Associate Programs Newsletter #60
This week I look at three excellent ways of saving time in your Internet business.
CONTENTS:
1. Easy way to design, publish and sell your ebook
2. Speed up your URL submissions
3. Find heaps of excellent marketing advice in one spot
4. Big improvements at CJ.com
5. Add CNet news headlines to your site
6. Searching for lifetime commissions?
7. Huge music catalog
8. Build and manage your own store - easily
9. Getting those darn clickable URLs right
10. Mark Welch to sell Adbility.com
11. Phil analyzes how I do it
12. Affiliate Solutions '99
13. Virtualis raises $8.75m
14. Safe-Audit still has unhappy webmasters
15. Shorter money-earning URLs
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1. Easy way to design, publish and sell your ebook
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Publishing an ebook is hot right now but, like me, you're probably finding it impossible to make the time to do it.
Here's a service which will save you a lot of time.
Shawn Augustson's BookLocker.com will not only design and publish your ebook, it will also help you sell it. You just send Shawn the text and his team will do the rest. Shawn owns Artjive.com so he has had plenty of experience at producing an attractive, effective design.
You can add URLs, sound and even video.
"We have the ability to 'BookLock' your ebook with a unique security feature, allowing you the author to sell the keys to your paying customers," Shawn says.
Brian Welch of Bizbot.net uses Shawn to sell his ebook, "Get More for Your Advertising Dollar".
"I have read a lot of electronic books and Shawn makes some of the best I have seen," Brian says. "He worked very closely with me to make it as presentable as possible and I couldn't be happier with his service. I had my book published before he launched so I was able to get his premium package at a slight discount but I think his prices are more than fair.
"He has sold quite a few copies of my book and I get 80% of the profits. He is currently working on getting ISBN numbers for the books he creates and will be selling them at Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble in the near future."
Merle Stinnett, who has a free ebook on the BookLocker.com site, says BookLocker doesn't require you to sell your ebook on its site only. You can sell it on other sites and your own - "almost unheard of in the publishing world", says Merle. "Most publishers want exclusive rights."
Some ebook publishers charge $995 or more. However, if you mention "Special Discount" and say you heard about it from AssociatePrograms.com, Shawn will design and publish your ebook, and provide you with a "featured author" listing, all for only $154.95 (US).
BookLocker has a revenue sharing program, paying a generous commission of 25% on every publishing package you sell.
[UPDATE: The Booklocker affiliate program has vanished.]
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[UPDATE: This program has closed.]
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2. Speed up your URL submissions
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DumpTRUCK! is a batch URL submission tool I read about in Eldon Sarte's NewsDesk - http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/newsdesk .
I used DumpTRUCK! last night to submit 18 pages to 14 major search engines - 252 submissions all done flawlessly for me while I was working on other tasks.
DumpTRUCK!, for Mac or Windows, is easy to install, easy to use, and great value for money - only $15 (US) to register.
The software allows you to automate submitting your URLs to any search engines which have online submission forms requesting just your URL and/or e-mail address. Yahoo! and Snap! are not included. The default setting submits to 14 big engines including AltaVista, AOL Netfind, Excite, Hotbot and Google. You can add to the list.
The DumpTRUCK! site warns you that DumpTRUCK! is designed for online professionals. If you use it without knowing how to build pages that can generate traffic, "promoting" them with DumpTRUCK! (or anything else) "will really only add filler to the search engine's databases".
You can submit up to 25 URLs at a time.
Sorry. There's no revenue sharing program for this fantastic shareware . . . but tell your friends, anyway.
[UPDATE: This tool is no longer available.]
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3. Find heaps of excellent marketing advice in one spot
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Jess O'Leary and Kenny Mann are the smart guys who founded Link-O-Matic back in the days when submitting URLs automatically to free-for-all sites made sense. They were soon making a net profit of $20,000 (US) a month.
Jess and Kenny also had the sense to sell the business before the field became crowded, while hanging on to their now renamed marketing newsletter, which has more than 60,000 subscribers.
In the hugely crowded e-zine publishing field, they have retained their readership by publishing in-depth, useful articles, linked to more info on their Internet Marketing Challenge web site.
"Savvy entrepreneurs and business owners know that time is money, and they would much rather spend a few bucks to learn about marketing their business online than waste months or years figuring it out on their own," they say.
The Internet Marketing Challenge Private Web Site "provides any business, large or small, with the knowledge and the resources they need to profit online . . . IMC members receive a complete Internet marketing education and unlimited consultation from a panel of highly-successful Internet marketers, saving them hundreds or even thousands of hours of trial and error, and wasted ad dollars."
I've spent several hours reading some of the comprehensive articles in the Private Web Site and am still a long way from reading everything there.
Much more will be added soon, Jess told me. "What you see now is actually just the tip of the iceberg..."
Jess and Kenny are charging an annual fee for access to the private site and have launched a two-tier commission program paying $62.25 (US) on the first tier and $37.35 on the second tier, plus "lifetime" residual commissions as customers renew and/or purchase other products. (Jess told me "lifetime" commissions but the site says 10 years - I guess on the Net 10 years is a lifetime.)
They signed up well over 1,000 affiliates in a few days and it's "growing like crazy". In beta testing, one affiliate is said to have made more than $20,000 in his first month.
Now for the shock - for a one-year membership they're charging $249 (US). Ouch!
So is it worth $249? The problem here is that the clever e-marketers will willingly pay that sum, pick up some useful hints and make even more money. The webmasters who really need the information most, those who are struggling and wasting their time on unproductive marketing methods, will probably be scared away by the high price.
If you're trying to make up your mind whether to pay the $249, you can sample the quality by reading several marketing advice articles on the site.
Here's one way of looking at it. It's only 68 cents a day. Say it quickly and it doesn't sound so much.
[UPDATE: This program has closed.]
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4. Big improvements at CJ.com
=============================
CyberCash has invested $7 million in Commission Junction. The companies plan to integrate CyberCash's InstaBuy one-click shopping service with CJ.com's network of 85,000 affiliate sites. InstaBuy supports one-click shopping by allowing consumers to make a purchase through a banner ad rather than clicking through to reach the merchant.
CJ.com has added several major improvements to its services, including a message board for merchants and affiliates, co-branding, and direct product links for tens of thousands of products.
This will make it easier for you to sell products which match the theme of your web site.
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/cj
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5. Add CNet news headlines to your site
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You can make your site more interesting by adding CNet's award-winning news headlines and price comparison services to your web site - free - and get paid 2 cents per click as well. CNet automatically updates the latest headlines and content.
[UPDATE: This affiliate program has gone.]
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6. Searching for lifetime commissions?
======================================
SearchHound is a new search engine where you can buy rankings the way you do at GoTo.com. You earn 5% commission on all referral sales of any SearchHound product.
If a customer gives SearchHound repeat business, you will get repeat commissions - in other words, lifetime commissions.
Mark Joyner, author of "1001 Killer Internet Tactics", and Siva Prassad of WebGenie are the guys behind this one. They have big plans for it. Keep an eye on this one. I've signed up.
[UPDATE: This program has closed.]
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7. Huge music catalog
=====================
Here's one for music lovers.
MP3.com says it has "the largest catalog of legal music files on the web". Visitors can choose from more than 100,000 songs by 19,000 artists. You can download free music, learn more about your favorite artists, and catch up on the latest news in digital music. Its revenue sharing program pays 5%.
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8. Build and manage your own store - easily
===========================================
Here's a new tool which sounds brilliant.
ShopInBox is a complete online store management system that allows you to build and manage your own store from your browser - no CGI programming experience required.
From your browser, you can track orders, track traffic to various pages of your store, change your inventory, and even build a whole mall.
You can set up a revenue sharing program with your store, and set up your ShopInBox for real-time credit card processing "in seconds".
Vilo Ivanic says CommercialNetworks.com spent six months developing ShopInBox. It charges $9.95 (US) a month for 10 products, ranging up to $100 for 300 products. It has a two-tier program paying 15% and 5%.
[UPDATE: ShopinBox.com has disappeared.]
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9. Getting those darn clickable URLs right
==========================================
I mentioned that Ken Evoy makes URLs stand out in e-mail by marking them with little >> in the margin like this:
Unfortunately, as Angela Smith points out, there's a problem with that . . .
"The little >> marks has my email program (latest version of Pegasus) thinking that everything after them on that line is a quote from a previous message and will not make them clickable."
Angela also says she gets annoyed by newsletter publishers who don't add the http:// - which is needed to make URLs clickable, like this:
http://certificate.net/wwio/ or http://www.funchecks.com .
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10. Mark Welch to sell Adbility.com
===================================
Mark Welch is offering his Adbility.com web site for sale, saying he plans to use any sale proceeds to vigorously defend the lawsuit filed against him by Sanford Wallace.
Financial details about Adbility.com:
adbility.com/valuation/
Mark's announcement to WSBA-Digest:
egroups.com/list/wsba-digest/
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=============================
11. Phil analyzes how I do it
=============================
Phil Clelland of NetZine interviewed me recently for an article about AssociatePrograms.com. If you're in a hurry, jump to the bottom of the article and read Phil's astute comments on how I make a success of AssociatePrograms.com.
wwmall.com/c3/netzine/interview5.shtml
Phil also did an entertaining interview with jokester Ray Owens.
wwmall.com/c3/netzine/interview4.shtml
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12. Affiliate Solutions '99
===========================
Thinking of going to Affiliate Solutions '99 in San Francisco? Time is running out. It's on August 5. Presented by Refer-it.com and Be Free, it will give you an education in revenue sharing and affiliate strategies from the online industry.
===========================
13. Virtualis raises $8.75m
===========================
Web host Virtualis (now called Hosting.com) has organized a $8.75 million round of funding from investors who include Knight Ridder Ventures and Adobe Ventures. In the last three months it has increased its staff from 20 to more than 70, says CEO Chris Lyman. Virtualis is using the funding to make substantial improvements.
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14. Safe-Audit still has unhappy webmasters
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Safe-Audit, which I mentioned last week, now has 34,000 members, but hasn't managed to quell every complaint.
"My check was one of those lost in the mail," says Harvey Turner of holton.com/adnet . "It wasn't a great amount, but I feel that I earned it. The check was for July, 1998, commissions, which I still have not received. I have e-mailed them repeatedly and they have not answered one single e-mail."
Harvey says he has not participated in Safe-Audit's program since early September. "There may have been a problem with the mail service. However, there is no excuse for not responding to my repeated request."
[UPDATE: Safe-Audit folded.]
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15. Shorter money-earning URLs
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Did you notice the neat, short URL I used for Eldon Sarte's excellent ezine NewsDesk?
Compare them:
http://www.e-factory.com/cgi-bin/subscribe.cgi?gardyne
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/newsdesk
The second one doesn't look it, but it's a money-earning URL. I didn't use a CGI script or ad-serving software. Want to know how? You can find the instructions at the Internet Marketing Challenge private site if you sign up to join the revenue sharing program. It's free to join.
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/imc2
[UPDATE: This program has closed. I now use .htaccess redirects.]
All the best
Allan Gardyne
