• http://images.hayneedle.com/mgen/digimarc.ms?img=master:PRID019.jpg&h=30&w=30

Now you probably don’t want or need a 30×30 image, so all you need to do is change the &h=30&w=30 to the size you need, say 300×300:

• http://images.hayneedle.com/mgen/digimarc.ms?img=master:PRID019.jpg&h=300&w=300
  

Voila!  There you have it – a beautiful 200×200 image that will fit perfectly on your site.  Any Hayneedle image can be adjusted up to about 5,000 pixels, so have at it!

Tips for a Good Affiliate Application

• All information is filled out
  • This may sound ridiculously simple, but you’d be surprised at how many applications we receive that are missing critical information.  The questions are there for a reason.  Fill everything out and if you have questions, contact someone at the network or the Hayneedle team.
• Include correct and up to date contact information
  • Having correct contact information from our affiliate partners is vitally important to how well we work with you.  If we have questions about your site(s) or application and are unable to reach you, you will probably just get declined.
• Have a live website
  • It doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t even have to be pretty, but you do need an active website.  We understand that many of you are just starting out and don’t have much to work with.  It doesn’t matter – as long as we can see generally what your site will look like and how you will be promoting us, you’ll likely be accepted.
  • If you are new, it’s also helpful to contact us before submitting an application so that we know to watch for you.  If you explain to us through email or on the phone what your situation is, we’ll be much more likely to accept you into our affiliate program.
• List your best website first
  • If you have multiple websites, list your most developed and best-looking site first.  We generally go down the list of websites that you provide and if the first thing we see is a really ugly site that has nothing to do with any of our products, it’s going to leave a bad taste in our mouth and we’ll be hesitant to approve you.
• Tell us how you’ll be promoting our products
  • One of the key things we look for in potential affiliate partners is how they will be promoting us.  Your site should speak for itself, but if it is underdeveloped or you’re planning on incorporating some new types of promotion, let us know.  The more information we have about you, the better chance that you’ll get approved.
• Develop websites that are related to what we sell
  • You would not believe how many applications we receive from sites that have absolutely nothing to do with anything that we sell.  That’s pretty amazing considering the wide variety of products that we sell at Hayneedle.  Most of the time these applicants are planning on launching new sites about our products, but fail to let us know that.  A simple email or note on your application is plenty to let us know what you are planning on doing and most of the time we will accept you if your promotion methods are acceptable.

Hopefully what we’ve outlined above has given you a good idea of what we’re looking for in our affiliate partners.  On the other hand, there are a few sure-fire ways to get your application declined:

How to Get Your Affiliate Application Immediately Declined

• Have an inactive website or parked domain with no explanation
• Have offensive or inappropriate content
  • This includes but is not limited to racism, pornography, foul language and hate language
• List a site that you actually do not own
  • Under the websites section of the application, do not list Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia or any other site that you don’t actually own.  We have ways of finding out who actually owns your site so beware!
• Use PPC as your only means of promotion
  • We currently do not allow our affiliate partners to use PPC ads to drive traffic to our websites.  To be a Hayneedle affiliate, you must have your own website that provides the consumer with unique information.
• Have a butt-ugly site with no relevance
  • We need our affiliate partners to be a good representation of our brand.  If your site is ugly, difficult to navigate or is unrelated to our products, we have little choice but to decline your application.

Hopefully this has helped you understand what we’re looking for in our affiliate partners, if you have any questions, feel free to comment or contact us.  We’re here to help and look forward to working with you!

January:

• Home Office
  • AllBriefcases.com
  • ComputerDesks.com
  • DeskLamps.com
  • DeskSetShop.com
  • FilingCabinets.com
  • MoreOfficeFurniture.com

• Organization
  • ClosetOrganizerSource.com
  • FilingCabinets.com
  • JustStorageBenches.com

February:

• Valentine’s Day/Romance (February 14^th)
  • FlowerStore.com
  • GiftBaskets.com
  • JewelryArmoire.com
  • JewelryBoxes.com
  • MusicBoxes.com

March:

• St. Patrick’s Day (March 17^th)
  • Barstools.com
  • GreatHomeBars.com
  • GreatPubTables.com

• Easter
  • GiftBaskets.com

April:

• Gardening
  • eGardenBridges.com
  • GardenStatueShop.com
  • HoseReelSource.com
  • LandscapeLightingSource.com
  • PlantStands.com
  • PottingBenches.com
  • SimplyArbors.com
  • SimplyPlanters.com

• Administrative Professional’s Day
  • DeskSetShop.com
  • FlowerStore.com
  • GiftBaskets.com

• Earth Day (April 20^th) – Green Products
  • AdirondackChairs.com
  • Hammocks.com
  • PatioFurnitureUSA.com
  • PatioUmbrellas.com
  • SimplyArbors.com
  • SolarLightStore.com
  • WickerFurniture.com

May:

• National Teacher’s Day (May 4^th)
  • ClockStyle.com
  • FlowerStore.com
  • GiftBaskets.com

• Mother’s Day (2^nd Sunday of May)
  • FlowerStore.com
  • GiftBaskets.com
  • JewelryArmoire.com
  • JewelryBoxes.com
  • OnlySlippers.com

• Grilling – Memorial Day
  • BocceBallSets.com
  • Croquet.com
  • GrillsDirect.com
  • PatioFurnitureUSA.com

• Graduation
  • ClockStyle.com
  • DeskSetShop.com
  • FlowerStore.com
  • GiftBaskets.com

June:

• Outdoor Furniture
  • PatioFurnitureUSA.com
  • BeachChairs.com
  • Benches.com
  • AdirondackChairs.com
  • Hammocks.com
  • PorchSwings.com
  • PoolFurniture.com

• Recreational Sports
  • BadmintonSource.com
  • BasketballGoals.com
  • BocceBallSets.com
  • Croquet.com
  • VolleyballHeadquarters.com

• Father’s Day (3rd Sunday of June)
  • Binoculars.com
  • BuyEntertainmentCenters.com
  • Dartboards.com
  • FirePits.com
  • GrillsDirect.com
  • Hammocks.com
  • JustFoosballTables.com
  • ReclinersPlus.com
  • Telescopes.com
  • ToolBoxesDirect.com

July:

• 4th of July – Grilling
  • GrillsDirect.com
  • BeachChairs.com
  • PatioFurnitureUSA.com
  • PatioUmbrellas.com
  • GreatHomeBars.com
  • BanquetTables.com

• Yard Games
  • BocceBallSets.com
  • BadmintonSource.com
  • Croquet.com
  • VolleyballHeadquarters.com

• Pool Accessories
  • PoolFurniture.com
  • PoolToySource.com
  • InflatableTrampolines.com
  • SkiTube.com

August:

• Back To School
  • ChildrensDesks.com
  • DeskLamps.com
  • DeskSetShop.com
  • ClockStyle.com
  • ComputerDesks.com
  • DraftingTables.com
  • JustBookends.com
  • BookcasesGalore.com
  • WorldGlobes.com
  • WritingDesks.com

September:

• Labor Day Entertaining
  • AdirondackChairs.com
  • BeachChairs.com
  • BanquetTables.com
  • CanopyCenter.com
  • GrillsDirect.com

• National Boss’ Day
  • GiftBaskets.com
  • FlowerStore.com
  • DeskSetShop.com

November:

• Thanksgiving (3rd Thursday of November)
  • BanquetTables.com
  • GrillsDirect.com
  • GreatHomeBars.com
  • eKitchenIslands.com

• Cyber Monday/Start of Holiday Season
  • GiftBaskets.com
  • FlowerStore.com
  • Binoculars.com
  • BeanBags.com
  • ChessSets.com
  • ChristmasLights.com
  • ChristmasTreesGalore.com
  • Nutcrackers.com
  • WreathsGalore.com
  • JewelryArmoires.com
  • JewelryBoxes.com
  • eWineRacks.com
  • OnlySlippers.com
  • Playhouses.com
  • PlayKitchens.com
  • iToyboxes.com
  • eRockingHorses.com
  • RidingToys.com
  • Telescopes.com

December:

• Holiday gifts and decor
  • GiftBaskets.com
  • FlowerStore.com
  • Binoculars.com
  • BeanBags.com
  • ChessSets.com
  • ChristmasLights.com
  • ChristmasTreesGalore.com
  • Nutcrackers.com
  • WreathsGalore.com
  • JewelryArmoires.com
  • JewelryBoxes.com
  • eWineRacks.com
  • OnlySlippers.com
  • Playhouses.com
  • PlayKitchens.com
  • iToyboxes.com
  • eRockingHorses.com
  • RidingToys.com
  • Telescopes.com

For sake of simplicity, this article will assume that you have a modicum of HTML knowledge already. The information we are sharing here is generally well known and understood among SEO circles. We are not giving out secrets to our own ranking success, as SEO is a large component of our own marketing plan. This is simply a basic overview for those with little to no SEO knowledge. Unlike other tomes, however, this article is fact-filled, and does not contain mis-information designed to sabotage your efforts.

Keywords
Keyword research is extremely important for success in SEO. Use a tool like Wordtracker, Google Adwords: Keyword Tool, or the KeywordDiscovery.com Keyword Research Tool to find out what keywords people are searching on. It’s best to optimize your site for keywords that get significant searches but have little competition, until you become very confident in your SEO abilities. If Google shows more than 1-2 million results for your search query, it’s going to take a concerted effort to rank in the top 10 for that keyword phrase. It’s also wise to focus on 2-4 word phrases rather than singular words. This is how most people search anyway, plus there’s likely to be less competition for lengthier phrases, and the traffic will be much more targetted.
Once you’ve chosen your keywords, they must be worked into the various pages of your site in the manner discussed below. You should also research some synonyms to use as keywords.

Meta Data
There are three primary components of the head tag that should be addressed in order to optimize a page of your site for SEO: the title tag, the description tag, and the keywords tag. The title tag is the most important of the three. It should be around 6 words long, give or take a few words. Include your primary keywords (for the page) in the title tag. It should look like this:
<title>Keywords in Your Title Tag Help You Rank</title>
The description tag should be around 12-24 words give or take. It should contain all the keywords used in your title tag, plus derivatives such as singular or plural, in a sentence structure. The description tag should occur immediately after the <title> tag, and look like this:
<meta content=”Use your keywords in a sentence structure.”>
The keywords tag is ignored by some search engines like Google, but others still use it. It doesn’t hurt to use it, so you may as well use it properly. It can have 24-48 words, but less is okay too. Place your keywords, singular and plural forms, synonyms, and misspellings within the keywords tag. You can separate them with a space or with a comma – it really doesn’t matter. It looks like this:
<meta content=”keyword keywords keywird keywurd key word”>

On-Page Copy
Your chosen keywords must also appear within the visible copy on the page. Don’t overdo it though. If you use the exact keyword phrases too many times it will sound funny to the reader and will come off as “spammy.” Put your primary keyword phrase in an <h1> or <h2> tag. Never use more than one <h1> on a page. If you have an <h1> tag on the page you may also use one or more <h2> tags. They should all contain similar word themes, not vastly divergent themes. The text on your page should help to establish the theme of what your site is about.
A good rule of thumb is to shoot for around 2-5% density for each keyword. Tools such as The Analyzer will assist you in determining what your kw density is.

Links
It is important to get links to your site from other related sites. Submitting your site to directories is a good way to begin establishing your link popularity. Search for “keyword directory” in a good search engine, substituting keyword with a word that is relevant to your site. More general directories often have categories for your site content as well.
Next, seek out link partners – sites that are related to your category – and request a link from them. It often helps if you first link to them, as they are more likely to link back to you that way. Try to get them to use text links that contain your keyword when linking to your site.
Don’t waste time exchanging links with a gambling site if your site’s theme is furniture. Any such link would be irrelevant and will not help your rankings. Also, ignore Google PR values and focus instead on the relevance of the site to your own.
The more relevant, high quality links you can establish to your site, the more frequently your site will be spidered, and the better your site will rank for your chosen keywords. It may take time to achieve those high rankings (especially in Google), but in the long run good SEO techniques will pay off.

There is alot more to SEO than what has been outlined here. Without sharing any little-known secrets to ranking success, we have given you the basic tools to rise above many of your competitors. It’s up to you to perform research and find out what it takes to dominate in the search engines.

PPC, or pay-per-click, is a huge industry. The two biggies – Yahoo! Search Marketing (formerly Overture, formerly GoTo) and Google AdWords – process hundreds of millions of dollars in paid traffic each year. There are other companies trying to compete in this lucrative industry as well, but they tend to be more prone to fraudulent clicks, so we recommend avoiding them.

The majority of all search traffic on the web originates at Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. Google has it’s own PPC model, known as AdWords. By advertising via Google AdWords, your listing can appear on not only Google, but also AOL, Iwon, HotBot, Lycos, AskJeeves, Teoma, and NetScape. Similarly, by listing an ad with Yahoo! Search Marketing (YSM), you can receive exposure on Yahoo!, Overture, AllTheWeb, & AltaVista. Finally, MSN has their PPC setup known as MSN AdCenter.

As you can see, the reach of PPC via Google, MSN and Yahoo! is enormous – pretty much the entire internet, in fact. And that’s why PPC has become so popular among merchants and affiliates as well. As an affiliate, here’s what you need to know about PPC.

Hit the Ground Running
There are basically two ways you can use PPC to generate revenue as an affiliate. Firstly, you can run PPC ads designed to drive traffic to your own website. If you have a well-designed site with lots of good content (informative articles, newsletters, product reviews, or whatever your forte), this might be a good choice for you. The second choice is to run PPC ads that link directly to the merchant with your affiliate id embedded in the link. This can be very expensive if you’re competing against other merchants who can afford to pay more per click than yourself, but it’s a great way to quickly determine if a category is worth competing in.

The thing to remember about direct-linking to merchants is that YSM and AdWords both handle your affiliate ads differently. YSM allows multiple people (merchants + affiliates) to link to the same website, provided affiliates use (aff) in their ad listing to denote themselves as an affiliate. AdSense no longer requires this, but they also no longer list more than one ad which points to the same website. This is why we no longer allow affiliates to link directly to NetShops stores.

This is also a good time to remind you that in order to participate in the Hayneedle affiliate program, you must agree not to link directly to Hayneedle stores from PPC ads, and not to bid on our store names, such as “Hammocks.com” or “Patio Furniture USA.” You may bid on benign terms like “hammocks” or “patio furniture,” but only to link to your OWN website.

1. A “niche” or specialty website targeting a specific hobby, category, or product theme.
2. A shopping mall with lots of product categories
3. A coupon site with coupons from many different merchants
4. PPC traffic driven directly to a merchant

For specific help with your PPC campaigns, please see our section on pay-per-click which deals exclusively with that topic. We’ll address the first two site types in this guide.

Specialty Sites

Typically these sites do not receive a tremendous amount of traffic, unless you are very good at SEO, have LOTS of content, or spend significant sums on PPC ads. Regardless, a specialty or niche type site is perfect for providing valuable information, product reviews, and how-to tips for your visitors. It’s critical that you have clear site navigation and categories, if relevant, to help your visitors quickly find what they are looking for.

Specialty sites integrate datafeeds well, and afford you the opportunity to provide personalized product reviews to help you “pre-sell” the products.

You don’t need a lot of products in your content site – limit your selection to a handful of really good products. The more choices you give your visitors, the more difficult it will be for you to convincingly say “this is the best,” and the more likely they will become confused or indecisive and leave. Your job is to provide category and product information to the visitor, pre-sell them on a product, and send them to the merchant site. Once they arrive at the merchant site, we can provide a larger selection of similar products (variations in size, color, features, etc.) without fear of overwhelming them – because if you’ve done your job, they’ll have a good feel for what they’re looking for already, and are more likely to buy.

If your site is about outdoor furniture and you have a section for patio umbrellas, subdivide that section into specific umbrella types – such as wooden, offset, and beach umbrellas. Have pictures to help your visitors visualize what you’re describing to them. If they’ve just finished reading your review of offset umbrellas, take them to the offset umbrellas aisle page on the PatioUmbrellas.com website through your affiliate link. Or you can take it a step further and feature specific offset umbrellas within that subcategory, and direct customers to that exact umbrella on the merchant site. You don’t have to get this detailed – but the more work you do to qualify and pre-sell your potential customer, the higher your conversion rates will be – which is crucial if you receive limited traffic.

It’s a lie that people aren’t interested in reading your content. Many of them will read an entire article, many more will skim through the highlights, and some won’t read at all. You’ve got to provide something for each of these people. If they’re going to leave your site, you want them to do so via an affiliate link or some other revenue-producing channel - like Google AdSense.

If you integrate Google AdSense (or similar) into your site for additional revenue, make sure it doesn’t take up the most valuable real estate. Visitors to your site don’t want to read Google ads – they want to read your content and/or look at pictures of the items they want to buy. Place your AdSense boxes above the fold of the page, but apart from the content that you want them to read.

Here’s another tip – the more Google ads you display, the less likely your visitors are to click on them. Choose the small vertical or horizontal boxes that only display two ads. These are the highest-paying ads, and visitors are more likely to click if they aren’t overwhelmed with choices. If you must drop the AdSense ad in the body of your content, use the smallest ad block sizes that display one or two ads only. The snapshot to the left is an example of how not to do it.

It’s a lie that people aren’t interested in reading your content. Many of them will read an entire article, many more will skim through the highlights, and some won’t read at all. You’ve got to provide something for each of these people. If they’re going to leave your site, you want them to do so via an affiliate link or some other revenue-producing channel - like Google AdSense.

If you integrate Google AdSense (or similar) into your site for additional revenue, make sure it doesn’t take up the most valuable real estate. Visitors to your site don’t want to read Google ads – they want to read your content and/or look at pictures of the items they want to buy. Place your AdSense boxes above the fold of the page, but apart from the content that you want them to read.

Here’s another tip – the more Google ads you display, the less likely your visitors are to click on them. Choose the small vertical or horizontal boxes that only display two ads. These are the highest-paying ads, and visitors are more likely to click if they aren’t overwhelmed with choices. If you must drop the AdSense ad in the body of your content, use the smallest ad block sizes that display one or two ads only. The snapshot to the left is an example of how not to do it.

A simple restructuring of the site will open up more real-estate, and cutting the AdSense ads down to two, small ads still affords good revenue opportunities. This frees up more room for product reviews, banners and affiliate links. The image to the right is an example of how to accomplish this.

One of the most successful sites is one that plays the role of a product reviewer. By comparing 2 or 3 products within a certain category, and providing personal endorsement language to the review, you will dramatically improve your conversion rates on those items. Click here for an example of what this type of website looks like.

Specialty sites can be very lucrative for affiliates. A little extra attention to detail and some quality time and effort on your part devoted to content development will set your site apart from the competition. Regardless of how many or how few visitors arrive at your site, if you don’t provide what they’re looking for, they’ll simply hit the back button and choose another site.

Shopping Malls

Another site structure popular among many affiliates is the shopping mall, which allows you to feature a broad selection of product categories within one site. There are many advantages and also drawbacks to this choice (see the chart). One of the most effective malls you can build is one that focuses on a specific category, such as furniture, games, toys, etc. Selling both bicycles and croutons on the same site probably won’t work – try to pick a common theme. We recommend a furniture theme, which will enable you to promote products from over a dozen NetShops stores! You can divide your mall into categories such as patio furniture, bedroom furniture, chairs, etc.

Many mall sites receive very high traffic levels once they’ve established themselves on the web. Because of the broader categories, they can receive many times the traffic of a specialty site. To be effective, however, the site must have a strong, logical navigation structure. Avoid the temptation to become a “banner farm.” While some affiliates claim these work, most people will not stay long at an ugly site consisting of nothing but banners for contact lenses, satellite dishes, and pre-paid long distance cards.

If your mall site receives high levels of traffic and is targeted to a particular theme as discussed above, you can make fairly good commissions from the buttons and banners on your site, without any pre-selling whatsoever. Your conversion rate will be lower than average (because you’re not pre-selling or endorsing specific products), but your sheer volume will make up for it. Some of our top affiliates have the lowest conversion rates because of their mall-site structure, but they earn hundreds to thousands of dollars in commission each month simply by sending us hundreds of visitors who are even remotely interested in furniture, games…whatever.

To take your mall site to the next level, consider adding datafeeds of our products to each site category. See our help section on datafeeds for more info on this valuable marketing tool. And if you haven’t already, place small buttons or full-sized banners above the fold of your home page and other popular landing pages.

Regardless of which site structure you prefer, feel free to contact us if you’d like our recommendations. We’re happy to make suggestions on how to improve your site for your users, and increase your click-thru’s and conversion rates!