Associate Programs Newsletter #259
Lots of meaty stuff today.
Enjoy…
CONTENTS:
1. RSS feed for affiliates contains affiliate links
2. AdSense alternative for pharmacy sites – and others
3. AdSense users share tips
4. NameSqueeze – why don’t more affiliates use it?
5. Two NameSqueeze tools you’ll need
6. Ralph’s survey of online merchants
7. Making the world better one idea at a time
8. Click fraud – how to get your refunds
9. WordPress link trick goes horribly wrong
10. The John Reese phenomenon
11. New resource for web content
12. Thought for today: The power of focus
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1. RSS feed for affiliates contains affiliate links
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It’s good to see an affiliate merchant doing creative stuff to help his affiliates.
Terry Gibbs of Iwantcollectibles.com is offering an RSS feed for his affiliates to use on their sites. All the links in it are affiliate links.
The feed contains topical articles about antiques, collectibles and eBay.
“Everything you need is packaged in a zip folder, and you can set it up on your site in less than 10 minutes,” Terry says.
“The version I have works with ClickBank,” he says. “I just set this up, so none of my affiliates are using it yet, but it should be helpful to those with basic web skills.”
Here’s Terry’s page explaining the system:
www.news.iwantcollectibles.com/affiliates/affiliaterssparser.php
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2. AdSense alternative for pharmacy sites – and others
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I have a friend who created a website to promote pharmaceutical products and then discovered – too late – that AdSense disallows certain sites.
Whoops! Pain and woe.
However, my friend is now in luck.
There’s a new AdSense alternative which is less restrictive.
It gets its contextual links from popular pay-per-click networks such as FindWhat and Searchfeed and creates a single feed sorted by bid price, from highest to lowest.
It can also be used IN ADDITION to AdSense – on the same page – because its “look and feel” is totally different.
It looks similar to a “Useful Sites” section, with links and descriptions. You can decide how long or how short you want it to be.
It adds keyword-rich material to your site, in a way which I believe is more useful and much less risky than using Traffic Equalizer or similar products.
It uses rel=”nofollow” attributes in the links, so there’s no PageRank leakage.
To use it, you need a web host using a Linux/Apache web server with PHP.
Even if you already use AdSense, this tool is well worth checking out…
[UPDATE: This tool is no longer available.]
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3. AdSense users share tips
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Google recently hosted a Bay Area Forum with about 75 AdSense users.
Participants included Chris Pirillo of Lockergnome and Jennifer Slegg of JenSense.com.
Fortunately for us, David Herron, who lives less than two miles from Google’s headquarters, attended and took notes.
His report of the meeting contains useful tips and different perspectives on AdSense:
https://web-building.7gen.com/income/adsense-forum-2005-03.html
In response to questions on our affiliate forum, David added a few more comments here…
Report on the Google Adsense Bay Area Forum
https://www.associateprograms.com/discus/ftopic9740.html
(David’s report is a classic example of the fact that if you create USEFUL content, people will link to your site without being asked.)
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4. NameSqueeze – why don’t more affiliates use it?
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If you’re like a lot of affiliates, you’ve heard of the NameSqueeze technique but haven’t tried it.
The following stats may encourage you to do a little testing..
Internet veteran Jonathan Mizel, who has published his online newsletter (I’m a subscriber) since 1993, popped into our affiliate forum the other day and revealed some of his statistics.
Last year, he spent about $630,000 on advertising as follows:
- $290k on opt-in consumer email lists.
- $40k on banners and pops.
- $25k on contextual ads.
- $275k on commissions to affiliates who ran his offer on a joint venture basis after he bought advertising from them.
“The key is buying ads until the margins diminish, then putting the promotion on an affiliate basis after the advertising source knows you manage a responsive site,” Jonathan says.
“Of course, all traffic goes through your NameSqueeze(tm) page, which means a nice profit, and a HUGE subscriber base.”
Discussing the opt-in form which you can see on the first page of his site, Jonathan says:
“It’s the cornerstone of our system, and is how we get so many opt-ins. I’m surprised more affiliate marketers don’t know of or use this technique…
“If you are buying traffic through AdWords, email, pops, even banners, USE THIS TECHNIQUE, even if you don’t plan to become my customer. It’ll help you build a list FAST!”
Jonathan’s numbers are staggering…
“About our numbers: They are all real, and can be verified by third parties. We really did get 208,495 opt-ins in May, 2004, with a very consistent 2,000 to 5,000 a day since then (today’s number is 3,641, and it’s only 6pm in Hawaii where I live).”
Just in case you don’t know what the NameSqueeze technique is:
It’s an email opt-in page. You don’t get whatever goodies are being offered until you’ve handed over your email address.
You’ve probably been to sites like that. Annoying, aren’t they? You just want the darn stuff immediately, don’t you?
If that sort of thinking is stopping you from using this highly effective technique, I suggest you go back and re-read Jonathan’s numbers. They’re food for thought.
He does this stuff because IT WORKS.
You can see Jonathan’s NameSqueeze technique working here:
[UPDATE: In 2008, Jonathan turned his Online Marketing Letter into a free newsletter. A really good way to learn how to create squeeze pages to build a list and sell products is to follow the system in Marlon Sanders’ Promo Dashboard. Here’s my Promo Dashboard review.]========================================
5. Two NameSqueeze tools you’ll need
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If you’re planning to try the NameSqueeze technique yourself, you’ll want two things:
(a) A solid, reliable autoresponder service for following up. Jonathan uses Aweber. We use it, too, to publish one of our newsletters. It’s very good. You can test drive it here:
https://www.associateprograms.com/aweber
(b) An enticing ebook or report to give away, which you’ll probably create in PDF format.
There are lots of traps here. To help you out, Alf Pedersen has written a good, solid book detailing how to write and publish an ebook and make it downloadable, with all the details you’ll need.
It’s superb, no-nonsense book, and cheap. Check the table of contents here:
https://www.associateprograms.com/alf
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6. Ralph’s survey of online merchants
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My friend Dr. Ralph Wilson is conducting a survey on Affiliate Management Software. If you’re an online merchant and use an affiliate program, please fill out the brief survey.
For everyone who completes the survey, Ralph promises to send you a no-cost copy of the report when it’s completed. (The report will sell for $15 or more).
Ralph is one of the good guys. Please help him. Thanks.
surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=68354842738
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7. Making the world better one idea at a time
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I seem be on the topic of Internet veterans today. Here’s what another one is doing…
Brad Waller has launched https://betterif.com/index.jsp – “Making the world better one idea at a time.”
You can submit your idea. As Brad says, you “might just change the world”.
(Yes, it’s another example … Do something interesting or thought-provoking and people will link to your site.)
[UPDATE: Nice idea, but it seems to have disappeared.]========================================
8. Click fraud – how to get your refunds
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There’s been a fair bit of talk recently about click fraud – “malicious” or “artificial” clicks and clicks not conducted in “good faith”.
One US retailer has filed a lawsuit accusing Google, Yahoo!, AOL and several other companies with knowingly overcharging for pay- per-click (PPC) advertising.
What’s all the fuss about? Is it just hype or is there actually a fire burning out of control in the PPC search engine room?
PPC search engine advertising has enjoyed huge growth over the past four years and, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the paid search model is now the fastest growing form of Internet advertising.
Amidst the great success of PPC search engine marketing, however, there’s a mixed message.
Some ad vendors have reported that click fraud is not a problem at all. Others have described it as a digital form of shoplifting that’s just a part of doing business. A growing number of concerned ad buyers have protested that click fraud is rampant and staggering. Who do you believe?
What is clear is that on the upside of PPC marketing, in a few minutes popular keywords can register hundreds of clicks … On the flip side, those clicks can be registered by fraudsters.
The first real admittance of a serious problem came in December 2004 when CNN/Money quoted Google’s Chief Financial Officer, George Reyes, as saying, click fraud is the “biggest threat” to the Internet economy.
If you’d like to know more about click fraud visit
https://www.associateprograms.com/fraud-refunds and discover who’s up to it and how you can beat them.
The business is run by a highly talented friend of mine, Jay Stockwell.
If you’re paying $50 or more for your PPC ads, it would be a wise investment for you to independently monitor your clicks with this new technology.
[UPDATE: This service is no longer available.]========================================
9. WordPress link trick goes horribly wrong
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Don’t try this at home…
Chad Jones of HotNacho.com paid WordPress a flat fee for publishing thousands of articles containing valuable keywords designed to earn revenue from AdSense.
WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg was apparently embarrassed about the content of these articles, which varied in quality and were often off-topic, so he used invisible links pointing to them.
It was a silly thing to do, for a high profile, PageRank 8 site, or for ANY site.
Naturally, Matt got caught.
https://www.waxy.org/archive/2005/03/30/wordpres.shtml
https://hotnacho.com/wordpress-fracas/
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10. The John Reese phenomenon
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About seven months ago, John Reese caused a furor when he launched his “Traffic Secrets” course which revealed how he had generated over 1.57 billion visitors to his websites since he started marketing online.
His launch tactics attracted a flood of publicity – good and bad. There was a lot of hype, and a bit of sneering and bitchiness.
In 24 hours, John generated more than $1 million worth of sales.
But what about people who bought the course? Did John’s advice actually work?
You can read 100 of his customers’ carefully documented stories here:
[UPDATE: No longer available.]
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11. New resource for web content
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Yahoo! has unveiled its new Creative Commons Search Beta where you can find content you can “use for commercial purposes” or content that you can “modify, adapt, or build upon”.
Full story:
https://www.searchengineguide.com/hartzer/003877.html
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12. Thought for today: The power of focus
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“One hundred watts of electricity can light a light bulb. The same one hundred watts can cut through steel – the difference is focus!” – Michael J. Lowe, life coach.
All the best
Allan Gardyne
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