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

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

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

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

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: ]]> http://feedfront.com/archives/article004981/feed 0 http://feedfront.com/archives/article004970 http://feedfront.com/archives/article004970#comments Fri, 09 Dec 2011 14:00:03 +0000 Colleen http://feedfront.com/?p=4970

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?

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

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

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

I’ve written about podcasting in several past issues of FeedFront, because it’s a subject near and dear to me. In this issue, I’m going to take you about ten steps further and give you some things to consider about live internet broadcasting.

You could be a winner

Why produce live content? I’ll focus on just one awesome idea here: contests. People love contests and running one is simple. The largest live audience I’ve had for any of my shows was when I gave away four Gold passes to Affiliate Summit. People tune in for the contest and stay during the content.

Are you an affiliate? Partner with a few of your merchants to give away a couple of items. Are you a merchant? You could be producing a weekly live broadcast and giving away samples to your audience.

Online broadcasting has a major advantage over radio and television in that we have chat rooms. We are able to see who is tuning in and participating in real time.

When you say to your audience “the first person to tell me will win ”, you’ll get an immediate response in your chat room. After the show you can connect with your winner and make arrangements for the prize.

Live without a net

Broadcasting live online can be with audio or video. Audio is less complicated. Video requires cameras, lights and sets–or at least a clean room or office. Then you need to worry about your appearance. On the other hand, live audio requires a microphone. You can wear anything you like and forget about brushing your hair.

The only differences are the aforementioned equipment and broadcasting service provider, otherwise, the same principles that apply to audio can be used with video.

If you’ve been podcasting, live audio is a breeze. There are a few services that will stream your content out to your listeners via an audio player installed on your website. I recommend Mixlr.com. Their software runs on your PC or Mac and uploads audio from your computer to Mixlr’s server. From there, the audio is encoded and sent to anyone who uses your site’s Mixlr audio player.

If you haven’t been podcasting yet, there is one step to perform before signing up with Mixlr or the provider you choose. You must get a decent microphone. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but spending just a few dollars on a USB headset will make your broadcasts sound better.

$^%# it, we’ll do it live

Broadcasting anything live isn’t for the faint of heart, but don’t let that worry you. If you’ve done any podcasting or public speaking, you can handle a live broadcast. Remember: you’re not on CNN. You’re not helming ABC World News. Fortunately for the beginner, your audience will not expect perfection.

Consider the benefits and potential of live broadcasting and you may find that it will take your business to places you never considered it going.

Daniel M. Clark is a podcasting consultant and broadcasts live on QAQN.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

If you’ve ever searched Google and have seen enhanced listings, such as those with reviews of a service or price of the product shown, you’ve seen what microformatted data can be used for.

Microformats, or rich snippets, are a set of labeled HTML tags which help the search engines classify your data. You can tag many different types of data (see schema.org for some examples) but some of the common ones are navigation breadcrumbs, reviews, events, products and recipes.

Microformatting does not introduce new HTML tags, but rather labels existing tags. For example, instead of <h1>HTC EVO 4G</h1> your HTML code would read <h1 itemprop=”name”>HTC EVO 4G </h1>.

Why Should You Use Microformats?

Properly tagging your data with microformats will do a couple of things for you. First, search engines will be able to read your site easier, allowing them to better categorize what your page is about. Second, they’ll be able to display the data in the results in a method that will draw the user’s eye and encourage clicks.

Merchants should use this on their own sites, as it’s an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) advantage they could gain over their competition. Also, microformats will help the search engines read your data. If your site lists two prices for a product, retail price and your sales price, why make Google guess which one to display, when you can tell them which one is your price?

Affiliates can also take advantage of microformatting their data, whether it be their own data (customer reviews the affiliate’s site has been gathering) or the merchant’s data (product information from a datafeed).

How Do You Tag Your Pages With Microformats?

If you have a custom site, look up the type of microformat that best fits your data at schema.org. Schema.org, sponsored by Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, is the go-to site when it comes to microformat definitions. There, you can see various data types and what values are associated with them. Once you’ve added the proper tags, use Google’s Rich Snippets Testing Tool at http://feedfront.com/richsnippets to verify your changes.

If you’re looking for an easier way to get started, Raven Tools has created a series of easy to use forms at schema-creator.org. Simply click on the type of Microformatted data you’d like to create, fill out the form, then copy the given code back into your site.

There are also WordPress plugins to do the dirty work for you, such as the hRecipe plugin at feedfront.com/hrecipe, which will properly tag recipes in your blog.

It’s important to note that even if you properly tag your pages and test them, the search engines decide whether or not they’ll display the tagged data differently in the search result pages.

When you’re done, users on your site should see no change, but your data will be easier to read and categorize by the search engines, and your search engine listings could be shown with enhanced data.

Eric is an affiliate marketer & consultant specializing in PHP programming and search engine optimization.

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