed everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) is chanting the mantra of “Quality”?  Ebay judges traffic by it’s “Quality”, Judges sellers by their “Quality”, The GAN changes (whether true or not) are bringing in the AdSense version of a “Quality Site” to that network.  The purchase of Pepperjam by GSI can easily be interpreted as a “Quality” move for a major online ecommerce provider to control their own network.

And since “Quality” is the “term DeJour” with Networks, Merchants, and Advertising venues,  how can we look at the big picture and define “Quality” as affiliate marketers?  What is a standard of “Quality” that is broad enough to cover our affiliate marketing businesses but narrow enough to be actionable and meaningful?

Well, I’m no “guru” and no, I won’t sell you the “Magic Ebook of Quality” for $69.99 (and not $59.99, and not even $49.99 like your thinking.  No, I’m going to give it to you for FREE).  I think I’ve divined a few simple structures that you can use to help you define quality in ways that you can apply in the real world of internet marketing.  Since your sites are your business.  Everything relates to having a Quality Site.

A “Quality” site is more than a datafeed driven superstore.  It’s more than a single squeeze page.  It’s more than the sum of it’s parts.  If you want your sites to be judged as “Quality”, no matter the measure, there are certain attributes that if applied, and you execute upon, you will have a quality site.  And with a quality site all the rest of the “Quality” pieces will flow naturally,  and while not effortless it will be easier.

Has “YOU” written all over it.  Your opinions, your descriptions, your content.  Not rehashed PLR, not “spun” descriptions from a datafeed, not boring!  Your pages should reflect the sites identity, have original content, be of benefit to your web visitors no matter if they’re in a buying mood or not.  Let’s face it, very few people buy.  But if you provide a reason for your web visitors to return again and again, you’ve increased your chances of converting them from prospects to customers.  And a “Quality” site informs, educates, and is a magnet that real buyers will frequent because of the experience.

Engage the WORLD!  Oh yes, I’ve been watching “go local” and that’s good.  You should if it applies to your company.  One of my companies has gone local..  In 34 markets.  Yours can too if you can relate to the local focus.  If you can’t, don’t.  But even if you are going local.  You must engage with people.  You should have a squidoo lens, accounts with friendfeed, facebook, myspace, facebook, linkedin, twitter, and you must keep up with them.  The Social Web gives you the freedom to engage with your customers and potential customers in ways you just couldn’t do before.  It helps people discover you, your sites, your offerings, but most of all it lets them (and you) engage each other. It a way to reach out, shake someones hand, and say “Hi, I’m Bob”.

If you watch Anheuser Busch InBev at all their corporate motto since well before the 1950s has been “Making friends is our Business”.  And August A Busch, Jr. was no dummy.  He had (and has some years after his passing) still got it right.  People are more likely to do business with people they know.  In one of my online businesses a full 70% of all customers come from interactions on Twitter.  Why?  Because they can engage, follow, see if that business is one that just blasts out tweets or if it is run by real people instead of automatons.  They become our friends.

That’s it.  Build a good site.  Make it yours.  Engage with your prospects and customers.  If you just boil it down to a few simple questions and look at each and every part of your affiliate marketing efforts and ask “Is this consistant with what we do and who we are”, “Does this reflect our own personality, focus, vision”, and “Does this help give us an opportunity to engage with our customers and prospects”.  You’ll have a pretty good handle on things.

So, how are you defining quality?  How do you engage your prospects and customers?  How do you measure that?