Associate Programs Newsletter #49

CONTENTS:

1. Good guy Wayne boosts commission by $10
2. The Affiliate Emancipation Proclamation
3. New Anaconda script
4. 67 ways to boost your web traffic
5. SendFree autoresponder gets rave review
6. Are you using banner-serving software?
7. BrandAmerica could be special
8. Snippets

I've added a search engine and many new categories to help you find programs at AssociatePrograms.com. I'm working on sweeping away the construction dust. Thanks for your patience.

Is one particular program working well for you? How about sharing your knowledge? You can rate it from 1 to 10 at AssociatePrograms.com

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1. Good guy Wayne boosts commission by $10
==========================================

Wayne Yeager of Unclaimed Domains has boosted the commission he is paying from $3.50 to $13.50 - because of e-mails he received from readers of the Associate Programs Newsletter.

Two weeks ago I praised the Unclaimed Domains product, but took it off my main page because I didn't think the commission Wayne was paying was enough. I suggested that Wayne should boost the price - and the commission.

"I got lots of e-mail from people asking me, 'Well, are you going to do it? Are you going to increase your price and your affiliate commissions?' Wayne says.

"So, I thought long and hard on this, and yes, I've decided to give it a go.

"As of May 5th (Wednesday) the price for the Master List will be $30, and affiliates will receive 50%. Now, because of the way ClickBank works, that nets the affiliate $13.25 NOT $15, but that's still MUCH better than $3.50, and my conversion rate shouldn't change that much," Wayne says.

"So, since you're basically responsible for this little experiment, I wanted you to be the first to know. You mentioned in your newsletter that if I were to increase it to these levels you'd give me a place of prominence again. Does that still hold true?

"I did a little calculation, and if I'd been doing this from the start, your commission would have been $211.25 during the 14 days experiment instead of $59.50.

"That's quite a difference."

Sure, Wayne. You're back on the main page again. After that heroic decision, you deserve to be.

Some marketing wizards can promote any goofball domain name, but if you have a good one, your job is much easier. Good dot.com names are disappearing fast. If you buy one now, how much will it be worth in a couple of years? In 10 years?

I've bought four more domain names. (If you try to predict which way this industry will move next, you may be able to guess what two of them are.) I reckon they'll prove to be an excellent investment.

Wayne's Master List is easy to sell. Please give it a try - Wayne deserves it.

[UPDATE:
Wayne sold Unclaimed Domains to internet.com, which dumped it.]

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2. The Affiliate Emancipation Proclamation
==========================================

Sorry, merchants, but the secret it out. Just as the Internet empowered buyers, revenue sharing programs give the power to the affiliates.

"Know what's really up? The affiliates own this industry, and no one has figured it out. The company that pays its affiliates the most cash makes the biggest splash," says an anonymous writer (using Brian Clark's writing style) at ReveNews.com.

"Next time you see an affiliate program announce outstanding sales from an affiliate, ask yourself why you don't see more of it? How come Amazon never toots the affiliate's horn? The threat is so clear; if they don't appreciate their affiliates, they will be dumped in a minute. They don't own us. We own them."
For the full story see:
revenews.com/advice/strategy/emancipate.html

==========================
3. New Anaconda.net script
==========================

Anaconda.net, which is designed to boost Amazon.com commissions from 5% to 15%, now has a new product, called Anaconda Pipeline, says Kevin Patch of Anaconda. "It is used by Amazon.com Associates to integrate any Amazon page (subjects, awards, etc.), into their site, with all books and items hard-linked." The original Anaconda script was limited to search results.

Amazon.com, which still isn't making a profit, must be monitoring Anaconda.net's products with intense interest. So I asked Stephanie McKnight of Amazon.com to comment.

She repeated an earlier reply: "We do not endorse or comment on any specific third party tools and we always caution that we do not offer any technical support or customer service related to their usage."

Read what you want to into that.

See Pipeline in action:
http://www.anaconda.net/ap_pipedemo.shtml

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4. 67 ways to boost your web traffic
=====================================

An obvious newcomer to the Net asked me recently whether he ought to buy Corey Rudl's marketing course. "After all," he said, "there are only a few ways to promote your site."

As experienced e-marketers know, there are HUNDREDS of ways to promote your site.

Jody McPhee of http://www.TrekPlanet.com got me started on this project when she published a checklist of marketing ideas. I've expanded Jody's list and added good URLs I've found for advice and resources.

How many of these 67 traffic-boosting techniques do you use?

[UPDATE:
Several of these links are outdated. I've disabled ones that no longer work.]

* Submission programs
      Experienced and popular
      http://www.submit-it.com
      FREE submission to major search engines and directories
      http://www.selfpromotion.com

* FFA sites etc
      FREE submission to 130 sites
      http://www.jimtools.com/
      5972 places to promote your site free
      http://www.ecki.com/links/
      Popular tool submits to 450 free-for-all sites
      linkomatic.com/

* Search engines
      Danny Sullivan's Search Engine Report
      http://searchenginewatch.com/about/subscribe.html
      One click submits your site to the 8 top search engines
      all4one.com/all4submit/
      mmgco.com/wsrev195.html
      http://www.searchenginehelp.com/signup
      http://www.virtualfreesites.com/search.html
      http://www.searchenginewatch.com/
      realnames.com

* Directories
      http://search.yahoo.com/bin/search?p=directories

* Reciprocal links
      sev.com.au/webzone/announce/networking.htm
      igoldrush.com/missing/
      http://iwr.com/free/reciprocal.htm
      http://www.reciprocallink.com/
      Zebulon Exchange of links
      http://www.fraternet.com/zel/

* Web rings
      h1x.com/advisor/maher19.htm - advice
      http://www.webring.org/
      http://www.ringsurf.com/

* Message boards - join in discussions
      270,000 Web Forum Discussions
      http://www.forumone.com
      http://AssociatePrograms.com/discus/index.php
      http://www.network54.com/Hide/Forum/184615
      gethighforums.com/bin/Ultimate.cgi homebasedbusiness.com/cgibin/index.cgi
      http://www.talkbiz.com [UPDATE: Newsletter, not forum.]
      http://www.ablake.net/forum/
      http://www.bmyers.com/ipub/index.html
      free-publicity.com/cgi-bin/talk.cgi
      http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/discus/index.php

* Message boards - setting up your own
      http://www.cgi-resources.com
      Discus - the one used by AssociatePrograms.com
      http://www.chem.hope.edu/discus

      [UPDATE: we now use http://www.phpbb.com/

* Guest books
      FREE guest books
      http://www.freecenter.com/guestbook.html

* Awards
      Earning awards for your web site
      focusa.com/articles/earn_awards1.htm

* Press releases
      How to Get the Press on Your Side by Shel Horowitz
      http://www.frugalfun.com/press.html
      http://www.automatedpr.com/
      http://www.promotionworld.com/press/index.html
      http://www.prnewswire.com/
      http://www.gebbieinc.com/
      http://www.mrsmithmedia.com

* Pamphlets

* Banners
      http://www.adbility.com/show.asp?cat_id=337
      See which ones work best
      BannerTips.com
      smartclicks.com/resources/best_banners.html
      Get a good one made
      http://www.BannerWorkz.com

* Banner exchanges
      http://www.freecenter.com/bannerx.html
      http://www.promotionworld.com/be/index.html
      http://www.adbility.com/WPAG/baf_exchange.htm

* Ezine advertising
      Huge list of places which list newsletters
      satcom.net.au/success/newsletter.html
      directmarketing-online.com/features/archives/articles/10211998.htm
      What ezines should I advertise in?
      http://www.lifestylespub.com

* Get listed on What's Hot and What's Cool sites
      sev.com.au/webzone/announce/whatshot.htm
      http://www.stpt.com/
      tipworld.com/

* What's new sites
      sev.com.au/news.php

* URL plates
      http://www.iditplates.net

* Word of mouth

* Business cards
      15 ways to use your business cards as a marketing tool
      smartbiz.com/sbs/arts/sbs4.htm

* Posters

* Email
      Email help for the newcomer
      http://everythingemail.net/email_help_tips.html

* Chat rooms
      http://sbinformation.miningco.com/mpchat.htm

* IRC
      Liszt's IRC Chat Directory
      liszt.com/chat/

* ICQ
      The ICQ E-mail Directory
      http://web.icq.com/whitepages/email_search

* Newspaper articles
      bizsuccess.com/august98.htm
      Write this article by Gary Lockwood
      netrageousresults.com/PR/pressrelease.html
      Write killer news releases

* Magazine articles
      mrsmithmedia.com
      thousands of magazines, hundreds of newspapers

* Online articles
      Provide articles for webmasters and ezine publishers
      http://bizweb2000.com/realemail.htm
      E-mail help for the newcomer
      http://everythingemail.net/emailtips.html

* Ezine articles
      meer.net/~johnl/e-zine-list/keywords/
      http://www.ezineseek.com/

* Newspaper adverts
      http://www.bonafideclassifieds.com/

* TV adverts

* Radio adverts

* Radio talkshows
      http://www.radiospace.com

* Magazine adverts

* Email signatures
      http://www.bizweb2000.com/sigfile.htm
      How to design a .sig file
      http://www.webbers.com/emark/sigfiles-nick-nichols.html

* FREE classified ads
      http://classifieds.yahoo.com/

* Your own classified ad page
      http://ep.com/

* Ezine ad swaps
      http://www.list-city.com/

* Publish your own newsletter and promote it
      wilsonweb.com/articles/majordomo.htm
      http://communitybuilding.com/

* Pay for newsletter subscribers
      http://www.signupsales.com/

* Opt-in email announcements
      http://www.postmasterdirect.com
      http://www.BulletMail.com
      http://www.wilsonweb.com/webmarket/lists.htm

* Give away products at other sites
      http://www.uniques.com/

* Start your own revenue sharing program
      How to start an affiliate program

* Run a seminar
      http://www.gapent.com/seminars/seminars_sales.htm

* Send postcards
      Netcards.com

* Distribute car stickers, magnets etc
      http://www.websticker.com/

* Newsgroups
      http://groups.google.com
      The best ones for free ads
      drnunley.com/freeads.htm
      Marketing on newsgroups
      http://www.bizweb2000.com/newsgrou.htm

* Join a mall
      AShoppingGuide.com
      The truth about Internet malls
      http://www.netrageousresults.com/reports/thetruth.html

* Offer digital postcards
      http://www.all-yours.net/postcard/

* Recommend-it
      recommend-it.com/
      Jim Rhodes' free referral script
      http://deadlock.com/promote/

* Capitalize on news events
      http://www.promotionworld.com/ideas/hits.html

* Help visitors return
      netmind.com/html/users.html
      micromat.com/pagewatch/

* Create a community
      http://communitybuilding.com/

* Work with charities
      http://www.drnunley.com/ARTCL31.htm

* Join discussion lists
      listtool.com
      paml.net/
      http://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html
      topica.com/

* Networking
      Tips from the queen of networking
      http://www.profnet.org

* Give a speech
      Make a speech and live to tell about it
      http://www.bizsuccess.com/articles/speech.htm

* Bumper sticker on your car

* Jewelry with your website logo on it

* Cap or t-shirt with your website on it
      Hatsurf.com

* Public relations
      Tips for press release writing and effective media relations http://www.newsbureau.com/tips/
      Learn from the experts
      netrageousresults.com/PR/index.html
      Public Relations Online Resources and Organizations
      webcom.com/impulse/resource.html

* Run sweepstakes
      onlinesweeps.com/articles/promo.html
      arentfox.com/features/sweepstakes/
      webcontests.com/bestsweeps.html

* Hold contests
      contests.miningco.com
      sev.com.au/webzone/announce/competition.htm

* Create a media kit and post it here
      searchz.com/mediakits

* Add interactivity to encourage repeat visitors
      Add chat, message boards, surveys, guest books, games, postcards, search engines, auctions etc.
      http://www.cgi-resources.com

* Make friends - and they will publicize your site.
      Good news spreads like wildfire

    * Joint ventures
      The most powerful marketing concept on earth
      http://www.jvmarketer.com/jvcenter.html

* Powwow - brainstorm, mind map, think up brilliant new ideas.
      Here are some offbeat offline ones.
      inc.com/301/ideas/1006.html

Because so many new people are coming on the Internet all the time and being seduced by get-rich-quick advertising, there's a place for a marketing advice section on just about any site.

Feel free to post this list on your website or use it in your newsletter. You could add your own favorite links to it, and also add full descriptions of each site to make it more useful for your visitors.

You could also offer it free via an autoresponder, including a link to your site or newsletter, of course.

[UPDATE 2008:
How things have changed! Hope you can still get a few ideas from these old ideas written in 1999. Don't waste time with free-for-all (FFA) sites. They used to work, a long time ago before masses of people began submitting to them automatically. One major way of getting traffic has arrived since I wrote this article - pay-per-click search engines for instant, highly targeted traffic: http://www.PayPerClickSearchEngines.com. Another major way is using social networking sites. Here's a more up-to-date article on how to get traffic: How to get traffic to my website?]

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5. SendFree autoresponder gets rave review
==========================================

SendFree provides FREE autoresponders - set up like banner exchanges.

"This service is perfect for those webmasters and entrepreneurs who don't enjoy free 24-hour Net access (like us in the UK!)," says Nick Smith. "Twenty-four-hour automated response to customer enquiries - FREE. Stick a cherry on top 'cos it don't get much better than that!"

Every time your autoresponder is accessed, a 5-line text ad you have created during your autoresponder set-up is added to another SendFree autoresponder. The same happens to yours.

A daily digest is sent to your e-mail address detailing who has accessed your autoresponder that day.

"There's also an affiliate program which earns you credits for inserts of your text ad," Nick says. "Simply sign up and place a button on a page and when anyone clicks through, you get a credit. Simple."

http://www.sendfree.com

==========================================
6. Are you using banner-serving software?
==========================================

One way of coping with banners from a large number of revenue sharing programs is to use ad-serving software to keep things tidy and under control. I'm writing an article on this for next week's newsletter.

I'd be interested in hearing from people who are using ad-serving software. Which software do you recommend? Just a brief comment will do, thanks.

allan AT AssociatePrograms.com

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7. BrandAmerica.com could be special
===================================

BrandAmerica intends to build the preeminent fashion business on the web, says its President, Adam Patti.

It will offer the latest in fashion and brand name apparel.

I don't usually mention companies which haven't launched their program yet, but this one could be special.

Adam Patti is highly qualified, having run three successful startups in three distinct industries. The CEO of the company, Adam's father Marty Patti, has 30 years of fashion industry experience and ran two publicly traded companies. He has also built companies from startup to over $400 million in revenue, and was the architect who built Chams de Baron (you may remember the Cham's Man in the 1980s) which was the hottest young men's brand in the 1980s.

The website is being designed by a major US design firm (same one that did sites for Comedy Central, the NFL, and NetworkSolutions) and will go online later this year.

"We anticipate that our two-tier affiliate model will pay 20% and 10% for a limited time, say through January 2000," Adam Pattie says. "At that time we will retain the right to reduce the terms to around 10% and 5%. However, if we get a powerful response to the early terms, we feel that it may be appropriate to extend them."

[UPDATE: Brandamerica disappeared.]

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8. Snippets
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Amazing growth
Amazon.com now has more than 260,000 associates in its program, Julia King of Amazon.com told me today.

How to use GoTo.com
Lesley Anne Lowe has written one of the best, detailed, articles I've seen on how to use GoTo.com to generate a heap of cheap traffic to your website. She writes from experience and tells you exactly how she did it. Sending a blank email for the article will zap you a sample copy of her excellent newsletter. [UPDATE: This newsletter has stopped publishing.]

Stig knew best
Stig Leschly's business plan was rejected by the judges of a Harvard Business School competition. He went ahead anyway - and seven months later sold his online collectibles business to Amazon.com in a multi-million-dollar deal. He is 29. boston.com/dailyglobe2/120/business/Striking_it_rich%2b.shtml

Marketing advice site
Todd Sumrall has been working hard on his new marketing advice site 1-promote.com/promotion.html . Todd has generously scattered links to AssociatePrograms.com around his site. Thanks, Todd. If you add my list of URLs - with full descriptions added - you could give the site a bit more depth.

Software.net
In 1994, William McKiernan started Software.net - now called Beyond.com - in a two-office suite above a barbershop in Menlo Park, California.
forbes.com/forbes/99/0503/6309074a.htm

Art.com sells for $200m
Getty Images, Inc. has bought Art.com for $200 million (U.S.)
mmgco.com/clients/artdotcom.html

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All the best

Allan Gardyne