Navigating the Legal Landscape of Affiliate Marketing in Australia – Over the past years, the realm of affiliate marketing has experienced an impressive surge in popularity, evolving into a substantial revenue avenue for many individuals while simultaneously serving as a potent expansion tool for businesses aiming to broaden their horizons.
At its core, this advertising mechanism involves businesses enlisting online content creators as partners to steer traffic towards their products and services through the use of affiliate links. As these content creators, also known as affiliates, successfully channel visitors to the business’s website resulting in a purchase, they are compensated with a portion of the sales as a commission.
While the landscape of affiliate marketing is wide open with opportunities, it’s crucial to acknowledge the distinctive legal requirements of those promoting certain programs and products. If you have followed any crypto program in 2022-2023 the downfall of FTX and other big-name crypto programs that were highly endorsed by AAA celebrities (who likely didn’t even check the product themselves).
This comprehensive guide serves as an illuminating resource, delving into the legal intricacies of affiliate marketing from a dual perspective: that of establishing and managing an affiliate program, and that of joining such a program as an affiliate partner.
From legal obligations to ethical considerations, this guide sheds light on the regulatory obligations and best practices, ensuring that both advertisers and affiliates can harness the potential of affiliate marketing within the bounds of legality and professionalism.
The Legal Low Down TLDR
Affiliate marketing is different from influencer marketing. Affiliates publish on their websites and promote products or services, resulting in sales.
Australia’s affiliate marketers have to comply with Australian consumer law, spam legislation and privacy laws.
You need an Affiliate Agreement or Affiliate Terms and Conditions if you run an affiliate program. The agreement should include commission, affiliate and company obligations, termination, confidentiality, and liability clauses.
As an affiliate, you always need to disclose your status as an affiliate. Its the smart thing to do and it makes you transparent
Is affiliate marketing legal in Australia?
Affiliate marketing is indeed legal in Australia, subject to adherence to the country’s legal framework. This entails compliance with consumer protection, privacy, spam, and taxation regulations.
Distinguishing itself from illicit pyramid schemes, genuine affiliate marketing involves commission-based rewards for bringing in new customers who make purchases. In contrast, pyramid schemes thrive on recruitment-driven profits rather than legitimate product or service transactions.
Is affiliate marketing regulated in Australia?
Regardless of the business you run there is a business model to follow and with it some legal frameworks that you must comply with. Imagine an internet where no one had to comply with any legal framework……just wild
Here are Australia’s legal frameworks that affiliate marketers can work towards compliance for:
Australian Consumer Law, which guards against misleading advertising
Spam Act 2003, which regulates electronic communications
Privacy Act 1988, governing how personal data should be handled, and
Specific industry codes of practice, depending on the product or service being marketed
Do I need to follow specific industry codes of practice?
Yes, depending on the nature of the products or services you’re promoting, you may need to follow specific industry codes of practice when setting up an affiliate program.
What are the legal requirements for affiliate marketing?
In Australia, affiliate marketers and affiliate programs must ensure the following:
Promotional content should not be deceptive or misleading. Products and services should be represented truthfully.
Promotional materials should only be sent electronically (e.g. email, SMS) to recipients who have consented. All communications should clearly identify the sender and offer an opt-out option.
Personal data collected from customers or users must be handled according to the Privacy Act 1988, which sets out standards for collecting, using, and storing personal information.
Anti-competitive practices, such as price fixing, are not allowed.
Affiliates must disclose that they will earn a commission or other benefit on any sales made through their affiliate links.
Income earned from affiliate marketing must be declared for tax purposes.
What are the risks of running an affiliate program?
Like any business venture, affiliate marketing isn’t all fun and games. You need to accept the good with the bad if you’re going to make it part of your marketing mix. Some of the risks include:
Reputational risk: Affiliates act as representatives of your brand. If they engage in unethical or misleading marketing practices, it could harm your brand’s reputation. A good name is worth its weight in gold!
Fraud: Affiliate marketing programs can be targets for fraudulent activities. This could include click fraud (where people repeatedly click on links to generate revenue) or false sales claims.
Lack of quality control: It’s not easy to ensure affiliates promote your products or services accurately and effectively. Poor quality promotion could harm your brand and result in lower conversion rates.
Management complexity: Running an affiliate program can be complex and time-consuming. You must track affiliate sales, manage payments, handle disputes, and support your affiliates.
Market saturation: If too many affiliates promote the same product or service, it could result in market saturation, making it harder for your affiliates to drive sales and for your business to stand out.
Use an Affiliate Agreement or Affiliate Terms & Conditions document to mitigate these risks.
Do I have to disclose if I run an affiliate marketing program?
Yes, transparency is vital in affiliate marketing, and it’s considered best practice to disclose that you run an affiliate program. However, no specific law in Australia mandates businesses to announce they operate an affiliate marketing program publicly.
Can I stop someone from joining my affiliate program?
Yes, you have every right to decide who can join your program. Think of yourself as the bouncer at an exclusive club, keeping the ratbags out! You set the rules and criteria that affiliates must meet. And don’t forget to make these criteria accessible on your website.
How do I ensure my affiliates stay compliant with Australian law?
To ensure your affiliates disclose their affiliate relationship and stay compliant with Australian law, you can take the following steps:
Clear instructions: Provide your affiliates with guidelines on how and where to disclose their affiliate relationship. You should also provide clear guidelines around marketing activities for your brand.
Affiliate Agreement: Include a requirement in your Affiliate Agreement that affiliates must comply with all relevant laws, including those regarding disclosure. Make it clear that failure to comply can result in the termination of the affiliate relationship.
Regular auditing: Review your affiliates’ content to ensure they make appropriate disclosures and meet marketing guidelines.
Standardised disclosure text: Consider providing a standardised disclosure text or statement your affiliates can use.
Do I need an Affiliate Agreement or Affiliate Terms & Conditions?
Yes. An Affiliate Agreement or Affiliate Terms and conditions are crucial when setting up an affiliate program. This document forms the legal foundation of your relationship with your affiliates. It outlines the program’s rules, sets expectations, defines the responsibilities of each party, and helps protect your business from a legal and brand reputation perspective.
What clauses should my Affiliate Terms & Conditions include?
Your Affiliate Terms & Conditions should include the following clauses:
Commissions: Details on how commissions are calculated, when and how they are paid, and the circumstances where commissions may be denied or reversed.
Obligations of the Affiliate: This includes compliance with relevant laws (such as disclosure requirements), restrictions on promotional methods, and responsibilities to represent your products accurately. You should also clarify any restrictions around pricing, discounts, geography, and any other limitations important to you.
Obligations of the Company: These usually include providing promotional materials, tracking sales, and handling commission payments.
Term and Termination: How long the agreement lasts, how either party can terminate the deal, and what happens when the agreement ends are factors that must be addressed. A good example is the stipulation that the affiliate may no longer use your brand IP once the agreement has terminated.
Confidentiality: Any restrictions on the use and disclosure of confidential information.
Liability: Disclaimers of liability and indemnity clauses.
A comprehensive and transparent Affiliate Agreement can help prevent misunderstandings, manage disputes, and ensure your affiliates understand and stick to their responsibilities.
Do I need a company to start an affiliate marketing program?
While a Pty Ltd company structure can provide benefits such as limited liability, starting an affiliate marketing program without one is not strictly necessary.
Individuals, partnerships, or sole traders can also run affiliate programs but should be aware of potential personal liability and tax implications. Our guide on choosing the right business structure will come in handy.
Are affiliate payments tax deductible?
Yes, in Australia, affiliate payments made to affiliates for their marketing services are generally considered a business expense and are, therefore, typically tax-deductible. However, you should consult your accountant to ensure proper handling of these deductions. No one wants to be caught out by the ATO!
Growth of Affiliate Marketing in Australia, post COVID the interest in make money online and affiliate marketing has skyrocketed over 260% in Australia
Source Google Trends
Can I post affiliate links on social media?
Yes, affiliates can post affiliate links on social media. However, Australian law and the rules of many social media platforms require you to disclose affiliate relationships clearly and conspicuously. You should indicate when a link is an affiliate link by including a disclosure statement or using a hashtag like #ad or #affiliatelink.
Is it legal to post affiliate links on Facebook?
Facebook does allow affiliate marketing, but it prohibits certain types of behaviour, such as misleading practices or spammy content. If your posts violate Facebook’s rules, your content could be removed, and your account could be suspended or banned. You never control your social media content its always owned by the platform.
What are the legal obligations of an affiliate?
As an affiliate, you have several legal obligations, including
Honest advertising: According to Australian Consumer Law, you must ensure your advertising is not misleading or deceptive. This means you must accurately represent the products or services you’re promoting.
Disclosure: Everyone’s tired of dodgy websites, so don’t be one of them! Transparency is super important. You must clearly disclose your relationship with the business you’re promoting and that you earn a commission on any sales made through your affiliate links.
Privacy laws: If you collect personal information from your visitors (e.g. for a newsletter), you must comply with the Privacy Act 1988, which sets out how personal data should be collected, used, and stored.
Email spam: You must comply with the Spam Act 2003 if you send electronic promotional material. This requires consent from the recipient, identification of the sender, and the inclusion of an unsubscribe link.
Compliance with the Affiliate Agreement: Affiliates are typically bound by an agreement with the business they’re promoting and must comply with the Terms and conditions outlined in the contract.
Tax obligations: Affiliates are responsible for declaring any income earned from affiliate marketing and paying the appropriate taxes.
Social media platform policies: If you are promoting on social media platforms, you need to follow the rules and guidelines of those platforms.
Do I have to disclose affiliate links in Australia?
Yes, in Australia, disclosure of affiliate links is legally required. The Australian Consumer Law (ACL) mandates transparency in advertising and marketing practices.
As an affiliate, you must clearly disclose that your content contains affiliate links and that you earn a commission if users purchase using those links. This disclosure should be prominently displayed to ensure transparency and maintain consumer trust.
Google now requires that affiliate links are marked in your website HTML code. They recommend using the industry standard rel=”sponsored” tagging of affiliate links. Read more about Google’s stance on paid links here.
Affiliate Disclosure vs Affiliate Disclaimer.
The preferred term is Affiliate Disclosure, which refers to disclosing the affiliate relationship and the fact that the affiliate may earn a commission or compensation for sales made through their affiliate links.
The term Affiliate Disclaimer typically refers to a statement where the affiliate disclaims any guarantees or warranties related to the products or services being promoted. It states that the affiliate is not responsible for the quality, performance, or outcome of the products or services.
Does affiliate marketing count as a business?
Yes, affiliate marketing is considered a business. The criteria for qualifying as a business include the regular and systematic promotion of products or services and making a profit from the activities.
Do I need an ABN to be an affiliate in Australia?
You should be entitled to an Australian Business Number (ABN) if you conduct business activities. Affiliate marketing usually requires an ABN. The scale of revenue may impact whether you need an ABN, so consult your accountant or tax professional for more advice.
An ABN allows you to operate as a business entity, report your income, and claim expenses related to your business. It also helps you comply with tax obligations and demonstrate that you engage in legitimate business activities.
Do I need a contract for affiliate marketing?
Entering into an Affiliate Agreement or Affiliate Contract is always advised, as it clearly indicates each party’s duties. Contracts help ensure a professional and mutually beneficial relationship between the business and the affiliate marketer.
These contracts typically cover elements like commission structure, payment terms, disclosure requirements, promotional guidelines, and termination clauses. If a dispute arises, the parties will have a clear set of guidelines to refer back to.
Is affiliate income taxable in Australia?
Yes, affiliate income earned in Australia is generally taxable, subject to the ATO’s tax threshold. According to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), any payment received from affiliate marketing activities is considered assessable and must be declared on your tax return.
This includes commissions earned from affiliate sales, referral fees, or any other form of compensation received as an affiliate marketer. Any expenses associated with generating your affiliate income can be claimed as deductions against that income.
Equipment and tools: Cameras, lighting equipment, editing software, computers, and other necessary technology.
Content creation expenses: Costs related to creating and producing content, such as props, costumes, set design, and location fees.
Marketing and promotion: Expenses for advertising, social media management tools, website hosting, and domain fees.
Education and training: Costs for courses, workshops, conferences, or relevant educational materials to enhance your skills and knowledge.
Travel and accommodation: Business-related travel expenses, including transportation, accommodations, meals, and associated costs.
Home office expenses: If you have a dedicated space in your home for conducting your content creation activities, you can claim a portion of your rent or mortgage, utilities, and other related expenses.
Can the ATO see my PayPal account?
For most people NO they can not, unless you become a target of interest and have started raising eyebrows within the tax department. This could be from years of good or bad history not just from affiliate marketing. The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) can access your financial information, including your PayPal account if looking into your account.
Under the Taxation Administration Act 1953, the ATO has the power to request information from financial institutions, including transaction details and account balances, to verify income and assess tax liabilities.
The ATO may use this information to cross-reference with tax returns and identify discrepancies or potential non-compliance. Its in your best interest to not raise any questions about your business and to file your taxes and comply to any consumer laws within your region.
I never had this type of information when starting out so I hope this is helpful for people starting to build their affiliate marketing business in Australia.
Crafting your offer is a great starting point on your pitch. Your goal here is to find a need and fulfill it, making your product worth what you charge. There are many types of offers. Use this worksheet to think through the process.
Main offer
What’s your main offer?
Offer – ______________________
Price – ______________________
Make this the focus product but let them know buyers get discounts for other products
Upsell – Remember, upsells are any product you offer after the customer has decided on a product. They are closely related to what the customer buys: maybe an upgrade, customization, or accessory.
Downsell – These are less expensive products that you offer to a customer who says ‘no’ to your more expensive products. They can also be payment plans for the initial products.
Offer – ______________________
Price – ______________________
Provide slightly less expensive than the one they said no to
Remember, your products tell a story. Make sure that they flow together smoothly, and that they “mean” what you want them to mean.
Examples:
Short: One or two upsells, maybe one downsell. Suggest recurring payments, but make them optional. Bump recommended, but optional.
Medium: Two or three upsells, one downsell. Recurring recommended, but optional, with an optional bump offer too.
Long: Three to five upsells, two to three downsells, and recurring and bump offers as well.
How would you like to construct your offer? Use the space below to brainstorm the proper offer for your market. Remember: You can test different offers over time as some may be more effective than others!
Now that you have the different templates to craft your sales offers. The next step is how to make sense of it all. I like the STEAM system
Schedule your content
Track your analytics
Engage your audience
Advertise your profile
Monetize your traffic
This works for any media format and platform.
The Platforms that you can start on to get momentum:
Facebook Personal Profile
Facebook Fan Page(s)
Facebook Group(s)
Youtube Channel(s)
Instagram Account(s)
Snapchat Profile
Periscope Livestream(s)
Twitter Account(s)
Pinterest Board(s)
Additional Networks
Flickr (Instagram Integration)
Linkedin (SEO Purposes)
WordPress.com
Blogger.com
Blogspot.com
EmpowerNetwork.com
BuildingaBrandOnline.com
WHY SOCIAL MEDIA
Because social media networks have high authority, which means that they can rank well in Google, and get you tons of FREE traffic, leads & sales.
Therefore – It’s WISE to set up your brand on “multiple” social media networks, and follow the STEAM system to develop a plan for each one, and then build some link popularity to them to help rank them well.
For example, let’s say you buy a brand new domain name (abcmoney123.com). Now when you list that site in Google, it’s not popular because there are no sites linking to it, so why should Google rank it higher than all of the other sites that were already there. If it were that easy, we would all just buy domains and get millions of visitors.
Versus: Facebook.com/ABCmoney123
How can you get your social media profile more popular to rank higher?
Link Popularity
Internal Links
Links from other pages on that social network to your profile
Example: Link from https://fb.com/myname personal profile that points to https://fb.com/clickbucks fan page.
Example: Share posts from my page to my personal profile.
Example: When OTHER people share your posts and page.
Example: When a post starts going viral, you start getting more internal links to your page/profile
Best way: Boosted Posts.
External Links
When other websites on the internet link to your profile
Example: Link from https://clickbucks.xyz that points to https://fb.com/clickbucks
Example: Links from your other social media networks that point to your main profiles. (Twitter, Youtube, etc)
Example: Write a guest blog post for someone elses blog, and link to your social media profiles in the guest author bio box.
For example: I set up a new Periscope.
http://periscope.tv/clickbucks
Link Popularity Strategy:
INTERNAL: Naturally I’ll get tons of internal links by getting popular on that platform (hearts, engagement, followers, etc.
EXTERNAL: I’m going to start posting links on tons of websites, blogs, any chance that I can going to my periscope.tv account.
EXTERNAL: Drive traffic from other social media networks (like Facebook Ads) – Because google takes into consideration “traffic” as part of their authority.
You need to have different types of domains for different use cases. I like to buy domains when I come across the them. I buy for a rainy day or for an idea I had when food shopping. They stack up and I suggest reviewing your domains once a year to cull the ones you don’t use.
Types of Domains:
EMD Exact Match Domain
Branded Domain
Expired Domain
Dropped Domain
Alt TLD like the .gg .xyz. io.ai
Domain Tools, Registrars, Tips for Finding Names
It’s very important that you choose the right name for your business. This is because your business’s name will lead customers to your business. You’ll also learn what a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is and what your USP options are.
Important factors to consider when choosing a domain name:
1) Use your main keyword in your domain name. If your niche topic is rose gardening, you want to get the words “rose gardening” into the domain name.
2) Don’t cut corners. Register extensions other than .com.
3) Make your domain name as short as possible. Long domain names are hard for people to remember.
4) Avoid using dashes in your domain name. If the name www.cheapbluray.com isn’t available and you buy www.cheap-bluray.com, you’ll likely be paying for advertising to send YOUR customers to the guy that has the domain name without the dash.
5) If you find a good domain name, buy it, and also buy the dashed version simply to keep someone else from getting it.
6) When you’re choosing a domain name, be sure to print it out exactly like it will be used in the address bar and see whether any double meaning can be attached to it.
Other factors to consider that can make your domain name memorable:
It should suggest the nature of your product or service.
It should serve as a strong trademark. This prevents competitors from using your business name or buying a domain name similar to it in order to steal customers.
It must be free of legal conflicts with trademarks belonging to other businesses.
Great Tools for Helping you Pick a Domain Name
Google Adwords Tool – https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal – The Google Adwords Tool will help you see which keywords are getting searches. Take the strongest performing keyword in your niche and put it in your domain name! Can’t buy the one word your looking for? Switch to phrase matching and see if you can find a short phrase that isn’t taken.
DomainsBot – http://www.domainsbot.com – Allows you to see the availability of all the extensions, all in one search.
Registrars
There are many places to register your domain name. Here is a list of just a few of them!
If you are not sure what type you need it pays off to review your competitors and a Google search to see what else is floating around in your niche. The domain is a big part of your online success.
What is it? Well it’s exactly what it sounds like.
You’re going to rank for somebody’s product before it launches and “jack” their launch. I actually don’t like the term “jacking” or “jack” because it makes it sounds like we’re doing something wrong. But trust me the product creators love and encourage us doing this. (As long as you’re not giving their product shit which is frowned upon.. I mean unless it’s a complete scam)
FINALLY THE METHOD GUARANTEED TO MAKE SOME CASH
So what I like to do is go look for Clickbank products that are about to be released using a few websites that people use to announce their launches (You’ll find them listed below)
I’ll find ones that I think are good and will sell really well. You’re going to want one that you think a lot of people are going to be interested in because if nobody is interested in it well nobody is going to Google it and you’re not going to make any sales. (I stick to business/internet marketing niches)
The reason we want products that aren’t released yet is because nobody else is doing SEO for these terms yet which means… You’ll get #1 EASY I mean that’s what it’s all about minimal work and major returns.
Then you’ll want to build either a page or website around the product.
You’ll be targeting two keywords that should look like this “product name” and of course “product name review” . Depending on how Googles mood is at the time of the launch the domain matters. You can get exact matching domain names to product launches or you can get relevant domains to use when targeting the launch. Just know what Googles doing with domain names and keywords at the time you build this out.
Information! Don’t be scared to contact product creators and ask them for a review copy or anything can help you. A review copy will help you weed out the crap and see if it’s something you truly want to promote. 99% of the time they’ll be happy having you promoting their product and will help in any way they can.
Here is a list of websites you can use to find upcoming Clickbank Launches
http://www.cb-analytics.com/new-products.php
http://www.jvnewswatch.net/
http://jvlaunchcalendar.com/
http://jv.affiliatex.com/
http://www.clickbanklaunchforum.com
Attention! I bookmark the product launch calendars and any aggregator sites that show me when these products launch so I can come back regularly and scout opportunity for launch jacking. Organisation in this method will add extra $$ to your commission payouts.
Really we boil down launch jacking to having really good SEO so that you rank high for the product terms before the actual product release date. This comes down to having really juiced up web pages and some authority in Google’s eyes already so you are on Google page 1 for any search terms and keywords associated to the product.
To start you can not get anywhere without a website. You need a website, in most cases it doesn’t have to use keywords that the product would use. That tactic might work depending on the time you apply it/ Google is one temper-mental beast if you get it wrong.
There are methods where you can use other websites to promote the offers but these require some more SEO knowledge up front.
So first off comes the on page SEO
On Page SEO For Affiliate Websites
Meta Tags
Alright so I set the Meta Title to “Far From It Review” even though the keyword I’m targeting is “Far From It” I did this just because it’s got Far From It in it still and I thought it would look extremely fishy if I used only Far From It and then I included my brand name in the title as well so it looked like this “Far From It Review – Money Mindset”
Now for the meta description I just put a nice little description in there and included the words “far from it” twice within the description. I like to include my main keyword twice ALWAYS in the meta description now I could have also done “far from it” once and “far from it review” once that would have worked as well.
So in short
“Far From It Review” Meta Title + My Brand Name (Money Mindset)
“Far From It” twice in the meta description
Alt Tags
I included two images on the page both of which I utilized the Alt Tags. This is an SEO must so hope all you aspiring internet marketers are using it. For the image at the top of the page the Alt Tag I used was “Far From It” and the one I used towards the bottom of the page was “Far From It Review”
Two images both with alt tags, one read “Far From It” the other “Far From It Review”
Keyword Density
In the article you shouldn’t focus on keyword density AT ALL. In my example I wrote the article just for what I thought would convert best not once should you consider “Keyword Density” you need to focus on conversions. But for the sake of statistics I used the term “Far From It” 3 times in 500 words so the density was .6% I bet your articles is still using the standard 3%
Never focus on keyword density
In the end my keyword density was .6%
H1, H2, H3, Bold and Italic
Again you should feel the same way about using Heading tags and bolding your keywords. Over optimization is a real thing and you never want to fall prey to it. Don’t focus on bolding your keywords unless it fits the article. Don’t use heading tags unless it’s in your title or the title of a new paragraph. Just use them where they fit! Make your articles for the reader not for what you think will rank best because chances are that won’t rank best. In my article I used the H1 tag once and didn’t use any other headings. I didn’t use Bold, Italic, Strikethrough or underline once in my article.
Never over focus on these things one H1 tag is enough
I used one H1 tag and no other heading tags the keyword was “Far From It”
I didn’t bold, Italicize, underline any of my keywords.
Affiliate Links
This time I actually did things a little differently because usually you’ll use hyperlinks within the text but for some reason I decided to only use my images as affiliate links (though one of the images is just big text that reads “Get It Here” in large blue text) So I have three affiliate links all together. One of them is in the top left of the article (The Hotspot) which is the headshot of the two authors of the book. The second is actually embedded within a video review which is on the page (I Used Simple Video Pro WordPress plugin to do this) then the last affiliate link is the one I explained above “get it here” at the bottom of the article in large blue text.
Three affiliate links on the page
Two of them are IMG links
One of them is embedded in the video review
Text links are still great I just chose not to use them because I thought they might have made it a little bit more difficult to rank and the original purpose was to win the competition.
Off Page SEO
Preparing your website is 70-80% of the work. There is still something else required when launch jacking, big powered up juicy backlinks from other domains. These help tell Google that your web pages mean something. It’s like a show of trust from other domains to yours.
I look at it 2 ways when building these links:
First: I need social trusted links
Second: I need a mix of backlinks from other websites, press, media, images, video sites and social sites
Method 1: My Social Shield of safe backlinks that I can control and point to parts of my website as I please. This is me building profiles, comments, sharing and writing content to links to something I want to rank. I control these and can switch them at any time. This is very manual I usually pay a link builder to do this.
Method 2: External backlinks from websites, editors, mentions, press or paid for link exchanges or guest posting articles on other blogs. Ill do as many guest posts and paid link exchanges as I can before launch date. Ill also look at hiring a link building to write about me site and product promotion to send me traffic and authority signals that Google can see, and in turn reward me with higher rankings.
It takes me usually (Google owns the rank leaderboard) around 8-18 days to get some rankings that I can start to monitor and push as I get more content and backlinks working. Sometimes they rank in 8 days or so but most take 2-3 weeks to move.
You wont start day 8 on Google page 1 that will happen but you need to be persistent with the work prior to the launch. If you put in that work it will move the needle, your first couple of attempts you will learn a lot about how Google behaves.
What Results can you expect?
Before anyone can answer that there are some variables that are at play. Launch weeks are usually the big money earners and then your sales should trickle in as you get to 2 weeks onwards.
How much commission does your chosen product pay up front?
How much commission is paid if theres a funnel being used? This means you could make 2-5 times more from 1 paying referral.
Where in Google do you rank for the main keywords? How much traffic does it drive you?
What other keyword rankings do you have and what traffic do they bring in?
When you can answer these you can look at it this way to find your answer.
I get xx traffic from the main keywords
I get xx commission for someone buying the front end product
I get xx commission for any other sales during the sales funnel for that customer
Typically you should calculate conversions as 5% of your total web traffic for the first purchase
Then if theres a funnel its 5% of the previous 5% number that may convert again.
Thats your answer
Launch Jacking Niche Sites Lifespan
Most launch jacking sites will churn and burn out. They are all ranked and converting during launch month and then slowly die off as the affiliate moves onto another product launch or affiliate product.
Some launch jack websites will stay ranked for a period of time ongoing after the product launch, as long as that sales page is still active you should leave your sites active just ticking over. They can make you money months and years after the product release. Just schedule a 6 month review of the website so that it gets some TLC and can continue to rank and bank.
Expenses of Building a Launch Jacking Affiliate Website
This can vary but depending on how aggressive you want to go.
If you are doing your first launch jacking campaign you may want to have a website and a landing page set up. Id say you have no sales funnel software at your disposal so you are doing manually. If you want to try sales funnel softwares try these recommendations: GoHigh Level and Click Funnels.
Manually:
Buying a domain $9-18
Buying web hosting $4-20 per month
Time to build and theme your website will be your own time or a contractor for $$$
Content for your website you can use a contractor for $40-80 per article or ChatGPT for free
You will need social links that you can build with time or use a Fiverr or Upwork link builder for $20
You will need external links ranging from $40-1000 depending on how hard and powerful you go. These links could scale up depending how fast you want to rank. Some links sell for $2k+
Advertising budget if you want to run paid advertising to the landing pages – $100-10,000
You could get started for as little as $300 or as much as you have at your disposal.
Some experienced affiliates go hard with a 5-20 niche sites all targeting the product. This is aggressive and usually the more experienced affiliates who have systems and teams do this method. This is a bit more expensive hence the seasoned affiliates taking this road.
They spend it knowing they will make back 2x at least.
IT SCALES SO DAMN EASY anyone can do it and it MAKES so much money if you scale it.
Do yourself a favor go out and try this for yourself see how easy it is. You’re going to make money and you’ll get addicted to how EASY this truly is no need to over complicate it!
The only thing holding you back is you not taking action. If you pay attention, monitor where the money intelligence is and take action you can get a slice of the new product pie. Rank web pages before products get released in a nutshell thats as simple as it gets.
In the ever-evolving landscape of affiliate marketing, the key to triumph lies not only in your own strategies but in the insights gleaned from your rivals. Welcome to the realm of competitive affiliate research, a dynamic and powerful approach that unveils the hidden strategies, untapped opportunities, and potential pitfalls within your niche.
Just as ancient explorers navigated uncharted waters to discover new lands, affiliate marketers today embark on a thrilling journey of discovery, delving deep into the tactics, trends, and triumphs of their competitors. Join me as we chart a course through this captivating world, revealing the compass that guides your path to unparalleled success in the affiliate marketing arena.
Was this too much of an intro? 🙂 if you cant tell I’m excited to share my strategies for competitor research for affiliate markets. Competitive research is a crucial aspect of affiliate marketing that can help you gain a competitive edge and make informed decisions.
As we delve into the nuances of competitive market research for affiliates, prepare to equip yourself with a comprehensive toolkit for success.
My competitor research stack
Google Sheets (Free)
Google Search (Free)
Ahrefs SEO tool (Free trial or paid accounts)
Similar Web (Free trial or paid account)
WayBack Machine (Free)
SimilarMail monitors domain email newsletters
Depending on the task at hand I usually have a web browser profile for different use cases loaded up with important bookmarks, browser extensions and presets so I can use laser focus to learn the dirty little secrets about my competitors websites and web traffic.
Affiliate Marketing broswer profile
Ecommerce & Dropship broswer profile
SEO and Paid Advertising browser profile
Each browser profile should have some key bookmarks of places and tools that you are monitoring and using. Maybe you also assign a different gmail identity to each browser profile for real segmented monitoring of these competitors.
Things That I look for in competitor websites
Web traffic and demographics
Placement of products
Linked products and networks used
Product pricing and review count
Marketing tactics like Google Ads, Facebook Ads etc and SEO
Do they use marketing pixels, tag managers and other code snippets
Any hidden subdomains
One of the most powerful command for Google search is site:competitordomain.com *use their actual domain without the https:// parts or www. This will reveal all indexed pages and show some often forgotten pages where you might see a bit more than they want you to.
Take it a step further and use site:*competitordomain.com to show any subdomains or landing pages they could be using for paid advertising campaigns. See below where the popular ClickFunnels software has several subdomains in use that you can not navigate to, this shows you more than they want you to see.
Discover how to decipher your competitors’ conversion strategies, unveil the nuances of their content creation, and strategically position your brand for maximum impact.
Here are the key topics to focus on when conducting affiliate marketing competitive research:
The importance of competitive analysis for affiliate marketers.
How competitive research influences your strategy and tactics.
When we do competitive research on affiliate niche sites we want to be looking for tell tale signs that the niche site is successful. We want to know that this affiliate blog belongs on our competitor shortlist. If its just a rinky dink blog with less than 1,000 monthly web visits we dont bother monitoring it.
What you learn you can use to adjust your strategy and avoid targeting niches that are too small or just do not convert. Watching successful affiliates in action will help you see what they do, what they say, how they present the offers and how they close the sale. Never sleep on successful competitors.
2. Identifying Your Competitors:
Identifying direct competitors in your niche.
Analyzing both established and emerging competitors.
Evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor.
You have to know who is a competitor and who is a bottom feeder. There are people who are successful and theres people who are not. Spend time assessing the successful people. You can find them by following this guide on affiliate market competitor research.
Keep tabs on the big players in your niche and any new up and comers. They may teach you new strategies and ways to promote the offers. Don’t hate on TikTok its worth a look, new tech and AI will help evolve your affiliate game to new levels.
3. Analyzing Affiliate Programs and Offers:
Researching the affiliate programs your competitors are promoting.
Understanding the commission structures and payment methods.
Evaluating the attractiveness of their affiliate offers.
Every affiliate niche blog guru will point you towards the Amazon Associate/Affiliate network as a starting point. But truth is you should avoid that steaming pile of monkey poop and unsubscribe from that guru asap. Look for more reputable networks.
Instead look at networks like JVZoo, Share A Sale, CJ (Commission Junction) and Max Affiliate. Theres plenty more but I spend time here with positive results. Get familiar with the payment rates, dates and any nuances about each program to stay compliant. I bookmark these and organise everything in a Google sheet with my affiliate links and all related details. Thats a good starting point
4. Studying Affiliate Marketing Strategies:
Invesring your competitors’ content marketing approaches.
Analyzing their use of email marketing, social media, and paid advertising.
Identifying the keywords and niches they target.
5. Evaluating Affiliate Websites and Landing Pages:
Reviewing the design and user experience of competitors’ websites.
Analyzing their landing page elements, such as headlines, call-to-action buttons, and testimonials.
Assessing the quality and relevance of their content.
If a niche site pops up on my radar and at first glance its structured well and has good content and CTAs Ill usually crawl it (using Screaming Frog SEO software) to understand the structure and linking patterns. Ill also take a look at the traffic and estimations on revenue.
Assess how the website is presented, words, headings, button text, colours and links. You can reuse their placement and wording if you have product offers that are not converting well. The benefit of monitoring others is that you can test and learn fast, they may be using conversion strategies and you can see them play out in the space of a week.
It’s also worth understanding if they use their website or a landing page strategy. Some promotions are best place on landing pages and with conversion funnels to help get that sale.
Mapping out the customer journey on your competitors’ websites.
Analyzing their conversion funnels and sales processes.
Identifying potential areas for improvement or optimization.
7. Understanding Audience Engagement:
Monitoring your competitors’ social media engagement.
Analyzing their audience interactions, comments, and shares.
Identifying the types of content that resonate with their audience.
8. Exploring Affiliate Product Reviews and Recommendations:
Examining the products or services your competitors are reviewing or recommending.
Analyzing the tone, format, and depth of their reviews.
Identifying gaps in their coverage that you could address.
9. Using Competitive Insights to
Incorporating learnings from competitive research into your own affiliate marketing strategy.
Identifying opportunities to differentiate yourself from competitors.
Implementing improvements and optimizations based on your analysis.
10. Staying Ethical and Authentic:
Avoiding unethical practices such as copying content or mimicking strategies directly.
Using competitive insights as inspiration for your unique approach.
Prioritizing authenticity and adding value to your audience.
When you set out its your mission usually, to provide the voice of reason in the affiliate space, never promoting scammers or bad quality products. And you can stick to that for a while but its very easy to assess products by their payout figures and ignore the rest. Stay true to you and keep your ethics and values. Highlight them in your product reviews and niche sites. Its refreshing to see people with values.
Some successful affiliate have used their stern beliefs and values to carve out a niche of followers that align with them and they use that to promote to some levels of success. Don’t sell out for the mighty $, stick to your beliefs.
I like buying products that I review. I enjoy taking my hobby a step further and helping others find solutions for their problems. I don’t mind getting paid to do that but I really at the end of the day just want a high quality product for a reasonable price.
11. Leveraging Tools and Resources:
Exploring competitive research tools for affiliate marketers.
Utilizing keyword research tools to uncover competitor strategies.
Gathering data and insights from affiliate networks and forums
Bookmark interesting sites, people who are in similar topics as your market, and any cool creative or copywriting that you come across. Save it to your own mood board or swipe file of things that stopped your scroll on social media, online or in the real world. Secret sauce right now is I look at catalogues and bus signs for copywriting inspiration. You can too, the brands spend millions making ads why cant you leverage that tried and tested formula.
This 5 day lead challenge by ClickFunnels team is one of their most successful campaigns. They have x6 different creative banner designs and styles for this. The one below was one of the winners that they went on to scale spending millions on Google and Facebook ads. It’s worth analysing what they said, what they did, and what they presented to get the clicks that they did.
12. Continuously Evolving and Adapting:
Recognizing that the affiliate marketing landscape is dynamic.
Regularly revisiting your competitive research to stay updated.
Adapting your strategy based on changing competitor behaviors and market trends.
13. Ethical Considerations and Best Practices:
Respecting the intellectual property and copyrights of competitors.
Avoiding unethical tactics and focusing on ethical competitive analysis.
Complying with legal and industry regulations in your research.
By delving into these key topics, you’ll be equipped to perform comprehensive and effective competitive research in the realm of affiliate marketing. This knowledge will guide your decision-making, optimization efforts, and strategy refinement, ultimately leading to a more successful and impactful affiliate marketing journey.
Market Research: A Guide
At its core, competitive market research is about peering beyond the surface and into the heart of your niche’s dynamics. It involves meticulously analyzing the playing field – from the affiliate programs your rivals endorse to the keywords they target and the platforms they dominate. This exploration provides a panoramic view of what’s working, what’s not, and, most importantly, the whitespace you can capitalize on.
Keyword Competitive Analysis
Keyword competitive analysis is critical if you want to earn money with SEO. If you want your website to rank highly for the top competitive search terms, you need to use every resource available to you. Keyword competitive analysis is an important step that needs to be addressed early on if you want to avoid missing out on future opportunities.
First, you need to decide what industry you are working in. These are the topics that your customers or clients will type into the search engines. Where you are working in is important to your keyword promotional strategy. The seller of anchor square widgets can sell the top ranking engine optimization company a dozen of handcrafted ranking powerhouses in their industry. What you are trying to do is find where a keyword based SEO opportunity can be realized in the competitive domains.
For example, Suits is a fairly vague keyword phrase. There are plenty of competitors for that word already. In contrast, maybe Suits for people who like to shop around for the best offers is a highly targeted opportunity. Now lets look at the other group of keywords, like nuggets. Now fill in the other round of the criteria checklist. Which of the keywords is an industry specific term for nuggets?
Are each of the words in the keyword phrase formed into a sentence? Is the phrase in any way rhyming or overlapping?
Now start looking at the sites and pages indexed by the major search engines. If you arent already there, which keywords would you expect to be found there? Is it the general term for your business in your industry? Does the landing page of the organic result for the specific keyword phrase describe the URL in any way? If the site does not meet the keywords for which you are optimizing, you have a lot of work ahead of you. Include the URL in a Google ad word and you might be on your way to converting a visitor into a paying customer.
Once you have the keywords, its time to start analyzing the rankings of the major search engines. Keyword competitive analysis is a thorough process that requires onsite and offsite optimization. You need to consider any necessary changes for the visible content and structures of the site. Youll need to create the content for the tags you need, write the page descriptions, evaluate what target keywords are being used quickest in the search engines, and find creative ways to pass these competitive pages.
Now you are ready to begin your keyword competitive analysis, which should be performed monthly or as often as you wish.
Once you know which keywords are in demand in the search engines and getting the right kind of traffic, your site will commence enjoying measurable improvements. You will also be able to figure out what type of competitive keyword is your future goal and which keywords to fine-tune-up on the fly, based on what works.
Keyword Competitive Analysis
Finding products with related keywords is one of the best ways to market a product or service to a targeted market. In information marketing, you are the one who provides a solution or information, and carrying relationship with them and finding out what they want is the key to a successful campaign. You have to know how to market this much (and if you’re not completely aware of it, then it might be time for a keyword competitive analysis).
If you are an online entrepreneur, then the first step you must do is to research for companies that can provide the commodity, particularly online, to a targeted or specialized market. You get your competitors by typing a keyword (the action one is typing the word into a search-box like safelists, Google, Domains etc); again directed at your target audience.
If your keywords are too broad, you start to hit up with a ton of pages of results; each optimizing their own page to put their advertisements out there. If your keywords are to specific, you will find people looking for that. The drawback of a broad search is that your target audience will fail to find what they are looking for mostly because they are using the word to search.
When you are designing a keyword focused campaign, you have to put yourself in the minds of your market, and imagine whom they are, what they want, what words they will use to search for what they are going to find, and how they are going to get to you. Now, here comes the keyword competitive analysis and the two best keywords that they use to search.
Scrape your competitors URLs with a software like ScreamingFrog SEO analysis scraper.
After collecting a list of keywords, then take a close look at your list; you need to do some of your brainstorming and grocery list so you your organization. What are some of the broad keywords you have collected (you just typed in the word computer, so you have some competition for that already), next, how many people search each day, what rate of conversion are you getting, and what cost per conversion for the advertisers is this a profit?
The competitiveness of your keywords and your competition is very important to know, because it is important to find keywords that are easy to rank for, but that you can be profitable on too, because it is more hard to gain more traffic. One easy way to analyze your competition is to go to the source url of your competitor’s website; and look at how they are trying to get better page rank with Google. Look those over, where exactly do they rank to get page rank, what is the keyword rich title for their page, and how are their html meta tags?
Look to see what they are doing with content on their website. If you are interested in finding out what they are doing, and making sure that you are not doing the same thing, then do an analysis, look for the keywords they are using to get their page rank, and compare it to the keyword you are using to find the appropriate keywords. Be careful to run a free analysis as not all the good tools are going to carry. Even if it is the free kind, you always have the option to upgrade.
8 Quick wins for OnPage
1 Fulfil the searchers goal and satisfy the search query intent
2 Speed wins, if you aint first you last.
3 Keyword Targeting
Title
Headline
In content
External anchors
Alt tags
URL
Img names
Internal links
4 Provide a positive UI & UX & boost trust and engagement
5 Review popups, side bars, banner ads, chat boxes and distractions
6 Targeting related topics
7 Optimise for the rich snippet – format, schema, publish date, instant answer
8 Unique Value + Amplification
what makes this page better than others?
what value does this provide that other pages in the SERPs don’t?
why will this be hard for others to replicate or beat?
who will help amplify the and why?
Closing Thoughts
In the realm of affiliate marketing, success is intricately tied to your ability to outmaneuver competitors and capture the attention of your target audience. Throughout this guide, we’ve embarked on a journey into the dynamic world of competitive affiliate research, uncovering a treasure trove of strategic insights that can shape your path to excellence.
Competitive affiliate research is more than a mere observation of your rivals – it’s a calculated exploration that sheds light on the strategies and tactics driving their success. By dissecting their affiliate programs, content strategies, and engagement approaches, you’ve gained a comprehensive understanding of their strengths, weaknesses, and unique selling propositions.
Throughout our exploration, you’ve learned how to strategically decode your competitors’ messaging, pinpoint high-impact keywords, and capitalize on untapped opportunities. Armed with this knowledge, you now possess the tools to refine your affiliate approach, innovate your content creation, and position your brand for maximum resonance within your niche.
As you navigate the ever-evolving landscape of affiliate marketing, remember that competitive research is not a one-time endeavor, but a continuous process that empowers you to adapt, refine, and excel. By harnessing the power of competitive insights, you’re equipped to steer your affiliate endeavors toward new horizons of success, leaving an indelible mark in the world of digital marketing.
