Associate Programs Newsletter #15
CONTENTS:
1. Web Cards – a good one gets even better
2. Virtual Merchant – wait and watch
3. The best way and the easy way
4. Spree.com disappoints again
5. A banner exchange that pays handsomely
6. How Jim Daniels sells Virtualis successfully
7. Traffic-building advice from an expert
8. Internet Success Stories
9. Snippets
10. Markethink – building a new community
11. ClickTrade versus LinkShare
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1. Web Cards – a good one gets even better
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My monthly commission from Web Cards has been more than $US100 (last one $US138) for several months now, so I was delighted to learn that Web Cards has added a new program enabling us to make more money from the company.
“In addition to paying you $1 per lead, we will also pay you a 10% commission on all sales that originate from your site,” says Web Cards’ Affiliate Program Manager, Jim Clancy.
“Your visitors will now be able to order Web Cards directly through your site the same way they now request samples. Whatever they choose, samples or actual orders, you will receive credit. As in our lead program, you will have a page to track the total $ of orders originating from your site . . . We are trying to make working with Web Cards as profitable as possible for your site.”
Web Cards have topped my list of Top 10 Affiliate Programs – Best affiliate programs – for months because I was so impressed with the quality of the product and the fact that I could earn commissions simply by persuading someone to ask for a free sample.
Web Cards are like colorful postcards, with a picture of your web site on them. You can send them to friends, relatives, clients, business partners, the news media etc, to announce a new site or new developments on your site. When you ask for a free sample, you are also sent a huge list of great free marketing ideas. Are you doing enough promotion offline?
Take a look at Web Cards
It has my strong recommendation. Excellent.
[UPDATE: I stopped promoting Web Cards after it repeatedly used unsolicited bulk email.]====================================
2. Virtual Merchant – wait and watch
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Credit Card processor Virtual Merchant has attracted a lot of interest because of its generous $US150 commission, plus $US25 on a second tier, and because of its well designed site, which is beautifully designed for selling.
Unfortunately, it appears to have attracted too much business and is having a lot of difficulty coping.
Thom Reece writes:
Aloha, Allan:
Just a few comments on the Virtual Merchant program…
I signed-on on August 14, 1998. Like most of us who are participating in the program, I was (and am) impressed by the quality of the graphics, presentation, and banners.
At the time I signed up for the associate program I also submitted an application for a merchant account. First, I needed one for our new site at: viamall.com/kaubusiness and secondly I felt that this would be a good opportunity to check the system and determine the level of service.
Bad News! … I immediately received a notification from Virtual Merchant thanking me for the merchant account application and was advised that I would be contacted with additional information quickly. My first reaction was a good one. Prompt follow-up to the application was a good sign. That was the last I ever heard from them. It is now approaching a month since my application was acknowledged. I have sent them two emails asking for an update but the emails have not been answered. I have held off recommending this program to my own subscribers list (7,500+) because, like you, I am beginning to feel uneasy about the program’s future. If this program does not succeed it will be a shame because its concept and presentation are very well executed.
Thom Reece
On-Line Marketing Group
viamall.com/onlinemarketing
More apparently worrying news about Virtual Merchant . . .
Cris Smallwood reports on Jim Daniels’ message board at network54.com/Hide/Forum/184615 that Virtual Merchant is apparently spending $0.07 per click-through to get Virtual Merchant ranked well on the GoTo.com search engine for people searching for “merchant account”.
“I think it’s extraordinary that this company would invest funds in search engine placement for its own benefit, in lieu of supporting the reseller downline that has attempted to promote their own very same pages . . . out of nearly 100 ‘pending’ applications since the end of July, I’ve yet to see one ‘approved’ in a way that results in the reseller being paid for their effort,” Cris says.
(Actually, that wasn’t Virtual Merchant advertising, it was an affiliate of Virtual Merchant.)
A fortnight ago I reported that Bill Long of Virtual Merchant said that trying to cope with all the e-mail was “like trying to hold back a tidal wave with a floor mop”. This week, when I sent him Thom’s complaint and asked for a comment, Bill didn’t answer.
I guess that letter was lost in the flood of more than 700 emails he receives a day.
Today, however, I did get a reply from Bill Long. You can read a lengthy explanation of his problems and what he’s doing about them at…
[UPDATE: That old article is no longer online.]I’ve been in the Virtual Merchant program five weeks now. All my sales are still listed in the online stats as “pending” – unverified.
Let’s see, 20 sales at $150: $US3000. It’s nice to dream, but no income is incoming.
My recommendation: Don’t get involved with Virtual Merchant at this stage. If you have, wait and watch. I’ve taken down my banners. Let’s give Bill a rest so he can catch up.
[UPDATE: I never received a cent from Virtual Merchant.]================================
3. The best way and the easy way
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If you want to promote a credit card processor, I reckon the most professional way would be to do an analysis of the services offered by all the companies, choose the best one – and promote your analysis.
On the other hand, you could simply choose another one which offers an extremely generous commission, and which also appears to offer a good service. That’s Thomas Harpointner’s Advanced Internet Solutions (AIS), which offers a truly astounding two-tier commission: $US175 plus $50 from each sale made by someone you sign up.
An excellent feature is the ability to track which of your promotions – banner or links – is achieving sales.
Tom has experience with sales and web hosting, so perhaps he knows how to cope with the inevitable flood of inquiries that will result from offering such a generous commission.
[UPDATE: The AIS Media program has closed.]==============================
4. Spree.com disappoints again
==============================
Another complaint about Spree.com…
Doris Hermon writes:
Allan
Several months ago I put the Spree.com links and SIP program on my site and to date have had three people sign up but there’s been no income from the program as yet.
I am also an Amazon.com associate and regularly receive checks from this program . . . I decided to test out their service by placing an order with both companies. The orders were placed on the same day for books by the same author, in the same price range. After the orders were placed I received confirmations by e-mail from both companies.
Four days later I received my book in the mail from Amazon.com – and I’m in Canada. I have yet to receive my book from Spree.com in spite of three follow-up e-mail messages asking them to check on my order. All three messages to them included my order number to make it easy for them to check for it. To date I have received no replies to my communications with them and I have yet to receive my order which was placed on August 9, 1998.
I liked the concept and this is what drew me to this reseller program. However, if this is the way they plan to do business I don’t think they’re going to last too long.
Doris Hermon, D & P Enterprises
dpent.com
At AssociatePrograms.com/search/spree-complaints.shtml I’ve compiled a long list of complaints and questions about Spree.com and answers by Lew Fowler from Spree.com. Lew’s answers were written on July 12, but it sounds as though not much has improved since then.
It seems obvious to me that when a company has serious problems it ought to promptly warn all its associates and ask them to withdraw advertising while the company deals with the problems and catches up with the flood of complaints before they spiral out of control. Instead, Spree.com is listed as a sponsor of an Internet conference I was invited to be involved in next month.
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5. A banner exchange that pays handsomely
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Kevin Anderson of phone services company Cognigen and software developer Bryan Harper have come up with an innovative banner exchange which pays you – and could pay very handsomely, I expect.
Instead of displaying one large banner, it displays a block of four 200×40 pixel banners. Each time you display the block, you earn one display credit. Better than that, you also can earn money.
In return for your subscription of $US19.95 a month you will be paid $2 a month for each representative you refer to the program and each representative they refer to the program down to five levels. (Yes, it’s multi-level marketing.)
As well as that, you receive 2000 display credits for your banner each month, as well as any earned credits.
You can also receive a commission any time you refer a paid advertiser to BigHits. Advertisers can buy banner impressions on the BigHits network of web sites for $US100 per 10,000 displays and you earn 50% commission on each sale.
You are allowed to promote BigHits in e-mail, but spammers will be charged $50 an hour, in addition to forfeiting commissions, for the time it takes BigHits staff to answer complaints. (Well done, BigHits!)
How successful will a block of ads be in attracting clicks instead of a normal large banner? I expect it will have novelty value, attracting attention.
BigHits will create a web site for you, like this:
bighits.com/help.cgi?associat – Webmaster resources
bighits.com/bizop/?associat – Business Opportunities
bighits.com/faq.cgi?associat – BigHits FAQ
bighits.com/techqs.cgi?associat – Technical Questions
bighits.com/buy.cgi?associat – Banner impression sales
I’ve joined. Should be interesting.
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6. How Jim Daniels sells Virtualis successfully
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At the risk of offending Jim Reardon of the very useful https://www.freecenter.com I’m going to mention web host Virtualis again. Virtualis offers high-quality web hosting which earns rave reviews and has 24-hour technical support. It’s also more expensive than some of its competitors. I’ve had very little success selling its services on my site.
However, Jim Daniels has a continuing roaring success with the program. In his newsletter “The BizWeb E-Gazette” he gives these stats:
Total customers Jim has referred: 102
Total virtual resellers (VR’s directly under Jim): 961
Average monthly commission check: $US1700
So how does Jim do it? First, Jim is author of the excellent introduction to marketing on the Internet “Insider Internet Secrets” [UPDATE: No longer available.]
He gives frequent free advice on his busy message board, so he has collected a solid gathering of people who have learnt to trust his advice and are grateful for it.
He also gives a strong personal recommendation for Virtualis. Makes it sound easy, doesn’t it?
[UPDATE: Here’s the web host I now use and recommend – https://www.associateprograms.com/hosting ]Oh well, at least I’m making money selling Jim’s book (with a strong personal recommendation!). [UPDATE: No longer available.]
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7. Traffic-building advice from an expert
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Gordon Currie writes:
Allan
I read with interest the article in your newsletter entitled “Why You’re Failing With Associate Programs” on your AssociatePrograms.com web site. You made a number of really important points … points many budding Internet entrepreneurs could benefit from. I wanted to share with you what “tips” and “ideas” we have enjoyed on our site that may be of interest to your readers. Many were learned from your previous publication “Internet Success Stories – 15 winners reveal their secrets”, and have generated income for us.
I run and maintain RivenGuild.com, a website/online community aimed at the successful game RIVEN (and its predecessor MYST). Some tips that worked for us include:
A) Offering Free Newsletter – we have a simple form on the site that allows a visitor to submit his/her email address. This mini-form collects about 50 legit names a day off each location on the site. All submissions are filtered and then collected and screened for valid e-mail addresses and duplicates. We can then create targeted e-mail that generates 10-15% returns.
B) Newsgroup posting has worked for us but only if you provide something of value to the group. Simply posting an advertisement DOES NOT work and is a waste of time in our opinions.
C) Traffic is important on a site and as your traffic goes up, so do the results and click-throughs. We average about 6500 visitors a day (about 690,000 page impresssions on the site monthly).
D) We use and endorse WebPosition. The product has increased our results about 20% and the actual newsletter they provide has given us tips that have placed us in the top 5 when people search for our top 10 keywords (“riven” being one of them). HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
E) Adding Content – we have strived to provide value in our site and build on the interactive experience. In terms of value, we provide newsletters, webboards, free downloads, free Riven web site hosting, free wallpapers, technical help etc. We keep the site up to date every few days (which results in our site getting people visiting 3 times a week on average). Our costs are covered by banner ad sales and sponsorships.
F) Use of Web Tracking Tools – Our most successful tool has been the BellaCoola WEBHOUND product offered by BellaCoola Software Corporation ( https://www.bellacoola.com ). We entered their beta program and used the results from their logging service to modify our site. Each modification resulted in increases in traffic (anywhere from 22 – 35%). The data this product provided gave us an insight into our web site that our own logs did not provide. Finally, someone was able to explain caching to me in understandable terms. They also have a product called ADIOS that tracks outgoing links. Great for managing our banner programs. These increases in traffic are documented and I can provide additional information as to how this program has helped us.
In closing, your marketing publication is STILL working magic for my business and I strongly encourage others to purchase it. Take care and good luck in the future!
Gordon Currie
Webmaster / Creator
RivenGuild.com
MYST and RIVEN Links / Bookstore
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Visit G.F.CURRIE CONSULTING at gfcurrie.com
Your #1 choice for Interactive Web Site Design,
and Creative Marketing Services!
Email: gcurrie AT gfcurrie.com
Ph: 250-782-6388
250-782-6388 or Cell: (250) 784-8383(250) 784-8383
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8. Internet Success Stories
================================
Thanks for the praise for my “Internet Success Stories”, Gordon. Oh heck. How embarrassing. It’s an electronic “book”, supposed to be updated every month, but I’ve done little updating on it for several months because I’ve been so busy on AssociatePrograms.com.
I’ve been selling it for $24.95 Australian (about $US15) but because it’s a few months out of date I’ll knock $5 off the price this month and make it $19.95 Australian (about $US12). Worried that it might not be worth that? It comes with a guarantee – money back if not totally delighted. No one has claimed a refund.
[UPDATE: I’m no longer the selling the book because it’s now too out of date.]================================
9. Snippets
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SEX, LIES AND BILL CLINTON ON VIDEOTAPE
It must have been a crazy competition to see who was first to market Bill Clinton’s testimony on videotape. I rushed to put the news prominently on the main page at AssociatePrograms.com within five minutes of receiving advice that the videotape was on sale. It will be very interesting to see how that one sells.
WEBPOSITION
Thanks for the reminder about WebPosition, Gordon. I know it’s great for improving ranking in search engines. Somehow I’ve got to make the time to use it. You can get a free trial at https://www.associateprograms.com/webposition
NEXTCARD INTERNET VISA
I put NextCard Internet Visa’s cute little graphic on my main page for a more than a month but I didn’t receive any stats for August so I wrote and asked for them. They say I sent 142 people to NextCard, only 10 of whom applied for a card, and not one was approved. Commission earned: Nil. The cute little graphic no longer resides on my site.
CYBERIAN OUTPOST
Time Warner, Inc. has signed an exclusive one-year sales and marketing agreement with Cyberian Outpost, which has also formed a similar arrangement with USA Today. Such deals are not only good advertising, they also lock out the opposition.
internetnews.com/ec-news/1998/09/1504-cyberian.html
REEL.COM
Reel.com has made a content and commerce agreement with Excite to become the preferred video and DVD merchant on Excite and Webcrawler shopping channels. I wish Reel.com would put their efforts into improving their online stats. I’d like to know how many of those Titanic movies I’ve sold at $US9.99 each. Oh well, it’s a nice logo. It looks good on the main page at AssociatePrograms.com.
CDNOW
CDnow is now the premier music seller on many of Yahoo’s world sites including United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore, and Yahoo’s Spanish and Chinese language web guides.
AMAZON.COM
It’s losing money but Amazon.com is one of the biggest success stories on the web, says Annette Hamilton of ZDNet. The company has the opportunity to become the ecommerce hub, she says. The name “Amazon.com” no longer stands only for “online bookstore”. It is becoming synonymous with “ecommerce winner”.
PROMOTION TUTORIAL
Joshua Reimer has written a free, 40-page Promotion Tutorial for Beginners, “an easy to use tutorial for those who are new to promoting websites”.
https://www.promotionworld.com/tutorial/
I’M SWAMPED
The newspaper where I usually work part-time is short-staffed and has called me in to work full-time for several weeks. Doing two full-time jobs at the same time is crazy and definitely not my planned lifestyle – no time for walks on the beach these days. If I’m a bit slow at responding to mail these days, I’m sorry.
MORE THAN $1000 A MONTH
I’ve been marketing on the Net since May 1996 and I’ve found there always seems to be something urgent that just has to be done. So recently I introduced a little rewards system which forces me to take a break. I regularly set goals and when I reach them my wife Joanna and I celebrate with a meal at a restaurant or in some other way. I achieved three little goals this week: My first day with more than 500 unique visitors (523 on Wednesday), this newsletter passed the 3000 mark, and I achieved more than $US1000 in a month from selling Corey Rudl’s marketing program. Thank you, everyone, for so generously spreading the word about AssociatePrograms.com. You’re wonderful!
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10. Markethink – building a new community
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If you’re like me, you already subscribe to dozens of mailing lists, and don’t really want to join another one. So if you start one, how do you persuade people to join? John Gerits has done it cleverly by making one-to-one invitations to join his Markethink Digest, and by suggesting that his subscribers do the same. Belonging to Markethink in its early days has been a bit like belonging to a friendly club.
John is building a useful community. It will be interesting to watch it grow. I asked him to send me some info for the newsletter on Markethink. Here’s what he sent:
-Markethink Digest-
A discussion list for offline/online marketing & where the twain meet. The focus; learning, networking, succeeding …. community. I promise you, you’ll be glad you subscribed. Not the “same old, same old” And…ad-free, always. What a concept!
A few kudos:
“As always you deliver more than you promise!!”
“Different, thought provoking and above all interesting.”
“Great job. It is excellent!”
“*Really* like what I see.”
“I recommend your letter whenever I can.”
“It’s a bit like belonging to a friendly club.”
(That’s my comment.)
Don’t rely on what others are saying. Find out for yourself! md5 AT dakine.demon.nl
MARKETHINK – Out of the box. Packed with a punch. (SM)
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10. ClickTrade versus LinkShare
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The Associate Programs Message Board is going from strength to strength, attracting some knowledgeable e-marketers willing to share valuable advice.
(You can click on a link to the message board from the top of any page at AssociatePrograms.com.)
Here’s a post to the message board by Mike Angiletta:
I manage an Affiliate Network (currently in Beta) of a larger company and can provide some objective insight into the pros & cons of both ClickTrade and LinkShare.
CLICKTRADE PROS
+ Many, many merchant sites to choose from.
+ ClickTrade processes all payments, not the merchant.
+ Easy setup for both Affiliate and Merchant.
+ Very responsive customer service.
CLICKTRADE CONS
+ Tracking relies on cookies which means anywhere between 3 – 10% of clicks will not be tracked because some Internet consumers will have cookies turned off. Read: you may lose a few sales.
+ Buggy reporting (historical data is not always accurate).
+ Many merchants means more chances for flaky merchants.
Nevertheless, nothing stops you, the Affiliate, from using discretion before signing up for a Program.
LINKSHARE PROS
+ Reputable merchant sites to choose from.
+ URL encoding technology ensures that no tracking info will be lost.
+ Robust and accurate reporting tools.
+ Very responsive customer service.
LINKSHARE CONS
+ The setup fee and technology requirements are prohibitive to smaller merchants (this could be a PRO).
+ LinkShare does NOT process the payments so you must rely on the individual merchants.
MY RECOMMENDATION
Try them both out. You might find you’ll be happy with both. By the way, as far as actual $$$ performance goes, I sincerely doubt you will notice major differences between the two. Your key success factors are: the products you resell, your web visitor demographics, and the type of behaviour your website induces.
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************************************************************
All the best,
Allan Gardyne
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