Associate Programs Newsletter #166
Today I review one of those rare beasts in affiliate marketing – a truly outstanding affiliate program.
CONTENTS:
1. A perfectionist’s affiliate program
2. Free course on search engine placement
3. Earning commissions without a web site (PART 5)
4. Free mini-version of affiliate metrix Merchant Report
5. Another safe haven for ListBot refugees
6. Why the Wz.com program suddenly ended
7. Four CJ programs average more than $1 per click
8. Be careful how you read CJ’s EPC stats
9. Thought for today: Do you REALLY have to?
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1. A perfectionist’s affiliate program
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It’s extremely rare, but every now and again along comes an affiliate program which really excites me because it offers EVERYTHING I’m looking for.
The four factors most important to me are:
Great products – I want to be proud of what I promote.
High commissions.
High conversion rate – the company has to know how to achieve sales.
Real-time stats.
After that, it’s a useful bonus if it also offers:
Lifetime commissions.
Residual income.
Two-tier commission structure.
Multiple products – more opportunities for sales.
An easily identifiable market, with a proven need for the products.
Lots of expert guidance for affiliates, including a viral marketing tool.
When you find all those features – along with products which suit your target audience – life is sweet.
I’m delighted to tell you that search engine specialist Sumantra Roy has just launched an affiliate program which offers ALL those features.
The benefits for you? Follow Sumantra’s tips, and you’ll have a steady flow of checks for a long time.
You probably recognize the name Sumantra Roy. He makes well reasoned, helpful posts to various e-mail discussion lists and publishes a useful free newsletter on search engine positioning.
You can subscribe to Sumantra’s free newsletter here:
AssociatePrograms.com/first
You can read his articles on search engine positioning here:
AssociatePrograms.com/first
He’s so confident of his search engine positioning services that he offers his clients a money-back guarantee.
You can read their enthusiastic testimonials on his site.
Sumantra says he averages $1.20 in sales from each visit to his site. He provides plenty of useful free information, so he gets many repeat visitors.
He estimates he earns over $3 from each NEW visitor.
He pays 30% commissions, so at that rate, if you send him targeted traffic you’ll average 90 cents for each new visitor you send to his site – a very attractive proposition.
At 30% commission, you’ll earn $209.70 when you sell a Standard Package, going as high as $389.70 for the Premium Package.
He says the Yahoo! registration service at $199 is easiest to sell, earning you a commission of $59.70. It’s a good way to introduce Sumantra’s services.
Once customers are confident that he can deliver as promised, they’ll buy the more expensive services.
You can also earn 30% commission on sales of advertising in his newsletter, and 20% residual, lifetime commissions whenever a satisfied customer returns and buys again.
The second-tier commission is 10%.
He offers awesome guidance for affiliates. Sign up and see for yourself.
Sumantra is a true perfectionist. If you can find a flaw in this program, please let me know.
About the nearest I could find to a flaw is the payment threshold, which is set fairly high at $100. However, that will be irrelevant in most cases because of the high commissions involved.
I highly recommend this program.
Run, don’t walk, to sign up for this one:
AssociatePrograms.com/first
[UPDATE: Sumantra is a nice guy who works very hard for his clients, but he has run into a series of problems, as described in Newsletter #212]=========================================
2. Free course on search engine placement
=========================================
Search engine specialist Sumantra Roy is offering a free search engine course.
The “Search Engine Masters Course” will equip you with some of the most exclusive tactics that he uses to take his clients’ sites to the top of the search engines.
“People who have subscribed to the course have told us that they simply can’t believe that we reveal these cutting edge secrets for nothing,” Sumantra says.
“Others have told us that they were simply amazed at the wealth of information that was present in this course.”
It’s the only course of its kind available anywhere on the Internet.
Best of all, the price is just right – it’s free.
I highly recommend it.
To subscribe to the course, simply send a blank e-mail to:
1stSearchRanking.1000.1046 AT optinpro.com
[UPDATE: This email address no longer works.]__________________________________________SPONSOR__________
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https://www.searchengine-report.co.uk Top affiliate program too!
[UPDATE: This site has disappeared.]___________________________________________________________
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3. Earning commissions without a web site (PART 5)
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(For Parts 1, 2 and 3 of this series see:
Earn money without a website
For Part 4 see:
Email list software )
Here’s the question which prompted this series of articles::
“Can I succeed in the affiliate game without having a web site?”
Maybe. It depends on your skills, interests and knowledge.
(If you want a serious online business you MUST have your own site, for a whole lot of reasons which I won’t go into here. This article is for people who DON’T want a web site.)
If you see affiliate marketing as just a “game” or part-time hobby, you CAN succeed. You can supplement your income without owning a web site.
Consider the advantages:
You can devote 100% of your time to marketing, so even if your conversion rate is low, you may do better than some people who spend 90% of their time fiddling with their sites instead of marketing.
You can do it from anywhere which has Internet access.
If you’re short of cash and live in a country where the U.S. dollar is highly prized – which is most of the planet – the idea of spending nothing but time is very attractive.
You can do your affiliate marketing whenever you like, at any hour, and take a vacation whenever you like.
You won’t be bogged down answering hundreds of e-mails a day.
You have all the usual benefits an affiliate has – such as no inventory, no postage, no handling of products.
You will, however, receive spam once you start posting your e- mail address around the Net. Because of that, some people use a special web-based free e-mail address, such as one from Hotmail, for posting to online forums.
Unfortunately, a free e-mail address doesn’t look professional – a good reason for getting a domain name and the e-mail addresses which go with it. (You can buy a domain name for as little as $8.95 from https://www.godaddy.com .)
Some people DO market successfully without having a web site. Jim Daniels is a notable case. He was marketing online for six months before he built a site – but he doesn’t advise you to try that.
Without owning a site, you can take part in discussions in newsgroups, on message boards and in e-mail discussion lists.
To participate in these forums, all you have to do is talk intelligently about whatever interests you, and then promote a product or service in your signature at the end of every post you make.
For example, if you sell things at online auctions you could give tips on how to do that successfully, and in your signature link to Sydney Johnston’s book, “Make Your Net Auction Sell!”
Lurk and learn. You’ll soon see some people contributing in a helpful way – and others making utter asses of themselves. Study the posts carefully. See if you can figure out why you instantly warm to some writers and not others.
Be chatty, friendly and helpful if you want to make a positive impression.
Take care in every forum. Read the rules. Don’t post a six-line signature in a forum which allows only your name and URL.
When I post to forums, I choose my words carefully and try to make my post as interesting and USEFUL as I can.
When moderators see my name on a post, I want them to think: “This will be a good one.”
For excellent examples of how to generate publicity in forums, see Ken Evoy’s free 224-page affiliate manual. To get it, all you have to do is join his free 5 Pillar Affiliate program – https://www.associateprograms.com/affiliates . You’ll see some of my posts in the manual.
Also, study each affiliate agreement.
Some ban “inappropriate” postings of URLs to forums. Some ban ANY postings of URLs to forums.
If you break the rules, you’ll be thrown out of the program and lose your commissions.
Some affiliate programs require you to have a site. Some don’t.
Different forums have different rules. If you barge in and post a blatant ad for a product, you’re not likely to get your message past the moderator.
No matter how unusual your interests are, you should be able to find an e-mail discussion list to join.
Good places to start are:
https://www.discussionlists.com
https://groups.yahoo.com
https://topica.com
https://www.adventive.com
https://forumone.com
For business message boards, see:
https://www.entrepreneur-web.com/index_1.shtml#discussionboards
You goal is to warm up the potential buyer, getting the person in the mood for buying.
One way of doing that is to offer a series of useful free reports on which you are an expert. You can do this by including an autoresponder e-mail address in your signature.
That way, you can gently lead the reader towards a purchase in about your third e-mail. It’s more work, but more likely to be successful.
For example, AWeber’s completely automated system delivers instant information to your potential customers, and then follows up with them automatically over the coming days, weeks, and months. Try it free: https://www.associateprograms.com/aweber .
You can post free ads in many places, the best of which is https://classifieds.yahoo.com/ . Your results probably won’t be very good, but all you spend is your time.
You can also buy cheap ads in e-mail newsletters, sending the visitors to the merchant via your referral link. Unless you’re skilled at writing ads I think you’ll lose money that way, because it’s difficult to pre-sell in only a few lines of text.
Study ad writing first. Here’s an introductory article:
“How To Write Profitable Classified Ads”
https://www.freereports.net/ads.html
Subscribe to the newsletters and see what you think of their quality. See how the ads are presented. Advertise in newsletters which are WORTH READING.
You can find plenty of newsletters here:
https://www.BestEzines.com
https://www.E-zineZ.com
https://ezine-universe.com
https://www.ezinehub.com
If you do decide to promote affiliate programs without having a web site, I reckon it makes sense to concentrate on ones which pay lifetime commissions or residual income – the customer is “yours” for life.
That way, you’ll build up future income streams. Each time “your” customer buys something, you’ll earn a commission – even if you’re on vacation.
You can find 57 lifetime and residual income programs reviewed at https://www.LifetimeCommissions.com .
Some forums permit you to publish affiliate referral URLs. That’s a fantastic opportunity. Grab it while it lasts.
Two examples are I-HelpDesk – https://www.adventive.com – and Adland Digest – https://www.adlandpro.com/archives/ .
For other forums, you’ll need to become an expert on e-mail signatures. For an introduction, see this article (it’s a little old – signatures are usually shorter these days):
“How To Design a .sig File”
https://www.webbers.com/emark/sigfiles-nick-nichols.html
NEXT WEEK:
How to promote affiliate products in your sig. file.
(If you do this successfully, please send me some examples. I’ll publish the best ones.)
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4. Free mini-version of affiliate metrix Merchant Report
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A mini-version of the affiliate metrix Merchant Report 2001 is now available. It gives affiliate program managers a taste of the sort of data the full report contains.
The report is the result of research from nearly 150 affiliate managers from a cross-section of the affiliate marketing industry.
You can get the free mini-version here:
https://www.associateprograms.com/free-downloads/metrix.pdf
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5. Another safe haven for ListBot refugees
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If you’re writing an article on places for ListBot refugees, here’s another good one.
My article last week about alternatives to ListBot –
Email list software – prompted a reply from Beka Ruse, Business Development Manager for AWeber Systems.
AWeber isn’t just a sequential autoresponder.
“AWeber’s ‘Broadcast Message’ feature allows accounts to act as mailing lists, and the resulting system is pretty impressive,” Beka says.
For a highly competitive $19.95 a month, you can send an unlimited number of messages, of unlimited length, and have an unlimited number of subscribers.
For “14 Reasons Why ListBot Users Should Use AWeber Systems”, send a blank e-mail to
aweber AT AssociatePrograms.com
[UPDATE: We’ve deleted that old article.]========================================
6. Why the Wz.com program suddenly ended
========================================
The “incredibly successful” Wz.com affiliate program is one of the dozens of pay-per-lead programs which are casualties of Commission Junction’s increased fees.
Wz.com has closed its pay-per-lead program for the Free 45-Second Newsletter.
“They increased our transaction fee by 500%,” says Audri Lanford of Wz.com. “Although our program was incredibly successful – and we were paying CJ a lot of money – that didn’t matter to CJ. We talked to everyone there to get a break since we had just started the program 2 months and 4 days earlier, but they refused to give us a grace period.
“I understand they need to make money. But we believe in being a profitable company, and we just can’t make it work at the new pricing. And when our EPC, etc. ratings came out they would have been off the charts, so we would have gotten so many new affiliates it would have been a serious problem at the new rates.”
Audri says Wz.com hopes to have a new solution soon.
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7. Four CJ programs average more than $1 per click
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Commission Junction launched its Open Marketplace reporting over the weekend, releasing a huge amount of useful information which will be very helpful to affiliates deciding which programs to join. It’s a giant step forward for affiliate marketing.
Four programs are averaging more than $1 per click – Premier Equity, Term Life For You, Capital One UK and Ameridebt. About 400 programs are averaging less than 1 cent per click.
You can read Brian Clark’s analysis here:
https://www.revenews.com/archives/00000119.html
Join Commission Junction here:
https://www.associateprograms.com/cj
Internet Business Forum – https://www.ibizhome.com/ – has suspended publication of its 16 newsletters. With the help of an affiliate program, in less than a year IBF gained 60,000 readers, but couldn’t attract enough advertisers. “No profit is remotely in sight,” says CEO David Yancey, who is, nevertheless, planning a comeback. The web site and archives are still online.
Network Solutions, a VeriSign company, is changing the name of its referral program to the VeriSign Affiliate Channel Program. Affiliates will be paid 30% commission. Payments will be made monthly, instead of quarterly. The $100 threshold remains the same. If you’re considering promoting this company, I strongly urge you to do a little research first. Its prices are too high and it’s renowned for its truly awful customer service.
HotJobs.com is being bought by Monster.com’s parent, TMP Worldwide, for $460 million in stock. “The company plans to keep the sites and brands distinct,” Silicon Alley Daily reports. TMP has cash reserves of $563 million, so affiliates should continue to be paid.
maxRefer now offers a 20% lifetime discount to all maxRefer affiliates instead of allowing them to sign up under their own account. It’s a more appropriate and fair strategy, says Mark Idzik of maxRefer.
https://www.associateprograms.com/maxrefer
WebSponsors network, which began in the living room of a one- bedroom apartment with $300 in capital, has now paid more than $10 million in commissions to affiliates, says CEO Mounir Elabridi. It has just added many new tools and resources.
RealHome.com closed its affiliate program on June 28.
Microsoft Smart Tags Abandoned
searchenginewatch.com/sereport/01/07-smarttags.html
ValueClick will buy online ad technology player Mediaplex in a $43.9 million stock deal to create a “full-service digital marketing powerhouse”.
internetnews.com/IAR/article/0,,12_795081,00.html
Slashdot’s future is in doubt – a reminder that traffic isn’t enough. You really do have to figure out how to earn money from your web site.
msnbc.com/news/595556.asp?0si=-
USA Today has launched a CJ-tracked affiliate program paying a useful bounty of $15 per subscriber. You can join here:
https://www.associateprograms.com/cj
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8. Be careful how you read CJ’s EPC stats
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If you’re studying EPC (earnings per 100 clicks) statistics at CJ, beware. You can get a false impression if you look only at the seven-day figures.
The three-monthly figures are much more reliable than the seven- day figures.
“Think of the three-month EPC as a ‘net’ figure,” Todd Crawford of CJ told the Associate Programs Message Board.
“The seven-day EPC does not include chargebacks – think of it as a ‘gross’ figure. If an advertiser has a high chargeback rate, look at the three-month EPC to see how it impacts the program.”
If you’re new to all this, check out the Commission Junction affiliate network here:
https://www.associateprograms.com/cj
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9. Thought for today: Do you REALLY have to?
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“I frequently hear my clients say, ‘I have to…’ or ‘I gotta…’ or ‘I should…’ And when I hear those phrases I often ask, ‘Do you have to or do you choose to?’ . . . We forfeit our freedom of choice through our own thought processes.”
– Kathy Paauw in “Paauwer Tools” newsletter.
All the best
Allan Gardyne
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