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Archives for December 2005

Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants Turns Five Today

December 31, 2005 by Shawn Collins

It was five years ago today that I penned the final words of Successful Affiliate Marketing for Merchants. Just three days before, I registered the domain, AffiliateManager.net, and launched it in early 2001 as a companion to the book.

successful affiliate marketing for merchants coverBack then, I touched on the changes we were seeing in 2000 as money was disappearing from the online advertising realm after the dot bomb. Ever the optimist, I stated that “Performance-based advertising promises to deliver increased brand awareness, lower customer acquisition costs, and increased sales.”

Many things have changed in the industry in five years. Even four months after the manuscript was turned in, and the book hit the shelves, there were lots of unfortunate references in the book. As the ink was drying on the pages, Dynamic Trade was renamed Performics, while a host of other companies mentioned had ceased to exist.

While parts of the text are a capsule in time, many of the basic tenets still hold true to me. Then as now, I think it’s a useful education for an affiliate manager to also try their hand as an affiliate to get a 180 degree education. And I continue to employ an Animal Farm approach to affiliate management, where all affiliates are equal, but some are more equal (the super affiliates).

One thing I suggested a half decade ago is still neglected by many. On page 161 of the book, I covered “Activating the Non-Participating Affiliate.” Seriously, those thousands of affiliates that haven’t served an impression in the two years since joining are not going to magically become active. Do something about it – get an offline campaign together and give them the reasons why they should promote your company.

Outsourcing an affiliate program was touched upon then, and two of the folks I cited, Keith Kochberg and Linda Woods, are still going strong. Bravo!

There was a chapter dedicated to communicating with affiliates that still has some gems, save for the Webrings references. Another chapter discussed supporting the affiliates, and it included the idea of creating a site that is dedicated to supporting the affiliates.

This is something I came across when Beth Kirsch was doing it back in 2000 (we met at the legendary Be Free Semester at Sea), and I’ve been doing it myself ever since.

When the book came out, I did not know of things like adware, cookie stuffing, and data feeds. There are many terms not referenced in the glossary of the book that are big issues now. Recently, I created an affiliate marketing wiki called Affilipedia to enable the whole industry to contribute their definitions, so we’ll have an open, living resource.

As the hours closed in on the new year back then, I scrambled my mind for something to write in the dedication of the book. The last words I wrote before clicking send and shipping all of my files over to Que Publishing were:

For my wife, Vicky, a masterpiece of nature and the best ROI my heart will ever know.

I’ve never written truer words before or after. I wish a happy and healthy 2006 to all.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

The Only Constant in Affiliate Marketing is Change

December 30, 2005 by Shawn Collins

The following is what Richard Kohl of MyPartyMall.com had to say in response to the question, What is the Future of Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing as we know it today, will change over the next few years. One change I see coming is a single shopping cart for the affiliate site for all merchants. Consumers will only need to use their credit card once.

More merchants presently online will start an affiliate program as more and better in-house affiliate software comes available.

Many more merchants will start in-house affiliate program and in this way will be able to provide their publishers higher commissions.

As Pay Per Click continues to grow, search engines will become more friendlier to affiliate publishers as they will need more search results on every page.


How would you answer the question, What is the Future of Affiliate Marketing? There are no right or wrong answers.

The author of any response that is published at affiliatetip.com or affiliatesummit.com will receive their choice of one of the following:

  • Size: small ‘It’s an affiliate thing, you wouldn’t understand.’ t-shirt
  • Size: medium ‘It’s an affiliate thing, you wouldn’t understand.’ t-shirt
  • Affiliate Summit coffee mug
  • Affiliate Summit optical mouse for a notebook computer

Share your thoughts now at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=281531467120

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

The Spooks That Messed Up Affiliate Marketing

December 29, 2005 by Shawn Collins

According to a report from the Associated Press, the National Security Agency’s (NSA) site has been placing persistent cookies (cookies that remain on a user’s computer until they expire or are removed by the user), despite strict federal rules banning most of them.

These cookies from the spy agency were outed by a privacy activist and quickly disappeared from the NSA’s site. According to Don Weber, an NSA spokesman, the forbidden cookies were the result of a recent software upgrade.

Until this past Tuesday, the cookies could have remained on user’s computers until, gasp, the year 2035.

Scary, isn’t it? Well, not to you and me, because we know that these tracking cookies are not the scary beasts they are made out to be by some in the media.

But this sort of story can certainly freak out the average online shopper, and make it all the more difficult for affiliates to earn commission on return days.

After all, for anybody freaked out by the prospect of spies sneaking into their computer, dumping all their cookies is an easy click away.

“Considering the surveillance power the NSA has, cookies are not exactly a major concern,” said Ari Schwartz, associate director at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Hopefully the public pays more attention to Mr. Schwartz than the shock and awe of the AP.

For anybody attending Affiliate Summit 2006, Ari Schwartz will be giving a presentation, “Spyware: The Effects on Your Brand and Your Pocket,” and this issue may well provide some fodder.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

2006 Will Be The Year of the Affiliate

December 28, 2005 by Shawn Collins

The following is what Valeriu Popescu of Internet Marketing Profits Center had to say in response to the question, What is the Future of Affiliate Marketing?

The future of affiliate programs? There is only one way: to continue their growing! And I’m thinking not necessary to the number of programs, as more business owner will discover their profit potential.

I’m also consider the value of the profits they made, the increase number of new affiliates for 2006, the better promotion available.

I believe 2006 will be the year of affiliate programs. From my point of view, affiliate programs are right now as a 14 years old teenage. They are not attain the maturity as search engine industry does.

As a matter of fact, affiliate programs are NOT an industry — yet! I expect 2006 to be the year of the recognition.

Beyond those considerations, in the next year will thrive those merchants who best understood their affiliate needs. Into a continuing growing competition and hunting for “super” affiliates, there is a missing point: the leant dormant affiliates.

I believe the winners will be those merchants who will be able to wake-up the masses of regular — non profitable — affiliates.

The battlefield will be around the idea of creating new easy-to-use promotions so affiliates will be able to use them without too much effort. Will thrive those who will implement and experience new ways for affiliates to advertise, those who will put a lot of effort into training affiliates, those who will innovate new ways to bring affiliate traffic, those who will be more interactive with affiliate sites.

Will thrive those merchants with starlight affiliate support and perfect automation of their sales process.

Lastly, the winners will know that online training is not enough. They will go offline and meet affiliate face-to- face! (Don’t you have an Affiliate Manager? It’s time to hire one — quickly!) And that’s only a couple of things I WANT to happen to the affiliate programs in 2006!


How would you answer the question, What is the Future of Affiliate Marketing? There are no right or wrong answers.

The author of any response that is published at affiliatetip.com or affiliatesummit.com will receive their choice of one of the following:

  • Size: small ‘It’s an affiliate thing, you wouldn’t understand.’ t-shirt
  • Size: medium ‘It’s an affiliate thing, you wouldn’t understand.’ t-shirt
  • Affiliate Summit coffee mug
  • Affiliate Summit optical mouse for a notebook computer

Share your thoughts now at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=281531467120

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Ask Shawn Collins: Searching for an Affiliate Program Bogeyman

December 27, 2005 by Shawn Collins

Q: How do affiliate programs code their databases to keep sales from registering? I know it happens, I’ve been doing this way too long to not recognize it. What can I do to convince my largest providers to set my number so that I receive credit for ALL of my sales?

Shawn CollinsA: I can’t say definitively that this has never happened, but I can tell you that I’ve never heard of such an affiliate marketing urban legend.

While many affiliates tend to assign their lack of commission to a bogeyman du jour, I am afraid the harsh reality is that most affiliates earn little or nothing.

Over the years, I’ve worked with quite a few affiliate programs and tested a variety of different marketing techniques to drive traffic.

Even with contextually relevant traffic, some affiliate programs were dogs and others had amazing returns.

My big secret has been to test, test, and test. If an affiliate program doesn’t convert well, I dump them and move on.

Before you get all worked up with conspiracy theories, I’d suggest conducting an audit of the links you are featuring on your site(s). Which affiliate programs have earned money for you in the past three months? Drop everybody who isn’t on that list.

Examine whether all of the companies you are promoting make sense for your audience. A good way to figure this out is to simply ask your visitors which are their favorite companies.

Also consider the placement you are giving to the affiliate links. Are they buried on pages that don’t get a whole lot of traffic? Are those pages well indexed in the search engines with quality, unique content?

Why should somebody come to your site(s) in the first place, and why would they come back. Best of all, why would they be compelled to shop through you?

Or you can just chalk it up to a bunch of thieves that are out to get you with their elaborate algorithms and schemes.

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Filed Under: Ask Shawn Collins

Affiliate Summit Pass on eBay – Face Value

December 27, 2005 by Shawn Collins

There is an auction on eBay for an Affiliate Summit pass at face value.

The auction ends on Thursday, so if you are still looking for a pass, be sure to check it out.

Alternately, you can add your name to the Affiliate Summit wait list. In the event of cancellations, passes will be made available to people in the order they joined the wait list.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Dear Santa, Thanks for Affiliates

December 25, 2005 by Shawn Collins

Dear Santa –

I just wanted to thank you for giving new affiliates each year. I know some of my fellow affiliate managers don’t respect and appreciate affiliates – some even regarding them as a necessary evil. But I know the truth – they are the cogs in the affiliate marketing machine.

Without all of those content sites, SEO wizards, bloggers, PPC arbitragists, data feed specialists, legitimate e-mailers, etc., there would be nothing to this business. So you’ve done well again this year in delivering more affiliates.

Also, nice job putting coal in the stockings of the thin affiliates, spammers, cookie stuffers, fraudulent clickers, illegal software installers, affiliate link redirectors, and the like.

We don’t want Scut Farkus and his gang in this business. Good riddance.

Until next year,
Shawn Collins

P.S.
Thanks for the official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Ask Shawn Collins: Demystifying Commission Thresholds

December 24, 2005 by Shawn Collins

Q: I am looking forward to using affiliate programs, but I have a small question… what does the commission threshold mean? Does it mean that the maximum commission is $100 dollars (for example)?

Shawn CollinsA: The commission threshold is the minimum accumulated commission an affiliate must earn to trigger payment from an affiliate program. This amount is different for different affiliate programs.

For instance, many affiliate programs will issue a commission check to an affiliate after the affiliate earns $25 in commission.

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Magic 8 Ball, Is Affiliate Marketing Growing? Signs Point to Yes

December 23, 2005 by Shawn Collins

The following is what Debbie L. Johnsen of Rail Europe had to say in response to the question, What is the Future of Affiliate Marketing?

The number of online retailers and service providers with affiliate programs will only increase over the next few years.

Affiliate programs have become a major revenue stream for so many companies, that it has become must for online marketing.

As PPC search ads get more expensive, I believe that more affiliates will educate themselves in SEO and other alternatives means of marketing their sites.


How would you answer the question, What is the Future of Affiliate Marketing? There are no right or wrong answers.

The author of any response that is published at affiliatetip.com or affiliatesummit.com will receive their choice of one of the following:

  • Size: small ‘It’s an affiliate thing, you wouldn’t understand.’ t-shirt
  • Size: medium ‘It’s an affiliate thing, you wouldn’t understand.’ t-shirt
  • Affiliate Summit coffee mug
  • Affiliate Summit optical mouse for a notebook computer

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Affiliate Competitions: Success Secrets for Program Managers

December 22, 2005 by Shawn Collins

Anik Singal, the founder and CEO of Affiliate Classroom, has published a case study for affiliate managers on running competitions to activate and incent affiliates.

Angry dog

The case study from Anik covers the following areas:

  • Secrets to Boosting Affiliate Sales
  • Affiliate Business Boosting Method (ABBM)
  • Finding the Right Incentives
  • The Way to Maximize Results
  • Analyzing, Conceptualizing, Planning
  • Promoting the Competition
  • The Golden Formula
  • Your Blueprint for Success

The report, Affiliate Competitions: Success Secrets for Program Managers, is available at affiliateclassroom.com/AffiliateCompetitions.pdf

Sorry – this is a third party site, and they no longer have the link available.

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