FTC guidelines: Tips on how to embrace the change

•    Have you read the new FTC guidelines?
•    Are you aware how it's going to affect you as an affiliate?

Here are a few tips on how to embrace the change such that it doesn’t affect you in a negative way. But before that let us understand the change that the new guidelines are likely to bring. The new FTC guidelines will make it tougher for spammers and unethical marketers that deceive their visitors. As everyone will now have to disclose their earning potential, honest and genuine marketers as well as publishers are also likely to be affected negatively. Read more about FTC Guidelines and Affiliate Marketing.

Make sure you don’t let the new FTC guidelines affect your business and hamper your conversions, with the help of following rules:

Rule no 1: Say only what you can deliver

If the merchants give you a guarantee that product will give you XX % of change in your life then only mention it on your site. Otherwise mentioning that you can lose XX% of weight or promising something that isn’t true won't be tolerated. This will be like deceiving the visitor, because neither you nor the merchant/manufacturer can guarantee that. Adhere to strict honest policy; promote products with genuine benefits rather than fake promises.

Rule no 2: Don't oversell just work on marketing (pre-selling)

Being a publisher/affiliate your role is to market the product and not to sale it. So leave the responsibility of selling the product on the merchants and you just work on marketing.

Rule no 3: Create smart disclosure on your site

According to the guidelines you need to disclose what you're getting which is to be easily visible to the visitors. By saying that it does not mean that you need to mention on every affiliate link that how much you are earning from this link. But you should be clear enough in your disclosure that a consumer can understand that you as an affiliate or marketer will get the commission if they click and buy a product. But now the issue is where to put such disclosure? You can create a new page of compensation disclosure and give link of that page on your homepage on top menu (if possible). Also you can put those links near to affiliate links so that it is easily visible. This may serve both the purpose: following FTC guidelines and lure visitors to buy the products without informing them how much you are earning. Ideally many visitors who are interested in buying products would not look out for any disclosure on your site even if it is compensation disclosure.

Later when the commission comes up with few steps on how to put the disclosure you can later on change according to their norms. By following these three rules, you wouldn’t have a lot to worry about.

Also you may look for new merchants, which are not based in the US and be on safer side.

FTC guidelines : Disclosures by affiliates/publishers

On 1st December 2009 new FTC guidelines were implemented for all those doing business on the internet with U.S. consumers/entity. It means any one being paid by US based company or where any part of online business or transaction takes place in US, the changes to the FTC guidelines will be applied to them. So publishers or affiliates promoting any US based merchants or targeting US customers have to follow the new FTC guidelines.

The new guidelines want affiliates to disclose their financial relationship with the merchants whose products they are promoting. Also next they want is to stop misleading and fraudulent testimonials which is the usual trend being used by affiliates to deceive visitors.

Many believes that the later part will hardly affect the affiliate marketing in whole but yes rogue marketers, spammers and unethical marketers would certainly have to be on alert. Those providing fake and fraudulent testimonials of  products will have to revamp their marketing strategies or else they would be in a big trouble. This may even give genuine marketers or affiliates an opportunity to get more conversion due to the trust they will built with visitors.

However disclosing how much they are earning is something affiliates are worried about. This disclosure can be as short as "Disclosure: Compensated Advertising" or "Paid Advertising". However the point is that the disclosure must be clear and conspicuous. It should provide an idea to the reader that there is a connection between the endorser and the seller. Usually FTC will not be applied unless there is an endorsement/recommendation, so affiliate marketing involving in any kind of straight advertising would be safe however if they are endorsing or recommending any products they have to provide a compensation disclosure.

Where to put the disclosure is again a big question. FTC wants affiliates to put disclosure that is easily and clearly visible to the visitors. Of course this does not mean they want affiliates to put this disclosure just as affiliates links. Obviously that is not the intention of these regulations. Their main intention is to create transparency in partnership between affiliates and merchants. It should clarify to the people the difference between advertising and non advertising. However how to put a disclosure is not yet clear. Lets hope to see some news on it soon.

People not following the guidelines would be charged $11000. So all the affiliates or publishers working with US based entity will have to make sure they properly follow the FTC guidelines. If you have any issues of query you may call them directly or mail them and find out. That would give you the better idea and help you to be safe from any kind of issues.

http://www2.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm

http://www2.ftc.gov/os/2009/10/091005revisedendorsementguides.pdf

Health Affiliate Marketing: In house affiliate programs and affiliate networks

Health Affiliate marketing is a boon for affiliates. Affiliates are earning handsome commission from health affiliate marketing. However many are confused between affiliate networks and in house health affiliate programs. 

Usually big affiliate networks on internet are not working with online pharmacy or health care products, there are very few affiliate networks that are participating in health care products. However there are many health care merchants which are generating good amount of revenue using their in house health affiliate programs. With this amount of information let’s discuss some pros and cons of health affiliate networks and in house health affiliate programs.

Being an affiliate, the first thought that comes in a mind is that "if I move to affiliate network then I can get more merchants and thus more product options to promote." But we usually forget the level of competition existing in affiliate network. Thousands and millions of affiliates would be promoting the same products and getting same commission and sometimes one of them or all of them could be strong competitor to you. So this could be one of the disadvantages of joining health affiliate network, but at the same time the advantage of joining a network is getting more products to promote. If one product or merchant does not work you can shift to other very easily in a network.

You cannot have a full transparency in affiliate networks, whereas in an in-house affiliate program you know whom you are working with? What products they are selling? Are they genuine? Usually affiliate networks do take care of some of these points but while working for health care products you yourself should interfere and try to find out the genuine information about the health care merchants.

With affiliate network you are always assured of getting payment. However with in house affiliate program once you don't work with them or know from someones experience you cannot be assured of getting your payment. However in health care related products, usually who are involved in genuine online consultation and selling of genuine medication, they always makes sure that they will never do anything that can hamper their reputation. But usually the credibility of payment is more in networks compared to the in house affiliate programs.

Usually the super affiliates find difficulty in working with health affiliate networks as they cannot provide many times what super affiliates demands. This is very easy to achieve in an in-house affiliate program. Affiliates can easily demand in an in-house affiliate program and they request is easily & quickly fulfilled by affiliate manager for that in house affiliate program. The reason is that the affiliate team working for in house affiliate program has nothing to do expect make that one in house program better and better, however affiliate team for an affiliate network handles so many merchants account and cannot fulfill demands of all the affiliates as convincing third party is always a difficult job.

In an affiliate network, affiliates work becomes very easy. Just log in to one panel and you can access large number of merchants and their products; also get consolidated reports on all the merchants and products. Whereas in an in-house affiliate program, they have to log in to individual affiliate programs to get access to each of their affiliate panel and get the reports.

In an in house affiliate program you usually finds niche targeted segment. Thus usually pharmacy affiliate programs or health care affiliate programs are not working much with affiliate networks, they have their in house affiliate programs preferably. Advantage of getting into niche segment is higher conversion rate and better result. Apart from that the journey from a newbie affiliate to super affiliate is fast and easy in an in-house affiliate network compared to any affiliate network due to less competition in former.

Success Criteria for Pharmacy Affiliates

Many people want to be rich overnight and that too without any efforts. Pharmacy Affiliate Programs provide one of the easy way of earning, but it does not provide an assurance of making people rich overnight  that too without any efforts. Being an Pharmacy affiliates you should understand your responsibility and if you work hard in correct direction, this is the most attractive and easiest platform to earn  money. Below you will find few Success Criteria for Pharmacy Affiliates:

Look out for genuine online pharmacy affiliate programs: Before starting or joining new online pharmacy it is always better to check their legal information and find out how they work? These two questions will give you an idea about the credibility of online pharmacy. It might be a possibility that you may end up joining very new pharmacy affiliate program, but if it is genuine you don’t have to worry any more. Commission will follow automatically once you put efforts correctly whether you are working with veteran online pharmacy or very new online pharmacy. What is more important is the credibility of online pharmacy and selling capability of their products.

Check out their products, pricing and commission rate: Don't get lured looking to the percentage commission, usually generic online pharmacy may claim to give you up to 50% of commission, but if you look at their product price you may not be earning even $30 per sale. So always check out for commission rate along with the products and their price. Calculate earning per sale and compare it with other programs. Also ask for conversion rates, it might be a possibility that some online pharmacy may provide less than 1% conversion rate. Register to the program and check out for the affiliate panel, to see the banners and other promotional tools being provided in affiliate programs.

Try to share with affiliate manager:  Always make sure you are transparent with affiliate managers. They can provide you help on various factors apart from basic affiliate promotional techniques. Some affiliate manager are active and frequently provides you information about best selling products, high conversion rate providing products, new offers, new banners, etc. If you don't find anything in affiliate panel ask to affiliate manager. The response from affiliate manager will give you an idea of how far he/she is capable to help you. Usually good affiliate manager respond within 1 working day, if they take time there must be some problem. Provide feedback to affiliate manager about their affiliate program, this will in turn provide an opportunity of improvement to both, an affiliate program as well as affiliate.

Ask to deliver: If you don't find a suitable banner in any affiliate program but you find that their product is really capable and you are confident that you can get good commission, ask for banners from affiliate manager. Unless you won't ask you will never get. I have observed many affiliates register to affiliate program and on finding the program new and lack of banners or ads, they immediately switch to other programs. Ideally, if you join a new affiliate program you have lesser competition and thus you can have higher probability of earning. So always ask for whatever you need to promote their products instead of leaving them and promoting other affiliate program. You never know, you could be the highest earner in that affiliate program in future.

Use all Internet marketing channels to promote their products: More you promote, more will be the commission. This is the simple thumb rule to get success in affiliate marketing. Instead of promoting various brands or products on your site, focus on niche, stay with one affiliate program for few months and promote them religiously. As I said earlier, if online pharmacy is genuine, you are bound to earn good. You may usually loose the opportunities if you try to mix up more products and more merchants on same page. Try to use all possible marketing channels, like email, twitter, social book marking and networking sites, banners on website, SEO, PPC, etc. This will not only improve your web presence but will increase your probability of earning commission.

Don't promise that you and online pharmacy cannot deliver: Don't make fake promotions by decreasing the price on banners or increasing the cash back offers or discounts. Show whatever the affiliate program is offering, otherwise you will not only loose the opportunity to earn commission but you may also loose valuable visitors. If you want a specific banner or template to promote their products ask from the affiliate manager instead of manipulating the existing banners or your site.

What are Affiliate Networks?

An affiliate network acts as an intermediary between publishers (affiliates) and merchant affiliate programs. Many times affiliate networks provides affiliate marketing program platform to the merchants to allow them to enter in affiliate marketing world.

Affiliate networks usually allow various webmasters or internet users to join their networks at free of costs and participate in affiliate programs which are suitable to their websites. They have few minimum requirements and as a webmaster you need to fit to those requirements and you can enjoy earning with affiliate networks. Thus you don't have to go and visit individual websites or read about affiliate programs or go to forums to find out which affiliate programs will be suitable for you? You can get many online merchants available there in affiliate networks and you can choose any of them in any numbers and start promoting their products. Thus publishers find it very easy to find and participate in affiliate programs using affiliate networks.

However, if this is the biggest advantage for affiliate networks there is also a big disadvantage with them. You will certainly have very tough competition in promoting products. All experienced and veteran internet marketers would also be promoting same merchant and products which you are promoting as they also must be belonging to those networks. Also affiliate networks ask for few % on every transaction an affiliate provide to merchants thus you as an affiliate you may get lesser % commission with networks compared to what you can get with those merchant’s in house affiliate programs.

Merchants by joining such affiliate networks get rid of various activities like recruiting affiliates, promoting affiliate programs, managing transaction and thus they prefer joining such networks.

There are few online sellers who don't have their own in house affiliate programs who actually joined such affiliate networks to get exposure of affiliate programs. Few merchants or online sellers have their in house affiliate program but even though they joined affiliate networks to get more exposure. Of course the commission amount they must be providing would be lesser compared to their in house program as they have to share it with affiliate networks as well. However some may provide equal commission in both networks as well as in house affiliate programs. And there are few online sellers who are having their own in house affiliate programs and never prefer to join any affiliate networks. There can be two reasons for it: Either they are doing well with their in house affiliate programs or sometimes affiliate networks may not support few products which they are catering too.

For merchants, affiliate network provides various services like tracking technology, reporting tools, payment processing, and access to a large base of publishers. Merchants also have to pay few capital amount or basic fee to join affiliate networks.

Let's look deep into business model of affiliate networks: Affiliate networks acts as intermediary between publisher and merchants. They earn revenue by:

• Charging merchants sing up fees, may be monthly fees in some cases depending upon the service they provide.
• Charging merchants certain percent of commission on total sales amount referred by the affiliates from their network.

Affiliate networks basically provides a platform where publishers (affiliates) and merchants (online seller) unite with each other by generating revenue from online sellers and providing excellent services to both online sellers and affiliates.

Pharmacy Affiliates

Pharmacy affiliates are the one who are promoting one or more number of pharmaceutical products on their own website or blogs or to their network on various social networking sites. So are they all doctors or general practitioner or nurse or having any suitable degree to write on pharmaceutical products? The answer is No.

You don't need to be doctor or GP to join any pharmacy affiliate programs or health affiliate programs. You simply need to be a webmaster or a blogger or at least active on internet world. However you should be aware about the products you are promoting. You should be aware about what audience you are targeting. This will not only help your visitor get better involvement with your website but it will help you get better click through as an affiliate and increase the probability of getting commission. Ideally people who know about the products can write positive points of the products at its best and help people looking out for such information to get that product at best price. 

Also pharmacy affiliates are the highest earner among all the affiliates catering to various kinds of different affiliate programs. The commission that pharmacy affiliates earns is much more than the commission with other affiliate programs and it makes the pharmaceutical products as the best choice among the affiliates.

More money brings more risk - that is absolutely true. Thus if you have a great opportunity as a pharmacy affiliates you are bound to have few risks as well. Thus, it is very necessary to do some research before getting involved with pharmacy affiliate programs. 

I think you are now getting worried and thinking of not getting involved with pharmacy affiliate programs. If you are doing so you are making a big mistake. The research means knowing more about pharmaceutical products that are being sold online, knowing more legal information of online pharmacy with whom are you going to work, verifying whether they are selling brand medicines or generic medicines and finally making sure whether the online pharmacy is genuine and legal or they are fake. Not to worry you don't have to go anywhere to find out this information. Just go through our websites wherein you will find various information like "Getting legal information of online pharmacy", "How to identify genuine online pharmacy?", "What are brand and generic medicines?", etc. which will provide you few guidelines to choose the best and genuine online pharmacy affiliate programs. 

We will try to answer all the possible questions of pharmacy affiliates and helps you to get best pharmacy affiliate programs.

If as an pharmacy affiliate, you work with genuine online pharmacy you have don't have to face any kind of risk however you will always have only excellent opportunities waiting for you. Thus pharmacy affiliate programs are for sure the best possible way of earning money online without any kind of risk if you as an pharmacy affiliate follow few precautions.

What is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing is one of the internet marketing strategy mostly used now a days. Affiliate Marketing is an excellent way to earn money for people on the internet and a most affordable option for online sellers to reach to the customers with pay for performance pricing model.

In simple words affiliate marketing is the promotion of other peoples (merchants/online sellers) products in return of the compensation in terms of commissions. For webmasters, bloggers, web 2.0 users it is the easiest and fastest way to make money online. You just have to refer visitors or customers to online seller's (merchant's) website and you can earn commission if visitor referred by you makes a purchase on merchant's website. Merchant in turn gets customer, new orders and will have to pay to affiliates only if merchants has generated any revenue. That is why it is some time also known as pay for performance technique in internet marketing world.

So now that you are clear what affiliate marketing is you must be wondering who can be an affiliate? Any one who is having their own website, their own blog, actively participating in social networking sites, having email database, having some knowledge about internet marketing can become affiliate. Affiliate have to put banners or text links of merchant's products on their website, blogs, emails, their post in forums, social networking sites, etc and if any of the visitor clicks on it he/she will be redirected to merchant's website. Once a visitor referred by you is redirected to merchant's website you just have to wait for commission, rest of the task of motivating a visitor to purchase and handling entire transaction is merchant's responsibility.

Affiliate marketing have grown from allowing affiliates to just putt banners and links on site to allowing affiliates to handle a complete online stores. Now affiliates does not want only banners and links in any affiliate programs but they want templates which they can use to promote their products, they want complete online stores on which entire transactions takes place with merchant's back end and they want them to be looked upon as a partner rather than just a affiliate.