Associate Programs Newsletter #99
CONTENTS:
1. ROIbot merger “just the base for something bigger”
2. iLynk’s special tracking ignored
3. Help your visitors get whatever they want
4. Even cheaper domain names
5. New way to find domain names
6. ClickSupply.com pays 10% referral fee
7. How to create and sell a 10-page booklet in 10 days
8. List moderator watches out for referral links
9. Check your stats carefully
10. Affiliate payments go via X.com
11. Patent foolishness
12. Dotcom millionaire shares the wealth
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1. ROIbot merger “just the base for something bigger”
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Aesop.com’s CEO, Mark Joyner, has taken the unusual step of merging his ROIbot tracking system into his Internet Marketing ProShop affiliate program.
Actually, although Mark calls it a merger, right now it looks more like a takeover. If you click on one of my old ProShop links you’ll go straight to the ROIbot site, where any mention of ProShop products is extremely hard to find.
You can expect to see some highly enthusiastic promoting of ROIbot – in spite of its $17 monthly fee.
Here’s why:
- It offers lifetime customers. Once someone signs for a ROIbot pro account, that customer is yours for life.
- It pays a residual income – but the commission is eight times as much if you have a pro account instead of a free one.
- It has a built-in passive affiliate program. You can earn commissions by doing nothing more than using the ROIbot URL tracking system.
“Whenever anyone clicks on any of your regular campaign URLs, they will be branded as your customer,” Aesop.com says.
“If that customer were to come back and sign up, you would earn a commission. This means that you could earn commissions just by using ROIbot and not putting in any special effort. Knowing this, you’d be crazy not to use ROIbot for all of your campaigns.”
ROIbot is a web-based system for tracking the effectiveness of your Internet advertising. The basic ROIbot pro account tracks your clicks, where they come from, what browser your visitors are using, what operating system and so on.
You can set up campaigns for every new traffic building idea you come up with and track the effectiveness of each. Then, you do more of what works and less of what does not.
I’ve tested the free trial version of ROIbot and it is extremely simple to use.
For example, if I want to promote Marlon Sanders’ “The Amazing Formula That Sells Products Like Crazy” I can name the ad campaign “marlon” and be given this tracking URL to use:
roibot.com/w.cgi?IM6823_marlon
[UPDATE: That link no longer works. This one does:https://www.associateprograms.com/amazing]
ROIbot then does the tracking for me.
You can use ROI (return on investment) bot to track affiliate link click-throughs, to track newsletter ads, to double-check pay-per-click programs, or to track any sort of promotional campaign to find out what works and what doesn’t.
No doubt we’ll see lots of ROIbot URLs around the Web. Perhaps “roibot” will become a new word: “Make sure you roibot that ad campaign.”
Maybe not.
In any campaigns I do, I’d much rather promote awareness of AssociatePrograms.com than ROIbot. I prefer to use a neat looking automatic redirection like this:
https://www.associateprograms.com/marlon
However, I can go one step further. I can redirect my Marlon Sanders referral URL to the ROIbot URL, which will then redirect it to Marlon’s site. Then I have the powerful combination of a neat AssociatePrograms.com URL plus ROIbot tracking.
Try this link and watch the task bar at the bottom of your browser and see if you can spot the redirections taking place:
AssociatePrograms.com/MarlonS/
[UPDATE: That link no longer works. This one does:https://www.associateprograms.com/amazing]
However, the huge advantage of ROIbot is that it is VERY easy to use. In a crazy rush, rush, rush world in which we don’t have time to learn everything we need to know, ROIbot’s ease of use will win friends.
Because ROIbot is so easy to use, I imagine quite a few website owners will try the free version and then step up to the paid version.
Mark says that ROIbot is “The World’s Only Perfect Affiliate Program”.
Perfect? I don’t think an affiliate program which makes me pay $17 a month if I want full commissions is perfect. (It also costs $1 per 1,000 clicks after the first 5,000 clicks, but most affiliates won’t need to pay that.)
In comparison, you can join Ken Evoy’s affiliate program – https://www.associateprograms.com/affiliates – and he will GIVE you the Ultimate Link Tracker, and teach you strategies to get the best out of using it. Even if you know no Perl, you can have Ultimate Link Tracker installed for you for only $25 – a once-only fee. As Ken says, that’s a good return on investment.
Mark will probably deny this, but his commission structure seems to be designed to appeal to greed.
If you are a free trial user, you earn 50 cents per month for every customer you bring in directly and 25 cents per month for every customer you bring in on the second tier. If you are a ROIbot Pro user, your commissions are eight times higher: $4 and $1 on the second tier.
When commissions are reported, there’s potential here for Mark to e-mail free trial users and tell them how much higher their commissions would have been if only they had a pro account.
I had a few doubts about ROIbot being “The World’s Only Perfect Affiliate Program”, so I questioned Aesop.com’s E-Commerce Director, Guy Fadollone.
Q: Why should affiliates use ROIbot instead of Affiliate Assistant (also sold by Aesop.com) or the Ultimate Ad Tracker which Ken Evoy gives away to his affiliates?
Guy: Affiliate Assistant analyzes the data, but does not track clicks. These tools will have tighter integration later on. That is, they will support each other.
ROIbot is just the base of something bigger. Later we will add other features that integrate with ROIbot making it far more robust. Also, we have found that many users do not want to set up scripts on their own machines. ROIbot is remotely hosted, so it’s far easier to use for inexperienced users. Also, ROIbot already gives more data than Link Tracker.
Q: I’m wary about using a web-based system because you’ll be collecting a lot of data. Surely it will be very tempting for you to use that data in some way – even if you don’t sell it to anyone else?
Guy: We never look at a user’s data unless it is necessary to trouble-shoot any support issues. Mark has a very rigid privacy policy and everyone here is instructed to respect that.
Q: I’m puzzled. I’m wondering who this program is aimed at. As I see it, amateurish, struggling affiliates won’t want to pay $17 a month. (It also costs $1 per 1,000 clicks after the first 5,000 clicks.) Most very experienced affiliates are probably already tracking their click-throughs. Do you see a large middle ground?
Guy: So far it has been very well received. ROIbot is not just for affiliates, but also for entrepreneurs and business owners selling their own products. I can’t give out the details, but we already have several add-ons on the way for ROIbot 2.0 and 3.0 soon to be released. These new features will tightly integrate ROIbot into several various aspects of e-commerce. We are going for a broad coverage here of both high-end and low-end users and hope to offer things that will attract both. Please keep in mind that this is just the base for something bigger. We wanted to start out offering a service which would attract a wide audience (and so far it has), and add to that and turn it into a unique broad solution.
Mark added: “I want to make sure that you know the big picture. ROIbot is going to be a gateway to many great things, some of which may not be readily apparent…”
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2. iLynk’s special tracking ignored
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Talking about tracking referral links reminded me of Thomas Harpointner’s iLynk Wholesale Directory, which allows anyone to buy top-quality brand name products directly from hundreds of vendors at discounts of up to 70% to 90% off retail.
I’ve had steady success promoting that one – using Thomas’s brilliant tracking. For example, if you click on this link ilynk.com/id.cfm?AG45x0099 and buy, AIS will immediately tell me that you bought and that the sale originated from this particular item in this newsletter. (I can alter the last four digits/numbers for each campaign.)
However, the odd thing is that each month several of the affiliates on my second tier don’t even bother to use this special tracking ability, so they can’t tell which of their promotions are achieving the sales. Weird!
In case you don’t know how good iLynk is, here’s a description:
The monthly updated electronic directory contains listings to hundreds of over-manufactured, over-stocked, or refurbished top-quality brand-name merchandise that can be bought or resold for profits. Since we only publish the directory and DO NOT sell products directly, there are NO mark-ups to pay.
Customers deal directly with the vendors and therefore receive maximum discounts. You’ll find bargains on electronics, automotive accessories, jewelry, health and beauty supplies, sporting goods, games, toys, collectibles, outdoor equipment, and much, much more.
[UPDATE: AIS Media affiliate program has closed.]============================================
3. Help your visitors get whatever they want
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By Ira Pasternack
of clearlyinternet.com [UPDATE: This site no longer exists.]
iWant.com is a new online referral community that connects exactly the right buyers with exactly the right sellers. iWant.com is a fantastic tool for anyone who belongs to one or more other affiliate programs. Also, the iWant.com affiliate program is a great complement to your other programs.
If you belong to an affiliate program that pays you for sales of a product or service, iWant.com is a great way to find leads. IWant.com uses a patent-pending discovery mechanism that allows buyers to specifically and anonymously state their “wants”. Then, the most appropriate sellers can immediately find them, saving the buyer both time and effort. In other words, you can search iWant.com to find people who are ready to buy what you have to sell. When you locate a potential buyer you can talk privately, without obligation, by posting messages on iWant.com. When both parties are comfortable going to the next level, the relationship can be confirmed by exchanging e-mail addresses, phone numbers or mailing addresses.
iWant was featured in “Right on the Money” as one of the ways Patrick Anderson was able to generate immediate sales the day he set up an affiliate program.
[UPDATE: This old book is no longer available. If you want a really good, comprehensive instruction manual on affiliate marketing, I recommend Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook. Here’s a review of Super Affiliate Handbook.]Here’s part of what Patrick had to say about his success with iWant:
“After posting a free ad at IWant.com, I was able to sell three Pokemon items with no cost. People actually told me what they wanted and I sent them an e-mail, with their permission. What better place to close a deal on Pokemon than from a customer posting what they want!”
In addition to helping you be successful with your other affiliate programs, iWant.com’s own program can be quite profitable in its own right. For every visitor that an affiliate sends to IWant.com, who posts either a want of their own or responds to an existing want, the affiliate is paid a $2 bounty. So by helping a visitor to your site find anything they might want, you can create a new source of income.
IWant.com is working with Declan Dunn, of AdNet International, and author of “Winning the Affiliate Game” to provide its affiliates with a members-only site that includes the extensive resources to help them be successful. The site includes success stories, a wide variety of logos and ads, templates to help affiliates write articles and additional copy for their Web sites, and other information about the program.
For more information, visit and peruse the site at:
IWant.com
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4. Even cheaper domain names
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Shawn Collins of ClubMom reports that he has found an extremely cheap domain registrar – $13.99 a year for two-year registrations (and free parking).
“The place is called 123 Domains – https://123domains.com/ – they are listed on internet.com’s Domain Notes site, so I suppose that implies credibility,” Shawn told the Associate Programs Message Board.
“I used them last Saturday to register a domain and everything was fine. With such a cheap price, they do not have an affiliate program, but it’s a good place to snap up domains for yourself.”
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5. New way to find domain names
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Chris Bunting has been working on a new project, DMZ, the Domain Name Search Engine. Each search results in various combinations based on a subject, topic, or keyword.
“I just recently added some affiliate domains (freely available) based on ‘affiliate’ . . .
“It’s not an average domain name search. I add to the database offline and upload it to the site to be searched,” Chris says.
domainz4free.com
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6. ClickSupply.com pays 10% referral fee
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ClickSupply.com Network offers websites one of the highest paying systems, says Chris Folly of ClickSupply.com.
It has a two-tier referral system. Payouts on the first level vary from 14 to 25 cents per click, and 10% on the clicks of anyone whom you persuade to join.
ClickSupply.com/SellClicks/
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7. How to create and sell a 10-page booklet in 10 days
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The latest edition of “The Five Pillar Affiliate Report” offers a Quick Start Formula to show you how to actually create, market, and sell a 10-page booklet, in 10 days or less.
It’s a day-by-day, step-by-step guide, very easy to follow.
“This is the same formula that my seminar attendees have used to create and sell their own products,” says Ken Evoy, co-author of “Make Your Knowledge SELL!”
The report is free to Ken’s affiliates. To get it, just join his affiliate program – https://www.associateprograms.com/affiliates .
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8. List moderator watches out for referral links
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It’s getting much more difficult to get affiliate referral URLs published in e-mail discussion lists.
In a post to LinkExchange Digest this week I offered some advice on creating an attractive affiliate program and referred to the lifetime commissions paid on “Make Your Knowledge SELL!” – https://www.associateprograms.com/myks .
The moderator, Adam Audette, changed my referral link so that I won’t earn benefit from any click-throughs.
Oh well, I guess I shouldn’t complain. LinkExchange Digest is one of the best forums on the Net, read by more than 130,000 people. Just getting published in it is great publicity.
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9. Check your stats carefully
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Make sure you check your online statistics. For a rare refund, a new employee at one company accidentally entered my affiliate code instead of the commission. My stats then showed that I OWED the company more than $900.
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10. Affiliate payments go via X.com
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Neil Shearing of Scamfree Zone has started paying affiliates electronically using X.com.
“You will have the money in seconds instead of days or weeks,” Neil told his “Success in Seconds” affiliates.
Hang on! How does do that? Neil is in the United Kingdom and X.com is only for United States residents.
“I lived in the USA for a few years and have the ‘all important’ Social Security Number,” Neil says. “They must see me as part Yankee.”
https://www.associateprograms.com/scamfree
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11. Patent foolishness
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If you’ve joined the boycott of Amazon.com – or if you haven’t – here’s a contrary viewpoint which you’ll find interesting:
Patent Foolishness, by David Fiedler
webdeveloper.com/refresh/refresh_030300.html
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12. Dotcom millionaire shares the wealth
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Here’s a story to gladden the heart and make you wonder – it tells how Anthony Parks is sharing his good fortune with the people who helped him on the way up.
zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2456943,00.html
All the best
Allan Gardyne
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