Associate Programs Newsletter #19
CONTENTS:
1. Check arrives on time each month
2. How to improve WebPosition sales
3. But who does the work?
4. Who wants Two-TierMarketing.com? (continued)
5. Are you helping your sub-associates?
6. How can this idea be adapted?
7. Sell ad space in your newsletter – EZNet
8. How to boost bookstore visits
9. Feel sorry for StealthPromotions.com
10. News in brief
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1. Check arrives on time each month
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Joe Chapuis writes:
Hi Allan,
Great site! Without you, making money on the internet wouldn’t be so easy.
TransAct! is a nice program. Irv and ALC present an interesting and ever-changing list of offers that appeal to a wide range of visitors. The only downside is that it’s not yet automated (as of October 8, 98), and stats cannot be monitored. There’s some blind faith involved, but a check arrives on time each month – and the payouts are fairly well itemized.
Thanks, Allan. Keep up the great work!
Joe Chapuis
FreebieZone.com
(TransAct! is a pay-per-lead service. If you use it, keep a careful record of where you place each banner on your site because you have to change banners when offers run out. Some offers are short term, some are long term. Also, you should have at least 5000 visitors a month and not every site is accepted.)
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2. How to improve WebPosition sales
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Rick Bier writes…
Allan wrote:
> WebPosition told me I had 300 “unconverted referrals” so
>I asked how many were likely to result in sales.
You would probably do much better with WebPosition if you set up their dealer program. That way you could let people download a customized version of the program with your business name and URL on it.
All the follow-ups would have your download URL in them and any newsletters your leads receive during the follow-up period would have your contact info in it.
I sold four copies last month and don’t have nearly your traffic. I only promote through the email lists I subscribe to and a couple of links like the one on your site.
Rick Bier
Associate Consultant – ClearlyInternet.com
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3. But who does the work?
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My item last week about the benefits of two-tier marketing sparked a lot of interest.
Two-tier marketing sure has wonderful advantages. Sounds like a marketing dream, doesn’t it? You simply sign up a few hundred or thousand sub-associates and relax and let them do the selling.
Hang on . . . slow down. If we’re all walking on the beach or sleeping, who actually does the selling? My prediction: expect to see more sophisticated commission structures which reward the workers and reward people who sign up workers.
OK, I’ve done a little of the work for you and hunted down several two-tier marketing programs:
AWeber
A special autoresponder that automatically sends out reminders. A useful marketing tool.
https://www.associateprograms.com/aweber
I.D. IT! Plates
Shiny chrome plates you put on the trunk of your car. My commissions have increased since the switch from URL Plates, but are still fairly slow. Probably the best way to achieve a sale is to put one on each car in your company fleet. Yes. It has been done.
Pays $US8 and $US2.
IDITPlates.com/
[UPDATE: This program has closed.]
John Ferber’s free Jokes4U Daily Ezine
Major advantage: People can sign up without leaving your site.
Pays 5 cents and 2 cents.
jokes4u.com/
[UPDATE: Discontinued.]
Realtors Express database system
– can be easily adapted, not just for realtors. Now offers two versions of the database system, for $US395 and $US195.
Pays $US100 and $US25.
[UPDATE: Discontinued.]
EasyScript
A speed writing, typing and transcription method. Pays 10% and 10%.
https://www.EasyScript.com
ICServ.net – Internet Commerce Services
Pays Commissioned Dealers $US25 and $US5 per month.
Pays Services Resellers $US25 and $US10 per month.
icserv.net
[UPDATE: This site has changed.]
Virtualis – high quality web hosting
Initial commission plus 10% of your sub-associates’ monthly commissions and 10% of setup fees.
Electronic Marketing Business Kit (EMBK)
Your own web commerce site, selling a hot information product.
Pays $US75 and $US25.
AIS Merchant Services (accept credit cards)
Get your own credit card merchant account. New business, home-based businesses welcome, 98.5% approval rate. US businesses only.
Pays $US175 and $50.
Secrets To Making Money On The Information Super-Highway
Pays $US15 and $US10.
AIS TransAct
You can provide merchants with an affordable, secure method of processing all major credit cards on their web sites in real-time.
Pays $US15 and $US10, plus monthly residuals of $4 and $2.
The iLynk Wholesale Network
Allows consumers to buy top-quality brand name products directly from warehouses at discounts of up to 90% off retail.
Pays $US15 and $US15.
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4. Who wants Two-TierMarketing.com? (continued)
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Kevin Wilke writes:
Hi Allan,
3. Who wants Two-TierMarketing.com?
One thing you could do, Greg, is hunt for programs which
have a two-tier commission structure. With your traffic
you could sign up webmasters who would keep selling for
you even if you stopped your marketing.
My prediction: Expect to see a whole lot more two-tier
associate programs. They have a lot of the advantages of
multi-level marketing without the bad name.
This commentary really caught my attention. I think you brought up a REALLY good observation. I have been spending a lot of time promoting a two-tier associate program and think this is the way to go from now on.
I am not sure if you are familiar with it. It is the AWeber Advanced Autoresponder found at https://www.aweber.com/ A revolutionary (must have) tool for Internet marketers.
This program is two-tier – and like you said you not only receive commissions off your own sales – but from the sales of your sub-affiliates. I worked closely with the creator (Tom Kulzer) in testing and brainstorming before it was launched and now, after a little over a month of it going “live”, I am finding I am receiving about 1/3 of my commissions from my own sales and the other 2/3 from the sales of my sub-affiliates.
Apply this to any current one-level affiliate program and I realized I could be receiving 3 times what I am currently receiving if it was in the form of a two-tier program. I think web-marketers are starting to catch on and this will become increasingly more popular over the next few months and going into 1999.
I highly recommend checking out AWeber and I have a feeling it could quickly become one of your top ten. Not only because it is a two-tier program, that is based on a residual pay plan (the product is paid for on a monthly basis and you receive a commission on each payment), but it is unique and extremely useful for online marketers.
Yours for success,
Kevin Wilke.
Thanks for the reminder about AWeber, Kevin. I know how useful follow-ups can be in achieving a sale. WebPosition told me recently how sales plummet when follow-ups stop. Having an autoresponder which does follow-ups for you automatically would be extremely useful. I’ve signed up. https://www.associateprograms.com/aweber
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5. Are you helping your sub-associates?
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Michelle writes:
Hi Allan,
I’m one of the associates who signed up in AIS using your ID… I was wondering if you had any ads that you were using that you got the sales from, or if it was just from the banners/links on your site?
I haven’t made a sale for a merchant account YET (one turned down, one still pending) but I have sold 4 (PAID) Secrets courses, and 2 EM packages (both PAID). First sale was on September 18. Pay periods are 15th-15th. So I just “missed” the cut-off date *grin*.
I sent the ads I am using to my 15 associates, so hopeful some of them are also making sales too! :)
Have a great weekend, love the newsletter!
Regards, Michelle
Real-success.com/?ap
I think passing on ads which work for you is a wonderful idea. I haven’t been using ads, except for a small one I tried in last week’s newsletter – Pay per lead programs . The AIS AdTrack system shows me that many of my sign-ups have been as a result of a little news item I put on the main page at AssociatePrograms.com. In it, I wrote about AIS responding fast to associates’ wishes.
Although I wasn’t promoting the Secrets course, several people I’ve sent to AIS have bought it – so I’ve updated the news item to report that.
Here are the two programs Michelle has had success selling:
Secrets To Making Money On The Information Super-Highway
Electronic Marketing Business Kit (EMBK)
I hadn’t investigated AIS’ iLynk Wholesale Network but one of my sub-associates has sold that one and I earned $15 from his work, so I looked into it:
iLynk Wholesale Network
It’s like DOUBLING your standard of living without earning a dime more! Right now, you can take advantage of thousands of overstocked, over-manufactured, refurbished, distressed merchandise at amazing SAVINGS of up to 70 – 90% OFF retail! TVs, VCRs, Designer Watches, Jeans, Computers, Software, CD’s, Stereo Equipment, Sporting goods, and more! Drop-shipping available worldwide! Dealers welcome. ilynk.com/id.cfm?AG45x0019
By the way, AIS *does* pay (or it pays me anyway). My first commission arrived in the mail yesterday. It covered 12 days to September 15. It shows the customer’s name and the tracking URL which produced each sale – making it child’s play to check the company’s honesty. The commission was only $US30 but judging by my online stats the next one will be much better. (I’m getting really keen on AIS – in case you hadn’t noticed.)
[UPDATE: This program has closed.]================================
6. How can this idea be adapted?
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Smart e-marketers dream up clever ways to get their logo on hundreds or thousands of sites. John Lustina says Voices of Wellness Productions made the “Daily Quote About Living” into a java applet script which, when pasted on to a page’s HTML code, loads a new quote from the great thinkers and writers of the world every day.
In less than 6 months more than 8,500 sites have signed up. “The linking aspect of the strategy has helped us move from 7,000 visitor sessions per month . . . to 60,000.”
John’s advice: “Find an interactive activity related to the theme of your site or business and offer it as a free download with an easy setup, all ultimately only a click away from a desktop icon.”
aboutliving.com/downloads/dqal_sheet.html
Full story:
I-Sales Digest #726
Now, I wonder how that idea could be adapted to promote associate programs? A new marketing tip each day? Today’s bargain? Today’s big discount?
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7. Sell ad space in your newsletter – EZNet
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Irv Brechner writes:
Allan
Just wanted to let you know about the extraordinary response to the writeup in Associate Programs Newsletter this week (for TransAct!) I’ve never seen such a flood of signups in such a short period of time . . .
We have just this week launched another new affiliate program designed for publishers of zines and e-mail newsletters . . .
We observed that publishers have no real way of selling ad space on their publications outside their own efforts. And there are thousands of zine publishers with ad costs of $10 or $20 or $50 – too low to invest much time in selling them. Worse, advertisers don’t get excited about running in a 2,582 circulation zine.
For those reasons and more, we have created “EZNet” which is an advertising network for e-mailed newsletters and zines. We will be placing text ads on 100’s of e-mail publications and we’d like to include any of your subscribers who wish to be included . . .
Our direct response clients have been asking for this and we’ve already signed up 45 publications in two days. We will pay the going rate (in 99% of the cases) and not haggle over price or request discounts.
For full details contact
Irv Brechner at TransAct!
irv AT smartbiz.com
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8. How to boost bookstore visits
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Hi Allan,
You told us how promoting a particular book in a newsletter led to increased sales for one site. Now, I have not yet received my Amazon.com weekly statement, but since rearranging my site to say “Recommended Reading” and mentioning that the small commission I receive from Amazon.com helps keep my service free, 95% of the visitors to my site are going and looking through my bookstore, as opposed to about 5% before! Thanks for the great tip!
Crystal Ortiz
members.tripod.com/~newco4/training
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9. Feel sorry for StealthPromotions.com
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Chris Kilian of StealthPromotions.com gave me some friendly publicity and I wanted to thank him, but I could hardly put StealthPromotions.com on my “Special Friends” page, could I? Stealth Promotions? Sounds like a dastardly spammer to me.
Chris explains: “I am afraid that I jumped too quickly in selecting a name. :-) I did not realize until after I registered that ‘stealth’ was a spammer e-mail program. Yuk . . .
“I envisioned being able to assist others in promoting their pages as a background service. Webmasters would benefit from my invisible assistance with design, hosting and promotion. Invisible = stealth in US air force + a logo for stealth, the rough outline of the bomber, seemed relatively easy to create. That’s where it comes from.”
Please take pity on this unlucky guy. Visit:
https://www.StealthPromotions.com
Better still, buy him a new domain name.
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10. News in brief
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Magazines competitor
Magazine subscription sellers have a new competitor with big plans. Bill Figilis says Discount Press.com offers more than 800 magazines but will soon offer subscriptions to more than 40,000 magazines. Sounds worth keeping an eye on.
https://discountpress.com
Free pass-arounds (continued)
Sunni Freyer and David Beroff have been debating the pros and cons of free pass-arounds of Sunni’s newsletter. David asked “Why the concern?” I’ll let Sunni have the last word: “David, the reason is that such circulation is not verifiable. It’s ‘uncontrolled’ circ. On the net, in particular, it’s easy to fabricate an audience number, especially for an emailed zine. In our case, we’ll happily tell any prospective advertiser how to contact our majordomo ISP for a third-party and objective report on our circ. But he/she can’t report on ‘pass-arounds.’ And we can only ‘report’ that which we have been told. We’re delighted at the interest resulting in the pass-around, but we’d be much happier if those subscribers would subscribe!”
Sunni Freyer
https://www.cfnaonline.com
Helpful links for Internet beginners:
sau.edu/cwis/internet/wild/Internet/Training/trindex.htm
Get in early
This week’s “The Internet Insider” published by Advanced Internet Solutions (AIS) reveals that it went to only 2800 people. So if you join AIS now you won’t have a whole lot of competitors.
aismedia.com/secrets/index.htm?AG45x0019
[UPDATE: This program hasclosed.]
Body Bite Scam List
A moderated mailing list has been set up for people interested in Aurum Marketing (USA):
Aurum Body Bite Scam List
To subscribe, send a message to
aurumbodybitescam-subscribe AT egroups.com
groups.yahoo.com/group/aurumbodybitescam/
Access to view messages is restricted to members only.
CPM, CPC, CPA, CPT, and CPS
Leo Sheiner explains these different online pricing options.
searchz.com/clickz/101398.shtml
Who me?
John Audette of Multimedia Marketing Group, moderator of I-Sales mailing list, and probably the most respected e-marketing expert on the Net, gave AssociatePrograms.com a very public “highly recommended” this week. What!!! Guess he must have mistaken me for someone else. And to all the amazed friends who wrote to tell me . . . Yes, of course I subscribe to I-Sales, although most of the time I just lurk and learn.
[UPDATE: I’m sad to say multi-millionaire John Audette sold his wonderful I-Sales. It then went downhill and died.]
WorldWide SuperStore
Bret Garrett says Worldwidesuperstore.com has more than 200 affiliates signed up for the computer mall, which will have 55,000 computer items. The “up and running date” has been postponed to November 15, “waiting on a minor legality to be in place”.
[UPDATE: The affiliate program has been discontinued.]
CPMs of associate programs
Joshua Reimer has calculated the CPMs (cost per 1,000 impressions) of a few associate programs. I’ll publish them in the newsletter next week. If you have done your own calculations, I’m sure we’re all keen to see them.
11. Articles at AssociatePrograms.com
NEW: Web tracking increases traffic and sales
AssociatePrograms.com/search/tracking2.shtml
How to set up an associate program
AssociatePrograms.com/search/howto.shtml
Interview with marketer Corey Rudl
AssociatePrograms.com/search/corey-rudl.shtml
Top 10 associate programs
AssociatePrograms.com/search/favourite.shtml
Newsletter archives
AssociatePrograms.com/search/newsletter.shtml
All the best
Allan Gardyne
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