Affiliate Magazine » April 2010 Issue

Rise of Affiliate Marketing in India – By Ricky Ahuja

Colleen — Mon, 16 May 2011 14:00:18 +0000

India is quickly becoming a rising star in the world of affiliate marketing. Due to the high human capital and the low cost of labor, working with Indian teams to develop and implement affiliate marketing solutions is a cost-effective practice for global businesses.

When looking for new opportunities to increase revenue and grow a business, affiliate marketing in India can be a reliable investment for companies all over the world.

Indian digital work teams have come a long way over the past decade. As internet commerce booms and replaces traditional offline forms of marketing, companies are constantly on the lookout for a cheap, reliable way to get their products into the hands of consumers. Affiliate marketing in India allows companies to create marketing programs for their products at rates lower than anywhere else in the world.

Contrary to the fears of some, Indian marketers are proficient in English, tech-savvy and often come from other job markets that require a wealth of intelligence and skill in their prospective studies and fields.

As a result, there are Indian affiliate networks launching seemingly every other week. Many of these networks are able to create systemized, performance-driven marketing campaigns for companies who are looking for a long-term and cost-effective affiliate marketing solution for their businesses and products.

A majority of these networks often have the same level of experience creating websites, ad creatives, writing copy and assisting with PPC and SEO as their American counterparts. Additionally, many of these networks utilize the well known American tracking platforms, making them an attractive and efficient alternative.

Some of the more promising ones and their top campaigns:

• Shoogloo Network (British Airways, Jet Airways, Yatra)

• vCommission (Maakan.com, Snap Deal)

• DGM India (Naukri.com, MakeMyTrip, Met Life)

• and an up-and-comer, Canada-based Ad Indian.

Of course, like any other business decision, there are some fundamental questions to ask yourself, such as…

• How do you know which ones to trust?

• Which ones are legit?

• Will they comply with the laws that govern your product/campaign? The answer is rather simple: DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE.

• How long have they been around?

• What brands are they marketing?

• Are they VC funded or being run out of a boiler room in a remote village (do they have boiler rooms in India…hmm?) with little supportive infrastructure?

The legit Indian affiliate networks are highly trained, have experience with affiliate marketing, very fluent in the technology piece and are able to assist clients in all parts of the world.

Through email, AIM and Skype, Indian affiliate marketing teams are able to work across continents with clients to provide streamlined affiliate marketing plans, cost-effective service, and a “potentially” flawless marketing campaign.

Affiliate marketing in India is on the rise. With customizable solutions that can benefit individual affiliate publishers and companies alike, turning to India for cost-effective technological solutions makes perfect sense for anyone interested in affiliate marketing.

Ricky Ahuja is the CEO of Affiliate Venture Group specializing in outsourced program management, PPC and SEM.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 14 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/52425616/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-14

FeedFront issue 14 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2011/04

The Work-at-Home Dad: Finding Balance – By Daniel M. Clark

FeedFront Staff — Wed, 19 May 2010 15:00:53 +0000

I’ve spoken with a lot of people about their work situations at events like Affiliate Summit, in forums and on blogs. In my informal polling, the number of people in our industry that work at home far exceeds any other industry I’ve ever worked in.

Many of us have kids of various ages, which can make for some interesting work days.

Working at home when kids are around can be a challenge. If the kids aren’t of school age, they’ll certainly want your attention during the day, and finding a balance between work and family is paramount to a healthy, stable life.

I’ve worked at home and been the primary caregiver (we never utilized day care) for over four years, and these are a few of my suggestions.

1. Blow off work
We generally like to brag about how our sites make us money while we’re sleeping, right? If your sites are giving you an extra six to eight hours of income, take advantage of it! Spend an extra half hour having lunch with the kids. Leave your home office at 3 or 4, instead of 5 or 6. You’ll still come out ahead with a few hours of extra “sleep time” income.

2. Make your living room your office
Who says you have to work in your home office? My home office currently has my son’s crib, his changing table and 15 boxes of comic books in it. The corner desk has no chair, and the monitor has no computer attached to it. My printer is in there, wirelessly networked to my laptop, which resides on my living room coffee table. My office isn’t my office; my living room is my office. I get work done and get to hang out with the kids.

3. Let the kids interrupt you occasionally
The work I do allows me the freedom to be interrupted—something regular listeners of my podcast can readily attest to. Never has my business suffered due to an interruption by the kids. Welcome it! They can be a great stress reliever during a rough day.

4. Make the kids part of your work
Depending on the kind of work you do, this might not be possible for you, but I know several affiliates that incorporate their kids into their business efforts. Kids are great at offering unfiltered feedback and coming up with ideas; they’re great at jumpstarting your creative juices, too.

5. Don’t forget your spouse
Make time to spend with your spouse without the kids. This is often easier said than done, but it’s vital to a healthy relationship.

I’ll occasionally read something on Twitter, usually from someone that likes to post “motivational poster” one-liners, to prove that they’re not wasting time watching TV. They’ll say that that they’re “a winner” because they’re “killing it” by cutting out all the so-called fluff in their lives.

If you’re not working to have time for fun with your family and friends—yes, even occasionally watching TV—what are you working for?

Daniel M. Clark is a blogger (danielmclark.com) and one half of the Geek Dads Weekly podcast (geekdadsweekly.com), a show aimed at dads dedicated to raising kids in a digital age.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 10 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/29057000/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-10
FeedFront issue 10 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2010/04

Should You Listen To Your Affiliate Manager? – By Bryn Youngblut

FeedFront Staff — Mon, 17 May 2010 15:00:44 +0000

I remember when I first started doing affiliate marketing; I thought most of my affiliate managers were just pushing offers on me because they needed volume on them, regardless of how well the offer performed. When affiliate managers operate with this mindset it can become a real problem.

While part of the job of affiliate managers is to assist us with mundane tasks, such as placing pixels and letting us know the latest “hot offers”, I’m finding that many networks are hiring people that can only perform these basic tasks.

I believe networks that don’t care enough to hire knowledgeable affiliate managers are only hurting themselves. For example, when I ask my manager simple affiliate marketing questions related to the offers and they can’t even understand basic industry terms, like CPV (cost per view), PPC (pay per click) etc., that’s a big problem.

Networks should require a certain level of experience from their affiliate managers. After all, they are managing people. If the manager has never promoted an affiliate offer before, how are they qualified to manage others, let alone be able to give advice on how to make certain campaigns succeed?

I’ve had experiences with the worst and perhaps some of the best managers. It doesn’t take long before you realize just who you’re dealing with.

A positive example I have is my great relationship with the network Mediatrust and my manager Geofferson. Not only does he go out of his way to let me know about the high-performing offers, he operates in a similar mindset as me. Geofferson wants to see me succeed and will do whatever it takes for that to happen – whether it be getting custom creatives and landing pages done for me or working to get me approved to try new marketing methods that the company did not previously allow. This gives me a huge advantage.

This article is not meant to be disrespectful to anyone in the industry, but in my opinion if I was a manager at some company and my job was to assist people with running campaigns that not only earn the affiliates commission, but likely earned a commission or bonus for me as well, it would only be right that I knew the business inside and out.

Bryn Youngblut is a full-time entrepreneur and affiliate marketer. He blogs at www.bryn.me

Does Making S@#! Up for Attention Work? – By Jim Kukral

FeedFront Staff — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:00:42 +0000

Sure it does. It happens all the time.

For instance, a town in Israel is claiming a mermaid shows up at night to frolic in the sea for all those that want to watch. Local officials are now offering a cash prize of $1 million for the first tourist to take a photograph of the mermaid. Look, we all know there is no mermaid, so nobody is going to make the million bucks. But, it likely drives a lot of tourists, and tourists spend money on food, beverages, lodging and merchandise. Attention equals revenue.

Think about how many millions of people have visited Loch Ness in Scotland to try and catch a glimpse legendary Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster? Or, the money made off of tracking down Bigfoot, or the lost city of Atlantis? How many historical societies have claimed ghost hauntings to get more people through the doors? How many people have traveled to Area 51 in Roswell, NV to see for themselves if aliens do in fact exist?

The answer? A lot. More than you can count, and they’re all customers.

There’s no reason you can’t make something up to get attention for your business. Your customers might even like a nice ghost story. The point is that making things up sometimes just works. Consider a made up idea to be marketing, because that’s part of what good marketing is… telling stories.

All marketers do this in some way or another. The difference between the good marketers and the bad ones is that the good marketers embellish and create and entertain to help convince you of a need for their product or service offers, and the bad ones are just trying to deceive you.

Your potential customer is looking for something from you that they can latch onto, and telling a story is a great way to give it to them. I’m not talking about having a robust “about page” on your Web site (which is important to have, yes). I’m talking about creating a story out of your brand. What is unique or different or fun or sad or amazing about how your business or career came about? Tell that story, and if you don’t have one, make something up.

Storytelling is an art in many ways, but it can be learned. Successful copywriters are master storytellers. They are able to tap into the emotions of their readers, engaging them and leading them to an eventual ending. In the world of marketing, that is the call to action, and until you have a strong call to action, you’re never going to be able to turn attention into revenue.

The preceding is an excerpt from Jim Kukral’s book Attention! This Book Will Make You Money, which will be in bookstores in August 2010.

New Look at Affiliate Motivation – By Geno Prussakov

FeedFront Staff — Wed, 12 May 2010 15:00:30 +0000

A year ago I came across an article on motivation in a January 2003 issue of Harvard Business Review. It was authored by Frederick Herzberg, a famous management psychologist. As I was reading through it, it struck me that making all things go right within any given affiliate program — i.e. having a 100% affiliate-friendly Web site (without “leaks”, with well-converting wisely-formatted landing pages, etc), running ongoing bonus campaigns, providing performance-based commission increases, satisfying every possible creative need affiliates may have, providing a well-categorized detailed product data feed, and so on — has little to do with real motivation of affiliates to perform for an affiliate program.

Herzberg wrote that “things that make people satisfied and motivated on the job are different in kind from the things that make them dissatisfied”. Additionally, at one point extrinsic motivators (your bonuses and prizes) stop being motivating unless they are replaced by more profound sources.

This is because true and lasting motivation always comes from “interesting work, challenge and increasing responsibility” as “these intrinsic factors answer people’s deep-seated need for growth and achievement.”

Herzberg also emphasized that a manager “can charge a person’s battery, and then recharge it, and recharge it again,” but “it is only when one has a generator of one’s own that we can talk about motivation” (italics mine).

Super affiliates inevitably come to mind. They do not need much outside stimulation. They are not joining an affiliate program because of activation or even performance bonuses, but because they have a plan on how to succeed with it. They are intrinsically prone to growth, learning, continuous advancement, and internal recognition.

With novice, or unconfident affiliates, you do want to be the “battery charger” in the beginning; but gradually lead them to a point where they are mainly motivated from within — by interesting opportunities in the affiliate campaigns you run, and growth potential.

Another article that comes to mind is Bronwyn Fryer’s “Moving Mountains” (Harvard Business Review, 2003) article. Fryer wrote: “There’s no trick to motivating others. It requires a clear, unbiased understanding of the situation at hand, deep insight into the vagaries of human nature at individual and the group levels, the establishment of appropriate and reasonable expectations and goals, and the construction of a balanced set of tangible and intangible incentives.”

Do you, as an affiliate manager have (i) a clear and truly unbiased understanding of the situation, and (ii) deep insight into what your affiliates want/need both individually, and cooperatively as an industry? Do you (iii) set realistic goals, and (iv) continuously motivate by a bouquet of tangible and intangible incentives?

Fryer also proposed several practical techniques that make one a better motivator. I have hand-picked those immediately relevant for us:

• Start with the truth
• Appeal to greatness (once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, etc)
• Make them proud
• Stick to your values
• Provide constant and consistent communication channel
• Build trust
• Care for the little guy
• Set different incentive levels

Best of luck becoming a better/deeper motivator!

Geno Prussakov is the Founder of AM Navigator, and author of “A Practical Guide to Affiliate Marketing” and “Online Shopping Through Consumers’ Eyes.”

Dealing with an Advertiser’s Landing Page Changes – By Ian Fernando

FeedFront Staff — Mon, 10 May 2010 15:00:31 +0000

Affiliate marketing is an industry that keeps changing. It is imperative that you keep on top of what is going on as it can greatly impact your business.

One such change that happens often on the CPA side of the industry is the constant modifications to advertiser’s landing pages. These types of alterations can damage your business, especially after the affiliate properly targeted and optimized their jump page variables to make the offer convert.

The worst part is that in all probability, the affiliate will never get notified by the advertiser or the affiliate network that they are working with. It is very likely that the affiliate will find out simply by noticing a drop in conversions. Unfortunately, by that point, it comes with a loss of income.

Luckily there are some sites out there that will help you be proactive with a problem such as this.

InternetOwl.com is a desktop application. You simply tell it which Web page to watch and it will check for changes periodically. If it detects a change either by HTML or text, Internet Owl will send you an email when the page changes.

The best part about this desktop application is when Internet Owl finds some changes, it can display the changes for you to see.

ChangeDetection.com is a Web-based service which also detects changes and sends you a notification via email. Change Detection creates a log for the page or in this case, the affiliate offer. When it detects a change, it notifies you.

Change Detection currently only monitors text changes and not HTML changes. For example, if an image has changed, you are not notified of the image change – only the change in the body of the text.

While these services have been around for a while, they are definitely being underutilized by affiliates.

Keeping on top of your offers and campaigns can be the best thing you can do if the network or advertiser does not detect it first.

Ian Fernando is the Founder of IANternet Media LLC and Blogger/Affiliate Marketer at IanFernando.com.

How to Kick the Hype Habit – By Rosalind Gardner

FeedFront Staff — Fri, 07 May 2010 15:00:11 +0000

As an affiliate marketer, you’re far too smart to fall for a line like “Make $100 Million (Lose 20 Pounds, Score a Hottie, Cure Your Acne) by Tomorrow – Guaranteed!!!” Right?

Well, if you’re under the mistaken impression that your prospects are somehow less savvy than you, or that the best way to promote products online is by mimicking the copy that shows up in your spam folder, it’s time to reconsider your approach, as all but the most indiscriminate and unsophisticated buyers are sick and tired of hype.

Like you, they have endured “snake oil” pitch bombardment for years. And with less money to spend in this down economy, smart shoppers are even more resistant to blatant sales copy. Write just one word to make the needle on their B.S. detector flicker ever so slightly and you’ve killed the potential for a sale. Worse, you have also lost the opportunity to build a profitable long-term relationship.

If you really want “killer” conversion rates and “eye-popping” commission checks, learn to tone down your “amazing” promotional vocabulary and kick the hype habit with the following 5 tips.

1. Avoid making absolutist claims. Unless you are the one person on planet who can predict the future, don’t offer guarantees which cannot be delivered with absolute certainty. More than a few affiliates have had their ClickBank and AdWords accounts suspended for making false benefit claims about their merchants’ products. If you’d prefer to stay out of court for deceptive advertising – keep it real.

2. Stay away from the CAPS lock. You don’t have to SHOUT at your prospects to get your point across. Just one exclamation point is all you ever need, if an exclamation point is required at all. Attract and appeal to a broader, more intelligent audience with simple and direct wording, without the cheesy styling gimmicks.

3. Don’t sell. Avoid “buy it now” and other aggressive sales terminology to create false urgency and make the quick sale. Your job is to educate readers so they can make well-informed buying decisions. Leave it up to your merchant to seal the deal.

4. Be patient. Hype-up copywriting is a symptom of laziness. A sustainable business takes time to develop, so don’t rush. Make the effort to create rapport with your audience by getting to know who they really are – their problems, wants, needs and desires.

5. Be empathetic. Communicate your understanding of your readers’ situation on an emotional level to build trust and the basis for a long-term relationship.

Use the copywriting strategies above to create something better than “grab a sucker quick” hyped-up copy that might make a few quick sales, yet destroys your long-term business prospects.

Work at it. You can have a more lucrative and sustainable affiliate business when you strive to diffuse skepticism, forge emotional connections and create relationships with prospects who trust you with their hard-earned cash.

Learn to craft copy that builds trust and credibility with intelligent people – like yourself.

Rosalind Gardner is the author of the best-selling “Super Affiliate Handbook” and her various blogs and consulting services can be accessed through RosalindGardner.com.

MasterCard Massacre Paves Way for Industry Leaders – By Laura Miller

FeedFront Staff — Wed, 05 May 2010 15:00:46 +0000

Once again, affiliate marketing was jolted by the swift moves of outside forces. The sudden mass exodus of MIDs (Merchant ID’s) by MasterCard swept many advertisers just in time for the New Year.

It had been rumored that the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) and Credit Card Associations, which encompasses Visa and MasterCard, had been meeting to develop guidelines that would regulate our industry. These guidelines have yet to be published, so it was the abruptness by MasterCard which caught many industry players off guard.

The number of advertisers and/or actual MIDs that lost processing is a direct result of a few “bad apples” that unfortunately bled across the compliant and ethical advertisers. There was no advance notice passed down from the bank to the advertisers. The advertisers typically found out after they stopped receiving new orders.

The advertisers that MasterCard targeted were the trial plus continuity merchants. The continuity piece of this business model was the portion that caused those advertisers the most heartache, as they could no longer bill any customers that had already enrolled into their programs.

These advertisers count on a certain rebill percentage and retention rate in order to recoup their marketing costs. Since they were unable to process rebills, most customers were written off as a complete loss.

So, now what?

We change. We adapt. A few years back, many networks eliminated incentivized traffic. Those publishers evolved and learned new promotional methods. Advertisers who were reliant on this traffic source learned how to fully optimize the other traffic types those networks accessed.

More recently, the FTC came out with new guidelines. Publishers and advertisers, once again, complied and changed to meet these new requirements.

This latest blow does not dictate the death of trial products or the end of subscription-based programs. This simply opens the doors for those advertisers and publishers committed to this industry.
The short-term players who saw our industry as an opportunity “to get rich quick,” will fade. Those that are committed to success will prevail.

Many of the affected advertisers are processing again. Several merchant processors have instituted “best practices,” which are guidelines that these advertisers must follow to get new MIDs. These “best practices” are a foreshadowing of the predicted guidelines that will be published by the Card Associations, so it is best to begin optimizing according to these changes now.

This is an extremely exciting time for anyone looking to enter performance-based advertising. It is going to be those companies who look at the changing times as an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage that we will see as leaders for years to come.

Laura is the Director of Advertising for Clickbooth.com and leads Clickbooth’s team of Advertising Consultants.

Increase your Productivity and Decrease Your Workload – By Brian Williams

FeedFront Staff — Mon, 03 May 2010 15:00:36 +0000

As an Internet marketer since 1994, like you, I began every day writing down the short list of tasks I needed to do, and the long list of tasks that I was either following up on or doing for others who did not. My biggest challenge was finishing my short list every day and failing to invest most of my time doing the highest value activities.

When I mastered the “Seven Habits of Highly Successful People” and “The One Minute Manager”, my success blossomed and my results soared. My secret is so simple you may have to read this twice to grasp it: I learned to only do work that was AT my pay grade, and stop doing work below my pay grade.

This is not to say I ignored work below my pay grade. I literally mean I stopped doing it and made sure others finished it automatically.

New World Thinking

Today the world has become more efficient than forward thinkers like Steven R. Covey and Kenneth H. Blanchard ever imagined it would be.

Internationally ubiquitous communication systems like Skype, GoToMeeting and Screencast go everywhere – including third world, English-speaking countries with young, talented, hard working and Internet savvy superstars.

Virtually speaking, this has led to a form of business that was unimaginable 20, 15, or even 10 years ago. It is the virtual team business.

Today, growing companies are taking advantage of outsourcing their staff to increase capacity and profitability. Companies failing to outsource staff will eventually die. The few companies that are able to put off the employee outsourcing model are in a niche where competition is low. The dynamics are such that an affiliate marketer who embraces and masters virtual staff outsourcing will take his business to the next level and stay ahead of lesser competition.

So, What Do I Outsource?

Fortunately for affiliates, many companies offer outsourced staff that match the needs we require to be successful and focus our time on higher value activities such as strategic niche building and tightening relationships with our affiliate managers.

For example, SEO, PPC management, copy writing, website design, blog creation, link building, social bookmarking, viral video marketing, video editing, keyword research, A/B split testing, reporting, and my personal favorite, cleaning out my email inbox are no longer tasks that I personally do. These get done by my virtual (overseas) team. For between $400 and $700 per month, you can hire a full-time virtual employee.

I repeat: Failure to embrace outsourcing and affiliates will die, just like the manufacturing business died in the USA.

Brian Williams is an affiliate marketer and President of Pear Lake Partners, LLC, www.pearlakepartners.com a full service Internet Marketing provider; was part of the founding team at uBid.com, and launched internet lead generation at Toyota USA.

Mobile First for Google. How About You? – By Michael Martin

FeedFront Staff — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 15:00:28 +0000

Mobile has been declared to be the focus of marketing with statements of next year almost as long as Red Sox fans had been saying it during their 86 year drought.

2010 is finally the next year for mobile marketing as Google CEO Eric Schmidt declared it so at the Mobile World Congress with Google’s new mantra of “Mobile First”.

On the same day, Facebook essentially echoed this focus as they affirmed 2010 is a watershed year for mobile with approximately half their users already accessing the service via a mobile device.

Why it’s important to these major Internet companies is the same reason it’s important to affiliate marketers as mobile is quickly becoming the most popular endpoint for users. This endpoint for users is done on a personal device that is more engaging and direct while also being timely and location aware.

The iPhone truly brought smartphones into mainstream use in America, and Android takes it a step further, similar to IBM PCs proliferating over the inroads that Apple and Macs paved. Over 100 different Android devices will be available this year, along with the new iPhone 4.0 & Mobile Phone 7, as they blaze an Oregon Trail to a new Wild West for affiliate marketers to lay claim to.

This new frontier will quickly advance to full mobile TV and video, along with a dominance of augmented reality merged with location aware social media and gaming.

Will you be amongst the first in the mobile gold rush?

Michael Martin PMP of Mobile Martin is based out of San Diego, California.