Have any of you actually tracked affiliate button links and tested whether or not they are effective at attracting new members? Does affiliation work in general on forums? I was going to conduct a study on my blog on whether or not affiliate buttons work but I was wondering if anyone already has some info on this.
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Do Affiliate Buttons Work?
- Thread starter Dorith
- Start date
I was actually wondering the same thing earlier today. I think I've picked up maybe two new members from affiliate links, but in the long run, I'm not sure how helpful they'll be.
I never did have much luck with affiliates. Nor have I had luck with Topsites or even directories. Although I commence adding my site to topsites and directories as something tells me we are bound to gain exposure from those eventually. If not right away.
Well I have been getting a bit of stats from one affiliate button I have on another forum. I haven't been getting a lot of clicks from it, but I wanted to see how effective affiliate buttons really are. I think I will conduct that study on ForumBlogger. I'll track links and impressions on random forums that I affiliate with and post results after a month or so.
I will also see if the position of affiliate buttons affect it (which I'm sure they do). It'll be interesting to see the results. We may just have proof that affiliation benefits neither party.
I think affiliation is a false sense of partnership and advertisement between forums. I really don't see how either can benefit greatly from the other. I personally don't go checking out affiliates on other forums, but hey... that could just be me.
I will also see if the position of affiliate buttons affect it (which I'm sure they do). It'll be interesting to see the results. We may just have proof that affiliation benefits neither party.
I think affiliation is a false sense of partnership and advertisement between forums. I really don't see how either can benefit greatly from the other. I personally don't go checking out affiliates on other forums, but hey... that could just be me.
Dorith said:
That actually sounds like a really interesting study right there. I don't click on affiliates that often myself. If I'm looking for a new, fresh forum to join and I don't want to go browsing through the Basic Promotion section of a forum, then I'll check and see what there are for afilliates. If nothing interests me in that area, then I'll look at Basic Promotion. I kind of like to do Basic Promotion as a last resort, really.
I asked a forum owner a similar question about affiliates, and he said he is more interested in the back links than clicks. As for me, I do not bother with affiliates, or with advertisements in general, at my forum. I do not know whether affiliates are often effective for stand-alone forums, but my uneducated opinion is no.
Medora said:
We do have an advertisement section at my forum, but the most I do is a quick look-around when someone presents their site and go from there. I actually do have a couple interesting forums that have been advertised that I'm considering joining because they suit my interests, but again, it's not something I rely on too often as our forum is not an advertisement forum. I wouldn't mind doing affiliates with forums that are the same genera as ours, although I'm not sure if my co-administrator would be up for that. Another interesting idea I was thinking of was probably sponsoring a forum that's just as active or more active than ours. Sort of like a brother/sister site. I did this with another religious site last year when I was trying my luck with my own, and it was actually kind of cool. My site became that site's sister site and it felt pretty neat, really. I'm not sure if that's like a collaboration or what that's called, though.
I like to think they do. If you advertise your affiliate button on enough sites, eventually the people in that internet neighborhood are going to say to themselves, This forum is everywhere i am, i'll go check it out. The rest is history!
Basically, that's exactly what happened with Off Topix. No matter how popular Off Topix may be, Nebulous still goes on forums and advertises, because after a certain time people will notice.
Basically, that's exactly what happened with Off Topix. No matter how popular Off Topix may be, Nebulous still goes on forums and advertises, because after a certain time people will notice.
Dennis said:
That makes sense when you put it that way. I have recieved comments in the past such as, oh, she's advertising her site all over the place and I thought it was interesting enough so I decided to join and check the place out myself. Not sure if that's really affiliation, though, that's just plain advertising. Because obviously, if you advertise your site in more than one forum/spot/whatever, others are bound to notice it sooner or later and they will eventually gain interest and want to join.
Advertising and affiliating are two different things though Dennis. I understand how Nebulous's daily/weekly updates on other forums can cause members to join. What I'm wondering is whether or not affiliate buttons (usually found on affiliate pages on forums) are effective in bringing in members or not.
Submitting your forum to directories helps your backlinks. One of these days when I have some time, I will go submit Off Topix to a billion of them. Then we will get a high PR.
Right now we only have PR 1
Right now we only have PR 1
The thing is... getting good backlinks is better than getting a bunch. If you could get just one really good backlink, then that is better than submitting your site to 100 directories. I've looked heavily on this because I started running a blog recently and SEO is a big concern there. Backlinks are a tricky business and directories are not always the best option.
Sakura said:
Yeah, I would say for best results you're probably better off submitting to really active forums that have really active members and things like that. If you only limit yourself to newer forums that aren't very active as of late, you probably won't get too far with it. That's my understanding of it anyways.
