Affiliate Marketing Guide Online

Do you have a list where you can collect emails? Do you send out monthly newsletters? If not, you’re missing a big opportunity.  Email lists can remind people to return to your site, as well as help you to upsell new products to an already satisfied customer.  Just think about it this way - if email lists didn’t work, why do all the big fish in retailing use them?

Remember that if you add an email list to your website, you’ll need to comply with CAN-SPAM. That means no selling of people’s emails, and no sending to people who don’t “opt-in” or agree to participate, and allow them to opt out. But, for pennies an email, you can get your own email management program that will help you take care of many of the CAN-SPAM compliance issues.

In case you haven’t seen the headlines, Verizon just won a 33 million dollar lawsuit against OnlineNic for registering trademarked domain names - according to articles published on the web, these include - myverizonwireless.com, iphoneverizonplans.com and around a million others relating to all kinds of popular brand names. 

For those of you who think this is not relevant to affiliate marketing, think again.  Verizon claimed that showing competitve ads on these pages was defrauding the public, and well, cybersquatting.  That means, if you think you’re going to buy a brand name and turn it into a landing page or redirect as part of googles adsense or some other affiliate program, you might want to check the fine print before you end up as part of one of the lawsuits.  Brand names can be a very sticky situation, because you’re not the trademark holder. 

Btw, this doesn’t only happen to big guys.  Yours truly recently received a letter in the mail demanding a domain name be turned over immediately to it’s “owner” because of trademark infringement.  I had been a member of said company’s affiliate program, and, the worst part was, the domain didn’t even make a profit, so i stopped using it and turned off the auto-renew.  

Just a warning to all of you affiliate marketers!!

Did you ever hear someone say “write what you know”? The same techniques work best for affiliate marketing.  It’s easiest to write sticky, convincing content when you care about what you’re selling.  Much easier than, say, selling something that you’re trying to sell because it’s a good “google” word.  Think of it this way.  There are plenty of good, saleable products for things that you love. 

Here’s a suggestion. Think of something you like to do - is it watch sports, ride mountain bike, play wii? Or maybe you are an expert at hacking madden 2009.  All of these things involve merchandise of some kind that’s saleable.  Could you sell fantasy football guides, Madden 2009 hacks and  team updates,  recommend the best bicycle parts, or show how your wii has helped you lose 50lbs? 

Now that you have a plan, start selling!

When we think of comparison shopping sites, we usually think of mega sites like pricerunner.com that let people review and compare.  However, a comparison site doesn’t have to be a mega site.  Think of it this way - how can you present the best of 4 options? Who’s better netflix or blockbuster? Which ebook gives the best advice for the buck? these simple comparisons can be just as successful as a mega shopping site. 

Make sure in your comparison sites that you are comparing apples to apples. People can easily see through big leaps. Also, visually show the winner via a star rating or check marks.  This will make it easy for shoppers to visually san and compare.

Automate your affiliate sales with these easy scripts.  Visit  http://www.c3scripts.com/ for a whole directory of free scripts to automate your Amazon Associate program, Audible, Posters.com, Calendars.com, as well as a whole bunch of other free scripts to jump start your affiliate marketing business.

It’s Christmas time and everyone is scurrying to make the best of the 4th quarter.  For those of you who don’t know, all retail “profits” are made in the 4th quarter.  That is to say that most stores operate in the red until black friday, when the borrowing stops and sales are made for the year.  So, as affiliate marketers, that’s a big clue that most of our profits are going to be made in the 4th quarter.  Expect sales to double or triple their normal business on retail items and holiday gifts, and try to pick up a piece of that market share.  On the flip side, if your targeted affiliate programs are not retail driven (lets say click bank), be prepared to have your sales slump, and you may need to re-tune your sales for something more holiday focused, as people start exclusively buying gifts for the holiday season. 

Jeremy Palmer’s  Quit your Day Job guide to performance marketing is now a free download.  Go get it off the presses while it’s still hot. This is probably one of the best guides to PPC that I’ve read, although I must admit that it’s not 100% complete. Jeremy takes you so far, but he leaves some of the details for you to figure out on your own. Or at least, he’s not telling you how to make 100k a year. But he says that in big bold letters.  I like his strategy though, fundamentally.  

Today I was wading through a list of new publishers for an advertiser’s program that I oversee, and I was amused to find that someone wrote that their site incentive was - and I quote -  ”I give you kiss if I make sale.” Someone else preceded to enlighten me that Travelocity and Office Max have great deals all the time.  Needless to say, I did not hesitate to hit the big DECLINE button. Many publishers don’t realize that someone reads their CJ or Linkshare application other than the affiliate network where they apply. In many cases, the affiliate manager of the program also reviews or screens each publisher’s application, looking for certain criteria to find a good match between publisher and advertiser. Advertisers have complex lists based on the needs of the advertiser, and sometimes include things like a publisher’s earnings, category of business, and promotion methods, so don’t be offended if you get declined from a program. However, your application to the program is a lot like a resume - if it looks great, you’re a lot more likely to get accepted to the affiliate program of your choice. When filling out applications for affiliate networks and programs, try to include the following:

• Your full name and business name. If this is going to be a serious business venture, treat it seriously. At first glance, a company name looks a bit more like something that’s going to earn some revenue than “wallysmith” 
• A valid email address, preferably one that would look good at the top of a resume.
• The urls you use or own. If you don’t own a website yet, buy one for your new company, and think of it as real estate. Even if you’re just interested in running PPC campaigns, create a small website that says that you’re a PPC business. (see other articles for more info on creating websites)
• Any offer or incentive that you are passing on to the consumer. This only applies to loyalty or coupon sites. Are you donating a portion of the purchase commissions to charity? Are you giving the consumer cash back? Does your frequent buyer get a free ipod with $10,000 worth of purchases. You get the idea. Otherwise, don’t put silly things in the box. Incentive offers get double flags for advertisers, so when reviewing, I have to click ok twice. An affiliate manager on his 25th new publisher might get annoyed and click cancel or decline by accident. 
• Use correct grammar and punctuation. Remember that people reviewing these are from the 9-5 business world. They’re looking for some level of professionalism. 
• How you are going to promote the product. Depending on the affiliate network or program, this is either in a drop down form, or in a paragraph style form.  If you don’t have any ideas of how to promote your new advertiser, don’t apply yet - you’ll risk getting kicked out for being inactive. For those of you who are a bit confused, here’s the breakdown of promotion methods
  • Content / Website - You own a website, you’re going to put banner ads or articles about products on it. 
  • Email Marketing - You’re going to create a list of people and send them emails about products
  • Paid Search (Search Marketing) - You’re going to advertise on Google / Yahoo / MSN and then link back to their site or a landing page that then links to their site. 
  • Incentive - You’re going to give them something to buy products.

Insider TIP: Ever wonder why you were declined from an advertiser? Don’t hesitate to ask. You might be a perfect fit, but were missed because the advertiser didn’t understand how you were going to promote their product. Maybe your DVD site didn’t make sense for a women’s clothing store on the application, or your country of origin is outside of their shipping range. A quick email may be all it takes to get back on board. 

I open up my inbox occasionally and read the emails from CJ.com that say something like so-and-so advertiser is no longer in the program or has deleted you from their program and I immediately hit the delete button. After all, I didn’t really want to promote that guy anyway, never really managed to make that program work, or don’t remember why I signed up in the first place.

But what happens when the advertiser on that “no longer with CJ” list is your bread and butter? Or, what if your favorite advertiser changes his terms.  Sorry Charlie, those terms that are converting well for you are suddenly off-limits. Now what?

So, my new years resolution is to consider my affiliate business to be more like my stock portfolio. I would never pour all of my money into one single stock.  But yet, I found it all too easy to grow my favorite advertiser until it was a nice chunk of income, forgetting that I needed to look for new leads.

This is my recommended strategy for growth. Start with at least 2 solid advertisers on one affiliate network.  Then, try a new network, and see if you can grow a third and forth. Then, try a new network, or move back to affiliate network #1.  TIP: Remember that affiliate managers often make decisions about accepting new affiliates based on things like earnings, so if you’re only earning a few dollars with one affiliate network, it may make sense for you to work on getting more earnings per network before branching out too far.