Associate Programs Newsletter #44
CONTENTS:
1. How to find a good domain name
2. You mean you want me to PAY?
3. From free to fee
4. I.D. IT! Plates revived
5. Gimmicks boost Denny's traffic
6. Acses shares customers – for life
7. Snippets
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1. How to find a good domain name
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You probably know how frustrating it can be if you think up a good domain name and then discover when you search InterNIC that someone has already beaten you to it – and to the next one, and the next one…
Wayne Yeager has come up with a simple – and cheap – solution which looks a winner.
“I was writing an article for an Internet magazine (on spec) about how hard it is to find a good domain name,” Wayne says. “Then – it hit me – (while I was in line at the grocery store). The voice said, ‘It doesn't have to be hard. All you have to know is which names AREN'T taken, then simply choose a name from the AVAILABLE list'.”
Six months later, UnclaimedDomains.com is the result.
For $20 (US) Unclaimed Domains sells webmasters (and future webmasters) a list of unclaimed, unregistered (or expired) domain names. The list contains more than 260,000 unused .com names, which are updated daily. Wayne says he also gives people one free update.
To prove that the list isn't junk, Wayne provides a free sample of unclaimed names on the main page at the site.
A few hours ago these names were still available:
luckylady.com
itsajoke.com
storycity.com
cabinboy.com
If you're having trouble thinking of theme for a new web site, or trying to think of a name which suits a theme, the list of 260,000 names should be a huge help.
“The hard part has been attracting attention,” Wayne told the Associate Programs Message Board this week. “Now I know every webmaster will have the same lament, but I would have thought ZDTV and News.com would be knocking down my door . . . My site is a whole week old, so maybe my expectations are a little high? . . . I think this site will take off once the word gets out. But then, have you ever heard a webmaster who didn't think so?”
The revenue sharing program is managed by ClickBank – https://www.associateprograms.com/cb – and pays a $4 commission per sale.
The linking instructions are contradictory. ClickBank tells merchants that a link in email “won't work”.
However, Wayne's site says: “Affiliates are free to promote Unclaimed Domains in any of the following ways: through banners, text links, letters of recommendation to newsletter subscribers or your client base, or off-line advertising.”
Sorry, Wayne, you'll need to explain that a referral link in e-mail or typed directly into a browser won't work.
If you're curious, try this referral link. It won't work now, but it will work when the newsletter is archived online:
hop.clickbank.net/hop.cgi?assoc/unclaimed
Apart from that, Unclaimed Domains looks an extremely useful program. Consider this a “letter of recommendation”.
Unclaimed Domains (this link works)
unclaimeddomains.com
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2. You mean you want me to PAY?
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JoAnn Griffith and her partner Andrew Fretwell of APS Technology invested thousands of dollars and six months of their time developing a program which failed to make them or their associates money.
They created Realtors Express, which automates the management of realtors' web sites.
To do it, they bought a CGI script – the tracking program – and their own dedicated NT server for hosting the accounts. They hired outside programmers to help them when they got stuck.
JoAnn did most of the marketing, four hours a day for six months, and another four hours on design and research.
“Andrew spent about eight hours a day researching, programming, setting it up, etc – for six months,” JoAnn said.
“We were – at the same time – developing strategies to improve the program which ultimately led to the new programs we have developed and we also were maintaining our other websites – WebPromotions.net and PageSystems.com, which are our original web design, hosting and marketing websites. That is how we survived. Yes – we worked 16 hours a day.”
After all that, Realtors Express was a flop. No one was making any money. So JoAnn and Andrew made a tough decision – they decided to stop letting associates sign up free. They created a new product, Shopping Express, aimed at a wider market, and told associates they had to pay if they wanted to promote it.
There were howls out outrage, and JoAnn and Andrew had to cope with hurtful comments, but the new fee-based system is starting to work.
JoAnn tells the story:
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3. From free to fee
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By JoAnn Griffith
We had built a state of the art Internet solution for realtors around the globe. Our product automated the management of their web sites. With no programming skills, realtors could build and update their own web sites in real time, complete with autoresponders etc.
The price we were asking for this product was below industry standard with a market potential of literally hundreds of thousands. We had a killer application and we knew it.
Since resellers only needed to supply a link from their site to ours, we decided to make this a free business opportunity. That would give us lots of links, and the business would roll in.
In spite of our best efforts, it flopped. Nobody was making any money, and time was moving quickly by.
After carefully rethinking our entire strategy, we decided to completely overhaul our offerings and marketing program.
We added a complete “build-it-yourself” online store creation program. (No programming, secure server and e-commerce solution.) This expanded our market enormously. Then we drastically dropped the price. It almost felt like suicide.
Whereas the cost of the original product was hundreds of dollars, we dropped it to a digestible $49.95 set-up and $39.95 per month including hosting (pre-launch pricing, still available). We then created a two-tier affiliate program that allows affiliates to earn more commissions by helping their first level succeed.
Then we changed the reseller program from free to fee-based. Why? Because although the free opportunity gave us resellers, it never gave us SALES.
We also knew that the figures indicate that often less than 10% of resellers in the free programs do anything at all anyway, while the ones who do take the program seriously believe in it. So, we reasoned, why not devote all of our attention, resources, help and support to the serious resellers?
These changes followed a lot of soul-searching and it never came easy. We were incredulous as some of our resellers who were making no commissions at all on the old program balked – and used terms like “crooks” – and said we only cared if we made money. That was the hardest part.
But we were working like crazy to build a system that would allow everyone to really profit, and we poured our hearts, energy and money into it to make that a reality.
Things quickly got better, though, and it didn't take long before we knew our marketing plan was as good as our product.
The load on our customer service has changed significantly.
While the time we spend on support is surprisingly more now than during our “Free Opportunity” days, it is actually spent with people serious about the opportunity or with clients. And that is where it should be.
Sales are taking off. One affiliate is averaging better than one new sign-up a week and accelerating. That's from a dead start. The income he will soon be making is what we always wanted for our associates but never were able to accomplish with our old program. A sense of pride seems to exude from the e-mail we get from affiliates who are setting up their own sites.
After all we have been through, it's really nice to work with people who have invested something into their own success. Anyone who signs up below them knows the recommendation comes from a fellow user, so it builds tighter teams.
To see an example of one of our sites go here:
shoppingexpress.net/cebn_opportunity
This link has a lot more info, including how the system works, commission structure, etc.
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4. I.D. IT! Plates revived
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Rick Beneteau has decided to revive I.D. IT! Plates.
Rick sold his interest in I.D.IT! Plates, which he co-founded, at the end of last year. Recently, it was shut down suddenly with over 3,000 stranded resellers.
“Many, many requests from former partners (who had my dial-up address) to see this program reactivated led to face-to-face meetings/negotiations with the manufacturer to resurrect I.D. IT! Plates,” Rick says.
“After contacting the former partners with my new plans (receiving unanimous support for them), I . . . expect to be operational in two to three weeks. Former partners will have the opportunity to re-enter the program under the same commission structure ($8 first level/$2 second level) but the retail price will be lowered to $34.95.”
Rick says he will also add some substantial bonuses for purchasers. The major difference in the new I.D. IT! Plates program is that only purchasers of at least one plate can join the program. Former partners can re-enter without this stipulation.
Well, it always seemed like a good idea to me. Maybe Rick can prove it really is.
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5. Gimmicks boost Denny's traffic
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If you are going to have a productive online mall, you need a couple of things to get people to bookmark your site over the thousands of others, says Denny Mintun of MarketGalaxy.com.
“For one thing, make sure it is not just a list of links. People can go to Yahoo and get the same thing. Make it unique in some way. Also, the site needs to be entertaining, and have various gimmicks to make people want to visit. For instance, MarketGalaxy.com is getting a couple of thousand hits per day – and 4,000 to 5,000 page views,” Denny told the Associate Programs Message Board this week.
“The reason is we have various games and contests in addition to the mall stuff . . . Bottom line, though – don't expect an online mall to be your sole source of Internet income. There is LOTS of competition in that field!”
Denny's site is:
Marketgalaxy.com
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6. Acses shares customers – for life
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Acses, the shopping comparison tool, has dramatically improved its revenue sharing program. Associates will “own” the customer for life and will continue to get paid for every click-through of that visitor indefinitely.
The Acses comparison shopping engine allows visitors to track down the best deal on any book, CD, video and DVD, Acses says.
“As we want to attract as many associates as possible, our goal was to make the program as attractive as at all possible for the associates,” says Christoph Janz of Acses.
“In order to gain market share, we'd be willing to give all of our short-term revenues to the associates. We realized that even this is still not enough, though. That's why we've created the Customer Sharing Program – our associates will ‘own' each visitor that they send to us and will participate in the revenues generated by their visitors until the end of time.”
He says associates of the old CPM program can choose if they want to stay with it or turn to the new one.
The new program pays $0.10 to $0.20 “per lead click”, depending on how many associates you have referred. Partners will be able to link to Acses in a variety of ways: use an interactive search form on their site or simple graphical links – or link directly to specific products. (To get the payout up to 20 cents, simply recommend the program to 10 friends.)
“Owning” a customer for life makes the program quite unlike most other programs, where the affiliate does not participate in the revenue generated by return visits of referred customers, says Christoph. “It provides Acses Partners with outstanding long-term advantages and is the reason why the program is called a Customer Sharing Program.”
Acses is offering a sign-up bonus of $10 for all sign-ups before June 30, 1999.
One little flaw in the program: When you recommend the program to other webmasters you have to ask them to remember and write down your ID number when they sign up. My ID number is 54.
[UPDATE: Acses changed its name to DealPilot. The affiliate program has been discontinued.]===========
7. Snippets
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Idiots use fake names
The $1 bonus for sign-ups Brian Welch's BizBot.net was offering didn't last long. “This bonus is for a limited time only and ends in March,” Brian has told associates. “Several of you have taken the time to fill out the order form over and over with fake names or signing up people without their permission. If you are one of them, your account will be deleted and all commissions forfeited.” That still leaves FOUR ways in which he is paying out.
[UPDATE: BizBot has been discontinued.]
Future Card hint
Kristy Knowles of Visa Future Card has a handy hint: “One of our more consistent affiliates, 123Greetings.com, uses the traditional banner ads in conjunction with using their confirmation e-mails to further promote the Visa Future Card. 123Greetings.com says, ‘We feel we have been successful with the Visa program because our user profile matches that of the Visa user. The Visa brand name automatically creates a revenue model that works'.” For details on the program:
https://www.johnsonlane.com
No, I'm really NOT interested
Please, it doesn't matter how absolutely wonderful a multi-level marketing program is, I'm not interested. That's not my field. Yes, that includes ezze.net, AllAdvantage and Quixtar. It's a simple business decision. If it has more than two tiers of commissions, AssociatePrograms.com is NOT interested.
Melissa virus
I'm sure you've heard of the Melissa virus by now. If not:
pcworld.com/heres_how/article/0,1400,10304,00.html
usatoday.com/news/ndssun04.htm
zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2233030,00.html
cert.org/advisories/CA-99-04-Melissa-Macro-Virus.html
Feel like aiming high?
If you have a web site which targets business professionals or software developers, you could earn a whopping $700 (US) commission from Careers Central.
careercentral.com/affiliates
[UPDATE: Careers Central has disappeared.]
Free copywriting tips
You can get 51 free valuable copywriting tips by Karl Freitag, whose words have sold more than half a BILLION dollars worth of goods and services. When you enter your e-mail address for the tips, you're also subscribing to his newsletter. It's a classy web site, designed to sell.
https://www.copywriting.com/
Warning on frames
“I was reading Associate Programs Newsletter #36 and noticed Crystal's comments about frames,” says Greg Batchelor of ValueAvenue.com. “I do agree that frames can keep visitors on your site, but please remind your readers that many affiliate programs specifically prohibit displaying their site in a frame.”
Strength or weakness?
Some e-commerce firms are using revenue sharing successfully to boost their market share. Others do revenue share deals out of fear, “attempting to minimize risk, staunch loss and bolster faltering revenues”, says Penelope Patsuris in Forbes online.
forbes.com/tool/html/99/mar/0326/feat.htm
TeknoSurf adds CPM
Pay-per-click network TeknoSurf is moving into the CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) model. Advertisers will be able to choose between CPM and CPC (cost per click). For webmasters, payouts will be based on the number of clicks and CPM. TeknoSurf pays webmasters in FOUR different ways. The referral program works well for me. Amateurish sites are not wanted.
[UPDATE: TeknoSurf is now Advertising.com.]
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All the best
Allan Gardyne
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