Archives for July 2005

The Affiliate Marketing BBQ in New Jersey is taking place next Sunday at 2 PM.

If you wish to attend and have not been in touch with me, please shoot me an email at shawn (at) affiliatetip.com with your name and the number of people coming.

I’ll be supplying all of the drinks, meat, etc. – guests are welcome (but not required) to bring a side dish or dessert.

The address is 49 Rutherford Road, Berkeley Heights, NJ 07922. Any questions, call 908-522-5574

Here are driving directions from within NJ:

– Exit 14 on the New Jersey Turnpike to 78 West
– Take exit 43 to New Providence/Berkeley Heights
– Bear right at Diamond Hill Rd and go 0.4 miles
– Turn left at Mountain Ave and go 1.1 mi
– Turn right at Snyder Ave and go 0.2 mi
– Turn left at Coolidge Dr and go 0.1 mi
– Turn right at Rutherford Rd (house is on the left) and go 0.1 mi

So far, we’ve got a crowd of about 20 – mixture of affiliates and affiliate managers. Feel free to bring family and friends (if they can stand all the geeking out about affiliate marketing).

The following is what Ely Asher of the Sins of… or Achievements of a Corporate Stupidity blog had to say in response the the question, What is wrong with affiliate marketing and how can it be improved?

It’s amazing, but I just published an entry on this topic on “Sins of… or Achievements of a Corporate Stupidity” blog.

In short, it’s a simple math. There could be people who do well, but there are too few of them. The rest of us have to hit the dust.

Suppose a merchant gets in 1 year 1600 affiliates as some affiliate engines suggest. How much he will make? Let, say, $50,000 a month — quite a hefty amount, isn’t it?

Now do the math. If he pays all these money to his affiliates, each of them will get on average $50,000/1,600 = $31.125, yes, 31 dollar and 12 and a half penny a month.

Of course, this calculation uses pretty much a dotted line for estimates, but in essence, the message is clear: it’s very tough to sell on Internet, even if you sell your own merchandize, why do you think selling for mere 10% of that money will be any easier?

How would you answer the question, What is wrong with affiliate marketing and how can it be improved? There are no right or wrong answers – just opinions that can help improve the industry.

The author of any response that is published at affiliatetip.com or affiliatesummit.com will receive a limited edition “It’s an affiliate thing, you wouldn’t understand.” t-shirt.

Share your thoughts now at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=56601070891

Starting on August 1st, affiliates of CPAEmpire will be additionally compensated for the traffic they are sending to participating campaigns.

CPAEmpire has announced their Thank You Affiliates(sm) Rewards Program, which will provide affiliates with an opportunity to earn Visa Gift Cards in various denominations based on their revenue productivity.

As far as I know (and don’t be shy about correcting me), this is the first formalized rewards program of it’s kind for affiliates.

The way it will work is that at the end of each month, they will tally up affiliate’s revenue and automatically send them their Visa Gift Card.

Interesting way to differentiate from the competition. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this catch on.

There is no longer a Big 3 in affiliate marketing if KowaBunga Technologies has anything to say about it.

In the past, when discussions of affiliate networks took place, there was inevitably a reference to the Big 3 (CJ, LinkShare and Performics).

However, KowaBunga just made an announcement that is sure to have an impact on the plate tectonics of affiliate marketing.

As of June 27, “The MyAP software has increased in price from the $995 setup and $50 per month to no setup fee and $2,000 per month. This is due to new packages which now include many modules and reflect a change in our target market.”

This change in pricing will not affect existing customers. They will continue to pay their regular monthly fee. This price increase is for new MyAP clients only.

I think this move makes a lot of sense for MyAP. After all, since the launch of version 8 of MYAP, they have rivaled the services and functionality of the Big 3, but their pricepoint was so low that they were not taken seriously as a contender.

For companies that are looking for an economical option, there’s still Affiliate Clicks, which is essentially MyAP lite.

The new target market? I’m thinking it’s the pool of merchants that are shopping for a top tier affiliate solution – the neighborhood that has long been exclusive to CJ, LinkShare, and Performics.

Big 4, anyone?

The following is what Chris Sanderson of AMWSO had to say in response the the question, What is wrong with affiliate marketing and how can it be improved?

Firstly a lack of knowledge sharing, which is understandable, but ultimately holds people back.

If there were more affiliates sharing tips, ideas and ways to do things then we would see more and better affiliates, with better ways of adding value to the transaction chain.

Naturally it’s not considered to be in a good affiliates best interest to help train up potential competitors.

This leaves the work of training affiliates squarely on the shoulders of the Affiliate Managers, and then it comes down to a time, effort and return equation, of how much time can an AM spend on each new affiliate to get them to get beyond the basics.

There are a lot of “Affiliate Manager” Training courses starting up now. Perhaps what is needed are more affiliate focused training sessions done in collaboration with merchants and key affiliates, something Andy Rodriguez and I were chatting about the other day, especially outside the USA in growing markets such as APAC and Europe.

Secondly a lack of sharing, didn’t I say that already, but this time from Merchants, I often see a lack of trust between merchants and affiliates “How will this person use my content”, “how will they use my product data”, “will they steal my ideas”, “will they create competition to me”, as many others have said, Merchants need to look at affiliates as Sales Partners, not anonymous faces in the crowd.

Next, a lack of sharing… again. and here I know I’m guilty as much as the next person, but there needs to be more sharing between merchants and affiliate managers, sure we all share some ideas but there really as yet is no massive pool of information that everyone can dip into, as well as that always elusive affiliate marketing standards, that ultimately can only exist in an atmosphere of sharing.

Last one for the day, BHO and software based systems need to be moved to a different channel, with Ebates / BuyersPort / SAHS sitting side by side with affilates rather than on top of them everyone can benefit (assuming, where relevant, they clean up their distribution methods of course), but if Ebates really do believe they ‘add’ value and help with conversion then let them do that to the benefit of all marketing channels, and not obliterate the traces of where those sales first came from.

Can’t remember if it was Brian Littleton or Jeff Doak who first floated that idea, but it’s a good one, but one only the Networks can resolve.

The following is what Nate Dunn of CommuniKate had to say in response the the question, What is wrong with affiliate marketing and how can it be improved?

There isn’t anything wrong with affiliate marketing. People need to remember that the industry itself in its present form is extemely new!

Sure, affiliate marketing has existed for years, however – when you embrace a current business model like affiliate marketing and extend it with new technology (the web) there is always going to be a shakeout phase.

Many companies are worried about losing market share to their competitors. Couple that with the change in mass marketing media that is occuring today and it creates a ripe environment for change.

The companies and people that develop affiliate marketing right now as it’s in its infancy will be the ones who create significant toll booths on the web as we move into more of a Mobile Commerce scenario in the next 12-24 months.

Remember – 3G, Wi-Fi and other technology that will drive e-commerce and consequently affiliate marketing are really still in the early adopter stage.

There are great things to come for those that continue to develop affiliate marketing and technology through the next wave of economic change!

How would you answer the question, What is wrong with affiliate marketing and how can it be improved? There are no right or wrong answers – just opinions that can help improve the industry.

The author of any response that is published at affiliatetip.com or affiliatesummit.com will receive a limited edition “It’s an affiliate thing, you wouldn’t understand.” t-shirt.

Share your thoughts now at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=56601070891