Associate Programs Newsletter #383

Do you want affiliate marketing ideas or solid, actionable steps? Today we have a bit of each.

CONTENTS:

1. 28 more ways affiliates generate revenue
2. Instead of ideas: Solid ACTIONABLE steps
3. Think twice about eBay
4. How PPC marketers can throw away dollars
5. Gems from our affiliate forum
6. Did you miss this article?
7. Thought for today: A big mistake

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1. 28 more ways affiliates generate revenue
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Continuing my 53 ways to make money with affiliate programs article.

Published last week - Part 1: Mainly for affiliate newcomers
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/articles/690/1/53-ways-to-make-money-with-affiliate-programs

Now, here are 28 more idea generators...

Part 2: More challenging techniques, including innovative, high-traffic sites and some that have millions of visitors a month and millions of subscribers.
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/articles/697/1/More-ways-to-make-money-with-affiliate-programs

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2. Instead of ideas: Solid ACTIONABLE steps
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If, instead of idea generators, you're looking for step-by-step instructions, have a close look at this. It's really good...

Marlon Sanders' new Promo Dashboard is a point and click, organized way to promote stuff. You can use it whether you have your own products or are promoting affiliate products.

Like his other popular "Dashboard" products, it gives you a system to follow. It shows you how to do research, create a freebie, make a squeeze page, build an email list and then make people BUY.

The "Dashboard" has six rows of icons. Each row has six icons - 36 steps in all. It's designed as roughly a six-week program. You simply work your way through the steps, probably one step per day, taking an hour a day. Some people may take longer and some will be quicker.

Here's what you do as you follow the steps in the the Promo Dashboard...

You start by researching your market, and probably finding out more than you ever knew about your typical customer - what blogs they read, what websites they visit, what age they are, etc. Marlon shows you how.

Next, you come up with a highly attractive "killer freebie" that compels people to opt in on your squeeze page. It can be a screen capture video, a PDF, an e-course or some other "freebie". The aim is to get 15% to 25% of your visitors to opt in. Marlon shows you how. He shows you squeeze pages that WORK.

Then you send out emails containing what Marlon calls the "full arsenal". You impress your subscribers by using such things as podcasts, videos, PDF reports, audio reports, webinars... Don't worry if you don't know how to do these things, Marlon takes you by the hand and shows you how, step by step. (There's a LOT of really good, solid stuff in this Dashboard.)

Your goal is to get 10% of your subscribers, over time, to buy your product. Your results will depend on your target market, your industry, and so on.

A few years ago, Joanna and I met Marlon at a conference in Las Vegas and had dinner with him up the Eiffel Tower. I'd admired his products and his marketing skills so it was wonderful to have the opportunity spend a few hours with him.

Marlon is really GOOD at getting people to buy. He was selling products full-time online long before many of today's gurus were even online. He takes you step by step and shows you how, without any fluff and "guru speak".

He uses step-by-step instructions, short audio messages, screen captures and short videos. He gives very clear, easy to understand instructions. He's very good at keeping everything simple.

If you're looking for step-by-step instructions, with screenshots, audio and video, you'll love Promo Dashboard. It's seriously good.

You can get Promo Dashboard here...
(You'll love zany Marlon's no B.S. style)

http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/promo-dash

Here's a more in-depth review of Promo Dashboard

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3. Think twice about eBay
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If you're thinking of joining the eBay affiliate program (eBay Partner Network) some time in the future, it would be a good idea to check out the eBay forums to see how the company is treating its affiliates.

Check to see if the company has learned anything useful from its current public relations disaster.

The company recently switched its affiliate program from CJ to inhouse. Then this month it dumped hundreds of affiliates - 300 out of 90,000 according to one report - and handled the matter with abymsal lack of respect for its business partners.

Some had been affiliates of eBay for years. They'd done a huge amount of work.

Dumped affiliates were told that the traffic they were sending to eBay was "significantly less engaged" with the eBay site than the traffic sent by other affiliates.

Apparently, some eBay affiliates dumped were using blackhat tactics. However, it looks as though good, hard-working affiliates were dumped, too.

For example, here's a comment on the eBay forums from a sacked affiliate:

"I wrote them a nice reply letter (no joking) as I'm appreciative of our 6+ year long term relationship. We have sent eBay tens of millions of buyers/sellers in the 6+ years of our positive affiliate relationship. I'm shocked to have gotten this letter as with CJ we never even heard from eBay. Since our signup on EPN from CJ we have sent them 1,498,200 clicks and we just use basic, plain old, text links and Editor Kit creatives. We don't use any paid eBay keyword advertising, etc.

"We have been with eBay for over 6 years, Total Motorcycle is a top website worldwide, the leading motorcycle website in North America and gets 1.5 million uniques per month for traffic with our 500,000 pages of content (with eBay being on 90% of those pages). We are a high unique content site that does not even sell anything (other than a T-shirt) and I believe we are a good quality site as well."

The affiliate urged urged eBay to "reconsider, renegotiate or at least communicate with a good long time eBay affiliate on how we can still be part of the eBay Partner Network affiliate program. Hopefully there is something we can do better or change?"

It seems odd that affiliates with such a long-term relationship with eBay were dumped with such little respect for the value of the relationship.

Some affiliates are so angry and frustrated they've launched websites criticizing EPN.

Let's hope eBay learns something from this mess.

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4. How PPC marketers can throw away dollars
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Here's one for PPC marketers...

Even seasoned AdWords veterans can empty their wallets by missing the obvious, says Michael Ullmann. If your PPC campaigns aren't as brilliant as they should be, perhaps you're overlooking some vital AdWords settings.

Your Overlooked Campaign Settings Are Costing You Money!

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5. Gems from our affiliate forum
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Some interesting topics on our affiliate forum...

How eBay and the EPN are committing suicide
"For those of you thinking about promoting EPN, do your homework."

How To Tell If You'll Be Successful At Affiliate Marketing
"Here's a little test that might help you understand whether you'll be successful at affiliate marketing."

A Rookie in SpeedPPC Territory
"I want to give a personal account of my past weeks of using, testing, learning SpeedPPC..."

What are the benefits of multiple domains?
"A few marketers have suggested having multiple domains, for different parts of the SAME business. What is the real benefit in this?"

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6. Did you miss this article?
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Just in case you were watching the Olympics last week and missed it...

We received some enthusiastic feedback on this article Jay wrote.

The 5 key components of exponential profits

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7. Thought for today: A big mistake
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"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little." - Edmund Burke.

All the best

Allan Gardyne