Associate Programs Newsletter #149

CONTENTS:

1. 15 ways to cope with GoTo.com's price rise
2. This looks like a new domain name gold rush
3. Why your Amazon commissions may have dropped
4. Commission Junction case studies - 9 success stories
5. More affiliates treated badly
6. MyFree's top 10 earners
7. BabyCenter store to close "temporarily"
8. One-day cookies insult to affiliates
9. Affiliate news, commentary
10. Is your glass half empty or half full
11. Merchants lambasted on message board
12. Thought for today: Your destination


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1. 15 ways to cope with GoTo.com's price rise
=============================================

Like a greedy bank eliminating costly accounts, GoTo.com has increased its minimum bid price from 1 cent to 5 cents per click.

It doesn't want to be bothered with the costly task of checking the relevancy of millions of marginally useful 1 cent listings.

Unfortunately for advertisers, it's not just little accounts and non-profit organizations which are affected. Some web site owners have 10,000 or 20,000 or more keywords listed at GoTo, and pay thousands of dollars a year to the pay-per-click search engine.

The announcement angered many people (25% of GoTo's clicks come from 1 cent listings, reports Danny Sullivan) and GoTo made the situation worse by stupidly calling the 500% increase "modest".

"I'm going to stop advertising on GoTo," several owners of affiliate program-driven web sites told me.

"Organize a boycott!" others urged me.

I don't expect GoTo to lie down and die. It's still the king of pay-per-click search engines - now it's the arrogant, greedy king.

It dominates the pay-per-click search engine industry. GoTo links appear all over the Web, in places such as AOL Search, AltaVista, Lycos, HotBot, Direct Hit, Netscape and - just recently - iWon.

It also has good anti-fraud checking - something you can't be sure about at most of the other nearly 70 pay-per-click search engines at http://www.PayPerClickSearchEngines.com.

This 500% increase positions GoTo as the search engine to use when you're looking for SUCCESSFUL web sites. It also passes fiddly, smaller, time-consuming accounts to its competitors.

GoTo's new rule that every advertiser has to spend at least $20 a month or be charged the difference won't bother serious advertisers. I LIKE it when GoTo e-mails me and tells me that another $100 has automatically been taken out of my credit card. It means I've received more visitors to my web sites - and therefore made more sales.

One effective strategy when using GoTo was to find keywords and key phrases other people had overlooked and bid 1 cent on them. Even marginally useful keywords were worth paying 1 cent per visitor.

Now you'll need new strategies.

Here are 15 steps you can take to lessen the impact of GoTo's price rise - and improve your profits at the same time:

ON GOTO.COM:
Don't think of GoTo as a search engine. Think of it as a form of advertising. Do that, and you'll try to make sure every cent works for you.

Narrow your focus. Dump marginally useful keywords. For example, Robert Woodhead of http://www.SelfPromotion.com told I-Search that he was happy to pay 2 cents per click for the keyword "Yahoo" but isn't prepared to pay 5 cents. Concentrate on highly relevant, on-target keywords.

Check your titles and descriptions in GoTo. Make sure that someone scanning those descriptions knows exactly what to expect at your web site. If you disappoint people you're throwing your money away.

Don't send visitors to your main page. Send them straight to your newsletter sign-up page and entice them to leave their e- mail address so you have repeated opportunities to sell to them.

Send visitors to your most profitable SELLING pages - such as product endorsements and case studies.
OTHER SEARCH ENGINES:
Use OTHER pay-per-click search engines. Nathan Power, who has been researching pay-per-click search engines for the past year, reviews 69 of them at http://www.PayPerClickSearchEngines.com.

Study the articles at PayPerClickSearchEngines.com for more tips on how to get the best out of pay-per-click search engines.

ON YOUR WEB SITE:
Re-examine your business model. You may be perfectly happy with a large, sprawling, entertaining site which attracts thousands of visitors who hardly ever buy anything, but to me that sounds more like a hobby than a business. If you can't afford to pay $5 for 100 highly targeted visitors who are actively searching for your product or service, could you be doing something wrong? You're battling uphill if your business model relies totally on free or very cheap forms of advertising.

Make your site leaner and meaner. One option is to give your visitors FEWER CHOICES. Consider removing all links which don't earn you money or which don't reward you with traffic. This tactic works well for mini-sites.

Collect e-mail addresses and FOLLOW UP consistently. More than 90% of your prospects won't buy the first time they see your offer. Persuade them to part with their e-mail address by giving away free reports or providing a useful newsletter. Then follow up regularly and create a stream of prospects, customers and back-end sales. (See next week's newsletter for more details.)

Dump unprofitable affiliate programs. If a merchant isn't paying you well, try another. Don't continue sending traffic to merchants who have low conversion rates.

Analyze why your site isn't selling. If you can't afford to pay 5 cents per visitor, perhaps you should spend the next few days re-reading books on selling.

Study how to sell. Get Marlon Sanders' "The Amazing Formula That Sells Like Crazy" - http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/marlon - it's absolutely essential reading for anyone selling anything. Re-read the Bible of online selling, "Make Your Site Sell" - http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/myss. You'll find heaps of great tips which you've probably forgotten.

Improve your PRE-selling. Get your visitors warmed up and enthusiastic, ready to buy. Here's an article which tells you how:
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/pre-selling.

Perhaps the best idea of all, which I highly recommend...
Create your OWN information product and sell it. With higher profit margins, you'll be able to afford to pay more for advertising (and you can use affiliate programs for back-end sales, to people who have bought YOUR product). "Make your Knowledge Sell!" - http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/myks - is the best and the most comprehensive book on that topic. It shows you step-by-step how to create, market and sell your own information product. If you think it's too difficult, this book will change your mind. You CAN do it.

[UPDATE: GoTo.com is now Yahoo! Search Marketing.]

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2. This looks like a new domain name gold rush
==============================================

Instead of waiting for ICANN to approve new top-level domains to add to .COM, .NET, .ORG etc, a company called New.net has begun selling its own.

An affiliate program is planned.

New.net, a spin-off of Idealab (the company which provided the money to launch GoTo.com and eToys) has the backing of large partners such as MP3.com, Excite@Home and NetZero so this looks serious.

Some 16 million Internet users will have access to the new domains this week.

The new TLDs (top-level domains) on sale now are:

.chat
.club
.family
.free
.game
.gmbh
.hola
.inc
.kids
.law
.ltd
.med
.mp3
.shop
.soc
.sport
.tech
.travel
.video
.xxx

Because the new TLDs go outside the traditional Internet, Internet service providers (ISPs) would have to reconfigure their hardware to recognize the new domains. As an interim solution, New.net is offering a free browser plug-in that enables consumers to access the domains.

The names cost $25 a year. More TLDs are planned.

I expect these domains will sell fast to people willing to take a $25 gamble.

If you're going to grab some of these names, remember that all the old rules about trademarks still apply, and there's no guarantee that this scheme will get off the ground.

More details:
wirednews.com/news/business/0,1367,42146,00.html
wirednews.com/news/business/0,1367,42201,00.html
msnbc.com/news/539189.asp

New.net's Director of Online Marketing Michaela Soukal says New.net will launch an affiliate program soon.

You'll be able to earn commissions in two ways - on sales of the new domains and by giving away the free browser plug-in which makes the domains work.

Imagine thousands of affiliates keenly pushing this service. That ought to increase its chance of success.

http://www.new.net

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UPDATE: AssociatePrograms.com Newsletter 149 Part #2

New domain names.

Before you rush out to buy those new domain names, here are some more details you may want to consider.

Vint Cerf Calls New.Net Domain Scheme A 'Cute Trick'
newsbytes.com/news/01/162773.html

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3. Why your Amazon commissions may have dropped
===============================================

Some affiliates have reported a decrease in revenue from Amazon.

Shawn Collins says the probable reason is that Amazon has added an extra page in the process (from affiliate links) that says "You clicked through this item... "

Your visitors have to click another time to get to the purchase page.

"It gives Amazon a chance to pull people away from your direct 15% link and push them towards some complementary titles that will pay 5%," Shawn says.

"I just found out from Amazon that if you would like to link to the old individual item pages, you should use this new type of format for your individual item links:

amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/nnnnnnnnnn/ref=nosim/your_Associates_ID

(The n's stand for the 10-digit ASIN number of the product, and "your_Associates_ID" stands for your Associates ID code).

To change your current links, simply add "ref=nosim" to the link (placed between the ASIN number and your Associates ID code). This linking format will trigger the old individual item page when clicked on, Shawn says.

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4. Commission Junction case studies - 9 success stories
=======================================================

The Commission Junction network has taken a hammering from critics lately, especially from smaller, struggling merchants.

However, many affiliates are pleased that CJ is raising the standard of merchants listed in its network.

Today, let's concentrate on success stories.

Here are nine merchant and affiliate success stories, provided by CJ. Plenty of interesting statistics are included, but the stats aren't all precise.

Like all affiliate networks, CJ has affiliates who don't generate impressions. Some shorten the tracking links. Some redirect the "img src" to their servers and track their own impressions. It's impossible for CJ to count all the impressions generated. Todd Crawford says CJ estimates that merchants receive 10% and 25% more impressions than those counted by CJ.

The companies are:

A&E Television Networks
Global Sports
eUniverse
Jackpot.com
ebates.com
eWanted
Spice of Life Coffee & Tea
Sundial.com
Zappos.com

You can read the case studies here:
cj.com/about/press/frame_press_case.asp

The latest PC Data Online report shows that 40% of the Top-50 Web properties are Commission Junction clients. In the Top 100 list, CJ ranks first among affiliate marketing providers.

You can join all these programs at Commission Junction:

http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/cj

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5. More affiliates treated badly
================================

Thoughtless merchants continue to treat their affiliates badly.

Here's an example.

Jodie McPhee of http://www.BugsBunnyBurrow.com received an e-mail on March 2 which announced that Network Commerce Inc. had discontinued the ShopNow/BottomDollar search affiliate program on February 28.

Network Commerce said it appreciated Jodie's participation in the program, and made this offer: "We are currently offering a program through our Registrars.com Affiliate Partner Program... And coming soon, we will be launching the FreeMerchant Affiliate Program..."

Here's Jodie's scornful response:

"You may want to point out in next week's newsletter that giving affiliates a little TIME and notice encourages you to perhaps join an alternative program. I just got this e-mail, today, on the 2nd of March. Charming! Think I'm going to join their other programs now? Hahahahah!"

When web site owners have thousands of programs to choose from, wouldn't you think affiliate program managers would make treating affiliates fairly their top priority?

==========================
6. MyFree's top 10 earners
==========================

MyFree has announced its top 10 affiliate earners for January:

1. $12,525
2. $11,540
2. $10,055
3. $4,546
4. $4,343
5. $3,949
6. $2,198
7. $1,952
8. $1,729
9. $1,678
10. $1,368

"We pay sites for every person that registers for our free e-mail newsletters. We require only an e-mail address so sign-ups are fast - and conversions are very high," says Stuart Hochwert of MyFree.

http://www.MyFree.com

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7. BabyCenter store to close "temporarily"
==========================================

Here's some bad news for BabyCenter affiliates.

The following message was posted on the Associate Programs Message Board:

By Babycenter Update on Monday, March 5, 2001 - 07:51 pm:

Many of you may be wondering about the future of BabyCenter and our affiliate program. On Friday, March 2, it was announced that BabyCenter was acquired by Johnson & Johnson. To read the press release, go to our site:
http://www.babycenter.com/about/pr60.html

While that is wonderful news for the site and means that BabyCenter will not be shutting down, the acquisition did not include anything related to the BabyCenter Store - either its assets - warehouse, inventory, staff - or liabilities, including vendor relationships and affiliate payments. This means that the BabyCenter Store will be temporarily closing as soon as Monday, and unfortunately, affiliate payments for the last two months are subject to eToys bankruptcy proceedings.

I apologize for this situation and thank you for your support. We are planning to rebuild the BabyCenter Store as soon as possible and hope that there will be an opportunity to work with you in the future. We will be sure to inform you when the BabyCenter Store is back in business.

Sincerely,
The BabyCenter Affiliate Management Team

More details:

EToys Is Giving Up Its BabyCenter
thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,22584,00.html

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8. One-day cookies insult to affiliates
========================================

Remember when all the merchants listed in the Commission Junction network set their cookies at 90 days? Then it was 45 days...

The good old days, right?

It was a fair system because most visitors to a merchant don't buy on their first visit. Cookies give the affiliate more chances to receive the commission they've worked hard to earn.

Now some CJ merchants such as CheapAirlines.com and OneSearch.com are switching to cookies set for ONE day.

That's right, one day.

The ONLY reason a merchant would do that is because it wants to pay you less than a fair commission.

If you send a visitor to a merchant, the visitor thinks about it and returns a few days later and makes a purchase, you helped achieve that sale. You deserve a commission on it.

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9. Affiliate news, commentary
=============================

Amazon, Wal-Mart To Dance?
cnnfn.cnn.com/2001/03/05/deals/amazon/
news.excite.com/news/r/010305/08/net-retail-amazon-dc

Match.com, MSN.co.uk In Matchmaking Deal
internetnews.com/intl-news/article/0,,6_704441,00.html

Airlines Withdraw Internet Commissions
ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/7854.html
news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-201-4989472-0.html

Pay Pal gets another $90 million in funding
news.cnet.com/news/0-1007-200-5038525.html

=========================================
10. Is your glass half empty or half full
========================================

Some economic downturns are worse than others. This is one of the good ones, says James Fallows.

No, the United States is not in a recession. If your friends tell you it is, you can throw these cheerful statistics at them:

thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,22614,00.html

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11. Merchants lambasted on message board
========================================

Hot topics on the Associate Programs Message Board this week include:
One-day cookies at Commission Junction.

Advantages/disadvantages of concentrating only on CJ programs.

Questions about the AOL program.

An open letter to PeopleSound.com.

Late-paying LinkShare programs.

A serious complaint about MatchNet.com

The easiest way to find the latest posts on the message board is to click on "Last Day" or "Last Week".

If you have a question to ask, this is also a good place to ask it. Many helpful, friendly affiliates and a few affiliate program managers visit the message board regularly.

http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/discus/index.php

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12. Thought for today: Your destination
=======================================

"Discouragement is a negative emotion with more than one trick up its dark sleeve. It tricks you into mentally or emotionally dwelling in the very place you want to leave. Drop all such sorrow permanently by daring to see through this deception of the unconscious mind. Who you really are, your True Nature, is no more tied to the kind of person you've been than the wind is tied to the skies through which it moves. Your past is just that, the past, a place within your psyche with no more reality to it that the picture of a castle on a postcard is made from stone. You have a destination far beyond where you find yourself standing today."

- Guy Finley, author of
"Freedom From the Ties That Bind"
quoted in Rick Beneteau's The Mirror
http://www.themirrorezine.com

All the best

Allan Gardyne