Shawn Collins' Blog

Affiliate marketing and other stuff from Shawn Collins, co-founder of Affiliate Summit.

Archives for January 2007

Are Affiliate Programs Pwned by Google?

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There is a lively discussion at Cost Per News about bloggers, affiliate marketing, and whether the twain shall meet.

Crazy guyIt all started with Sam Harrelson’s thesis, “Are Bloggers the New Affiliates?”. Sam wonders is bloggers are the new long tail. I think he’s on to something, but I think that question could have just as well been asked a few years ago.

That is when I started focusing on recruiting bloggers as affiliates, especially those monetizing their blogs with BlogAds at the time.

Anyhow, the blogger as affiliate issue was a continuation of an earlier discussion on Cost Per News about working the long tail.

There was a good point there from Jeff Doak of KowaBunga! Technologies:

“I’ve said several times before that until affiliate marketing is as easy as AdSense, there are going to be issues with bloggers adopting the model.”

I’d say two of the most renowned affiliate programs out there are Amazon.com and eBay, and both are doing some interesting things that make it as easy for bloggers to promote them as it is to run Google AdSense ads.

In a recent interview on the Affiliate Thing show, Gene Kavner, former World-Wide Director of the Amazon Associates Program, described Amazon’s Omakase Links for affiliates:

“Omakase links is another innovation that Amazon has made recently where you can basically put a little piece of code on your site, and a Amazon ad will appear, and it will base a product on not only the content end out of your website, but also on what the visitors have typically seen on other sites, and what they’ve bought from Amazon in the past for example. So Amazon makes a decision to put an ad that will generate the most amount of revenue to the affiliate based on who the customer is, and what the website it is that their typically visiting.”

eBay also has a link type for the AdSense loyal, as explained recently on the Affiliate Thing show by Lily Shen, Senior Manager of eBay’s U.S. Affiliate Program:

“We are actually looking to launch in probably the first half of 2007 a product called AdContext, which is a contextual advertising product that will allow affiliates and our publishers to basically take some code and put the product on the site, and we’ll essentially call the content from the site and surface up the most listings that will help our affiliates be most effective. We’re currently in beta mode at the moment.”

I think working the long tail should be automatic for any affiliate manager, and just as Amazon.com and eBay are doing, tools should be made available to affiliates to make the entry into affiliate marketing as seamless as possible.

Ask Shawn Collins: Time to Close the Affiliate Program

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Q: After three months, my company’s CEO is getting ancy regarding our affiliate campaign. We’re a somewhat niched market and we’ve had an account with Commission Junction that has so far yielded very little activity and even fewer sales. At what point should we simply pull the plug on our affiliate campaign?

Shawn CollinsA: One thing I hope you did before you got started was to do some competitive research in your niche.

This is something I always do when a prospective client comes to me about outsourcing their affiliate program. I like to be sure an affiliate program makes sense for a company.

One indicator is whether your competitors have an affiliate program. This is certainly not a perfect measure, but if they don’t have an affiliate program, this might lead you to question why.

If your competitors do have affiliate programs, be sure that yours is competitive or better than theirs.

Also, look at your current sales without an affiliate program. Affiliates are generally not going to make or break a company, but they can bring in a bunch of incremental sales or leads.

If you already have a vibrant business going, it’s probably safe to assume an affiliate program would be a good addition to your marketing arsenal.

This doesn’t help you, but hopefully some future folks looking into affiliate programs will dig a little before deciding they need an affiliate program.

So anyhow, your affiliate program isn’t working out after three months. I’d generally set an expectation of 3-6 months for an affiliate program to gain momentum, but that’s based on the affiliate program being proactively managed.

I’ve seen too many companies assume their affiliate program can run on auto-pilot. That’s not the case, and if you’ve been operating in that fashion, it’s time to allocate more resources to the affiliate program.

I would recommend running your affiliate program with three ongoing directives: recruit, activate, and retain affiliates.

It’s essential that you recruit affiliates into your affiliate program, have a process in place to activate them, and then work to retain them.

Affiliate marketing isn’t like other marketing channels. Money alone cannot power it – you need to focus on the relationships of your affiliates, too.

If you’ve been doing all of this and you simply cannot gain traction, you might want to consider bringing in a consultant to troubleshoot the affiliate program and relaunch it.

Now if that doesn’t work, put the poor thing out of it’s misery and move on.

Got Your Business Cards for Affiliate Summit?

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Sam Harrelson of Cost Per News has created a new blog tag virus thing where he’s asking people to share the business cards they are going to use at Affiliate Summit next week.

It’s timely in that if you who haven’t gotten a whole bunch of business cards set aside for Affiliate Summit, you’d better act on it now. Lots of places can still get them with quick turnaround – iPrint, Vista Print, your local print shop, etc.

Anyhow, Sam explains how he makes a custom business card for every person he meets.

My horrible handwriting would never stand up to that sort of effort, so I’ve gone in a bit of a different direction, and I’m doing an experiment of sorts with my cards.

The are modeled after a football card with a big picture, name and stuff on the front and then some details on the back.

shawncard

I got these from the Cubicle Card Company. While they cost more than typical business cards, I love them because they look and feel like football cards. I used some back in 2004 and a lot of people have told me they still have that one pinned up at their desk.

Anyhow, mine was focused on my past experience and then my colleague, Amy Rodriguez, has one that is more focused on her personality.

amycard

I’m curious to see if there is a different reaction from people when they receive the two approaches.

Maybe Amy’s “style” of throwing a football without having her hand on the laces(!) can even be a conversation starter. Forgive her, she’s a Redskins fan.

Since Sam made this a virus, here are three people I’ll sneeze it on over to share their business card strategy:

Marty M. Fahncke
Scott Jangro
Vinny Lingham

Ask Shawn Collins: Click to Call Affiliates

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Q: Have you seen any affiliate providers offering click-to-call functionality in the links they offer their affiliates? This would enable the site visitor to make an immediate phone call to the vendor’s telesales assuming they had one. A very fast call to action. I imagine the compensation formula could be complicated. Any thoughts?

Shawn CollinsA: The only affiliate solution provider I have noticed offering this sort of functionality has been MyAP from KowaBunga! Technologies. That’s not to say that others do not offer it, but if they do, I am not aware of it.

I was using this technology a while back when I managed the affiliate program for InstrumentPro.com. The way it appeared to the consumer was that the affiliate ID would display with the phone number on the site.

So if somebody clicked on this link, the number would be populated with the phone number at the top of the site: www.instrumentpro.com/?kbid=1002

The header on the site would then read: Call Toll Free: 800.805.0852, Mention Code 1002, M-F 9-5 PST.

Assuming the customer mentions the code, then the merchant would be able to flag that sale as being referred by affiliate 1002 and compensate them.

Ask Shawn Collins: Best Affiliate Software

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Q: I am interested in using affiliate software for my new start up. We don’t have much money to use an ASP. So we decided to go for a software we can load on our server and twitch? Can you give me some pointers which software to purchase?

Shawn CollinsA: As you mention, there are two ways to go with the technology that powers your affiliate program, known as an affiliate solution provider, the affiliate networks or affiliate software that can be installed on your server.

I would caution against making a decision on the technology based on your current financial situation. The reason being that you should plan for your first technology to be your long-term technology. This is because affiliates aren’t too happy about migrating to new technology platforms later on.

Anyhow, if you are dead set on hosting the software on your server, there are two programs I would recommend: 1ShoppingCart.com and Groundbreak.com’s Ultimate Affiliate.

There are plenty of others out there, but these are two that I’ve used and been satisfied with their functionality.

Interview with Super Affiliate Wendy Shepherd

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Lisa Picarille, Editor-in-Chief of Revenue Magazine, and myself recently sat down for a chat with super affiliate Wendy Shepherd, and asked a bunch of questions about how she got into affiliate marketing.

alesis-usb_podcast-microphone-hero-350Wendy is an affiliate marketing dynamo who managed to grow her affiliate marketing business to great heights in her spare time.

Not that there was spare time, mind you. Wendy built her sites and achieved prosperity as an affiliate marketer in stolen moments here and there when she wasn’t home schooling her three boys.

She is a self-taught Internet entrepreneur who attended 2 years of community college in Business Administration.

Audio of the interview was broadcast on the Affiliate Thing show. Download or stream it at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/affiliate-thing.

Affiliate Summit West 2007 is Sold Out

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Affiliate Summit West 2007, taking place January 21-23 in Las Vegas, has sold out.

Affiliate Summit WestRegistrations will be open sporadically as cancellations are processed. Otherwise, there has been a secondary market on eBay for Affiliate Summit passes in the past, so try there.

In the event registrations are open onsite, based on last minute cancellations, the rate will be $1,949 for a full conference registration or $499 for an exhibit hall only pass.

Some resources for those who are registered for Affiliate Summit:

  • Be sure to join the Affiliate Summit Social Network
  • Download 10 Tips to Get Maximum Value from Affiliate Summit to your MP3 player
  • Put your logo on Brian Littleton
  • Get a sneak peek at the Affiliate Summit 2007 West program
  • Check out the agenda and add sessions to your calendar
  • Listen to the Affiliate Thing show for updates and news on Affiliate Summit

Looking forward to seeing you in Las Vegas!

Ask Shawn Collins: Launching a CPA Network

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Q: We’ll be launching a new CPA Affiliate Network early in 2007. Where would should we publicize this for maximum impact?

Shawn CollinsA: It’s too late now, because they are sold out, but I think a booth at Affiliate Summit would have been a great way to make a splash for you.

If there is still availability, you should check out booth and sponsorship options at the ad:tech show in San Francisco this coming April.

Also, do some strategic media buying for quick visibility. Try the PPC search engines, CPA Tipline, and Cost Per News.

Speaking of Cost Per News, the head honcho there, Sam Harrelson, has a CPA network background and he’s available for consulting.

Most of all, you’d better be doing something unique, because it’s a pretty crowded landscape. It’s essential to have something that sets you apart to truly achieve maximum impact.

Fear and Loathing at Affiliate Summit

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Affiliate Summit is coming up soon (January 21-23), and things are getting tight. Just a handful of passes remain and Bally’s Las Vegas is sold out.

Some affiliate marketers are staying in interesting, alternate accommodations for the conference. Sam Harrelson mentioned on his Cost Per News blog that he and Wayne Porter will be camping out at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.

Contact Sam if you want to be a part of the gonzo affiliate marketing magic.

And for anybody who requires creature comforts like toilets free of lizards and snakes, there is a list of Las Vegas hotels at Vegas.com.

Register for Affiliate Summit before the show sells out.

Ask Shawn Collins: I Can’t See My Google AdWords

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Q: I advertise affiliate links using Google AdWords. The problem is that I cant find my text ads on Google when I type the keywords I bid for. Is it possible that Google doesn’t allow my ads to display? What can I do to get over this?

Shawn CollinsA: There are a handful of reasons why this might be happening, and I would suggest contacting the Google AdWords team about your particular issue.

Some of the reasons you would not be seeing your ads could be that your daily budget is lower than recommended, your keyword(s) are inactive, or your ad was disapproved.

When you login to the AdWords interface, you can see a snapshot of your campaigns. At that point, you can see if there is an activity for a given campaign.

It can be confusing, because an ad may show as “Active” even though it’s been disapproved. So click on the Campaign Name and then click on the Ad Group Name. At that point, there should be an alert at the top of the page if the ad was disapproved.

See the AdWords Editorial Guidelines for more information on reasons why an ad could be disapproved.