Associate Programs Newsletter #186
This week we look at sneaky predatory advertising by WhenU, more super affiliate tactics from Wayne Porter, a new way to fight Ezula's TopText, and LookSmart's Site Promote.
CONTENTS:
1. Does your program appear on this affiliate blacklist?
2. One line of code stops predatory advertiser
3. Super affiliates - PART 4
10 battle strategies of top affiliates
4. MYAP adds lifetime commissions module
5. Don't work too hard, Staples tells affiliates
6. DirectLeads sells affiliate tracking solution
7. LookSmart offers new way to get more traffic
8. Useful free resource: Niche marketing tips
9. Thought for today: When you ignore affiliates
__________________________________________SPONSOR__________
$ Affiliates BREAK THE BANK on Holiday Earnings $
=> GoCollect.com EXCLUSIVE Affiliate Promotions Help You EARN
MORE <=
* Over 35,000 holiday gift solutions for everyone on your list
* Swarovski, Disney, Precious Moments, Lenox, Movie & Sports
Memorabilia
* Free Shipping, loyalty rewards program and customer exclusives
* High commissions, low minimum payout, bounties and promotion
codes
* Thousands of banners, product links & personalized tips to help
YOU EARN
MORE!
The Web's Widest Selection of Collectibles & Gifts offers a 3%
holiday BONUS
to sign up now through 12/31/01:
aff.gocollect.com/associates.html
[UPDATE: Try this link: http://www.gocollect.com/affiliate/join/index.asp]______________________
========================================================
1. Does your program appear on this affiliate blacklist?
========================================================
By Neil Durrant
of http://www.affiliatemarketing.co.uk
A new predatory advertising client has been causing concern amongst affiliates and program managers.
The SaveNow.exe program piggybacks its way onto a machine when a user installs the WhenU toolbar.
Heated discussions on the USAMC - http://www.usamc.org - discussion forum have questioned the ethics of the "Trojan horse" manner in which the SaveNow program finds its way on to a user's system and the fact that it is not automatically removed when a user uninstalls the WhenU toolbar.
However, there are more important concerns about the manner in which the SaveNow application effectively claims commissions that are due to hard working affiliates.
Herby Olschewski of AffiliateForce.com explains, "No matter what an affiliate does to drive traffic to a merchant's site, when the visitor arrives at the merchant site, savenow.exe will serve a pop-up with WhenU's affiliate ID and/coupon code. Thus grabbing the sale. Did WhenU do the work to get the eyeball there? No! So why should WhenU get the commission?"
As affiliates learn of the SaveNow application they have been quick to act. One affiliate has posted on the Amazon Affiliate Discussion Board a list of 381 merchants that WhenU claim to have relationships with.
But as a final twist many merchants have been angered by this list claiming they are not actively working with SaveNow/WhenU. Upon double-checking, most have discovered WhenU have been auto- approved into their programs. Many merchants have responded by publicly stating that they have terminated these relationships.
I expect a very real backlash from affiliates - now might be a good time to finalize your company policy towards predatory advertising, check your existing relationships accordingly and communicate your position to your existing affiliates.
USAMC discussion group:
groups.yahoo.com/subscribe/usamc
More coverage of the topic:
Shawn Collins explains how WhenU deprives you of commissions, "Affiliate Tip: Do Unto Others" (see item 4):
clubmomaffiliates.com/11_2001.shtml
Christopher Saunders says some merchants are putting the bottom line first and are prepared to risk upsetting their affiliates. "Affiliates, Merchants at Odds Over 'Stolen' Traffic"
referit.com/main.cfm?screen=articles&id=170
Tom Hespos examines sneaky advertising: "The Scum of the Web"
clickz.com/media/media_buy/article.php/934701
The Amazon message board for affiliates, under the thread titled "Is WhenU.com Stealing Your Commissions?"
http://www.Amazon.com
More info:
http://www.Scumware.com
http://www.Thiefware.com
http://www.Whenu.com
======================================================
2. One line of code stops predatory advertiser
======================================================
Patrick Crampton of SgtSearch.com says he has written a definitive stopper for Ezula's TopText. It's not a refresh or javascript, but one small line of code.
"It took me a bit to get to the bottom, but I knew I could do it," Patrick says. "We as webmasters can use it freely because it really cannot be considered a specific 'Ezula Stopping tool'. It's just plain code."
Apparently, TopText uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) when it overlays advertising links on your site without your permission. Patrick's line of code is designed to disable it.
You can read an explanation and get it here free:
http://www.sgtsearch.com/blacklist/ttext.html
__________________________________________SPONSOR_________
What Do ALL The Best Online Merchants Have In Common?
They all RAVE about the power of Affiliate Marketing...
...so why don't YOU sell YOUR products through a powerful
network of affiliates??
Discover what to look for, and what you must avoid...
click here --->
http://www.AffiliateSite.com/index.phtml/specials/120601
___________________________________________________________
=========================================
3. Super affiliates - PART 4
10 battle strategies of top affiliates
=========================================
By Wayne Porter, V.P. Product Development, AffTrack
I have often likened affiliate marketing to a good chess game.
Companies marshal their forces and build new and powerful marketing strategies to go out and do battle in the trenches of e-commerce. Making a profit is not enough to claim checkmate - affiliates have to make sustainable profits to win.
The difference between success and failure in revenue sharing is often marked by the adherence to a few simple battle strategies. Following these strategies doesn't guarantee success, but ignoring them will more often than not spell failure.
1) Careful Planning: Super affiliates have a defined plan of action and have set goals and numbers they want to achieve. If you have no plan of action you do not know if you are succeeding or failing. The more detailed the plan the better, but at the very least you should have a written set of objectives.
2) Multiple Channels of Attack. To makes sales you must reach customers the same as chess players must bring out their pieces.
Super affiliates use multiple modes of attack including text and HTML e-mails. This is mixed with the occasional special mailing as well as featuring merchant relationships on their site. To make sales you must go on the offensive and use every avenue available. If the avenue does not exist you must create it.
3) Placement is Key: Strategic placement is the core of a good chess game. Most affiliate marketing veterans know that returns from standard 486x60 banner inventory usually don't come near the returns from making a merchant a "featured store" or placing a merchant on a special page or section within a site.
It is also vitally important to keep merchants placed in appropriate categories and contextually relevant.
4) Analyze Everything and Anything: Naturally working at AffTrack makes me a proponent of analysis. Time and time again we see the most successful affiliates doing extensive and smart analysis of their data. Not only do super affiliates determine what is making them the most money they also determine what relationships are costing them revenue. Every good player looks at the big picture on the board as well as zeroing in on the key battles.
5) Calculated Risks: From community to communications super affiliates endeavor to build a brand that conveys a quality experience. They take calculated risks and think of the possible consequences before they act. For example, you can actually "over monetize" your site and alienate your audience. It might be tempting to take short-term gains by putting 10 different co- registration checkboxes on a form sign-up but if a customer feels you aren't respecting their privacy or overloading their inbox they may not return. Evaluate changes before you make them.
6) Keep Records: The habit of every professional chess player is to keep detailed records of what worked and what didn't. With a record you can look back and determine what kind of mistakes you made and where your strategies worked.
The difficult thing about e-commerce is that tactics are constantly changing. However, accurate records will appreciate in value over time. Traffic and revenue records will give you a good blueprint to work from when planning future battles.
7) Know Your Limits. As with any battle you must know the limit of your capabilities and resources. Large properties with large amounts of traffic can afford to entertain relationships with slimmer margins - they have the high traffic to make significant and sustainable income from these relationships.
If you're a smaller or niche affiliate you may need to seek out higher margin and unique items to complement your attack. It is often just as easy to sell three discount books as it is to sell three mid-price digital products. The latter will sustain the small army a lot longer.
8) Experimental Offensives: Many chess players have standard openings that have been carefully studied over time by the community at large. One must not forget to create, experiment, and try new things. Super affiliates never rest. They continually try new forms, methods and avenues to generate income. They build on their experiments and learn from failures.
9) Strategic Value Propositions: This is really the best kept little secret of affiliate marketing - when possible always use value propositions when trying to close sales through affiliate mechanisms. There is no better way to motivate customers to act.
The leading types of value propositions include money or percentage off the retail price, coupon offers, free shipping, a free gift with purchase and buy-one-get-one-free deals. These are tried and true promotions that continually and dependably drive online transactions.
The validity of this is echoed time and time again when you look at the offers that top affiliates put on their sites.
10) Study and Apply History. Just as chess players study great games by the grandmasters super affiliates study other successful companies and target proven categories.
For large affiliates the steadiest producers are historically apparel and shoes, electronics, entertainment, books and video. For smaller affiliates historical winners are informational products, digital downloads, software and services.
COMING SOON:
Super affiliates - Part 5 (the final in this series)
[AffTrack is no longer available.]
__________________________________________SPONSOR__________
Looking for a program that gets hot AFTER the Christmas rush is
over?
Millions of U.S. taxpayers file their tax returns on-line each
year, and the number is growing. How many of them are visiting
your site? You can receive 45% + in commissions with our
Co-Branded Affiliate Program which features: variable pricing
(set your own commission!), on-line statistics, monthly payments,
customer email gathering, and more.....
filesafe.net/affiliate.htm
[UPDATE: This site vanished.]
___________________________________________________________
========================================
4. MYAP adds lifetime commissions module
========================================
MyAffiliateProgram (MYAP) affiliate tracking software just keeps getting better.
Kowabunga Technologies has released a new add-on for MYAP called LifeTime Commissions. Merchants now have the option of paying affiliates commissions on ALL purchases made by a referred customer for the life of the affiliate.
"This means that the affiliate will earn a commission on the purchase made the first day, a purchase made the next week, the following month, three months later and so on for the life of the affiliate. This is a great incentive for merchants to use to cultivate productive, loyal affiliates," Kowabunga says.
Winning the loyalty of your affiliates is hugely important in an industry where they have thousands of choices.
MYAP software, used by more than 500 merchants, has an excellent reputation for reliability and customer service.
If you're planning to set up an affiliate program, be sure to check out MYAP:
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/my-program
If you like the sound of earning lifetime commissions, you can find 74 lifetime and residual commission programs reviewed here:
http://www.LifetimeCommissions.com
================================================
5. Don't work too hard, Staples tells affiliates
================================================
The newly modified Staples affiliate program has an earnings cap, Teri S. Lee of http://newz2me.com says.
This is really weird. It means that if you earn too much, Staples won't pay you commissions above a certain level.
The level where you stop earning commissions is set at $200,000, so that's not likely to affect most of us, but the whole idea of an earnings cap is ridiculous. It's like telling your sales force to slow down.
"Granted, I would be happy if I earned that much, but if I hadn't read it and then earned that much, any clicks after hitting the limit would be free to Staples," Teri says.
================================================
6. DirectLeads sells affiliate tracking solution
================================================
Advertising network DirectLeads is now selling its affiliate tracking solution, DirectTrack, the technology that has powered DirectLeads since 1998.
"The set-up is $750, and we charge a nominal fee for bandwidth and traffic," says Jason Wolfe of DirectLeads.
"We do not charge a percentage of sales, leads, or clicks that you pay to your affiliates. For anyone switching from CJ/BeFree/LinkShare, we will credit accounts with 50,000 clicks."
More details:
===============================================
7. LookSmart offers new way to get more traffic
===============================================
If you have a site which has been listed in the LookSmart directory for some time, you may not know about a new LookSmart service called Site Promote. The service is only for sites which have paid listings.
Site Promote gives you the chance to get better placement - via Featured Listings - on LookSmart and its partners.
For about $30 a month, you can buy 10 keywords which "may" help you appear in Featured Listings on such places as Dogpile, MetaCrawler, Go2Net, Mamma, MegaSpider, Search Addict, Search123 and Ask Jeeves.
There's no guarantee, but LookSmart - http://www.LookSmart.com - says "A significant number of sites received 50% to 60% more clicks than they would have received from being in the LookSmart directory alone".
If you're in a highly competitive field, you'll be competing with a whole lot of other sites for a position in those Featured Listings. You can experiment and change your keywords at any time.
Being listed in the major directories, Yahoo!, LookSmart and the Open Directory - http://dmoz.org/ - is vitally important because it helps your rankings in search engines such as Google. It costs $299 (fast service) or $149 (slow) to have your site reviewed.
Before you rush to get a paid listing in LookSmart, here's something to consider...
LookSmart is one of the latest large companies to use predatory advertising - in effect changing information on your site without your permission - according to thiefware.com/looksmart.ezula.htm .
If search engines play an important role in your marketing, you'll be shooting yourself in the foot if you boycott LookSmart.
However, it will cost you nothing to write and tell LookSmart what you think of its unethical advertising. The more of us who do this, the more likely it is that LookSmart will reconsider.
=============================================
8. Useful free resource: Niche marketing tips
=============================================
One of the best ways to be successful with affiliate programs is to choose a niche and aim to be the best in that niche. Here's a good article by Marcia Rudkin on criteria to look for when selecting a niche, and tips on how to conquer that niche.
"A Niche Can Make You Rich"
http://www.yudkin.com/niche.htm
================================================
9. Thought for today: When you ignore affiliates
================================================
"By all means automate the mechanics as best you can with your budget but people are people and they will want personal attention. Unattended affiliates are like your teeth, ignore them and they'll go away." - Phil Tanny
All the best
Allan Gardyne
