Associate Programs Newsletter #104
Today’s main article is about two different ways of promoting your online business – one idiotic, one brilliant. The choice is yours.
CONTENTS:
1. The amateur and the professional
2. Affiliate model doesn’t make sense, says Iconomy
3. How to turn words into cash
4. Protect yourself from hard ball tactics
5. Open Directory even more important now
6. CollegeRecruiter earning power increases again
7. eToys – get a clue
8. The four types of affiliates
9. Intriguing site lures big traffic
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1. The amateur and the professional
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One of the good – and bad – things about the Internet is that it has made it so easy for anyone to set up a little business and promote it with free publicity.
Here are two examples I saw this week – one idiotic, one clever.
To save the thoughtless person from too much embarrassment, I’ll just call him Kyle. He posted this message on the Associate Programs Message Board:
“I haven’t gotten payed by AllAdvantage yet. They owe
me something like $90.00 from the last four months, and
I have yet to see a check in the mail.”
Following that misspelt complaint, Kyle gave his REFERRAL link. So he was complaining about not being paid – and still trying to get you to sign up!
(Multi-tier programs aren’t my field, but as far as I know AllAdvantage is still paying other people. Perhaps Kyle’s check went astray.)
Elsewhere on the message board, Kyle posted a blatant ad for Cookie Cutter:
“With this program, you can earn hundreds of dollars
in cash and checks, delivered right to your mailbox
each day. With endless possibilities.”
Kyle wrote not one word about the quality of the product. He didn’t even hint that there IS a product. He just took the old “You can make money at this” theme.
I don’t know if Kyle even owns a website. All he posted was an AllAdvantage address and an AWeber e-mail address. He hasn’t figured out that instead of hoping for a quick dollar he ought to be earning trust, creating a credible business, and building equity. What does he want to remembered as – the guy who complained about AllAdvantage and still wanted me to sign up?
I suppose Kyle is wondering why people don’t take him seriously.
In contrast, here’s how to get it right . . .
At the other extreme is a useful, helpful post to LinkExchange Digest #805 – https://digest.bcentral.com/ – by Edwin Hayward of Internet Business Forum – https://www.ibizforum.com.
Edwin begins his letter in an irresistible way:
“I want to share with LED readers a great free tool that has
given me a lot of benefits …”
Edwin is telling LED’s 130,000 subscribers about a tool called HTML Shrinker, which he uses to compress his HTML files by an average of 20%.
“This means that my 30KB page now takes up only 24KB and loads
that much faster…”
Then he slips in the fact that his site is very popular, so you’ll be curious and want to see it: “. . . and at a million pageviews a month I save 6GB of bandwidth!”
In simple language, Edwin describes step-by-step how he uses the tool, how it helps him, and how it makes your HTML code harder to read. Then, near the end of his message, he adds a masterly touch – he includes his website’s URL in a helpful way: “To see just how messy it makes the code look, feel free to head over to the main page of my site at https://www.emailaddresses.com/ and take a good look at the underlying source code!”
You can download HTML Shrinker here:
pico.i-us.com/tools/htmlshr.htm
[UPDATE: This site is no longer available.]===================================================
2. Affiliate model doesn’t make sense, says Iconomy
===================================================
Affiliate programs are under attack, reports Greg Sandoval in a CNet article. A crop of e-commerce service providers such as Vitessa, Escalate and Iconomy are telling some content providers that they are losing money by sending customers to another site.
The answer, according to these companies, is to keep customers on content providers’ sites by selling goods themselves.
“We got into this because we saw that the affiliate model didn’t make sense,” says Iconomy chief executive Aaron Day. “You’re essentially selling your customer. So if you send your customer to, say, Amazon, they essentially now own your customer.”
Full story:
cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-1681740.html
Here’s an analysis of affiliate marketing which shows it is dramatically cheaper than all other forms of customer
acquisition: iconocast.com/issue/1998110402.html
That’s great for merchants – but not so good for affiliates.
What CNet didn’t report is that associate programs exist in which the associate DOES “own” the customer – for life.
Whenever the customer returns and buys, the associate receives a commission.
The best example is Ken Evoy’s program, which has two excellent products:
“Make Your Site SELL!” https://www.associateprograms.com/myss
[UPDATE: After selling more than 100,000 copies, “Make Your Site SELL!” is now free.]“Make Your Knowledge SELL!” https://www.associateprograms.com/myks
Ken’s third product will be launched very soon, and one more will be launched each month for the foreseeable future. You’ll earn commissions for life on every product.
That’s a great way for merchants to look after their associates.
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3. How to turn words into cash
==============================
If your website is getting traffic but your sales are sluggish, you probably need help with your copywriting – the art of writing words that make people buy.
David Garfinkel, who is recognized by many as the world’s greatest teacher of money-making copywriting, has written a new course which can help you, “Killer Copy Tactics”.
It’s the only interactive, multi-media, online course that teaches you how to write killer ad copy.
I’ve started taking the 12-week course. I was surprised that David suggests closely examining the writing in National Enquirer! You may not think much of that rag, but it’s useful to examine the writing techniques which have helped make it popular.
It’s a fascinating course.
I’m looking forward to reaching Week 12, which includes one of the three bonus reports, “How Most Profitable Affiliates Make Money”.
David, a former journalist, has earned millions of dollars for his clients.
If your sales are sluggish, I’m sure he’ll help you, too.
[UPDATE: David Garfinkel’s Killer Copy Tactics course is no longer available. However, you can still get his book, Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich: Create Winning Ads, Web Pages, Sales Letters and More.]
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4. Protect yourself from hard ball tactics
==========================================
I have mixed feelings about a new book, “Work the Medium”, by Daniel Barnett and Tom Hodgkinson.
I’ve just learned valuable information from it about how to use what the authors called “hard ball” tactics to snoop on your competitors and how to “steal” their customers. I didn’t see anything that’s actually illegal, but some of the techniques are unethical in my opinion.
However, as the authors say, some of your competitors may already be employing one or two of these warfare style tactics to get an unfair advantage over you.
For example, the book shows you:
How to “invade” your competitors’ customer base and how to secretly win over their customers.
How to find out everything that your competitor is doing online. You will know when and where they are advertising online, who has given them reviews, and even how many visitors they are attracting to their site.
Effective strategies that will keep you aware of everything your competitors are up to.
Pricing strategies that allow you to double your prices and still get more customers.
This book is not aimed at beginners. It’s not aimed at anyone looking for a quick fix or instant wealth.
It’s a guide for serious businesses and entrepreneurs who want to spend time and effort to build a profitable web venture – and gain an unfair advantage over their competition, the authors say.
It will also be useful for companies wanting to protect themselves from people who are using unfair tactics.
One of the sections, “Pushing The Competition out of Search Engines”, is downright disgusting. The authors say one of the techniques described is written “for discussion only” and that they have never used it, but they also say: “Try this . . .”
They should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.
So I’m hesitant about telling you about this book. I learned valuable information from it which I’d like all my friends to know. I just hope you will all use it wisely and not risk your reputation by doing anything foolish.
When I read one of the strategies in the book, I immediately dashed off a warning message to my web host, Rob Marlbrough at https://www.associateprograms.com/hosting . He’s a friendly, helpful guy, and a few minutes later he replied that he had acted on my warning.
If you’ve been spying on my traffic statistics and analyzing where the traffic comes from, you’re out of luck. My stats are now password protected. Are yours?
The digital version of “Work the Medium” costs only $US24. The book comes in hardback, too.
The two-tier associate program pays $10 and $5 commission.
Protect yourself. Get a copy now:
[UPDATE: Work the Medium is no longer available.]=========================================
5. Open Directory even more important now
=========================================
Google search engine now has a directory based on the Open Directory Project – https://dmoz.org/ – so it’s now even more important than ever that you have your site listed in the Open Directory. It has a strict policy against pages which are simply advertising for an affiliate program, so you’ll need to provide useful content if you want to be listed in this popular directory.
Take your time and choose the most appropriate categories carefully. Remember, real human volunteers will judge whether your submission is acceptable.
https://directory.google.com/
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6. CollegeRecruiter earning power increases again
=================================================
CollegeRecruiter.com has added a state-of-the-art resume bank. You can see it in action by going to https://www.CollegeRecruiter.com/pages/resumes.html.
“We estimate that about one-third of employers and candidates come to our job site because they are interested in using our resume bank. As a result, because of the addition of the resume bank to our website, your earning potential just increased by perhaps 50 percent,” Steven Rothberg has told his associates.
So a good program, paying 5 cents per click and generous commissions, and offering a useful search engine which you can paste into your jobs-related site, has just improved again.
“Given that our search engine has a click-through rate that is about 50 times as high as a banner ad, when we pay you 5 cents per click, that equates to us paying $2.50 per click-through,” Steve says. “When was the last time anyone offered you that?”
You can see an example of the search box on the main page of a successful affiliate, https://www.123-jobs.com .
You can sign up for CollegeRecruiter.com at Commission Junction:
https://www.associateprograms.com/cj
[UPDATE: In April 2001, College Recruiter changed its payout to $100, and extended the life of its cookie to one year.]__________________________________________SPONSOR__________
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Turn a profit on EVERY sale. Earn up to 25% commissions.
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7. eToys – get a clue
=====================
eToys have turned their backs on affiliates after building their brand through affiliates’ efforts, so affiliates are turning elsewhere. Patrick Anderson suggests good alternatives.
https://www.associateprograms.com/search/etoys-clue.shtml
[UPDATE: This old article has been deleted.]===============================
8. The four types of affiliates
===============================
If you’re running an affiliate program you may get some ideas from an article “The Four Types of Affiliates and Methods of Handling Each” by Lori Faunce, Marketing Manager of Educational Directories Unlimited – https://www.edudirectories.com
A little proof-reading would improve the article.
articles.plugingo.com/art_read.cfm?art=23
[UPDATE: Plugingo network died.]====================================
9. Intriguing site lures big traffic
====================================
If you’re brilliant, one way to attract massive waves of traffic to your website is to construct a game or interactive tool or some form of entertainment which is so entertaining that lots of people recommend it to their friends, who recommend it to their friends. Just in case you haven’t already heard, here’s a site which hundreds of thousands of people are visiting:
soda.co.uk/soda/constructor/index.htm
All the best
Allan Gardyne
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