Welcome to the first issue of Associate Programs Newsletter. It examines affiliate/commission programs and how to market them successfully. You subscribed to this newsletter at either the Internet Success Stories or www.AssociatePrograms.com site.
April 4, 1998.
Associate Programs Newsletter #1
CONTENTS:
1. Introduction
2. Setting Up Your Associate Bookstore
How to Produce Traffic and Income – PART I
By Gordon F. Currie
3. How a jokester laughs all the way to the bank
By Ray Owens
4. Lots of little paths all pointing to One & Only
By Mike Tempel
5. Why OakNet Publishing Company distributes this newsletter
6. Autoresponders:
The stuff that dreams are made of. How a $US24 a year
autoresponder can boost your business and earn you referral fees.
By Angela Smith
7. Spreester's clever marketing tactic
8. John Audette reacts fast to criticism
9. Web Cards a handy little earner
10. Articles at AssociatePrograms.com
=============
1. Introduction
=============
Hi, I'm Allan Gardyne. I live in Tuan, a tiny fishing village in Queensland, Australia. Three days a week I'm a sub-editor for a daily newspaper – that's quite enough “real” work for anyone, I reckon. (An Internet business is far too much fun to be called work.) I wasn't born in Queensland. As Zig Ziglar says, “I just got here as fast as I could.” I'm a New Zealander.
[UPDATE: My wife, Joanna, and I now follow the climate. We spend about half the year by the beach at Rainbow Bay, Queeensland, Australia, and the rest of the time in Central Otago, New Zealand. We have now have dual citizenship, so if you call us Australians or New Zealanders, you'll be right.]=============================
2. Setting Up Your Associate Bookstore
=============================
How to Produce Traffic and Income – PART I
by Gordon F. Currie
(Gordon's sites attract about 13,000 visitors – 150,000 hits – daily.) If you haven't seen Rivenguild.com you've missed a treat.)
[UPDATE: Rivenguild and its huge bandwidth proved too expensive to maintain.]For many web sites looking at expanding into online sales, joining an associate program is a great introduction to increased income without the technical problems that can be associated with traditional costly bookstore setups.
In the fall of 1996, I decided to join the associate program that Amazon.com provides and sell books relating to my MYST & RIVEN web site. MYST & RIVEN are two of the top selling computer games and I had created a large Links site that was devoted to this game. With hint books, background stories and the games themselves, I was able to profile over 17 titles for sale online.
Setting up an online bookstore using the associate program is quite straight forward but there are a few pointers worth noting. Here are some tips that will help you increase sales and traffic in your bookstore:
1. CONTENT IS KING – One of the major areas most online bookstores fall down is content. It is a must you include as much information about the books you are selling so there is no doubt what visitors are buying. In particular, a clear description of the book along with items like the number of pages, format (hardback/softcover/ cassettes), ISBN numbers, language etc.
2. REVIEWS – Everyone is interested in reviews and hearing what other people have to say about the book. If you offer people the opportunity to comment themselves you create interaction and this also allows you to capture email addresses of visitors.
3. CONTACT THE PUBLISHER – This is one very overlooked technique that has worked wonders on my site. Contact the publishers of the books you are profiling in your bookstore and ask if they would be able to provide a few copies of the book for contest giveaways. 99% of the time this is not a problem and all they may ask for is a link to their main web page. As well, many will provide extras that can include free downloadable wallpapers, access to book excerpts, interviews with the authors, unpublished photos etc. Contests are excellent ways to capture valuable demographic data on visitors and build a relationship with buyers.
4. DRESS UP YOUR BOOKSTORE – Most web articles will tell you that you should limit the size of your web pages and go light on graphics. This is very true to a certain extent but most people want a fun, colorful place to visit. After experimenting with 3-4 layouts on my bookstore, I found that a site with lots of color or graphics tended to keep people on the site longer. I also added some background music using streaming audio (Java based). The music really sets the mood and I found from feedback polls that people stayed longer on the site just to listen to the music.
5. DOLLAR SAVINGS – Associate programs like Amazon.com's provide some clear savings that can range up to 40% off the regular prices. Most web bookstores neglect to mention this. By displaying this fact to visitors you are increasing the impulse buyer to click on a title and purchase. I found that my sales actually took a 35% jump after adding a graphic that said “30-40% off”.
6. LEVERAGE YOUR SITE WITH A BOOKSTORE – Many web entrepreneurs set up bookstores with the sole intent of generating income. What they miss is the fact the bookstore can augment and attract traffic to other areas on your site. The commission income (usually 5 – 8% of sales) is nice but I have found the greater value is in the fact that I now have an additional drawing card to bring people in to see my web site. his tip rang true recently when a gaming magazine profiled my web site and rated it a thumbs up (their top rating). They made particular mention of the fact I had a cool bookstore.
7. MARKET YOUR RELATIONSHIP – When I set up my associate program with Amazon.com, I made mention all over the page of my relationship with them. Names like Amazon are HUGE on the net and well known. Marketing the fact you are working with a well respected name is important. My experience with Amazon has been great and I receive a regular check every quarter that is starting to look really nice and pay me for my efforts.
8. TRACKING SALES – It is very important that when you receive your sales reports from the companies you have become associated with that you follow sales closely. Track the number of people visiting as well as actual sales. In addition to your logs on your server, you can start to track what changes to your bookstore site are generating longer visits, better click-throughs, etc. On my own site I am able to track when a visitor arrives, where they go, what links they take off my site and if and when they return. This data is EXTREMELY valuable!
9. EUROPEAN ORDERS – One consideration overlooked as well is the issue of foreign language copies of the books and shipping to European and overseas clients. Do some research on this area and don't be afraid to add a component on your site catering to books in German, Swedish, Spanish and French.
10. WHAT'S NEW – Include a what's new area on the bookstore and let people know what new titles have come in and any updates to the site. It doesn't hurt to profile a different book each week in the what's new area.
In closing, there are many methods to increasing traffic and sales on an associate bookstore. Remember to be creative and don't overlook the obvious. In Part II, we will investigate adding pop-up windows, Javascript and streaming audio to your web site. To review our bookstore, stop by THE MYST & RIVEN BOOKSTORE at
http://www.gfcurrie.com/bookstore
————————————–
G.F.Currie Consulting
Web Site Design, Internet Marketing Services
Email gcurrie AT gfcurrie.com (250) 782-6388
(250) 782-6388
http://www.gfcurrie.com
http://www.rivenguild.com
===================================
3. How a jokester laughs all the way to the bank
===================================
By Ray Owens of Joke A Day
http://www.jokeaday.com
(If you glance at the flippant way the following article is written, you may be tempted to ignore it. Don't. It describes a marketing tool which has attracted 110,000 subscribers. Ray also makes $US200-$US300 a month from One & Only Internet Personals.)
“There's just no good guys out there any more.”
“Sure there are, you just have to know where to find 'em.”
“What are you talking about? I've done the singles bars.”
“You could always use your computer to meet someone special.”
“Oh yeah, like I want to be set upon by one of those Net Stalkers.
Or find out that they guy who was promising ‘undying love' wound up to be a 13 year old with pimples.”
“No, silly, you should try Joke A Day's Love Connection.”
“Joke A Day? Isn't that the place that puts out a couple of jokes every day? What they heck to they have to do with finding a good guy?”
“Yeah, look, just point your browser over to http://www.jokeaday.com . Once you're there, click on ‘Love Connection' from the menu on the left. Then you can follow the prompts from that page.”
“Well, it looks pretty interesting. Hey, look at this prompt — it says I can browse the ads already placed there. And I can do it without giving away my email account. How neat! What's this Hunk A Day and Babe A Day stuff on the menu?”
“Oh, you know, having a site with a new joke isn't enough, this Joke A Day guy also puts out a sexy new picture of a guy & gal every day and he links those pictures back to his ‘Love Connection' site.”
“How neat. You know this Joke guy?”
“Naw, just what he puts in his mail. Heck, the guy started the list about a year or so ago with 8 people that he was sending jokes to. Now he has over 110,000 people on his daily listing in 139 countries.”
“Yeeesh. I'd hate to have to pay his Internet bill.”
“I guess that's where there ‘Love Connection' thing ties in. Joke A Day is acting as an agent for One & Only Internet Personals. They actually do the work and Joke A Day simply mentions them in his mail every once in awhile and keeps the links updated on his page. He gets about 10,000 people a day to visit his site. Anyway, One & Only pays Joke A Day a commission for each person signed up and that helps defrays his cost of running the site.”
“I suppose I'll take a look through this ‘Love Connection' and see if Mr. Right is lurking out there. Heck, even if he's not, then perhaps Joke A Day can make me laugh a little bit, huh?”
Ray Owens
http://www.jokeaday.com
==================================
4. Lots of little paths all pointing to One & Only
==================================
By Mike Tempel
One and Only is about the only one I have been successful with, I make about the same $US200 to $US300 a month. It is really amazing how well the program works, I just want to find one more that has that sort of income ability.
I have a very different approach though, I have a ton of entry pages and small sites that generate little traffic, the combination = a lot of traffic over all. I like to pick a program I like and design a site that creates a growth of interest on the topic.
My site http://members.tripod.com/~tempel/datingindex.html is a perfect example . . . just thought I would share that I guess, I am very happy with what One & Only has done, plus the owners are very good to me and we write back and forth quite a bit, it is just nice . . .
Love Your Site,
Mike Tempel
Oasis By Design: A online dating index full of great romantic sites
http://members.tripod.com/~tempel/datingindex.html
A BLATANT COMMERCIAL (that could make you money):
Add interesting content to your site – and a useful income stream.
One & Only Internet Personals
[UPDATE: One & Only was taken over by Match.com and then discontuinued.]============================================
5. Why OakNet Publishing Company distributes this newsletter
============================================
a) The service is free.
b) It is simple to set up.
c) It publishes publicly available statistics on the subscription of each newsletter.
d) All it asks in return is to place an advertisement at the start and end of each newsletter. Seems fair enough to me.
[UPDATE: OakNet was taken over by Advertising.com and quickly wrecked. I now use Dundee.net to distribute the newsletter. It works well. I also use Aweber which is a very reliable, better option. I use it for other newsletters I publish.]=========================================
6. AUTORESPONDERS: The stuff that dreams are made of
=========================================
By Angela Smith
Answering your customers questions when they are asked is the goal of every business owner. Here's how a typical business day might look for your company.
5:10am – A customer who ordered 200 T-shirts from your company four months ago wants a list of your current prices. You're asleep but your customer gets your current price list in seconds.
7:00am – A business owner heard about your company and wants to know if you sell your T-shirts wholesale. You're just waking up but the business owner gets the information he wants within seconds.
10:25am – A prospective customer wants to know why she should buy T-shirts from you and not the shop down the street. Even though it's coffee break time at most companies she gets the answer within seconds.
12:30pm – A current customer needs to know what size and color T-shirts you have available in a certain brand name. When most other companies are “out to lunch” he gets the information within seconds.
5:05pm – A prospective customer wants to know your shipping costs for 6,000 T-shirts. Even though it's after 5, he get the costs in seconds.
9:20pm – A new customer who ordered 100 T-shirts a few days ago wants to know the status of their order. You're at a movie but she gets a status update in seconds.
Midnight – The business owner who requested wholesale information needs to know if you charge extra for each silkscreen, how much, what paint colors cost extra, are light shirts less expensive than dark colors, etc. You're having a snack but he gets his answers to the most commonly asked questions in seconds.
3:35am – The customer who wanted a current price list yesterday morning wants to place an order for 600 T-shirts and needs an order form. He or she get it within seconds and you have a good night's sleep.
And all of this is done with e-mail. There's no need to have access to the World Wide Web.
How?
It's simple. Autoresponders!
An autoresponder is much like a fax-on-demand where you call a number and punch in a code on your phone's key pad in order to receive a document, except it's done through e-mail. Many people refer to an autoresponder as a “24-hour virtual secretary”.
Autoresponders use simple text files that you put together with information about your company, price lists, wholesale information, ordering procedures, order status updates, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's) and answers, sales letters, order forms and anything else you want your customers and prospective customers to know immediately. No need to transfer a call from a receptionist to a sales rep then to an order clerk and so on.
You assign unique names to each file such as:
ordering AT ourlist.net
prices AT ourlist.net
FAQ AT ourlist.net
wholesale AT ourlist.net
etc. You get the idea.
These text files are then loaded on to a host server and when a customer or prospective customer sends a message to the e-mail address you have assigned to the autoresponder your information is immediately, usually within seconds, returned to the customers e-mail box.
Advantages of autoresponders include:
* Customers can receive your information any time day or night, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
* Even if your e-mail, computer or local telephone service is not working you can still provide information to your customers.
* No need for customers to wait for you to respond to them. They get the information within seconds.
* Costs for such services are NOWHERE near the cost of a real secretary. They start as low as $US24 a year. That's just $US2 a month.
* Have you heard about targeted marketing? Well, with autoresponders you get a very targeted mailing list. You see, when someone requests information from your autoresponder their e-mail address is captured in a file on your host server. You have access to these e-mail addresses and can then send selected and targeted information to your customers offering specials and new product information to name a few ideas.
SendThis.com at http://sendthis.com/c1033/ can help you on your way to providing the quality information you want your customers to know.
They offer great prices for single autoresponders, just $US24 a year. The prices are cheaper if you buy a package deal.
Five autoresponders cost $US10 a month, ten cost $17.50 a month. This is $1.75 per month per autoresponder. Ten autoresponders and 5Mb of server space cost $US29.99 a month.
Sendthis.com began in November of 1997 as a result of the owners being unable to find a reasonably priced, fast, service oriented autoresponder company.
They had tried to sign up for autoresponder service on several occasions. “Two took our money and we never heard from them again. One took three weeks to get us set up and never got our text message on the autoresponder right, and so on,” said Ron Gribbins, owner of Sendthis.com.
“We were determined to make sure this DID NOT happen to our customers, and we are proud to state it has not,” he said.
Sendthis.com provides autoresponders but they sell service. Their units are very fairly priced, very fast and reliable and they make all text changes within 24 hours, usually MUCH faster than that.
“We have yet to lose a customer and have gone from buying the server to over 1,500 autoresponders sold in three months.”
Sendthis.com also offers one of the best reseller programs available online today. You invest $24 in one autoresponder and you'll get a free “mirror website”, free submission of your mirror website to 100 search engines and Sendthis.com will accept and process your customers' credit cards or checks by FAX/e-mail for the purchase of the autoresponders.
Distributorships are also available. If you recruit a distributor and he or she sells any of the Autoresponder Packages you make these additional commissions:
Your distributor does the advertising – Sendthis.com does all the work – you make the additional money!
Here are the commissions you will earn for autoresponders you and your distributors sell.
PACKAGE COST YOU SELL DISTRIBUTOR SELLS
YOU MAKE YOU MAKE
1 $24.00 $12.00 $6.00
5 $10.00 $ 5.00 $2.50
10 $17.50 $ 8.00 $4.00
10 + 5Mb $29.99 $15.00 $7.50
Autoresponders are one of the best choices for online marketing to your customers and prospective customers available today. Don't miss out on this opportunity.
For more information on how you can get your sales material on autoresponders or if you want to start making some really good commissions by reselling autoresponders check out http://sendthis.com/c1033/ or send any blank e-mail message to
mailto:netdesigns AT sendthis.com.
Angela Smith is the owner of NET Designs at http://certificate.net/netdesigns/ a web hosting and design firm in Prince George, Virginia. She has been involved with computers, BBS's and the Internet for more than 10 years. She retired from the military in 1992 and began NET Designs. Her clients include Seascape Enterprises at http://certificate.net/seascape/ and Mothers' Home Business Network at http://homeworkingmom.com/ . She has a site dedicated to providing free articles to anyone on the web for use on their sites or in their newsletters called World Wide Information Outlet at http://certificate.net/wwio/. Angela and her award winning sites have been featured in PC Today, Newsbytes, Yahoo! Internet Life and Home Office Computing. She is involved in several affiliate programs and recommends good ones to anyone looking for ways to make extra money online. She recently began her own affiliate program called Our List, designed for people who want to resell mailing list services online. For more information on anything in this article e-mail her at:
as-art2 AT certificate.net
Disclosure: www.AssociatePrograms.com has no affiliation whatsoever with Angela Smith or any of her businesses – except that I gave her publicity, she liked that and gave me even better publicity, so I'm giving her a bit more . . .
[UPDATE, 2013: If you're looking for a popular, reliable autoresponder that has many years of good experience, an excellent choice is Aweber. I use it.]
==========================
7. Spreester's clever marketing ploy
==========================
Gerrit Aalbrecht is one of the more than 5,000 webmasters who have joined the Spree – http://www.spree.com – Independent Partner program. He has a brilliant marketing tactic to make his site stand out from the rest. What did he do that was so brilliant? He chose the domain name http://www.spreester.com and when he promotes the Spree program he directs people to http://www.spreester.com/partner.htm .
When I first saw his site, for a while I wasn't sure if Gerrit was just an associate or if he was part of the Spree organisation. The people at Spree have no problem with the tactic.
That clever choice of name opens up all sorts of possibilities. For example, to promote Amazon.com, you could register the domain Amazonian.com. I checked and was surprised to see that these domain names are still available:
alt.bookstore – alt.bookworms.com? (still available March 17)
Amazon.com – Amazonian.com? (still available)
Cyberian Outpost – CyberianOutposter.com? (still available)
Cybermeals – Cybermealtime.com? (still available)
hothothot.com -hothothotter.com? (still available!)
justClick! – justClickers.com? (still available!)
linkexchange.com – linkexchanger.com? (bad luck, it's gone)
Nutri-Net – Nutri-Netter.com? (still available)
MagMall – MagMaller.com? (still available)
Webposition – Webpositioner.com? (still available)
There must be lots more you can think of . . .
To see if the names have been taken, go to http://rs.internic.net/cgi-bin/whois
[UPDATE: Try http://www.betterwhois.com]If you want to try this tactic, it would be sensible to get approval from the company first. You wouldn't want to get hit with a claim that you were using a registered trademark.
Spreester Gerrit says he likes Spree “because once your visitors sign up they stick with you till you die. So every time they make a purchase now or in the future I can be assured that I will be credited with my commissions, not like Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble”.
[UPDATE: Spree.com was a huge disappointment to many website owners. It had a complex commission structure which appeared designed to disguise the fact that it was very difficult to earn money with this program. Not recommended. Fortunately, it died.]ARE YOU FEELING GENEROUS?
If you would like to give me a link, you could cut and paste this, modified or rewritten however you feel inclined.
AssociatePrograms.com
https://www.associateprograms.com
AssociatePrograms.com directory: find a richer income stream
I highly recommend this wonderful resource. It's helping me make money.
Even better, if you would also like to post my amazing fast-loading (2.03kb) banner on your site, you can find it at Creating buzz 1998 style
Thanks!
=============================
8. John Audette reacts fast to criticism
=============================
I used John Audette's Internet News Bureau this week to announce the AssociatePrograms.com site. I tried the simple, cheap version, the “News Burro”, which sent a brief announcement to nearly 2000 journalists. I quickly received confirmation that the announcement had gone out and also received a long list of all the places which received it.
John is well respected in the industry, so sending out press releases under his name is likely to be more effective than sending them out under your own.
Impressed with the service, I've signed up for the Internet News Bureau Affiliate Program – like a lot of other people: 150 signed up in the first few days.
Those early partners soon found out how fast John Audette acts to improve his service when people complain.
Joshua Reimer of Promotion World says: “I emailed John about there being no 468×60 ad banners, and he promptly sent me one. Like within the hour. It's now on their site as a banner choice. Even if the program is poorly designed, they have great service. The main problem with it, I think, lies in the stats. All affiliate programs need up to the minute statistics. I like to check my affiliate programs stats a few times a day . . . I don't like to advertise something that isn't making money!”
For a few days, the Internet News Bureau was announcing that associates would be paid quarterly. When I complained, John told me that more frequent payments would create too much paperwork.
However, only one day later John was racing to improve both the frequency of payments and the reporting system. He announced:
“As a result of your feedback, and that of others, we have decided to pay monthly instead of quarterly. Also, we are currently working on a reporting system that will provide information in two ways: (1) a weekly update via e-mail and (2) a Web-based real-time updated report accessible at all times.”
Wouldn't it be nice if all companies were as good at taking heed of what their associates think? 10 out of 10, John Audette.
The Internet New Bureau associate program uses cookies to track sales. If a would-be customer returns within 30 days a buys, you still get a commission. But do you miss out on a commission if the buyer has cookies turned off?
John says: “Yes. We thought about that, but we felt that the relatively high commission rate (10%) would compensate for it.”
That potentital loss of customers seems to be the only flaw left not dealt with.
I believe the program is well worth recommending despite its flaw – mainly because you can feel good about promoting an excellent service. I'll be using the Internet News Bureau again. There are more details at the Internet News Bureau site.
[UPDATE: Multi-millionaire John Audette now relaxes in Hawaii. The Internet News Bureau was bought by internet.com, but now seems to have disappeared.]==========================
9. Web Cards a handy little earner
==========================
Web Cards are an easy, inexpensive way to announce your web site, changes in it or just to keep your name and your website in front of people.
Joshua Reimer of Promotion World says he averages about $100 (Canadian) a month from them. “I get that just by sticking their banner in general rotation on my site . . . so I probably give them about 6,000 impressions. When I mention them in my newsletter, it always jumps a lot higher.”
Web Cards are low-cost, full-colour postcards with an image of a web site on one side and a custom-designed message on the other. When you ask for a free sample, you're told how to get a list of 50 ways they can be used.
To receive your FREE sample, visit Printing.com
[UPDATE: I stopped promoting Web Cards when it started spamming.]============================
10. Articles at AssociatePrograms.com
============================
How to set up an associate program
https://www.associateprograms.com/search/howto.shtml
Beware of scammers using ClickTrade
https://www.associateprograms.com/search/clicktrade.shtml
Replies to criticism of MagMall's partner program
https://www.associateprograms.com/search/magmall.shtml
A free way to understand web site visitors
AssociatePrograms.com/search/tracking.shtml
Building lasting affiliate networks
AssociatePrograms.com/search/building.shtml
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