Associate Programs Newsletter #162
I enjoyed reading and reviewing Jim Daniels' latest book, because Jim is the guy who inspired me to set up AssociatePrograms.com.
He sounded such an ORDINARY person, and he doesn't claim to be anything else. If he could quit his day job, so could I - and he was right.
I'm very grateful to Jim - especially whenever I think of the lady dragon boss who used to enjoy making my life miserable.
If you haven't quit your day job yet, perhaps Jim's new book will be just the trigger you need.
CONTENTS:
1. Jim Daniels reveals where his money comes from
2. CJ's changes anger some, please others
3. Ralph Wilson switches to in-house affiliate tracking
4. "$" doesn't work in some e-mail links
5. Affiliate marketing conference in New York
6. Yes, you really DO need more than traffic
7. Comment from another one-man band
8. SierraCities ending program, and other news
9. Useful resource: "Ten Commandments of Online Success"
10. Thought for today: Dazed and confused
__________________________________________SPONSOR__________
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1. Jim Daniels reveals where his money comes from
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Internet marketing veteran Jim Daniels, who owns Bizweb2000.com, reveals some fascinating facts in his new book, "Make A Living Online".
Jim describes himself as "just an ordinary guy".
During the dot-com mania in which companies wasted billions of dollars ( news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-201-6004873-0.html ) buying traffic without knowing what to do with it, Jim was quietly building a business based on good old common sense - selling goods and services to people who wanted them.
He earned a gross income last year from his web site and newsletter of more than $200,000. After expenses and write-offs, his net income was more than $100,000.
His web site gets more than 100,000 visitors a month, and his newsletter has more than 50,000 subscribers.
About half his income is from direct sales of his books and software. The other half comes from affiliate program commissions.
A good sized chunk comes from his web host. He earns $3,500 a month in commissions from Virtualis.
Jim describes in his book how he selects the affiliate programs he joins very carefully.
He says:
The product must have a large demand ... you must be able to identify a large group of people who would be interested in it.
You must be able to earn "at least 25% of the profits" on anything you sell. (Jim told me that's a misprint. He meant "25% of the price".)
The program must be free or cheap to join.
"Look for residual income opportunities that will earn you commissions on a monthly or yearly basis," Jim advises. "A sell once, earn indefinitely plan is more lucrative in the long run."
(To find good reviews of 46 lifetime and residual income affiliate programs, visit http://www.LifetimeCommissions.com .)
Jim, who has been marketing online since 1996, started his online business with $300. Six months later he was earning enough to quit his day job.
I like his refreshingly simple writing style. His earlier book, "Insider Internet Marketing", inspired and encouraged me. That was the book which really got me started on the Net. (I quit my day job late in 1998.)
His new hard copy book, "Make a Living Online" covers many more subjects and in greater depth, but Jim still does it in a style which is easy to understand.
The book describes exactly how he succeeds. He tells you how he promotes his site, what he sells, where he advertises, and how much he pays. He experiments constantly, and tells you what works and what doesn't.
He makes his money by selling products and services to new online businesses, and he advises his readers to do the same. To help you on the way, there's a chapter giving you ideas on products and services you could sell.
As he points out, it's a massive market, with newcomers pouring on to the Net every day. For example, 84% of small retail businesses in the U.S. are still NOT selling online.
It's a good, solid, no-hype book.
As you would expect from someone who likes high commissions, Jim is offering affiliates a generous commission.
You'll earn 40% commissions per sale.
(Jim launched the affiliate program a few days ago and said today that already one affiliate has earned more than $4,000.)
With the "Make A Living Online!" book, you get access to Jim's new private companion web site.
The private site includes all of his favorite resources, software, discounts, tutorials, templates, updates, and one-on- one confidential assistance from Jim and his handpicked team of professionals.
There's a lot more - far more than I have space to list.
In his years on the Net, Jim has developed a strong reputation for being solidly dependable. His new book and companion website will only enhance that reputation.
You can learn more here:
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/make-a-living
__________________________________________SPONSOR__________
Do you want a GOOD, cheap memorable domain name?
Then keep an eye on this site.
New names are added every day.
[UPDATE: This site has closed.]
___________________________________________________________
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2. CJ's changes anger some, please others
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Commission Junction has surprised and angered merchants - while producing mixed reactions from affiliates - by increasing its fees again and making other significant changes.
Brian Clark announced the details in articles at http://www.Revenews.com .
Here's what's happening:
CJ is raising its merchant fees from 20% to 30%.
It will eliminate all pay-per-click programs by August 1, because checking for fraud is too costly.
CJ merchants will pay a minimum transaction fee of 30 cents per lead or sale. So an e-mail list affiliate program which pays 10 cents per lead will cost the merchant 40 cents per lead, plus any other costs.
Most important of all...
CJ will release detailed statistics for each merchant, showing three-month "average earnings per 100 clicks" (EPC) for all the merchant's affiliates, and a one-week average. These statistics will be updated weekly. Affiliates will be able to compare their performance with that of the whole CJ network. As CJ says, EPC "illustrates the ability to convert clicks into commissions".
If you apply to join a new CJ merchant, the merchant will be able to see how high your average EPC is over all in CJ, with a three-month and one-week view. (So you learn about the merchant while the merchant learns about you.)
EPCs will also be published for each ad in the network.
CJ is making some brave decisions here, which will no doubt lead to more merchants leaving CJ. For affiliates, that will mean more links to take down.
The best news is the decision to reveal useful statistics.
"Wow, we're going to get real statistics on a weekly basis? No more guessing if a merchant can actually convert clicks into sales?" Brian says.
"If anything, this is going to put the pressure on all the non- CJ merchants to release some real data for a change!"
More details and comment:
cj.com/downloads/ppfaq.asp
(In CJ-speak, "publisher"=affiliate and "advertiser"=merchant.)
revenews.com/archives/00000097.html
revenews.com/archives/00000093.html
Here's a comment on the Associate Programs Message Board from a merchant:
"We will see a lot of the merchants close their affiliate programs and work out private deals with their larger affiliates and that will leave the smaller sites out in the cold. I seriously hope that I am wrong but I doubt it."
More comments:
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/discus/index.php
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3. Ralph Wilson switches to in-house affiliate tracking
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Dr Ralph Wilson - one of the most respected names in Internet marketing - has given Steve Miles' affiliate tracking software a huge boost.
After an extensive survey of affiliate tracking software - the most thorough report I've seen - Ralph has switched from using Commission Junction tracking to running his affiliate program in- house.
"I am excited about running my own affiliate program for a change," Ralph says. "That means that I can set it up exactly as I want it. I am using The Ultimate Affiliate Package by Steve Miles - ( http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/gb) .
"It is written in Perl, and is all hosted on my server, so I can tweak it to do exactly what I want."
Such a powerful recommendation must mean more customers for Steve.
Ralph commands a large audience. His "Web Marketing Today" newsletter has more than 100,000 subscribers, and more than 300 web sites carry his "Doctor Ebiz" newsletter.
His "Web Commerce Today" newsletter is so good that people like me are happy to pay for it.
Ralph has just published his report on affiliate tracking software as a 108-page e-book. It's indispensable if you're trying to decide which affiliate tracking method you should choose. The price is $22.95, but you can get the report free when you subscribe to "Web Commerce Today": More details:
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/wmt
In his new affiliate program, Ralph has increased his commissions from 12% to a useful 20% on the first tier and 10% on the second tier. (For a few days it was 2% on the second tier.) Cookies are tracked for 180 days. You don't earn a commission if you buy products through your own links.
You can link to individual items, such as his ebooks on viral marketing and newsletter publishing, and to individual pages.
For example:
"Report on Affiliate Management Software: User Feedback and Editor's Choices" (108 pages)
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/affilisoft
"12 Ways to Give Your Webstore a Sales Boost: Proven Techniques to Increase the Conversion Rate in Your Online Store." (71 pages)
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/cr
WARNING: Before you sign up, choose your username carefully. It will show up in your affiliate links, like this:
http://www.wilsonweb.com/a/go.to/gardyne
This affiliate program is brand new and still has a few rough spots. Today, links for the banners weren't being created properly.
Ralph's affiliate program isn't designed for beginners. He offers text links, graphics and banners, but that's all.
Surprisingly for someone immersed in Internet marketing, he provides no manual for affiliates. He expects you to have a successful business-to-business web site. If you don't, you need to read his newsletters.
A big advantage of the affiliate program is that you know you can trust this Baptist pastor to provide only high quality goods, and to pay you.
In spite of the rough spots, I strongly recommend this program. Ralph is one of the Net's good guys.
You can join the program here:
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/wils
[UPDATE: Ralph's site is still going strongly. The affiliate program has closed.]
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4. "$" doesn't work in some e-mail links
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When I wrote about Wayne Yeager's Trafficology newsletter last week I used a link which contained a "$" sign -
AssociatePrograms.com/$1000 .
It seemed appropriate, because Wayne is giving away prizes as high as $1,000, with commissions to match, for traffic ideas.
Unfortunately, while that link looked OK in Eudora, it didn't look all right to everyone.
"My e-mail program would not acknowledge the '$1000' as part of the link and it was not underlined like the rest of the link," Wayne says. "... I had to copy and paste it into the browser."
Wayne has improved the affiliate program by boosting the second- tier commission from 10% to 50%.
[UPDATE: Wayne sold Trafficology to the innovative guys at NitroMarketing - http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/nitro]
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5. Affiliate marketing conference in New York
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What sounds like an interesting affiliate marketing conference will be held at the Grand Hyatt in New York on August 20-21.
For details of the "All-Star Performance Marketing: Wisdom from the leaders of affiliate marketing" conference see:
iirusa.com/affiliates/
[UPDATE: This conference was over long ago.]
__________________________________________SPONSOR__________
Do you want a GOOD, cheap memorable domain name?
Then keep an eye on this site.
New names are added every day.
[UPDATE: This site has closed.]
___________________________________________________________
============================================
6. Yes, you really DO need more than traffic
============================================
Updates on last week's report on Rivenguild...
In spite of receiving 7,000 to 15,000 visitors a day, graphics- laden Rivenguild.com closed on June 1 because its bandwidth costs were too expensive.
Meanwhile, http://www.FanForum.com is in danger of closing, in spite of having 22,000 registered users on its message boards. It pays thousands of dollars a month for an average 1,200 GB of bandwidth.
Switching to a no-graphics site would seem to be an obvious choice, but that hasn't been tried.
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7. Comment from another one-man band
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Bill Bultas of http://www.Puzz.com comments on last week's article on Trevor Rieger of http://www.TVTalkShows.com :
"...like your TVTalkShows.com fellow, I've kept costs very low by essentially running the entire thing myself.
"I too am heavy on text and content, and have little use for Flash, etc. A lot of people have said that by not having such things, we're less 'professional.' And yet our traffic levels are higher than ever, and I receive regular praise from happy visitors," Bill says.
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8. SierraCities ending program, and other news
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SierraCities will discontinue its affiliate program on July 1. It kindly kept to its affiliate agreement and gave affiliates 30 days notice.
LinkShare says that Mitsui & Co. (USA), Inc., an international Japanese trading company, has made an additional investment in LinkShare. Staff cuts were made on May 24. CEO Stephen Messer says LinkShare remains committed to achieving profitability in the 2001 calendar year.
Linkshare opens up on late payments
revenews.com/archives/00000098.html
PhoneFree has a new CEO, has changed its name to Gemini Voice Solutions and is abandoning Internet telephony.
atnewyork.com/news/article/0,1471,8471_778511,00.html
NextCard makes a case for performance
iconocast.com/issue/20010524.html#casestudy
Survivors of the E-Commerce 'Death Watch'
ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/10212.html
United Airlines to buy MyPoints.com
internetnews.com/IAR/article/0,,12_777641,00.html
Paid placement is catching on in web searches
nytimes.com/2001/06/04/technology/04GOTO.html
Nevada approves online gambling
nytimes.com/2001/06/05/technology/05GAMB.html
Amazon is planning to sell PCs
nytimes.com/2001/06/06/technology/06AMAZ.html
Priceline founder selling shares
news.excite.com/news/ap/010606/12/priceline
Correction: Superbuild, which I mentioned last week, was renamed Hardware.com.
Missing, presumed dead: HomeWarehouse.com.
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9. Useful resource: "Ten Commandments of Online Success"
========================================================
"The Ten Commandments of Online Success" by online publisher and Internet business consultant Joe Chapuis is a shrewd 15-page summary of what works on the Net. It's worth printing out and studying at leisure.
The report is free to subscribers of Joe's free newsletter, "Required Reading for Success"
RequiredReading.com/
[UPDATE: This site has closed.]
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10. Thought for today: Dazed and confused
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"As you grow your business online, remember those dazed and confused small business owners. They are a market in themselves. Millions of dollars will be made enlightening them to the power of the Internet. Scratch that; billions will be made... And YOU could be an expert to these folks."
- Jim Daniels, author of "Make a Living Online!"
http://www.AssociatePrograms.com/make-a-living
All the best
Allan Gardyne
