Associate Programs Newsletter #201

Joanna and I don't go to many Internet marketing conferences. However, we're looking forward to the four-day SuperConference in Las Vegas.

Right now, we're in Dunedin, New Zealand, so we'll have a five-hour drive followed by about 15 hours flying on three planes to get there, but the SuperConference sounds just too good to miss.

I hope we'll see you there.

Today I look at different ways affiliate merchants - well, some of them anyway - are helping affiliates.

CONTENTS:

1. See you at the SuperConference
2. A free taste of the SuperConference
3. How Phil Wiley helps his affiliates make more sales
4. New Amazon script Piranha Feed - see the demo
5. Amazon explains its new commissions
6. EasyClickGuard helps prevent ClickBank hijackings
7. Can you recommend a DVD affiliate merchant
8. Morpheus behaves, and other news
9. Rupert learns how frustrating being an affiliate can be
10. Can you recommend a DVD affiliate merchant

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1. See you at the SuperConference
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Just letting you know that Joanna and I are going to the Internet Marketing SuperConference IV on June 13-16, at Treasure Island in Las Vegas.

Joanna loves all those over-the-top hotels representing world- famous attractions, such as Venice, the Eiffel Tower, the pyramids... Who needs a world trip when you can go to Vegas?

From my point of view, it's a wonderful opportunity to get the lowdown from some of the Net's most successful marketers. One of the best aspects is the chance to network, which you can't experience any other way.

If you act quickly, there's still time to come along.

There's serious money to be made on the Net, if you know how.

[UPDATE: The conference was a good one.]


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2. A free taste of the SuperConference
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Here's how to get a taste of the Internet Marketing SuperConference, in a FREE ecourse.

It's called "The Internet Marketing SuperConference IV PREVIEW eCourse" and it's a 7-day ecourse that was put together from the transcripts and notes of the last two Internet Marketing SuperConferences.

The eCourse features excerpts from: Marlon Sanders, Jonathan Mizel, Corey Rudl, Terry Dean, Ken Varga, Yanik Silver, Robert Allen, Declan Dunn, Marcus Allen, George Tran and Carl Galletti.

All of these people are currently making money on the Internet, they're not just talking about it. They're DOING it and in this FREE eCourse they share some of their techniques and methods with you.

It's quick and easy to get the course.

To get the FREE PREVIEW eCourse NOW...

Just send a blank email to this address:

[UPDATE: No longer available.]

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3. How Phil Wiley helps his affiliates make more sales
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Phil Wiley, who is both an affiliate and an affiliate merchant, has found a way to help his affiliates increase their sales.

"A few weeks ago I was wondering how to make things easier for my 'Mini Site Profits' affiliates to make sales when I hit on the idea of letting them just recommend my free newsletter and making sales when I sell the book in my newsletter," Phil says.

So all affiliate newcomers have to do is recommend Phil's newsletter and then Phil does the selling for them.

It's a win-win deal. The affiliate earns commissions while Phil gets more subscribers and more sales.

In contrast, some merchants deliberately divert visitors to newsletters and don't pay affiliates for any subsequent sales.

"Because I go through ClickBank, which lets you have only one landing page on your site, I had a script written to do the job," Phil says. "ClickBank cookies last for three months. In that time people you send to my ezine will get 12 issues, plenty of time to make up their mind about buying 'Mini Site Profits'."

Now all his affiliates have to do is use this link

http://www.ozemedia.com/go.php?offer=YOUR_CLICKBANK_NICKNAME&pid=ezine

There's no point in using that link until you replace YOUR_CLICKBANK_NICKNAME with your own ClickBank nickname. The tracking won't work properly unless you do.

For example, if your ClickBank nickname is "assoc", your affiliate link to Phil's newsletter would be:
http://www.ozemedia.com/go.php?offer=assoc&pid=ezine

(If you don't have a ClickBank nickname, you can join ClickBank here: http://AssociatePrograms.com/cb . It's free to join.)

If you try the link, you'll see that Phil's script is a little basic. It takes visitors to a page which says "Click Here", instead of whisking them automatically to the sales page.

However, it works.

"Since implementing it I've seen many affiliates make their first ever sale," Phil says.

"I'm not suggesting affiliates like you use it, just the beginners - people who don't know how to presell."

Subscribe to Phil's newsletter while you're there. It's a good one.

His book "Mini Site Profits" tells you how to build simple affiliate sites quickly.

It's nice to see a merchant helping his affiliates succeed.

Well done, Phil.

[UPDATE: Phil's book is no longer available.]

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4. New Amazon script Piranha Feed - see the demo
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As you probably know, Amazon seems to do all sorts of things to reduce the commissions to which you're entitled.

So programmers like Sunil Tanna come up with innovative ways for affiliates to improve the odds.

Sunil has created a stunning new script called Piranha Feed.

Usually, if a visitor clicks on an Amazon search box on your site you immediately lose the visitor. Piranha Feed lets visitors stay on your site while searching for the product they want.

As Sunil says, there are similar scripts on the market, but his script is incredibly cheap (some competitors' scripts cost five times as much), and it provides more flexible integration and configuration options.

The script allows you to add photos, affiliate links and correct, up-to-date prices, without having to cut and paste images. The graphics are served from Amazon, not from your web host.

If you don't know how to install a script, don't worry. Sunil can arrange that for you.

"It works with Amazon's XML feed - so it should not have the problem that some other scripts have (they tend to break when Amazon revise their site)," Sunil says.

Some of the capabilities of the script:

It is implemented in PHP 4 (requires MySQL) - but plugs into both PHP and non-PHP pages (including .html, .shtml, .asp, etc). For non-PHP pages requires a Javascript enabled browser.

It can search across all or any of Amazon's 16 product categories.

Can include predefined searches in the page.

Can rotate predefined searches. For example, a sports page could rotate Baseball, Basketball, Soccer books etc.

Supports Amazon browse categories, e.g. Best selling books, etc.

Uses caching so is fast (assuming the search has been done before).

Display is full configurable including options to display titles, pricing, descriptions, large or small cover images and more.

There are far too many features to describe here. See the live demo here:

http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/piranha

You'll be impressed.

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5. Amazon explains its new commissions
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It's good to see that Amazon.com has improved its associate program and now pays commissions on third-party sales. For example, it pays 2.5% on used books and 5% on Toys R Us products.

You don't have to do anything different or new to earn these extra commissions.

I asked Amazon to clarify a couple of things:

If I provide a link to a new book and someone buys a used book, will I earn a commission? Or do I have to link to a used book to earn a commission on a used book?

Similarly, if I provide a link to books and someone clicks around and buys a refurbished DVD player or a Star Wars Action Figure, will I earn a commission?
Here are the answers I received from "Stephan M" of Amazon:

"The answer to your first question is yes.

"However, there are no instructions for linking to items sold by third parties, simply because such is impossible. To summarize matters, what's changed in our Program is simply that we're now allowing referral fee earnings for items sold by third parties, whereas we previously did not. In most instances, such items are used, as in the case of books and music CDs.

"Therefore, linking essentially remains the same. The change, if you will, is that now you'll receive referral fee earnings for the sale of used copies of items that previously would have yielded no such earnings.

"The answer to your second question is a qualified yes; that is, whether referral fees are earned on such a purchase depends on several factors, all of which predate this change in our Program and are set forth at Associates Central."

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6. EasyClickGuard helps prevent ClickBank hijackings
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A major problem for ClickBank affiliates is that it's easy for customers to replace your affiliate link with their own affiliate link - and you lose the commission.

That's a problem not just for affiliates, but for merchants, too.

If affiliates are scared of losing commissions they're less likely to promote ClickBank-tracked products.

The best way round the problem is Adrian Ling's new EasyClickGuard script.

The script has other advantages. It allows merchants to sell multiple items (from a single or multiple web sites), and lets affiliates link directly to individual products, thus increasing the chance of a sale.

It also gives merchants an easy way to know who their affiliates are. So merchants can contact affiliates with training info, product announcements, etc.

One ClickBank merchant who's using the script is Sherry Gordon, author of a good book on affiliate viral marketing...

[UPDATE: Sherry's book is no longer available.]

"I'm really glad I discovered EasyClickGuard just before I released 'Viral Marketing Strategies for Affiliates and Affiliate Program Merchants (and Others)' as my second product," Sherry says.

"It solved a few dilemmas that had just begun to bother me... most notably, not being able to give affiliates site-specific URLs for multiple products."

Sherry says EasyClickGuard was a little complicated for her to set up, because she needed to link a tangle of sites and products together.

"But it does do the job! I'm delighted to have an easy way for people wishing to act as my affiliates to sign up with ME. I definitely recommend it.

"Developer Adrian Ling gives OUTSTANDING customer service. I wish ClickBank would hire him," Sherry says.

If you act quickly you can get a 30% special discount on EasyClickGuard which I've organized for readers of the Associate Programs Newsletter.

Use this special link and you'll save 30%...

http://www.easybiztools.com/specialpromo.php?specials=zxag

If you're a ClickBank affiliate and you're worried about losing commissions, tell your favorite ClickBank merchant about EasyClickGuard.

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7. Thought for today: Affiliate marketing
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On the Associate Programs Message Board, Matthew Noel is asking for recommendations of good DVD and VHS affiliate merchants.

I hope someone will help him out.

To find his post, just do a keyword search for "Matthew Noel" here...

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

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8. Morpheus behaves, and other news
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Morpheus Shopping Club has stopped overwriting affiliate links with its own links. It was just an "oversight", the company says. It's good to see that affiliate protests achieve results.

If you receive complaints accusing you of spam, the cause could be a virus. If you're a newsletter publisher using a single opt-in process instead of the much safer double opt-in, this article will probably make you decide to switch.

http://www.contentbiz.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2016

If the affiliate program you're running or participating in uses cookies to track sales and is not P3P compliant, then your sales are not being recorded properly.

http://www.clickz.com/aff_mkt/aff_mkt/article.php/1107321

A judge has ordered VeriSign to stop a marketing campaign.

[This link no longer works.]

RealNames Shuts Down, Blaming MS

http://www.internetnews.com/isp-news/article/0,,8_1121101,00.html

The REAL reason RealNames is going poof

http://zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2865301,00.html

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9. Rupert learns how frustrating being an affiliate can be
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My assistant, Rupert Farrow, is learning first-hand why so many affiliates become bitter and twisted.

His first site is sending good traffic to a merchant who seems to have a terribly low conversion rate - and who has refused to reveal what conversion rates other affiliates are achieving.

That certainly doesn't inspire confidence.

Other merchants I've written to have always given me a good idea of what conversion rate or EPC (earnings per click) I should expect.

I told Rupert it's a good thing that he's struck a problem - if he'd had an instant success with his first attempt he would have received a false impression of affiliate marketing.

Sometimes, you have to try, try, and try again. It seems easy only after you've done the hard work.

Meanwhile, Rupert has raced on, creating a second site - it's so easy using Site Build It - http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/buildit .

From brainstorming to content-development to traffic building, Site Build It "reduces complexities and technologies to clicks on buttons," Ken Evoy says, and it's true.

Rupert's second site is so new it's not in any search engine yet. However, it has just been listed in Yahoo! and it's suddenly receiving more than 280 visitors a day - all from Yahoo!

How did Rupert do it? He just followed the instructions in the Site Build It! manual. (I must admit I had to tell him a few times to go back and re-read the manual.)

For his second site, Rupert has done a LOT more research before choosing an affiliate merchant. I reckon he's found a good one this time.

We're going to have some great stories to tell in our Site Build It! case study.

* The best introduction to Site Build It! is through the newly updated, free "Affiliate Masters Course".
Free Affiliate Masters Course

Learn more about Site Build It! here...

http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/buildit

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10. Thought for today: Affiliate marketing
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"If you can stack blocks, you can build a site - no html knowledge needed - no cgi, no perl, no ftp, etc., etc."

- Ken Evoy, describing Site Build It!
http://makemy.sitesell.com/buildit

All the best

Allan Gardyne