Associate Programs Newsletter #32
CONTENTS:
1. Why men don't listen and women can't read maps
2. $1000 a month from one promotion
3. The best way to make One & Only work
4. But that's not a REAL business!
5. Better Internet Bureau “sleeping giant”
6. Snippets
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1. Why men don't listen
and women can't read maps
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“Are men's and women's brains different?”
Ask a woman that question and she's likely to say, “Yes. Next question?” Ask a man and he'll stop and think about it.
Our brains are “wired” differently. Hit a man on the left side of his head and he may lose his speech. Hit a woman on the left side of the head and she'll probably go right on talking. When she talks she uses both sides of the brain.
Because men's and women's brains are wired differently, we see and hear the world differently. Maybe we ought think of that when we plan our web sites.
Consider Phillip Heyden's neatly designed shopping mall at Thegalleria.net for example. I wonder how many women take one quick look at the “floor plan”, which is like one in a real mall, shudder, and go somewhere else?
Show a man Phillip's site and he'll probably think it's an excellent design.
Most women aren't good at reading maps. They tend to turn them upside down to try to figure out where they're going. Men can usually rotate the map in their minds. It's called “spatial ability” and it makes men good at calculating speed, movement and distance.
In 1998, John and Ashley Sims created a two-way map of England. It had a standard view for people travelling north and an upside-down view for people travelling south. When men heard about it, they tended to laugh, thinking it was a joke. Women said: “What a great idea!”
A British newspaper offered 100 maps free. It received requests from 15,000 women – and a handful of men. Yes, we're different all right.
Allan and Barbara Pease, authors of “Why Men Don't Listen & Women Can't Read Maps”, say that babies start off female in the womb and receive a jolt of male hormones at six to eight weeks. The more testosterone, the more masculine is your brain's “wiring” and the more masculine your view of the world.
After Christmas members of our extended family had a lot of fun answering the 30 questions in the “Brain-Wiring Test” in the book. (My ever-so-logical wife and her mother both earned scores more masculine than feminine.)
Are your banner ads aimed at male or female minds? Apparently it's a female trait to buy on impulse and prefer specials. Women can enjoy window-shopping all day but when men are hunting for a product they want to get the facts fast, the book says.
My ever-so-masculine father-in-law says he uses only facts and logic – nothing else – when making an important decision. Using intuition, it turns out, is a female characteristic.
Writing an ad? You'd better figure out what men and women want in life. The more feminine women tend to put having friends and living in harmony with those around them high on their list of priorities. Want to appeal to men? Try offering them prestige and advancement.
A study in five Western countries found that men would like to be bold, competitive, capable, dominant, assertive, admired and practical. From the same list of words, women chose warm, loving, generous, sympathetic, attractive, friendly and giving.
“Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps” is based on scientific research but written in simple language. It's enlightening and often funny, the sort of book that makes you want to stop reading and say: “Hey. Listen to this!”
Ever wondered why women go ga-ga over stuffed toys? Apparently when a woman sees a baby her body releases the female hormone progesterone. Show her a cuddly toy with a plump torso, oversized head and large eyes and what happens? The body's reaction to this shape is so strong that the release of the hormone will be triggered, even though all she is seeing is a teddy bear, a Furby, or the silly looking Elmo on the main page at eToys.com. “Ahh… isn't he beautiful!” her body says.
“Most men, lacking progesterone hormones, can't understand a woman's over-reaction to a piece of high-priced stuffed merchandise,” the authors say.
The book covers some of the same ground as John Gray's Men Are from Mars, Women Are From Venus. If you enjoyed that one, you'll enjoy this one.
As well as helping you with your marketing, it will help you understand your spouse – and help your marriage.
Barnes and Noble – which claims “If we don't have it nobody does” – doesn't stock the book. Nor does Amazon.com.
However, the online Australian bookshop The Well has it (listed incorrectly as “Why Men Don't Listen & Women Can't Read Road Maps”) for $22.95. Because the Aussie dollar is so weak the book can be posted to America for a total of about $22 (US).
I can't earn a commission on this one because I'm not an associate of The Well, but “Why Men Don't Listen & Women Can't Read Maps” is so good I just had to tell you about it.
I nearly forgot. Why doesn't a man listen? It's because he's busy thinking about something else – and as every woman knows, a man can do only one thing at a time.
Why Men Don't Listen & Women Can't Read Maps
Allan & Barbara Pease
Thewell.com.au
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2. $1000 a month from one promotion
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Leonard Farneth of https://www.usedcar.com is one of the generous contributors to the Associate Programs Message Board. This week he described how he makes $1000 a month from one promotion:
” . . . I made a successful reference page that listed a particular agency that exists in each of the 50 united states. While doing the research for these links I found out that I was the ONLY person in the world who had done such a page. I had a tremendous traffic flow until about two months later.
“I finally did a search to find out how come my hits dropped, and I was shocked to find that another site had downloaded my page, changed the header, called it their own and resubmitted it on four different pages. So I made a separate page of each agency in each state (headed with my ads) which gave me 50 pages. I uploaded the entire 50 pages to 14 separate sites and directories or 700 pages.
“I then ran submission wizard for about 4 days straight and got back every bit of the traffic that had been ripped off from me.
“I now make about $1000 a month from this one promotion alone . . .”
If you're wondering what this is all about (game and fishing departments) go to the Associate Programs Message Board at and do a keyword search for “states” to find the posts by Leonard on this topic.
Only a stupid, selfish idiot who doesn't mind haven't his reputation wrecked would simply copy what Leonard has done. However, I'm sure you figure out clever ways to make good use of his ideas.
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3. The best way to make One & Only work
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From the Associate Programs Message Board:
By Anthony McNeil on Tuesday, January 12, 1999 – 11:59 pm:
I just started the One and Only Program and I have sent 400 visitors to their site but I have had only 2 sells. Anyone having success with One and Only and if so how are you marketing the program?
Anthony
vchd.com
OK, Anthony, here's the best answer I've seen – from Lesley Anne Lowe, who was receiving $500 a month after three days work, and has improved on that. Lesley is writing about One & Only but the idea should work with ANY program…
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4. But that's not a *REAL* business!
===========================
But that's an Associate Program… not a *REAL* business!
by Lesley Anne Lowe
I have people contact me on a daily basis asking about associate programs. What should they do to make a success of them? What companies would I recommend? What would work best for their site? etc. etc.
My answer to these questions varies from person to person but the first thing I always ask them is, “Well, what are you prepared to put into the business to make it work for you?” This is a simple enough question in my eyes but you'd be amazed at the number of people who are quite literally scared off by it.
Is “work” really such a bad word :-)
The truth is that it really isn't all that difficult to make a nice secondary or even primary income from promoting someone else's products or services – but you *must* use a little imagination *and* be prepared to put at least a little effort into it.
Around 14 months ago we signed up to the One & Only Network and although I'd never been involved in any form of reselling or associate program before, I was immediately taken by them.
Within two days of joining I bought a domain name and got to work on building a site specifically to promote O&O. All this really involved was duplicating their own site, adding my own personal touches and putting it online. The whole process took me approximately 3 days from start to finish.
My first month I made around $23. However, the second month I received a cheque for $140 and my domain name and hosting fees were covered. This is when I started to think that my new venture could become quite interesting.
Throughout the middle of 1998 I had a lot going on in my life and through my own ignorance I never even updated the site once – seriously not once! The three days work I put in at the start was by now bringing me in an average of $500 per month and that was good enough for me. Whether this was naivety, laziness or pure stupidity I really don't know.
Still good for three days work mind you :-)
In October or so of last year (just 3 months ago) Paul and I started tying up our main business to move over to the Internet full-time and it was then I decided that enough was enough – it was time to really make a go of this site which had started me off so well in 1998.
So at the start of November we released a new, fresher looking copy of the site and almost immediately our sales and traffic increased. People started writing to us and commenting on the new look – and this was something they'd never done in the past.
To mirror what we did almost a year before, the time we spent on this complete overhaul was again a mere three days. And boy did it pay off this time! In November our site revenue was over double what we'd become used to getting and in December we increased it by very nearly the same again.
(The guys at One and Only even sent us a Christmas present!)
To sum it all up, if you're willing to put in just a little effort, it is possible to turn your reseller business into a full-time income, but I'd recommend you follow the simple guidelines below before you start . . .
1. Get your own domain name as you are seriously crippling your online business without one. When you consider the low cost involved ($US70 for two years), it's complete madness not to have one these days.
Drop me an email if you need any assistance with this and I'll be happy to help you get started.
2. Don't just rely on links or banners to promote your business. Write short articles, build your own site and participate in online communities. Tell people about your business and let them know how it can help them.
3. Select the company you get involved with wisely, ensure that their product or service has long-term appeal and most importantly of all – ensure that the company are capable of handling your customers and resellers in a professional and responsible manner.
My own reasons for choosing the One and Only Network were primarily that the product range has mass-appeal and the company had and have continued to prove themselves as being extremely reliable. I'm now looking forward to a long-term, financially stable future with them.
If this is something which you may be interested in yourself please drop me an email or visit my brand new reseller site below…
loverocks.com
…Love Rocks… and it pays well too they say :-)
Lesley Anne Lowe
support AT loverocks.com
P.S. The site I mention throughout this article is . . .
The Personals Ads Network – advance.to/
==============================================
Lesley Anne Lowe is publisher of Advance News, a free
email newsletter geared towards online business promotion,
developing powerful marketing strategies and maximising
online profits. For your free subscription please email:
subscribe AT advance.to
==============================================
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5. Better Internet Bureau “sleeping giant”
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Jerry Martin, president of the new Better Internet Bureau, says the bureau estimates that 65% to 75% of all Internet sites world-wide would qualify for certification.
“Compare that to other associate programs that market retail products aimed at a very narrow customer base and you may conclude that BIB is a sleeping giant.”
The 40% payout could be a lifetime residual income. “If an associate web site certifies 500 sites this year they would receive $US5,000 in immediate income plus an additional $5,000 annually if all of the sites renew,” Jerry says.
(Of course, it's the BUREAU which does the certifying, not the associate.)
Bryan M. Knight of https://www.hypnosis.org in Canada says he is rather alarmed at my endorsement of the Better Internet Bureau. “Why? Because when I check their pages I see nothing about who is behind it. I see a slick, very clever scheme . . . Who endorses it?”
Bureau president Jerry Martin agreed that “our name should be on the site and I will do that over the next few days”.
The bureau is registered with the Ministry of Finance and Corporate Relations in British Columbia, Canada, as a non-profit association and is run by a board of directors.
(I asked Jerry for the name, age, occupation and experience of the board members but he hasn't answered that question. I guess he's too busy certifying web sites.)
Jerry says he runs the day-to-day operation on a volunteer basis. “I also created the web site (free of charge). We have no paid staff at this time.”
The bureau is currently rejecting about 35% of sites submitted for certification, often because of links leading to gambling, lottery or adult web sites.
The bureau pays a $US10 commission – and $10 for every year that the new customer renews his certification. On the second tier, if that site persuades a site to be certified, the commission is $4 – and $4 a year.
It costs $US35 to have your site certified. I don't qualify for one of those Better Internet Bureau logos because AssociatePrograms.com contains links to gambling sites.
If your site doesn't qualify, you're still allowed to join the program and promote it – but you're not allowed to link to it from your site.
Only “approved” advertising is allowed, such as this:
Better Internet Bureau Reveals How:
Learn how to add credibility to your Web site.
The Better Internet Bureau will show you how to
enhance your International Web presence and
build trust. To earn honest money on the Internet
invest 10 minutes at:
better-internet-bureau.org/welcome/bib51int/index.html
NOTE: Because AssociatePrograms.com does not qualify for certification by the bureau – it has links to gambling sites – I'm not allowed to link to the bureau from this site. So I've put Rick Bier's URL in there.
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6. Snippets
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Your own program
AffiliateShop – launched this week by ConnectPal.com, offers businesses which wish to set up their own affiliate programs a “convenient and low cost solution”, says Christopher Low. “Now, you can set up and manage your very own affiliate program on your web site. No commission. No deposits. Sign up now and we'll waive the set-up fee and include a money-back guarantee too.” AffiliateShop offers only a pay-per-click system. Pay-per-lead and pay-per-sale are in development.
eToys.com too busy
Sign on the eToys.com site: “WARNING!!! Due to overwhelming demand and the fact that fourth quarter is our busiest time of year, eToys will not approve any applications until the end of January 1999 . . . We currently accept applications from US based sites ONLY.”
Generous move
Outpost.com had technical problems and from December 15 did not capture affiliates' sales information. Alissa Perry says that to compensate, Outpost.com will pay, for December, the full commission earned for November PLUS double the commission earned in the first two weeks of December. Sounds more than fair.
Shorter URLs
Last week I mentioned the far-too-long URLs which Commission Junction provided for Adguide. Good news – they were shortened the next day. So now if you want to chase those average $US125 commissions you can do it with an URL like this:
Adguide's College Recruiter Employment Site
adguide.com/cgi-bin/go.pl?2051
Foiling hackers
David Moran of Web-resources.com says: “Try this tip . . if you put both numbers and letters into your password adding up to 8 digits, it mucks up the hacker's robot 90% of the time.”
Tidier message board
The Associate Programs Message Board has been edited to a compact state for the start of 1999 and old messages have been archived. Want to see the old stuff? The archive Board98.zip is a 250kb file which unpacks to about 800kb of 30 html files linked to the board98.htm file in the format of TREE VIEW as on the main message board. Download it at satcom.net.au/success/Board98.zip
Another little milestone
Looks as though I'll have to tear myself away from the computer again. Joanna and I have another excuse to celebrate – for the first time AssociatePrograms.com has received more than 1000 unique visitors in a day. Thank you, everyone, for telling your friends about AssociatePrograms.com.
*************************************************************
CLASSIFIED ADS (I charge $US50. Subscribers: over 5900.
I keep the price high to make sure there aren't many ads.
The circulation is verifiable by a trusted third party.)
*************************************************************
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*************************************************************
>>>>> A Personal Invitation From Lesley Anne Lowe <<<<<
My first real experience of Affiliate Programs came during the
course of 1998 and as the year progressed so did the obvious
potential of this brand new marketing medium. Now, in January
1999, I see a whole new world opening up before us and the
opportunities for home-based businesses are truely awesome.
Over the next few months I'll be monitoring the results from my
own promotions and relaying these to my readers in the form
of a weekly update service called the Advance Newsletter.
This will be a no-hype rendition of my own experience and I'd
like to offer you the opportunity to join me. You can be assured
that we won't be running huge strings of ads, no get rich quick
schemes and everything we publish will be 100% original.
Email – subscribe AT advance.to – To Get Started Now!
>>>>>>>>>>> – It's Originality That Counts! – <<<<<<<<<<<
[UPDATE: This newsletter has been discontinued.]
*************************************************************
Better Internet Bureau Reveals How:
Learn how to add credibility to your Web site.
The Better Internet Bureau will show you how to
enhance your International Web presence and
build trust. To earn honest money on the Internet
invest 10 minutes at:
better-internet-bureau.org/welcome/bib51int/index.html
*************************
All the best
Allan Gardyne
