Associate Programs Newsletter #59
CONTENTS:
1. 1001 Killer Marketing Tactics
2. Leo revamps Safe-Audit referral program
3. TeknoSurf makes big splash
4. You can lease tracking software
5. Making URLs clickable in e-mail
6. Affiliate programs effective
7. Prank shows Network Solutions’ vulnerability
8. Get $10 and a trip to Costa Rica from Fogdog Sports
9. New Affiliate Radio Network
10. Barnes & Noble seeks sales by e-mail
11. Amazon.com continues race for Net dominance
12. Time Warner and Sony buy CDNow
13. Egghead.com in $400m stock swap
14. How merchants successfully use networks
15. The information you think you don’t need
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1. 1001 Killer Marketing Tactics
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You probably already know about Mark Joyner. He’s the author of the ebook “Search Engine Tactics”, which has been downloaded more than one million times and won five stars from ZDNet.
Mark, CEO of Aesop Marketing Corporation, a former U.S. Army officer and Cold War veteran of Military Intelligence, describes the Net as a killer battlefield. To win, he says, “you need killer tactics”.
In his interactive online marketing course “1001 Killer Marketing Tactics”, Mark doesn’t just offer a few cute techniques. He shows you how to take the conventional and turn it into the unconventional. He makes it obvious that he’s describing proven methods that work for him.
I was impressed by the depth of information in Mark’s 450-page course.
For example, in the huge Internet Marketing section, he doesn’t just suggest you send out a news release and give you a link to Gebbies Press. He gives specific, concrete instructions on how to do it right so that your news release has a excellent chance of being published.
He doesn’t just suggest you start a referral program. Again, he gives precise instructions on how to do it, including which software to use, and tells you exactly how to encourage your associates so that they will sell your products. (I know a few merchants who need to read that section.)
Mark doesn’t just suggest using a tell-a-friend script. He tells you how to use it in an unconventional way to get superb results.
You think free-for-all pages are useless? Mark tells you an unconventional way to get results from them.
Topics covered by the course include attracting people to your site, keeping them there, and getting them to buy right now. Mark describes how to use psychological principles to get a Net surfer “to obey your every command” and even “forbidden secrets” of banner ad design based on U.S. Army research.
Using the interactive parts of the course, you can have fun answering quizzes to check how well you’ve absorbed Mark’s excellent advice. The course also shows you how to give yourself “Brain Jolts” and helps you construct your own “Battle Manual”.
For webmasters who want to sell “1001 Killer Internet Marketing Tactics”, the program includes access to proven, ready made associate tools, real-time reporting, a personal mentoring program, and more.
You’ll also earn commissions on a large back end of various products for entrepreneurs including web hosting and web promotion software.
This is a good, solid course which will boost your traffic and your sales. It contains a lot of sound advice I haven’t seen elsewhere and comes with a money-back guarantee. I’ve started using it to build my “Battle Manual”.
“1001 Killer Internet Marketing Tactics” costs $99.90 (US) and pays 20% to 50% commission.
Customers are yours for life.
[UPDATE: This course is no longer available. For much more comprehensive, up-to-date techniques on getting website traffic, I recommend John Reese’s course, Traffic Secrets 2.0. Here’s my Traffic Secrets 2.0 review.]!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!SPONSOR!!!!!!!!!!!
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2. Leo revamps Safe-Audit referral program
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Leo Sheiner’s Safe-Audit, which describes itself as the “acknowledged leader in pay-per-action advertising”, is replacing its referral program with a new one – with lifetime commissions.
“You introduce a customer and then earn revenue on that customer’s business with us forever,” Safe-Audit says. “There is no work or responsibility involved beyond the initial introduction.”
Commissions vary hugely, depending on how successful you are.
Safe-Audit has had phenomenal growth – last I heard it had more than 24,000 members – and has suffered from problems associated with that growth. Last year there were complaints about checks going missing and Leo blamed the postal service. Some complaints continued for months.
Safe-Audit has published on its site an impressive list of testimonials from happy webmasters.
Leo obviously has a sense of humor. He says you can promote his program on a balloon if you want to. Imagine trying to read these URLs on a balloon:
For hosts:
safe-audit.com/partner_register_host.cfm?PartnerID=211
For advertisers:
safe-audit.com/partner_register_advertiser.cfm?PartnerID=211
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3. TeknoSurf makes big splash
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John Ferber, CEO of TeknoSurf, has a cute way of attracting visitors to his free TeknoSurf WebExpo 99 (July 15-17).
“There will be tons of mindshare to grab there to learn, network, and come back with some great ideas,” John says.
But here’s the big teaser: “TeknoSurf will be buying (prepaying) clicks on the spot from any webmaster who wants to sell theirs. Simply come on by and walk away with a big fat check.”
Ten-month-old TeknoSurf serves more than 10 million banners a day, has more than 60 full-time staff and is planning to expand.
[UPDATE: Teknosurf became Advertising.com.]==================================
4. You can lease tracking software
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Craig Belcher’s AffiliateZone.com has launched a new service, AffiliateTracking.com, which allows merchants to lease rather than buy Affiliate Link tracking software. Packages cost $29.95 and $49.95 a month. The one-time set-up fee is $75.
Associates earn a two-tier, recurring commission.
I’ve been recommending Craig’s budget-priced Affiliate Link software for about a year. He has more than 100 happy clients.
https://www.affiliatetracking.com
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5. Making URLs clickable in e-mail
==================================
I asked for readers’ advice on making URLs clickable in email. The consensus was, as Peter Kudlacz says, that most email programs should be able to handle a URL in the form
https://www.canscape.com/adplus .
If not, URLs are easy to cut and paste.
Eva Almeida says chevrons are easy to add like this
<https://www.marketingedgetips.com>
but no one actually named an email program for which chevrons are necessary.
Doug Archell pointed out that cutting and pasting
<https://www.ncbuy.com/>
is NOT easy.
Ken Evoy has a clever idea. “I just put my URLs on a separate line by themselves like this…” he says.
>> https://makemy.sitesell.com
“I put the little >> at the left margin to ‘color’ it in some software.”
My conclusion: I’ll keep the URLs simple. If they’re not clickable in your email software, perhaps you need better software.
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6. Affiliate programs effective
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Peter Gerstmann of instantaccess.co.uk alerted me to an article by slightly eccentric web usability guru Jakob Nielsen, commenting on a survey by Forrester on the effectiveness of affiliate programs in contrast to other promotion techniques such as banners.
“It’s good to see some quantitative research proving something the rest of us have known (and profited by) all along,” Peter says.
The survey shows that the fewer results achieved from a technique, the MORE is it used.
https://www.useit.com/alertbox/990711.html
In a sidebar in which Jakob lists the strengths and weaknesses of what he calls “affiliates programs”, he says rather strangely that “It is currently difficult to track down which sites offer affiliates programs…”
Hard to find? Which planet does Jakob live on?
https://www.useit.com/alertbox/990711_affiliates.html
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7. Prank shows Network Solutions’ vulnerability
===============================================
Someone played a prank on Jim Reardon, owner of https://www.freecenter.com/ and https://www.humorplanet.com . Jim says the results clearly illustrate that NSI needs to shore up its security.
wired.com/news/news/technology/story/20734.html
A similar prank was played on Leo Sheiner’s Safe-Audit. “My advice to you is, if you have not protected your domain by at least setting a password, do it now,” Leo told I-Sales Digest.
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======================================================
8. Get $10 and a trip to Costa Rica from Fogdog Sports
======================================================
Fogdog Sports is giving away a trip to Costa Rica. I asked Rachel Freitas, of the Fogdog Sports Affiliate Program, for details. Here’s what she sent:
Want an easy 10 bucks? Fogdog Sports is having a hot summer promotion for affiliates. Partner with the leader to sell sporting goods from your site and earn up to 20% commissions. Make a sale between now and August 27 and get a $10 gift certificate to Fogdog Sports. Plus you could win the grand prize – an adventure travel trip to Costa Rica. Ten other lucky affiliates will win a first place prize of a Fogdog Sports Daypack.
It’s free to partner with Fogdog Sports and takes two minutes to join. No purchase necessary. See site for details:
fogdog.com/cgi-bin/affiliate?siteid=5803221&bfpage=apply
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9. New Affiliate Radio Network
==============================
The inaugural edition of Affiliate Radio Network will launch online on July 23, courtesy of RealVoices.com. The interview show will feature leaders in the affiliate/associate industry as they discuss the issues facing their companies, and the industry as it develops, says Patrick M. D’Acre, President of Real Voices.
The online program will be available on demand from noon that day, Pacific Standard Time, and will be available for two weeks, which is the frequency of the program. The audio files are in Real Audio format, which is available for download at that location.
Confirmed guests include Sam Gerace of Be Free, Declan Dunn of ActiveMarketplace.com, James Marciano of Internet.com and Corey Rudl of Marketing Tips.com.
realvoices.com/affiliateradio/index.html
[UPDATE: RealVoices died.]=======================================
10. Barnes & Noble seeks sales by email
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B&N has launched a new program called MybnLink, which encourages affiliates to try to earn 5% commissions by sending email to friends. I hope affiliates bother to read the terms and conditions: “No spamming is permitted… rarely should any one email be sent to more than 50 individuals comprising your group of friends, family and colleagues.”
No spamming? It will be interesting to see how well B&N monitors that.
barnesandnoble.com/mybnlink/index.asp
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11. Amazon.com continues race for Net dominance
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We all know if you want to be successful on the Net, the way to do it is to find a niche and aim to be the best there, right? Jeff Bezos doesn’t seem to agree. His mighty Amazon.com wants to be the best at EVERYTHING.
Amazon is moving into toys and consumer electronics, adding to its videos, music, auctions, gifts, and electronic greeting cards. It has also bought 49% of online sporting goods store Gear.com.
thestandard.net/articles/display/0%2C1449%2C5510%2C00.html
news.com/News/Item/0,4,0-39055,00.html
zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2293395,00.html
…and eToys.com has launched a children’s bookstore.
==================================
12. Time Warner and Sony buy CDNow
==================================
CDNow, which was begun by two brothers in a garage in 1994, is being bought by Time Warner and Sony, and being merged with Columbia House, getting access to a database of 16 million profiles. CDNow will continue to operate as an e-tailer and Columbia House will remain a music and video club.
siliconalleydaily.com/issues/sar07131999.html#Headline1047
zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0%2C4164%2C2292677%2C00.html
wired.com/news/news/business/story/20699.html
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13. Egghead.com in $400m stock swap
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Egghead.com is merging with Onsale in a stock swap valued at $400 million. The new company will operate under the Egghead name. Auctions and sales of surplus goods will operate under Onsale.
zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2293432,00.html
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14. How merchants successfully use networks
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Getting your company’s name out there doesn’t have to break the bank, says Shelly K. Schwartz in an article describing how merchants are using Be Free and LinkShare.
cnnfn.com/1999/07/02/smbusiness/q_advertising/
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15. The information you think you don’t need
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Warning: You could make money from this item.
I’m deeply wounded. I’ve told you that Ken Evoy is GIVING AWAY the best advice manual for affiliates. Yet thousands of you haven’t downloaded it. Why?
Ken is delighted that he has quickly signed up 1,300 affiliates, and many of the affiliates in my team have already started earning good commissions.
But what the heck are the rest of my 9,500 readers doing? Don’t you want the best, free, advice manual for affiliates?
Puzzling over this, I’ve come up with a few possible reasons why you haven’t done anything yet.
(a) You’re a merchant and you think the free manual is only for affiliates. Nope. Imagine how much you could boost your sales if all your affiliates were using the best advice manual for affiliates. Five times? Ten times?
(b) You think if it’s free, it can’t be any good. Nope. It really does include useful info you won’t find anywhere else. Ken simply believes in supplying far more than customers and affiliates expect. That’s how he’s building a successful company.
(c) You’re too busy. I can understand that. I know what it’s like. But too busy to get a free 224-page manual that will help you boost your sales? Perhaps it’s time to rethink your priorities. It’s worth losing just a little bit of sleep to get this one.
(d) You’ve read some guy’s article which criticized Ken’s program. Well, that guy didn’t do his research thoroughly… However, don’t take my word for it. Try downloading two sample chapters of Ken’s “Make Your Site Sell” FREE and make up your own mind.
(e) You think you need to build a website first. No you don’t. Ken describes in the manual how a clever man who doesn’t own a web site is achieving sales.
(f) …um … I’m running out of possible reasons, unless you subscribed to this newsletter by mistake and you’re not interested in making money on the Internet. Surely that can’t be true. I’ve helped thousands of you make money on the Net in the last year or so. You’ve written and told me so. So please, take my advice this time.
All you have to do to get the best, free advice manual for affiliates is sign up for Ken Evoy’s FREE program. It’s that simple. Please do it now – and let me sleep easy tonight.
https://www.associateprograms.com/affiliates
P.S. I’ve just received the latest weekly report to affiliates from Ken. He keeps producing the most useful, valuable advice for affiliates I’ve seen. His latest report includes a fascinating tip on how an affiliate is planning massive offline publicity to get sales.
[UPDATE: His reports to affiliates are archived. New members joining the program can search the archives.]
All the best
Allan Gardyne
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