Associate Programs Newsletter #209
CONTENTS:
1. Your affiliates’ links can boost your link popularity
2. A few oddities as Be Free improves Reporting.net
3. Read the WebSponsors contract carefully
4. New famous quotations site
5. Are you breaking the 90-day refund rule?
6. Flower.com fails to pay
7. Stefan writes advertising that works
8. Amazon changes help super affiliates most
9. Attempt to stop commission poaching
10. Useful free resource: Affiliate Intelligence
11. How super affiliates can harm your company
12. Thought for today: The soft-sell approach
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1. Your affiliates’ links can boost your link popularity
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If you’re using one of the main affiliate networks to track your affiliate program, you suffer from one disadvantage over some of your competitors.
The disadvantage is that, no matter how many thousand affiliates you have, all those links won’t improve your site’s link popularity.
That’s because links that point to a third party site first, before linking to your site, don’t affect link popularity.
(Some merchants don’t want to compete with their affiliates in the search engines, but that’s another story.)
If you want to use your affiliates’ links to boost your link popularity, here are two options.
Option 1:
If you’re already using the professional version of MyAffiliateProgram affiliate tracking software, you can buy a Link Popularity Module for $299 plus a Self Replicating Pages Module for $399.
Then you can offer your affiliates links like this…
www.yourdomain.com/a/1001.html
“This is an actual page on your site – not just a script or a dynamically generated page. It’s a real page that contains real information, keywords, links and more search-engine friendly items,” the company says.
“We don’t claim to be experts in this area … but the theory seems to make sense: To increase your link popularity, the links to your site from the affiliate’s site, must point directly to a REAL page (a STATIC page) on your site, not through a tracking script.”
There’s a fuller explanation of how the Link Popularity Module works here:
https://www.associateprograms.com/my-program
Option 2:
JB McKee’s FusionQuest (formerly FreeFiliate) has launched UltraLinks.
JB says UltraLinks are “the only affiliate links guaranteed to allow your affiliate network to count towards your search engine link popularity”.
FusionQuest offers links like this:
yourdomain.com/?affiliateID
The FusionQuest affiliate tracking solution has low start-up costs, enabling you to get an affiliate program started with little risk, yet the system is able to grow with you.
[UPDATE: FusionQuest was bought by ShareAsale, a good affiliate network.]* Do you want to comment on this article? Have your say on the message board – https://www.associateprograms.com/discus/index.php .
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2. A few oddities as Be Free improves Reporting.net
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Affiliate network Be Free has revamped its Reporting.net and renamed it Partner Gateway.
One helpful improvement is link searching. You can type in keywords and quickly find appropriate products from a variety of merchants.
While there are several improvements, not everything is better.
Partner Gateway is supposed to provide more detailed payment and reporting information, but I found it lacking.
I wanted to see which particular products I was selling in one program. However, I couldn’t find that info in My Site Stats, which have replaced Fast Stats.
Apparently, I have to apply for a “transaction download” and choose XML or CSV (no explanation is provided for newcomers). When I did apply for the download, I received a message saying: “Your transaction downloads are not available at this time.”
Also, although this thing is called Partner Gateway (and PartnerGateway) don’t bother trying to find PartnerGateway.com. Be Free doesn’t appear to own that domain name.
Perhaps I’m being too critical. It’s good to see Be Free working to improve its service to affiliates.
You can learn more about Partner Gateway here:
https://www.Reporting.net
* Do you want to comment on this article? Have your say on the message board – https://www.associateprograms.com/discus/index.php .
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3. Read the WebSponsors contract carefully
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Hardly any affiliate programs pay commissions directly into affiliates’ bank accounts, so I was delighted when affiliate network WebSponsors offered monthly electronic transfer payments to my bank account.
But then I read the form that WebSponsors wanted me to sign…
“I (we) hereby authorize WEBCLIENTS.NET,
hereinafter called Company, to initiate
credit entries and to initiate, if
necessary, debit entries and adjustments
for any credit entries in error…”
Wait a minute. That would give WebSponsors not only authority to deposit money into my bank account – but also authority to WITHDRAW funds!
I’ve been receiving regular checks from WebSponsors for years, but I wouldn’t give it permission to withdraw funds from my bank account.
I may be trusting, but I’m not that trusting.
* Do you want to comment on this article? Have your say on the message board – https://www.associateprograms.com/discus/index.php.
__________________________________________SPONSOR__________
The Shocking Truth About Affiliate Programs Revealed…
Affiliate managers have been hiding the real secret
of online success from you…and it’s keeping you
poor and broke while making them rich…
___________________________________________________________
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4. New famous quotations site
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Here’s an interesting use of Site Build It!
Audri and Jim Lanford of Wz.com have set up
https://www.famous-quotes-and-quotations.com/ .
It’s an attractive site with lots of wonderful quotations. In the places where Audri and Jim have added advertising, it ties in nicely with the topic.
The site is a good example of how you can sell products by creating a keyword-rich, useful resource which people will be happy to recommend.
Audri and Jim should have no trouble getting people who link to quotation sites to link to theirs. I expect we’ll see this site’s traffic soar.
It’s the sort of site that will keep on earning income with minimum maintenance long after today’s Internet marketing gimmicks have fizzled and died.
For more good examples of SBI! sites, visit…
https://makemy.sitesell.com/buildit
… and click on the link to “actual customer SBI! sites”.
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5. Are you breaking the 90-day refund rule?
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If you’re selling your own products and offering a refund period that’s greater than 90 days, consider this.
ClickBank says that, to conform to Visa/MasterCard regulations, ClickBank will limit its stated refund period to 90 days.
“Consequently, your web site must not specify any warranty or other policy that permits refunds after 90 days. Please make the appropriate changes to your site and/or advertising now,” ClickBank has told merchants.
This is a shame, because offering a very long refund period is one way to add credibility and hence increase sales.
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6. Flower.com fails to pay
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The Flower.com web site says:
“Flower.com’s affiliate program is one of
the most lucrative revenue sharing programs
on the Internet.”
Don’t believe it.
Affiliate Gert Gremmen tells a different story.
Gert, of [Link no longer works] says Flower.com has stopped paying affiliate commissions.
“They owed me $2,800 and in May 2002 paid me $1,000 off. They still owe me $1,800.
“They have stopped paying me and even stopped their affiliate program (at LinkShare).
“Could you please be so kind to put a call for other victims of Flower.com in your newsletter. I want to put forces together to convince them to pay,” Gert says.
You can contact Gert at
g.gremmen AT cetest.nl
Flower.com didn’t respond to my request for its side of the story.
* Do you want to comment on this article? Have your say on the message board – https://www.associateprograms.com/discus/index.php.
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7. Stefan writes advertising that works
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Here’s an unsolicited testimonial I received this week from an advertiser, Stefan Everaet:
My last middle sponsor ad (9 August issue) has now received
510 visits to the URL I promoted and more than 600 downloads
(subscribers to a free eCourse I promoted + downloads of
reports available at my site and via pop under)! Great results!
Sincerely
Stefan Everaet
https://master-reprint-rights-licenses.com
Stefan found that his ad has kept on working long after it was published because the Associate Programs Newsletter is archived online.
If you want better results from your newsletter advertising, have a look at an ad that works, the Mid Spot sponsor on August 9 –
Stealth marketing techniques
See how Stefan doesn’t advertise the product. He increases his chance of getting a good response rate by offering a free course that does the selling for him.
To advertise in the Associate Programs Newsletter, send a blank
email to…
classads AT AssociatePrograms DOT com
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8. Amazon changes help super affiliates most
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Amazon.com is improving its payouts.
The new commission structure will help average affiliates while giving a powerful incentive to super affiliates.
Starting next week, the base referral fee is changing from a fixed 5% to a tiered structure ranging from 5% to 8%.
However, if you’re an average affiliate don’t get too excited. You’ll need to sell more than 175,000 products a quarter before receiving the 8% commission.
Other improvements are also being made.
Full details:
https://associates.amazon.com
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9. Attempt to stop commission poaching
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Be Free is taking steps to protect affiliate commissions, across all the major networks, J.D. Ashcraft reports.
The company has called for a new level of cooperation between the affiliate marketing industry and the makers of shopping plug-ins.
The effort seeks to establish a protocol whereby shopping plug-ins would recognize affiliate links and treat them as “hands off,” meaning they would not trigger a pop-up or other diversionary ad. This would essentially put an end to commission poaching by participating shopping plug-ins.
The Be Free proposal:
[Link no longer works]
Revenews comment:
https://www.revenews.com/archives/00000197.html
__________________________________________SPONSOR__________
Shocking Report: Affiliates dubbed as “Net’s No 1 Loser Strategy”
Why did this well known Internet Millionaire say that? I just had
to find out – and I did! My research revealed why 95% of
Affiliates fail to make money – how the Merchants they represent
are ripping them off – and the basic mistakes they make that
keeps them in the losers’ class! Apply what I learnt and join the
top 5% earners – like me! Get this hard-hitting report FREE at:
https://www.theaffiliatewebsitecompany.com/a/associatelosers2
___________________________________________________________
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10. Useful free resource: Affiliate Intelligence
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Neil Durrant has launched a new resource site for affiliates and merchants.
“Affiliate Intelligence is designed to help identify or predict forthcoming search or consumer trends that affiliates may be able to capitalize on,” Neil says.
There’s a marketing calendar highlighting key dates and events, such as national holidays and Mother’s Day. The calendar will help you choose dates for special promotions and also help you choose dates to avoid.
Neil does a solid, dependable job with his Affiliate Announce service – https://www.associateprograms.com/announce – so you can expect the same attention to detail at Affiliate Intelligence.
He’s inviting merchants to use the submission forms to present affiliate offers to the relevant diary dates.
The service is free for affiliate and merchants.
https://www.Affiliate-Intelligence.com
[UPDATE: Neil sold Affiliate Announce.]===============================================
11. How super affiliates can harm your company
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Do you dream of having more super affiliates on your team? You might change your mind after reading this article.
Declan Dunn warns how super affiliate emails may be hazardous to your company’s health.
https://www.clickz.com/aff_mkt/aff_mkt/article.php/1466651
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12. Thought for today: The soft-sell approach
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“…affiliates who go to the trouble of writing an article giving help and advice before making a recommendation ALWAYS make the most sales.”
– Neil Shearing, Scam Free Zone
https://www.associateprograms.com/scamfree
All the best
Allan Gardyne