Affiliate networks, for those not leveraging them, can be a powerful catalyst for traffic generation and actions on your website. This applies equally well for both advertisers and publishers.

There are really no analogies for tactics that cost nothing up-front offline but can generate powerful leads, registrations, sales or other actions.

Some key nuggets you need to know and then look for a Top 10 list of Affiliate Networks  you may want to research in a follow-up post. This advice is drawn from my past experience in custom affiliate networks in gaming and experts currently teaching a program I am taking, Jim Kukral and Chris Penn.

Key facts:

1. Networks allow users to get affiliate offers from merchants
2. Work by embedding code on your site that is tracked
3. Conversion on merchant goals generates commissions
4. Networks vary by features, offer type and vertical focus
5. Look for the best, most relevant offers
6. Consider sign-up on multiple networks to track best offers
7. Track network reporting, review and make adjustments
8. Text ads may outperform banners
9. Each network requires an application program so you must be comfortable providing corporate and personal info
10. Works best for higher margin, scalable merchants with good cash flow and flexibility in presentation (e.g. affiliates may promote more aggressively than you are use to)

Our own experience with affiliates is that it is critial to have systems in place to manage their timely payment and enquiries.  The growth can be viral and you need to be ready if you have a good product - you can really drive your traffic.

Stay tuned as we share more on a demo we are undertaking with the Google Affiliate network for premium content for riiPlay.tv.  We’ll share what we learn with our readers.

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At fundfindr.tv, we are fortunate to be able to share a window into the world of hot new ideas, ventures and products - now there is one that truly uses Windows - your Window desktop that is. One of our favorites recently is Gwabs, a video game that you play by powering up your icons and other desktop items before going into battle with a friend right on your desktop - the Fusion Forum judges also thought it had great potential, awarding it third place.

Join fundfindr.tv’s Danita Harty and Gwabs Executive Producer, Steve Bocska as they walk through a demonstration of Gwabs. Gwabs is one of the first commercial products coming out of the innovative group, Cambrian House.

For more on Fusion, check out our webisode and previous post. For other cool demos from companies presenting at Fusion, check out Firetonic from Razor Technology and Pul.se from Something Simpler, the second place award winner.