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

I was recently reading a post that my business partner, Shawn Collins had up on his blog, AffiliateTip.com, entitled “Cynical Marketing.”

In the post, Shawn talks about how there are some marketers out there that simply don’t get the fact that not everything they do has to revolve around making money. They forget that sometimes, it’s more important to just give back.

The content of his post was dead on and the timing in which I read it, couldn’t be more ironic.

You see, earlier that day, I was approached by a marketer who read a post on my blog, MissyWard.com, that discussed me coming out of affiliate management retirement to help support breast cancer research and treatment – a cause that is very close to my heart.

This marketer had the chutzpah to ask me “what my angle was and why on earth would I bust my a** to grow someone else’s company when there was absolutely nothing at stake for me”.

Rather than chastising him for his ludicrous implications, I simply told him how I felt.

Giving is in my DNA and since affiliate marketing is what I do best, it seemed like a natural fit.

He followed up with a “you’re nuts.”

You know what, Mr. Cynical Marketer? Maybe I am.

But I keep very good company.

Aside from the folks that Shawn mentioned in his post that give back to the online marketing community without ever asking for a thing back (Haiko de Poel, Jr. of ABestWeb.com, Scott Jangro of Jangro.com, Jim Kukral of JimKukral.com, Melanie Seery of NYAffiliateVoice.com and Kellie Stevens of AffiliateFairPlay.com), I can think of dozens of marketers, including Shawn, who neglected to name himself) who do the same.

Chris Brogan who takes the time to answer every single questions he’s asked on Twitter; Brian Clark who provides amazing free content on CopyBlogger.com everyday; Brian Littleton of ShareASale who takes the time to educate his merchants and affiliate marketers to both make the affiliate marketing industry better and push it forward.

Also, all of the folks that walked 60 miles with me to raise money for breast cancer research on behalf of AffiliateMarketersGiveBack.com ; Jeremy Schoemaker who provides dozens of case studies and tips to marketers to grow their businesses — the list goes on and on.

Now, it’s not to say that I’m averse to making money. I think I do a pretty good job at it. So do all of the people that I’ve mentioned above.

Maybe I’m just an idealist, but I believe that when one does well, there is an inherent responsibility to give back to the industries that have helped us get to where we are today and to help the less fortunate.

So, to all of the other idealists out there that give so much, with no strings attached – I salute you. Please keep doing what you’re doing. You ARE making a difference.

Luke 12:48 “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked.

Missy Ward is a Co-founder of Affiliate Summit and Co-Editor-in-Chief of FeedFront Magazine. She also manages the ThesisAffiliates.com program in which all of her management fees are donated to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

Download the entire FeedFront issue 5 here – http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue5.pdf
FeedFront issue 5 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00category/issue-5

Let’s say you’re a total newbie to the world of Internet marketing, and have heard there is “big time” money to be made in affiliate marketing. After researching different affiliate programs, you’ve decided to enter the highly lucrative (yet highly saturated) commercial ringtone industry.

You have already completed PPC training programs (I recommend Google AdWords training… and it’s free!) and now have a great list of keywords (using keyword list generators like the ones at tools.shoemoney.com). You’ve even purchased traffic via Google, Facebook, MySpace and other advertising vehicles. Now a steady stream of users are coming directly to the landing page provided by the advertiser because that makes sense. Right?

But wait. You are losing money… and fast. This traffic is costing you a lot and not many people are biting at your offer and converting. What should you do? Make your own landing page!

Why will your landing page out-perform the advertiser’s? Because you’re going to pre-qualify your user.

Carriers
Many ringtone offers only cater to specific carriers. Some may convert well for Verizon, some for Sprint, and others for T-Mobile. (Don’t hesitate to ask your affiliate manager which provider is working best on their network.)

Now, on your landing page you’ll ask the user who their carrier is and send them to an offer they can actually use!

Geo-targeting
You can also use your landing page to see what country the user is coming from and then send them to an offer based on their location. There are ringtone offers in over 100 countries now.

Don’t assume that just because you have selected only US traffic that this is what you’ll get. In fact, I often see a 5-10% margin of error here.

Other Ways To Monetize
What if the landing page you made doesn’t offer a user’s carrier? Or what if the user decides they don’t want to participate in the program? This is why your landing page should also include a huge Google AdSense leader board along the bottom. By placing it at the bottom, you are not only getting some money from them (as a last ditch effort), but you are not making the ads so prominent that the user prematurely leaves your site. (Don’t forget, to make money from Google AdSense someone has to leave your site.)

Putting products like Google AdSense on your page will give you back a percentage of your ad spend and you may be surprised at how much you receive.

Test It
Setting up your landing page sounds easy, huh? Almost fool proof? Well, not quite. Don’t forget to test your landing pages. I recommend using Google Website Optimizer to see which versions convert the best. Should I use buttons or text for my links? Red or blue? These variables make a difference, and only testing will give you answers.

So with a little fine tuning, your landing pages should be ready to earn you more revenue – within hours!

Download the entire FeedFront issue 5 here – http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue5.pdf
FeedFront issue 5 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00category/issue-5