[hostlead]

Hello,

We launched our affiliate program a few weeks ago and it’s been great so far. We decided to post here to let other webmasters know about this wonderful opportunity.

About:
World War 2 in Color (http://www.ww2incolor.com) is website which lets website visitors upload WW2 photographs. Thousand of pictures have already been uploaded and can be viewed for free by anybody. The website is also used to sell public domain photographs (http://www.ww2incolor.com/buy_photos.php) in different packages.

Whether you aggressively want to promote our packages, or if you simply want to link to our general photo section is up to you. Both options will allow you to earn commissions if a user ends up buying one of the photo packages.

Highlights of our affiliate program:
-$25 sign up bonus
-Earn a generous 15% commission - $8.85 all the way to $74.85 per sale
-Potential to earn up to 25% - $14.75 to $124.75 per sale if you bring in sales on a regular basis
-Beautiful banners with lots of formats: regular gifs, page peels, lightboxes, text ads, and html ads.

To sign up, visit our affiliate program (http://www.ww2incolor.com/ww2/) page.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me using the contact form on the website or by replying to this thread.

Join now! (http://www.ww2incolor.com/ww2/)

Thank you for your time!

Regards,
Emmanuel
WW2inColor.com

--------------
If you decide not to join our affiliate program, we would like to hear from you why. Is anything missing? What can be improved? Thanks!

Sample banners:

http://www.ww2incolor.com/ww2/banners/ww2incolor(120x60)_03.gif

http://www.ww2incolor.com/ww2/banners/ww2incolor(728x90)4_03.gif

http://www.ww2incolor.com/ww2/banners/ww2incolor(160x600)_03.gif

[loxly]

If you decide not to join our affiliate program, we would like to hear from you why. Is anything missing? What can be improved? Thanks!

First thing affiliates are going to see when they go to your website are your links to other sites. With those pretty large banners as leaks to affiliate traffic you may have some issues recruiting serious affiliates.

Just looked at your affiliate sign up form and it appears you never customized the template for your terms of service, you might want to take care of that before attempting further recruiting.

[hostlead]

First thing affiliates are going to see when they go to your website are your links to other sites. With those pretty large banners as leaks to affiliate traffic you may have some issues recruiting serious affiliates.

Just looked at your affiliate sign up form and it appears you never customized the template for your terms of service, you might want to take care of that before attempting further recruiting.

Point noted. I will fix the T&Cs. We do give our affiliates the option to link directly to our photo package page.

Regards,
Emmanuel

[loxly]

Point noted. I will fix the T&Cs. We do give our affiliates the option to link directly to our photo package page.

Regards,
Emmanuel
Where they link isn't the only issue. Affiliates look at where else people will go on your site. Just giving you a heads up that it will be an issue. You asked :)

[hostlead]

There is a link to our picture packages. at the top of every page including the forum. We obviously are not a web store, but an information website that also has a small web store section.

I don't see how it would make sense to change our website. After all people enjoy our free photos.

Regards,
Emmanuel

[Bill]

First thing affiliates are going to see when they go to your website are your links to other sites. With those pretty large banners as leaks to affiliate traffic you may have some issues recruiting serious affiliates.

Just looked at your affiliate sign up form and it appears you never customized the template for your terms of service, you might want to take care of that before attempting further recruiting.Thanks for the heads up Debbie. There are major LEAKS for sure.

I just visited the site and across the top was a 728x90 banner for Health Care. and the right side had a 160x600 skyscraper for Jobs by Monster.com. I refreshed and got Free Credit Reports and a Verizon Cell Phones ad. No problem with the TOS -'cause I won't take the time to go that far. Shame,too - we have a cool genealogy site (online for five years) where folks might be interested in WWII images.

@hostlead - I can't send our readers to site where they can click on ads without us earning any commission. That would be foolish of me to waste a pre-sold client in that manner. I'm sure some of our readers would also enjoy your free photos, but they'll have to find them without a link from me. Sorry.

[hostlead]

I see the problem now. I think we need to adjust our business model. Originally we made most of our income using ROS banner ads, but now more with packages. I will remove banners.

Never thought of it that way.

Regards,
Emmanuel

[Kevin]

All of the above noted, this is a great opportunity for the right websites.

With some TLC, I see this being a very interesting program. It's tough to find a good unique program these days.

Emmanuel: Please handle with care, and you will definitely find the right affiliates. You need to get some (and you got some) advice from ABW though :)

[Julian]

Your site is called WW2 in color, yet your banners are in black & white, and only 800 of the over 3,500 are in color.

Not a criticism, just an observation

[chetf]

All I see is you selling photos you can get for free from the national archive's website. Pretty distasteful.

[hostlead]

Your site is called WW2 in color, yet your banners are in black & white, and only 800 of the over 3,500 are in color.

Not a criticism, just an observation

I plan on adding more colour photos this summer.

Regards,
Emmanuel

[hostlead]

All I see is you selling photos you can get for free from the national archive's website. Pretty distasteful.

What is your point? Not everybody lives in Washington D.C.
I am providing a service a lot of people are appreciating, as they have deadlines that do NOT work with going to the archives and ordering pictures.

As a side note: The character Popeye is in the public domain in the UK since the end of last year. Do you think it would be distasteful to use old cartoons and resell them or even create new ones?

The pictures we sell are carefully selected, as the people that buy from us do not want to pay royalties.

Regards,
Emmanuel

Edit: If you are talking about this http://www.archives.gov/research/ww2/photos/ then no you cannot get them ALL for free from the website. Also they are not print ready, as they are only in 96dpi.

[hostlead]

I have removed many banners.

Regards,
Emmanuel

[AffiliateHound]

I have removed many banners.

Regards,
EmmanuelOne is ONE too many.

[chetf]

Yes, I am talking about the images available already without going to Washington. Equally, you group up photos it seems from your users? So you take user submitted content and trust their copyright understanding? You yourself admit to only scanning 1500 but offer larger packages... how is that? Is that why you have your 200 photos for the "free" donation of $19.99?

[hostlead]

Yes, I am talking about the images available already without going to Washington. Equally, you group up photos it seems from your users? So you take user submitted content and trust their copyright understanding? You yourself admit to only scanning 1500 but offer larger packages... how is that? Is that why you have your 200 photos for the "free" donation of $19.99?

1) The images are in high dpi - print ready. This is not the case if you get it from the Nara website

2) Images are in the public domain, therefore you don't have to buy anything for me, but can get it yourself from I don't know where.

3) The user submitted content is only displayed on the website. We do not sell this. It would be foolish to just take somebody's word.

4) No, we do not simply take those 200. Our donation package has 400 images.

For the $19.99 donation you can't even get 1 photograph from the National Archives. Call them. I don't have anything to hide.

Regards,
Emmanuel

[hostlead]

Thank you to those who already joined. I've decided to increase the base commission to 18% for the next 3 days for whoever joins (including for the ones that already joined).

Regards,
Emmanuel

[VampireSkunk]

Hostlead, I like your site but the Google ads are a big stumbling block. You're asking affiliates to invest their time, skill and money driving potenetial new customers to your site - but if they click on an adsense ad you make a little and we get nothing. Aside from the affiliate angle, is it a good business model to have 3rd party advertising on your own sales site?

[hostlead]

Hi,

Actually both CPM and CPC work well. I do agree however that the CPM banner ads were a bit on the intrusive side, which might deter buyers.

I always keep an eye on the Google ads. None point to any other WW2 photo buying website.

According to Google analytics our website visitors visit 14.72 Pages/Visit and spend an avg. time of 00:05:27 on the site.

I do not think this would go any higher if I were to remove ads completely.

Regards,
Emmanuel

[Julian]

"None point to any other WW2 photo buying website"

That is not the issue. It doesn't matter where they end up after they click the ad. It is the ad itself that is the problem

[hostlead]

I've replaced two ROS banners with banners linking to the "buy photos" section.

[AffiliateHound]

hostlead, if you have not done so, do a search here for terms such as "leak" and "leaky merchants", and you should understand our concerns.

If you have already done this, and read some of the threads, and still do not see it, then an affiliate program is not for you.

[hostlead]

Any specific articles you recommend? The only reason I've been so hesitant to remove Google banners is that they provide a good, stable revenue stream.

Regards,
Emmanuel

[AffiliateHound]

any specific articles you recommend?No, but there have been many threads over the years discussing how specific merchants have tried to destroy their affiliate programs by having leaks on their sites, weather it be AdSense, banner ads, or large 800 numbers (with no phone tracking). You will see that merchants serious about affiliate-generated sales acted swiftly to remove all such leaks.

[Mr. Sal]

Hi Emmanuel,

How about keeping the leaks that make you money if you want to, but have some script that will not show those leaks, to any visitors that comes from any of your affiliates links? http://abestweb.com/smilies/idea.gif

Other merchants do it, so why not look into that option? http://abestweb.com/smilies/writing.gif