How to Squeeze Your Affiliate Network for More $$$ Without Asking for a Pay Bump (2)
How to Squeeze Your Affiliate Network for More $$$ Without Asking for a Pay Bump
STM Crew,
Thought id share a simple tip that helped me squeeze some extra profits out of my affiliate network.
When loading up offers from an affiliate network especially those using cake. Most affiliates just pull the first link available for the offer and chuck it into their tracker.
Recently found out why this is a stupid move..
I was testing an offer from an affiliate network based in Asia. They had 4 separate links for the offer (all leading to the same place) but these links were hosted on separate servers. They even had one link labelled as the default "main" link.
Just out of curiosity, I ran a split test. Setup all 4 offer links and ran traffic direct linking. 3 out of the 4 links were absolute garbage, they either didn't convert or had one conversion.
But the last link turned out to be -36% ROI (Good starting point for a direct linking campaign).
Also this network shows you where that particular tracking link is hosted. My assumption was the Japan server would yield the best results because it was close to the geo I was running in (Indonesia). Turns out, I was wrong, the US West server offer link did the best. Did some digging, found out thats because that particular server is a much beefier setup than their Japan server.
So next time you hear that an offer is killing it and you take the offer for a test run only to find out its a bust....Make sure you double check that you at-least tested all of the links from the network, there maybe a hidden gem in there. I would have given up on that offer had I not tested that last link.
A couple other tidbits:
1) Link performance can vary based on an affiliate networks back end. The main link that most affiliates grab and run tends to be the one that gets battered with traffic. This is why its worthwhile to test other links, sometimes you find one that is hosted elsewhere (on a faster server) or isn't getting hammered with traffic
2) If there is tons of offer links for the same offer and you don't want to spend a ton of money testing ask your affiliate manager for the top two performing links for that offer.
3) If your pushing enough volume, you could even consider asking the network to create a separate offer link just for you and split test it against the control link.
4) Once you find the winning link for your offer split test it against offer links from other networks. Crank on the one that provides the best ROI.
If you appreciated the tips hit the thanks button below ↓↓↓ 
This is a very good point!
Always test all variables!
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