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CDN Guide for Affiliate Marketers

This document provides an overview of content delivery networks (CDNs) and their relevance for affiliate marketers. It explains that CDNs cache static assets like images, CSS files, and HTML pages on edge servers located close to users, allowing those assets to be delivered faster and improving page load speeds. Faster page speeds directly correlate with higher conversion rates. The document then lists several major enterprise CDNs and affordable pay-as-you-go CDNs that affiliate marketers can use, noting that some require a backend server. It recommends MaxCDN as an option that provides good performance with low monthly fees but requires a server, to be covered in a later lesson.

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38 views2 pages

CDN Guide for Affiliate Marketers

This document provides an overview of content delivery networks (CDNs) and their relevance for affiliate marketers. It explains that CDNs cache static assets like images, CSS files, and HTML pages on edge servers located close to users, allowing those assets to be delivered faster and improving page load speeds. Faster page speeds directly correlate with higher conversion rates. The document then lists several major enterprise CDNs and affordable pay-as-you-go CDNs that affiliate marketers can use, noting that some require a backend server. It recommends MaxCDN as an option that provides good performance with low monthly fees but requires a server, to be covered in a later lesson.

Uploaded by

tonalbadass
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

 

The 6 Week Affiliate Mastery Challenge

Guide to Content Delivery Networks


Firstly,  what  on  earth  is  a  CDN?  For  this  I  suggest  you  read  here:  
 
[Link]  
 
There  is  a  Wikipedia  article  linked  at  the  beginning  of  that  article  for  those  of  you  who  are  more  keen  
to  wade  through  such  things.  
 
How  is  a  CDN  relevant  to  me  as  an  affiliate  marketer?  
 
There  are  a  few  things  you  should  consider:  
 
• Page  load  speeds  have  a  direct  correlation  with  conversion  rates  
• Having  the  fastest  possible  page  load  speeds  is  therefore  ideal  
• Pages  are  composed  of  static,  and  possibly  dynamic  ‘assets’  like  images,  css  files,  and  even  the  
page  html  file  itself  
• These  unchanging  (static)  assets  can  be  cached  by  a  CDN  
• CDN  ‘edge  servers’  are  located  much  closer  to  users  then  your  server,  so:  
o Take  less  time  to  establish  a  connection  with  the  user  
o Generally  give  higher  download  speeds  to  the  user  
o Thus  deliver  the  static  assets  faster  
• Furtherore,  because  these  edge  servers  get  so  much  traffic,  their  DNS  entries  are  almost  always  
cached  (furth  minimisation  of  lookup  times).  
 
Ergo,  delivering  static  assets  from  you  webpages  through  a  CDN  will  invariably  result  in  a  faster  page  
load  speed  fo  real  users,  and  this  helps  your  pages  make  money!    
 
The  rare  situation  where  this  might  not  be  the  case  is  when  users  are  very  close  to  your  physical  
server  and  the  advantage  of  deliveirng  it  all  from  one  location  wins.  
 
This  is  rare.  Use  a  CDN  where  possible.  
 
There  are  many  CDNs  to  pick  from,  and  I’ll  outline  a  few  ‘big  players’  and  then  the  ones  you  can  
actually  use.  
 
Enterprise  CDNs:  
 
• Akamai  
• CDNetworks  
• Limelight  
• EdgeCast  
• Level3  
• ChinaCache  
• Highwinds  
• Internap  
• Telefonica  
• Etc!  
 
CDNs  that  you  can  easily  use  that  are  pay-­‐as-­‐you-­‐go:  
 
• Amazon  Cloudfront  (kinda  iffy  to  set  up)  
• Rackspace  Cloud  Files  (again,  iffy!)  
• CDN77  
• Cloudflare  (requires  server)  
• XCDN  (requires  server,  Akamai  ‘no-­‐commit’  client)  
 
CDNs  that  have  low  monthly  minimums  that  are  useful:  
 
• MaxCDN  
• MetaCDN  
• CacheFly  
• Fastly  
 
Confused?  There  are  a  lot  of  CDNs  out  there!  Be  aware  their  networks  are  not  the  same.  Some  perform  
better  than  others  in  different  regions,  use  differnet  technology,  have  different  UIs,  etc.  
 
One  thing  to  note  is  the  term  “Origin-­‐Pull”.  If  a  CDN  is  origin-­‐pull  inly,  e.g.  like  Cloudflare,  then  you  
need  a  server  behind  it  that  it  pulls  content  from.  These  then  work  as  a  layer  over  the  top  of  your  site  
that  deliver  your  pages  and  cache  at  the  same  time.  
 
For  now,  know  that  the  best  CDNs  are  not  cheap  but  you  don’t  need  them.  For  now,  MaxCDN  will  
suffice  but  will  require  a  server  –  which  we  will  get  to  in  later  weeks.  
 
Check  out  [Link]  for  a  list  of  CDNs  with  descriptions  and  information.  

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