Associate Programs Newsletter #90
This newsletter comes to you from beautiful Hawaii, where I’m sitting writing this newsletter while Joanna is out shopping.
Among the 120 emails in the latest batch I’ve just received was one from my mother-in-law asking me how I’m enjoying the holiday. My goal for this year is to get things better organized so that I really can have a holiday.
Next week I’ll report on the E-Commerce 2000 Conference.
CONTENTS:
1. ClickTrade decision boosts clickXchange
2. How I Made $4,000,000 on a $0 Ad Budget. Mostly…
3. Medicaville doubles big commissions
4. Online experts get millions in funding
5. Virtualis ‘not managing growth well’
6. Investor shows faith in TravelNow
7. If you reply . . .
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1. ClickTrade decision boosts clickXchange
==========================================
ClickTrade has decided to phase out all its pay-per-click programs.
ClickTrade was bought by LinkExchange, renamed Revenue Avenue and then bought by Microsoft and brought under the new bCentral umbrella.
All the renaming didn’t solve one fundamental problem. The ClickTrade pay-per-click programs suffered from fraud.
Some commentators had suggested that up to one-third of the clicks were fraudulent, and suggested merchants take that into account when deciding how much to pay per click.
Microsoft will continue to support all existing pay-per-click programs until February 28. After February 28 2000, all ClickTrade pay-per-click programs will be discontinued.
The pay-per-lead and pay-per-sale affiliate programs are not affected.
More details:
clicktrade.bcentral.com/support/ppcfaq.cfm
[UPDATE: Microsoft closed down ClickTrade.]Already, I’m receiving e-mails asking if there is any other company offering a pay-per-click network.
There’s certainly is. It’s Bill Mansfield’s clickXchange. I haven’t tried it, but favorable reviews have been posted on the Associate Programs Message Board. ClickXchange is much smaller than ClickTrade but Bill works hard to check for potential fraud.
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2. How I Made $4,000,000 on a $0 Ad Budget. Mostly…
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I’ve just added a fascinating new article to the site: “How I Made $4,000,000 on a $0 Ad Budget” by Mark Joyner, CEO, Aesop.Com.
Mark says:
“Dead Rule Of Internet Marketing #1 – Make Everything Sounds Bigger Than It Really Is”
“I’m as guilty of this as anyone. I’m guilty of it in the very title of this article.”
“Here’s the deal – we sold a high traffic website for $4,000,000. The advertising and marketing budget for the site was $0. That’s the reality. I’ll show you how I did this in a moment. In the meantime . . .”
[UPDATE: Sorry that old page was deleted in a website upgrade.]======================================
3. Medicaville doubles big commissions
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Medicalville, which was already offering high commissions, is now offering commissions of up to nearly $900.
To kick off the Year 2000 Medicalville.com is doubling all first- tier commissions on sales of power wheelchairs.
This boosts commissions on the Merits MP3CF power wheelchair from $379.90 to $759.80 and on the Invacare FWD Slingback model from $448.50 to $897.
I’m impressed with the way Brent McNutt is running this program. He is working very hard to help his affiliates succeed.
It worth taking another look at this program.
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4. Online experts get millions in funding
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With technology developed by a UCSB professor and two Ph.D. students, and more than $34 million in venture capital funding, Expertcity.com provides instant, person-to-person computer help and training in real-time from qualified experts on the Internet.
You can ask a question online and will receive instant answers from live experts. You can even select the expert you want to work with – 24 hours a day – using screen sharing software.
Thirty online experts are waiting to help you.
The Santa Barbara-based company’s investors include ZDNet and Sun Microsystems.
Using screen sharing, you can:
Discuss your question via live chat.
Show your screen to your expert to get faster answers.
Tell your expert to solve a problem for you while you relax and watch.
Have your expert draw and highlight on your screen to give you step-by-step directions to follow.
Emel Zaim of Expertcity.com says the affiliate program pays in three ways: 5% per sale, $1 per new activated registration and 2 cents per click-through.
It looks a good one.
https://www.expertcity.com
[UPDATE: This link no longer works.]=======================================
5. Virtualis “not managing growth well”
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I wrote last week that high-quality web host Virtualis says its December holiday promotion was such a huge success that it has decided to extend it for another month.
Phil Tanny of OakNetPub.com comments:
We have a couple of domains hosted at Virtualis but I regret to
report I can no longer consider them a “high-quality web host”.
As you’ve seen from my notes to our clients, we use Virtualis
for our main customer support site. While the performance is
still within the bounds of acceptable (i.e. I’m too busy to find
a new host) I’ve received too many complaints from our users,
over too long a period, to give Virtualis high reviews.
I’ve addressed the problem by setting up a mirror site with the
reasoning that two mediocre providers serving the same site will
be up more than one good provider serving that same site. This
costs me double, of course.
My amateur analysis is that Virtualis has a great promotional
team and that their success is probably a large part of the
problem, i.e. Virtualis is not managing growth very well and the
marketing people are ahead of the technical folks. Support has
also suffered. It was great when I signed up, now I find it’s
hit or miss as to whether questions I submit are replied to at all.
For what it’s worth, one report from the field.
Phil Tanny
oaknetpub.com
Phil and I received this response from Virtualis:
Thank you for your honest and candid feedback. Your comments
clearly indicate that you are as concerned about the success of
Virtualis as we are, and I truly appreciate that.
Virtualis has always been and will continue to be very
supportive of providing our customers and affiliates with the
ability to tell us how we are doing. A cursory look at our
“Customer Board” on the web will show everyone how our customers
view us. Some are extremely complimentary and some would like to
see us get even better. I encourage you to take a look at an
entry titled “Anybody actually satisfied with Virtualis?” posted
on our customer board on 1/7/00 (www.virtualis.com/custboard/)
to see what our customers have to say.
We at Virtualis are passionately committed to exceeding our
customers’ expectations in each and every circumstance. As you
indicated, we are a growing organization and we must ensure that
we continue to provide our customers with service levels to
which they have become accustomed. This is exactly why I have
joined the Virtualis family as the Vice President of Customer
Services. Even though I am very new to the organization (a week
today), I have already started a number of initiatives to
increase our service delivery quality. I am confident that we
will see considerable improvements in the near future.
Virtualis will soon publish a press release relative to its
customer services organization which should be helpful in
reaffirming our commitment to our customers and affiliates.
I would be more than happy to personally address any specific
issues that you or others have. Please feel free to contact me
directly (at any time).
Kami Kotobi
Vice President, Customer Services
Virtualis Systems
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6. Investor shows faith in TravelNow
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TravelNow.com has received a $4.5 million “equity infusion” from Tudor Investment Corporation of Boston. Tudor manages about $5 billion in private hedge funds.
“This is an important milestone in the company’s history and provides TravelNow with significant capital to implement our aggressive strategy of technical development, product line expansion and customer growth,” says Co-CEO Jeff Wasson.
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7. If you reply . . .
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I like reading your comments on things I write in this newsletter but please don’t just hit Reply and send my whole newsletter back to me.
The next morning after the newsletter goes out, my e-mail often takes about half an hour to download because so many people do that. Believe me, I HAVE already read it.
An even better option than writing to me is to post your comment on the Associate Programs Message Board so that everyone else can read it, too:
Associate Programs Message Board:
https://www.associateprograms.com/discus/index.php
All the best,
Allan Gardyne
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