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Archives for February 2006

Background Checks on Affiliate, Merchant and Network Sites

February 28, 2006 by Shawn Collins

There was much ado last year when The Affiliate List was published, and it included detailed information on affiliates.

The list included publicly available information such as meta page data (title and keywords), inbound traffic sources, outbound traffic URLs, AdWords paid advertising activity, SPAM blacklist status, URLs registered to their IP address and more.

Anyhow, this big peek into the activity made some affiliates very uncomfortable. After all, who wants to let it be known that they are buying domains or bidding on keywords that infringe on trademarks, or if they have a history of SPAM complaints?

This list carries a price of $400, making it cost prohibitive for some merchants.

Enter SiteAdvisor.com. I just came across this site, and it’s helpful in seeing a snapshot of a given site: how much e-mail they send, years in business, estimate of traffic, whether they offer downloads, outbound links, and any annoyances like pop-ups. Plus, reviews from visitors.

Best of all, it’s free. Just plug in the domain name like this (replacing affiliatetip.com with the domain you wish to search):

http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/affiliatetip.com

This site can be helpful for affiliate managers, as they go through affiliate applications. It’s not perfect, but it’s another source you can use to gain some intelligence and perform due diligence. For example, have a look at the report on 180solutions: http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/180solutions.com

SiteAdvisor.com can also help affiliates. Affiliates can take a look at data on merchants and networks to get some insight before working with these sites.

For instance, take a look at the profiles for Advertising.com, Chitika, My Wedding Favors, NetTraction, and Vitamin Shoppe.

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Filed Under: Affiliate Resources

Help Somebody in Affiliate Marketing

February 27, 2006 by Shawn Collins

I was chatting with some affiliate managers recently, and they asked if there were any sort of mentor programs to help out new affiliate managers.

I was stumped. It seemed like a natural enough idea, but there isn’t really anything organized to help the newbies. Sure, they can lurk and participate in forums with other affiliate managers, but offline interactions aren’t really being leveraged.

This brought me back to the days when I first moved up to NYC. I joined up with the Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City. It was a very fulfilling experience – small amount of time commitment and some great rewards. In ROI terms, it was a great success.

So why not bring this sort of effort to the affiliate marketers in need?

Off the top of my head, the only group of affiliate managers to regularly meet is the Bay Area Affiliate Managers Coalition.

Way back when, I organized regular meetings for NYC affiliate managers, and this acted as an open environment for affiliate marketers to network and learn in person. But the New York Affiliate Manager Coalition, later the United States Affiliate Manager Coalition, went silent at some point.

So who’s with me? Is there interest from affiliates and affiliate managers to link up and learn from some of the more experienced folks in the industry?

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Ask Shawn Collins: Web Sites More Profitable Than PPCs for Affiliates?

February 25, 2006 by Shawn Collins

Q: I have been running a couple of PPC campaigns via Google Adwords with mixed success. I do not own a Web site and hence I have been trying my luck as an affiliate via Google Adwords. Having read some advice on clixGalore, I am aware that it is more profitable to own a Web site and promote merchants via the Web site. I have not the faintest clue how to go about this. I would like to create a Web site through which I could promote merchants. Any pointers with regards to resources I could use to help me achieve this wish? Also just wondered if you had any tips regards choosing a successful merchant to run an Adwords campaign for and advice regards which affiliate network hosts the most profitable merchants.

Shawn CollinsA: Wow – you squeezed a lot of questions in there. I’m not sure who’s giving the advice at clixGalore, but you should take it with a grain of salt. There is no absolute rule on a Web site being more profitable than PPC arbitrage for affiliate marketers.

In my opinion, running a Web site is certainly more of a long-term play, and can net a steadier income than PPC, but like working with Adwords, you’ll need to invest time, strategy and money into a site to realize a profit.

Figure out a niche that really interests you, and work up a marketing plan to build a site around it. There are many ways to build a successful affiliate site, including the cultivation of a community, authoring unique content, and leveraging data feeds.

However you do it, you will need to add in your own unique value proposition to make your site a destination.

As far as getting started, I’d suggest checking out the Affiliate Classroom. This is a great resource for learning the ropes.

After you’ve gotten your affiliate site established, I’ve posted dozens of affiliate tips to market your site.

With regards to the merchants best suited to being promoted through Adwords and which affiliate network hosts the most profitable merchants, there is no black and white answer.

Any merchant that is selling a popular, desirable product or service can be worked successfully through PPC arbitrage. It’s all a matter of testing. Also, your results can vary based on the rules for any given merchant – be sure to read the terms to avoid violating the agreement.

There are many networks out there, and they all have their share of fantastic affiliate programs and dogs. My personal experience has been that programs that pay per lead work better for PPCs than those that pay per sale. But again – test all sorts of programs, copy, etc. to determine what’s best for you.

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Filed Under: Ask Shawn Collins

180 Reasons Why Ben Edelman is Irresponsible

February 24, 2006 by Shawn Collins

Anti-spyware crusader Ben Edelman recently posted a report that documented how he “received a nonconsensual installation of 180solutions Zango software through a security exploit.”

Edelman cited a press release from 180 Solutions stating that “Since September, all new affiliates have been required to distribute only the S3-enabled search assistants, while existing affiliates have been given until December 31, 2005, to switch over to the new distribution format at which point no affiliate will receive payment from 180solutions for distributing previous versions of the search software.”

S3, short for Safe and Secure Search, is a “new, more secure search assistant technology” touted by 180 Solutions.

Anyhow, 180 Solutions was not happy with Edelman’s recent findings, and they’ve defended their practices, while calling Ben irresponsible, according to TechWeb News.

The retort from 180 Solutions found Edelman to be irresponsible, as they compared his reporting to researchers that disclose bugs on software before a patch is ready.

According to reliable sources, Edelman has also committed irresponsible acts such as neglecting to put out the trash on the appropriate day and going to the express line at the grocery store with more than ten items. Clean up your act, Mr. Edelman!

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Google Page Creator – Next Big Thing for Affiliates?

February 23, 2006 by Shawn Collins

Google has launched a new project in Beta that should be a hit with HTML challenged affiliates – the Google Page Creator.

According to the Google Page Creator site at http://pages.google.com, “Google Page Creator is a free online tool that makes it easy for anyone to create and publish useful, attractive web pages in just minutes.

  • No technical knowledge required. Build high-quality web pages without having to learn HTML or use complex software.
  • What you see is what you’ll get. Edit your pages right in your browser, seeing exactly how your finished product will look every step along the way.
  • Don’t worry about hosting. Your web pages will live on your own site at http://yourgmailusername.googlepages.com

I took it for a test drive and whipped out a page in a matter of minutes – see http://affiliate.manager.googlepages.com

The tool is very easy to use and has limited capabilities, which is probably a good thing for anybody that doesn’t want to fool with real code.

It reminds me a big of synthaSite, the affiliate site builder from Vinny Lingham.

But don’t get too excited about the Google Page Creator, as the site is currently carrying the following message: Due to heavy demand, we are unable to offer new accounts for today.

Check back tomorrow to get your account going. In the meantime, see http://pages.google.com/-/about.html for more information.

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Filed Under: Affiliate Resources

We Can All Just Get Along in Affiliate Marketing

February 22, 2006 by Shawn Collins

Last year, there was much drama in affiliate marketing world as Primary Ads filed suit against Direct Response Technologies.

But on February 21, 2006, both parties settled the lawsuit on terms they have chosen to keep confidential.

The lawsuit came out of a suddenly contentious relationship between Primary Ads and Direct Response Technologies after Primary Ads was acquired CGI Holding Corporation, d/b/a Think Partnership Inc., a company who also counted KowaBunga! Technologies as a subsidiary.

KowaBunga! is a competitor to Direct Response Technologies.

On the same day that the settlement was announced, PrimaryAds also announced that they were transitioning to KowaBunga’s MyCPANet network platform.

Here’s to a little slice of Kumbaya in affiliate marketing.

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Ask Shawn Collins: Link Cloaking Techniques

February 20, 2006 by Shawn Collins

Q: I’ve been reading a lot lately about affiliate link hijacking and link cloaking. Do you recommend any particular link cloaking software or technique and/or are there any particular ones to steer clear of? I saw one ‘Covert Affiliate’ that in addition to cloaking affiliate links puts a tracking cookie on the visitors computer even if they don’t click on the link. They talk about having the ‘unfair advantage’… that concerns me that if you’re doing something ‘sneaky’ that it could actually bite you in the butt down the road.

Shawn CollinsA: There are two ways you can go about cloaking your links: set them up yourself or buy a program to automate the process.

Personally, I do it myself. In some cases, I use a little mouseover script, but that’s just to trick the casual observer – it won’t beat the schemers and spiders.

In the past, I’ve also used frames to cloak affiliate links. This has it’s limitations, but it’s quick and easy.

Another method is to purchase a domain and use the domain registrars forwarding service (free with most domain registrars) to have the domain redirect to your affiliate link.

The technique I use most often is the .htaccess redirect. An .htaccess file is a plain ASCII text file you place in the root directory of a Unix server.

The .htaccess technique is much easier than using other redirects, because there’s no HTML required. All of your redirects are in one text file.

One thing to bear in mind when cloaking your links is that you should add the afsrc parameter, so legitimate adware affiliates will recognize that you are an affiliate and not overwrite your cookie.

If you want to get a program that will help you set up the cloaked links, check out CBmall and search for cloaker or cloaking, and you will see lots of programs to consider.

As far as that program you mentioned that “puts a tracking cookie on the visitors computer even if they don’t click on the link” – stay far away from that one.

That is known as cookie stuffing, and it’s a big taboo. By doing that sort of thing, you’re no better than the thieves you’re trying to beat in the first place.

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Affiliate Classroom Magazine – February 2006

February 18, 2006 by Shawn Collins

The February 2006 issue of I was just reading Anik Singal’s Affiliate Classroom magazine is now available.

The feature story is Inside European Affiliate Marketing, which starts out with the bold declaration that the European market is potentially as lucrative as the U.S. market for affiliate marketing.

There are some compelling arguments there. For instance, the article points out that Europeans are online an average of five hours a week, and they spent 17% more time online in 2005 than in 2004.

As the eyeballs in for Euro-sites grow, so do the ad spends. In the first six months of 2005, online ad spending in Europe was estimated to be nearly three billion Euros.

The most popular goods and services, based on purchases online, in Europe are:

  • Travel tickets
  • Holidays
  • Books
  • Theatre/Cinema tickets
  • Electrical goods
  • Concert/Festival tickets
  • CDs
  • Insurance
  • Clothes
  • DVDs

The February 2006 issue also includes some interesting articles on Google AdSense arbitrage, SEO, and tactics for driving traffic.

Check out the new issue at http://www.affiliateclassroom.com/magazine.php

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Filed Under: Affiliate News

Tools for Recruiting Affiliates

February 17, 2006 by Shawn Collins

Q: I would like to ask a couple questions about affiliate recruiting software: have you used them and what kind of results can I expect? I hear these are the top solutions: Affiliate Finder Pro, Super Affiliate Tracker, Internet Success Spider, and Link Capture. The prices are all very different, there seems to be no gauge in quality based on price here, so I am looking for a recommendation based on any knowledge you may have of the software/program itself–not based on “friendships” with any of the developers. I appreciate it.

Shawn CollinsA: I’ve personally used the Internet Success Spider and Link Capture, and settled on Link Capture as my tool of choice.

The reason for these choices is that they were the products available years ago when I was looking for something. Link Capture cost more than the Internet Success Spider, but it’s also more robust.

I’d urge you to take the free trial for any of these products to get a better idea about which suits you best. I know Link Capture has a free trial – can’t say for sure about all of the competing products.

Another tool to consider is ARELIS. It’s a good affiliate prospecting tool with competitive pricing and a free trial.

As far as the results you can expect, I would liken these affiliate recruiting tools to a hammer that you’re going to use to hang up a picture. It’s not up to the hammer as to how well you do it, rather it’s your use of the hammer that will dictate the results.

Each of the products out there will help you generate lists of prospective affiliates – it’s just a matter of how much data you are hoping to gather on each prospect. In general, the more you want, the more the affiliate recruiting tool costs.

One word of warning – many of these tools offer the ability to e-mail these sites that come up in your queries. Unless they offer functionality to send out e-mail that is CAN-SPAM compliant, I would not suggest mailing from any of the products.

Personally, I use them to build target lists that I then approach either by phone or direct mail.

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Affiliate Managers Can Get on the Fast Track to Blogging with KowaBunga! Blog Services

February 16, 2006 by Shawn Collins

KB! Blog ServicesKowaBunga! has announced a new service for online businesses that wish to utilize the power of blogs to bolster their online efforts, whether it’s for brand building, communication with their customers, or to simply help sell more of their products and services.

The new service, KB! Blog Services from KowaBunga!, was built to help merchants to create and launch a blog that can improve their online business.

Starting next week, specific blog packages will be available that focus on affiliate recruitment and training.

More details and an interesting white paper at http://www.business-blog.com

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Filed Under: Affiliate Resources

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