How to make more money from your
existing web site traffic by using co-registrations

Have you ever filled out a registration form and been exposed to 5 to 10 pre-checked or un-checked boxes for different offers at the bottom?

Then you know what a co-registration is.

Or have you exited a web site and received a pop-up window letting you know about three other web sites you might be interested in?

Then you have seen an example of four webmasters sharing traffic and recommending each other.

How does it work?

The basis of co-registration is pretty simple. You add a number of checkboxes on your sign-up form and get paid for each user who checks them (or doesn't uncheck them in case you're doing pre-checked boxes).

An unchecked box can generate between 5 cents and 25 cents in revenue depending on your site and the offer. A pre-checked box (which has a lot less value in terms of quality), ranges between 2 cents and 5 cents.

Four examples of co-registrations

Microsoft Web Courier

When you sign up for a new Hotmail account you will be exposed to a number of newsletters and email list offers at the third page in the sign-up process.

Morningstar Free Subscription

Morningstar uses co-registrations extensively in their sign-up offers. Premium advertisers such as American Express, Wall Street Journal, Inc, and Financial Times can be seen on the sign-up form.

Tell-a-friend scripts

List management company Focalex just launched a hosted tell-a-friend script which incorporates a majority of pre-checked co-reg boxes. They split the revenue 60/40 in the publisher's favor.

Generating double opt-in subscribers for list management
companies.

Many list management companies offer anything from one-time commissions for email newsletter sign-ups to 50/50 ad revenue sharing. You generate the list; they sell the advertising and split the revenue with you. They try to sell your list for CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) rates between $30 and $200.

Many large companies and their ad agencies use these companies to buy compiled lists for email marketing and yours could be one of them.

Three examples:

http://profitinfo.com/leadfactory/
http://www.postmasterdirect.com
http://www.focalex.com
http://www.yesmail.com

How can you do it?

You can make money with co-registrations in two ways:

1. Sell co-registrations on your site.
2. Buy co-registrations from others.

I would definitely start with selling yourself. Buying co-registrations is very tricky in this market and it's easy to get low-quality names that have not even seen your offer. You also need to be very careful to check for duplicate names and bad data.

It's best to start with being an affiliate and testing third party offers first.

Networks that can help you get co-registration offers at your site include:

Focalex
http://www.tafmaster.com

Websponsors
http://www.websponsors.com

Do-it-your-self script:

I found a script through Google that could be worth checking out if you would like to set up your own operation and not rely on third party hosted forms. I have not tested it myself.

http://www.obleam.com/co-reg/

Bottom line: Your first baby steps

1. Research the larger CPA (cost per action) networks for co-registration offers that you can add to your form.

What you will find when you go through different affiliate offers for co-registrations is that most of them are for work-at-home offers, sweepstakes, free samples, entertainment, marketing newsletters, newspaper subscriptions and financial services.

2. Consider replicating your own list to be brokered through a large list-management company.

You would essentially still have your own house-list that you do what you want with. But over time you would also build a list at an email list house that will generate residual revenue for you.

3. Find three related web sites and start co-promoting each other.

The best offers are the one you create yourself. Can you list three similar web sites to yours that are approximately the same size?

Why don't you approach them and suggest that you recommend each
other's newsletters? You can use co-registrations, thank-you-pages, exit pop-ups or a combination of all three.

Co-marketing is powerful. If you have three or four friends always recommending you and you do the same in return there is incredible leverage involved for all of you.

About the author:

The above article was written by Ola Edvardsson, one of the world's top experts on performance-based marketing. Clients ranging from small Internet start-ups that survived "the dot-com era" to Fortune 100 corporations turn to Ola for successful strategies and hands-on advice andcoaching. Visit http://www.getperformance.com for more info.

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