Associate Programs Newsletter #39

CONTENTS:

1. Making $1000 to $3000 a month
2. Bright new discussion list
3. Learn what your visitors search for
4. Two-tier property listing program
5. 'Awesome' CGI scripts pay $50 and $10
6. These companies reveal customer details
7. Panel discussion on revenue sharing
8. Rotating images and links for Amazon.com books
9. Articles at AssociatePrograms.com

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1. Making $1000 to $3000 a month
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Lorraine Venner makes $1000 to $3000 (US) a month from associate programs. One of her four sites, the Jewelry Mall, earns more than $300 (US) a month as the top associate of Gwen's Jewelry and Gifts - Gwensjewelry.com. Lorraine sends Gwen's 200 to 500 clients a day.

Here Lorraine tells how she does it:

Could you explain your site?

Jewelry Mall has hundreds of links all related to jewelry and craft related stores. Reciprocal links are free as long as the retail store has phone number, address, and products with prices. Paid links get listed first: a site either lets me use its associate program (which means I get paid more) or pays me $297/year (which means I get money upfront). I have many informative pages from crafting to weddings. I have lots of fun with JewelryMall.com. It is quite specialized, which is why I do well with jewelry sites.

What works best for promoting associate programs?

Offering value. Have an extra reason for visiting your site - whether it is information, ease of use, layout, whatever. This way people will continue coming back to your site and you will get repeat customers.

The second most important component is joining MANY associate programs. I'm in ClickTrade, LinkShare, WebSponsors, ProFlowers, Amazon.com, Marketingtips, Cyberbounty as well as with several individual stores at their request.

How much are you making from Gwen's?

I earn $200/month on commissions plus another $100/month+ for ClickTrade click-throughs. I split my links between commissions and click-throughs. Part of this is due to the fact that I list lots of specific products. On these links I earn a commission on sales. For the other links I use click-throughs. I must admit that I feel people have a hard time finding what they want at Gwen's. As an associate, I help the process along by linking to products I feel that the people visiting Jewelry Mall would enjoy. This also allows me to show some of their great pictures which adds value.

Gwen's is always honest, polite and fun to deal with.

And from other programs?

From other associate program jewelry sites I get at least $30 a month (hence the reason for the $297/year fee). Additionally, I put book links everywhere. I get $120/month from Amazon (paid quarterly). I also get some other related gift sales such as perfume. All the programs do add up over time.

Total income from associate programs?

Total income $1000-$3000/month from four sites: jewelrymall.com gems4friends.com unixtools.com keepmoney.com. (Bulk of money is currently from Jewelry Mall - the oldest site.)

How much traffic do you have?

I have 200,000 to 400,000 pageviews per month. (Bulk of traffic is currently from Jewelry Mall.) I started Jewelry Mall in 1995.

What would you recommend others do to get the most income from Gwen's?

Find a way to link it to your theme. If you have a golf site, feature their golf related jewelry, their #1 dad jewelry and such. If you have a romantic site, feature their 24K roses, some of their asher jewelry, and perhaps some of their crystal. There usually is a way to tie their products in - you just have to find it.

How much time do you spend on your business?

I spend 60-80 hours per week (sometimes more) on my sites. I'm always trying to grow them. If I was in maintenance mode, I'd be spending only 20-30 hours/week.

If you were to start over again, what would you do differently?

I would pick a more popular niche. More people buy computers, computer software and books on the Internet than jewelry. I suppose it may change, but it was slow building up the business. (Hence, why I started UnixTools.com.)

Lorraine Venner
Jewelry Mall
http://www.jewelrymall.com

[UPDATE: Lorraine's site still exists, but Gwensjewelry.com disappeard.]

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2. Bright new discussion list
=============================

The affiliate-l e-mail discussion list run by Mark Welch has a bright new competitor, The Toolkit Digest, set up to discuss revenue sharing programs.

It is moderated by Paul Graham and Lesley Anne Lowe, who have first-hand experience making good money with associate programs. Lesley is friendly and it's easy to see she enjoys helping people. I've never met her, but she sounds like a genuinely nice person - all in all, perfect attributes for running an e-mail discussion list.

If you are seeking advice on any aspect of revenue sharing programs - or if you want to position yourself as an expert on the topic - The Toolkit Digest is the new place to head for. It has lofty aims: to provide marketing help for people interested in operating associate programs "as a full-time business".
Onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/the-toolkit

[UPDATE: The Toolkit Digest discussion list no longer exists.]

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3. Learn what your visitors search for
    . . . and boost your profits 200%?
======================================

Kevin Patch says he has made significant improvements to the Perl script Anaconda!, which is designed to increase the number of 15% commissions instead of 5% commissions you earn from Amazon.com. "It is now even easier to install and configure. I have also enhanced the means for returning the Anaconda/Amazon search results on pages with your own site's look and feel and eliminated some special Perl requirements that existed in the first version," he says.

Anaconda! now logs all search requests and makes them instantly available for review on the web. Webmasters can see exactly what their visitors are searching for so that they can build a better bookstore that is more relevant to their visitors' needs. This could also be used to create a search "spy" page for visitors so that they can see what other people are searching for, similar to the "MetaSpy" at http://www.metaspy.com/ .

"One of your readers (Michael Wong at eboz.com) has discovered a great way to use Anaconda!" Kevin says. A webmaster can create text links that force predetermined search criteria into Anaconda! instantly and dynamically create content for his bookstore. A bookstore could consist exclusively of text links to different sections which are created automatically based on the search terms. For example, a text link 'Books About Doing Business on the Web' could link to the following URL:

anaconda.net/cgi-local/anaconda.plkeyword=+web+business&tag=qwalletcom

"Using Anaconda! in this way a webmaster could create an entire bookstore in minutes," Kevin says. "Of course, all results are 'hardlinked' for 15% Amazon.com associate commissions."

Kevin has created a version for Barnes and Noble and says he will create a version for Books.com if there is a demand for it.

He has raised the price to $39.95 and is now offering a 20% commission on all referred sales, tracked by ClickTrade.

[UPDATE: The affiliate program shifted to CJ and then disappeared.]

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3. Two-tier property listing program
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Here's a new listing which is worth a close look.

AmericasHomes.com has an instant "do-it-yourself" real estate listing service - ideal for home owners, real estate agents, and builders. Anyone can easily add a professional home listing, including up to six photos, within minutes. Currently serving the U.S. and Canada, the program pays $8 on the first tier, and $2 sales by your sub-associates.

The program includes instant e-mail notification of sales and new affiliate sign-ups, online sales reports, down-line reports, down-line e-mailing, and instant creation of affiliate home page. It is free to join. I've joined this one.
listings.americashomes.com/

[UPDATE: The affiliate program has been discontinued.]

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4. "Awesome" CGI scripts pay $50 and $10
========================================

Brian Anderson writes:

Hi Allan,

Thank you for another very informative newsletter! I'm writing regarding your mention of the code for people to subscribe to your newsletter.

I ran into a really neat CGI script that you might be interested in, called "Email Cash Plus." It allows webmasters to sign up and place the code on their site. For every subscriber, their account is credited for cash, advertising credits, or both. You decide the amount. One site built a subscriber base of 100,000 using this script.

They also have an affiliates script, that tracks sales on two levels, and a shop cart that can be linked in with it. I'm setting it up on a new site, and have been testing it. I am setting up a new referral program in the near future, which will have hundreds of products including books, audios, and software, in a wide range of categories. (I'll keep you informed :-)

Lifetime membership is only $US250, which includes all current scripts, and all future scripts. They have about 10 to 15 now, so that's a pretty good deal. Some of their scripts are worth thousands of dollars.

They also have a free referral program. You can earn $50 per sale, and $10 on level 2 sales. They only allow banner links, so if you're interested, you'll need to go to my site at: mlm-exchange.com and scroll to the bottom, and click on the image. (The actual script allows links or banners.) This should do well on your site, since it offers an agents script.

Before you go there, I thought I'd warn you that they have links to adult web sites. I don't really care too much for that type of site, but they have some awesome scripts . .

Brian Anderson
mlm-exchange.com

Thanks, Brian. Drewstar's Superscripts sure has an amazing range of CGI scripts. The archive includes scripts for tracking affiliates, a shopping cart, a match-maker script, site popularity tracker, database, chat, opt-in e-mail, passwords, free-for-all network, URL submission, and lots more. The site publishes several testimonials from satisfied users, so those $50 commissions, and $10 from sub-associates, shouldn't be too difficult to earn if your site attracts serious webmasters.

Brian had trouble promoting this company in his e-mail. He had to give the URL and then instructions on how to find the link. Here are three ways to make that easier:

1. Create a new web page containing only a banner linking to the company. In your newsletter, link to that page.

2. Better still, create a page of useful information.

3. Simply ask the company for permission to use a text link. If you're lucky they'll say yes. I did that.

(Note: I have not tried any of these scripts. I did a search at http://www.cgi-resources.com and found no complaints and contacted several serious webmasters to ask their opinion of the scripts. I didn't dig up any serious complaints, but you need to know what you're doing with this stuff.)

Here's my text link:
superscripts.com/topsites/cgibin/clickme.cgi?AP

[UPDATE: The affiliate program seems to have disappeared.]

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5. These companies reveal customer details
==========================================

In some email discussion lists on the Net in the past few days there has been a debate about companies which reveal details about their customers to associates. Such details of buyer preferences could be extremely valuable to a company building a database of names, email addresses, and even street addresses.

Some people argue that it's wrong for companies to reveal such details to associates, who are really only advertising the product or service. Others argue that associates work in close co-operation with the companies and have a right to know who their customers are so that they can encourage and help them.

The most successful associates certainly don't think of themselves as merely advertising a product. They creatively add value, add comment, add design... add anything they can think of that will get results - as long as the company's rules allow it.

Should customers' information be divulged to associates? Only if the customer agrees, I reckon. Some customers, buying a marketing book for example, would be keen to receive help from an experienced e-marketer.

One way would be to give the customer a box to tick: Do you wish your name and e-mail to be sent to the person who recommended you buy this product? Yes/No.

Here's a list of companies which reveal customers' details. I don't guarantee that this is all of them, and most of these are commission-earning links for me. A few at the end are commission-earning links for Rick Bier, who helped compile the list.)

"Winning the Affiliate Game"
[UPDATE: Program discontinued.]

"The Complete, Insider's Guide to Associate & Affiliate Programs"
[UPDATE: Program discontinued.]

AIS (several good programs, join one and you automatically join them all)
[UPDATE: Program discontinued.]

Perfect Presence web hosting
http://www.perfectpresence.com/affiliate.php

A Weber autoresponder
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/aweber
[UPDATE: Customer details are no longer given.]

Virtualis
[UPDATE: Virtualis is now Hosting.com.]

America's Homes
[UPDATE: Program discontinued.]

I.D. IT! Plates
[UPDATE: This site has changed.]

Special Report Network
This one isn't exactly an affiliate program, it's a multi-level marketing way of getting promotion - but it's free and you are told the details of people who sign up
special-report-network.net
[UPDATE: This program has vanished.]

Rick Bier of http://www.2-tier.com adds:

Adgrafix.com
[UPDATE: Adgrafix is now Hosting.com.]

Art-Quarter.com
[UPDATE: Program discontinued.]

Autocontacter.com?
[UPDATE: Program discontinued.]

Pipelinemail.com
[UPDATE: Program discontinued.]

Planet Ocean SE book - single tier
http://www.searchenginehelp.com/synergy/
[UPDATE: Customer details are no longer given.]

Replicator 2000
netprofit2020.com/rep2000/id/RB1053
[UPDATE: Program discontinued.]
VenerNet.net?
[UPDATE: VenerNet has vanished.]

WebPosition dealer program (reseller program does not)
synergy-marketing.com/webposition
[UPDATE: This link no longer works.]

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6. Panel discussion on revenue sharing
======================================

On March 26 Refer-it.com and Be Free will present Affiliate Solutions '99, a panel discussion on revenue sharing and affiliate strategies. It will address the topic from five perspectives, each represented by a panel of speakers: the advertising networks, the analysts, the merchants, the solution providers, and the portals. The conference is "conveniently located" (I presume that's a joke) at the Harvard Club in New York City.
up-set.com/events/as99/ or call Cynthia Aylward at: (212) 634-6199 to reserve your tickets.

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7. Rotating images and links for Amazon.com books
=================================================

Peter Scott says that on his Publishers' Catalogues Home Page at Lights.com/publisher he rotates images and links to specific books about publishing and writing which are on sale at Amazon.com. This is done with two javascripts. Peter describes this "simple procedure" at lights.com/publisher/amaz.html

"My weekly activity report from Amazon.com indicates which images are clicked and which books are purchased, showing me that this is a worth while exercise," Peter says. "Feel free to download the scripts and run them on your own site."

Peter has generously set up a page demonstrating how the scripts work and giving careful instructions on how to use them.

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8. Snippets
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KwikMed under fire
The message board at AssociatePrograms.com has received complaints that KwikMed is not paying some associates and that the phone number given to Internic is a voicemail box. I've sent two e-mails to CEO Jude LaCour giving him a chance to defend his company. He has not replied.

UPDATE:
Jude LaCour later posted an explanation on the Associate Programs Message Board about the technical problems KwikMed has been having.

Better than banners
If you're still using "plain" banner ads as a way of promoting revenue sharing programs, you'll be interested in statistics quoted at a discussion session run by http://netpreneur.org/ . Edward Stern of InternetAdvocate.com told the Ad-Marketing mailing list: "We all know banner ad click-throughs are low (typically 1-5%) and conversion is lower. But (if I have the numbers right) click-through on affiliate programs (when associated with some proper copy; e.g. when a book about a topic is with copy on that topic) is 10-20% and conversion is 5%."

Give Mattie a thrill
Mattie Woollard, 15, of Mattie's World is the clever guy who suggested I give webmasters a form to make it easier for people to subscribe to this newsletter. How about giving Mattie a thrill, folks? Let's see if we can send his traffic counter whizzing.
mattiesworld.freeserve.co.uk

Dumb responses
Some people think it's a brilliant marketing ploy to subscribe to newsletters using an autoresponder. No thanks, I really DON'T want to receive 7,200 advertising messages each time my newsletter goes out. No, I don't regard that as a fair swap. I've started unsubscribing such thoughtless people.

Commission rises
Gift Tree http://www.gifttree.com has increased its commission from 8% to 20%. Well done!

Too excited
Merv Scoble was far too excited last week to be able to tell me which site he had won wonderful publicity for in a football magazine. It was actually http://www.mervo.com/gulls

Beyond.com gobbles up BuyDirect.com
Beyond.com, which said in August last year that it wants to be the number one software retailer on the Net, is buying rival BuyDirect.com. They have a total of one million customers.
wired.com/news/news/email/member/business/story/18041.html

Still hesitating?
I had a brilliant idea for a new Internet domain name today. For people who don't like hype - JustTheFacts.com. Sadly, when I checked at Internic.net I discovered that the name had already been bought - two years ago. Network Solutions announced a record 621,000 new domain name registrations in the fourth quarter of 1998. That's nearly 12,000 new registrations each working day. Still wondering if you ought to buy a domain name? Read But that's not a REAL Business.

I've been chosen!
AssociatePrograms.com has been selected to be included in the VirtualPROMOTE.com Webmaster Select Resource Directory, so I'm now allowed to display a cute little button giving publicity expert Jim Wilson even more publicity - not that he really needs it. His excellent site already has oodles of friends. Now, how can you adapt that idea?
virtualpromote.com/webmaster/

Simple system
Jim Daniels of BizWeb2000.com has written a useful article describing an easy, inexpensive and quick way to set up an associate program.
bizweb2000.com/asocprog.htm

Take a look
Here's a useful bunch of classified ads - never more than 5. Please take a look.

*************************************************************
CLASSIFIED ADS (I charge $US65. Subscribers: over 7200.
No more than 5 ads in each edition.
The circulation is verifiable by a trusted third party.)
*************************************************************

***BECOME A GOTO.COM SEARCH AFFILIATE MEMBER***
GoTo.com puts you into the search engine industry! Put a
GoTo.com search box on your website and make money every time
someone searches. Join the GoTo.com Affiliate Program and not
only will you earn $.02 every time someone searches from your
site, but you'll be adding great GoTo.com functionality for your
visitors. It is a win-win opportunity that is free to join.
Click here to learn more or sign-up:
goto.com/d/affiliate/p/befree/?Promo=e_AssocProgs.25_2
[UPDATE: GoTo is now Yahoo! Search Marketing.]

*************************************************************

Announcing The WebWorkz $1,000,000 Gold Partners Affiliate Program

The WebWorkz is launching the top tier affiliate program for
TheWebWorkz, the premier membership site for small
businesses with a web presence.

Gold Partners will receive:
- 20% referral fees
- real-time reporting
- monthly checks for referral fees over $15
- resources for promoting TheWebWorkz

For a limited time, the first 1,000 accepted applicants into the
Gold Partners Program will receive an extra $1,000 worth of
benefits over the first twelve months.

TheWebWorkz.com - Making the Web Work for Small Business:
- extensive links to external resources and articles
- free utilities: link checking, image optimization, and more
- original articles on web site marketing, promotion, maintenance
- case studies, including our exclusive "Live Case Studies"
- exclusive premiums like the book StrikingItRich.com - online

If your site has lots of small business traffic and you want to
participate in one of the premium affiliate programs on the Web
today, visit us at
thewebworkz.com/gold.asp?code=aprg
to apply to become "Gold".

*************************************************************

iCat Commerce Online Affiliate Program
Take advantage of the explosive e-commerce market
- Generous 20% revenue share payments for two years
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- The chance to work with the leader in e-commerce
- The ability to provide the best e-commerce solution - at no cost to you
Learn more and enroll for this program at
dynamic.icat.com/www/partners/affiliatesjump/index.icl?=ap
For questions or concerns write to affiliate AT icat.com

*************************************************************

Be Free, Inc

As the Web's leader in affiliate marketing services, Be Free
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Associate with the best. Earn the most.
Info? http://www.befree.com

*************************************************************

INCREASE TRAFFIC & COMMISSIONS FOR YOUR ASSOCIATE PROGRAMS!
Create effective banners that draw lots of clicks!
Four Corners Effective Banners
whitepalm.com/fourcorners
Sign up for the FREE ezine, Banner Tips, and each month
you'll receive FRESH, USABLE design tips to really crank up
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*************************************************************

All the best

Allan Gardyne