When you are constructing Affiliate sites with a product search, do try and catch as much affiliate revenue as you can.
If you don’t have the particular product that the visitor is looking for, then point them somewhere else where you will also earn a commission or search fee.
One of my favoured approaches is to point them to a paid search tool e.g. Kelkoo, who pay on a per-click (lead rather than sale) basis.
If we take Affilistore for example, then the “no products found” text will be found in the skins templates folder in products.inc.php. A little judicious editing around the noprod section and you can insert the alternate search engine code as follows :
<!– BEGIN: noprod –>
<p>No Products Found</p>
<!–START MERCHANTcode:–> other HTML here
<!–END MERCHANTcode:–>
<!– END: noprod –>
Now, even if we haven’t been able to provide the product, then hopefully we can take a small payment for a paid search even if we can’t raise some affiliate commission.
If anyone can figure out how to add a cookie and test the value, then it would probably be better if we only displayed the alternate search after a few attempts to find a product in that session; obviously we would rather sell the product than take a few cents, but a few cents here and there do add up.
Here is how it looks on my page :
No Products Found
FoodwithPassion recommends SmartShopping if we have not been able to help you find the product you want.
If the visitor clicks through, then I receive a payment baed upon subsequent visits to the retailer. And the initial click drops a cookie such that I will be rewarded for subsequent clicks.
You decide what works for you. Of course, you are not restricted to adding a search engine. You can adapt the technique to display any banner or code you like and to any script or website in a “product not found” situation.
Maybe you could even integrate ebay or Amazon alternative products?
Think about what you can do to keep the visitor profitable for you, especially at the exit pages.
