Associate Programs Newsletter #68
For three weeks I’ve been digging around, researching facts for this week’s article on RealNames.
If you’ve tried RealNames as a traffic-boosting technique and been disappointed, you’re not alone. Like me, you weren’t told that there’s an essential trick you need to know – and a few traps for the unwary.
CONTENTS:
1. How to add marketing oomph to your RealName
…I’m No.1 on a search for “marketing advice”
2. I’m first out of 4.9 million web pages
3. RealNames lays traps for the unwary
4. Five reasons why a delay could be costly
5. How Barnes & Noble uses RealNames
6. Want to sell electricity and gas?
7. PowerBuys drive down prices
8. FatBrain introduces ‘MP3 for books’
9. Beam me up, Scotty
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1. How to add marketing oomph to your RealName
…I’m No.1 on a search for “marketing advice”
==================================================
I “subscribed” to RealNames, chose three keywords – and was a bit disappointed with the traffic I received.
Now I’ve found out that there’s a trick which you need to know if you want to boost the traffic you receive via RealNames.
RealNames are a way of paying for visitors to your site, but instead of paying 10 cents or whatever per click, you pay $100 (US) a year for a “RealName”. If you know the trick, the traffic you receive should be worth many times that.
RealNames’ technology lets users find websites simply by entering keywords into a browser’s address field.
—-QUOTE———-
By Hal Plotkin, SF Gate
RealNames is building a new, easier-to-use addressing system
for the Internet that is catching on quickly. Now, web
surfers don’t have to remember if the site they are looking
for is dot com, dot org or dot something else. They also
don’t have to remember if the address has a slash in it, or
two slashes, or an .html extension.
Instead, web surfers using the RealNames’ technology simply
type the actual name of the person or company they’re looking
for in a search engine or in their web browser’s address
line. Although a lot of users aren’t aware of it yet, the
current versions of the most popular web browsers already
feature slightly different, early versions of this powerful
new technology.
FULL STORY: sfgate.com/technology/beat/
—-UNQUOTE———-
Owning a RealName can also give you prominence at AltaVista, InfoSeek and LookSmart.
For example, when someone goes to AltaVista and does a simple search, your RealName could be listed FIRST – above the regular search results.
“Your customers will find you in seconds when they type your Internet Keyword in AltaVista, LookSmart, Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 and Fireball. Coming soon to MSN…” the RealNames site says.
Here’s a real-life example, using a RealName I’ve just bought…
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2. I’m first out of 4.9 million web pages
=========================================
Wouldn’t it be nice to be first out of 4.9 million web pages?
Well, I am! …and I’ll prove it.
Over a year ago, I bought the RealName “AssociatePrograms” (which almost no one searches for – a bad mistake) and “Associate Programs” (which is a good one).
However, now I’ve learned from Robert Woodhead of SelfPromotion.com that you can do a bit of keyword stuffing – the sort of keyword embedding you do with your web page title when you’re seeking a listing at Yahoo!
You can ADD A PHRASE to increase your chance of being found.
So I bought this new RealName:
“AssociatePrograms.com – marketing advice”.
To see how it works, go to AltaVista.com and do a simple search for “marketing advice” (without the quotation marks).
The search results page reports: “AltaVista found 4,960,230 Web pages.” Under that it says: “marketing advice – List of near matches related to marketing advice provided by RealNames.”
Click on “marketing advice” and you’ll be taken to a page on which – today anyway – AssociatePrograms.com is the ONLY site listed!
That link takes you to my marketing links page:
AssociatePrograms.com/search/marketing-advice.shtml .
(While you’re there, be sure to sign up for Mark Joyner’s FREE email newsletter. Like me, Mark believes in thinking outside the box.)
Yes, I know that page needs improvement. One day…
Let’s try another search, for “Internet marketing advice”.
Hey! Not bad. AltaVista found about 1,200,724 web pages. This time, the RealNames near-match is placed at the BOTTOM of the page, in effect in 11th spot out of 1.2 million. (Why do some near-matches appear at the bottom of the page instead of the top? I don’t know.)
Click on it, and once again AssociatePrograms.com is at the top of the heap on the RealNames page.
Let’s try “business marketing advice”. Not bad – another near-match in 11th spot.
How about “good marketing advice?” Yes. I’ve got covered, too – a near-match at 11th spot out of 4 million web pages, and when you click through to the RealNames page I’m “only” No.2 there.
Want to try a search for “marketing tips”?
Just kidding. Corey Rudl owns that one.
Are you starting to get excited about the potential of this yet? If you are, SLOW DOWN!
There are hidden traps…
======================================
3. RealNames lays traps for the unwary
======================================
Most people speed past those RealNames results, so the traffic you receive for your $100 for a RealName probably won’t be wildly exciting. The best of my RealNames sent me 90 visitors in the past month. At that rate, I’ll get 1,080 click-throughs for $100 – or under 10 cents per visitor – excellent value for highly targeted traffic.
As search engines become more and more clogged with millions of pages, I believe the usefulness of RealNames will grow.
However, read on before you rush off to buy yours.
First, make sure you select a keyword which “accurately reflects your company, brand, product, trademark, individual name, alias or email address”.
Sorry, you can’t have the RealName “Coke”. Trademarks and brands can be used only by those authorized. Generic terms like “books” or “sport” are also not available. If your name is Declan Dunn you can buy “Declan Dunn”. Yes. He’s done it. No one has bought “Allan Gardyne” yet.
Deciding exactly what is a “generic” name can be very tricky. More than a year ago, I was permitted to buy the RealName “Associate Programs”. This week, I wasn’t allowed “Affiliate Programs”.
Another caution: RealNames has a no-refund policy “designed to discourage illegitimate subscriptions”. If the keyword you choose is rejected, they’ll help you find an acceptable one to replace it.
When I learned about this keyword stuffing technique, I rushed off to RealNames intending to simply edit my existing RealName.
Whoops! Once a RealName has been accepted, you can’t alter the RealName title. You CAN alter the URL and the description that go with the RealName.
Also, keyword stuffing works only in the RealName title. Embedding keywords in the RealName description won’t help people searching at AltaVista find your RealName. (However, a powerful description will be more effective once people HAVE clicked through to a RealNames page.)
To get a better RealName, I tried to buy another one: “Associate Programs – affiliate programs directory”.
Whoops again! RealNames rejected that – in spite of the fact that a competitor has been granted a similar RealName.
You’re “only allowed two search terms per keyword”, a RealNames staffer told me.
Boo, hiss! Where’s the umpire?
Here’s a keyword-packed RealName which belongs to Robert Woodhead of SelfPromotion.com:
SelfPromotion.com – Register or
add the URL of your website
to major search engines and
indexes
Either someone was asleep at the wheel when that RealName was allowed – or the rules have been changed. If you try to register a long RealName like that now, it will be rejected, according to the rules I’ve been told.
Here’s a 16-word RealName, jam-packed with keywords:
Love Quotes Encyclopedia: Romance
Desire Flirting kissing Dating Women
Marriage Beauty Movies Songs Operas
Postcards Lebanese
(How I found it: I was doing research on Barnes & Noble, which has a RealName “Barnes & Noble Romance”. Honest!)
The company – Lovequote.com – also has at least one other L-O-N-G RealName.
If you try to phone RealNames for an explanation, you’ll be asked to leave a voicemail message. If you send an email question, it can take days to get an answer. I keep thinking of more questions – and my latest ones haven’t been answered yet.
The RealNames folk are friendly and helpful, but I suspect they’re utterly swamped.
The multi-million-dollar company doesn’t seem to realize that the fastest way to cope with the backlog would be to improve its FAQ.
Don’t be disheartened. Don’t be put off. If you do, your potential visitors may ending up typing the RealName you could have had into Internet Explorer 5 – and going to someone else’s site.
You still have lots of options. It’s possible to reserve names, to add BRIEF phrases to your domain name, and to link a new RealName to pages other than your home page. You can even turn your telephone number into a RealName.
You may even get one FREE RealName.
RealNames has a “My RealNames” program in which you can get a free RealName for a year if your website is hosted on one of these online communities: Infoseek/Go, Angelfire, Tripod, FortuneCity.com, ICQ, GeoCities, Xoom, TheGlobe, Homestead, Zy.com, Nettaxi, Student Advantage Network, iVillage, HotBot, TalkCity, EBay and MultiMania.
Are you thinking of waiting a while to see how popular RealNames become? That could be a bad mistake…
===========================================
4. Five reasons why a delay could be costly
===========================================
Five reasons why you must get your RealName today.
1. The FIRST person to grab a RealName owns it.
2. RealNames has an affiliate program, paying $20 commission, so word is going to spread even faster. The longer you wait, the greater the chance your competitor will grab the name and the position you want.
3. More than two million people use RealNames addresses each day to navigate directly to the web pages they want. This is BIG.
4. RealNames has just arranged $70 million in funding, to be used to increase global awareness and adoption of the RealNames Internet Keyword system by companies, partners, and end-users. Even more growth in popularity seems inevitable.
5. Buying a RealName appears to improve how you are ranked at AltaVista. Yesterday, for a common search term, the AssociatePrograms.com home page was ranked not once but TWICE in the top 40 at AltaVista. (The day before, it appeared twice in the top 20.) I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, but for a different search term it has also improved its ranking dramatically at InfoSeek.
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5. How Barnes & Noble uses RealNames
====================================
The marketing team at Barnes & Noble has snapped up a bunch of RealNames which include quite a bit of keyword stuffing.
Try going to AltaVista.com and doing a simple search for “music lyrics” (without the quotation marks). Right at the top of the heap is a link to a RealNames page on which B&N figures prominently. That’s a fantastic search engine ranking for only $100.
B&N has bought all these RealNames:
Barnes and Noble
Barnes & Noble
Barnes and Noble Song Lyrics
Barnes & Noble Song Lyrics
Barnes and Noble Bookstore
Barnes & Noble Bookstore
Barnes and Noble Online
Barnes and Noble Music Lyrics
www.barnes&noble.com
barnes&noble
Barnes & Noble Beanie Babies
Barnes & Noble Adobe Books
Barnes and Noble Adobe
Barnes & Noble Adobe
Barnes & Noble Baby Names
Barnes and Noble Poems
Barnes & Noble Poems
Barnes & Noble Consumer Reports
Barnes & Noble Magazines
Barnes and Noble English Dictionary
Barnes and Noble Kelly Blue Book
Barnes & Noble Kelly Blue Book
Barnes & Noble Romance
Barnes & Noble Books
Barnes and Noble Used books
Barnes & Noble Used books
Barnes and Noble Book
Barnes & Noble Maps
Barnes and Noble Affiliate
Barnes & Noble Affiliate
Barnes and Noble Biography
Barnes & Noble Management
Barnes and Noble Magazines
Barnes and Noble Books in the News
Barnes and Noble Textbooks
Barnes & Noble Winnie the Pooh
Barnes & Noble Winnie the Pooh Books
Barnes & Noble Dummies
Barnes and Noble Personal Finance
Barnes & Noble Entertainment
Barnes and Noble Software Store
Barnes & Noble Magazine Store
Is your brain whirring as you imagine the potential of having surfers finding your pages by using simple words, phrases, product names or even advertising slogans?
What special pages could you create and point RealNames to?
Most companies which have subscribed to RealNames seem to be unaware of the keyword stuffing trick.
For example, think of something popular, such as “software store”. When I looked this week, that phrase appeared in only seven RealNames. The eighth person who includes the term “software store” in his RealName will appear on the first page at RealNames.
“Flirting” appears in only three RealNames, so if someone clicks on a “flirting” near-match, those sites have one chance in three of being visited.
If your mind is really in top gear, you may even be able to figure out how to knock me off my top spot for “marketing advice” at AltaVista.
Good luck.
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====================================
6. Want to sell electricity and gas?
===================================
PowerGen, which sells electricity and gas to about 2 million people in the UK, has set up a trial affiliate program. Justin Kirby says PowerGen is offering a cashback bonus to customers who switch their power supply to PowerGen. Affiliates will earn referral and pay-per-lead fees.
[UPDATE: This affiliate program has disappeared.]==============================
7. PowerBuys drive down prices
==============================
Mercata We-Commerce is offering what it says is an exciting new shopping site and a new way to save money – PowerBuys.
Mercata offers a wide range of products in categories including consumer electronics, home and kitchen, baby, power tools, and sports and fitness, in well known brands.
“A PowerBuy is a limited-time buying opportunity that allows you to join other online shoppers and drive down prices in real time,” says Alisha Perez of Mercata. “The more who decide to purchase a specific item, the greater the efficiency, and the lower the price.”
If you sign up now and make one sale through your link to Mercata We-Commerce before September 30, you’ll receive a one-time $25 cash bonus. The affiliate programs pays 5% commission.
[UPDATE: Mercata disappeared.]======================================
8. FatBrain introduces ‘MP3 for books’
======================================
Fatbrain has developed a system called eMatter which allows book and magazine publishers as well as individuals to sell digitized documents online, and earn royalties on every copy sold.
“I think it will change the world of publishing,” says Fatbrain Chief Executive Chris MacAskill. “It will empower a whole range of authors to go straight to the people.”
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9. Beam me up, Scotty
=====================
Once upon a time, on a planet called Earth, people launching a career in retailing or marketing had to learn something about it first.
Not any more.
This week I received an email from a newsletter reader who wanted advice on promoting affiliate programs. He doesn’t own a computer. However, he does have WebTV – and he wants to start making money.
I directed him to Ken Evoy https://www.associateprograms.com/ken and told him he could promote Ken’s brilliant ebook. Perhaps he could also win $500 by telling people about Ken’s innovative new sweepstakes.
The newcomer can tell up to 10 people… and perhaps each of them will tell 10 people who…
(And my URL will travel right along with ALL those recommendations. This is heady stuff!)
Whoops! Did I really say that? Suddenly, this doesn’t sound like viral/exponential/wildfire marketing. It sounds more like a new form of multi-level mania.
I hope anyone copying Ken’s innovative technique uses excellent spam control.
Be Free, too, is making it easier to promote things by email, which is good news for newsletter publishers.
Be Free plans to launch a B-INTOUCH service which it will offer to anyone interested in marketing by email. That could include online merchants, communities interested in fund-raising and companies offering employees incentives.
This means that anyone who has an email address could be recruited as an marketer.
I hope Be Free and its associated merchants have good quality control when they select their new email marketers.
Spammers will forfeit their commissions – AFTER they have damaged the merchant’s reputation.
Once upon a time, companies taking on associates paid job agencies hundreds of dollars and carefully interviewed applicants to find the best people. It was considered a wise investment.
Now many merchants use a computerized dustbin to make the decision:
“Yes. He’s learned how to type his email address. He’s OK.”
Just think. With voice recognition software, you won’t even have to be able to type.
There must be a science fiction novel in this.
Imagine: Everyone on the planet is a marketer, their every breath recorded by a voice recognition Dick Tracy watch/computer, which records a click-through every time they enthusiastically tell a global-village neighbor about the latest wonderful product…
How many donkey years away is that?
All the best
Allan Gardyne
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