Shawn Collins' Blog

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

Archives for January 2008

Fashionable Affiliate Networks

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Q: Which are the best affiliate networks for luxury fashion retail?

Shawn CollinsA: I’m not sure if you’ve seen many of my other videos, but I’m not really in tune with luxury fashion. 😉

That said, from my perspective, it seems as though the fashion brands are spread around the various affiliate networks, depending on which country you are in.

I see from your IP address that you are in Spain, so I am not sure if you’re interested in European affiliate networks, American networks, or elsewhere.

I suppose the best method here would be to look for the particular brands you wish to promote, and note which networks they use to power their affiliate programs.

Personally, I don’t know of any affiliate network that is known as the home for luxury fashion retail affiliate programs, so unfortunately I don’t have a quick answer on this one.

Good luck, and please share if you determine that there is a network that is the leader in this vertical.

Affiliates With No Overhead, S.eriously

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Yesterday, on episode 3 of the GeekCast Show, Sam Harrelson mentioned a new site, s.eriously.com.

Want to see what the big boys online make? This site is a collection of checks, deposits, and screenshots of ridiculous amounts of money. These webmasters are multi millionaires and the money is real. The site is pretty damn simple right now, just enjoy and try to not let your jaw drop too hard.

I took a look and it’s decent entertainment for newbies that live on Fantasy Island and dream of a world where net and gross mean the same thing.

But for everybody else, it’s all sizzle and no steak.

While the gigantic check amounts are fun to see, I’d imagine that they are the result of ppc action. That being said, who cares about the raw total?

It’s all about the amount they take home. Something tells me the net income is substantially less.

But hooray for the newbies that have some commission porn.

MLM to Affiliate Marketing

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Q: I was laid off from an MLM company as the General Manager, and I am looking to do something online with my recent skills. Would my thirteen months of experience managing approximately 3,700 MLM people can equate into an affiliate management job? What’s the next step?

Shawn CollinsA: I’d say that if you are really interested in getting into affiliate management, the first thing you should do is to strike any reference to MLM from your resume.

MLM has a negative connotation among affiliate marketers, so it won’t do you any favor to include it in your credentials.

Whether fair or not, lots of folks consider MLM to be one in the same with pyramid schemes and fraud.

In order to be a good affiliate manager, one thing you need is to be a good communicator. That is not something you’ll necessarily have from a previous job. Either you’re a good communicator or you’re not.

Also, one way to get a good view of affiliate marketing is to be an affiliate yourself. Get your hands dirty as an affiliate to better understand what affiliates want and need.

My Story on the Google AdSense Blog

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Shawn CollinsBack in the fall, there was a contest for Google AdSense affiliates to submit a video telling their experiences with AdSense.

While I thought my video was pretty nice with my “many hats” theme, I didn’t win.

The winner of the AdSense Story Contest was Don Vandervort of HomeTips.com.

However, the good folks at Google still featured me on the Inside AdSense blog yesterday. That’s a cool consolation prize by me.

Read my story in a post, AdSense in fashion for those who wear many hats, to see the many ways I earn money with AdSense.

IncrediMail’s Google AdSense Account Reinstated

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IncrediMail has announced that Google has re-instated their AdSense account.

Last week, it was reported that Google closed the IncrediMail AdSense account without explanation, and their stock subsequently dropped by 40%.

Google and IncrediMail are now co-operating with the goal of resolving any remaining compliance issues, if any.

In 2006 and 2007, the Company’s search revenues derived from the Google AdSense Online program made a significant contribution to the Company’s results. Although recent events will have a negative impact on the Company’s first quarter 2008 search-generated revenues, the Company believes that search-generated revenues will continue to be a significant driver of its results, and remains committed to increasing its co-operations with Google and other search companies.

“We are pleased to be able to resolve this set-back so quickly and in such a positive way,” said Yaron Adler, IncrediMail’s CEO. “Google’s co-operation in re-instating our account, together with the feedback we’ve received from other search engine companies, makes us more optimistic than ever regarding the potential of the search business to drive our results, validating our long-term growth strategies.”

Since the announcement that IncrediMail and Google are back together, IncrediMail Ltd (MAIL) stock has been bouncing back, despite an otherwise bear market.

IncrediMail’s CEO, Yaron Adler, came on the Affiliate Thing show today to chat about the reinstatement with Google AdSense.

Recession Proof Marketing

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I was just reading an article I wrote seven years ago for ClickZ, “Affiliate Program Growth Potential.”

Two things struck me when I came across the article. First, a recession doesn’t kill everything in it’s path. Second, I should have started affiliate fatblogging back then, because I hate my picture on ClickZ.

The economy was on the minds of many affiliate marketers back when the article came out. Back on March 10, 2000, just as I was launching the affiliate program for ClubMom.com on Be Free, the Dot-com bubble burst.

I was pretty freaked out that the affiliate program was going to stop before it got started.

But a funny thing happened. The affiliate program continually grew and did great as Dot-coms imploded all over the place.

Anyhow, talk of recession is hot and heavy again, so I figured I’d trot out an excerpt from my old ClickZ article…

It’s official: A declining economy is no enemy of affiliate marketing. James Marciano, founder of Refer-it, once referred to affiliate marketing as “a recession-proof marketing channel,” and he was right on.

The reasoning is that affiliate marketing is all about paying for performance, as opposed to other marketing efforts that are not necessarily tied to measurable ROI.

So don’t sweat it too much. It’s just time to tighten the belts and focus on the marketing channels that give the most bang for their buck.

Now your friends working on CPM… they should start sweating.

Affiliate Marketing Resources

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Q: I recently started as an affiliate manager, and I was wondering if you had any tips on blogs, podcasts and other affiliate marketing resources?

Shawn CollinsA: As far as blogs, I’ve got my own at affiliatetip.com that covers affiliate marketing on a daily basis.

Some other blogs I visit regularly include Cost Per News, ReveNews, JimKukral.com, ZacJohnson.com, WhoIsAndrewWee.com, JohnChow.com, Revenue Magazine, 45n5.com, and a wide array of others.

I also visit a handful of forums, such as 5 Star Affiliate Forum, ABestWeb, Digital Point, and Wicked Fire to keep up on the industry issues.

As far as podcasts, there are a bunch that are directly or indirectly related to affiliate marketing on GeekCast.fm, which aggregates lots of industry-related podcasts, as well as the Cast of Geeks Show, which is a roundtable discussion on current affiliate marketing stuff.

Plus, there are some podcasts by individuals, such as Fraser Edwards and Andrew Wee, as well as Jay Berkowitz and his team at Ten Golden Rules.

You can also try searching at the iTunes store for various keywords for podcasts I haven’t mentioned.

AWeber Enhancements for Blog Broadcasting

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I just saw on Andy Beard’s blog that AWeber has added some really useful features to their Blog Broadcasting service.

EmailI use AWeber on a number of sites for my newsletters, as well as enabling people to double opt-in to receive blog updates via email, rather than RSS.

In the past, the Blog Broadcasts had limited options, but now they’ve rolled out a bunch of scheduling features:

  • Schedule which day/s of the week – or which dates of the month – you want to send your email newsletter
  • Choose what time of day you want your blog readers to get your email
  • Want to send on Tuesdays and Fridays? Or on the 15th and 31st of the month? No problem! You can choose up to 4 frequencies per blog.

Also, Andy reports an exclusive…

In the announcement Justin Premick (of AWeber) mentioned

“This is just one of a number of enhancements we’ll be making to the Blog Broadcast tool. Stay tuned.”

I probed a little deeper and we can expect to have counts reported to Feedburner in the near future, but no specific time frame.

The scheduling adds some welcome flexibility to the AWeber Blog Broadcaster service, and I am very excited about having all of my subscriber numbers in FeedBurner.

Happy Friday!

Recruiting Affiliates

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Q: I am a new affiliate manager and I have an affiliate program at one of the big affiliate networks. I was wondering if you knew of a resource that lists affiliates, so I could do some recruiting?

Shawn CollinsA: First of all, I think you should contact your representative at the affiliate network. Ask them for some help in identifying some affiliates that would be a good fit for your affiliate program.

Ask the network rep of they would contact those affiliates on your behalf or provide their information so you can reach out to them.

Otherwise, there isn’t really a central resource that is going to help you identify and recruit affiliates.

Alternately, I would suggest searching on the major search engines for your top four or five keywords. See who is ranking well for those terms and check whether they might make sense as an affiliate for you.

Since these sites are ranked well, they will have the potential to be big performers for you. So don’t solicit them with your standard payout – offer them a VIP rate to show that you appreciate that they could be a powerful partner.