Forwarding Domains to Affiliate Sites
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Companies offering affiliate programs and partnerships typically have extensive terms and conditions that their Web associates must follow. One of the most frequently asked questions about those terms and conditions is regarding the practice of redirecting a domain straight to an affiliate site. |
About the Practice of Affiliate Site Redirection
Lets say you are an affiliate of a large established partner network and that
you have a domain name to spare. You can either use a permanent 301 redirect or
simply redirect any traffic you get at that domain (using a
java script redirect or header redirects) to the site your are promoting.
More on the various approaches of redirection in a future blog post.
Is it within the network's terms and conditions?
It is essential that before you start redirecting your URL to the affiliate site
that you take a careful look at the terms and conditions and discuss it with the
affiliate program provider personally. There are many instances where these type
of affiliate sites have ended up replacing the merchant (affiliate network) site
in search results pages at popular search engines for competitive keywords. As
you may have guessed, many merchant do not care for this result and place URL
forwarding restrictions in their terms and conditions to restrict the practice.
Many terms and conditions can even reserve the right to not pay you if you breach the TOC so,
as always, measure twice and cut once - ask your affiliate manager.
The Advantage/Disadvantage of Forwarding Domains
While it may be acceptable (based on the terms and conditions of your affiliate
network) to forward domains, it still does not mean that you should. The problem
with this very common approach is that it prevents you from doing any selling on
your own part. While the vast majority of affiliates are only interested in
making a few quick bucks, if you are not keen on working to promoting the
merchants products via your own Web content then forwarding domains may be right
for you.
Best Practice for Affiliate Site Redirection
Ideally affiliates get paid when they do some work to earn the sale so while
(depending on the merchant TOC) it may be acceptable, it's always best to put up
at least a landing page to express why you as an affiliate recommend the product
or service. If you don't want to pay for hosting one landing page, then use URL
forwarding to a page on an existing site or get a cheap reseller account so
putting up one page sites won't cost you anything.
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