How Do Publishers Benefit from Onsite Publisher Programs?

Onsite Publisher Programs featuring Editorial Recommendations from independent publishers have been around for a little while. However, many of these programs are just beginning to grow, with many eCommerce platforms just beginning to adopt their own programs. This has led many publishers to develop an interest in participating in these programs and writing their own Editorial Recommendations for the various Onsite Publisher Programs available across the Internet. However, these programs’ availability has led to many questions from potential publishers, chief among them being how publishers actually benefit from these programs. 

This is an important question to ponder because it is essential to remember that publishers are not paid directly from websites such as Amazon, Target, or Walmart for publishing their Editorial Recommendations on their website. However, there are many other ways that a publisher can benefit from writing and posting these types of articles within Onsite Publisher Programs. Knowing how a publisher can benefit and what a publisher can do to become successful working within Onsite Publisher Programs is vital if a publisher is interested in working with one of these programs and becoming successful now and into the future.

An Affiliate Program With Guaranteed Traffic

Among the most crucial things to note is how publishers actually make their money when working with the typical Onsite Publisher Program. These programs are essentially affiliate programs, with publishers making their money by way of sales made from individuals clicking on the links placed within the articles and people purchasing the items in those links. Therefore, this incentivizes publishers to upsell the items they put in their reviews and build a reputable and authoritative voice, among other things, as a part of achieving success in these Onsite Publisher Programs. 

Among the many important things to note is that it is up to the platform, such as Amazon, Target, to direct the consumer to Shopify sites to determine when and where to show consumers Editorial Recommendations. This is one of the details that makes writing for Onsite Publishing Programs unique when compared to writing reviews and articles as a publisher to drive traffic to your site. However, there are some incentives that the platforms use to help identify which content gets shown to consumers, and that will help publishers get more clicks and, therefore, more sales from their Editorial Recommendations overall. These include having the most relevant Editorial Recommendations regarding the products and keywords they are writing about and Editorial Recommendations that actually help consumers make decisions about the products they intend to purchase. 

While it can seem intimidating to write these Editorial Recommendations knowing that the only income that will come from them will be from sales from the products, there are some things to remember. Individuals coming to platforms such as Amazon and Target are doing so intending to make a purchase, which drives up the number of sales that will be made when individuals click onto these articles. Another thing to remember is that with Editorial Recommendations already posted on Amazon, publishers will not need to promote their own content, as the platform will be doing all the work for them. 

Risks and Rewards

There are many risks associated with working with an Onsite Publisher Program, but there are also many rewards at the same time. One of the things to note is that when working with these programs, a publisher is working with non-auditable data. A publisher can only work with the information that the platform gives them, and in many cases, the platform does not offer much information. This is often the case with a platform such as Amazon, which is known for not providing much information about the way they choose the articles they place in front of their consumers. 

However, some strategies, such as data scraping, can help a publisher choose how their articles appear to their viewers. Data scraping can also help publishers determine which of their content will be the most profitable, allowing them to focus on which content they want to focus their efforts on so they can be certain that they are putting their attention on the right articles and updating the articles that are the best performing content. 

Finally, it is important to note that a publisher’s biggest risk could be working with an Onsite Publisher Program because a platform could close their program in the future. While at the moment, many platforms are continuing their programs, expanding their programs, and even opening up new programs, there is always the potential for programs to close. The biggest problem is that now there are many programs out there that hope to convert customers. It remains to be seen what effect this could have in the future. 

Rest Assured

While there are some risks working with Onsite Publisher Programs, the benefits still far outweigh the risks. It is important to remember that if these programs did not work for the platforms, they would not exist. Among the biggest benefits for publishers is that they face little reputational risk by publishing on the various platforms out there. With their articles on platforms, they maintain a distance from the content, and if the content is not relevant, it will not surface at a later date. Additionally, it is important to note that platforms will never be able to replace the third party opinion of publishers when it comes to offering their own opinions. People value having an authoritative and credible voice when seeking opinions on the products they are interested in purchasing. 

Finally, even if revenue declines in one area, this does not signal the end of an idea. Other platforms are just getting started, and there is always room to move in another direction. Editorial Recommendations are here to stay, at least for the time being, and smart publishers who have an interest in working in this market will know how to put their ideas to work if they choose to do so.