Building an affiliate web site that sells between 5 and 20 products is relatively quick and easy to do. An experienced webmaster could build a site like 101Date.com in a weekend. If it took a week or even a month to build, that’s a minor investment in a site that will reap rewards for years to come. But how long would it take to build a site that promotes THOUSANDS of products such as magazines, garden items, posters, t-shirts or lingerie?
Or, what if you want to promote multiple merchants that carry products in the same niche?
The answer is simple – incorporate merchant product datafeeds.
DataFeed Format and Content
Merchants provide datafeeds to affiliates either as ‘flat file’ spreadsheet downloads or via FTP. Datafeed spreadsheets are typically available free of charge to affiliates. FTP access however often requires approval from the merchant as it often costs them money for the network to activate each affiliate’s access. Therefore, be specific as to how and where you plan to use the datafeed when you apply for access.
A product datafeed typically lists product names along with their categories and subcategories, descriptions, coded affiliate links, product graphic image URL’s, prices and even applicable keywords or tags.
Here is a screenshot of the Nature Hills Nursery datafeed (text file) that I downloaded from Shareasale.
Looks pretty ugly, eh?
So, how do you turn THAT ugliness into something that looks as good as the first screenshot of my Travel Magazines page above?
You need a datafeed processing service or software.
These services range from javascript snippet generation, to software loaded on your computer, to software you upload to your site and completely third-party solutions. Some require constant feed maintenance (keep downloading / uploading the new feed or regenerating the script. They also range in price from free (not really — you give up commissions with some of them) to paid services for as little as $5.99 per month.
Read more about Affiliate Datafeed Integration Software and Services now to find out which I MOST highly recommend. Hint: It’s the easiest one to use. 
About Rosalind Gardner
