Can RSS Work with Affiliate Marketing?

rssicon.pngEveryone’s blogging.

But, how are merchants and affiliates utilizing RSS to improve their programs?

Is RSS a viable channel of commerce communication or just Web2.0 hype?

4 Replies to “Can RSS Work with Affiliate Marketing?”

  1. There are some merchants providing their datafeeds in RSS. I’d say RSS is one of the technologies that has been widely embraced on the merchant side.

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  2. We have a program at Spread Firefox where our users can embed “get firefox” buttons and banners in their websites and blogs. Downloads from those buttons and banners acrue “points” at Spread Firefox which can translate into return traffic or Firefox merchandise. In addition to the banners and buttons, our SFX affiliates can embed a Firefox download counter to demonstrate the impact they’re having on our total downloads. That counter is delivered via RSS.

    Not exactly what you’re asking about, but, then again, when has Firefox ever done anything the “normal” way 🙂

    – A

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  3. Hi Asa –

    Veering a little more OT, are you able to share the percent of downloads you get directly through Spread Firefox vs. the Firefox plus Google Toolbar offer available to AdSense affiliates?

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  4. I can’t share that information because I don’t have it. We have about 70,000 active affiliates at Spread Firefox and I’d guess that Google has significantly more with the offer they’re making (and based on what I see when I’m surfing around the web).

    My gut says that Google is doing multiples of what Spread Firefox is doing. How big is their affiliate network? Hundreds of millions of sites? Assuming that even a small fraction of the total AdSense publishers are participating in the Firefox Google Toolbar program, it would still far surpass our 70K participants we have at Spread Firefox.

    I think, though, that there’s a qualitative difference between the sites owned by people who love Firefox enough to register at Spread Firefox and join our affiliate program, and those people who see Google’s $1/dl Firefox Google Toolbar deal as a moneymaker. My guess is that the conversion ratio is a bit better for SFX affiliates than Google AdSense affiliates. (Though, I don’t have any data to back that up.)

    I think both programs are valuable and demonstrate the strength of the Firefox phenomenon. People who are passionate about Firefox and people who are passionate about AdSense revenue* are teamed up against Microsoft’s “we’ll just bundle it” program and together they’re making real gains.

    * I’m sure there’s some overlap here. Firefox fans that are also AdSense publishers can be in it because they love Firefox and they love AdSense revenue 🙂

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