SuperPages Affiliate Program is a Gadget
Affiliate programs often do not have many of the basic functionalities that I like to see that help me use them in gadgets.
I was surprised when I saw what Superpages was offering for their affiliate system.
SuperPages is a local search company and they have a simple and innovative system to distribute their services. It is interesting to me because it is essentially a gadget based affiliate program.
The program allows a blogger or webmaster to insert a vertical or horizontal banner on their site which allows a visitor to perform local searches.
These “ads” are gadgets!
The program allows you to use a simple interface to customize your gadget and adjust the width, height, color, etc.
There are no real technical skills needed, you just choose characteristics from a menu…
Once you have made a widget to fit your webpage or blog, you are given code to place on your site.
The other interesting thing about this program is that they give you a results code too, very similar to the Google custom search system. This means that you can show results within your own websites design and look within a frame….
The result page is actually useful and ad free.
You can (of course) put the local search in a Google gadget. Here is a gadget live (use it to see what the results look like)…
While just about any affiliate ad can be made into a gadget, Superpages has streamlined the process for anyone.
This is a very good model for affiliate programs. It should do quite well. The affiliate site is here, and is well worth a look whether you are pondering using or building an affiliate program.
Well done, Superpages.
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April 1st, 2008 at 12:12 pm
That is unusual to have the results appear on your own website… and it is ad free? Looks like a nice local widget.
Question: What do you think is the motivation of distributing the widget if it doesn’t bring them traffic or revenue?
April 1st, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Hi fogell,
It brings them brand dominance, seo value, and revenue
It does bring them income, when I said ad free, I mean there are no outward ads or crazy adsense.
The first few results in each search results page are paid listings, so SuperPages get paid when someone clicks them, and Superpages shares that income with the webmaster displaying the search widget/results.
I should have been clearer, but my main interest in this is not really who gets paid what, it is more that this is the most widget orientated affiliate program I have seen.
I should have realized that people would be interested in the monetization part. The way they say they dole out the money is this…
“Q. How much can I earn?
A. Revenue sharing is based on the pay per click model. When a user clicks on a paid advertiser within the results pages, Superpages shares a portion of the revenue back to you. Your earnings will depend upon the category and geography that are clicked.”