Associate Programs Newsletter #171

CONTENTS:

1. How Mr Anonymous could strengthen his business
2. New source of good domain names
3. Bundling technique gives affiliates bigger sales
4. Another tool lures away your visitors
5. Eight things every affiliate should do
6. Uproar program ends suddenly, and other news
7. Thought for today: Building momentum

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1. How Mr Anonymous could strengthen his business
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Last week I looked at the pros and cons of running an affiliate business anonymously -
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/articles/202/1/Are-you-visible-or-invisible.

There's an attractive simplicity to being invisible, but the disadvantages are strong enough to make affiliates nervous.

The main advantage of having a high profile is fairly obvious.

If you promote only the best products and services and if you genuinely help people, you'll win trust and credibility and turn casual readers into loyal fans. You'll make more sales, and more repeat sales.

If your affiliate business is invisible, here are some ways you can strengthen it.

Don't just earn an income. Start building a business. Decide where you want to be in one year and in five years. Find out what skills you need to do that.

Set goals. Set daily, weekly and yearly goals for acquiring those skills. Make your goals specific, measurable and attainable. Give yourself small rewards when you reach every goal. (When I've finished writing this newsletter, I'll reward myself by having a glass of wine and reading a book.)

Make a decision now to come out of your shell. You'll find a whole new way of making friends and having fun, perhaps even making you feel better about yourself and your business.

Become an expert in one small niche. The smaller your niche, the easier it is to become expert in it.

Perhaps choose to go PARTLY visible. Launch one small web site on which you stamp your personality, impress your visitors and earn trust and credibility. There's nothing to stop you from tinkering with experimental sites on which you're invisible. However, remember that there's a powerful multiplying momentum if EVERYTHING you do adds to your public profile.

From now on, whenever you post a message to a forum, use your name and an eye-catching signature on every post (when the forum rules allow signatures).

Consider abandoning forums which don't allow you to post a signature - or at least your URL. Your time is precious. Make the most of it.

If you regularly post anonymous messages on forums, calculate how much time you spend in a year doing that. (If you average 10 minutes a day writing anonymous posts 300 days a year, that's 50 hours a year. You could spend that time writing 300 posts which earn respect and build trust and credibility - and therefore sales. In 50 hours you could do research for an ebook.

Be brave. Add a photograph of yourself to your site. People like knowing they're dealing with a real live human. If you have useful experience and qualifications, mention them too.

We've all met people who try to build themselves up by tearing others down. If you have a tendency in that direction, try adding your name and URL to everything you write - you may find you start writing more useful, helpful stuff. (Perhaps that's too optimistic, but I thought I'd throw it in anyway.)

Do you lack the skills or confidence to write articles for newsletters and other web sites? Don't worry about trying to be entertaining. Just telling useful FACTS in simple language works, too. If you immerse yourself deeply enough in a topic, you'll be able to write about it. Just imagine you're explaining something to your best friend.

Still not sure you can write articles? Team up with someone who can.

Now for the big step... Launch your own newsletter. It doesn't have to be weekly, it can be monthly like Nathan Power's at http://www.PayPerClickSearchEngines.com . Nathan doesn't claim to be the world's best writer but he has attracted more than 5,500 subscribers - and regular advertisers - because he's writing about a subject he has studied intensely.

While you gain confidence, your newsletter could be a simple, monthly update letting your readers know what you've added to your site in the past month. That's what Christopher Pearce does at http://www.LifetimeCommissions.com (62 programs now!).

Be bold. Consider buying a YourOwnName.com domain name. Such a name has the disadvantage of not telling anyone what your product or service is. However, if you're going to plaster your name all over the Net, you may as well register it, too. At the very least, it will stop someone else from grabbing it.

Issue news releases and place a copy on your site, optimized for the search engines.

Offer to speak to local clubs and organizations.

Get to know the editor or a reporter on your local newspaper. Let them know you're available for comment.

Write letters to newsletters and offline magazines.

Offer to write articles for magazines, with the payment being a brief description of your site at the end of the article.

Do at least one thing every day to improve your business.

And... hire staff to help you handle your increased business!

Perhaps you're convinced you should focus on a niche and build a public profile but you're struggling with choosing a niche.

Here are two really good niche brainstorming resources:

1) The brainstorming section in Ken Evoy's free "Affiliate Masters" course.

Download the 10-day free course here:
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/articles/302/1/Free-Affiliate-Masters-Course

2) The brainstorming section in "Make Your Knowledge Sell!"
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/myks

If at first your progress seems slow, don't be discouraged. Remember that you're building momentum. It DOES get easier.

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2. New source of good domain names
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It can be tough, time-consuming work choosing and finding a good .COM domain name which someone hasn't already grabbed.

One way round the problem is to select an expired domain name. Every day, hundreds or even thousands of names become available again as speculators dump names.

However, you probably don't have hours and hours to scan all the garbage looking for good names.

To solve that problem, branding wizard Rob Frankel and Sling Shot Media CEO Sharon Tucci have set up a new service, Nightly Name Dump (NND).

It screens all the just-released domain names and e-mails you a list of the high quality ones - every night.

"What this means is that you will ONLY get the cream of the crop domains that are either available to register now or that will soon be available to register," Rob says.

"We only list .com domains and try to avoid listing domains with hyphens or numbers unless they make sense. You will not have to wade through hundreds of nonsensical domains to find one that makes sense or is spelled correctly."

Nightly Name Dump rotates who gets the listings first.

"There are a lot of services out there that specialize in offering lists or access to databases of domains that are about to expire or that have expired. The problem is that most of the names are garbage," Rob says.

Maybe 1 in 100 should have been registered in the first place.

"Most of the people we deal with in business find the process of finding a domain name through these services is cumbersome at best. It's easy to spend a dozen hours or more to find one name that is even passable, if one can be found at all.

"With the launch of NND, we hope to cut down the time immensely for all of you. You can take the daily lists you'll receive as a subscriber and skim them in a few minutes to see if any names are of interest."

Aside from registering with the intent of profiting by selling the name, there are several other good reasons to acquire domain names. Rob gives you this info after you've subscribed.

This is a good service. I've subscribed and it's everything Rob says it is.

The affiliate program still has a few kinks to iron out, but with Rob and Sharon behind it, I'm sure it will be good, too. I've met Rob and I've had business dealings with Sharon. They're good people.

http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/namedump

[UPDATE, April 2005: For four years, Nightly Name Dump was closed to new subscriptions while continuing to operate quietly. It has now been been relaunched publicly by Sharon Tucci and David Halpern. It's well worth checking out.]

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3. Bundling technique gives affiliates bigger sales
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Dr Ralph Wilson is using a bundling technique which is increasing the amount of the average sales transaction for his affiliates.

He has added an ebook, "A Merchant's Guide to E-Commerce Payment Gateways", to the group of Web marketing and e-commerce infoproducts that his affiliates can sell. He uses ebooks, along with "product bundling", to upsell his ebook prospects to his more expensive newsletter.

Here's how it works. Every time Ralph writes an ebook (he has published three this year), he adds it as a "freebie" for subscribers when they pay the $49.95 annual subscription to his e-commerce newsletter, "Web Commerce Today". With the three valuable ebooks, the total value of the subscription is a whopping $137.80 for only $49.95.

"It's a pretty compelling deal," says Ralph, "and that's the idea."

The technique has been used for years by direct marketers to increase sales.

Affiliate links to each of the individual ebooks, such as the new "Merchant's Guide to E-Commerce Payment Gateways" bring visitors to this closing technique:

There are two ways to obtain this ebook, buying it for the regular $29.95 price, or free along with two other valuable ebooks, a $138 value, for a $49.95 subscription to "Web Commerce Today".

"I've haven't sold very many copies of the new 'Payment Gateways' ebook," says Ralph, "but the technique is working well - subscriptions to 'Web Commerce Today' are up substantially."

Affiliates who understand this approach use a book cover graphic and a brief description of each of his ebooks, along with their affiliate link. This increases their chances of selling the more expensive newsletter subscription, due to Ralph's upsell bundling technique.

Ralph pays commissions of 20% on each sale, and 10% second-tier commissions, and pays monthly by check or via PayPal to those affiliates whose accumulated commissions total $25 or more.

His latest book comparing e-commerce payment gateways is extremely thorough. It was written after more than 60 hours of research and after receiving feedback - good and bad - from his world-wide readers. It's the sort of high quality I've learned to expect from Ralph.

You can join his program here:
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/wils

[UPDATE: Ralph is still going strongly, but he's closed his affiliate program.]


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4. Another tool lures away your visitors
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Adding special code to your meta tags may protect you from Smart Tags if Microsoft persists with them, but it won't protect you from a similar tool which can lure away your visitors.

KaZaa is a new threat to your affiliate commissions.

Used for file sharing, it has been downloaded 4.9 million times from CNet in less than a month.

KaZaa contains TOPtext, a browser plug-in which works like Smart Tags and can deprive you of affiliate sales.

"Apparently, advertisers pay for keywords which will cause a link to show up on your web site when the keyword is encountered. The links show up with a yellow underline and glow with a yellow highlight when your mouse hovers over them," June Campbell says in a post to I-Sales.

"I'm outraged but I have no idea what recourse marketers have against these links being added without our permission or knowledge."

Full details:

I-Sales Digest, Issue 1384
http://list.adventive.com/SCRIPTS/WA.EXE?A1=ind0108&L=i-sales

Petition against Smart Tags
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/articles/206/1/Sig-files-that-sizzle

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5. Eight things every affiliate should do
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Do you need a refresher on how to be a successful affiliate?

Here's an article by Shawn Collins which gives you all the basics in simple, easy-to-understand language. It's written for ClubMom affiliates, but applies to any affiliate program.

"Eight Things Every ClubMom Affiliate Should Do"
http://www.clubmomaffiliates.com/8things.shtml

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6. Uproar program ends suddenly, and other news
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The Uproar associate program was shut down without warning on August 2. "The Uproar site will continue to operate as usual. Stay tuned for other future content opportunities from Uproar," Adam Altman told affiliates. If affiliates are treated with so little respect, they're not likely to want to "stay tuned" to Uproar.

Beyond.com will close its Software Superstore affiliate program on September 6. Affiliates will be paid in full. Beyond.com says it has transitioned from an online retailer to an e-commerce service provider, and is inviting affiliates to join the new eStores by Beyond.com affiliate programs, tracked by LinkShare.

Super Affiliate Case Study: $600,000 in Six Weeks. Two types of companies exist online: those that test - and those that lose money, says Declan Dunn.
clickz.com/article/cz.4171.html

Case Study: Ancestry.com Doubles Paid Subscribers to 400,000 While Cutting CPA by 75%. Ancestry.com appointed a Chief Profit Officer and carefully analyzed its marketing. The company discovered it was spending $500 to get a new subscriber through its portal deal with Excite compared with only $11 to get a new subscriber through the Ancestry.com affiliate program. So it made some changes.
contentbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=1775

eBay has potentially crippled its program with recent changes to its affiliate linking structure. It no longer allows affiliates to create their own links, essentially eliminating all page-specific deep linking. This leaves affiliates with no way to bypass the "landing pages" of uncommissionable content, banners, and outside links and puts referred visitors an additional two clicks away from starting the only commissionable action.
revenews.com/archives/00000129.html

Scam Free Zone generously paid commissions of 60% for every sale in July instead of the usual 50% to more than compensate associates for Assoctrac tracking downtime at the beginning of July. You can join the program here: http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/scamfrees

GoTo.com has backed down. When it announced a new minimum bid of 5 cents and a minimum monthly spend of $20, it grandfathered all listings and accounts created before March 1, letting existing bids stay as low as 1 cent. Last week GoTo extended the grandfather period until further notice. However, if GoTo fooled you into increasing your grandfathered bids to 5 cents, you're not allowed to reduce them. In spite of this mess, it's still the best pay-per-click search engine.

Priceline profitable? Just a few months ago, any good news out of the company seemed like a pipe dream. Priceline's remarkable financial recovery is a good example of a company learning from its mistakes.
business2.com/articles/web/0,1653,16732,FF.html

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7. Thought for today: Building momentum
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"Success requires first expending 10 units of effort to produce one unit of results. Your momentum will then produce 10 units of results with each unit of effort." - Charles J. Givens

All the best

Allan Gardyne