“However, there are many ways to survive and even thrive during a recession and diversification is typically the first key to continued prosperity. Fortunately for most affiliate marketers, making the leap from promoting luxury items to ‘recession-proof’ products that consumers use regardless of their economic status or level of income is fairly simple. We can add new products to our current mix or start pumping out content on a new domain, join some affiliate programs, ramp up the marketing and be in a new business in relatively short order.
So, if your commissions from the sale of cars, diamonds and fur coats have been falling off of late, here are a number of recession-proof product and service suggestions for your consideration.”
I’m not big on article marketing. I know a lot of affiliates that do it and I know it works, it’s just not an area I’ve ever focused my consulting or blogging efforts on. I think in part because so much of the affiliate article marketing I see focuses on selling ebooks and biz opps. But done right, article marketing can be used to sell physical products as well.
I just discovered a really great blog on the subject of article marketing for retail products that I thought would be really helpful to affiliates. The key is to NOT sound like you are selling a product but to write interesting, informational copy that publishers will accept and consumers are going to want to read.
Steve, from Submit Your Article gives a great example about a fictitious site owner who is selling Brand XYZ gourmet chocolate. She knows she can’t just write: “Buy my chocolates, they are so yummy.” So what could she write about that doesn’t sound like a sales pitch?
Here are some ideas (and I’m putting these ideas in the form of article titles):
* “5 Ways You Can Tell If The Chocolate You’re Eating Is High Quality”
* “What is the difference between Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, and Semi-sweet Chocolate?”
* “The Health Benefits Of Eating Chocolate”
* “3 Restaurant Inspired Chocolate Dessert Recipes Made From Chocolate Bars”
* “The History Of Chocolate”
* “Is White Chocolate Really Chocolate?”
Now, it goes without saying that as the owner of this gourmet chocolate website is writing the above articles that she cannot mention her own business, website, products or affiliate products within her article. She cannot allude to or make reference to XYZ brand of chocolates in any way, shape, or fashion in her article.
She knows that her well crafted resource box (rather than her article) is the appropriate place to talk about herself, her business, and her website.” More…
Note: Even if you don’t do article marketing, the tips here can be used to optimize the pre-sell copy you use on your own site. Sometimes the best way to sell is NOT to sell, but to offer enlightening content that gets them in the mood to buy.
I was reading Ian Larsen’s blog over the weekend. He has some good tips for affiliate managers about how to screen out fraudulent affiliate applications.
Phony Affiliates Prevention Guide for Managers “Affiliate marketing is prone to fraud due to the lack of quality management, unsophisticated tracking systems, invisible affiliates and the basic principals around your links and pixels. It is the affiliate managers job to follow through with due diligence and screen out the bad from the big fish.
Not every affiliate network or platform allows a completely transparent affiliate application but those that do; you can really get crazy with your investigations. The bottom line here is that you identify the quality of the site, legitimacy of the affiliate and gauge the performance of every affiliate as you bring them on. There are several things you can do to stop the phony affiliates from entering your business, choose one or all, but instinct has become my #1 adversary.”
I work with so many affiliate Moms that have small kids, juggle a million things at once and still manage to get new sites built and campaigns optimized. I don’t know how they manage it all. I sure do admire them though!
This cartoon TOTALLY reminds me of some WAHM affiliates & outsourced affiliate managers I know.
Except the ones I know are ALWAYS SMILING, DO check their email and wear PJs to work - NEVER a dress and heels!
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Happy Mothers Day
NO LOGGING IN ON SUNDAY!
Let your family pamper you.
Take the day off!
Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 12:31pm by Linda Buquet
I’m proud to introduce our newest 5 Star Affiliate Program…
Advaliant CPA Affiliate Network Discover the Advaliant Affiliate Network Difference
Advaliant, a division of MediaTrust, is one of the most trusted pay-for-performance affiliate networks on the web, connecting selected publishers and advertisers in a trusted online community overseen by industry experts. Advaliant empowers unique, exclusive campaigns that lead to greater ROI and higher, faster commission payouts. VALTRK, our proprietary tracking technology measures results in real time, as visitors click on ads, request quotes, and purchase products.
Highly regarded in the affiliate marketing industry, Advaliant was recognized by ad:tech for the “Best Affiliate Marketing Campaign” of the year in 2007.
.:. Many exclusive offers and some exceptionally high payouts
.:. Generous affiliate referral program & affiliate rewards for top affiliates
.:. Consistent payments. Checks are ALWAYS on time, monthly NET 10
.:. Proprietary tracking system helps affiliates achieve better conversions
.:. Some of the brightest AM’s in the industry, ready to help you earn more 24-7
Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 10:07am by Linda Buquet
The May edition of the 5 Star News was just published. We have 10 great new affiliate programs for your linking pleasure. Plus be sure to catch the latest 5 Star merchant news for program updates, affiliate contests and commission increases that could help increase your bottom line this month.
Read the May Newsletter Online Here
As always, let me know what I can do to help you be successful with any of our 5 Star programs.
In case you missed it, here’s Brian Clark’s 2nd installment of his series on copywriting tips for affiliate marketing.
“If you’re building authority sites that attract subscribers, you get more than one shot at affiliate revenue. You profit first with your direct readers who trust you, and then continue to generate revenue over time thanks to strategically-placed cross-links and search traffic.
The lowest form of affiliate marketing engagement comes from simply sticking affiliate banner ads on your site. I’m not saying you won’t make any money from those ads, but it’s certainly not the most effective way to capitalize on the relationship with your audience. And banner ads don’t rank in search engines, right?”
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 3:46pm by Linda Buquet
The final nominations have been made for the A4U “Community Choice” UK Affiliate Marketing Awards. Members of affiliates4u can now cast their vote in the final round by visiting affiliates4u.com/awards. Voting closes at 3:00pm (UK time) Wednesday May 28th and the winners will be announced on June 5th at the evening Award Show. And here are the finalists: (more…)
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 10:14am by Linda Buquet
I was anxious to see how the numbers from ValueClick’s 1st quarter results look. In spite of increased competition from DoubleCLick, Pepperjam and other networks and despite the economic downturn, CJ is up by 16% Q1 08 vs Q1 07. Industry growth figures are always a nice thing to see!
According to Clickz “On the other hand, ValueClick’s affiliate marketing segment “had another good quarter” said Vadnais. He noted the company’s Commission Junction arm saw its United States business grow by 16 percent when compared to the first quarter of 2007.”
Affiliate managers know a large percentage of affiliates are notorious for not reading email. Plus email is really not very efficient for sending affiliate communications and newsletters, because half the words we need to use (free, offer, sale, money, contest, win) set off spam filters and create deliverability issues. The other way managers sometimes communicate with affiliates is by phone. However calling affiliates with every news update, it’s not time-efficient and many affiliates consider calls intrusive anyway.
Enter RSS. Why aren’t more affiliate programs using RSS? They really should be! There are so many things that would help affiliates generate more sales, if only they could be communicated in a timely manner. How about real-time as they happen - through RSS, instead of saving up the info for the next monthly newsletter, which no one reads anyway!
Here are 12 things affiliate managers could communicate real-time, through RSS that could help affiliates be more effective and/or increase revenue. (more…)
Whether you call it herd mentality, social proof, safety in numbers, follow the leader or keeping up with the joneses - today more than ever, social decision making plays a big role in consumer purchase decisions. All of us are more comfortable making offline decisions about product purchases or service providers if we can get a personal referral from a friend.
I think that when making online purchases, the fact that you can’t pick up the product and feel it, smell it, try it, ask a sales person questions - increases the need for validation from others. The Internet makes it so easy to read lots of reviews from other people or take advantage of best seller lists. The new social web makes it even easier to find out what others think about products and services before making a purchase decision. (more…)
Insurance Daily.co.uk reports that a string of UK affiliate programs are closing or have recently closed due to the credit crunch. According to the article, RBS announced May 2nd that it is closing its Privilege Home Insurance affiliate program and Virgin Money, without notice, stopped offering their car, home, pet and travel Insurance products. Other insurance companies that have recently closed their affiliate programs include Sheila’s Wheels, First Alternative and Click4Group. Lloyds TSB and Norwich Union also reportedly began downsizing their affiliate marketing campaigns.
I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come here in the US. Financial lead based programs are the core revenue earners for many top affiliates I know. Mortgage loan affiliate programs are suffering right now, hopefully insurance affiliate programs aren’t next on the list.
#4 “Even if you do everything right, you can still lose if you can’t convert traffic into buyers. I think most everyone was shocked when Michael Johns was sent home. Heck, I even liked his singing. For some reason, he couldn’t convert watchers into callers. The same can be said for Affiliate marketers. You can be selling the best product on the market at the best price, but if you can’t convert crowds into buyers, you might as well be trying to sell ice cubes to Eskimos.”
In case you haven’t heard New York State did pass that new tax law, I blogged about a couple weeks ago. The new law, dubbed the ‘Amazon Tax’, states that if companies like Amazon have even one affiliate in New York they must charge all customers sales tax, even though Amazon has no office, store or employees in the state.
So in essence the State of New York is changing the tax nexus law and considers affiliates the same way they would if a company had a physical store in the State, even though affiliates are not employees or even independent sales reps. Collecting this additional sales tax is expected to bring the state an extra $50 million this year. Amazon is fighting back!
See copy of the actual complaint Amazon filed against the State of New York.
New York Times: Amazon Sues New York State to Void Sales Tax Rules “Amazon said that its affiliates are not agents but simply sites on which it places advertising. The commissions it pays the sites are simply one method of paying for those ads, it argued.
The online retailer further claimed that the new rules violate the equal protection clause of the constitution because it specifically targeted Amazon. “It was carefully crafted to increase state tax revenues by forcing Amazon to collect sales and use taxes,” the complaint says, noting that “state officials have described the statute as the ‘Amazon Tax’.”
NOTE: I’m adding to this story as I find good info. So keep checking back!
Newsday: Amazon, or online, tax will hurt small business
“But the reality is that Amazon and other merchants with affiliate programs won’t bother adding the additional capability to collect New York tax; instead, they’ll take the far easier step of blocking any New York-based site from their affiliate programs. The result will be a tremendous loss of income for the numerous small New York businesses now participating in affiliate programs.
The law will also hurt companies like New York City-based LinkShare, which generates revenue by managing others’ affiliate programs. And it may make it harder for New York-based online retailers to find their own affiliates.”
Another big concern for our industry, as I mentioned in my 1st blog post about this a couple weeks ago, is that if New York gets away with changing the law regarding tax nexus, other states are sure to follow!
We just announced our 5 Star Affiliate Forum award winners for April.
The 5 Star MVP (Most Valuable POSTER) Award goes to “Niche”. The MVP Award is given to the person each month that we think stands out as a good contributor, insightful poster, helpful 5 Star member.
Our Bright New Star Award winner this month is genuwine4532. This award is our way of recognizing new members that make a positive impact on our community - within the 1st couple months they join. The goal of this contest is not only to recognize their contribution but also to help attract more of the type of members we are looking for - those that give their knowledge and support to help our members and the community at large.
Congrats Niche and genuwine4532! Thanks for all you do to make 5 Star the most positive, helpful affiliate community around!
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 3:05pm by Linda Buquet
Host Linda Woods welcomes special guest Mike Allen, “Chief Executive Shopper” and President of Shopping-Bargains.com to the 5/1 edition of the Affiliate Marketing Insider radio show. Shopping-Bargains began in early 1999 more as a hobby than a business. Then in 2005 was a finalist for the LinkShare Merchant’s Choice Award and in 2008 was a finalist for the Affiliate of the Year in the Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards.
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 12:05pm by Linda Buquet
I blogged last week that Brian Clark, the copywriting guru, would be starting a series of posts on content and copywriting strategies for affiliate marketing, over at Copyblogger. Well he just wrote the 1st in the series and it’s really well done and info-rich.
Three Killer Content Strategies for Building Affiliate Marketing Assets. The 3 initial strategies Brian focuses on are: List Building with Paid Traffic, Link Building on Keyword Domains and Building Authority Sites. Good stuff Brian! Look forward to the next in the series, which will focus on a variety of copywriting techniques that can be used to maximize affiliate sales.
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 10:16am by Linda Buquet
Should Merchants Use Multiple Affiliate Networks? It’s a multi-dimensional issue that raises a variety of tracking and reporting questions and there is not a single answer that’s right for every affiliate program.
In general (although it depends on the program) I recommend, at most, an in-house program and one network program. That way you can give affiliates the choice of higher payouts, longer cookies and more direct support with the Indie or the convenience of a network for the many affiliates that prefer that option. I really do not advocate merchants being on multiple networks. But that’s just me. (more…)
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 9:46am by Linda Buquet
In my virtual journeys this AM I noticed Shareasale has a new look. I think the new design just launched today. Since a pic is worth 1,000 words I’ll just show you the before and after. What do you think? I like it! (more…)
Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 8:59am by Linda Buquet
Information Week had a good article about the affiliate marketing session at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. Always great to see our industry get positive play in mainstream media. I blogged earlier about the panel which was moderated by Lisa Picarille of Revenue magazine and included Stephanie Agresta (Affiliate Karma), Cam Balzer (DoubleClick Performics), Sam Harrelson (Sam Harrelson Consulting), and Jeremy Wright (b5media).
Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 8:07am by Linda Buquet
Prosper202 just launched in Beta and comes to us from Wes Mahler and the team that developed Tracking202, a highly regarded PPC keyword tracking solution. Some affiliates were afraid that if they used Tracking202, the Tracking202 team could potentially steal all their data and mine their best keywords, since it’s a hosted solution. So even though the company initially didn’t plan to launch a self hosted version, due to overwhelming user feedback, they have. Unbelievably, just like Tracking202, Prosper202 is FREE. Wes blogged this launch info: (more…)
Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 11:48am by Linda Buquet
A few months ago I was interviewed by Revenue Magazine for a feature about recruiting affiliates. The article titled: Looking for a Few Good Affiliates was published in the January/February issue and was just added to the web site, so even non-subscribers can read it.
The 3 page article is filled with great tips from industry leaders like Linda Woods and Chris Sanderson, who are both 5 Star clients, as well as Angel Djambazov, Jeff Molander, Shawn Collins, myself and others. So if you are looking for ways to recruit more affiliates head over to Revenue Magazine - it’s a good read!
And remember I offer free consultations and am always happy to give tips and advice, so email me for an appointment if you are looking for ways to grow your affiliate sales channel.
Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 9:26am by Linda Buquet
For affiliates who have always wanted to go to Affiliate Summit, but cannot afford it, here’s your chance! Affiliate Summit will be giving away a free, full conference pass to Affiliate Summit 2008 East every Monday through June 30th.
All you have to do to enter is to follow Affiliate Summit on Twitter and submit a 120 character essay to the Affiliate Summit Twitter account on why you deserve a free pass. 120 characters is nothing! Jump in, give it a try, you may win!
Oh and a reminder, if you want to be featured in the new Affiliate Summit Magazine - FeedFront, you better get your entry in. The initial issue will have 5000 copies printed and will be sent to past Affiliate Summit attendees. Great exposure! Deadline is April 30th.
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 10:51am by Linda Buquet
Brian Clark, the copywriting guru, will be starting a series of posts on content and copywriting strategies for affiliate marketing, over at Copyblogger. I’m a regular reader of his blog which always has great tips about writing copy that sells, so I’m happy to see him do a series that focuses on affiliate marketing.
Why Affiliate Marketing Will Save Free Online Content “If you don’t have a product or service to sell, and you don’t want to create content to sell, there’s only one other option… sell other people’s stuff for a commission (also known as affiliate marketing). And I don’t mean sticking affiliate ads in your sidebar until some “real” advertisers show up. I mean actively working to recommend quality offers to your readers.
Is it possible to do this without running off your audience? Absolutely… successful publishers have been making big money with permission marketing for well over a decade. If you want a bigger payoff for the time and effort it takes to create valuable niche content, smart affiliate marketing is the way to go.”
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 9:52am by Linda Buquet
Many smart merchants provide affiliates with content in the form of articles, copy and reviews. I’m sure some of the merchants that provide the content and the affiliates that end up using it, wonder about duplicate content filters and potential penalties. The Get Elastic eCommerce blog has a some detailed insight and suggestions.
Dodging Duplicate Content Filters While Assisting Affiliates “You as a retailer with an affiliate program may wish to provide content for affiliates such as expert / editorial product reviews, general advice / guides on the product or activities related to the product or even product description content itself. This is great affiliate nurturing on the part of your affiliate management team - but it’s vulnerable to duplicate content filtering.”
Another related GetElastic article that deals with duplicate content and affiliate links that knock the merchants out of the serps and replace their rankings can be found here: Tips for SEO Friendly Affiliate Programs
Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 8:51am by Linda Buquet
Derek over at the ClickConsultants blog wrote a good one this weekend regarding the pros and cons of direct linking vs landing pages vs landing sites. He includes some good info on why and when to use each one.
Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 2:06pm by Linda Buquet
DoubleClick Performics continues to attract lots of great new merchants. Here is a short list of their newest affiliate programs, which includes some big brands as well as come nice little niche programs.
7 For All Mankind Commission: 8% Commission Duration: 60 Days Arbico Organics Commission: 10% Commission Duration: 30 Days Auto Parts Warehouse Commission: 12% ommission Duration: 60 Days BioLogic Solutions Commission: 5% Commission Duration: 30 Days Campbellshop.com Commission: 5% Commission Duration: 60 Days Chatham’s Fine Chocolates Commission: 15% Commission Duration: 30 Days Dockers Commission: 5% Commission Duration: 60 Days (more…)
Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 11:04am by Linda Buquet
I hoped this New York Affiliate Sales Tax problem that Elliot Spitzer started right before the hooker episode would die out, but looks like it could go through. I’ll link to places with more info for those that haven’t followed this but in a brief nutshell… Up until now eTailers only needed to collect sales tax on purchases in states where the merchant has a physical presence, such as a storefront or sales office. The proposed tax law, “would require online retailers based outside of the state to collect and remit sales tax on customer orders received through affiliate web sites based within New York.”
The bill which is expected to be passed June 1 is an effort to raise $50 million in tax revenue from online retailers with no brick and mortar presence in New York that would normally not have to charge customers any sales tax at all.
Thursday, April 17th, 2008 at 11:14am by Linda Buquet
The soft retail climate doesn’t appear to be affecting e-commerce in the U.S., as one company is finding out. LinkShare recruited 52 new advertisers in the first-quarter, up significantly from 30 in 4Q 2007. The company’s lead generation service was a key driver, as LinkShare explains in a news release out today.
Analysts estimate U.S. online advertising revenues will rise between 15% and 19% in 2008. In a recent survey by Jupiter Research and LinkShare, that growth will be fueled by improving multichannel initiatives, better merchandising, more customized offerings, and increasingly sophisticated marketing, such as pay-per-action marketing.
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 1:10pm by Linda Buquet
Copyblogger has a great post about a very important copywriting ’secret’ affiliates must use to be successful. Sonia explains why you need to use this technique and helps you to get into the mind of one of your potential visitors. No matter how good you think your copy is and how thorough your marketing strategy, this is the dilemma you may be facing…
“The fact is, Ron Reader found one of your posts (maybe #3 out of that carefully planned series of 12) on StumbleUpon and spent 30 seconds skimming the subheads. He read the first sentence twice because he thought it was funny, then he skipped down and read part of the last paragraph.
Then you got lucky–instead of Ron hitting “Stumble” again, Ron’s boss came up behind the cube and Ron had to think fast. He brought up a spreadsheet to look like he was working. An hour later, Ron’s cousin sent another link to YouTube, and Ron spent 20 minutes surfing videos of dogs drinking beer. Then he wrapped up that really
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 11:27am by Linda Buquet
Chad over at the CDF Networks blog just posted about the fact that MSN is leading the pack right now - when it comes to releasing innovative, insightful new keyword tools. Here are 2 of the 5 tools he shares from Adcenter Labs that he’s finding to be beneficial for search marketing.
“Demographics predictor You type in a keyword, and it shows you the predicted demographics of who might be searching for this term. That is really important information for targeting you campaigns and ads, as well as good data to use for Google content network targeting;)
Entity Association Graph This one is really cool. Type in a keyword and the tool show other entries that co-occur within the same user session. You can adjust your hop levels and edge strength with sliders. This kind of info is gold for search marketers.”
Head over to read the rest: “The best free keyword tools you’ve never used“. He has a good screen shot, plus reading the comments can provide additional insight as readers leave their ideas and feedback.
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 at 7:29am by Linda Buquet
The April issue of The Affiliate Classroom Magazine has just been released and it’s all about surprisingly simple ways to create content, and how to make sure all that content gets found and read online.
“The Anatomy of a Pre-Sales Article” breaks content creation into simple steps that allow you to create a “helpfully friendly” article that is sure to get read and passed on, especially if your article has a good backbone! (more…)
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 8:53am by Linda Buquet
I’ve been ‘twitfollowing’ with interest as Wendy Piersall from eMomsatHome.com took her very popular blog through a metamorphosis. She didn’t just rebrand the blog with a new name and redesign, but completely repositioned the site from a Mom blog into a resource for a diverse group of people who use the internet to create flexible work for themselves - both parents and non parents. (more…)
Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 8:21am by Linda Buquet
I love widgets and the new Carousel Widget Amazon just launched is pretty cool! The affiliate widget features a new style of interactive display format that shows up to 10 products without taking up much real estate. If you choose a horizontal widget the products move around like a Carousel. If you select vertical placement which would work well for sidebars, it’s called a Ferris Wheel and that’s just how it moves.
Here’s a Carousel of Affiliate Marketing and PPC Books (Creation time 1 minute)
One click of the arrow advances products one space. Hold down the arrow and whew all those books are gonna get dizzy! Fun little widget! Hope consumers like it and it helps affiliates get some good conversions.
Friday, April 11th, 2008 at 7:52am by Linda Buquet
LinkConnector sent me a press release a couple days ago that I didn’t have time to share. They must know how much I like affiliate widgets - here’s the news.
LinkConnector (http://www.linkconnector.com/), a leading Affiliate Marketing Network with progressive solutions for merchants and affiliates, recently launched an exciting new tool for its affiliates–the LinkConnector Widget (http://www.linkconnector.com/widget.htm). The new widget allows an affiliate to easily convert their merchant product feeds into an attractive, dynamic widget application. While easy to set up, the widget provides powerful customization capabilities for affiliates, and advanced search features for their users. (more…)
Sorry, the looming recession is no laughing matter,
