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Affiliate Marketing: The Forgotten Piece – By Jennifer Myers Ward

Colleen — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:00:21 +0000

You are launching an affiliate marketing program – how exciting! You start by laying out all the pieces for a successful program. You offer the best commission structure available and competitive cookie duration. You map out the top products, create exciting promotions, design effective banners and text links and recruit top targeted affiliates.

And once this is done, you have all of the puzzle pieces in place to create a successful affiliate marketing program, right?

Wrong.

You have forgotten a key element. Actually, it will be the foundation for your success: the website.

There is this popular misconception that all a merchant needs to get involved in affiliate marketing is a website. Yes, clearly you will need a website and, heck, even some products to sell on it too. However, it goes beyond that.

Think about it this way. If you were trying to sell your house, you would hire a real estate agent, advertise it in the paper, create a listing online, and so on. You would take all of the steps necessary to drive qualified buyers to your house, right?

But imagine for a moment what would happen if they showed up and there was a hole in your roof, the kitchen was missing appliances, the toilet was leaking, and the yard was overgrown with weeds. I am guessing no matter how many qualified customers you brought in, it would be very unlikely that you would ever get that house to sell.

Affiliate marketing is exactly the same. It is a very effective vehicle for driving qualified traffic; however, the success of that traffic is dependent on the quality of the website the customer is lead to. In order to best assess your website’s quality and usability, you should conduct a quick internal audit.

First, start with your web analytics as a guide to see where you stand in terms of conversion and to provide hints for possible problem areas. Then take the time to review your site. Sometimes this is best done by external parties as they are not as immersed in the website as you are and don’t have the same level of familiarity. You will want to review key areas on your site such as:

• Homepage layout. Is it clear and easy to understand at a glance what you are selling?
• Navigation and site search. Is it easy to find what you are looking for?
• Content pages and layout. Do content pages contain the information necessary to make the sale and present it in an attractive, easy-to-read manner?
• Checkout: The most important part of the sale process. Is your checkout short, easy to follow and secure?

Problems in any one of these areas can directly affect your site conversion rate and thus the effectiveness of your affiliate marketing program.

Remember, before you can evaluate the success of your external marketing efforts, such as affiliate marketing, you need to be sure your “house” is in order. Happy cleaning!

Jennifer is the founder of ebove & beyond and is a 15-year online marketing veteran.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 17 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-17

FeedFront issue 17 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/2

Four Affiliate Marketing Strategies for Podcasting – By Dave Jackson

Colleen — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 14:00:10 +0000

One of the ways you can earn money with a podcast is through affiliate marketing. However, you obviously can’t state an affiliate link in your podcast. They are long, ugly, and impossible to remember.

The other problem is while some people listen to podcasts on a computer at home or work, many listeners consume podcasts in the car, on a treadmill, or walking the dog. Generally speaking, they are miles away from a mouse and keyboard.

To solve this problem I have a few suggestions:

First, if you know affiliate links will be the primary source for your podcast monetization, never give out a website URL – even those that are not affiliate links. The phrase could be as simple as “We’ve got links to these in our show notes at yourwebsite.com.”

By being consistent, this becomes the standard practice for the podcast. Your audience doesn’t expect to hear URLs because it’s not something you do.

If you want your audience to visit your website, you need to give them a reason. Get something visual going. If you talk about a piece of software, tell the audience, “If you want to see this in action, I’ve got a video demonstrating it on my website.”

While you don’t want an audio podcast to be filled with visual references, if you’ve enticed people about the product they may want to see what it looks like.

Second, I realize that some feel the need to give out website addresses. In this case you can use an affiliate cloaking tool such as the Pretty Link plugin for WordPress. Now when you talk about a product you can say something like, “For more information on this product, go to yourwebsite.com/productname.

I do a version of this with a weight loss podcast I produce. When I talk about a product, I tell my listeners to go to mywebsite.com/product. This URL is easy to remember and promotes my brand.

Third, you can also make easy to remember links for each episode. If you talk about tools in episode 72, you can set up a redirect to yourwebsite.com/72 to direct people to that episode. You need to remember that your content won’t always be on the front page as people may consume this content years from now. While it may be easy to find today, it may not be so easy to find six months from now.

Fourth, never forget the list. Some people still prefer to be notified about new podcast episodes via email. With this in mind, many email providers have features that turn your RSS feed into an email message.

When you create a blog post, it is transformed into an email message. This is an easy way to get your affiliate link right in front of the target audience.

Dave Jackson runs the School of Podcasting and is the author of “More Podcast Money”.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 17 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-17

FeedFront issue 17 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/2

11 Ways I Drive Traffic to Sites – By Shawn Collins

Colleen — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:00:46 +0000

Just because you build it doesn’t mean they will come. Actually, they probably won’t come.

In addition to creating a quality site, you also have to dedicate time to driving traffic from a variety of sources.

In chapter seven of ExtraMoneyAnswer.com, my free online book for getting started as an affiliate, I go through my eleven key sources for driving traffic to affiliate sites.

Site Scrapers and Syndicators
NetworkedBlogs on Facebook
Twitter Tools
AWeber RSS to Email
YouTube Descriptions
Meetup.com Perks
LinkedIn Applications
Paper.li
Flickr Links
StumbleUpon
Podcasting
Facebook Ads

These are in no particular order, and I didn’t include organic traffic from Google, Yahoo, etc., as I would encourage you to focus on creating quality content, and the search engines will find you.

Get details on how I work with all of these traffic sources at feedfront.com/traffic.

Shawn is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine, and you can follow him @affiliatetip on Twitter.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 17 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-17

FeedFront issue 17 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/2

Seven Precursors of Affiliate Marketing Failure – By Geno Prussakov

Colleen — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:00:25 +0000

Let’s face the fact – people fail in affiliate marketing; and it is only fair to admit that this does happen. It is equally important, however, to understand why affiliate marketing campaigns fail, and what could be done to prevent the failure.

So, let me take a stab at outlining the typical reasons that can predict trouble: four for merchants, and three for affiliates.

Merchants/Advertisers

1. Having unrealistic expectations – From expectations of quick super-affiliate recruitment (and a consequent boom in sales) to anticipations that investments into starting a program on a larger network will immediately yield result to a myriad of other misconceptions in between, advertisers are often being mislead by unrealistic, and frequently ungrounded, expectations.

2. Managing affiliates – Leave your “managerial” approach elsewhere. The key to success is in managing the program, not these born-to-be-free marketers who have chosen to invest their time, effort and money into promoting you on performance basis.

3. Expecting something for nothing – Yes, affiliate marketing is performance marketing; meaning that you pay only for the actions you’ve agreed to pay for. But this does not mean that it doesn’t require any investment. As any marketing campaign, it does.

4. Engaging “cruise control” – Regardless of what you may have read on- or offline, it is impossible to develop a successful affiliate program if you’re cruising without an all-encompassing assistance from a human being (something also known as an “autopiloted approach”). Another illustration to consider comes from gardening. As a good gardener, you shouldn’t focus on planting only, but must continually fertilize, water, weed. Unless you’re actively engaged in these beyond-the-planting activities, you’ll neither see the bloom, nor the crops.

With merchants the overall problem can often be summarized in two words: mismanaged programs.

Now, let’s get to affiliates:

Affiliates/Publishers

1. Not playing without the ball – Failure to devote time to thorough due diligence and education (prior to investing effort and especially money!) is frequently the determinant of whether the campaign will be a success and a failure. Doing homework is fundamental to growth and success.

2. Faking it – Tony Robbins is known for saying that “passion is the genesis of genius.” Einstein quantified the latter for us in his: “genius is 1% talent and 99% percent hard work.” There is no way to fake neither passion, nor hard work. If you don’t have aptitude for either of these, invest your time elsewhere.

3. Not diversifying – Never put all your eggs in one basket. When it drops, you lose everything.

The problem with affiliates often lays in the misalignment of hopes, goals, expectations and realities of what really works.

Finally, regardless of whether you are involved in affiliate marketing as a merchant, or as an affiliate, it is good to keep William Foster’s words in mind. He once pointed out that “quality is never an accident” but “is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution.”

Things are exactly the same way with quality results-oriented affiliate marketing.

Geno Prussakov is an international speaker, book author, blogger, affiliate marketing consultant and program manager.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 17 here – http://issuu.com/affiliatesummit/docs/feedfront-17

FeedFront issue 17 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2012/2

Writing an Effective Internet Marketing Plan – By Sarah Bundy

Colleen — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:00:53 +0000

It’s amazing how few business owners that I speak to, that don’t have a marketing plan. In this highly competitive business environment, it is essential that you create your marketing plan, outlining goals, strategies and tactics needed to help your business become successful.

Here are five easy steps to create an effective internet marketing plan that can help your business prosper:

Step 1: Situation Analysis
Define your business, your product/service and your target groups. Describe each in as much detail as possible, focusing on the benefits of your product and what problem you’re trying to solve for your prospective customer.

Focus on narrowing down your target audiences and create personas for them. You should have one primary target audience and possibly one or two secondary markets when you’re done.

Step 2: Competitive Analysis
Once you’ve defined what you do, why you’re doing it and who you’re doing it for; research the market to understand who your main competitors are. Don’t consider only online direct competitors but also indirect competitors such as brick and mortar locations, shopping comparison sites and other related websites where the customer can also find the solution to the problem they are trying to solve.

Then describe why your solutions are better, different and more valuable than your competition.

Step 3: Main Messaging and Positioning
Once you’ve defined your situation, identified your target markets, and differentiated yourself from your competition, you’ll be able to identify what your value propositions are and clearly communicate those into your main messaging on your website and across multiple channels.

It’s best to focus on one or two main messages that are short, memorable and targeted specifically to speak to your target audience(s).

Step 4: Online Marketing Channel Strategy
Evaluate different marketing channels to reach your market and your goals. Look at various strategies such as SEO, PPC, social networks, press releases, affiliate marketing, video, email, and more. Think about where your target market is and how they are finding solutions to their problems.

Focus on one channel at a time. Launching too many campaigns at the same time without executing any one of them carefully is a waste of time, money, and brand image for your company. If you’re going to be exceptional, focus and make it count.

Step 5: Financial Analysis
Set sales projections, budgets, and timelines. Focus on the highest converting options that produce the highest ROI. Leave the rest until you’re ready.

If you don’t have a lot of money to invest in the beginning, focus on the options that produce the fastest and highest returns. Then put those earnings back into growing your business more.

Make sure for each of these steps; realistic, measurable goals are set. Without set goals, a final destination and plan of how to achieve them will keep your business from growing into the success it deserves.

Sarah Bundy is the CEO of AIM, Canada’s leading Full Service OPM (allinclusivemarketing.com).

Download the entire FeedFront issue 16 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/69193074/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-16

FeedFront issue 16 articles can be found here as well:

You Can Learn Lots from a Survey – By Wade Sisson

Colleen — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 14:00:51 +0000

Success in affiliate marketing comes from a number of factors – not the least of which is communication between the merchant, the affiliate, and the affiliate manager.

Creating an affiliate survey is a very effective way of aiding such communication.

An affiliate survey benefits more than the agency or program manager who created the survey. It also benefits:

1) the survey creator, who wants answers;
2) the merchant, who wants affiliate feedback;
3) and affiliates, who want to feel their thoughts, wants, and needs are heard and addressed.

Here are a few steps that will help you effectively create, distribute, and collect an affiliate survey.

Ask the right questions.

Your survey has a lot of ground to cover. You want to gain information about the affiliate, such as what tools he/she uses to promote the brand (blog content, coupons, data feeds) and what would inspire him/her to do more (better creative, higher commission).

You also want to learn about the effectiveness of the current program. Is it competitive? Do the affiliates feel they have everything they need to succeed?

Keep it simple.

Try to keep your survey at ten questions or less. Remember – you want answers. If this starts to feel more like the SATs than a survey, your response rate will plummet.

If a question might only pertain to a small segment, such as a question meant only for coupon affiliates, do another survey later that targets only that segment. Don’t risk alienating your entire affiliate base.

Give the respondent the freedom to offer additional feedback.

Include a comment box with each question. Also acknowledge that the affiliate may want to talk about things you didn’t ask by including a “Share any other feedback you may have” comment box at the end of the survey.

Ensure your affiliates that their feedback matters.

Actions speak louder than words. Make the time to thank each affiliate for his or her feedback. And if someone asked to be contacted for more discussion or assistance, do it.

Follow up!

The information you gain from the survey is only valuable if you act on it. Use the responses to develop a plan of action – and present it to the merchant and /or network.

If the majority of respondents say that taking a certain course of action would greatly improve their effectiveness, you will be able to make a strong case for that course of action. The best case scenario: to be able to deliver on your affiliates’ wants and needs.

Offer an incentive if you can.

Remember – affiliates are entrepreneurs, and their time is valuable. If you can offer value, beyond the inherent value of gathering information that can make the program stronger, you’ll get a better response rate.

Wade Sisson is Director of Marketing for affiliate program management agency Schaaf-PartnerCentric.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 16 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/69193074/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-16

FeedFront issue 16 articles can be found here as well:

Why Are You Still Doing Everything Yourself? – By Missy Ward

Colleen — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:00:18 +0000

When you first start a business, money is tight and you might feel that you need to do everything yourself – even things you’re lousy at or frankly, just despise doing.

From handling all your own designing, writing sales copy, managing client relations, managing the sales process, fulfilling products or services, running office errands, bookkeeping and more, you can quickly become overwhelmed and burnt out.

But most importantly, with only so many hours in the given entrepreneurial day, you will be hard-pressed to achieve the success you dreamed of when starting your business if you get bogged down in all of the details.

That was me 10 years ago when it came to designing my affiliate sites. Not only were they visual train wrecks, but much to my dismay, they were taking way too much time to have them turn out that way.

So what did I do? I went out and purchased a different design program and spent many hours learning how to use it, but it didn’t help my sites look any better. I then paid someone for three hours of their time to tutor me until I knew that program inside and out. After countless hours of wasted time and a bunch of wasted money, I realized that no design program was going to help me. I was just an awful designer and I hated every minute I spent doing anything design-related.

At that point, I realized that I was thinking too small and could either spin my wheels in hopes of getting ahead, or hire a good designer that would enable me to concentrate on the things that I do best.

My biggest fear was that I was going to break the bank by hiring someone to help me. But, I quickly found a few designers through recommendations that helped with site skeletons that I could build upon, that didn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Today, there are many more cost-effective options to find folks to help you with design, coding, writing, SEO, social media marketing and more with sites such as Fiverr.com, Goferr.com, Elance.com and Odesk.com, to name a few.

You first need to figure out what you can delegate, so I recommend taking a week and writing down everything that you do. I mean everything!

Then, at the end of the week, take that list divide it into two categories:

1. What *you* could only do, and
2. What someone else is capable of doing for you

Once you find assistants who can handle what you are able to delegate, and probably do it better than you, you’ll be able to concentrate on the brainstorms and the revenue-generating projects that will help you succeed.

Missy is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit, Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine, and blogs on MissyWard.com.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 16 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/69193074/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-16

FeedFront issue 16 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2011/10

Was Panda Just the Beginning? – By Vinny O’Hare

Colleen — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:00:03 +0000

Since the Google Panda update a few months ago, many folks have spent a great deal of time trying to figure out the algorithm. As for me, I’m simply left wondering… what’s next?

Google is not likely to stop finessing the search results anytime soon, which leaves me to think about the quality Google wants and continue to make adjustments accordingly.

Last month, while at a search engine conference, I peered upon an exhibit hall full of booths offering link building services. And while link building businesses have been successful, I don’t see it lasting in the form it is in now.

Gaming the system is something that Google will simply not stand for, and as the web becomes more social, they might consider discrediting links and focus more on social to weight the listings.

Focusing on making your website better will enable you to avoid being caught up in a sweeping Google change when it happens.

While this is just conjecture, these are some of the things that Google might consider adding to their next update:

If Google decides they now want to see a phone number or an address on every site it would likely eliminate a significant portion of the MFA (Made for Adsense) sites out there. This would clean up the internet at the same time, as it’s not likely that these website owners would go through the trouble of getting a P.O. Box and a Google voice number to avoid it)

Similarly, they might decide to eliminate sites that don’t have about us, contact us, disclosure or privacy policy pages.

If you are using Google Analytics and tracking goals higher than your competition, that might signal Google that you have a better site.

Could Google filter out all the websites that list an email account with a free account like Yahoo, Hotmail or Gmail? Seems like an easy thing to do.

Will they look for social proof like a Twitter or a Facebook account? I bet they already are but using the amount of interaction in the search engine results could weigh more towards brands who have teams working their social media accounts.

My biggest fear is to have a site on a server with a bunch of other websites that I don’t control. Call me crazy but when I moved my sites off cheap web hosting last year all my sites went up 20-30% in traffic. I was no longer on a server that could have porn, gambling or be used to send spam emails in bulk.

Keep an eye on the Google webmaster guidelines and read between the lines to make your website better. This might keep you one step ahead of sweeping Google updates.

Vinny O’Hare is the president of Vincent O’Hare Consulting and his site is Vinnyohare.com.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 16 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/69193074/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-16

FeedFront issue 16 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2011/10

Transform Your Mobile Campaign with Progressive Targeting – By Gregg Stewart

Colleen — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 14:00:28 +0000

Gone are the days of cheap and virtually unlimited mobile advertising inventory. If you’re like most of us on the lead generation side of the business, you don’t have the luxury of buying expensive, premium traffic for your campaigns.

That may sound like bad news, but being clever in how you design and optimize your campaigns makes a drastic difference. You can discover elusive, profitable segments; eliminate hidden poor-performing segments, and transform otherwise losing campaigns into big winners.

“Progressive Targeting” is an alternative to the more traditional approach of buying traffic from sites with demographics matching your target users that you might expect to convert well.

Progressive targeting uses a structured analytic approach to precisely identify which segments convert better than others. By replacing assumptions and guesswork with testing and analytics you can dramatically improve the performance of your campaigns.

Progressive targeting consists of three phases of media buying that I liken to “illumination with different qualities of light”. In the first “streetlamp” phase you broadly identify promising and doubtful segments; in the second “flashlight” phase you probe and refine the most promising segments and in the final “laser” phase you mine top-performing micro-segments for maximal profit.

In order to use this approach, you need to have a deep understanding of your traffic sources, a fascination with data, and advanced campaign targeting and analytic tools at your disposal. Let’s take a look at each of these phases.

The “Streetlamp Phase”

In this phase, you want to buy traffic as broadly as you can while keeping costs under control and tracking as much click-stream data as you can. Be sure to set up your campaign logically and spread traffic out across all your test segments. Note segments showing “signs of life” and don’t worry if bid levels and competition keep you from hitting every target segment.

Many ultimately successful campaigns lose money during this phase, so be patient, resist the temptation to dismiss a campaign if it doesn’t perform well out the gate, and consider any losses an investment.

The “Flashlight Phase”

You’ll use your analytics in this phase to ramp up spending in what appear to be the most promising segments, while carefully blocking devices or sites that are the worst-performing.

Take your time, be patient and deliberate, and don’t be discouraged if you still have lots of money-losing segments or are losing money overall. You can build on the foundation of just a few profitable segments to create a successful, sustained campaign.

The “Laser Phase”

This is the phase where you get to parlay your learnings from the first two phases into profit. Carefully monitor your campaign, manage your margins and scale up as much as you can.

Become an “analytics junkie” and look for patterns in the click-stream data that you can exploit. Seek out new traffic sources, experiment with new creatives and don’t be afraid to revisit devices and sites that didn’t perform well in earlier phases.

And finally, as always, remember the affiliate marketer’s mantra: “Test, test, test”!

A pioneer of Internet publishing, advertising and e-commerce, Gregg leads Neverblue’s New Media Platforms division.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 16 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/69193074/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-16

FeedFront issue 16 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2011/10

The Benefits of Working with an Agency – By Dinesh Boaz

Colleen — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 14:00:08 +0000

As publishers, you’ve likely had some experience working with networks: sign up with a network, get approved, select offers that are in-line with your audience and (hopefully!) make some money on the campaigns.

With digital marketing agencies however, the process is a little less turnkey but the rewards and long term gains can far outweigh the detail–heavy process.

To begin with, performance focused digital agencies look for established and experienced publishers who are proactive and forthcoming with information.

Since agencies work with leading brand advertisers, they expect publishers to be transparent about their audience profile, the types of programs and verticals they have shown success with, what the conversion rates have been on those previous campaigns and the traffic sources and data collection methods the publisher has in place.

Similarly, agencies expect strict campaign compliance from publishers and have zero tolerance for fraud.

Working with an agency is a hands-on experience for both parties, as agencies are looking out for the best interest of their clients as well as their publishers. Since they work directly with larger and more established brand advertisers, agencies can help publishers monetize their traffic with branded performance-based opportunities.

This opens up many new avenues, as larger brands can translate into higher payouts, more campaign longevity, and less liability which can often be found in many ‘make fast money’ type campaigns on affiliate networks. In addition, agencies sometimes have exclusive access to private offers, ensuring that the offer is not already saturated in the market.

By offering a seasoned team of digital professionals, agencies offer accuracy and effectiveness when it comes to representing the publishers’ needs leading to successful client relationships.

Working hand in hand with clients to analyze and test creative, agencies ensure proven and consistent results for all parties, allowing for higher margin campaign with higher conversion rates. Publishers can also expect open communication and transparency from the agency on conversion rates, client needs and feedback.

For publishers, working with a brand advertiser can raise the value of your inventory. Affiliate marketing campaigns are frequently run in conjunction with a traditional advertising campaign and for publishers this can mean an increase in brand recognition and a boost in conversion rates. By delivering quality leads for the brand, publishers have a higher potential for an increase in payout.

By aligning your media with top digital performance focused agencies outside of the affiliate networks, publishers can be exposed to bigger and more sustainable clients.

If an agency is satisfied with the results a publisher is able to deliver for one of their clients, then they are more likely to refer additional business which can open the doors to additional profits.

Dinesh is Managing Director and Co-founder of Direct Agents, a full-service digital marketing agency (directagents.com).

Download the entire FeedFront issue 16 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/69193074/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-16

FeedFront issue 16 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2011/10