One URL affiliate programs
By Allan Gardyne |
Published 05/25/2000 |
2000 Newsletters |
printer friendly version
Why it's good to join one-URL affiliate programs
Associate Programs Newsletter #110
Lots of great stuff in this issue - much of it as a result of generous input from readers. Thank you for all your helpful comments and tips. You're wonderful.
CONTENTS:
1. Why it's good to join a one-URL program
2. Marlon wants you to buy first
3. "Childish behavior" by 1-800-flowers
4. How's this for a ghastly contract?
5. Free newsletter lists expired domain names
6. Top affiliates earn $50,000 a month
7. ClubMom pays out $70,000 in a month
8. Dialpad's "free" service comes at a price
9. A new place to promote your new affiliate program
10. Making cool cash with frozen critters
11. Latest free banner advertising winners
12. 22 pay per click search engines now
13. McAfee won't warn you about this Trojan
14. About.com fails to "futurize" its business
15. Thought for today
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1. Why it's good to join a one-URL program
==========================================
If you just want to be an advertiser for affiliate program owners this item won't interest you (but perhaps it should).
However, if you're building a business, read on...
Marketing companies often give us a wide range of reasons why we should join their particular affiliate program. My favorite reasons are: An excellent product, a good commission, a site designed to sell, and a two-tier program.
However, I've noticed another important reason which - as far as I know - no one is promoting:
If you're not just making sales but are also building a business by signing up sub-associates, it's very useful if the affiliate program is a ONE-URL program.
For example, if I want to promote "Right on the Money" (and I often do) I send you to THIS URL:
AssociatePrograms.com/righton
If I want to tell you that it's a good affiliate program and has a site that sells, I send you to a DIFFERENT URL:
AssociatePrograms.com/rightons
[UPDATE: This old classic is no longer available. For the latest resources I recommend see http://www.associateprograms.com/categories/Affiliate-Resources/ ]
However, some companies operating two-tier programs make it much easier for us. They give us only one affiliate link, which works for getting a sale AND for signing up sub-associates.
Here are three examples:
Top Ezine Ads
Targeted ezine and newsletter ad placement.
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/topads
Work The Medium
"Hard ball" ideas for marketers who want tough tactics - or to protect themselves from tough tactics.
[UPDATE: This product is no longer available.]
Goodbytes' 5 Pillar Program
I'm sure you've heard about Ken Evoy's Goodbytes and its lifetime commissions on "Make Your Site SELL!", "Make Your Knowledge SELL!" and "Make Your Price SELL!"
If you haven't figured out the importance of lifetime commissions - earning commissions on EVERY product the customer buys for life - you're sadly missing the boat.
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/affiliates
Why are these ONE-URL programs so useful?
Here's an example. I recently reviewed the book "Work the Medium" [UPDATE: No longer available.] and recommended it. Only a few hours later, I began receiving "You have a sale" messages - not just from my sales, but also from people who had signed up as sub-associates.
All it took was ONE URL.
So even if you're acting only as an advertiser, with one-URL programs you can carry on doing so, but also begin to build a little equity.
For merchants setting up a one-URL program, My Affiliate Program Software is a fairly popular choice. About 500 companies use it.
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/my-program
The guys running two-URL programs, such as Corey Rudl and Declan Dunn, are very good at selling. I assume they want purchasers to concentrate on buying the product before joining the affiliate program. That makes a lot of sense.
So I'm not going to rush in and claim that one system is better than the other. However, here's a one-URL program which I do strongly recommend - for the excellent products AND for the affiliate program:
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/affiliates
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2. Marlon wants you to buy first
================================
Marlon Sanders has an affiliate program with an unusual twist.
His latest product is "How to Create The Ultimate, Automated Web Business", a series of tutorials showing you step-by-step 25 ways to automate your business. (I was amazed at how many ways there are.)
However, let's say you go to Marlon's site trying to sign up for the affiliate program without buying the product. You want to do that because you know Marlon has a knack with words and anything he promotes will sell.
Whoops! You can't. You have to buy the product first. Marlon obviously reckons you ought to know what you're selling.
My advice: Buy the product. That's what successful affiliates do.
You'll benefit in two ways. You'll learn 25 ways to atomate your business and you'll receive a specific how-to manual telling you how to sell "How to Create The Ultimate Automated Web Business".
The program pays 50% commission.
(It has a money-back guarantee.)
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/automate
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3. "Childish behavior" by 1-800-flowers
=======================================
Here's a letter I received from an affiliate who wishes to remain anonymous "for legal reasons":
"We used to be an affiliate of http://www.1800flowers.com,
but recently we received a very threatening letter from
attorneys at 1-800-flowers. The letter stated that by using
1800flowers in our meta tags we were violating their
copyright. Just as a note: we had about 20 words in our meta
tags and only two were of the company name. We sell well over
$1,000/month for them, and they still resort to childish
behavior. As I am sure you are aware almost every affiliate
uses the company name in their meta tag. Without the use of
meta tags affiliates have little hope of getting users. This
really represents a case of a big company taking advantage of
an affiliate.
"I hope that you warn your users of 1-800-flowers' bad
position."
Several days ago I asked 1-800-flowers to comment. I haven't received a reply.
=====================================
4. How's this for a ghastly contract?
=====================================
"Thank you for sticking up for us little guys!" writes Sam Thorne of http://www.downstrike.com .
Sam points out what he calls a "silly" clause in TargetShop's Terms of Membership:
"13. TargetShop.com reserves the right to cancel or
disable any membership if that member has been
inactive for a period of 2 consecutive months. "Inactive"
shall be defined as lack of one of the following: Website
visit (click through); e-mail response; personal
profile update. And inactivity of those whom the
member referred as well. Please, note that the bonus
will be given only for the referred people who stay
active. Discontinued participation in TargetShop.com
may result in the termination of the member's
membership and forfeiture of the member's referral
bonus."
"In other words," says Sam, "memberships can be canceled or disabled if those whom they refer become inactive."
TargetShop has been repeatedly recommended to me by people who haven't taken the time to read the contract.
To them, I point out another clause which Sam doesn't like:
Members will be paid ONLY if TargetShop completes an IPO (initial public offering of shares). TargetShop gives no guarantee that it will ever have an IPO.
It certainly is a "silly" contract.
It's so darn silly that I've repeatedly refused to list TargetShop in the AssociatePrograms.com directory.
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=============================================
5. Free newsletter lists expired domain names
=============================================
One good way to help you succeed with an affiliate program is to buy a domain name specifically for that program.
If all the names you want are taken, you may spot a good one among the recently unregistered names - ones which people bought and then let the registration lapse. That's how Ryan Lee found his domain name: DomainRepo.com.
Recently unregistered domain names can be found in various ways. Here are just a few of them:
At http://whois.net/ click on "Deleted domain search" and you'll find a list of about 2.5 million names. You'll need to return frequently to see what new names have turned up.
For less than $1 a week, you can have an up-to-date list of thousands of newly expired names e-mailed to you.
[UPDATE: This product is no longer available.]
A similar service, with a comprehensive, information-packed website has free and paid versions:
[UPDATE: This service has disappeared.]
Ryan Lee has launched a free newsletter called DomainRepo.com which features recently expired, unused and repossessed domain names.
http://www.NameBoy.com provides an easy way to search for available names.
For buying names, I use http://000domains.com/ It's extremely easy to use. Once you've bought a domain name there, the site remembers your details. As well, you can type in several desired names and search for them all at once. Domain names cost only $13.50 a year.
(Before you register a name, make sure it's not protected by a trademark. You can search for US trademarks at Marksonline.com )
Ryan says his research showed that thousands of expired domain names were becoming available each week. A handful of companies were repackaging this information and selling it. He decided to make this information free to everyone through his DomainRepo.com newsletter.
You can subscribe at DomainRepo.com.
[UPDATE: This service has disappeared.]
======================================
6. Top affiliates earn $50,000 a month
======================================
DirectLeads Network is growing fast.
A few years ago, Jason Wolfe was earning only a few hundred dollars a month. Now he's CEO of DirectLeads, which has 22 employees in its Pittsburg office and is planning new offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
"As we continue to expand our core business, we decided to sell two of our outside properties in a cash and marketing arrangement with an estimated value of $23 million," says Jason.
This means that the company will be devoting more money, time, and effort in building DirectLeads.
"We have had affiliates make as high as $50,000 per month and hundreds making thousands of dollars monthly . . . sticking with it and working with us really pays off in the end."
One of the programs recently added to the DirectLeads offerings is Expertcity.com, which pays $1.75 per lead. If you have a computer question, Expertcity will provide you with live, online help.
It's worth keeping an eye on the DirectLeads Network:
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/dl
======================================
7. ClubMom pays out $70,000 in a month
======================================
I'm not surprised that the ClubMom affiliate program is growing fast. Affiliate Manager Shawn Collins has done a good job of making it visible in discussion lists and on message boards.
Shawn says ClubMom paid more than $70,000 in commissions in April. So far in May, two affiliates will be earning five-digit commissions for the month.
Here are the numbers for the top 10 commission earners in the ClubMom program in April:
1) $7,362.50
2) $6,788.75
3) $5,693.75
4) $5,611.25
5) $4,100.00
6) $3,330.00
7) $2,632.50
8) $2,472.50
9) $2,381.25
10) $2,133.75
Shawn says you can earn dollars with your website or with your e-mail list:
============================================
8. Dialpad's "free" service comes at a price
============================================
"Free" has a big price tag these days, says Heidi Good of MediaTalentNetwork.com.
"I just checked out Dialpad - and while it's true phoning is free - you cannot get signed up to use their service unless you turn over large amounts of extremely personal information including birth date, income, marital status, gender, number of children in each age group, personal preferences and more," Heidi says.
"I was quite horrified at the extent of it - and the fact that it is not optional but required - really, really turned me off. I was very intrigued with this service to the point of almost signing up as a partner - but I am sure not going to obligate any website visitor of mine to be so rudely profiled with no opt-out.
"My goodness - FREE has a big, big price-tag these days!"
Heidi says Dialpad - http://www.dialpad.com - responded to her objection with a form letter.
DialPad wrote:
"We use the data from our survey to pick and show appropriate
ads for each person. We want to show banner ads that are
relevant and useful to each user. This targeted advertising
will raise the effectiveness of the ads and, in turn, attract
ad sponsors to cover the cost of the calls. It is because of
ad sponsors that we are able to provide our service for
free."
"They still don't get it," Heidi says. "It's not the asking that's the problem. Ask away! It's the lack of an opt-out forcing me to either lie or bare my bones that violates my right to choose what happens to my information. Honestly, I would have given them SOME of the things they asked for had they been kind enough to give me that option . . .
"It's probably a good service - their misguided attitude is typical. This is why I as a Canadian citizen am really looking forward to the US implementing some privacy laws and putting an end to this obligatory profiling foolishness. Some of us would rather pay than be profiled."
Mike Choroszewski of http://www.amcho.com adds another warning about Dialpad.
Mike points out that the Dialpad agreement says:
"Dialpad.com may modify this agreement or the attached
Dialpad.com End User License Agreement at any time without
notice and such modifications shall be deemed effective
immediately upon posting of the modified agreement."
So they could change the agreement to make you liable to pay $xx per call, and you would find out only when you received the bill, Mike says.
"Could not the change notification be sent by e-mail to all affiliates?" he asks.
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9. A new place to promote your new affiliate program
====================================================
Subscribers to the I-HelpDesk WebReview Discussion List now have a new place to announce their new affiliate programs.
Moderator Eva Rosenberg says that since HelpDesk was started she has been suggesting that the most remarkable opportunity for a business to make money is through the use of affiliate programs.
"The more I can encourage you to set them up, the sooner you are going to start making real money on your products or services," she says.
Too many people have excellent products and are making a modest income (if anything) because they are not taking advantage of the willingness of people, who already know and respect them, to sell their books, products or services, she says.
"This sort of hit home when I realized that a well-known author and marketing expert did not have a means on his site for us to slap a link on our sites and sell his books. (They are available through Amazon - but he prefers that we sell them to our site's customers, pay him and he will drop ship to the customer.)
"When I explained to him how much of a nuisance and time drain that was, he started to think about getting with the program ... then balked at the cost. Very short-sighted. So, he will continue to work about 30 hours per week and earn around $45,000 per year, when he could work 40 hours and earn $100,000 + (to be conservative)," Eva says.
You must be a HelpDesk subscriber before you can announce your new affiliate program on the HelpDesk list.
By the way, be warned. DON'T try to abuse this free service by slipping through a disguised multi-level-marketing scheme or some such. If you do, you're likely to be ridiculed by the HelpDesk bunch. They don't suffer fools gladly.
If you a have a problem - on just about any subject - HelpDesk's thousands of friendly, helpful subscribers are almost certain to be able to solve it for you.
Friendly helpful people can subscribe to HelpDesk by sending a blank e-mail to:
join-i-helpdesk AT list.audettemedia.com
[UPDATE: This service has closed.]
=========================================
10. Making cool cash with frozen critters
=========================================
Successful affiliates build sites which focus on a topic in which they are interested. That's the case with Brian Kuss, who turned his interest in home theater systems into Frozenpenguin.com, which generates cool cash from 800.COM.
Dan Gray reports:
http://www.associateprograms.com/articles/181/1/FrozenPenguin-successful-affiliate
==========================================
11. Latest free banner advertising winners
==========================================
I've just drawn the latest lucky winners of free banner advertising for a year on AssociatePrograms.com. The winners are:
Jack Bartlett
Globemark International
globemark.net/
Boogie Jack
Boogie Jack's Web Depot
http://www.boogiejack.com/
Would you like to go in the draw to win free banner advertising for a year? It's easy. All you have to do is provide a link to http://www.AssociatePrograms.com. Thank you!
Go on, you wanted to do that anyway, didn't you?
[UPDATE: This offer has closed.]
=======================================
12. 22 pay per click search engines now
=======================================
GoTo.com is still the best by a long way, but there are now 22 pay per click search engines. Nathan lists them at http://www.PayPerClickSearchEngines.com.
===========================================
13. McAfee won't warn you about this Trojan
===========================================
For a few weeks I've been testing McAfee's regularly updated anti-virus ActiveShield. It appears to be working well. I came close to recommending it - until today. That's when I learned that if someone is spying on your computer using NetBus Pro, McAfee won't warn you.
Full story:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/000523-000018.html
==============================================
14. About.com fails to "futurize" its business
==============================================
If you belong to the I-Advertising e-mail discussion list you will have seen the roasting Robert Woodhead of http://www.SelfPromotion.com gave the new pay per click search engine Sprinks.
Sprinks is difficult to use.
About.com, which launched Sprinks admits the problems which Robert outlined exist and says it plans to fix them.
It looks as though the people who matter at Sprinks haven't read David Siegel's new book, "Futurize Your Enterprise. Business Strategy in the Age of the E-Customer".
Trying to figure out what to do next? The answer is simple, says, David, who is also author of the best-selling "Creating Killer Web Sites".
"Just listen . . . customers are more than happy to tell you
exactly where they want to go. You don't have to try to come
up with the next cash cow. If you're working with your
customers, the ideas will bubble up. All you have to do is
listen for them, try their ideas out, and pursue those that
get the best results."
Avoid making mistakes the way Sprinks did. Learn how to "futurize" your business by being customer-led:
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/futurize
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15. Thought for today
=====================
"Life is either a great adventure or it is nothing at all." - Helen Keller.
All the best
Allan Gardyne
