How to Sell Related Products from your Microsoft FrontPage-Based Web Site

Microsoft Corporation

December 29, 1998

With the help of Microsoft FrontPage, Tom Burlison built the Southern California Slow-Pitch Softball Web site . His site allows recreational ball players in Los Angeles and Orange Counties of California to gather information about other softball teams, leagues, and tournaments through links to a variety of sites.

One of the things Tom learned from the many visitors to his popular Web site was that they wanted access to the latest in softball equipment. Tom already had an existing Web site, and not a lot of technical expertise on e-commerce. Using FrontPage and Be Free technology, Tom has enhanced his site with a value-added service, enabling visitors to find and purchase sporting goods from Fogdog Sports (an online sporting goods store) directly from his Web site. He earns commissions of up to 20 percent on the sale of Fogdog equipment just for providing the link, which helps subsidize the costs of his site and makes it possible for him to offer to create Web pages for softball teams for free.

Tom was able to add the Fogdog link and search component directly to his FrontPage-based Web site by first signing up as an affiliate for Fogdog through their affiliate marketing technology company called Be Free . Be Free manages the relationships with third parties who want to sell products and services on their Web sites -including products from Barnes & Noble, Fogdog Sports, art.com, BabyCenter, and enews.com. Affiliate marketing allows users to earn commissions for sales originating from other sites. Once he was signed up as an affiliate to Fogdog, all Tom had to do was use the "Insert HTML" command in FrontPage to add the necessary code. Here are the steps Tom took to set this up:

He went to http://www.befree.com/06successstories.htm to see which merchants he could sign up to be an affiliate for, and then clicked on the Fogdog Sports logo.
He completed the merchant's affiliate application form. Tom was notified of his approval and given a username and password. Most merchants notify applicants of their approval within 24 hours.
He linked to http://www.reporting.net/ (an affiliate management site), and used his new username and password to automatically generate his affiliate link. He selected the link to Fogdog Sports, and then clicked "Make My Code" to automatically generate the link's HTML code. He selected the code and then copied it.
The next step was to insert this HTML code into his FrontPage-based Web page. In the FrontPage Editor, he opened the page he wanted the Fogdog link to be in, selected "Insert" from the main menu, and then "FrontPage Component." In the dialog box, he selected "Insert HTML," and then pasted the HTML code in the dialog box. From there, all he had to do was click "OK"; the necessary code was inserted into his page.

When a user clicks on the merchant link, it brings up a page on the Be Free servers that automatically redirects to the merchant's Web site, where the transaction can be completed. This is done so that Be Free can track the number of click-throughs to merchants, and help track how popular the links are on the Web site that hosts the links. Tom Burlison can find out at any time how much traffic his site has generated and how much product has been sold through his site by connecting to http://www.reporting.net, and supplying his username and password.

As a result of using Microsoft FrontPage, and becoming an affiliate to Fogdog Sports through Be Free, Tom Burlison's Southern California Slow-Pitch Softball Web site has grown into a one-stop source for anyone wanting to establish, join, purchase equipment, or learn more about local softball teams in Southern California. For more information about Be Free and its affiliate marketing programs for leading merchants, see the Be Free Web site .