The Craft Ark on Affiliate Future

[Stuart]

Dear Affiliates,

After months of hard work, we have launched our affiliate program with Affiliate Future; we have programs in the UK and US, Europe will launch next week. We want to work with our affiliates, partners and associates to ensure this is a successful program, please let me know if I can be of any assistance or if you need banners or any other tools.

Who are we?

The Craft Ark is a subscription-based website, offering a growing library of craft projects, tricks of the trade and video clips of techniques. The Craft Ark is projects and not product based.

At present the site offers 159 different craft projects, with the aim of having a minimum of 365 projects on the site at all times as soon as possible. Projects cover the most popular craft skills from card making, scrap booking, jewellery making, encaustic art and memory boxes.

The website is cleanly designed, extremely easy to navigate and crafters are encouraged to join the on-line community to swap tips and tricks, and to meet other crafters who share the same interests. The site also has video clips, which demonstrate clearly how a selection of craft techniques are used in the creation of the many craft projects covered. The tricks of the trade section allow members to submit questions, which are then answered by craft professionals.

The craft market is huge with a clear need for this type of service. Our target market includes the following:

• Mainly female with or without children
• Where crafting has become main hobby and/or passion
• Generally 30+ and comfortable financially (so a good disposable income)
• They enjoy going to trade shows and meeting with other craft enthusiasts
• Always on the look out for something new and different in the market
• Crafts on own and with friends
• People who craft with children i.e. their own or as a teacher
• Target market live in a wide range of countries including: American, the UK, Europe, South Africa ex-pat communities worldwide and Australia

Our affiliate program

We have use a tiered subscription structure, with monthly, quarterly and yearly membership options available.

Subscription options and commission structure

• Monthly - £7.95
• Quarterly - £19.95
• Yearly - £59.95

This is an international site thus we provide payment in as many local currencies as is practical. Currently this is US dollars, UK sterling and Euros, this maybe expanded to include Australasia, Hong Kong and China. We have three accounts with Affiliate Future, UK, US and Europe

• Tier 1: 0-9 subscriptions – 8%
• Tier 2: 10-49 subscriptions – 10%
• Tier 3: 50-499 subscription – 12%
• Tier 4: 500-999 subscriptions – 15%
• Tier 4: 1000+ subscriptions – 20%

30 day cookie period

I invite you to join the Craft Ark program. Please let me know if we can be of any assistance

More about us:

At The Craft Ark, we provide inspiration for a wide range of craft techniques and offer help and advice to all members via Ask the Ark. We are project based not product based, so are able to use any product we choose without trying to convince the members that one product is better than the other is.

Our revenue at present is generated via membership subscription. There are free project libraries around but we are different from these sites in a number of ways. These include:

• Our designers have proven records of accomplishment (see below)
• Our projects are supported by clear and easy to follow instructions with photographs demonstrating each step of the project as it is made.
• Our projects range in difficulty so there is something for the novice to the seasoned crafter.
• We have a growing video library, which demonstrates how craft techniques are done. This video is set up in such a way that is ca be viewed by people with dialup and broadband connections.
• We offer help and support via the ability to ask craft professional questions via Ask the Ark.
• We are in the process of adding a crafters forum allowing crafters to contact other people with similar intersects worldwide.

The two Directors of The Craft Ark are both professionals with our Creative Director, Lynne Garner having eight years experience in the crafting industry.

Lynne has a proven record of accomplishment, she has written for a large number of magazines both in the UK and in the US. She has written eight books so far and is working on a further three; two will be published 2006 and the third 2007. The Managing Director, Jon Williams having worked alongside Lynne for a number of years realized there was a niche in the crafting market for such a website.

At present high quality craft projects, are only supplied in magazines however, they are unable to offer support and provide information in the form of video or provide a forum.

Craft professionals who know the market run the Craft Ark. The content is continually growing with the addition of new projects on a two weekly basis and video as and when practical to shoot and edit. The site is seen as a source of inspiration for a wide range of people and a way in which crafters worldwide will be able to share their love of crafting. It will aid many members who are often isolated through either geographical location or illness to be in contact with other like-minded people.

Our aim is to provide a top quality service to our affiliate members as well as good commission rates. We aim to make our program successful by listening to our affiliates and partners and working closely with them.

As previously mentioned we will make changes to our site, (changes are already being made based on feedback already received) we will monitor our conversion ratios and make changes to improve them if necessary

We are developing a newsletter for affiliates to keep you informed of any changes; this will include new features added to the site and company news.

We are also looking to create special offers, the introduction of banners and promotional codes, these will be added to the newsletter and an affiliate section on within the site, and they will provide incentives for consumers to sign-up to The Craft Ark. Bonuses and prizes will also be offer to the best affiliates, each month or quarter.

It is our aim to be THE crafting site on the web; we want to achieve this by working you and you working with us.