Affiliate Magazine » August 2009 Issue

It’s All About You.com – By Ted Murphy

FeedFront Staff — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:00:30 +0000

Jeremy Schoemaker. Gary Vaynerchuk. Zac Johnson. All names you know or should know if you read this magazine. But have you ever thought about why?

The reason you know their names is that these marketing mavens have taken the time to build and maintain a personal brand. You know them because they want you to know them. They work at it. They invest in it. They view building their personal brand as an integral part of their business endeavors.

Personal brands are powerful. In many ways they can be more valuable than a product, service or corporate brand. Want to sell more wares? Slap Trump’s name on a building, have Britney Spears front a perfume or leverage the ShoeMoney name to sell a set of Internet Tools. People identify with people. Marketable people with solid personal brands can sell almost any product.

I believe every affiliate marketer should invest time and money creating his or her personal brand. Whether you are working for yourself or an employer, a personal brand can be an incredible long-term asset that can open doors and create wealth. You aren’t going to be a rock star overnight, but if you start now you can build over time.

Ted’s Tips for Starting a Personal Brand

Define Your Brand Promise
What are you all about, your interests, your specialty? Successful branding is about promoting your natural strengths. If you are a geek; be a super geek. If you are good looking; show off that pretty mug of yours. List out your assets and determine what will appeal most to your audience. Create a simple statement that defines your brand promise, such as “Creative disruption of the marketing industry with a smile”.

Own Your Name
If you don’t already have your own personal domain; go out and get one. Your domain should either be based on your real name or on a persona you plan to go by. Any persona you create should complement your brand promise. You should try to lockup the name throughout the socialsphere. Don’t be @johndoe on Twitter and have the domain technojohn.com. Be consistent whenever you can to avoid confusion.

Make Your Mark
Every notable brand has a distinct logo mark, color palette, font and style. If you are not a designer, hire a real designer with experience in branding. Share your brand promise and collaborate to create a professional graphic identity you like.

Share and Promote
Your new domain should serve as the hub for all things you. Update your content on a regular basis and use social media tools to start spreading the word. If you really want to grow you are going to need to invest some cash or other currency. Consider having custom swag made, attending industry events, and buying ads to get your name out as much as possible. If you want to be perceived as a rock star you have to promote like a rock star.

A serial entrepreneur, Edward “Ted” Murphy has founded six companies since 1994, has a reputation for disruptive creativity, and in a short time has built one of the most recognizable personal brands in the social media community.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 7 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/17376069/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-7
FeedFront issue 7 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2009/08

The Workspaces of Affiliate Marketers – By Shawn Collins

FeedFront Staff — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:00:21 +0000

Some of those “gurus” with dubious claims of success try to sell the affiliate lifestyle as a long vacation with an auto-pilot business that makes them rich.

You’ve seen them – the hyperbolic sales pages that feature some clown lounging on the beach.

I always like seeing the environments where fellow affiliate marketers do their work – the real places.

One of my favorite threads on the Wicked Fire forum is “What does your workspace/desk area look like for an Aff Marketer?” where lots of photos are featured of spots where affiliates get their work done.

My office is far from a beach, but it’s a geeky oasis for me with a bunch of computers, gadgets, games, books, and caffeine.

I spend a good part of most days there, and it’s sort of a “mullet office”. The business end is in the front with my main computer for most work, and then the setup in the back is for editing videos and podcasts.
Here is a look at the workspaces of some of the folks in the industry.

So we don’t work at the beach (most of us), and it’s all harder than it looks on those sales pages. Still, we have some pretty sweet gigs, don’t we?

Check out the latest issue of FeedFront to see “the sweet gigs”…

Shawn is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine.

Why We Should All Believe In Trade Shows – By Michael Sprouse

FeedFront Staff — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:00:43 +0000

I have to admit that when I entered this sector of online advertising as a profession, I totally underestimated the value of face-to-face meetings and relationships. I, like many, believed at the time that since a high percentage of daily business was done via IM, email and the telephone, that trade shows and other “physical” events were somehow less important.

Was I ever wrong. In fact, key trade shows – including and most notably Affiliate Summit – have become indispensable parts of our company’s marketing budget and resource allocation each year. So why, in this day of economic cuts, bailouts and a recession, are these seemingly “non-ROI” spending activities still thriving?

The first answer is because they are anything but “non-ROI” and have everything to do with making money. I’ve been in several different industries in my career, and I can tell you that at shows like Affiliate Summit, business actually gets done on the spot.

This is truly a unique characteristic as trade events go. In so many other industries, you hear about the long boring days at the booth, or the dull/fluffy presentations by out-of-touch “suits” who don’t understand the workings of the business. (Some people consider me a “suit”, so I can say that.) How lucky we are to have shows like these that are busy, well-attended, and bring together successful people and companies in the spirit of doing actual business?

The second answer is those all-important relationships. No matter how technologically advanced we as an industry get, there will never be a replacement for affiliates and affiliate managers meeting in person.

There is something less “tangible” or trustworthy about never having put a face to a name, email, or IM. Looking people in the eye is important. While you can’t measure this aspect of shows concretely, look at the volume of things that happen at the show, and during the evening events. People clearly value the social aspect of trade shows.

The third answer relates mainly to the networks and merchants reading this: “Branding”; a word that connotes something not often pondered. But, consider a few of the major trends happening right now; more marketing dollars flowing online; more dollars flowing specifically to performance-based marketing from cash-strapped advertisers during this recession; and a never-ending expansion of new categories and verticals.

All of this means more new people, affiliates and advertisers attending trade shows that are most likely unfamiliar with your company. No matter how “big” you think your company or network is, a majority of people that are entering this sector of online advertising probably haven’t heard of you. Being able to showcase yourself to these folks, and build new relationships with them, is huge.

Trade shows aren’t cheap. For networks and affiliates alike, it’s an investment in time, money and people. But from where I sit, I wouldn’t “trade” (sorry) the benefits listed above for anything else in our company’s budget.

Michael Sprouse is the Chief Marketing Officer for Epic Advertising, and is based at the company’s headquarters in New York, NY.

The Direct to Merchant PPC Minefield – By Deborah Carney

FeedFront Staff — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:00:55 +0000

Direct to merchant (DTM), pay per click (PPC) advertising has been increasingly restricted lately, with major merchants like Amazon and EBay stating they will no longer allow affiliates to use the merchant site as their landing pages in PPC campaigns.

What this means to affiliates is that they will now be tasked with building their own websites and landing pages that convert. Even though many affiliates made a lot of money using DTM PPC, the technique is flawed and smart affiliates should have recognized that long ago.

First, affiliates have been paying for traffic and sending it directly to the merchant. Unfortunately, when the merchant pulls the plug, as many are now doing, those affiliates will not have any residual traffic to a website of their own.

With perfected keywords, ads and their own websites, affiliates would have been able to continue without issue and have a site with some authority and customer trust.

Second, affiliates with their own sites could have been building a mailing list to use to contact people about similar or better products. Not a spam list, but a real list built from people that were interested in the product being promoted and possibly other similar products that can be featured on the same site.

Third, affiliates that perform well utilizing pay per click ads in the search engines have unique skills that many other marketers don’t have. Leveraging those skills to build traffic to their own websites provides them with an opportunity to increase their own authority and credibility with shoppers. Building their email list should take them to new levels that they weren’t aware they could achieve.

If you’re not great at building websites and landing pages, I recommend partnering with someone who is, or utilizing sites such as Elance.com to outsource the portions you can’t do yourself. In the ever-changing affiliate and online marketing landscape, the more you are able to utilize your skills and adapt to new requirements, the more successful you will be.

Deborah Carney (TeamLoxly.com) is an Affiliate Manager and Consultant that also hosts a podcast on Geekcast.fm to teach affiliates the ABCs of getting started (AffiliateABCs).

Reduce Fraud Risk Through Your Affiliate Agreement – By David Naffziger

FeedFront Staff — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:00:52 +0000

The majority of affiliates create value for their merchant partners, however most affiliate programs have been subjected to fraud at some point. Affiliate fraud can take many forms; it can be outright transaction fraud or other illegal activity, manufactured leads, misled consumers or traffic from prohibited sources.
The networks do a good job providing basic legal protections against these activities, but merchants should use their own affiliate agreements to ensure maximum protection.

The supplemental affiliate agreement fulfills multiple roles, but there are several aspects of that agreement important to protecting your program from fraud:

Identify Allowable Marketing Techniques
Affiliates use a variety of techniques to market your program including email campaigns, paid search, organic search, desktop software, incentivized programs and even offline advertisements or pitches. Your agreement should consider each of these techniques and describe in plain English which techniques are allowed in your program.

Provide generic statements that can be applied to marketing techniques used in the future. A common approach is to prohibit marketing campaigns deemed to be detrimental to the merchant’s brand. If an unsavory technique is used by an affiliate in the future, this clause may provide additional protection.

Handling Trademark Bidding
If you prohibit trademark bidding, require your search affiliates to add your brand terms to their list of negative keywords. The search engines aggressively broad match and some affiliates take advantage of this to comply with your policy (not bidding on brand terms), while getting their ads shown for searches on your brand. Negative keywords provide the cleanest method for ensuring that affiliates do not advertise on your prohibited terms.

Delay or Deny Fraudulent Payments
Affiliate fraud is frequently perceptible in the data provided by the affiliate networks. Sharp changes in affiliate performance or unusually high conversion rates can be early indicators of a fraudulent affiliate. However, this data is rarely enough to conclusively determine fraud. Credit card fraud can take weeks to surface. Other forms of abuse such as trademark poaching or spyware take time to collect the evidence necessary.

Give yourself the right to delay payments if you suspect fraud. Don’t allow pressure to finalize your payments prevent you from making a good decision about suspected fraud. Delayed payments give you the opportunity to fully research the suspicious activity and collect the data needed to deny or reverse payments.

Once you’ve conclusively identified fraud, give yourself the ability to deny or reverse those payments. Keep in mind that these terms should only be used if fraud is legitimately suspected, not as a tool to manage disagreements with affiliates.

Your affiliate agreement is an excellent tool for managing your fraud risk; however it is only one aspect of a comprehensive fraud prevention program that includes affiliate application review, regular communication and abuse monitoring.

Make sure you consult legal counsel as you craft or modify your affiliate agreement.

David Naffziger is CEO of BrandVerity, a firm that detects affiliate violations of merchant paid search policies.

Ten Ways to Promote Facebook Business Pages – By Mari Smith

FeedFront Staff — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:00:17 +0000

Facebook’s Terms of Use state you can only have one account and it must be in your actual name, not your business name. However, there is a place set aside to represent and promote businesses called Facebook “Fan” Pages (“Pages”).

The Pages feature is somewhat obscured; scroll down to the foot of any Facebook.com web page and click on “Advertising.”

Here are ten suggestions for promoting your Facebook Page (much of which can be delegated to a trusty assistant/team):

1. Choose a Facebook Username.
Since Saturday, June 13, Facebook has offered usernames on a first-come, first-serve basis for profiles and the Facebook Pages. Details at www.facebook.com/username/.

2. Talk about your Page on Twitter.
Tweet about your Page URL regularly. Preferably not just, “Check out my Facebook Page [insert link].” Rather, offer something enticing like “New Affiliate Marketing White Paper just loaded at my Facebook fan page [insert link].”

3. Create content just for Fans.
Add content to your Page for your Fans they cannot get anywhere else, e.g. videos, tips, special gifts, discussion threads, coupons, etc. (Of course, this content could be repurposed later. You might want to give your fans first dibs though).

4. Conduct weekly drawings.
Run a weekly (or even daily) prize drawing where you draw a Fan’s name at random for a special prize, ideally connected to your business product/service.

5. Play hide ‘n’ seek.
“Hide” something on your Page and encourage your Fans to find it. e.g. a special link, or discount code. Have them tweet their answer to you. The first “x” gets a prize.

6. Promote regular contests.
People love contests and video is real easy to create from computer webcams right onto Facebook. Create a photo and/or video contest. Have your Fans upload their photos/videos to your Fan Page. (Each activity your fans do creates a feed item for more visibility for you).

7. Provide a place for interaction.
Start a thread on your Discussion Board that allows your fans to promote and/or network with one another. For example, invite your fans to submit their own (and/or their favorite) blogs and Twitter IDs.

8. Acknowledge fans.
When new Fans write on your Page Wall, respond by writing back on their Profile wall. (This helps create visibility for both you and your Fans). Also, look for your fans on Twitter and send them an @ message.

9. Send email broadcasts.
Send an email blast to your regular opt-in list inviting them to join your new Facebook Page. Consider offering an incentive to do so. Also, include an invitation to join your Page on your email signature file.

10. Test Social Ads.
Promote your Page with Social Ads. Every time someone becomes your Fan their name and photo may appear alongside your ad. There’s a reason Facebook combines Pages with Social Ads under Advertising. Experiment with a weekly/monthly budget and see what happens.

Mari Smith is a social media consultant, speaker and trainer, and she blogs at http://marismith.com and http://www.whyfacebook.com

Reward Sites: Asset or Liability? – By Tricia Meyer

FeedFront Staff — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:00:36 +0000

Every merchant, at one point or another, has heard a horror story about cash back/reward sites and why they shouldn’t work with them, however, when done properly (avoiding known issues and ensuring that certain checks are in place), reward sites can actually help grow your program.

Here are five ways:

1) Reward sites have strong membership bases that can be leveraged. Whether you are a well-known or lesser-known brand, the reward site can use its relationship with its members to give your brand both exposure and credibility.

2) Most reward sites keep track of the purchase histories of their members in some way. Using their databases, they can help you target particular demographics and types of purchasers for your products. They know who buys shoes, kids clothes, electronics, etc.

3) Because reward site members watch their accounts closely for credits, the sites can help you pinpoint tracking issues at the network level or even on your site. This can help you isolate particular landing pages or links that are not working before the problem becomes widespread.

4) Reward sites give people an extra incentive to make bigger purchases than they might have made otherwise. When a member is getting cash back on a purchase, they often consider it the same as a discount, which can lead to higher purchase amounts. In many cases, it may even lead to a purchase where there may not been one.

5) A good reward site will be able to quickly track down and minimize fraud. By monitoring accounts and watching spending patterns, reward sites can often alert you to fraudulent purchases before they are even shipped. This can include stolen credit card numbers and false information.

The degree of benefit will, of course, depend upon the particular reward site. Talk to the cash back sites with which you are interested in working and ask them how they can help you with some or all of the above.

Tricia Meyer is the owner of the cash back shopping site SunshineRewards.com.

Privacy Is Good Policy – By David Klein

FeedFront Staff — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 15:00:11 +0000

Clients frequently inquire, skeptically, as to the necessity of posting privacy policies on their websites. While some clients might prefer to skip that step (and expense), my advice is always the same: If you operate a website that collects Personally Identifiable Information (“PII”) from end-users (name, e-mail address, phone number, etc.), it is crucial that you compose an easy-to-read privacy policy that you make available to visitors on your home page.

Letting website visitors know, via your privacy policy, what PII you collect’ how you intend to use it; to whom you disclose the information to; and the security measures taken to protect that PII, is not only good policy from a customer-relations perspective, it is also required by state and federal law.

In addition to making sure that your online data collection activities are compliant with state and federal law, a well-written privacy policy can form a key feature of your online business strategy. If proper disclosures are included in your privacy policy and above the “Submit” button on your website, you can monetize user data through e-mail marketing, telemarketing and, where permitted by law, mobile/text message marketing, to end-users.

On the other hand, if you do not properly inform end-users of your intention to use their data for marketing purposes, any attempt to do so would almost certainly violate applicable law.

In crafting your privacy policy, you must provide specific disclosures for each intended use of the data, and you cannot deviate from the range of options granted to you in your privacy policy.

If you want to change your privacy policy to allow for greater uses of the PII in your database, you must contact the users that are already in your database and receive additional consent from them. For that reason, it usually makes sense to grant your business the greatest range of potential uses of the data when you first draft your privacy policy.

Even where you state up-front in your privacy policy that you can use your end-users’ PII in various ways, that does not always grant you the right to such uses. For example, more restrictive laws apply to the use of sensitive information such as Social Security Number, health-related information and financial data.

While properly collected end-user data may provide your business with a valuable revenue stream, collecting data also imposes a responsibility on your employees to safeguard such data. Various state and federal statutes require that you distribute to your employees a written manual on data security procedures, and that you notify end-users in case of any breach of security with respect to their data.

With all the rules and regulations governing the collection and use of PII – and given the potential financial benefits derived from a database of consumer information – it makes good business and legal sense to craft a privacy policy that is well-suited to the needs of your business, and that provides your website visitors with the information they require to make an informed decision.

This is only a brief overview of some of the legal issues associated with privacy policies. Remember to retain a licensed attorney to draft your privacy policy.

David O. Klein is a partner with the firm of Klein Zelman Rothermel LLP in New York, NY, where he practices Internet Marketing Law. He can be reached at (212) 935-6020 or via e-mail at dklein@legal.org.

Multicultural Affiliate Marketing – By Brian Hawkins

FeedFront Staff — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:00:51 +0000

You’ve invested a lot of time and money testing PPC on dozens of offers. Once you believe you’ve found a profitable niche, its time to go global.

Attracting international traffic is relatively inexpensive because few merchants know how to best monetize it. Also, there are large, identifiable international markets to target online. Facebook alone has nearly 10 million Spanish-speaking users worldwide, a million of which are in the U.S.

Experience a New Culture

One of the most valuable assets for anyone marketing to an international audience is personal experience of the target customers’ culture. Fortunately, one of the best perks of affiliate marketing is that in most cases you can work from anywhere in the world.

Take super-affiliate Josh from ScrappyBusiness.com, for example. He was able to travel the globe after just three months as an affiliate marketer. Josh found rental apartments with Internet access on Craigslist, all the while immersing himself in the local cultures.

Build an Offshore Team

Smart affiliate marketers are building strategic offshore teams. Try freelance site Odesk.com or Craigslist to find staff that can help you translate and position your offers for specific cultures. You might be surprised how easy and cost-effective it can be to build a virtual off-shore team of highly motivated, college-educated staff.

“Translate” a New Affiliate Niche

Taking the simple step of translating your copy will dramatically set you apart from most competitors. Using translation software tools or WordPress plug-ins are quick, but they are far from foolproof. These programs have limits, and native translators will ensure you are connecting to your target market with the correct dialect.

Multicultural Inroads

Always keep in mind that many ethnic groups rely heavily on word of mouth to build trust when making purchasing decisions. With this in mind, try personally connecting through social media and by building landing pages that help convey this trust.

Also, consider sponsoring ethnic events, or taking advantage of the lower advertising rates that often exist at media outlets such as local radio stations. The point is to be creative and avoid some of the bigger ad channels that charge a premium for U.S. ethnic targeting.

Finally, know that you’re not going to get it 100% right on the first try. Keep enhancing your cultural knowledge, offers and vehicles to be on the path for international stardom.

Brian Hawkins has worked for two leading SEO agencies prior to his ethnic internet marketing focus as an Affiliate Marketing Manager for Pingo.com’s global telecom affiliate program, which pays up to a $35.00 CPA on Linkshare.

Why Integration Matters for Affiliate Marketing – By Debbie Bookstaber

FeedFront Staff — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:48:06 +0000

It seems clear that affiliate marketing should be an obvious win-win proposition for both advertisers and publishers. Affiliate marketing reduces financial risk and upfront costs associated with traditional marketing.

Since advertisers pay for performance, affiliate programs are among the most cost-efficient marketing channels. So why do so many companies view affiliate marketing as risky or even detrimental?

Although publishers work with advertisers, they do not work for them. Affiliate marketing requires advertisers to sacrifice control. As a result, tension exists between affiliate program managers and marketing departments.

Whether you’re a publisher or an Outsourced Program Manager (“OPM”), it pays to understand how others view the industry. Brand managers worry that placing their banners on affiliate websites “cheapens” the brand. Search managers are concerned with brand management and competition. Marketing managers claim that respected loyalty sites such as Upromise, Ebates and FatWallet cannibalize sales.

An affiliate program’s success or failure is a result not just of commissions but rather of the level of integration with the advertiser’s marketing plan.

When an affiliate program is integrated with the overall marketing strategy, publishers complement advertisers’ branding, sales and search efforts. Correctly managed performance marketing aligns the goals of publishers with those of advertisers, who reap the benefits of publishers’ expertise in SEM, SEO, loyalty marketing, and social media.

Gaining executive support is critical. Affiliate marketing must be seen, not as an add-on program or as a competitor, but rather as a key part of the strategic plan to increase revenue. After setting and enforcing program terms on trademark bidding, advertisers find that “search affiliates” strengthen the company’s search presence—blocking the competition, identifying long-tail keywords and increasing reach. Placement on comparison, coupon and cash-back websites also increases sales.

Above all, executives are concerned with the bottom line, and the bottom line is affiliate marketing, done right, is extremely profitable.

Debbie Bookstaber is the Director of Strategy at The JAR Group, www.thejargroup.com, an interactive marketing agency, which delivers a suite of online services that integrate search marketing, online advertising, affiliate marketing, social media, market research, and more, to grow our client’s revenue.