Associate Programs Newsletter #43
CONTENTS:
1. OK, I own up – I'm 50
2. Network switching to two-tier
3. BizBot directory pays out in FIVE ways
4. Mailloop does the dirty work for you
5. Rob Frankel's new option for merchants
6. Getting the most for your time and money
7. Free banner advertising for a year – more winners
8. ClickXchange catches cheat
9. Rotating Amazon.com images and links
10. Reporter tells fibs to buy Viagra
11. Snippets
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1. OK, I own up – I'm 50
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I don't know what all the fuss is about, but my brother-in-law insists I have to own up and tell you how terribly OLD I am. It was my 50th birthday yesterday. Yes, even oldies can make money on the Net.
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2. Network switching to two-tier
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Commission Junction will switch its whole network of merchants over to two-tier programs on April 1, providing a stronger incentive for merchants and associates to recommend CJ.com. New merchants and other improvements will be announced too.
Associates will receive the same $1 for each new associate they persuade to sign up and earn 5% of their associates' earnings.
“Later, if these affiliates join other merchant programs the referring affiliate or merchant will be paid 5% from their total earnings,” Todd Crawford of CJ.com says.
Todd says CJ.com is determined to build a network of 1 million of the best performing affiliates as quickly as possible. “We are setting out a $1 million pie and inviting everyone to come and get their slice. The benefits to merchants and affiliates will be tremendous. By integrating a two-tier program into the entire CJ.com network we will create the incentive for both merchants and affiliates to built a network of 1 million affiliates.”
It's going to be fascinating watching how Be Free, LinkShare, ClickTrade etc respond to this initiative.
Who will be first to build a community which fairly rewards – and thoroughly trains – associates? If all the competing networks make signing up easy, associates will be able to switch loyalties fast. We live in interesting times.
Commission Junction
https://www.associateprograms.com/cj
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3. BizBot directory pays out in FIVE ways
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It's fascinating watching what companies are doing to catch the eye of potential associates.
Brian Welch, who has created The BizBot business directory “to make it easier to find everything and anything you need for your online business”, is paying out in FIVE different ways.
You get paid commissions, paid for click-throughs, and for your sub-associates' commissions and click-throughs. As well, you are paid a bounty for each new associate you attract.
“Every time someone clicks on your link you will earn $0.02. If they decide to purchase advertising you will earn 15% of whatever they buy,” Brian says. “This is a two-tier affiliate program so you will also earn $1 for every affiliate you sign up, $0.01 for every click they generate and 10% of any sales they make. You can make a lot of money from this just by placing our link on your site.”
I'm not too sure that Brian is on the right track. Let's say he signs up 10,000 associates, paying $1 each for them. At that stage, he realizes that 9,700 of them are clogging his “books” and not earning him any money. He has paid $10,000 for 300 useful associates.
Perhaps Brian has a brilliant plan to give his associates lots of marketing help and encouragement, so that he receives a fair return from his investment – and so that they earn money, too. Let's hope so.
In the meantime, it should be fairly easy to earn $1 a pop persuading webmasters to join Brian's two-tier program.
[UPDATE: The BizBot business directory no longer exists.]=======================================
4. Mailloop does the dirty work for you
=======================================
Corey Rudl's Internet Marketing Center is offering its associates the chance to sell Mailloop software. Mailloop? Isn't that spammers' software? Here's what Corey told his associates in his newsletter:
“Mailloop is software which helps you automate your online business. It does all the “dirty work” for you… automatically. This includes filtering your email, handling autoresponses, importing orders into your database, importing leads into your database, bulk email sending, emailing your personalized customer list or lead list, built-in newsletter server (to run your own newsletters), automated scheduler (schedule it to do tasks at any time of the day or week), and much, much more.”
When I visited Corey's site, I also found this description:
Has extensive stealth features called
“Act like a Mailserver” that makes
your email very hard to trace (used
for bulk email).
So I wrote to Corey, told him I was disappointed and asked him how he could justify being associated with such a product.
Corey says Mailloop WAS spammers' software.
“That statement is misleading and I will reword it. I was not aware that it was in there. We are so big now that it is hard for me personally to keep track of everything,” Corey says.
“We added TONS of new tools since I bought the rights to the software. For example, it now has unlimited autoresponders, it will strip out information from web forms that are emailed to you (i.e. order forms) and automatically make a customer or lead database, etc. etc.
“Compared to the spam software out there, Mailloop is not the right tool for spamming,” Corey says. “Mailloop will send only about 2000 e-mails an hour on a regular modem. If you want to spam, this software is a VERY SLOW way of doing it.”
Corey says Internet Marketing Center has removed many of the spamming tools from the software and his sales letter warns buyers that the software is not designed for sending spam.
You can read Corey's full reply here:
AssociatePrograms.com/search/mailloop.shtml
Learn more about Mailloop here
https://www.associateprograms.com/mailloop
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5. Rob Frankel's new option for merchants
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Rob Frankel, who describes himself as the branding expert and moderating dictator of FrankelBiz, is offering micro, small and other businesses a “low-cost, highly-ethical” way to launch their products and services.
This is a branded, community-based affiliate network built on the “highly successful Frankelbiz list, where we do business instead of whining about it”.
FrankelBiz.com is an easy, trackable pay-per-sale and pay-per-lead web venue – for as little as $US10 a month, plus a teeny slice of commissions paid, not sales, Rob says.
FrankelBiz
https://www.frankelbiz.com/
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6. Getting the most for your time and money
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Lorraine Venner of KeepMoney.com says she always compares associate programs to see if she can get a better rate – but there is more than that to consider.
“If I'm buying ANY product that costs over $30, I see if there is an associate program to join that allows a kickback. (BTW, Amazon's contract says you're NOT to use your own associate link for purchases.) I've saved lots of money this way. Some merchants even encourage it such as GreenTree, Paul Fredrick, and others,” Lorraine says.
However, before you join every program you should ask yourself if you can earn the minimum payment, she says.
For example, WebSponsors has a $15 minimum. Cyberbounty has a $100 minimum.
“WebSponsors is easy to get a check from,” Lorraine says. During the first month I added about 12 text links from webSponsors to a site that was getting 20-25 pageviews a day and I made over $35. Easy, only a few links, a no-brainer.
“I also added about 3 Cyberbounty text links during that time to the same site and earned $6. Cyberbounty pays slightly more for a few offers and has some offers that WebSponsors doesn't have. With a minimum of $100, it may take a while to get a check from Cyberbounty.”
Another thing to consider: How many products does a program promote? WebSponsors has over 100 products to choose from; Cyberbounty has 14 active programs. “I enjoy promoting over 25 WebSponsors programs; I like only about 6 Cyberbounty programs. Hence, it will be even harder to make my minimum,” she says.
“If you have the traffic to support promoting only one program, then it is worthwhile to comparison shop the programs to see if one pays more than the rest. Otherwise, look at minimum payout and number of programs they have for you to promote. That extra .25 won't help as much if you have to wait two years to get paid,” Lorraine says.
I've seen widely differing opinions on WebSponsors, ranging from glowing reports to a complaint of zero earnings. It suits some sites better than others.
WebSponsors plans to spend $500 (US) on bonuses for webmasters who send the most referrals in April.
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7. Free banner advertising for a year – more winners
====================================================
The latest winners of free advertising for a year on the AssociatePrograms.com site are:
John Ferguson
BizHub
https://www.bizhub.com
Terry Grieve
IBugU – Internet Business User Group Unlimited
https://www.ibugu.com
John and Terry, just tell me where to pick up a copy of the banner you want published for a year.
A new winner is drawn every month (except when I forget – sorry!) You could win. It's easy.
[UPDATE: This offer has closed.]=============================
8. clickXchange catches cheat
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Denny Mintun of Marketgalaxy.com is “very impressed” with ClickTrade's new competitor, clickXchange.
“Some of you know of the battles I had with ClickTrade (never were quite resolved). As with every program, there are some who try to cheat the system,” Denny says. “Just a couple of days ago, a site tried. Not only was I notified personally, but my account was credited back almost immediately! It could be that because clickXchange is a smaller company than ClickTrade, they have the time to give more personal service. Whatever the case – I like it!
“No, I don't work for them… I spent thousands of dollars through ClickTrade, only to be treated quite rudely when I had a problem. Now, I expect to give my business to clickXchange, and tell everyone I know to go with a company that cares about the people who pay their wages.”
clickXchange.com
https://www.associateprograms.com/clickx
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9. Rotating Amazon.com images and links
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Peter Scott has updated his script which cleverly rotates Amazon.com images and links – presenting a new one each time you visit the page.
“The new script now lets you define an unlimited number of links, which are rotated randomly. It is much easier to edit,” Peter says. “Coming soon: a web-based wizard which will automatically generate the script.”
lights.com/publisher/amaz.html
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10. Reporter tells fibs to buy Viagra
=====================================
It's easy to buy Viagra online from MDPharmacy by “fibbing”, Mark Rinzel reported in an article in the Silicon Alley Daily – https://www.siliconalleyreporter.com . The reporter was unable to locate the person named as the prescribing doctor, John Fancher. The obvious implication was that such a person didn't exist.
I asked Ian Rakow, who runs MDPharmacy, to comment.
“Apparently you don't have to be a member of the American Medical Association (AMA) to practice medicine,” Ian says. Dr John Fancher is an Arizona board certified internist, “and he said you could check his medical records some place in New York. Our other physician, Dr Darryl Mohr, is part of the AMA.”
Ian says the two MDs review each application and turn down a number of people daily. “If there is any question in the doctor's mind, they will recommend that the patient visits their regular physician.”
Ian says it's true that the address on the Internic is 7000 N. 16th St Suite 120-60, which is a P.O. Box at Mail Boxes etc. “Our office is within a quarter mile located at the Pointe at Squaw Peak, a resort community in Phoenix. We are a REAL company, with LARGE financial backing.”
Ian says telling lies to a doctor is fraud, and he's suing Silicon Alley Daily for libel.
I DON'T claim that this is a full investigative report, and maybe selling a potentially dangerous drug online isn't a good idea. However, it does seem a shame that the Silicon Alley Daily rushed to publish its scoop before it managed to get Ian Rakow's side of the story. The Daily tried to contact Ian by phone and failed. Perhaps they should have tried email.
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11. Snippets
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New discussion group
Tumay Asena has announced a new moderated announcement list/ discussion group called bookstore-associates. Topics to be discussed include successful marketing methods, search engine placement strategies, and other related contributions. To SUBSCRIBE, send the message: subscribe bookstore-associates to: majordomo AT mail.serve.com
Your ideas wanted
Frank Fiore, the online shopping guide for the Mining Company, says he is doing research for an article on the future of online shopping with a major emphasis on affiliate selling. He says he has made lots of assumptions on where revenue sharing programs are going and wants to hear your views. You can see his post on the Associate Programs Message Board. Feel free to have your say – maybe some merchants or networks will take notice.
https://www.associateprograms.com/discus/index.php
$10 per referral
MonsterBook.com – a Free Internet directory – is giving away cash or shares. The company's home page clearly states the terms and conditions. MonsterBook.com says that if and when it files for an IPO (Initial Public Offering) of shares, within 1 month it will give you $10 cash (US) for every “friend” you referred to MonsterBook.com. I can't see any risk in this. Please quote referral number 260586.
monsterbook.com/
[UPDATE: MonsterBook died.]
The dot.com people
In 1993, Network Solutions was awarded a contract with the U.S. Government to register all .com, .net and .org domain names. What started out as a $1 million annual contract now exceeds $100 million in sales. Douglas Wolford of Network Solutions reveals what makes the company successful:
netpreneur.org/connect/am/9903AMmeeting.html
The 10 secrets of selling online
I stumbled across a useful article by Paul Graham on how to make your site more successful.
https://store.yahoo.com/vw/secrets.html
Message gets stronger
“Believe me, if you want to sell videos or audio, the ONLY way you will make any money is to sell individual titles that correspond with the content of your site. If you do this, and you get traffic, sales will be generated. It is that simple.” – Mary Kolacki, PulseTV.com, Affiliates Director.
BannerWorkz – with a z
The company I mentioned last week which designed my new, highly effective banner is called BannerWorkz.com – with a “z”. I hope you managed to find it. It's good. They didn't pay me to say that – but they did put my unsolicited testimonial on their main page.
Major revamp
After three months work, Virtualis has launched its revamped site for associates. Looks good.
https://www.associateprograms.com/hosting ]
Year of the Affiliate?
Amazon.com now has 230,000 associates and CDNow has 207,000, says this New York Times review of the revenue sharing industry.
mercurycenter.com/breaking/docs/036336.htm
Compubank's new rule
Denny Mintun found that after signing up for Compubank, and even getting approved, when he went to log in he could not. “When I emailed and asked why, I was told that affiliates now have to open a bank account with them!”
[UPDATE: This program didn't last.]
Fast URL submission
Here's a place to submit pages quickly to AltaVista, Excite, HotBot, Infoseek, Lycos, Northern Light, and WebCrawler. John E. Haag says you just type in your URL and email address into ONE form and hit submit.
all4one.com/all4submit/
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